BobbyV's Marineland 300DD Starphire Project

[BobbyV]

Ted C: thank you for dedicating 15 - 20 minutes of your life reading my entire thread! At first before the 300 went up I was all into having a fish room and putting together a huge operation. However if you plan it all right and use high quailty rock, you can accomplish an underneath sump no problem, just make sure to build your stand 44 inches or higher so you have plenty of room to do anything you wanted in your sump.

Pedro: You know too much! Yes you are correct, I used the bio in a bottle concept to help speed things along. Second time around, I just used he bio media block and crossed my fingers that non of my fish would die.

It is been a long road . . . . I still haven't jumped into restocking my tank just yet with coral or new additional fish. This hobby is expensive as we all know.

I right now have about 12 frags of one specie blue and green acropora. This is serving as my guinea pig coral as I impliment taking my GFO off line and implement bio pellets.

I know I have to get my KH down to 7.5 - 8 and keep it constant.

I want my tank to stabilize for at least three months with the bio pellets before I start going crazy buying up coral again.

The 18 x 11 x 18 20 gallon refugium I had with macro algae is all cleared out. This area of my sump will serve as my frag tank. I am going to buy a Nano 60w 16k Razor as the light source. The chiller return keeps the water supply constant with decent flow. Very cool idea I think!

 

[Ted_C]

Haha - not just 15-20 minutes - this is the second or third time around reading your thread.

So you didn't add dead shrimp or dose ammonia over a week or two to your empty 300 (except for rock) the first time around?

I was reading SPotter's Large Reef Tank build. He used Pukani and had the same problem with high phosphates as well. His cycle method consisted of Ammonia dosing and testing over two weeks to cycle the tank. I thought there might be a connection.

The other theory - the phosphates in Pukani only happen in the large rocks. Small rocks do not appear as if they have the same problem.

 

[BobbyV]

No shrimp just the bio in the bottle.

I added all fish and dosed "PRIME".

Super easy didn't lose anything.

Just a risk I was willing to take.

I suggest the traditional method if you have the patience.

I failed before with pellets because I just did not know enough on how to use them successfully.

I believe in myself that I can learn how to use them.

I am running the bio pellets because my phosphates have a tendency to creep from 00.0 to increments of 0.01.

Current reading is 0.08

Bio pellets if you research are great for SPS and will save you from the expense of running GFO.

Since BioPellets are continuously active, hypothetically if my Pukani is leaching phosphates the bio pellets will fight it until one day all my Pukani has finished leaching.

I am in this for the long term and I am getting the SPS bug again.

I am going to go super slow on adding the pellets. 256 ml is equal to one cup and 50 gallons.

I am going to wait 2-3 weeks till I add another cup. Then wait another 4 and reevaluate.

If you overdo it you will get cyano due to the excessive.

Bio pellets are the food source for good bacteria and it is the excessive bacteria that eats up all the nitrates and phosphates.

The food source created by bio pellets also supports SPS and encourages enhancement in color.

By the way BRS pellets have been re manufactured as little discs as oppose to the original little "ju ju bees candy" cylinder like shapes.

Be aware, the food source created by the pellets must be exported by a good quality skimmer because at first there isn't enough bacteria in your system to compensate.

This is why you start super slow.

 

[aguila88psi]

I too have been bit with the biopellet bug and am starting at 25% recomended pellets in the beginning. I'm also planning on going with a recirculating skimmer and recirculating biopellet reactor where the effluent from the reactor gets directly injected into the skimmer inlet. Hopefully this time I'll be semi maintenence free.

 

[CrazyEyes]

I think recirculating is the way to go for BP reactors honestly. I think on the new tank I may skip the carbon dosing and just us pellets. Any thoughts on starting this from day 1? Sorry Ted didn't mean to threadjack your post.

 

[Ted_C]

Question for you Bobby. After you installed the UV (which I realize you are removing and going the biopellet route) - I think I read you experienced a reduction in Algae on the glass and the need to clean it less often.

Did you notice a build up of white specs (almost seems like Ca Carbonate precipitate) on your glass (doesn't seem biological - they don't move at all)? I'm getting this stuff on my glass now after installing a UV and wonder if you had the same.

It's really tough to clean - requiring three or four passes with a hammerhead glass cleaner to get it off the glass.

 

[BobbyV]

1.

Great question - these white spots are unrelated to UV. (from my experience)

I too experienced these white spots or "precipitation build up" on my separate 100g frag system I had without a UV hooked up.

I was performing two part in a lower flow area. Also a 150w refuge lamp was in this area.

This was the only area where the white spots had formed.

The concentration of CA/KH mixture was too strong in that particular area of the SUMP. (partitioned area of the sump)

2.

UV will absolutely help with algae blooms and help contribute to clearing up your water column.

In regards to cleaning the glass less often:

- Reduction in phosphates. (fuel source)

- UV Support (disables reproduction characteristics in the plant cell or pathogen)

Less overall algae = less to clean.

UV is a luxury and does make life easier, however your main goal should be to reduce your phosphates first and foremost. UV would be a 2nd barrier of protection.

 

[Ted_C]

Thanks Bobby.

Maybe what I'm seeing is the beginning of corralaine trying to grow on the glass (I have tons of it on rocks and on the areas of the glass blocked by the framing where I can't clean).

Precipitation (in my case) doesn't seem likely as I am dosing in an area in the sump with a Koralia 750 right underneath the dosing area - which goes right into my skimmer.

These spots show up in the display tank exactly 6 days after cleaning the glass. Honestly, you could set a calendar by it.

It May be the fact (in my system) that these are vemetid snails looking for a new place to roost. The onyl way for me to tell this is to get out the DSLR and take some macro pics and crop it really small. Before the UV, I had to clean the glass every 4-5 days so I never noticed them (either due to the regular brown algae on the glass or I cleaned them before they established a large enough area to see).

 

[BobbyV]

Finally I got around to "skinning" my stand.

It isn't the best, but it isn't the worst.

 

[rogergolf66]

Much improved

 

[robthorn]

Tagging along. Where did you get the bent portion of your light hanger?

 

[asbauto]

Looks great Bobby

 

[kory1006]

Need a banana for scale.

 

[BobbyV]

Tagging along. Where did you get the bent portion of your light hanger?

The bent hanging bracket I got from Aquarium Specialty. However I believe many on-line vendors have something similar.

I then added a Radion rack with a bunch of random metal components from the Home Depot.

Thanks to all for the nice words.

 

[robthorn]

Thanks for the reply. I have gone back and started reading the entire thread and found you used the Current USA brackets. Unfortunately they won't stick out far enough. They may still work but I need to come up with something that comes out at least another foot I am thinking. All the other components I am familiar with. I think I will find a metal shop around to make something out of aluminum for me.

 

[BobbyV]

Thanks for the reply. I have gone back and started reading the entire thread and found you used the Current USA brackets. Unfortunately they won't stick out far enough. They may still work but I need to come up with something that comes out at least another foot I am thinking. All the other components I am familiar with. I think I will find a metal shop around to make something out of aluminum for me.

I agree with the length being too short for a 36 inch depth application. If you look closely, I modded the very end and added more length.

 

[anbosu]

Thanks for the reply. I have gone back and started reading the entire thread and found you used the Current USA brackets. Unfortunately they won't stick out far enough. They may still work but I need to come up with something that comes out at least another foot I am thinking. All the other components I am familiar with. I think I will find a metal shop around to make something out of aluminum for me.

Some people are just bending conduit and using that - very cheap if you have a pipe bender or access to one.

 

[robthorn]

I do have a conduit bender.but I see all the time that conduit.is not a very good product in corrosive environments. Aluminum isnt the best either but it should.hold.up better. Plus the round conduit just looks cheap. Maybe its in my own head because I know.what it is.

 

[Ted_C]

I used conduit on my set-up - bent it (in the store with one of their conduit benders), cut it at home and painted it with Krylon.

 

[robthorn]

Finally caught up with the entire thread. Sucks being a slow reader.