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Alex’s Wonders In A Box


alexcyf

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Thanks for all the interest!

Just want to share a little more on the fish room!

Here is my 3 feet quarantine ios tank with its own circulation separated from the main display. A simple system with a dymax led light and aquarium fan (to keep the water temperature below 30)

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The only “link” to the main tank is a drainage pipe that allows me to top up the QT tank with saltwater from the main system. In case I need to do water change and my main system is not having any issues, I can use back some waste water instead of making new water.

As you can see, the QT is already operational, with a school of Anthias and a couple of tangs serving their 2 weeks QO. Added some pvc pipe and terracotta pots to give the fishes some “security”

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Above is a closer view of my maintenance section. You can see the small basin that is installed in the crawl space. Managed to find a basin from taobao that fits the small space and serve the purpose (simple washing, water inlet and drainage).

This area is also where I house my 5 stage RODI and water drums, salt, hoses etc. The drawer under the staircase also keeps other smaller equipment in an organized fashion.

A reefer was asking if this room is air conditioned.. haha it’s not so I have a fan to keep me from sweating while doing my chores!


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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you all, for the kind words.

Hopefully the setup does support a healthy reef :)

Meanwhile, last weekend’s loots going through their 2 weeks QO before they go into the main display:)

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Wah your man cave very hardcore

Thanks!

Pause from my equipment updates and a post on a current “photoshoot” of my display and man cave!

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  • 4 weeks later...

First top down shot of my fish room tank. Digging the trending all blue led with orange filter look, even though it’s not “real” real..

Well, quite some empty spaces yet to be filled..
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  • 3 weeks later...

Recently it seems like PH is one of the hot topic in the reefing community, both ours and the international scene, with much talk on how it spurs coral growth rates.

Want to share a little on one of my effort to manage my PH levels. Especially, with a calcium reactor and a generally poor air circulation around my tank area, it is no surprise that my PH levels will be a concern in the long run.

There’s quite a lot of chatter on CO2 scrubbers, and applying the recirculation methods and I decided to order a cheap canister from taobao and try it out too. Basically, the idea is to introduce CO2 scrubbed air into the skimmer and reduce the CO2 concentration in the tank water through the intense air exchange that happens the skimmer and consequently lower the ph.
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Loaded the canister and attached the inlet valve to my skimmer and
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As you can see, the canister is pretty small for my setup but I managed to see about 0.07 increase in my PH levels.

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Not the numbers that I am contented with, especially when I need to meet my increased consumption of kh/ca due to the addition of more corals over these weeks. In addition, my Skimz skimmer runs on two pumps and hence two air intake, I decided I need to get another bigger scrubber that runs parallel.

I decided to get a fluidized reactor from Skimz to do the job.9b9a5ddc9a93225fe4043047baab9e6f.jpg

Basically, the idea is the same.. channel air through the FR center pipe to the bottom of the reactor, allow the air to pass through the media before exiting the reactor and into the skimmer.

This FM100 looks super neat and pro with double the media capacity and height compared to the cheap Taobao canister.

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The other trick that I have learned, is to create a DIY recirculation system.

This recirculating concept recycles the air from your skimmer that is already scrubbed of CO2 resulting in a much longer lifespan of the CO2 media.

So eventually, this is my final setup! Recirculating the Skimz FR and pulling ambient air for the taobao scrubber, which I am filling with TLF CO2 media to compare efficiency.

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The media is starting to be exhausted. Notice how the media starts to change colour from the bottom for the Skimz FR but from the middle for the taobao one?

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Something tells me that the FR seems to have a better design for this purpose. I am guessing it’s because the central pipe for the taobao one doesn’t run all the way to the bottom of the canister.

For those who wishes to consider setting up a CO2 Scrubber, I would definitely recommend you to try the Skimz FM100!


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Nice! Any updates for your PH after adding the FM100?


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Hi Darren,

The ph graph looks like this after installing the additional FM100.

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So I would think another 0.05 increase in general? I have also made some other changes like increasing effluent and reducing my kalk dosage. So may not be entirely accurate representation of the effect.

Oh. By the way, I also found out through a ph tank water airstone test, that my surface / tank aeration is too much compared to my ambient co2 levels in the room. Ie the co2 exchanges is happening faster than it can be removed sometimes. Made some changes on that too, ie increase aeration only during hours where ph of my tank is lower than an estimated ambient co2 levels.


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Hi Darren,

The ph graph looks like this after installing the additional FM100.

fe9ed7b6aac23e243a265d2b41788777.jpg


So I would think another 0.05 increase in general? I have also made some other changes like increasing effluent and reducing my kalk dosage. So may not be entirely accurate representation of the effect.

Oh. By the way, I also found out through a ph tank water airstone test, that my surface / tank aeration is too much compared to my ambient co2 levels in the room. Ie the co2 exchanges is happening faster than it can be removed sometimes. Made some changes on that too, ie increase aeration only during hours where ph of my tank is lower than an estimated ambient co2 levels.


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How long does your media in the Fm100 lasted for your tank consumption?


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Thumbs up for proper pH management! 

Using CO2 scrubber in recirculation mode can significantly counter the high CO2 level in the rooms,  while significantly reduce the media consumption. 

Time to double up the reactor and push the pH even higher :thumbsup:

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  • 1 month later...

Teaser Video of a #tankofthemonth feature by Dreaming Reef’s YouTube Channel!



Stay tuned for the main video by subscribing and supporting this YouTube channel by one of our very own Singapore marine hobbyist influencer @ https://m.youtube.com/c/dreamingreef

P/s: he has many more interesting video content!


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  • 1 month later...

Some updates on my sps dominated. Lost my Queen and anthias due to an ich outbreak. Probably a mistake when I got lazy and threw in some fishes without utilizing my QT…

Oh well, added a new batch of anthias after proper QT and a week has past and so far no casualties!

A video update for all!



Anyway, also got a new toy recently! Spot it in the photo below. So far aesthetic, installation and calibration has been tok gong!

Will monitor and do a simple review here soon!

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