GiantBen's Shallow Mixed Reef

[GiantBen]

Updates:

 

(1)

Since it is raining this weekend, I'm hoping to try and get some good shots. Promise. Probably. God I'm lazy.

 

(2)

My hair algae is entirely gone, which is good.

 

(3)

I've been battling a little (actually a lot) cyano, which isn't good. My understanding is that this is generally caused by one of three things: lack of flow, excess nutrients, poor filtration.

 

My current flow is my return (which isn't real strong) and 4x Koralia 425GPH nanos. The nanos are all along the back, pointing forward.

 

I make my own RO/DI. I have never changed the membrane, but I still get 0 TDS out of the system. I have changed the pre-sediment filters (not recently) and the silica buster (recently). It is a SpectraPure MaxCap (I think MaxCap) unit. I tested a fresh batch of salt water for phosphates and came up with zero.

 

My filtration is a Bubble Magus NAC6, BRS dual reactor with GFO and Carbon, and a filter sock. I've got a couple small pieces of LR in my sump, but it is maybe 1/2 lb.

 

I did two water changes whis week (Sun and Wed). In the later one I took some advice given by a local reefer and vaccummed out the sand bed. I had never done this on my BioCube, because I has sugar sized sand, and it would just suck up into the siphon. Quite a bit of fine-powder/depris came out of the sand. My water params seem fine (more below), but I am still getting the cyano. I'm thinking that because I didn't really rinse the sand much when setting up the tank, that it may have a build-up of nutrients that are fueling the cyano, which mostly shows up on the sand.

 

I'm also wondering if because my LR has very little to no coraline on it, the cyano doesn't have enough competition for the nutrients. I need to make some more RO tomorrow, but will continue to vaccum the sand bed in sections. The section I vaccummed on Wed is still pretty clean.

 

(4) Tested my params today

Phos 0 - I'm pretty sure Phos always reads zero, since algae consumes it

Nitrate 0 - API test kit measures 0 and 5, so it could be in between, I suppose

Ph - 8

Alk - 7

Cal - 380

 

Alk and Cal are low. I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt. It claims to have 9 and 450 as the base numbers at 1.025 salinity. I suppose it cold have been consumed by Wed. My refract could also be off, but it calibrated fine when we tested them at the meeting over the summer. I have some B-Ionic two part that I am thinking of dosing.

 

(5) Bad news: I was attaching some of my frags from the last local club meeting to my rockwork and knocked the rock over....the Birds of Paradise hit the back wall. It is actually in pretty good shape, but broke off a bunch if 1/2" tips. The rest of it stayed intact. I scooped up all the tips and glued them to frag plugs. They fit in with the rest of my tiny frags. All in all the piece seems to be doing fine, and now I have a bunch of tiny frags, but I sure felt like an ******* when it happened. The net result is that I redid my scape on the right and like it much better now.

 

 

Questions:

 

(1) Much of my SPS color seems kinda ho-hum. I'm sure many will attribute it to my using T5s, but I'm wondering if my poor Alk/Cal levels are the main issue. I'm planning to dose the B-Ionic. If this is the reason for the blah coloration, how quick could I expect to see a turn around. I'm going to dose slow and test each day as I go, so I'm assuming it might be a while. My slimer and the other SPS from my BioCube have been encrusting like crazy, so myabe I am just needing to start dosing more. Once the coarline starts coming in, I'm sure this will be even more of an issue.

 

(2) Is there anything besides TDS and phosphates that I should check to ensure that my RO/DI is being produced at high quality.

 

Any other thoughts/opinions welcome. Thanks to everyone for always being a good resource.

 

Pics coming soon.

 

Hey Ben,

I have nearly the same set up. 48x 24 x8" shallow with 48" Tek 6 bulb.

 

I am struggling with a few things.

 

How high off your waterline is the bottom of your fixture??

 

Also, is lighting needed in the sump for bacterial growth on the LR or just to support the Chaeto??

 

Thanks and following along.

 

Kevin

Hey man, totally missed this. Not sure how. I've been playing with the luight height a lot. Right now it is about 6" up. Some of my zoas need to be in shaded areas, but some like the higher light. I'm really playing with this now, but I'll post or PM if I settle on something. My fixture is shorter and I don't have any issues with zoas at the edges of the tank. I was hoping to even have more light drop off than I do, so that much lower light corals could be at the edges.

 

Flow is the real issue I am struggling with. What are you doing for that. The Tunze 6025s I had were too strong. I'm thinking of getting some 6015s, but they are si much bigger than the nano evos, for just a little more movement.

 

ll my chaeto melted, so at this point I am running a CFL bulb just for the LR. I might put the Par 30 back in there, not that the chaeto is gone. I took most of the rock out too, and just have some rubble in there that I will attach frags too. Way too much detritus was building up.

[GiantBen]

As promised and right on time pictures! I actually adjusted the color in Gimp, so hopefully the color actually looks right. I was playing with bulbs today and had back to front:

Coral+, Blue+, ABSpecial, Blue+, Blue+, Coral+. Didn't like it, but oh well.

 

new tang

Great Gatsbys and a clam

"Darth Maul" and PinkZipper. Don't think the mauls are legit

White Velvet

Mohawks, Utter Chaos, Red PE, Black PE? Last one I am guessing at. Looks like it to me.

SPS and a bunch of frags.

FTS

[Rehype]

Hey ben looks good although if i might make a recommendation the aquablue special washes out colors a bit i would swap it with a Blue+ and i would change the bulb order Blue+,Coral+Blue+,Blue+,Coral+,Blue+

[GiantBen]

Hey ben looks good although if i might make a recommendation the aquablue special washes out colors a bit i would swap it with a Blue+ and i would change the bulb order Blue+,Coral+Blue+,Blue+,Coral+,Blue+

Thanks. Couple comments about the bulbs: I'm running an ATI PowerModule, and the 2nd and 5th bulb are on the same plug, so I try not to put a "daylight" bulb on it, as I have those two come on first in the AM.

I was running Coral+, Blue+, SuperA, Coral+, SuperA, Blue+

 

I felt like my pinks and greens were not coming in too well. That is why I switched to

Coral+, Blue+, ABSpecial, Blue+, Blue+, Coral+

 

I have generally not liked the Purple+, so thought I could get more red and green from the ABSpecial. I pulled the other SuperA for a Blue+, because I knew the ABSpecial would overpower without it. As it stands, it was still too white. Tonight I put in:

ABSpecial, Blue+, Purple+, Coral+, Blue+, Blue+

 

My guess is that I'll again realize why I hated the Purple+ before and put in another Blue+. At that point, I might also realize that the ABSpecial sucks and put the Coral_+ back in too, leaving C+,B+,B+,C+,B+,B+.

 

If I end up liking the combo that is in there now, I'll probably try swapping a B+ for a UVL SuperA, leaving ABS, B+, P+, C+, SuperA, B+. I have a duplicate of this bulb set, so it would be nice to find a combo that uses them all

 

 

 

Side Note:

This is why I am scared to get LEDs. I'm very worried I'll end up with a setup that I don't love, and won't be able to tinker it.

[Rehype]

Sounds like you got alot more testing to do...lol Well glad you have T5's because the combos are endless. I think you might like the blue+ and coral+ setup or you could replace one of the Coral+ with a GE6500K. The UVL superactinic wont make a noticeable difference if replacing a Blue+ IMO I swapped one of my Blue+ with a true actinic and it really doesnt look any different. Anyhow look forward to seeing your final bulb combo

[stshy]

Any more pictures? I love the dimension as well. Do you find it too big for the room? Is the 36" fixture good for a 48" tank?

[GiantBen]

I just got a tube extender for my DSLR, so I am going to try and take some shots this week.

 

I don't think the tank/stand is too big for the room, but the room is probably 20'x20'.

[stshy]

pics?

[GiantBen]

pics?

Planning to get some tomorrow. I played with the tube extender. Long story short. No go. Couldn't control the aperture, so everything was pure white.

[stshy]

pics?

[GiantBen]

Thanks for the reminder. Took some more pics today. I forgot to shoot in raw mode, so I didn't adjust the white balance in post.

 

Some of my new acans, my baby torches and one of my ric rocs. And my damsel, "Lucky"

 

Great Gatsby

 

Powder Blue "Charms": the kids named the fish with my wife while I was out of the room. Got them on St Patricks day... I've tried to change the names, but it won't stick.

 

My Red PE is on the left. The one I'm focused on, I have been calling a Black PE. Has small grey specs.

 

One of my acans from my original Mr Coral order. Had this for a while. Bunch of cyano too.

 

I was trying to get my kind midas zoas. The color here is off. These are bright yellow. My white velvets can be seen on the right.

 

FTS

 

 

I'll try and get some more in raw mode later this week so I can tone down the blue. I also have a couple Tunze 6045s coming this week to try and replace most all of the pumps in the tank right now.

[Rehype]

Looks good ben

[GiantBen]

Thanks. Still battling cyano, but I'm hoping that is partly due to flow, partly due to needing new filters for my RO/DI (came yesterday) and partly due to my putting way too much GFO in, and it has stopped tumbling and restricting the flow through the reactor.

[Degener8]

Things look good Ben. I love the dimensions on the tank. Hope you get your cyano under control. It will happen slowly so be patient.

[GiantBen]

Things look good Ben. I love the dimensions on the tank. Hope you get your cyano under control. It will happen slowly so be patient.

Thanks.

Just hanging tight. I know I stocked it quickly because of

The transfer. It actually has been a little better recently.

[Rehype]

Hey ben what bulb combo did you choose?

[GiantBen]

Hey ben what bulb combo did you choose?

 

Guess

 

 

C+, B+, B+, C+, B+, B+

[Degener8]

Do you think it would look or have any different effect if you went to

 

B+,C+, B+, B+, C+, B+ ? I know its liek a super tiny change not sure it would matter at all but would evenly distribute the coral + lighting... i donno maybe its nit picking..LOL

[GiantBen]

Do you think it would look or have any different effect if you went to

 

B+,C+, B+, B+, C+, B+ ? I know its liek a super tiny change not sure it would matter at all but would evenly distribute the coral + lighting... i donno maybe its nit picking..LOL

Main reason I dont is that 2 an 5 are on a separate plug so they come on first. Also the sps is toward the back.

[Degener8]

ahh gotcha

[GiantBen]

Couple things:

 

I raised the light up a few inches because I had a bunch of SPS that seemed to be bleaching. For whatever reason the lighting seemed much bluer when I did this. I worked the pruple+ back in and am kinda liking it. It feels little warm to me sometimes, but the red cyano in the tank could be causing te feeling of too much red. Currently I'm running BACK Coral+ Blue+ Purple+ Coral+ UVL SuperActinic Blue+.

 

Cyano continues to be a problem. I can actually see cyano fibers flying around in the morning. I've decided to handle this four fold:

 

(1) Beef up CUC - 65 gallon quick crew from reef cleaners shipped Monday. Should be here tomorrow (kinda expected it today)

(2) Cut back feedings. I'm on every other day now and rotating between TLF seaweed sheets, pellets and frozen

(3) Plumb the second return for my tank so that I can turn up the return pump and get more flow through my sump, and through my filtration.

(4) Chemi Clean - I'm going to start by nuking the current outbreak and trying to keep it away.

 

Got a bunch of frags from Lawnman today. Not all are opened up, but here's what I got. The unopened zoas are tangerine dream, wolverines, and my clementine

 

 

This is a shot of one of the acans I got from Mr Coral. It's now mounted on the rock work.

[d'Espresso]

also tank ben! i like the combo you got for the light. that clementine and tangerine dream is hella nice!

[GiantBen]

also tank ben! i like the combo you got for the light. that clementine and tangerine dream is hella nice!

The Clementine actually melted. The blue/red poly I took a picture of is some no-name thing, but it is awesome.

 

I Chemi-Cleaned the tank over the weekend.

Oh

 

My

 

God

 

that crap worked great. I kept thinking that the Purple+ bulb was giving mt way too much pink. I'm now thinking that is because I had tons of cyano fibers in the water column. In addition to the Chemi-Clean, I plumbed my second reruen line. I'm now running dual stockman drain pipes. I made them a little taller too, so the water line is about 1" higher, making it 1/2" from the top of the tank. The eurobracing is actually very nice for this, as it keep water from splashing out of the tank. My skimmer seems to be killing it lately. I'm guessing this is because there is more water being cycled through the pump, and because the chemiclean left a lot of crud in the water column. I'm back to feeding daily (tang was looking skinny with every other day) and going to monitor things. I also mounted most of my SPS, and took the frag rack out of the tank. I'll be giving away any SPS frags I don't want, and getting all the zoa frags mounted also. Pic this week I hope.

[jedimasterben]

moar pics.

[GiantBen]

moar pics.

Hoping to have time after the Oakland zoo today.

 

Got a couple lyre tail anthias from a local reefer last week too