now that my new aquascape is in and my corals are placed the 220 gallon reef tank is really shaping
up and starting to look pretty good if you ask me but there are tons of projects that i have planned
for this tank so in this video i want to go over what my future plans and goals are for this build
moving forward maybe this way y'all can keep me accountable or something if you're new here hello
howdy hi my name is stephanie and i make silly videos documenting my journey in the reef tank
keeping hobby so if you are also silly and like the reef tanks make sure to smash that subscribe
right now so now that my aquascape is repaired and my corals are placed nicely i have a ton
of projects that i want to do with my tank moving forward my goals for this tank have always been
the same i envisioned a beautiful mixed reef with tons of acros to offset all of this lps
movement action we have going on here but before my tank is ready to keep a ton of sexy acros there
are definitely a few things that i need to get in place first number one on my list being i need
i need to start dosing kalkwasser kalkwasser is honestly such an underrated way to increase your
ph and your calcium and alkalinity i don't know why because kalkwasser is freaking awesome i mean
i know it was like the old school method of doing things and at some point it fell out of favor
for some reason but this is wrong we need to bring kalkwasser back because it's just it's inexpensive
and just the best way to increase your ph and honestly i've become a bit of a ph chaser recently
i know you're not supposed to chase parameters you know but i'm i'm definitely chasing ph basically
how kalkwasser works is you just add some of it into some rodi you know fresh water and then add
it to your tank has a higher ph so it takes the calcium and alkalinity out of the water and then
like glues together but sometimes it's harder to squish it basically it builds coral skeletons
faster which means faster growing corals and i i don't know about you but i love me some faster
growing corals so kalkwasser is definitely on the top of my list i want to get a kalkwasser reactor
asap but in the meantime i was thinking to mix in some kalkwasser with my auto top off water in my
um reservoir just until i get a reactor because i just want to get the process going i want to add
acros sooner than later and it's just it's just such a beneficial thing honestly everybody at
this point needs to start dosing kalkwasser trust me you won't regret it so definitely definitely
the top of my list on the projects i've planned for my 220 gallon reef aquarium and if you're a
veteran to this channel you know that about a year and a half no two years ago i got an apex
controller system an apex doser and a trident and i still haven't set any of them up and i know i
know what you're thinking i don't want to hear it it's just uh like it's those those pieces of
equipment are invaluable like being able to keep track of your tank using your apex controller
system and just having a doser and the trident to just add this extra layer of convenience is
is great it's really great and i don't know why i haven't set it up yet you know um
apex controller system is definitely of all of those three products would be the first that i
want to set up keeping track of my temperature would be like super nice right now considering
like it's texas and it's like 108 outside and my ac is trudging along keeping track of my
temperature would be lovely keeping track of everything like having everything all there in
the palm of your hand on your phone it's like very it's a big relief you know a piece of mind that i
really really need um i think i haven't set them up because you know they're a bit intimidating
they're a bit intimidating when you look at all of the steps that you have to do at least it's
intimidating to me and it's one of those things that i'm so used to doing everything by hand that
i'm not i don't feel like i'm really missing anything because i don't really know what it's
like to have that level of control and automation in my life you know ever since i started this
hobby i dose by hand check the temperature by hand i do everything by hand and obviously
that's not that's not on you know we need we need we need we need to actually get these
stuff set up definitely high up on my list it's been high up on my list but this time i actually
need to get around to doing it y'all y'all better hold me accountable with this one even though i
would love some automated equipment in my life um i don't want to rely too much on automated
equipment i think a big mistake that sometimes happens is like over dependence on these products
that tell you that your tank is doing this your temperature is this your parameters are this when
in reality equipment fails it it fails it's not if it's when and if you're solely assessing your tank
through these kinds of automated equipment it's a no it's that's bad because one day things are
gonna go haywire and you just need to have that level of what's the word how do i word this
you just need to be in tune with your tank like on an individual level you know like understand that
these equipment they're helpful tools but they're not the end-all be-all check by hand you know
don't rely on the trident for example to tell you what your water parameters are just use it as a
as an extra you know peace of mind still test your water by hand every week i mean just just make
sure that you double check on this these kinds of equipment so basically what i'm trying to say is
that i don't want to rely too much on them but i definitely want to set them up so high up on
my list too setting up the apex controller system the trident and finally setting up my doser doser
unit this is these are very important things y'all another project that i really want to do that i'm
super excited about is actually something that i saw on instagram and if i still had access to that
picture i would definitely post it can't find it again but anyway my radions i had this idea from
this instagram post to put my radions inside of an ikea light i think it's gonna make the tank look
really really sexy like picture these black big ikea lights dangling from the ceiling on top of my
tank with the radions hidden inside i mean come on the tank is gonna look so freaking sexy and sleek
and sophisticated like almost like a piece of art more than an aquarium and that's that's like goals
you know i'm not sure how to retrofit it just yet because i obviously will have to put some outlets
in the ceiling which i'm not really excited about and also figure out a way to retrofit these lights
in order to store the box you know the the radions like the on the cable they have the box with the
with the power you know you know what i mean it it it needs to somehow fit inside the light too
so i have to think of a contraption i don't know we're gonna make a whole video about this project
in itself but if you can picture like how sexy the tank look i think i think this project will excite
you too because it sure as heck is exciting me and um i think the tank will look even more beautiful
sexy really excited for this one and hopefully i can make it work i mean hopefully hopefully
this will go as planned you know what i mean another very essential project would be my cable
organization and setting up a little controller board i'm pretty infamous now for having a haywire
cable situation cable organization and cable management is a thousand percent not my forte um
i'm i'm pretty much always been uh one step away from burning down the house with my
cable setup it's out of control my stand area is just a nightmare i'm not happy about it i
i built this controller board situation here i don't know if i really like it that much and
how the cables will really actually sit behind this in my tank stand but there was there was an
attempt made once and um never actually put it in there and got everything set up and the controller
board but hopefully setting up this controller board will be something that i do in the future
also some understand light lighting under the stand lighting is absolutely essential i feel
like i can never see what's going on in there i had this set up in the past with some strip lights
but they ended up falling off and i never really did anything else with them i never put them back
up so it's awfully dark in my sump area um would like to fix that but essentially cable
management cable organization is the bane of my existence and we really it's time that we finally
get that together because this is absurd this is embarrassing you know embarrassing so those are
all the projects and plans that i have for the 220 gallon tank moving forward if you guys have
any tips advice anything to help me do them do the task and also be motivated enough to actually
finally get these tasks done please let me know in the comments i would really appreciate it
uh really excited to get this tank going all of these plans projects goals all very exciting stuff
i feel like the tank's really coming together and um excited to show you guys here in the future
how how these projects end up you know if they if they actually end up doing them that is