50 gallon Starfire rimless build

[kevin_e]

Today I bought:

PC Rainbow
$500 Efflo
Jason Fox Sour Twist
Green slimer
Cali Tort

Not a great picture, but anyways, here it is:

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They are somewhat pale, but do have some color. The Cali tort looks like the best of the bunch. Didn't get a picture of it. I'll share it later.

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[reefmutt]

That’s a good bunch of frags!

 

[kevin_e]

That's a good bunch of frags!

Check out the size of the tort!

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[kevin_e]

Any better?

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[kevin_e]

BTW, I plan on buying either a red planet or an unnamed red hyacinthus.

I also plan on getting a green soli type, that's supposedly an ORA gecko skin or something. They don't look the same to me.

I also was planning on a sunset milli, but I think that will be too much green. We'll see. Considering the ORA Pearlberry instead to add a different color. Maybe a different deep water type if I can't find the Pearlberry locally.

Also thinking of getting the garf bonsai.

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[kevin_e]

Added a few acros today:

Ice acropora (not sure where it came from, but that's the name it was given from that vendor).

Garf bonsai

ORA purple gem

Look at the size of the ice acropora:

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[kevin_e]

In order: Purple gem, $500 efflo, ice, Joe's rainbow, JF sour twist, PC rainbow

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[DesertReefT4r]

Looks goods. Everything seems to be coming along nicely. The green slime will go away in time as the tank matures and becomes more bacterial driven. The algeas and cyano will start to die off as the food bacteria take over. Its nice to see someone else using MH still.

 

[kevin_e]

Looks goods. Everything seems to be coming along nicely. The green slime will go away in time as the tank matures and becomes more bacterial driven. The algeas and cyano will start to die off as the food bacteria take over. Its nice to see someone else using MH still.

Thanks! It's actually already gone away now, except foraybe a small spot in a low flow area. I just hung a 400 watt radium today, actually. Lumenmax 2 with a galaxy ballast. I borrowed a PAR meter and saw that I was getting 150ish PAR in the upper reaches of my tank. Now wonder my coral are dull. I set the light 14" above the water, 5" higher than my other light and I doubled my par. Now most spots are 200-250, with 300-400 in the upper reaches of the rocks. I set my Apex to shut down the light if temp creeps above 82.5 and only have the halide running for 4 hours, for now.

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[kevin_e]

I'm going to post these so we can track the color change under the stronger light. Can't believe I was only getting 115-160 par under the other light. No wonder things looked drab.

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[kevin_e]

Any thoughts on my lighting schedule? I am starting with 3 hours and working up to 8 hours, bumping 1 hour each week. Is that suitable, or too quick?

 

[fishresponse]

Anxious myself to track the color changes with your new 400w MH light. I’m a strong believer in the effectiveness of MH. Jumping in to watch. I think your schedule to bump up the duration is fine. Be sure to keep spot feeding to help the corals adjust to their new light intensity.

 

[kevin_e]

Anxious myself to track the color changes with your new 400w MH light. I'm a strong believer in the effectiveness of MH. Jumping in to watch. I think your schedule to bump up the duration is fine. Be sure to keep spot feeding to help the corals adjust to their new light intensity.

Same, very anxious. My best success was a 55 gallon under 500 watts of halide and 4 additional tubes of T5 lighting that I had 3 years ago. That tank had a failing trim and came down. Last pics I have of that setup is below.

So you think I should spot feed? I've always been a believer in fat fish to feed coral.

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[kevin_e]

So for the last 5-7 days I've had a verify slight haziness to my water and my skimmer has been producing a very light tan with hints of whitish skimmate. At first I thought it was a filter sock that I used. I bleached the sock and risnsed it twice before using. It was pretty worn and I figured it just deteriorated a bit in my tank. But this has persisted. I'm guessing it's a bacterial bloom, maybe caused by the sock? Nothing else has really changed for me.

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[fishresponse]

Corals get blasted by free floating “stuff” a lot in nature. Sure fish provide some of it too but The ocean also has tons of fish moving around the corals. Spot feeding can help push your corals to grow faster. You don’t need a lot of food but a little here and there. Beautiful tank you had. Too bad you had to take it down.

 

[kevin_e]

Corals get blasted by free floating "œstuff" a lot in nature. Sure fish provide some of it too but The ocean also has tons of fish moving around the corals. Spot feeding can help push your corals to grow faster. You don't need a lot of food but a little here and there. Beautiful tank you had. Too bad you had to take it down.

Thanks. I agree, it is a shame. This one will get there though.

 

[kevin_e]

So for the last 5-7 days I've had a verify slight haziness to my water and my skimmer has been producing a very light tan with hints of whitish skimmate. At first I thought it was a filter sock that I used. I bleached the sock and risnsed it twice before using. It was pretty worn and I figured it just deteriorated a bit in my tank. But this has persisted. I'm guessing it's a bacterial bloom, maybe caused by the sock? Nothing else has really changed for me.

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I am wondering if detritus caused this. To back track, about 2 weeks ago my ATO failed. Since that time I have been doing the dreaded top off daily. My sump has a coating of detritus in spots. Every time I would top off, this would get stirred up. The timing more or less coincides.

Do you think this stirring caused something to change biologically and or chemically to spark this bloom?

 

[kevin_e]

Also, not sure if I updated, but I have a clip on low profile fan (5 fans) that I am going to mount to the back of the aquarium. That should knock 2-3 degrees off the temp and keep me between , 78-82 degrees through an eventual 8 hour cycle. Still on 3 hours through the weekend where I'll jump to 4.

Also, I have about 60 snails coming in this week. Neritrs, ceriths, both big and small, and nassarius snails, to be specific.

Also (one more), I will be adding chaeto as well. Need to figure out how I'm going to light it. Leaning towards a goosneck and a 6500k LED right now.

Also (okay, yes, another), I want to purchase a small wet dry vac and do biweekly to monthly sump cleanings. This will double as a water change.

Lastly, I have a new Hanna alk reagent coming in so I can start tracking. I'm noticing some growth on a few coral and I'm sure things will start picking up shortly.

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[kevin_e]

Bought a shop vac today. My plan is to do biweekly or monthly water changes, with it. I'm going to vaccuum the sump each time. I strongly believe that stiring up the sump detritus caused my bloom.

I also received my order of snails from Reef Cleaners today. They're adjusting now. Some have already adjusted and have started exploring.

My fan also came in and let me tell you, this thing is magical. It feels like it is barely blowing but my temp is 2 degrees cooler than where it is usually at this time. In fact, it's only gone up 1 degree in 2.5 hours with a 400 watt halide over top!

My new optic for the top off also came in, so I no longer need to hand top off. This will be a big plus now that the fan is up. I'm sure I'll have more evaporatation. This is the Smart ATO. Best top off I've ever had. Just don't let the adapter get water in it lol

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[kevin_e]

I had a Two Little Fishes 150 Phosban reactor laying around and some soda lime pellets.

I added it to my skimmer intake on Sunday afternoon and my pH shot up form 7.48-7.78 to 7.85-8.13. I plan on also running the line outside the window. So I will be sucking in fresh air into the CO2 reactor and then to the skimmer. I would like to get my pH up to 8.0-8.2. Hopefully chaeto will help with that as well.

Soda lime is generally expensive, but it looks like I will get a good 7 days out of a canister, with one 3 lb bag providing two full canisters. At $9 per bag, I am looking at $234 a year in soda lime. I am hoping that by running the line outside first, I can double the life, if not triple the life of the soda lime. 10-14 days per canister at $9 would be $164-$117 a year. That is much more affordable at $10-12 per month.

Of course it's not a futile effort either. I know folks say don't worry about pH, but a pH running from 7.48-7.78 is a problem.