Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Double Post monster strikes again...I swear I submitted this one ONCE.
A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build
- Thread starter Dustin1300
- Start date
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Not enough light on too large of a screen. This is exactly what I expected. Trim that screen down to 12 sq in of material per cube of food per day = green. Green filters better.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
The scrubber is less than two weeks old? From others progression shots this is normal from what I've seen....Is it a little too early to jump the gun and say that this is too big of a screen and not enough light? I'm not feeding the tank at all right now as it has no fish so I'm not sure how this rule makes any sense with the current situation?
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
From looking at Santa Monica's earlier evaluation of different types of growth, it is stated that new/immature screens often have light brown slime?
"Light Brown Slime: New screens, and sometimes older screens the day after they are cleaned. Perfectly normal."
I'm just trying to evaluate the situation as a whole. Factors to consider....
- No livestock/coral in system currently. (Fish I have are in separate QT)
- Filter socks are on drains
- GFO/Carbon are running and phosphate is 0.00 per Hanna Checker
- Nitrate two days ago was roughly 10 ppm
"Light Brown Slime: New screens, and sometimes older screens the day after they are cleaned. Perfectly normal."
I'm just trying to evaluate the situation as a whole. Factors to consider....
- No livestock/coral in system currently. (Fish I have are in separate QT)
- Filter socks are on drains
- GFO/Carbon are running and phosphate is 0.00 per Hanna Checker
- Nitrate two days ago was roughly 10 ppm
i wouldn't get to concerned and chop it down just yet.. it is a big tank and once you get it stocked i think it will be just fine(i would have guessed it would be even bigger for the tank size, as i had one half that size running on a heavily stocked 120 a couple years back and it was just fine).
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
yeah I guess I jumped the gun a little bit. I am tending to do that lately with oversized/underfed screens. My bad. It may green up for a while but once you get past the initial stage and the N and P are pulled down, unless you are feeding enough it will go yellow. Plus you will have that 6 month period until the tank starts to stabilize so growth will probably be all over the place for a while. If you are running other filtration on the system there's no reason why you couldn't go smaller now and go straight to greener growth faster and add more screen later if it's not enough to handle the load.
Just looked at your second post and if you're running GFO and your P is zero, your screen is likely to stall out and never really get green because algae absorbs N and P at the redfield ratio, limit one and the other will not get taken up. This will lead you to think that the scrubber doesn't work. I would dial the GFO reactor down to the bare minimum personally, basically low enough that you are not totally removing P and limiting the scrubber.
I have the opposite issue currently, my LR denitrifies enough that N is always zero and P doesn't get absorbed past a certain point (it hovers between 0.04 and 0.09). As a result my screen grows caramel-yellow with a brown coating (it is also way oversized).
I'm just wanting to warn you about what to or what not to expect, that's all.
Just looked at your second post and if you're running GFO and your P is zero, your screen is likely to stall out and never really get green because algae absorbs N and P at the redfield ratio, limit one and the other will not get taken up. This will lead you to think that the scrubber doesn't work. I would dial the GFO reactor down to the bare minimum personally, basically low enough that you are not totally removing P and limiting the scrubber.
I have the opposite issue currently, my LR denitrifies enough that N is always zero and P doesn't get absorbed past a certain point (it hovers between 0.04 and 0.09). As a result my screen grows caramel-yellow with a brown coating (it is also way oversized).
I'm just wanting to warn you about what to or what not to expect, that's all.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I really appreciate the honesty and I'm not going to be offended in any shape or form....Just trying to reason and question, if my logic is off, it could be off! I understand your stance on ATSs and I can't disagree that they are a solution for filtering out N/P. I'm using the method because I believe in it too and am not going to say it does not work because I did not get opinions, use the proper methods, etc...
I'd like to cut down the screen size and go to 2 X CFLs. Any ideas on wrapping the pipe section with something so I can easily use what I've already built and have a smaller screen? Wrapping in tape will not work because of the adhesive, I'm just drawing a blank on anything that would be 'safe' to wrap up the slot to cut down on size but still be available for the future to expand as the system does.
I'll also start cutting back on the GFO to see if I can get phosphate sharing a bit more so the proper growth can be encouraged. Thanks again for the advice/thoughts as it is greatly appreciated.
I'd like to cut down the screen size and go to 2 X CFLs. Any ideas on wrapping the pipe section with something so I can easily use what I've already built and have a smaller screen? Wrapping in tape will not work because of the adhesive, I'm just drawing a blank on anything that would be 'safe' to wrap up the slot to cut down on size but still be available for the future to expand as the system does.
I'll also start cutting back on the GFO to see if I can get phosphate sharing a bit more so the proper growth can be encouraged. Thanks again for the advice/thoughts as it is greatly appreciated.
mrbee2828
New member
Hoping to start stocking frags at the INDMAS frag swap on April 28th so I'm battling to bring the nitrates down. LiterMeter III has only changed out about ~15 gallons since Sunday morning's test and Nitrates are still dropping so I think I'm going to hault the water changes and let the live rock, sand, and hopefully the ATS do some work on the trates. Nitrates are the only param I really need to bring down before picking up the frags
Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - .05, and Nitrate was between 10-25 so we'll call it 17.5, and Phosphates are now registering 0.00 on the Hanna Checker!
Nitrates:
What are you using to track everything?
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Seems like I'm continually working on the tank but no real progress to report. This morning I've:
- Performed 40 Gallon water change and moved the 'old' system water to the fish QT so had a 50% water change for them
- Started second round of PraziPro
- Cleaned ATS and got ~80-90 mL of Algae
- Making frag racks for frag QT and going to try to get plumbed in today
Here you can see ATS screen before cleaning. I think the lights are a bit to close to the screen so have decided to move them away another inch and see how it goes this week. Both sides have a 'bald spot'. (Sorry about pic, screen is already clean and seems my camera did not have it's glasses on
)
Algae collected on day 14 of ATS:
- Performed 40 Gallon water change and moved the 'old' system water to the fish QT so had a 50% water change for them
- Started second round of PraziPro
- Cleaned ATS and got ~80-90 mL of Algae
- Making frag racks for frag QT and going to try to get plumbed in today
Here you can see ATS screen before cleaning. I think the lights are a bit to close to the screen so have decided to move them away another inch and see how it goes this week. Both sides have a 'bald spot'. (Sorry about pic, screen is already clean and seems my camera did not have it's glasses on
)
Algae collected on day 14 of ATS:
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Nope. Already went down that road and these were bought for fish room use only. She did not like me using her Pampered Chef utensils around the reef stuff.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
LOL. I have been accused of "losing" one of the cups/spoons in the measuring set, forcing her to buy a new set so that I can have hers. Whatever.
3G Scott GT
New member
Just read through you're whole thread. The build looks great! You're planning and logging seem to be paying off.
matthorvat
New member
Just read whole post. Amazing! Makes me want to start mine over. I'm currently building my new system in my new home as well. Started a month ago. Definitely not to your detail. Hopefully I'll get a thread started and you can check it out.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Exceeded Photobucket 10 GB monthly limit....Just upgraded to Pro so you should see pictures again
@Steve/Bud, we've all had the battles with our significant others in this hobby. I just usually try to find the path of least resistance but when I keep telling her I'm spending $800 here and $200 here and I think she might kill me eventually
Thanks! I've tried to think everything through but have already kicked myself about some things...Shoulda coulda woulda!
Hope you enjoyed it and that you are subscribed and following along. Let me know if you get a build thread up and I'll add another to my list that I follow:bounce:
@Steve/Bud, we've all had the battles with our significant others in this hobby. I just usually try to find the path of least resistance but when I keep telling her I'm spending $800 here and $200 here and I think she might kill me eventually
Thanks! I've tried to think everything through but have already kicked myself about some things...Shoulda coulda woulda!
Hope you enjoyed it and that you are subscribed and following along. Let me know if you get a build thread up and I'll add another to my list that I follow:bounce:
3G Scott GT
New member
I've been down that road too. Luckily she's learned to accept this is my passion. Two days ago I came home to find out that she had made a top down overflow box. That's a good deal if you ask me!
I don't know if you were considering the AquaIllumination units, but I have the Sol Blues and love them. Right now it's over a column tank holding my frags untill I'm done with my DT. The only coral that isn't extremely happy at this point is my stag horn, but I'm also having phosphate issues since it's such a small tank with almost no room for a sump.
Two things I love about these fixtures are the cooling (heatsink with EXTERNAL fan) that prevents moisture in the unit and the 3 puck LEDS so they can be changed easily down the road even though it's going to be way down the road.
I don't know if you were considering the AquaIllumination units, but I have the Sol Blues and love them. Right now it's over a column tank holding my frags untill I'm done with my DT. The only coral that isn't extremely happy at this point is my stag horn, but I'm also having phosphate issues since it's such a small tank with almost no room for a sump.
Two things I love about these fixtures are the cooling (heatsink with EXTERNAL fan) that prevents moisture in the unit and the 3 puck LEDS so they can be changed easily down the road even though it's going to be way down the road.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Scott, I've been back and forth on the lighting....
First I thought Radion, have since changed my mind as I've found little/no one that likes these fixtures if they have a 30" tank. They seem to be great fixtures for a 24" tank but 30" is a no go IMHO. Second, I started looking at the Apollo Reef LED fixtures....But after looking further they use the cheaper Bridgelux LEDs that are not NEARLY as efficient and power friendly as the newer LED technology.
That being said, I've just really started researching DIY LEDs in the past week or so. I've been talking to Bill at ReefLEDLights.com and have been impressed from what I've seen on DIY fixtures. With pre-drilled/tapped heatsinks it's not hard to build your own. My problem is the dimensions of the DT and with various heatsink sizes I can more easily have cut to size outside of the pre-built fixtures. Right now I'm considering picking up a Pheonix kit and giving it a shot on my frag tank. I could then play with different channels/lighting combos so I can get what color I want. I'm hoping to talk to some other local members at INDMAS about their fixtures and next month's meeting is at member's house who has this kit built out. We'll see but this is the way I'm leaning towards currently.
First I thought Radion, have since changed my mind as I've found little/no one that likes these fixtures if they have a 30" tank. They seem to be great fixtures for a 24" tank but 30" is a no go IMHO. Second, I started looking at the Apollo Reef LED fixtures....But after looking further they use the cheaper Bridgelux LEDs that are not NEARLY as efficient and power friendly as the newer LED technology.
That being said, I've just really started researching DIY LEDs in the past week or so. I've been talking to Bill at ReefLEDLights.com and have been impressed from what I've seen on DIY fixtures. With pre-drilled/tapped heatsinks it's not hard to build your own. My problem is the dimensions of the DT and with various heatsink sizes I can more easily have cut to size outside of the pre-built fixtures. Right now I'm considering picking up a Pheonix kit and giving it a shot on my frag tank. I could then play with different channels/lighting combos so I can get what color I want. I'm hoping to talk to some other local members at INDMAS about their fixtures and next month's meeting is at member's house who has this kit built out. We'll see but this is the way I'm leaning towards currently.
Moser
Active member
Awesome build.
Can I ask if Prazipro is freely available in US or needs a prescription?.
Stuart Bertram has fitted AI SOL to his tank now... Look on theaquariumsolution dot com website in the gallery section.
http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/...t-09/stuart-bertrams-aquarium-april-12-iphone
Mo
Can I ask if Prazipro is freely available in US or needs a prescription?.
Stuart Bertram has fitted AI SOL to his tank now... Look on theaquariumsolution dot com website in the gallery section.
http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/...t-09/stuart-bertrams-aquarium-april-12-iphone
Mo
