DivingTheWorld's Custom Leemar 80g Rimless Reef

[DivingTheWorld]

Quick update, the good, the bad...

Good

I started dosing Special Blend 3 days ago (75ml/89g). I already see results with the cyno. Very little has grown in the tank over the past few days and it has receded in many places. My back wall is totally clear as well as my vortech screens. The sand still has some but that is receding as well. I plan to dose once per week for at least 5 weeks.

Tank is looking good. I added a Kole Tang to help with the little hair algae which is developing. There isn't much so I'll likely need to supplement his feeding. So far he is going to town around the tank.

Yesterday I started dosing AcroPower (15ml) and today Reef Chili (4 spoons). It will likely be a week or two before I notice any real results. I plan to dose both about twice a week to start. I did notice that my Montis were really loving the Reef Chili today.

So far I'm still running 1/2 recommended levels of GFO and Rox 0.8 Carbon. I'll check my parameters this weekend and possibly just shut both down completely.

Bad

I noticed some Bubble Algae growing on a few of my Astea snails. I still have nightmares of my last tank and the year it took for me to rid myself of it. Needless to say 3 snails have lost their life. I won't take chances...

This morning my nice Red Dragon completely RTN'd! I think it was just too late with the nutrients (AcroPower & Reef Chili)? I don't plan to add more corals until the ones I have are showing marked improvement in polyp extension and color.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Yesterday I did my weekly tests. Nitrates are running around 2.5 now and Phosphate went back to 0.00. So I took the GFO reactor completely offline but I'm leaving the ROX 0.8 reactor online for now.

The corals are definitely showing better polyp extension from the AcroPower. I think it's still to soon to know if I'm seeing a turn around from that and the Reef Chili. It will likely take a month or longer.

Results are excellent from the Special Blend though. I can't believe I would see these kind of results from just one week's use!

I also picked up a Kessil a150w which I'm planning to use to turn the center section of my sump into a frag tank. My rack is totally full and I have no interest in adding more racks inside my tank. If anything I may swap it out for a slightly smaller rack or remove it completely once I'm sure they're looking good and growing in the sump.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I know it's been a while since I posted picks and a few people have been asking. Truthfully I've been holding off because my tank looks like most new tanks, barren with a few tiny frags here and there. In other words, not much to look at. But here's a few pics for those wondering "what's a build thread with no pics??".

Here's a shot from today of the full tank. I probably should have waited till after dark for a better shot, but you get the idea. Frags are few and far between and generally light colored, but the tank health is looking good overall.

Here's shot of the current state of my cyano. It's mostly gone with a bit still on the sand. I plan to run the Special Blend for a full 5 weeks to see if I can wipe it out completely.

Here's a shot of my frag rack. Basically it's most of my zoas, along with a couple new ones (Indonesian Birds Nest & Green Slimer) and a few frags of ones that were STN'ing and I saved a piece. So far everything on the rack is doing well with the exception of not showing a lot of color. That said, the colors are FAR better in person than my weak photo skills can portray.

 

[Crispy001]

Might be a bit drastic but have you considered using ChemiClean for the cyano? Even with nutrients under control sometimes it's difficult to kick the cyano for good--ChemiClean does it in a few days and corals don't seem to mind.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Might be a bit drastic but have you considered using ChemiClean for the cyano? Even with nutrients under control sometimes it's difficult to kick the cyano for good--ChemiClean does it in a few days and corals don't seem to mind.

Special Blend is working good and it's essentially just bacteria so harmless. I've read numerous issues with ChemiClean and other like products. I'd rather keep as many chemicals out of the tank as possible. I actually bought ChemiClean in case the Special Blend didn't work. I was about at the end of my rope. But thankfully SB seems to be working.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Ok, I've got a few new frags I'm planning to pick up on Friday so I finished up a project I've been planning for a little while. My DT frag rack filled up FAST and I was trying to figure out where to put stuff. So I stole an idea I saw off the forum and turned the center section of my sump into a frag tank.

I built the rack in two pieces so it will be easier to pull out for cleaning:

I installed a used Kessil a150w Ocean Blue I picked up and it fits perfectly. I put a few of my frags on the rack and I'll see how I do. For not I'm putting them towards the outer edges and only running the light for 5 hours. I want them to get enough light, but not over do it. I'll likely ramp up the length over time. This light is not dimmable so distance from the center and length of output are the only variables I can play with. But I think it turned out nice and I'm already seeing PE.

I have space under the rack in which I may grow Chaeto (spelled right?), but I need to figure out how to do it first...

 

[africangrey]

Do you think there is correlation of cyano outbreak to the use of LED light, not sure if you have experienced MH lighting, I never had problem with cyano under Radium but was battling cyano after switching to Kessil and was never able to successful battle it out before the tank broke and lost everything.

 

[Crispy001]

I'm in the process of spooling up a DSA 90 and I wanted to say thanks for making such helpful posts and pictures. I decided to go the XR30 Pro route, we'll see if it compares.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Do you think there is correlation of cyano outbreak to the use of LED light, not sure if you have experienced MH lighting, I never had problem with cyano under Radium but was battling cyano after switching to Kessil and was never able to successful battle it out before the tank broke and lost everything.

I don't think so. My last tank had cyano and it ran MH and there are plenty of others on here with MH who get cyano. Cyano is one of the great mysteries!

 

[EnderTurtle]

Youve got a lot of bryopsis algae on those frag plugs. Be careful with that bryopsis is not easy to get rid of.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Youve got a lot of bryopsis algae on those frag plugs. Be careful with that bryopsis is not easy to get rid of.

Yeah I know. I got those frags all from one individual whom I don't plan to buy more frags from! Any suggestions? Should I try to frag the zoas off those plugs and leave the algae? I tried once and it didn't work very well...

 

[Dapg8gt]

Yeah I know. I got those frags all from one individual whom I don't plan to buy more frags from! Any suggestions? Should I try to frag the zoas off those plugs and leave the algae? I tried once and it didn't work very well...

Do a series of hydrogen peroxide dips at a low concentration to try and get rid of it. It takes a lot of time to actually kill it so multiple dips are going to be needed. That algae is the plauge and some strains is resilient to the said to be end all tech M treatment ime( I have one of them). If you can't get it off the frags get rid of them. No joke man I may need to tear down my sps tank because of it.

It spreads when you pull it off/prune it in the water so do it all out of tank and pray you don't get it on your rocks. At this point dealing with it spreading trying to save some coral I acquired has taught me to just toss it or give it away to someone willing to deal with it vs having the constant battle of revolving tech M treatments and h202 dips just to have it come back like nothing was even done to it. Nutrients don't play a real part in it, try to starve it out and the coral suffers before the algae breaks. It's the devil ha ha..

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Do a series of hydrogen peroxide dips at a low concentration to try and get rid of it. It takes a lot of time to actually kill it so multiple dips are going to be needed. That algae is the plauge and some strains is resilient to the said to be end all tech M treatment ime( I have one of them). If you can't get it off the frags get rid of them. No joke man I may need to tear down my sps tank because of it.

It spreads when you pull it off/prune it in the water so do it all out of tank and pray you don't get it on your rocks. At this point dealing with it spreading trying to save some coral I acquired has taught me to just toss it or give it away to someone willing to deal with it vs having the constant battle of revolving tech M treatments and h202 dips just to have it come back like nothing was even done to it. Nutrients don't play a real part in it, try to starve it out and the coral suffers before the algae breaks. It's the devil ha ha..

Nice, well it's just on zoas which I'm not sure if I want to keep anyways. So they're gone! lol I actually bought a Kole Tang about 2 weeks ago hoping he would go to town but he wants nothing to do with it...

 

[saul831]

i saw you are selling your MP-40s. what are you switching too?

 

[DivingTheWorld]

i saw you are selling your MP-40s. what are you switching too?

When I was running my non QD vortechs at 20% they were quiet. Once I upped them to 70-80% they were super loud. It was hard to watch TV and really annoying. The wife was not happy. It would have cost me $150 to upgrade my existing ones to the new drivers. By selling them and buying whole new units, it cost me an additional $50. But I get the newly designed wet sides and the warranty is reset. It was a no brainer.

The new QD's at 80% are near silent. If I put my ear up to them I can hear a slight humming. They are worth every penny!

 

[saul831]

I ordered my new mp40w-qd earlier today. I was in the fence between that or a Gyre. I figured I would sell my old mp40s to help pay for the new upgrade. I cant wait to get it.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Unfortunately, even with the dosing I've been doing with AcroPower and Reef Chili, I'm not seeing better colors in my SPS. I AM seeing better PE which is a step in the right direction so I'm not planning to reduce my dosing for now.

My GFO reactor remains off and depending on my test results this weekend (if Nitrates haven't increased) I may turn off my Rox 0.8 GAC reactor as well.

I'm now starting to question my lighting schedule. Most of the reading I've done on RC seems to indicate that on tanks my size, Radions are generally run around 45-60% intensity for SPS. I've been running mine at 55%. I thought due to the light colors of my SPS that I was giving too much light, so I had dropped my peak intensity down to 45% for about a month but haven't noticed any differences.

Incidentally, I also saw no noticeable reduction in Cyano which could be attributed to reduction of red lighting, so I switched back to just running normal wavelengths (generally 14k).

In my reading it also seems that most people who are running at 45-60% are running dual XR30w Pros. And there may be the difference... I found another thread with a poster with a 60g SPS heavy tank running dual XR15w Pros and they're having excellent sps growth and color running a max intensity of 100%! I have a feeling that since I'm essentially running half the amount of light, I need to drastically increase my intensity.

So...I've set a reminder for myself to increase my peak intensity by 5% weekly until I either hit my sweet spot or max out at 100%. I also increased my peak intensity to 4 hours from 3. I'll update with my results over time, but here's my current schedule for those wondering:

 

[sczlars]

Hi there,

I'm working on a build very similar to yours. 93G Keith Grandt tank, starphire, external overflow, etc... I have a friend who is working on the cabinetry, and he thought that the boat paint was a really good idea. What exactly did you use?

--Lars (in Santa Cruz)

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Hi there,

I'm working on a build very similar to yours. 93G Keith Grandt tank, starphire, external overflow, etc... I have a friend who is working on the cabinetry, and he thought that the boat paint was a really good idea. What exactly did you use?

--Lars (in Santa Cruz)

Hey Lars, I used Rustoleum Marine White Gloss Topside Paint from Home Depot.

 

[saul831]

We got similar tanks i too have two XR15w, and i am having trouble finding the right light settings for my sps. yesterday i found this light par calculator http://www.aquaticlog.com/radion i started using as a reference to try to figure the right light schedule. I am not sure how accurate it is but at least it gives me an idea.