Another New SPS Tank

W

widarecu

New member
Well, even though I'm not the most active forum member I've been around for a few years already and find this forum the best source for any kind of info I need ... also a bit entertaining when discussions start around LED or no-LED, this salt brand or the other, zeo or not zeo, ULNS or LNS, ...

Well, now that I'm sitting in my laptop and have a couple of spare hours I decided to post my current tank so I can document my progress and get some of your feedback about improvements.

I've had marine aquariums for quite some time but with a long break for the last 7 years while settling down here in Australia but let me tell you, having the opportunity to walk to your favourite LFS and being able to hand pick some of the best pieces of coral you've seen .... priceless!!! :)

So no more blah blah and let's go to the point:

The basics:

Tank: Cade HL1200 Starfire glass, dimensions 120cm x 60cm x 55cm (4ft x 2ft x 22in)
Sump: Came as part of the Cade setup, pretty good one 105cm x 45cm x 35cm
Net volume: Around 400 litres RO water(90 gal)
Skimmer: RLSS R8-i skimmer
Return: Waveline 10000, around 10000 lph
Internal Circulation: Maxspect Gyre
Salt Mix: Red Sea salt (the normal one, not the coral pro)
Live Rock: Around 45 kilos I'd say
Sand: SSB, around 2 or 3 cms (but kind of regretting I didn't choose bare bottom)

And here some pictures of the initial setup:











And just after getting the sand in:



Some more to come ...
 
Nice start looks great !

What are your lighting plans?
And your nutrient control? (Biopellets,gfo,carbon dosing)
 
Great start indeed!!
And from what i barely see,comes a very nice aquascape.Can't wait for the next pics:thumbsup:
 
Judging by how beautiful some of the other Aussie tanks are, I have high hope for this tank. It already looks too good. :) Following with interest. AS already asked, what is your lighting plan?
 
Thanks guys for your comments and encouragement, the tank is already 3 months but I'm aiming to show you the photos following a sequence and not just the final product.

So the second stage of the tank was to get the more advanced and cool toys:

Lighting: 2 Radion XR30w G3 Pro (I've had MHs in the past and the heat and electricity bill were always a concern)
Chiller: Teco TK500. I was trying to avoid it but after reaching 29C (85F) a couple of hot days in Sydney while I was overseas I thought I preferred peace of mind
Controller: Apex controller including the Salinity probe, auto feeder and the wireless controller for my Radions (I doubt a few times about spending this money but it was worth)
ATO System: Nothing fancy, just controlled by a Tunze Osmolator. I'd like to connect it to the Apex as well as the RO but that will be a future project
Dosing System: Fauna Marin Balling method with the doing controlled by a Kamoer 3 stage dosing system

Some of the pictures as soon as the lights came in (sorry the quality is not great):







And the first set of legal immigrants including the cleaning crew, a couple of sea stars and a bubble tip anemone (I regret this one) ... I also came to discover a bunch of illegal immigrants that came with the live rock, pretty cool to find a new sea star and a bunch of little bugs almost every day:


The blond Russian one is a legal one as well as the blue sea star ;) also she is the one to blame for the aquascaping (I can't win them all)








The little one is one of the illegal ones ...

 
And answering some of your questions:

afernandez said:
Nice start looks great !

What are your lighting plans?
And your nutrient control? (Biopellets,gfo,carbon dosing)
Click to expand...

In terms of nutrient control so far I don't have anything else more than an oversized skimmer and lots of live rock. The near future I'm moving to a full Fauna Marin Ultralith system (already ordered and goodies on the way all the way from Germany).


In terms of lighting, after using MHs for quite some time back home I wanted to try the LEDs due heat and power consumption concerns mainly. My experience so far has been about learning but overall positive:

* As soon as I got the lights I made the mistake to leave them at 100% in all the colour channels and then left for a 2 weeks holiday, when I came back I found a bush instead of an aquarium, I had long hair algae like 30 cms long

* Having the lights running 100% in all the channels I observed a little boring and brown SPS frag that came with the live rock to gradually bleach (which stupidly enough I didn't really pay attention)

* I got 3 brown, colourless frags to test the tank and as with the little frag I start noticing bleaching after a few days

Reading I realised I made the rookie mistake of not modifying the spectrum and the common feedback from users is about the white led, so I decreased the overall intensity to maximum 50% keeping blues at full, reds and greens half way (a bit less) and white greatly reduced. See below my current configuration:





As a result, the corals recovered from the bleaching and back to their original brown colour within a couple of weeks and I started to notice some growth and PE from the little frag that came with the rocks. I also had to remove manually all the algae (from the base not a haircut - made that mistake too) and problem solved.
 
Nice! The aquascape isnt bad at all; rather I think it suits the radion's light output and arrangement of the pucks very well. With decent coral growth the separate islands should look pretty awesome. Dont change it at all! :)
 
sahin said:
Nice! The aquascape isnt bad at all; rather I think it suits the radion's light output and arrangement of the pucks very well. With decent coral growth the separate islands should look pretty awesome. Dont change it at all! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, I removed a couple of the rocks as it was too high but in overall the structure stays, and yes you are right, it fits the Radion's output well :)
 
And here the first frags I got to test the tank:













And this one came with the live rock (what was left after cycling):
 
And then I got the first box of corals (wild colonies), I'd have preferred smaller colonies but as it was a box you can't really choose (another mistake):















 
So as of now I have approximately 30+ colonies, none of them have died which is good bot growth is not the best and I think colour could be better.

I figured out one of my issues was a low bio-load (only had like 3 fish) but I slowly increased and now I have around 15, since then I've seen colours improving but parameters are going up as well.

These are my current parameters btw, pretty stable there:

* Temperature: between 24.8 and 25.3 always
* Salinity: Between 34.8 - 35.3 as per my Apex, I regularly check against my refractometer but always aim for 35
* PH: Moves between 7.84 at night and 8.32 mid of the photo-period
* Magnesium: 1395 (Salifert kit), aiming to reduce it to around 1200-1300
* Nitrate: 0.25 (Red Sea kit)
* Phospate: 0.15 (Hanna checker)
* Calcium: 460 (Hanna checker)
* Alkalinity 7.9 dkh (Hanna checker)

I was doing around 10% water changes every 2 weeks but I hold the last one for almost 1 month to observe the coral reaction when parameters increase (before having more fish) => good result, improved colours.

Now with more fish parameters are higher (you can see for the algae growing in the pics) so I'm retaking 10% water changes (moving to Reef Crystals) and see how it goes.

I think I'll get all the Ultralith stuff within 1 month so I'll observe the development by then and then the comparison against running an ultra-low nutrient system.

So I think no more for now from my side and happy to hear your feedback.

Thanks guys!!
 
coral102 said:
A great looking tank.



Is that Maxspect Gyre 130 or 150? enough flow for your tank? just curious. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


It's a 150, I think a bit too big for my tank size so not running at 100% power, I just moved it and it's now vertical half side pushing to the right and the other side to the left, sand flying around again but all good ... I think ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

revclyburn
I think it's time
2
Replies
38
Views
4K
Patrick Seastar
Patrick Seastar
Z
5.7ft tank stocking
Replies
7
Views
1K
ZanaZoola14
Z
ReefGoatfish
Acclimating SPS to a new light (radion gen3 to 6 pro)
Replies
1
Views
619
Reefing102
Reefing102
JustSalty
New tank setup… slate for canopy? Too heavy?
Replies
7
Views
1K
JustSalty
JustSalty
Smite
48x48x16 frag tanks and titan bin
Replies
1
Views
1K
Smite
Smite
Back
Top