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Bommie's Edge 2.0 - Full Spectrum 156W MakersLED, ATS, DSB


xerophyte_nyc

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xerophyte_nyc

Welcome to BE 2.0, below are the tank specs

 

FTS March 3, 2013 with new lights

 

DSC00392_zps0c44bdae.jpg

Display Tank Hardware

  • Cadlights 39G Pro Starfire Aquarium
  • Lighting: Custom Full Spectrum MakersLED 156W Total; Build Link Here
  • Flow: EcoTech Vortech MP10 wES x 2: Reef Crest Mode in Sync-Mode @ ~100% power
  • Cleartides Feeder 200ml fed via Maxi-Jet MJ400 pump and Fusion 200 Air Pump

 

Sump Hardware

  • 12-gal Sump divided into 2+1+1 chambers
  • Return Pump: Boyu FP-58; 2500 L/h @ 1.6m (about 660 gal/h)
  • Algae Scrubber Light: 50W LED pendant lamp [50 total diodes: 44 660nm: 6 460nm @ 1W each]
  • Algae Scrubber Pump: Maxi-Jet MJ1200
  • Filtration: single TLF Phosban Reactor 150 with Maxi-Jet MJ400 pump (Purigen, BRS Rox Carbon, Phosban)
  • Foam Fractionator: AquaMaxx HOB-1
  • ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155 fed via 2.5 gal container
  • 12V DC computer fan for circulation/ dehumidifying

 

Hardware Control

  • ReefKeeper Lite Controller
  • SL1 Module with pH and Temp probe

 

DT Set Up

  • ~11 lbs BRS Pukani dry rock (acid washed and lanthanum bathed)
  • ~8 lbs uncured Manado Rock from Premium Aquatics
  • ~10 lbs dry flat Marco Rock, along side walls
  • Deep Sand Bed: 80 lbs oolite #0 ultra-fine white sand
  • Instant Ocean SW mix, to be transitioned into Red Sea Coral Pro Mix



Old Lighting: (Main: 120W LED pendant lamp [119 total diodes: 63 12K white @ 1W; 34 460nm @ 1W; 22 440nm @ 1W; Supplemental: Ecoxotic Panorama Pro LED Modules x 2 [445nm @ 16W and 445nm/ Magenta mix @ 16W)

 

 


----Discussion Starts Here----
Original Tank Thread Here

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, my reef tank that was born last May passed away (for the most part). No electricity for 12 days, no backup plan. I had a battery operated pump for oxygenation, but it was too cold for too long.

All 3 fish passed away by around day 6. Temps were steady in the 55-60F range. I was able to rescue about 7 coral frags and brought them to a not-so-LFS that had power. Luckily for me, my faves are still alive and well: a branching Dendro and a fat Dendro that has been budding new heads. A favia looks good too. But that's about it.

I thought about cleaning all the death from the existing rock and re-using it for a rebuild, but that was a lot of work. Starting from scratch just made more sense. I trashed the DSB as well, there were too many pockets of death and H2S.

As for inverts, a lone Nassarius was still gliding along the sand, as were some bristle worms. The toughest critters were Berghia nudibranches. I bought a dozen babies over the summer to help take care of a festering Aiptasia issue, and they were plowing through the anemones. I was able to capture 8 of them, still alive and well after 12 days, and found them a new home at a LFS. A rock anemone was also salvaged to a LFS, although I haven't checked yet to see if it has survived.

Clean Up
I decided to start fresh. It took me hours to clean the tank. I took apart all the hardware, and submerged all the waterproof items in a tub of H2O2 overnight. The sump's contents were dumped outdoors, and I let the tank sit outside for 24 hours in cold, rain and snow to help kill off any remnants of life. Then the sump was cleaned down with plenty of H2O2.

The hardware was then soaked in a tub of 5% acetic acid to help dissolve calcareous deposits. The tank itself also went through lots of soaking, scraping, peroxide and acid baths. I ditched any old acrylic tubing and replaced it with new.

What I Learned The First Time Around
While I was devastated at the loss (albeit it this was absolutely nothing compared to what many families are dealing with), I was also excited about an opportunity to do it all over again. I don't have to play the "if I could go back in time" game. I have the ability to implement changes based on experience.

Things That Work

  • Deep Sand Bed (DSB): One of my favorite parts of reefing is enjoying the abundance and variety of life in a DSB, along with its benefits in tank health.
  • LED: All my coral and macroalgae appeared to be in good health under LED lighting.
  • Good Filtration: I ultimately had 3 TLF reactors, utilizing Chemipure, Purigen, Phosban and Brightwell's Xport PO4. I like redundancy.
  • Skimmerless: There was plenty of chemical filtration and export of nutrients via Chaetomorpha in the sump and macroalgae in the DT.
  • Feeding the Tank: I had a routine of adding phytoplankton, decapsulated Artemia eggs and Golden Pearls to the tank. I used it to feed my Dendros, filter feeding worms, and other invisible life. I had pods everywhere, enough to keep my clownfish happy when they went hunting.
  • Peroxide is your friend. Anytime I had some nuisance algae (Caulerpa, Valonia, Bryopsis, etc.) that was bothering me, I'd simply drain the tank, spritz some peroxide on the offending algae, wait a few minutes for fizzle, and in a few days it would be gone. Easy algae control, for a few months at least.


Things That Did Not Work

  • Too Much Rock: I was a bit overzealous with my original aquascape. I definitely need to keep it simpler.
  • Skimmerless???: Maybe nutrients could have been kept a little lower with a skimmer, I don't know. I had the occasional outbreak of nuisance algae.
  • Aiptasia-X: From the get go, I did inherit a small colony of Aiptasia from Premium Aquatics Cured Nano Rock. For many months I was afraid to do anything about it, but the Aiptasia were quiet. The rock they were on was buried under other rocks and I couldn't remove it. I tried the Aiptasia-X product. A few weeks went by and everything seemed OK. Then all of a sudden baby anemones sprouted everywhere. I waited for them to get bigger and tried the Aiptasia-X again. Bad move. Fast forward some more months, and the infestation got out of hand. Added some Berghia and they were doing a fantastic job until Hurricane Sandy interrupted.
  • Instant Ocean Salt: I was unable to sustain good coraline algae growth until I switched over to Red Sea Coral Pro with higher Ca and Mg. I also noticed better growth out of my hard coral.


Looking Ahead
The new tank will employ a new DSB and a different aquascape. I ordered some BRS pukani rock and some Marcorocks prime cuts. I will play around with them and create something cool. I will top it off with uncured Manado from Premium Aquatics. I got so many critters and life from them the first time around, I want to do the same again. [Note, the Aiptasia and also nuisance Caulerpa and Bryopsis I had came from Premium Aquatics cured Nano Rock, NOT the uncured Manado].

I will try a skimmer, the Aquamaxx HOB, and employ it in the sump, possibly shutting it at night to allow pelagic larvae and microorganisms to populate the water column and feed the coral.

I will provide a more varied diet to the tank, with more variation in particle sizes (2-50 microns phytoplankton, 50-800 microns Golden Pearls, and the same decapsulated Artemia). I may use a drip feeder for slow, continuous feeding.

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xerophyte_nyc

Let The Games Begin

Tank is nice and clean, added some SW and a heater at 88F - bacteria like it better warm. The cups have some sand from the prior DSB for seeding the new DSB.

P1040216.jpg

 

Starting to add some sand, from Petco. This sand has average particle sizes from 0.1-0.5mm, perfect for a DSB. And for anyone that has experienced sandstorms from the super fine sand, I really don't get it. I never had a problem and I use two MP10's. The ammonia is for feeding the growing bacterial population. I was able to cycle a tank in a matter of weeks the first time around by regularly feeding the tank.

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Good ol' Salifert kits.

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Some dry rubble left over from last time, to be cured.

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I had some of this stuff from Brightwell Aquatics left over from when I added their media. I add a few drops daily to help seed the newly developing live rock and sand.

P1040220.jpg

 

Water is a little cloudy but that will settle quickly. There is one Vortech MP10 in there for circulation.

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Shipments of new goodies are coming later this week: dry Pukani rock and Marco Rock. My surviving coral will be living at the LFS until they are ready to come back home. I also purchased an awesome Aussie Gold Torch with fat, chunky tentacles.

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xerophyte_nyc

Prepping for Aquascape

 

Pukani rock from BRS has arrived. I asked for a tall, pillar type piece 15-17" tall and they delivered! The rest are great pieces too...11 pounds total. The rock is exceptionally porous with lots of nooks and crannies; lightweight and easy to stack.

 

Reports elsewhere indicate this rock has a high initial phosphate load. There is lots of dead organic debris within the structure. I was able to quickly make a bridge structure. Here are the pieces:

P1040227.jpg

 

Strategy: Maximize sandbed volume. I made some rock platforms using egg crate and 1/2" PVC with zipties. I do not want the rock sitting in the sandbed, to maximize water flow and oxygenation of the top DSB layer. It is also nice to not worry about a rockslide as the sand shifts. The PVC will be easily hidden with a few strategic pieces of rubble.

 

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Acid Bath: Pukani was placed into a 5-gal bucket with diluted Muriatic acid (= hydrochloric acid). Instantly, it started to bubble. After a few minutes, it was foaming actively. After a good 20 minutes in the acid, I rinsed off the rock with a hose. Much of the surfaces are now a sparkling white color. The hose definitely help to remove gunk.

 

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Preliminary Aquascape: I started to mess around a little with rock placement. The big piece will be featured off center. I want lots of open sand space, I believe this to be very important for visual appeal. I still need to add some uncured Manado to introduce life, and will use it to help build a bridge/ platform. There is lots of cool cavernous space and a nice steep canyon too.

 

The big piece would likely be more esthetic if it were placed upside down. However, I don't like how the umbrella shape will shadow lots of the light. That was my experience from my tank's first incarnation. Besides, as coral grow and fill space, the same look can be achieved anyway.

 

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Phosphate Removal. While the acid bath helped, the job is not nearly done. The rock is not ready for immersion into the DT. Next, the rock was put into a tub of tapwater with a pump and lanthanum chloride. I used a product from SeaKlear that is designed for swimming pools. I used about a capful at first, and let the mixture brew overnight.

 

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After about 12 hours of mixing, the Salifert PO4 test kit still shows a very high reading. I added a capful of the lanthanum dilution. The water quickly became cloudy. This is the lanthanum binding the phosphate to form a precipitate.

 

P1040241.jpg

 

I will continue "de-phosphatizing" this rock until I am satisfied that it is safe for curing.

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Looks like this will definitely be a build to follow.

I love the amount of thought you've put into everything.

Love the fact that you're actually treating the dry rock first, most don't do that.

Uncured Manado rock from PA is amazing. When I got mine from them, I called them first to find out when they were expecting a new shipment in, and then had them ship out to me right away as well, and used overnight shipping.I believe this helped to maximize the life on the rock, which was plentiful.

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xerophyte_nyc

It took about 3 days to clear much of the bound phosphate in the rock.

 

Day 1, rock was mixing in room temp tap water for about 12 hours to help liberate phosphates into solution. The first dose of lanthanum was added, followed by mixing overnight.

 

Day 2, took the first reading and got a high PO4 value. Rinsed the rock in tap water, spilled the used water and repeated a tap water bath for most of the day followed by another dose of lanthanum.

 

Day 3, Salifert revealed the PO4 had dropped in half, in the 0.1 to 0.25 range. Rock was rinsed in tap water, and this time was added to a freshly made batch of salt water heated to 83F. Half a day of mixing, then another dose of lanthanum.

 

Day 4, PO4 pretty much undetectable. Rock was rinsed, and added to the DT with the sandbed for cycling.

 

Day 5, still no PO4 on the test kit. Mission accomplished!

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xerophyte_nyc

I can't stress enough, the Pukani rock is exceptionally porous. All that rock I have displaces only about 1.5 gallons of water! Remember, the more water volume in your system, the more stable your parameters. In a small/ nano tank, those extra gallons are very helpful.

 

Update on Progress:

 

It's been about a week now that sand and dry rock has been added to circulating salt water. Ammonia levels have been gradually declining, nitrates are there, so there is a bacterial population present. Phosphates remain very low/ undetectable but that will change as the detritus within the rock makes its way out.

 

Still no diatoms or algal blooms evident. I did put in a nice handful of mixed macroalgae from the LFS and they are doing OK, but not gangbusters like I have seen before. I assume this is because phosphate is still nutrient limiting.

 

A few pieces of uncured Manado rock is being overnight delivered tomorrow, along with some sand crud to add more life to the sandbed. And like my first tank, I am right away adding an "indicator" animal. Ricordea will be the sacrificial lamb, so to speak. I will monitor it along with testing the water.

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xerophyte_nyc

Algae Scrubber Design

 

The science behind an algae scrubber is solid; but execution can be troublesome, and the decision as to whether or not this is something to add to your system is also not without argument.

 

I like the more or less natural approach, which is why I'm also building up a functional DSB. An algae filter would seem to be a perfect complement. Natural reefs are filled with algae, yet we like to minimize their presence in a DT and hence we are fighting nature in a sense. Instead, an algae scrubber/ filter takes the algal component and enhances it in our favor.

 

Rather than battling nutrient parameters in the water to dissuade nuisance algae, why not provide a safe haven for nuisance algae and make it work for you by giving it a perfect home and allowing it to use up excess nutrients for eventual export? Sounds good to me. And there is also the added benefit of increasing oxygenation and breeding pods galore, among other things.

 

PVC's and Connections

 

Here are some shots of the basic structure. This is a waterfall design. A pump will move water up and into the 1" pipe on top, through a pre-drilled slot. Into this slot will go a plastic canvas material that algae will adhere to.

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xerophyte_nyc

The "Cycle" Is Coming To An End

 

About 2 weeks from the time I added sand and water with ammonia and bacteria until today was all it took to successfully speed up the cycling time. Ammonia is undetectable, I can see gas bubbles forming in the sandbed near the glass (indicative of nitrate reducing bacteria) and of course there is the lovely diatom bloom in full effect.

 

Nitrates are testing in the 25-50ppm range, while phosphates are still at zero. I have a TLF Phosban reactor that has 2 media bags: one with some Chemipure Elite, the other with Purigen. These will help rid the tank of nitrates and other contaminants.

 

The Manado Rock finally arrived, I must say I am a bit disappointed. I asked for a couple oblong pieces about 6-9" long, and instead I got 2 shelf-type rocks one of which was almost completely flat and the other which was almost 2 feet long. I had to break them apart with a hammer and chisel. Also, being flat, they have lots of nice coralline algae on one side, while almost completely white on the underside, which also makes aquascaping tricky.

 

I ended up using the flatter piece to lean against the middle of the back wall, and used some other pieces to lean along the ends of the back wall. These pieces just did not look natural sitting on top of the Pukani. I don't have a FTS just yet, will wait until the diatoms settle down a bit, but I might still change it up a bit, we'll see.

 

I retrieved my Hurrican Sandy survivors from the LFS and also bought a couple small mushroom frags and a nice Aussie Gold Torch as a thank you for babysitting my coral. One large feather worm and a couple smaller pink and yellow-green feather worms completed my initial purchase.

 

Here are some more photos, as well as views of the Algae Scrubber in action in the sump.

 

Diatoms! Gold Torch is sitting on a rock.

P1040260.jpg

 

Awesome huge feather-duster worm, with my branching Dendrophyllia back at home. I added a few drops of Phytomax and Chromamax for my filter feeders. They are from Kent, and provide food from 2-50 microns in size.

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Pink duster worm in front of the Manado wall.

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Here is the algae scrubber in the sump. The light is a 50W LED, custom made with a 7:1 red to blue ratio, with the red at the optimal 660nm for algae. It is more than enough light intensity to really drive algae growth.

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Here you can see how the plastic canvas is suspended within the slot, using shower curtain rings. The water flows down evenly at roughly 200gph.

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The sheet of water empties quietly into the middle section of my sump.

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I added a diffuser in front of the light to de-focus the intensity and also as protection from the occasional splash of water. The LED has a built-in fan, and is suspended by wire from the roof of the cabinet.

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Day 2 and there is already some diatom adhesion to the mesh.

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One of my faves, I am so happy it survived the Hurricane. Big, fat, hungry, always ready for food, Dendrophyllia. I got it as one head, and has since sprouted 2 new ones and several more were on the way before the Hurrican put a stop to that but I think some of the buds may still be OK.

P1040274.jpg

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jedimasterben

You roughed up the screen, right?

 

EDIT: And adding more blue LEDs makes more '3D' growth on the green hair algae, but with that much red, 3D or not, that thing is wiiiiiiiiiiiiccckeeeeeeeedddddddddd!

 

:D

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xerophyte_nyc
You roughed up the screen, right?

 

Yep, used a big hacksaw. It is so rough that I can lean it on my clothes and it won't move. I am going slow with the scrubber. It will evolve as my system allows. I won't start heavy feeding until I add some sand critters and worms from IPSF.

 

Algae Scrubber + DSB???

Algae scrubber + DSB seem like a good tandem. While on the one hand, an efficient DSB reduces the available nitrate for the algae...but on the other hand, a thriving DSB necessitates lots of feeding, so the algae can pick up the slack. It will be interesting to see how this develops. My plan may backfire, but I doubt it.

 

The 50W of LED light should theoretically fuel excellent algae growth. If all goes well, I may have minimal use for my TLF reactors that in the past would run various iterations of Phosban, Chemipure, Purigen and Xport PO4. I already returned the Aquamaxx HOB skimmer that I purchased prior to this new set-up. I must say, that Aquamaxx was a nifty little skimmer, fits nicely in my sump. I never even used it. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it, it goes against everything I believe in when it comes to reef tanks. I am a big fan of keeping the goodies in the water column.

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I'm sorry to hear about the previous reef and the loss due to Sandy. You have some interesting ideas/plans/actions going into this new tank. Best of luck on the new setup.

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jedimasterben
Yep, used a big hacksaw. It is so rough that I can lean it on my clothes and it won't move. I am going slow with the scrubber. It will evolve as my system allows. I won't start heavy feeding until I add some sand critters and worms from IPSF.

 

Algae Scrubber + DSB???

Algae scrubber + DSB seem like a good tandem. While on the one hand, an efficient DSB reduces the available nitrate for the algae...but on the other hand, a thriving DSB necessitates lots of feeding, so the algae can pick up the slack. It will be interesting to see how this develops. My plan may backfire, but I doubt it.

 

The 50W of LED light should theoretically fuel excellent algae growth. If all goes well, I may have minimal use for my TLF reactors that in the past would run various iterations of Phosban, Chemipure, Purigen and Xport PO4. I already returned the Aquamaxx HOB skimmer that I purchased prior to this new set-up. I must say, that Aquamaxx was a nifty little skimmer, fits nicely in my sump. I never even used it. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it, it goes against everything I believe in when it comes to reef tanks. I am a big fan of keeping the goodies in the water column.

That's why I love algae scrubbers - they scale. Feeding more? Leave light on longer or add more light or add more screen. Or all three. :)

 

I didn't say that the LEDs would not promote algae growth, but it seems that green hair algae (which is what we strive to get to grow in our scrubbers) prefers more royal blue light and grows thicker with more of them.

 

AND YES YES YES! GOODIES IN THE WATER COLUMN! THIS MAN KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKIN' ABOUT! :D

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Great build man and sorry about your previous tank loss, guess Sandy was giving you some sort of sign :) just wondering if you might happen to have a link to where you got that scrubber light, I am planning on building one for my 40 breeder.

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xerophyte_nyc
Great build man and sorry about your previous tank loss, guess Sandy was giving you some sort of sign :) just wondering if you might happen to have a link to where you got that scrubber light, I am planning on building one for my 40 breeder.

 

Just search "50W LED UFO Grow Light" in eBay, you will get plenty of hits. There are cheaper places to find them online if you want to purchase direct from China but I like the safety of eBay. The place I got it from was able to custom tune the wavelength. I think the default red is 630nm which is great for plants but algae seem to do better with 660nm.

 

I would have liked to make my own fixture but I could not find any heatsinks that are 6x6 inches to fit my space.

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xerophyte_nyc

FTS today

 

Left corner view, cool sense of depth from this angle

P1040291.jpg

 

The "courtyard" with Manado rock wall in the background...future zoa wall garden??

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Full view

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Side view from the right, also adding a cool sense of height/ depth

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Another view of the center area.

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Giant feather worm. By the way, these worms poop alot. There's no other inverts in the tank besides some HH pods or brittle stars, yet I see formed poop regularly - it must be from the worms. They are being fed with a daily dose of phyto.

P1040306.jpg

 

Green/ yellow fan worms by the rock base. There's a pink one too, but it got scared and retreated.

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Golden Torch Euphyllia will make a nice centerpiece.

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  • 2 weeks later...
xerophyte_nyc

Clean-Up Crew from IPSF

 

Received a FedEx delivery from Hawaii, Indo-Pacific Sea Farms. I got their Live Sand Activator Plus Package which included:

  • "Wondermud", which is a small amount of silty material harvested from their shallow tank, containing some macroalgae and visible pods, and presumably invisible critters too.
  • "Live Sand" which is a bag of coarse aragonite filled with pods, snails, baby left-handed hermits (Calcinus laevimanus), bristle worms, and other benthic creatures
  • More amphipods in a bag with macroalgae

 

In addition to this I added more bristle worms and Cirratulid "Spaghetti" worms. Overall I was pleased with the package. I need to kickstart the sandbed.

 

Tiny hermit. There are about 4 or 6 of them, and so far they don't seem to be spending too much time on the sandbed, they are in the rockwork. Any misbehavior and they are off to the sump.

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Cirratulids, making themselves at home under the sand

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Some unidentified snails hangin' up high.

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xerophyte_nyc

Today will be time for a 25% water change. Previously I have been using Instant Ocean salt, but this water change will be with Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I want to slowly up the calcium and alk to promote coralline growth and to begin setting stable water chemistry at a level I like.

 

This week I added about a tablespoon Kalk + vinegar to the top-off water, which worked to add probably about 10-15ppm of calcium. I did a more comprehensive test of parameters today, prior to the water change. Here are the numbers:

  • Temp 81.5F
  • Salinity 1.024
  • dKh 10.2-10.5 (Salifert)
  • Calcium 380-420 ppm (API)
  • NO3 5-10ppm (Salifert)
  • PO4 undetectable (Salifert)
  • pH 8.49

 

I don't bother with testing ammonia, I know it is close to 0. Nitrates are finally coming down. There was a 4-5 day diatom bloom, which also clouded up the water pretty badly. The diatoms also grew quickly on the glass, I was cleaning it several times daily. But that passed, and patches of hair algae have developed on the imported live rock for about a week. The glass has remained for the most part very clean. A few days ago I started noticing patches of brown/ yellow cyanobacteria on the sand and also on some rock surfaces exposed to good lighting. The cyano and hair algae are spreading now. Of course none of this worries me the least, it is a normal part of algal succession and to me is fascinating to watch. Numerous gas bubbles are evident underneath the sand bed through the glass. Things are progressing nicely.

 

The Algae Scrubber still has but a minor amount of growth on it, as expected at this early stage. However the macroalgae in the sump is taking off. The incidental light from the LED I suspect is leading to good growth. There are already Copepods up the wazoo, and there are worm larvae in abundance too, as seen on the glass. The large surface area of the scrubber with the high flow and superior light is at the very least beginning to develop a great environment for pods and likely phytoplankton.

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xerophyte_nyc

Feeding the Reef

For anyone unfamiliar with the Eric Borneman articles about reefs, aquariums and feeding, they are a must read. I draw much inspiration from them.

 

I have been feeding the reef regularly. Every day I add several drops of phyto. I try to spread out the doses evenly. A drop or 2 in the morning before going to work, another drop or 2 later in the evening. I think I may very well add some sort of basic drip-line with IV tubing to slowly and continuously add this.

 

Here is a look at my menu:

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  1. ChromaMax contains Spirulina and Haematococus, ranging 5-25µm
  2. PhytoMax contains Nannochloropsis, Tetraselmis and Isochrysis species ranging 2-15µm. There are 1 billion cells per drop.
  3. Golden Pearls 5-50µm, 50-100µm, 100-200µm
  4. Decapsulated Artemia eggs, these are important because they are like empty calories but high in fats/ oils. They can be supplied in large amounts without polluting the water. Live newly hatched Artemia would be great but I don't have the time for that. The eggs offer a nearly identical nutrient content except they will obviously degrade more quickly than live food.
     
    Live phyto would also be superior to the dead concentrated drops, but again I don't have the time for culturing and buying live stuff is more expensive. Dead will do, for now.

 

About every other evening, I mix together roughly equal amounts of the 5-200µm Golden Pearls, and Artemia eggs, totaling about half a teaspoon. The 5-100µm pearls are a dust-like consistency, dissolving when mixed. Artemia eggs seem to be about 300µm in size, definitely visible.

 

The amount of food will increase as the bioload in the sandbed and rock go up. There are many different sized mouths to feed, hence the varied food sizes, from 2-25µm phyto to 50-200µm+ golden pearls. I want to create as much self sustaining diversity of microfauna as possible.

 

To this I added some larger pearls, 300-1000µm, for my NPS Dendros. All the contents go into a small container with about a half cup of tank water. It all gets mixed well. I got Julian's "Thing" for feeding, and I must say it is a great little device, very neat and precise. I put the MP-10s into feeding mode, and I use The Thing to target feed all my Dendros. I give enough for the mouths to close up. Then I come back 10-15 minutes later and target feed again. I do this several times over the course of the night. Whatever doesn't stick to polyp tentacles goes into the water column and feeds the multitude of other filter feeders and micro-crustaceans.

 

The volume of food will slowly go up. Prior to Hurricane Sandy, I was easily feeding a hefty tablespoon full of the food sometimes nightly. There are probably millions and millions of food particles that make their way into the water column. The bristle worms come pouring out of the rocks as soon as the food hits the water. Reminds me of growing up in a Queens apartment: at night, going into the kitchen and turning on the light, you'd see dozens of roaches scurrying away from the counter-tops.

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xerophyte_nyc

DIY 420nm LED

 

I decided to modify my lighting. There is plenty of blue, adequate white, and the supplemental magenta/ 445nm Ecoxotic combo also helps. There is no real violet in the mix, other than the small amount that may be present in the white LED.

 

420nm has PAR benefits, and in my set-up might improve the coloration a tiny amount if I swapped out the pure blue 445nm Ecoxotic module. When I plug that one on/ off I don't notice much of an improvement to be honest - if anything things maybe are too blue.

 

I purchased a solderless LED kit from RapidLED, along with a 12x1 heatsink. It will fit 6 diodes, all of them are 420nm with 60o optics. They will hover almost centered over the tank, which will give a decent spread.

 

At some point I will probably wind up making a complete custom full-spectrum LED array...but not quite yet ;)

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xerophyte_nyc
A single strip with 60 degree optics won't give you good spread.

 

Agreed. I never said it would be good, just decent ;) It is good in the middle of the tank and then drops off along the edges but I expected such and I am OK with that. The light will be situated about 10-11" above the water.

 

It's more of an experiment in DIY LED than any real attempt for something very good. I appreciate your input and your narratives on LED's!

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