Rebuilding the Shallow Reef Tank Pt.2

[tanacharison]

3 minutes ago, J-Ranko said:

Nice build.  Are these all going to be plumbed to the basement tanks? Or are those stand-alone frag tanks? 

Thank you.  The frag tanks are both going to be running of the same stock tank sump shown to the right of the stand.  Should be around 90 gallons of water volume once all completed. 

[tanacharison]

Small update.  Added additional bio pellets to reactor, still running great.  Hopefully I can get nitrates around 10.  One of the acro frags seems to be dulling to brown slightly so I moved them onto my frag rack... about 1 1/2 higher up.  Still slowly increasing lights however only the new corals seem effected.  Alk has stabilized at 7.1 with the new doser!  Got a free bottle of AF Energy from BRS and also picked up AF Vitality to try.  Currently making 40gal of saltwater for the cube.

 

[tanacharison]

Finally ordered a Hanna Checker for phosphate and some phosphate RX.  Not sure if I will need it but I figured having it can't hurt.  Plus I will use it after cycling the cube.  Some of the corals are showing amazing colors and growth.  I also have some interesting sponge growth on a section of rock.  Did a 30% water change today along with taking apart and cleaning the skimmer and return pump.  The other icecap fan is making crazy noise, hopefully after a cleaning it will calm down. 

 

 

[tanacharison]

Well after testing several times my hanna checker says phosphates are above 10   Looking into that more.. Here are some pictures of the moonlights on the tank.

 

 

 

[teenyreef]

Hmmm, that doesn't look like a tank with phosphate at 10, it looks pretty good! Don't chase numbers unless you know you actually have a problem to fix.

 

Which particular Hanna checker did you get? The ULR Phosphorus? The low range phosphate? The high range phosphate? The ULR phosphorus is the most accurate at low levels but you have to do math to convert to phosphates.

[J-Ranko]

If you got the Phosphorus ULR, then 10 is actually ideal. 

 

10 ppb Phosphorus ~ 0.03 ppm Phosphate

 

Conversion chart: http://www.pny.se/aquarium/

[tanacharison]

4 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Hmmm, that doesn't look like a tank with phosphate at 10, it looks pretty good! Don't chase numbers unless you know you actually have a problem to fix.

 

Which particular Hanna checker did you get? The ULR Phosphorus? The low range phosphate? The high range phosphate? The ULR phosphorus is the most accurate at low levels but you have to do math to convert to phosphates.

Thanks @teenyreef for the positive words!  I would not say I have a real problem just trying to fix a few small ones that all could be the result of incorrect phosphate levels.  So I have stupid brown algae that grows on the sand bed in the back corner.  I pull it out all the time and still comes back.  The branching SPS seem to have growth that's stunted or just die after two weeks, could be a thousand reasons for this.    Final reason is I could only lower nitrates so far and I never could pick up phosphate on my salfert test kit.  So I bought the Hanna ULR checker.  My thoughts were maybe I have zero nitrates and theoretically I wont be able to lower nitrates without more phosphate.  Sounds like I was wrong on the last one.  BRS also just made me lose hope that my nitrate testing is accurate.  I admit I tested 5 times in a row for phosphorus... each time getting better at the fast timing and getting all the powder in the tube.  Each time my test results were better and now I finally feel like I got the testing down.  I also managed to cut it in half with phosphate rx over 5 days without seeing any effects on corals.  Now I just plan on waiting and seeing if I have any changes over the next few days. 

1 hour ago, J-Ranko said:

If you got the Phosphorus ULR, then 10 is actually ideal. 

 

10 ppb Phosphorus ~ 0.03 ppm Phosphate

 

Conversion chart: http://www.pny.se/aquarium/

Thanks for the chart @J-Ranko I started off doing the math with a different conversion chart (yours is better) then I realized the apex automatically converts it.  So my first test was 36 and post phosphate rx it was 15.

[tanacharison]

Time for some mid day pictures.  Note the weird sponges next to Jay Jay the halkfish!

 

 

 

 

[tanacharison]

If you ever have the chance to visit the National Zoo the coral lab had an amazing reef setup. 

 

[tanacharison]

Well when it rains it pours lol  So my apex is down and has been for 3 days I finally opened a ticket because I'm lost as to why.  I have a crazy bacterial bloom in my bio-pellet reactor but the tank actually never looked clearer.  All my sps frags lasted 2 weeks then died and my tank is bowing worse than I thought and the acrylic is separating at the top.   More positive updates to come

[tanacharison]

Bright news.. The owner of my favorite local LFS has jumped into the tank building business and the timing could not be better.  His shop and displays are some of the cleanest I've ever seen so I can expect his builds will be epic!  He has even convinced me to go a little bigger.  I will doing a good review of the tank and stand after I get it and hopefully I can help some of my fellow nano reefers upgrade too!  Here is his webpage if you want to reach out.  http://www.thereefgallery.com/

 

Anyways new dimensions are.....  36Lx22Dx16H

[WV Reefer]

2 hours ago, tanacharison said:

Bright news.. The owner of my favorite local LFS has jumped into the tank building business and the timing could not be better.  His shop and displays are some of the cleanest I've ever seen so I can expect his builds will be epic!  He has even convinced me to go a little bigger.  I will doing a good review of the tank and stand after I get it and hopefully I can help some of my fellow nano reefers upgrade too!  Here is his webpage if you want to reach out.  http://www.thereefgallery.com/

 

Anyways new dimensions are.....  36Lx22Dx16H

 

New tank  yay!

[tanacharison]

20 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

 

New tank  yay!

I know I'm so pumped.  It's the biggest I could do without replacing my current light.  Sadly my upgrade will be on my old tanks 1st year birthday. 

[tanacharison]

Updated FTS

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

32 minutes ago, tanacharison said:

Updated FTS

 

 

 

 

That's a nice light you have on there. 

Those new tank dimensions sound great. 

I'm hoping I haven't already asked about this (I'm forgetful ), but what do you think about the Gyre? Is it loud?

[tanacharison]

6 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

That's a nice light you have on there. 

Those new tank dimensions sound great. 

I'm hoping I haven't already asked about this (I'm forgetful ), but what do you think about the Gyre? Is it loud?

Thanks!  Dave does great work.  I've been following your experiment tank and it's so creative and fun.

 

I never really vented all my thoughts on it.    As far as flow it can produce its freaking amazing and makes zero noise unless its almost turned up over 80%.  At 80% my tank would also become sand soup. lol  It attaches to some thick tanks too I'm 3/4 inch and it transfers zero vibrations.  I got it because of how cheep I could get a battery backup for it and I figured it would be better than 2 pumps.  I'm starting to dislike the constant flow pattern the gyre makes, as my hammer coral gets bigger I feel like the one side is pissed off if its running any higher than 50%.  Its also a pain in the ass to clean... so many freaking parts, its really easy to put it back together wrong and it not work right.  When my apex was working .... I had it programed for a ton of different changes in flow during the day and I liked it a little more.  I'm going to keep it on the next tank and if they ever fix my apex and then I'll run it in conjunction with a controllable return pump.  I think if I just have it off for a few sporadic times during the day and like my return crank then it will mix things up a bit.  I guess price for power its a win.  If I wanted to blow a ton of money a pair of MP10s might be better but after battery backup its over $600.

 

[tanacharison]

So after a $75 repair my apex will be back end of the week. New tank and stand should be done soon so I need to take advantage of the sales this weekend for the new setup.  So far I need sand, new plumbing parts, return pump and extra salt ( almost out).  So my first thought is with a closed stand is the blue pvc really worth it?  I loved the look but I won't see it that much.  I'm going 3/4" return pump with two 3" flare locline returns on the back wall and my gyre as flow of the display.  Need a good return pump to move some serious water.  So far the VarioS 4 or 6 is leading the pact but Current USA is much cheaper and can be controlled without apex in case its down again.  Hopefully I don't forget to buy anything.  Because I'm going to do a major change I keep tossing up a new sump in the air... sadly nothing made on the market meets my needs.

 

 

[teenyreef]

What did the Apex problem turn out to be? Can't wait for the new setup!

[tanacharison]

1 minute ago, teenyreef said:

What did the Apex problem turn out to be? Can't wait for the new setup!

They actually never said what the issue was... I really need to ask!  The guy said over the phone that he has only seen the same issue once before.  The factory firmware reset did nothing.  Never passed the update webpages step and never connected to fusion or display.  Hopefully my mangroves survived during the outage I keep forgetting to turn the lights on manually.

[tanacharison]

		WE HAVE CONNECTION TO APEX FUSION!!!

[tanacharison]

Copied my old programming over but it's not working the same.    I also really forgot how to do all the programming.. so now I need to read up again.  Only other issue is my massive mix-up of cables I created unplugging everything to fix the apex now cannot figure out how I had the maxspect gyre.  Oh well at least the reef still looks good. 

[FlowerMama]

No picture???

[tanacharison]

So I did something different.  Something in the past I could not let myself do without panic.  No testing.  I've gone almost 2 months without testing for anything!  Just continued weekly 20% water changes.  This past week I had a road trip and skipped my weekly water change.   I think what really pushed my to do this is my mixed results with the phosphate checker... at first I felt panic and lost as it gave me higher readings.  Fellow nano reefers noted that things don't look bad in the reef and just continue with water changes.   During the time some uncontrollable events happened.. power outages, stuck ato and apex crash.  Some how the tank pulled threw everything and continues to show great growth.  I will test again but I really feel eye opened that we all preach water changes are a cure all but when you let go of trying to control everything and watch weekly water changes do the work its a different world of reefing.

 

I was really bad for a short period trying of time trying new products such as trace elements, acids, coral foods, bacteria additives.  I had growth the entire time but not every coral was going in the positive direction.  The tank would look good but I was not sure if it was healthy.  Some corals would die without reason and algae would grow in different areas even with strong filtration.  No sps left other than my monits and a birds nest.  Hopefully one day I will try again.  But for now I'm enjoying my reef the simplest way possible. 

 

My dosing was minimal 2-4ml a day depending on element.  No additional trace elements.  One weekly coral feeding (Not 2-3 times a week). 

On 6/5/2017 at 6:49 PM, FlowerMama said:

No picture???

Soon! After I do the water change I'll show the coral pics!

[tanacharison]

Well photobucket is officially dead to me.

 

DSC_0286 by Alonzo Huse, on Flickr

 

DSC_0296 by Alonzo Huse, on Flickr

 

DSC_0292 by Alonzo Huse, on Flickr

 

DSC_0274 by Alonzo Huse, on Flickr

 

DSC_0234 by Alonzo Huse, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

[tanacharison]

After doing a cleaning and water change I decided to put together a video.  Tank is running well.. the easy SPS are showing growth but no new coral additions post my last swing at a few acros I lost.  Zoas are growing like weeds so I'm refusing to add any to the cube.  Finally past my one year with the tank!    Hopefully things will continue to calm down.  I had several issues with the new bio pellet reactor and the flow.  I had two clumping issues and had to completely shut off the reactor from the system, dump the toxic water and restart the reactor again.  This made me pull it from the manifold last time and now I'm trying out the Aquaforest Zeo mix.  Not sure what my goals are with switching but I can keep you updated as things change.  I will say currently.. good amount of algae and some lingering red slime post the removal of bio pellets.  Corals and fish are still happy. Dosing Pro-Bio and NP daily with the energy and vitality every 3 days.