150 Gallon Shallow Zeovit Reef

[kenpau]

I decided to celebrate my 10th year of having saltwater tanks by upgrading to a new 150 gallon system.
This will be the 5th system I've started, having begun with FOWLR and my most recent system being a mixed reef. This time I'm going to try my hand at a pure SPS dominated reef running the Zeovit system.


System Objectives: To create a natural, healthy shallow SPS reef.

System Type: SPS Reef.

Display System:

Strike up Date: Late December

Display Tank: 1500x750x500 with 12mm Ultra Clear glass.

Display Lighting: 3 x Aqua Illuminations Hydra 52s

Stand: 1500x750x1000 White aluminium and glass

Hood: None

Sump: 500x400x400 with filter socks

Refugium: None

Refugium Lighting: N/A

Support systems:

System Water: Natural Sea Water from Fish Doctor

Display Water circulation: 2 x X-Aqua X-InOut, 4 x Vortech MP40's

Return Pump: 2 x Sicce 4.0

Skimmer: Reef Life Support Systems DB10i

Dosing Pump: Kamoer 3 channel unit

Controller: Neptune Apex.

Chemical Support:

Phosphate Reactor: N/A

Zeovit Reactor: Avast VIBE

Carbon Reactor: TLF Phosban 550

Calcium Addition: Calcium Chloride

Alkilinity Addition: Sodium Bicarbonate

Magnesuim Addition: Magnesium Sulfate/Magnesium Chloride mix

Zeovit Addition: Zeolite Stones/Zeobak/Zeostart3/Sponge Power

 

[kenpau]

I wanted to create a couple of formations that would allow a lot of SPS placement as well as have a few overhangs for shaded areas from the high lighting that will be used.
Before now I've only ever balanced rocks on top of each other and have never been able to take the approach I have this time because I've always used live rock instead of base rock.
So arming myself with about 100kgs of base rock, a drill, masonry bits, Selly's Aqua Kneed It and some acrylic rods I got to work!

[/url]IMAG0038 by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

Drilling through the rock was time consuming but once the holes were in place it was easy to put the rod through, cut to size and bond into place.

IMAG0039 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Am pretty happy with the final results, the structures give me 2 large areas (about 450mm across) for Acropora to sit on and some nice overhangs for shady spots.

IMAG0040 by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0042 by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0041 by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

[kenpau]

Apart from the obvious longer cycle time and not being able to take the rockwork apart easily, I really like this method, it definitely gives more chance to create the kind of aquascaping that you want instead of precariously balancing rocks on each other.

Oh and a final note, if you are going to use this method of aquascaping, and if your wife is anything like mine she might not be too happy if you do it on the dining room table. It's only 100kgs of rock, a grinder and a drill, what could go wrong??!!!

 

[kenpau]

So the tank has been running for about 5 weeks now and currently looks like this.

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.47 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

The use of Zeovit has been a huge learning curve for me. I struggled with cloudy water for about a month, and it is still a little cloudy but clearing every day now. Basically using dry rock instead of live rock gave me an overdose of Zeostart3 causing a bacterial bloom in the tank.
Apart from that I have to say that I'm really impressed with Zeovit, my current parameters are:-

Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate - 0ppm
Phosphate - 0ppm
PH - 7.97 to 8.19
Calcium - 443
Magnesium - 1100 (slightly low so dosing to bring this up)
Alkalinity - 8.23 (slightly high so reduced dosing to bring this down)

Current stock is:-

2 x Ocellaris Clownfish
1 x Flame Angel
1 x Blue Throat Trigger
15 x Yellow Striped Cardinal

Corals include:-

Acropora
Montipora
Goniopora
Pocillopora
Chalice Coral
War Coral
Hammer Coral
Acan Brain Coral
Pavona Coral

When you consider that the tank has only been going for 5 weeks, it really does show how well Zeovit works at creating an ultra low nutrient system.

 

[kenpau]

This is easily the most complicated system I have put together, purely because I'm a gadget freak!

Neptune Apex Aquacontroller is the brains behind it all....


Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.26 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

Kamoer dosing pump doses Magnesium, Calcium and Alkalinity supplements. Aqua Medic chiller is rated at 3 times the tank size to cope with our hot Aussie summers....

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.27 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

4 Vortech MP40s and 2 Xaqua X-InOuts provide a crazy amount of flow which is essential for a healthy SPS dominated reef...

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.30 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

3 Aqua Illuminations Hydra52 units provide the lighting, I can not find a single bad thing to say about these lights. The growth is awesome, they look good and are of course Apex ready which enables me to have my sunrise/sunsets, weather events, moonlighting all planned on my laptop.

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.31 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

Hydra52 programming...

Screen Shot 2015-02-21 at 8.11.00 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

I use a Reef Life Support Systems DB10i skimmer, these are awesome, so quiet, pull out heaps of skimmate too. Not many reviews on these skimmers as RLSS aren't as widely used as say Tunze or Reef Octopus but this is easily the best skimmer I have owned and would definitely recommend them.

Check the operation out here:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQ38U5yvts

Also in the background a Two Little Fishies Phosban 550 is used as a carbon reactor, along with a Smart ATO auto top off system to keep the salinity constant...

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.28 am #2 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Finally the Zeovit reactor is an Avast Vibe which is controlled through the Apex and set to vibrate twice a day to shake the stones...

Think thats about it for now, hopefully in the next month I'll be able to get a decent camera after spending all my money on tank equipment and take some decent shots of coral growth!


Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.29 am by kenpau01, on Flickr

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.29 am #2 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Photo on 21-02-2015 at 7.47 am #2 by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

[Aqua Chemist]

Nice build.

 

[Aqua Chemist]

Where is your overflow? Can't see it in any pics. Where in Oz are you at?

 

[Aqua Chemist]

Oh just looked up xaqua. They are quite small overflows. Do they work well?

 

[kenpau]

Oh just looked up xaqua. They are quite small overflows. Do they work well?

Thanks mate. Yeah I like them, very small and discreet, I have 2 on the tank though. They operate at a max of 2500 litres per hour so having 2 gives me a 10x turnover per hour. I'm in Perth btw

 

[kenpau]

That is a clean and beautiful setup. Nice job.

Thanks! Still have a little way to go...in fact thanks for reminding me, I should do an update!

 

[kenpau]

So a few changes since my last post, firstly I trusted the wrong person which led to an ich outbreak in my tank and wiped out the following fish:-

Yellow tang
Flame angel
15 Yellowstripe cardinalfish

Only my two clownfish survived. The result of this being that I went fallow in my tank for 11 weeks. I took this opportunity to make a couple of changes to my tank, the first being lighting.
I used a quantum meter to measure my PAR across the tank and got these results:-

14k100 by kenpau01, on Flickr

As you can see the Hydra52s give out some good PAR, however I found the optical angle to be poor and there was a very steep drop off as you moved away from the point directly below the fixtures. The result of this being that my acropora will grow upwards fine but there will be limited branching out because the light simply isn't there. For this reason I decided to buy another Hydra52 and put them in parallel instead of series.....until I discovered the Giesemann Aurora Hybrid! Now I have ordered this fixture instead, I have always seen Giesemann as the pinnacle of aquarium lighting so I'm excited to get one over my tank and see what an LED + T5 combo can do. They arrive here in Australia next week so I'll update again once it's over the tank.
The second change I made was to my aquascape, I didn't really think about it properly when I first did it and I realised I needed more 'shelf' space for my acropora, so bought all new CaribReef rock and put together a new scape which will hopefully give a really nice shelf effect when the acropora grows out.

Photo on 4-06-2015 at 6.36 pm #2 by kenpau01, on Flickr


One more problem I am trying to solve is how to cover the pipework at the rear of the tank. I went for the frosted backing which looks great until you get to the corners where the plumbing is.....I don't want to add rock work to the corners of the tank so any good suggestions of how I can make this look better will be very gratefully received!

 

[Wazzel]

Nice tank. A word of experience from a fellow hydra52 user, You are going to have a hard time lighting the entire 750 with them in that configuration. Best you can expect is good light out to 450 in the short axis.

 

[kenpau]

Nice tank. A word of experience from a fellow hydra52 user, You are going to have a hard time lighting the entire 750 with them in that configuration. Best you can expect is good light out to 450 in the short axis.

Thanks mate. That's exactly what I discovered when measuring PAR, I was going to add another fixture and flip them 90 degrees. They are very good lights, I just couldn't resist the chance to go with Giesemann LEDs!

 

[kenpau]

***Update***

After 11 weeks fallow I hadn't managed to rid my tank of ich, I added a hippo tang and 4 anthias, 5 days later....ich again. I thought I had done everything right during the TTM and QT but I may have missed something I guess...or 72 days fallow wasn't long enough.
Either way the outcome is that this is where my fish are having to live for the next few weeks, well between here and another QT!

Who needs a $15000 reef tank when you can see fish in a $50 QT anyway........

IMAG0321 by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

[kenpau]

Added a few things to my reef lately...

IMAG0354 by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0356 by kenpau01, on Flickr


The first thing I added was some nice hair algae....how did I get this amazing look? Well by swapping out half my rock, introducing phosphates and reducing my bio-filtration! My Zeovit dosing has increased and am just starting to get a hold on it now.
Intentional additions include some Western Australian Acropora, 7 chromis (was 8, usual story), 6 Dispar Anthias, a Sleeper Striped Goby and a Juvenile Emperor Angel.
All were in QT for 21 days and none have shown signs of ich since my 3 week fallow period.

Managed to solve my PAR issue with my lighting too, and it only cost $3500! Here's my solution...

IMAG0347 (1) by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0348 by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0349 by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0350 by kenpau01, on Flickr

IMAG0351 by kenpau01, on Flickr

It weighs 25kgs so am going to need some help getting it hanging over the tank but hoping to have it up in the next couple of days.

 

[sixpackgarage]

damn, that's a hellacious fixture!

 

[kenpau]

damn, that's a hellacious fixture!

Yeah it looks awesome sitting on my dining table!! Would much rather have it hanging over my tank but it's a two man job so will have to wait a couple of days.

 

[kenpau]

So the fixture then sat on my dining table for two days while I tried to figure out the best way of hanging it from my ceiling. The problem being I couldn't find anywhere that gave a definite weight of the light itself. In the end I put a couple of braces across the joists in my ceiling and used 10kg rated spring clips to hold it. Nervous moments when I finally hung it......

IMAG0362 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Yes the cardboard box is the control measure to stop it falling in the tank!

 

[kenpau]

So after the light was hung and didn't look like it was going to fall down I moved on to the setup. Being a German unit the build quality and level of detail is exceptional, this quility carries over into the extremely detailed instructions on how to program the lights...

IMAG0372 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Unfortunately the other thing apart from build quality that you expect from the Germans is that they speak German.....and I don't! I did a search online for Aurora Hybrid instructions and nothing, luckily the technology is taken straight from the Futura LED so I just followed the instructions from there.

Am still playing around with the lights, this was taken with just LEDs at 40%

IMAG0366 by kenpau01, on Flickr

and with LED (80%) and T5 (100%) (little spot the difference competition between this shot and the previous one....)

IMAG0370 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Thing of beauty...

IMAG0369 by kenpau01, on Flickr

As amazing as this light is, there are a couple of areas that it falls down

The control interface isn't as user friendly as the Apex for the Hydra52s

Screen Shot 2015-07-18 at 5.34.43 pm by kenpau01, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2015-05-16 at 10.19.49 pm by kenpau01, on Flickr

And it has real time lunar simulation which I was looking forward to, however there is a problem....

Screen Shot 2015-07-18 at 5.34.53 pm by kenpau01, on Flickr

You can adjust the intensity of the moonlighting up to 100%, well 30% and I was going blind, I regularly sit in a dark room with just the moonlights on relaxing, there is no relaxing at anything over 30% just a whole lot of blue!
I found the maximum I'd want for a full moon is 15%, the problem with this being that the LEDs aren't high enough to turn on for the first 3 days and last 3 days of the cycle. This is a bit annoying because I was happy to not have any moonlighting when it was a new moon outside but to not have it for 6 days a month would suck a bit, I'll keep playing.

That's about as far as I've got so far,

Pros of the Aurora Hybrid:-

Design is stunning
Quality of the build
At 660W its got plenty of punch
Heaps of controllability
Integrates the best of T5 and LED (yes there is shimmer!)

Cons:-

Cost (obviously!)
User interface could be better
Moonlighting needs an improvement
You need to speak German to follow the instructions provided!

The proof in the pudding will be coral growth, I'm going to put a quantum meter on it and it'll be interesting to see the difference between the PAR for the Giesemann and what I had with the Hydra52s.

 

[kenpau]

So I got hold of a quantum meter and took PAR readings for the Giesemann, the results were a little surprising...

Results are for LEDs and T5 at 100% (smaller readings are at the glass front/back)

IMAG0370 by kenpau01, on Flickr

The PAR wasn't much different from my Hydra52 readings

14k100 by kenpau01, on Flickr

There was a couple of important differences though, with the Hydra52s the maximum PAR I was reading on the front/back glass was 60, with the Aurora I was getting 150 at mid tank level and 170 on the sand bed. This was the light spread I was missing from the Hydra52s and the reason I made the change, the PAR itself directly below the fixture however is comparable.

PAR readings with LEDs at 100% and no T5s...

IMAG0366 by kenpau01, on Flickr

This show pretty much exactly the same issue as I had with the Hydra52s, the PAR readings are a little lower, which is understandable as each Aurora LED board has 85 watts of power against the 135 watts the Hydra52 has.
The issue I had with the Hydra52s was light spread, I was getting exactly the same PAR at the glass as I did with just LEDs here, about 60 PAR at mid tank level, there is a massive drop off in PAR as you move away from the centre line of the tank which could lead to acropora especially not branching as well as they could because the light simply isn't there.

So I could have possibly got the same kind of results as the Giesemann with LEDs and T5 on by buying 1 or 2 more Hydra52s and mounting them in Parallel to achieve total light spread. The advantage with the Giesemann being that it has 2 types of lighting to aid coral growth and especially that in my case it has proven actinic growth and colouration qualities (depending on the T5 tubes you install).