d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

[choss]

Dennis,

I have followed all of your builds to date. You have had tanks of varying sizes – I loved the 130 cube, the 200 gallon tank with fish room was amazing, even the office tank was fun to follow. As I am now starting my largest tank build to date (96 gallon) I often consider where the optimal sweet spot is between tank size and happiness. I was wondering if you could take a moment and comment on your favorite tank to date.

 

[d2mini]

Dennis,

I have followed all of your builds to date. You have had tanks of varying sizes "“ I loved the 130 cube, the 200 gallon tank with fish room was amazing, even the office tank was fun to follow. As I am now starting my largest tank build to date (96 gallon) I often consider where the optimal sweet spot is between tank size and happiness. I was wondering if you could take a moment and comment on your favorite tank to date.

That's a tough question. But a good one.
There were advantage and disadvantages to all.

The Cube:
LOVED the whole "walk-around" aspect of this tank.
The size was "ok" at 36"x36" but I would have preferred at least 48"x48".

The 200g:
7' long was awesome.
24" front to back, not so much. Wish I could have gone deeper but I was maxed out in order to keep the room a functional dining room.
Love the built-ins surrounding it.
And BY FAR, having a separate fish room was just awesome. I miss this the most.

The Elos:
The quality of the tank is great. And the overall proportions are awesome.
Wish it was bigger but I'm pretty much maxed out for the space I have.
Wish I had a fish room, just not possible.

My dream tank would be a combination of all the above.
1. A walk-around cube
2. Minimum 48x48. Ideally 72x72. At that size, i may rethink the overflow and go with a center overflow... not sure though.
3. Fish room
4. Tank would reside in an atrium and I would take advantage of natural sunlight, and use LED as supplemental light.

 

[choss]

Thanks for the quick response. 72X72 would be insane. Somehow I think this Elos tank isn't your last...

 

[VJV]

Here's my nasty display with what looks like diatoms everywhere.

And ticked off coral, especially the sps... dull dull dull.

At least the brown snot and other nuisance algae is gone.

Good to know at least the DinoX worked for you. I also have diatoms in my sand bed as well as GHA. As I said before a bit disappointed with the Triton method mainly because with all the science behind it it is not able to provide scientific explanation and corse of action... what's the point in knowing where 52 parameters of your water are if none can explain why you are having these issues or how to address them...





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[d2mini]

Thanks for the quick response. 72X72 would be insane. Somehow I think this Elos tank isn't your last...

One man's insane is another man's awesome.

 

[d2mini]

Good to know at least the DinoX worked for you. I also have diatoms in my sand bed as well as GHA. As I said before a bit disappointed with the Triton method mainly because with all the science behind it it is not able to provide scientific explanation and corse of action... what's the point in knowing where 52 parameters of your water are if none can explain why you are having these issues or how to address them...

I feel ya. Right now I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I'd like to believe that if I didn't let my nutrients drop to zero, and if I culled back the macros like I always have (against triton's recommendation to let it go), the fuge wouldn't have crashed and thrown everything out of whack.

And as we've seen time and time again, nothing GOOD happens fast in this hobby, but bad happens very quickly.

Kinda like my diet. lol

By the end of this week or early next I should have my latest ICP test results.
Will see what those say.
But I think that after all that decaying macro was released into the tank, and then the DinoX treatment, I'm sure that biologically the tank is pretty screwed up and it's just going to take time to recover and find it's balance again.

How long has your tank been running now, and using Triton?

 

[SPotter]

oh man Dennis its heartbreaking to see the pictures of your tank and can only begin to imagine the stress you are feeling as a result. You have always had great looking tanks and know you will get this one back to its glory!!!

 

[VJV]

I have been running mine for about 5 months. For the first 3 it was smooth sailing (though a lot of detritus was accumulating in the area of the sand where I now have algae growing, but Triton said these should not be removed). My Caleurpa died almost immediately but the chaeto grew for about 1 month, than stalled for another month, than it started to get covered in GHA, rising to the surface and browning out, slowly disintegrating. Meanwhile it seemed that GHA took advantage of that to start to grow in the refugium and the display.

I have now been doing water changes and syphoning out the sand bed weekly to try and get rid of the algae growing there.

My Nitrates have always been undetectable and Phosphates never went above 0,012ppm .

I also had a nasty outbreak of cyano but since started the water changes it is gone.

Anyway, in my case it could be just a case of me sucking at Reefing but in your case it is certainly not, given your spectacular previous tanks.

Here is what I have now growing. Not sure why the resolution gets so bad after uploaded.

https://youtu.be/0u2mMqc97pQ






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[d2mini]

oh man Dennis its heartbreaking to see the pictures of your tank and can only begin to imagine the stress you are feeling as a result. You have always had great looking tanks and know you will get this one back to its glory!!!

Thanks, Steve. Soldiering on!

I have been running mine for about 5 months. For the first 3 it was smooth sailing (though a lot of detritus was accumulating in the area of the sand where I now have algae growing, but Triton said these should not be removed). My Caleurpa died almost immediately but the chaeto grew for about 1 month, than stalled for another month, than it started to get covered in GHA, rising to the surface and browning out, slowly disintegrating. Meanwhile it seemed that GHA took advantage of that to start to grow in the refugium and the display.

I have now been doing water changes and syphoning out the sand bed weekly to try and get rid of the algae growing there.

My Nitrates have always been undetectable and Phosphates never went above 0,012ppm .

I also had a nasty outbreak of cyano but since started the water changes it is gone.

Anyway, in my case it could be just a case of me sucking at Reefing but in your case it is certainly not, given your spectacular previous tanks.

Here is what I have now growing. Not sure why the resolution gets so bad after uploaded.

https://youtu.be/0u2mMqc97pQ






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Yikes.
Have you tried the Fluconazole treatment?
Most are having great success to get rid of HA and Bryopsis and no ill effects from it.

 

[VJV]

Thanks, Steve. Soldiering on!





Yikes.

Have you tried the Fluconazole treatment?

Most are having great success to get rid of HA and Bryopsis and no ill effects from it.

I have not. Need to read about it but not sure if I can get a hold of it in Europe (Portugal). It is encouraging to see you were successful with DinoX, as my past experience was not very good the two times I used it.

I am sure you will get back to spectacular looking envy enticing pictures you have accustomed all of us in no time [emoji4]. As for the diet, at least on that one when the results do not pop up you know very well why that was the case. I know I do [emoji481][emoji1]


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[SPotter]

I recently have an out break of red cotton algae on my rocks and I wonder if Fluconazole would work on that as well.

 

[asonitez]

dang D2 i just picked up the vectra L1 and now im afraid to open the box. Im going to be using it to power my 180 and at least 3 reactors. my stand is 36/38" tall and tank is 24" tall 1" plumbing. I can't imagine that kind of head loss.

 

[biecacka]

Dennis, i run the bubble scrubber too. I run a balsa stone from 10pm -7am. I also stir up the sand in small sections when I first started. I know you don't run filter socks, but mine went from clogging every 3-5 days to 1-3 days at first. The difference is amazing. You are correct, I noticed better polyp extension and more active fish. The calcium reactor might have worked a little harder to keep PH in check but nothing to cause concern. It has been almost 2 months probably for me, since I started. I will have to go back to my thread and check the date.

Also I believe the Iwaki pumps use a 1in outlet.


corey

 

[Scorpius]

I recently have an out break of red cotton algae on my rocks and I wonder if Fluconazole would work on that as well.

PM me and I'll respond back in 2-4 weeks. I have cotton candy algae in my sump and I'm on day four of Fluconazole for Bryopsis. My Bryopsis is laughing at me right now, but I'm gonna wait out the 2+ weeks it can take to kill this devil weed.

 

[d2mini]

jaw breaker shroomies

 

[Grayhead]

Those are nice. Are they prone to spreading like other shroms? I really like the detail in their texture.

 

[d2mini]

Those are nice. Are they prone to spreading like other shroms? I really like the detail in their texture.

Apparently they do.
That big one was the size of the smaller one the bottom right when I placed it in my tank and as you can see it spit out several babies.
Started with just the one.

 

[droog]

Dennis,

Do you have a specific lighting setting that you use when taking coral/fish photos? Is fo could you share?

I'd like to have a stab at taking some pictures of corals in my tank. Figure I'll make a virtual outlet on Apex Fusion thats cuts the powerheads and set my Radions to a specific temp or setting and intensity.

I have off-camera flash on a flexible bracket that I can fire in as well. I would probably need to gel the flash blue to blend with the tank lights. Are you using any flash in your pictures or is the light all from the overhead Radions? Maybe flash is going a bit far, but it would give me control of the light for wierdly placed and/or shaded corals. Thoughts?

-droog

 

[d2mini]

Dennis,

Do you have a specific lighting setting that you use when taking coral/fish photos? Is fo could you share?

I'd like to have a stab at taking some pictures of corals in my tank. Figure I'll make a virtual outlet on Apex Fusion thats cuts the powerheads and set my Radions to a specific temp or setting and intensity.

I have off-camera flash on a flexible bracket that I can fire in as well. I would probably need to gel the flash blue to blend with the tank lights. Are you using any flash in your pictures or is the light all from the overhead Radions? Maybe flash is going a bit far, but it would give me control of the light for wierdly placed and/or shaded corals. Thoughts?

-droog

I just set the lights to somewhere around 12k and set my wb on my camera as close to that as I can get.
I shoot in raw format and then I tweak in Lightroom.
Here's a vid I made that shows my basic workflow in Lightroom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6ngLb4XL4&t=27s

 

[d2mini]

Was just checking the tank on cam this morning...
A bit foggy from the nano micro scrubbing bubbles.