Another Canadian Reef! 600 gallon Penninsula!
- Thread starter Cougarman
- Start date
david00061
New member
Looks great.
Crazy_Beaver
New member
Very nice!
Thanks guys. Its been an up and down road, but I can now say its starting to look like I had imagined. A few more months and it will be a show piece I think.
SaltwaterChris
New member
Very nice!
Crazy_Beaver
New member
FishyFishy69
New member
How does your Chocolate Chip starfish do in the tank? I always thought they were not reef safe.
I had one that ate all my zoas and gsp.
I had one that ate all my zoas and gsp.
Hello everyone. Sorry for the long delay in posting. It's been about a year and a half since I updated the thread. I've made some major changes to the tank.
First off, I've had nothing but problems with the drivers in my orphek LED lights. About 18 months ago I switched them out for 7 Chinese made no name LEDS that I purchased at low cost from my lfs. They have 48 LEDS per fixture with a mixture of actinic, royal blue, UV and 10000k colours. They have two channels with knobs to control the brightness of blue and white lights.
I ran all fixtures at full blast at first thinking since my corals were used to LEDs already there should be no problem. Consequently I burned the heck out of any coral in the top half of the tank. Unfortunately most of my large spa colonies suffered greatly and I ended up fragging off what unbleached portions I could salvage.
After learning my 1st lesson on LED intensity I removed two of the 7 fixtures and turned the white channel downtown very low intensity. I also limit the white channel to only 6 hours per day. The white channel also controls the UV Diodes as well.
Since then I've seen some explosive growth in some of the remaining corals. However even with the fixtures running at almost half power, my month caps still grow down into a bell shape instead of up into the usual cup shape. They appear to be retreating from the light. Colour has improved dramatically and I also added some red LED strips to supplement the fixtures. This seemed to bring out the colours even more.
After a year and a half of playing with these LEDs and purchasing a par meter to measure, I've decided on a formula of shooting for 200 par half way down the tank of mostly blue coloured light. This seems to work best for me. I plan in the near future to purchase some of the newer LED fixtures with a more complete colour spectrum.
I've been battling nutrient levels since the start of the build. I decided to increase my tank turnover rate and also redo my sumps system. I now run an external reeflo hammerhead and also an internal danner pump as my return pumps. I also came up with a better sump design and built a new sump. Now all the water leaving the tank runs through 5 filter bags before reaching the skimmer. I'm currently using 5 micron bags. I also purchased a new skimmer. It is a JNS SK7 cone skimmer. Rated for 1200 gallons. It is a beast. I've also employed a couple small cone skimmers I had lying around. The sump also has a dsb which doubles as a mini frag tank. The refugium is still located remotely with some of the return water being pumped to it and then draining back through the dsb into the sump. These modifications have made a significant improvement to my water quality.
I also reworked my water change system to where I can change 100 gallons of water with the press of a few buttons and turn of a few valves. I also have about 300 gallons of mixed saltwater on hand at all times in case of emergencies.
For the display, I removed about 50% of the rock and placed them in the refugium. This opens up more swimming space and room for corals to grow.
Water flow has been a challenge as well since I started the build. Since all the power heads are located on one side of the peninsula, I end up with high flow on one end and low flow on the opposite end. The corals seem to grow best right in the middle of the tank. I've also tried to put the low flow corals on the end of the tank. I've also set the programming for my mp60s to vary the flow through out the day. In addition I ran one of my returns across the tank to pour in through a sea swirl and eductor on the far end of the tank. So far it seems to be working.
Here are some pics:
First off, I've had nothing but problems with the drivers in my orphek LED lights. About 18 months ago I switched them out for 7 Chinese made no name LEDS that I purchased at low cost from my lfs. They have 48 LEDS per fixture with a mixture of actinic, royal blue, UV and 10000k colours. They have two channels with knobs to control the brightness of blue and white lights.
I ran all fixtures at full blast at first thinking since my corals were used to LEDs already there should be no problem. Consequently I burned the heck out of any coral in the top half of the tank. Unfortunately most of my large spa colonies suffered greatly and I ended up fragging off what unbleached portions I could salvage.
After learning my 1st lesson on LED intensity I removed two of the 7 fixtures and turned the white channel downtown very low intensity. I also limit the white channel to only 6 hours per day. The white channel also controls the UV Diodes as well.
Since then I've seen some explosive growth in some of the remaining corals. However even with the fixtures running at almost half power, my month caps still grow down into a bell shape instead of up into the usual cup shape. They appear to be retreating from the light. Colour has improved dramatically and I also added some red LED strips to supplement the fixtures. This seemed to bring out the colours even more.
After a year and a half of playing with these LEDs and purchasing a par meter to measure, I've decided on a formula of shooting for 200 par half way down the tank of mostly blue coloured light. This seems to work best for me. I plan in the near future to purchase some of the newer LED fixtures with a more complete colour spectrum.
I've been battling nutrient levels since the start of the build. I decided to increase my tank turnover rate and also redo my sumps system. I now run an external reeflo hammerhead and also an internal danner pump as my return pumps. I also came up with a better sump design and built a new sump. Now all the water leaving the tank runs through 5 filter bags before reaching the skimmer. I'm currently using 5 micron bags. I also purchased a new skimmer. It is a JNS SK7 cone skimmer. Rated for 1200 gallons. It is a beast. I've also employed a couple small cone skimmers I had lying around. The sump also has a dsb which doubles as a mini frag tank. The refugium is still located remotely with some of the return water being pumped to it and then draining back through the dsb into the sump. These modifications have made a significant improvement to my water quality.
I also reworked my water change system to where I can change 100 gallons of water with the press of a few buttons and turn of a few valves. I also have about 300 gallons of mixed saltwater on hand at all times in case of emergencies.
For the display, I removed about 50% of the rock and placed them in the refugium. This opens up more swimming space and room for corals to grow.
Water flow has been a challenge as well since I started the build. Since all the power heads are located on one side of the peninsula, I end up with high flow on one end and low flow on the opposite end. The corals seem to grow best right in the middle of the tank. I've also tried to put the low flow corals on the end of the tank. I've also set the programming for my mp60s to vary the flow through out the day. In addition I ran one of my returns across the tank to pour in through a sea swirl and eductor on the far end of the tank. So far it seems to be working.
Here are some pics:
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