uglyfish 65g sps tank

[uglyfish]

Tang will love that when the time comes

 

The wife hates my hairy rocks.

 

I've been dosing MB7 daily and Zeobak twice weekly since filling. Also dosing 1-2ml Zeostart3 daily for carbon. My nitrates have dropped from 5 a few days ago to 0. Phosphate levels were 0.1 at start. I've temporarily added a big ball of chaeto to my DT to see if I can drop the phosphates with chaeto.

 

I think the skimmer may be too big for my setup and with almost no bioload, is producing inconsistent skimming. It's very aggressive and pulls alot of gunk quickly. Still haven't found the right setting.

[uglyfish]

My bio-reactor is on it's way. After speaking to a few local reefers about their bio-pellet experiences, I'm approaching this method of filtration with extreme caution. I will be starting at 1/4 recommended and watching my No3 and Po4 levels closely. I was told not to let the No3 hit 0. I should be aiming at 0.2ppm and should slow or stop the reactor if it falls below. And Po4 should be low - .03 or less, but not absolute 0.

 

This makes sense to me. From what I've read, there seems to be a point at which most biopellet users get great results as the levels are dropping - then they drop too far, the coral suffer malnutrition and the users stop the biopellets, then the system recovers and they get nice coral again as the nutrients rise to healthy levels again... then the nutrients rise too high and corals look bad again... I've read the same pattern a few places and I'm approaching the bio-pellet method with those experiences in mind.

 

So why bother with biopellets? I think my goal is to eliminate lingering waste... that is to say, I want to feed my tank at higher than normal levels and eliminate the waste at higher than normal levels. It seems like an oxymoron... feed alot and remove alot. But I think that's what happens in the ocean. Food doesn't sit on the ocean floor rotting for weeks. It gets exported (eaten, blown away). If I feed the tank heavily, or heavily enough, I may be able to prevent the biopellets from reducing the nutrients to 0 and starving the coral.. and eventually find a balance between the two. I would be adding fresh rich food in the form of a slurry of bloody mackerel, pureed oysters, mussels, shrimp, roe, rotifers, etc.

 

I'm very curious to see what happens.

[najluni15]

Very nice build. I have a 57 gallon with a 20 sump. I have some sps and lps and softies. I run a fuge, skimmer and a brs dual carbon gfo reactor. I agree with you. You don't want dirty water nor sterile water. You need to find the sweet spot for your tank and try to keep it there. I have turned off my slimmer and plan on testing for nitrates and po4 over the course of a week to see what happens. I feed pretty heavily with a mixture I made of clams musselse fish shrimp roe cyclops oysters etc and have seen no bad effects thus far. Hopefully I will be able to remove the skimmer and make a larger fuge. Skimmers tend to be loud and indescreminately remove all organize which I think are important especially to sps.

[uglyfish]

I have turned off my slimmer and plan on testing for nitrates and po4 over the course of a week to see what happens. I feed pretty heavily with a mixture I made of clams musselse fish shrimp roe cyclops oysters etc and have seen no bad effects thus far. Hopefully I will be able to remove the skimmer and make a larger fuge.

 

My other tank is a 10g with a 30g refugium. I ran a skimmer for a while with good results. When the skimmer broke down, I never replaced it. The tank went through 2 months of severe algae growth, which has since receded on it's own, without replacing the skimmer. It was hard to predict No3 levels because the didn't rise in a linear fashion - they rose slowly at first, then very quickly. The tank is not as clean as it was with the skimmer, but it's not terrible and the coral are doing very well. I don't feed the small tank the slurry because without the skimmer, it won't be able to sustain the massive feedings. I feed much less now. I aerate the water with an air pump to keep co2 levels down and keep PH from dropping.

 

How long have you been feeding the homemade mixture? How often do you change water?

[najluni15]

My other tank is a 10g with a 30g refugium. I ran a skimmer for a while with good results. When the skimmer broke down, I never replaced it. The tank went through 2 months of severe algae growth, which has since receded on it's own, without replacing the skimmer. It was hard to predict No3 levels because the didn't rise in a linear fashion - they rose slowly at first, then very quickly. The tank is not as clean as it was with the skimmer, but it's not terrible and the coral are doing very well. I don't feed the small tank the slurry because without the skimmer, it won't be able to sustain the massive feedings. I feed much less now. I aerate the water with an air pump to keep co2 levels down and keep PH from dropping.

 

How long have you been feeding the homemade mixture? How often do you change water?

 

I have been feeding with my mixture since I setup the tank 7 months ago. I change 10 percent every week or two. I may have the skimmer run for 6 hours a day to keep up. I've been reading more and I'm not sure my fuge could keep up even with my carbon and gfo

[uglyfish]

I have been feeding with my mixture since I setup the tank 7 months ago. I change 10 percent every week or two. I may have the skimmer run for 6 hours a day to keep up. I've been reading more and I'm not sure my fuge could keep up even with my carbon and gfo

 

How are the sps doing? Any coloration? Growth?

[najluni15]

My sps have been growing like weeds. My monti cap has literally gone for

Half dollar to small dinner plate size in 5-6 months. The colors are great. I just changed my lights from kessil to dimmable DIY aquastyle with way more power an seem to have bleached or started to bleach a few sps. I turned lights down to 40 percent today. The pe is great on my sps especially when I add reef roids cyclops and my slurry.

[uglyfish]

My sps have been growing like weeds. My monti cap has literally gone for

Half dollar to small dinner plate size in 5-6 months. The colors are great.

 

That's fantastic. Thanks.

[najluni15]

If you make a slurry just make sure to rinse the seafood first to rid it of phosphates. I used fresh clams mussles shrimp calamari fish oysters oyster eggs cyclops pellets and reef roids. I also put some spirulina and nori in it as well.

[uglyfish]

Last week I added a few fish - a blue damsel, 3 anthias, and 2 tiny pj cardinals about the size of postage stamps. The anthias did not eat for a few days and I was starting to worry. They started feeding with cyclopeze. Now they are accepting flakes and are feeding well.

 

I purchased a few acropora pieces. I got them for $10 each because they were all brown and had no polyp extension... after a few days in the tank the polyps are extending. I'm feeding with homemade food: Fresh carp roe, fresh oyster, mysis, cyclopeze, rotifers, liquid phytoplankton and a few capfulls of seachem amino acid supplement - blended to a puree and frozen into sheets. When defrosted, some of the food clumps into larger chunks that the fish eat - and they love it. Looks promising.

 

I'm running the mp40s in ecosmart mode which varies the flow throughout the day and has a nutrient export cycle which turns them on full blast for a while to kick up settled waste. I think this is why my skimmer was so hard to adjust - I got it fine tuned now and it's pulling some very foul smelling waste, I've never had a skimmer produce this well... very pleased with the sro xp2000 and the mp40s. It's producing 2-3 cups a day.

 

Biopellet reactor arrived from cadlights - nice simple design. I'm not going to add it until I see a rise in nitrates. I've reduced the liquid carbon dosing and will stop entirely in the next week or two - then I'll make the transition to biopellets.

[uglyfish]

Here are some pieces recently added, purchased them brown- tips are colouring up!

 

 

 

I'm not sure the monti is doing so well. The edges and and underneath are white. The bottom has small brown polyps. There is a 1/8" white spot on the top of the monti that looks like damage or sickness - can't tell.

 

[uglyfish]

Super Reef Octopus XP2000... TUNED!

 

[Psychosis]

Nice build man, all most exactly the same dimensions I'm going to run with. (2" wider, 2" shorter.)

 

Do you think you could get away with just one MP40, or would two be your minimum?

 

So far as the monti is concerned, they generally have a white growth ring to some degree. A lot of times it's just the leading edge, but if the colony is experienceing explosive growth it tends to widen. How long have you had it?

[uglyfish]

Nice build man, all most exactly the same dimensions I'm going to run with. (2" wider, 2" shorter.)

 

Do you think you could get away with just one MP40, or would two be your minimum?

 

The monti has been in about a week. It didn't get any better or worse in my tank. I'm thrilled with the other corals. I've had sps in my old tank for 8 or 10 months that never colored.

 

Wider tank is good. Are you viewing from 3 sides? (I wish I could have set mine up like that. Next tank.)

One thing I like about my setup is the sump design which is in a U shape... it takes advantage of the squarish footprint. I can drain and return from the same side. Something to consider if yours isn't done yet.

 

The MP40s are totally awesome in every way. I thought I was out of my mind spending almost $1000 on a couple of water fans! I didn't know how good they were until I got them.

 

If you buy one, you could always buy another later if needed. I saved $100 by buying two at once. I only run mine at 60%-70% and manually crank it up to 100% just to freak out the fish. One would probably be enough, but with two you'll have no dead zones and you can take advantage of the master/slave sync feature. At 100% they are fairly noisy - at 60% you can't hear them.

[uglyfish]

Some pics of sps eating crab I removed...

 

 

 

 

Polyp porn...

 

 

[uglyfish]

fish pics...

 

 

[uglyfish]

new plate coral

[uglyfish]

[uglyfish]

[Psychosis]

Nice stuff man. I love plate corals, part of the appeal with a wide tank. I'm hoping to have it 3 side viewable, with an externally mounted coast to coast/bean animal overflow. Should be really slick, and the U shaped sump design is a good idea. I'll have roughly 34x24x30 inches of room to play with inside the stand, so that'll be nice.

 

How big is that hollywood stunner chalice? Looks amazing

[uglyfish]

The brain coral was from my old tank - i hadn't noticed it bleached on one side until I moved it. half was shaded. Now in full light.

 

 

This is an acro from my old tank - and I burned some tips when I was trying out the radions...

 

 

New piece coloring up nice.

 

 

Hydnophora rigada frag from old tank. wasn;t doing well - bleached, tissue damaged... needs recovery.

 

Radions running at only 60%, 10" above water.

[uglyfish]

Nice stuff man. I love plate corals, part of the appeal with a wide tank. I'm hoping to have it 3 side viewable, with an externally mounted coast to coast/bean animal overflow. Should be really slick, and the U shaped sump design is a good idea. I'll have roughly 34x24x30 inches of room to play with inside the stand, so that'll be nice.

 

How big is that hollywood stunner chalice? Looks amazing

 

Stand height is important - My stand is tall and I barely had enough room... height wise. I measured the sump height and skimmer - I didn't plan on the skimmer stand I needed which raised my skimmer another 4-5 inches. Bean animal overflow looks awesome - I just discovered it a few days ago... looks very promising. The external overflow makes the tank look bigger and cleaner.

 

chalice is about 8" diameter. One of my favourites. I'm so excited - my old tank was difficult - always a struggle to get stuff to work... this tank is going very well so far - without much effort on my part really. I have to credit the good lights, good flow and good skimmer... 3 essentials to make for an easy setup.

 

(i just jinxed everything)

[uglyfish]

After a week or two of feeding with my home-made slurry of fish eggs, oysters and stuff, I'm starting get increased algae growth on the glass and I need to clean every other day... the fish and corals love it, but it's too much food. (i was feeding 3 times a day because I loved watching the feeding frenzy) Need to ramp up to more food as filtration improves.

 

I'm very happy with the home-made food... it's cheap, fresh and full of amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. $10 can make a few months supply. The fish eat the large chunks and the corals take up the rest. All the acros I purchased were "clearance" price acros - all improving. I'll post a full recipe when I make my next batch.

 

I've put the cadlights biopellet reactor online with about a cup of vertex biopellets. The flow out from the reactor is at about half. It's been online now for about a week. I'm still carbon dosing with zeostart, though I've reduced the dosage. No3 is undetectable and Po4 is close to 0 - not sure how the biopellets will react without nutrients to get them started. From what I read, biopellets take 6-8 weeks to kick in - so I wait and see.

[uglyfish]

I'm dosing cal, alk mag manually. I've been adding 2oz of brs calcium recipe 1 daily for about a week. I tested my ca before starting dosing and was about 440 - after about a week of dosing 2oz a day, my ca dropped to 360. I was using api to test and I couldn't believe I had used that much calcium. I bought the red sea calcium kit to double check. Api test was giving similar results (within 20ppm) to red sea test. I bumped cal dosing up to 4oz a day and cal still dropping - bumped to 12oz a day - and seemed to stabilize (rising slightly). I used seachem powdered calcium to boost back up to 420. Something seems wrong with using that much calcium - according to the brs calculator, 3 oz or recipe 1 should raise my cal 10ppm. Is it possible to use up 20ppm+ in a day? I've started to keep better notes on dosing and cal levels. Big water change this weekend.

 

I've only dosed alk 3 times and mag once. Alk is between 7.5-8, mag is 1400 (I overshot the single dose).

 

I need to automate the dosing once I have it figured out. Not sure if I should go with calcium reactor or dosing pumps.

[uglyfish]

 

I purchased my reef angel controller back in february but was so intimidated with the programming that I left it sitting for two months. Some new software from reef angel made it much easier to program - and I'm using it now. I've just ordered a 2 part dosing pump from reef angel so I'll need to conquer that programming hurdle when it arrives. Reef angel is a neat little company - Roberto Imai, the maker of the product, seems to always be available for questions and replies to his emails promptly and effectively. I don't see many people using reef angel on NR but it's a pretty good controller and Reef Angel is good company to deal with.

 

Cadlights bioreactor online a few weeks now. Running well. It has a nice small footprint and the flow is fully adjustable for recirculation within the reactor and exiting the reactor. I think it's a good product from Cadlights.