Daniel's RSM 250 SPS tank

[biggles]

Wow Daniel.........

I read your reef journey to get where you are now mate, great stuff sticking it out when a lot tend to give the game away :thumbsup:
I love the colors you're getting under your T5/LED combo, beautiful pigments on everything You should keep doing things just the way you are now mate.
I used to use NSW but since going to ASW i don't miss lugging water drums in and out of the acro ute lol........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was................. :wave:

Look forward to more updates Daniel. :thumbsup:

 

[M007]

Wow Daniel.........

I read your reef journey to get where you are now mate, great stuff sticking it out when a lot tend to give the game away :thumbsup:
I love the colors you're getting under your T5/LED combo, beautiful pigments on everything You should keep doing things just the way you are now mate.
I used to use NSW but since going to ASW i don't miss lugging water drums in and out of the acro ute lol........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was................. :wave:

Look forward to more updates Daniel. :thumbsup:

^^^^What he said

 

[nemodan]

Dan, thanks for following my little marathon thread.

Question: throughout the process did you ever do anything to your sand bed in the display?
Also, you have 0 n and small amounts of p.. Are you ever tempted to try to switch these two numbers?

Matt... I think that having that sand bed with fine sand mixed with crushed corals was one big mistake on my side. I believe it contributed to the high nutrient issue. BUT !!!! When I realized about that was too late. My rocks are not attached. I though about taking it out, but it will be probably a disaster for the rocks. They will fall with all the corals on it. An SPS reefer of the area told me "..... disassemble all, take the sand, and start again, if not where is the fun of this hobby, just sitting to watch the corals, no way..." He has many tanks and they never stay the same for long time.

I decided not to follow the easy path. So the answer for your sand question is ..... NO, I never did anything. Only once I did a WC removing a little the sand. I was afraid of opening another pandora box. The biology of the tank did the job. I believe the fuge has a nice size (20G) for a 55g of real space water. Full of macro, really full, and a lot of the Seacherm Matrix in the HOB acrylic fuge, did the magic.

About the P and N. You can not believe how many times a though about it reading your thread. But I decided that due to my work (I travel 3 days in average per week), it will be impossible to control the situation as you and others do. Again, because of my job, I have to have an easy tank. My philosophy, after my disaster, was " what lives in my conditions is what I will have". My conditions are: an ATO to replenish water, dosing pumps for Alk/Ca and the refugium....plus WC every week ( ~ 15- 20 G ).

Of course there has been STABILITY and REPRODUCIBILITY, All this recovery months, the most important aspect for SPS , specially Acros.

Daniel

 

[nemodan]

Wow Daniel.........

I read your reef journey to get where you are now mate, great stuff sticking it out when a lot tend to give the game away :thumbsup:
I love the colors you're getting under your T5/LED combo, beautiful pigments on everything You should keep doing things just the way you are now mate.
I used to use NSW but since going to ASW i don't miss lugging water drums in and out of the acro ute lol........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was................. :wave:

Look forward to more updates Daniel. :thumbsup:

Thank you Andrew !!! Those are encouraging words !!!

About the Mg levels..... I have the kits. Just lazy to measure it because with the frequent WC I do, I assumed there will be no change. This based on my readings before my nutrient crash.

I will do the measurement this Friday or Saturday and will update my data on this thread. I will also look how are the P and N..... And Ca.

I have been measuring every 3-4 days Alk. And it has been always 6.4-6.7 Dkh. Because I use b-ionic 2 parts and dose equal parts, I look the levels of Ca , like once per month. Last time was ~400 ppm. Of course, to keep that level of Alk I have been adjusting the dosing pumps almost every week.

:beer:
Daniel

 

[nemodan]

^^^^What he said

Thank you M007 !!!!

By any chance, do you work for the MI6 ? :worried:

 

[M007]

Thank you M007 !!!!

By any chance, do you work for the MI6 ? :worried:

I'll never tell :spin1:

 

[reefmutt]

Maybe csis!
But of course, he'd have ta kill ya, if he told ya..

 

[nemodan]

Wow Daniel.........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was................. :wave:

Look forward to more updates Daniel. :thumbsup:

Here we go .......

Measured at 6 PM today. Dosing pumps (alk/Ca) stop at 5 PM

Alk 6.88 dkh Salifert
Ca 425 ppm. Salifert
Phosp. 0.05 ppm Hanna
Nitrate. 0 ppm Red Sea
Mag. 1480 ppm. Red Sea

Salinity. 1025

Cheers
Daniel

 

[markalot]

Hi Daniel,

just finished reading the thread, good job getting a refugium running and letting things settle back down. The tank looks super healthy to me, looking forward to seeing it progress!

I had the same issues and finally went with the bio-pellet route because I don't have room for a refugium. I also lost my birds first, while many acros browned but hung on. My huge green bird wad decimated, which I found surprising because I thought birdsnests were 'easier'.

Keep us updated, following along!

 

[nemodan]

Hi Daniel,

just finished reading the thread, good job getting a refugium running and letting things settle back down. The tank looks super healthy to me, looking forward to seeing it progress!

I had the same issues and finally went with the bio-pellet route because I don't have room for a refugium. I also lost my birds first, while many acros browned but hung on. My huge green bird wad decimated, which I found surprising because I thought birdsnests were 'easier'.

Keep us updated, following along!

Thank you for the nice comments Mark !!! I thought the same about birdnest corals, but they were the first to decline.

Update

My son has decided to re-organize his tank and there were corals he wanted me to keep. Unfortunately i could say NO.

So Here is the tank today plus new corals:






















Cheers
Daniel

 

[nemodan]

Cheers
Daniel

 

[Ssteve]

What are you feeding?

 

[nemodan]

What are you feeding?

I feed the fish only. Once a month, if I remember, I add aminoacids. But do not count that as feeding.

I have 15 fish for 70 G of real volume water. I feed them once at night, very well. The food detritus plus the fish poop are feeding the corals.

I have an orange plate-shaped coral on the sand that has small tentacles (sorry can't remember the name). I feed a couple of small pellets once ~ month.

Cheers
Daniel

 

[nemodan]

A video I did today. Unfortunately lost a little bit of quality with the upload but still looks OK .

https://youtu.be/RTVcKGYEnI0

Cheers
Daniel

 

[M007]

Wow, lots going on there. Nice growth and cool shapes :beer:

 

[reefmutt]

Nice, Dan!!
That's a tank full of happy and healthy corals. Nice growth tips, great colour and pe.
Love it!

 

[nemodan]

nice, dan!!
That's a tank full of happy and healthy corals. Nice growth tips, great colour and pe.
Love it!

Thank you Matt !!! And M007 !!

I am posting more ....... wait !!

 

[nemodan]

I decided today to share with all the section of our hobby we do not show too much, but is the one that keeps the corals alive.

My tank is in a garage that we modified as a second family room, for my parents. The garage has originally a Tool Room, that is beside the tank. So I was able to do a hole in the back wall of the tank and connect the tank with the refugium.

Here is that ex-tool room, now more a fish room.

My RODI set up and the refrigerator for the beers .... LOL



The refugium (20G) with 2 Bulkheads drilled that drain in the white tube that goes through the wall to the tank. Water is pumped from the tank and returns by gravity.



The refugium:

At the left you can see 2 transparent tubes. Those are for my WC. One pumps water out from the tank that drains (through another wall) in the washing machine drain tube. The other tube pumps water directly from the Brute. I do not have to carry buckets. I empty the Refugium up to the level of the pump, leaving only 2 inches of water and then I fill it again. All takes 15' .



You can see the Water Change tubes better on this picture. Plus you can see the Mangroves growing inside of a cheap HOB filter (that is without the filtration system inside). It has a light with LEDs designed to growth plants ($15 from China, eBay).



The HOB acrylic refugium full of MATRIX



The refugium return to the Read Sea Max 250 tank



The return drains in the media rack of the tank where I have 3 more bags with Matrix.



OK..... now some coral pictures

 

[nemodan]

 

[nemodan]