Griff's D-D Reef-Pro 1500S build

[Griff500]

Still no ammonia and so I'll put that test away. It's amazing how different it is to set this tank up with decent live rock compared to the previous one with dead rock. I'm sure something will happen to wipe the smile off my face but it's now five days since everything went into the tank and still no signs of diatoms, algae or anything to be concerned about. The rock and sand are still completely clear so far and the glass is remarkably clear as well.

Lots to do today but the first small job was to get the wire from the Mitras LX7 lights into the Flex Mounts to finish them off. I'm happy with them and it's a very neat look. I've got no decent light where the tank is and it's still quite blue at this time of day, so the pictures aren't great...

The light from the Mitras LX7 is so diffused, presumably from their use of reflectors instead of optics, that you can even look at the pucks from across the room and they don't hurt your eyes, not that I'd recommend it. Very pleased with these lights.

 

[Griff500]

There wasn't much room in the cabinet for equipment and for some reason the top shelf they designed had no way to get cables up there (apparently they designed the hole between the sump and cabinet that's actually under the shelf for a chiller... I'm sure there's big demand for chillers in the UK - probably a mandatory bit of kit! So I had to knock together a quick fix so that I could hide the equipment. It will need some improvements and it's a work in progress, but I think it's a reasonable start. All is working perfectly!

 

[Griff500]

Everything seems to be going quite well so far. No corals in yet but I'll try something shortly.

The KHD appears to have been measuring very consistently and accurately. I let it drift down a bit as something was using up alkalinity and then let the KHD control dosing and it seems to do it extremely well.

Very, very pleased with all of the GHL equipment and happy that I made that decision.

I'll be able to tell how the ATI Essentials Pro works in due course...

I ran a bit of GFO as a precaution and I'm using ATI Nutrition C with N at the moment. Nitrate seems to be about 0.2 and Phosphate about 0.04.

All fish appear very healthy and are eating well.

So far so good.

I have more automation to work out, the manifold to build and some other things to implement, but that all got a bit delayed as my car threw a piston at 130mph on the autobahn while bringing my girlfriend and our new puppy home. Fortunately all were OK but my car's a total loss.

Still, all in all, things are going well.

 

[Griff500]

I added a Diamond Tail Wrasse and some corals today. The Wrasse is hiding of course.

It's probably only a couple of weeks since the tank was set up but the rock was excellent from Dan so we'll see what happens with the corals.

The GHL KH Director is handling the alkalinity dosing and seems to be doing a great job.

 

[Griff500]

Some ich or something similar has finally shown up on the tangs. I expect them to sort themselves out as they have done before and I'm not quite sure why it has suddenly shown up now, but the PBT had looked a little bit paler blue than usual for the last couple of days so I wasn't entirely surprised. Plenty of food and a water test sent off but they usually shrug it off when they get it once in a while.

Hopefully the Diamond Tail Wrasse will be ok with that.

The GHL KH Director and dosers all seem to be working well and holding alkalinity rock solid.

Nitrate at 0.2 at the most and phosphate at 0.04. I've slightly increase the Nitrate dose as I wouldn't mind it a bit higher but I'm ready to drop it back if I see any negatives from the slight increase.

 

[Griff500]

Enjoying the GHL app and everything is looking good (apart from the PBT being rather unhappy at the moment, so I added a Cleaner Wrasse and he is working hard).

 

[Griff500]

The tank has been fairly stable as I get to grips with it. The KH Director really is an excellent bit of kit.

I have added a pair of Lineatus Wrasse, a Phantom Blenny (I've wanted another one of these for ages - it was one of the first fish I got but jumped eventually) and a load of cleanup crew. My Clowns have increased by what seems at least a third in size. I also had to add a Cleaner Wrasse as my Powder Blue Tang still hasn't shaken the ich that came back on. He's still eating and fat so I expect him to pull through. It's happened before, although not for a couple of years.

The only problem is that I cannot get Phosphate above 0-0.01 and Nitrate will not go above a maximum of 0.2. I'm using ATI Nutrition CNP and following their guidance and I think it seems to be doing ok.

I added a few coral frags to see how they go but the tank has only been going a short while so we'll see what happens.

Some algae growth but nothing crazy and the snails, urchins and Blenny should keep it under control so I'm going to see how it plays out.

Some pictures, taken under blues... I've got to dig out my proper camera at some point...

 

[Griff500]

 

[Griff500]

The new fish appear to have settled in well. I still love the Yellow Tang that I've had for probably five years now - looks like I took him by surprise! I still cannot get a decent picture of the Lineatus but I am using an iPhone...

It looks like there are some updates for the GHL equipment and apps so I'll need to have my first go at doing that shortly. The app changes look excellent though and it seems you can now add PAB devices (connected to the Profilux via USB cable) all through the app! It's great to see that GHL are providing regular updates and continuously improving things for the current and older products.

 

[Griff500]

I got what appear to be Dinos after Nitrate and Phosphate dropped to zero (I wasn't doing anything aggressive to do this). I've stopped the little bit of GFO that I was running and I've been using Microbacter7. I've added my UV back into the system and popped an Oxydator in that I had laying around. I'm dosing Carbon but only 1ml per day in a net 480l system and I've got 2ml per day of Nitrate and Phosphate going into the system to try and raise them.

I don't want to do a blackout as the corals are quite pale due to the lack of nutrients.

 

[Griff500]

Two tests have come back with copper in the RO and the tank. As it's in the RO it can only be the RO unit or the ATO pump. The RO unit had all new filters and membrane between tests and so I think it was probably the ATO pump, so I've removed that and set up an ATO using the GHL Maxi Doser and programmed using the two-sensor setup (float and optical). It's working great and was very easy to set up. It only needs one pump and the plan will be to remove tank water to keep salinity steady once I am using enough two-part dosing to see increases in salinity (at present the water removed for testing and from the skimmer is sufficient to keep salinity steady).

Nitrate and Phosphate are pretty much zero both in my tests and the ATI ICP tests and that's probably why I have Dinos. I have a feeling that the zoox expelled, probably due to the copper, combined with the low nutrients have created the Dinos situation. I am not dosing Carbon at the moment and I am dosing Nitrate and Phosphate. The levels do not rise despite this. Dinos are not getting worse and might be gradually going - hard to say but certainly not getting worse. There have been no snail deaths so the Dinos would appear to not be the toxic variety, but I am keeping an eye on that.

The Powder Blue Tang is covered in ich but is still quite fat and eating. The other fish are no longer showing any symptoms of ich.

 

[Griff500]

Not sure if anyone's reading this but it turned out not be to ich - I lost my PBT that I'd had for years, both Lineatus, a Cleaner Wrasse and my Diamond Tail Wrasse.

I pulled the remaining fish out and started a QT and CP treatment. That's now completed and no further losses. The tank fallow period ends on 13 July.

Completed the CP treatment with no more fatalities. The fallow period will be completed on 13 July.

I'm ghost feeding the tank occasionally and dosing ATI Nutrition CNP and ATI Essentials, with Kh and appropriate dosing being handled by the KH Director and other GHL equipment. It's doing a great job and I am SO glad that I went with this instead of sticking with the Apex equipment that I had. That reminds me, I must get around to posting my Radions, Apex and Gyres...

I've also got to get around to putting in the flow sensor. I was going to use this to automatically maintain flow rates when changing GFO (and I'd had a custom GFO reactor made by Pacific Sun - their top model but less height to fit in the cabinet nicely). With the excellent live rock and using ATI CNP I've simply got no need for GFO at the moment though. Current levels are N at 1 and P at 0.3 on average. I'd like N a bit higher but it's pretty good.

So I suppose I'll just keep the return simple and put the flow sensor in at some point and see what return flow rate I'm getting compared to what I think I should be getting...

Some corals are showing quite a bit of new growth from the base and good colours. Others have lost a bit of colour - probably due to levels being a bit lower than I'd like and no constant fish poo to help them along - but seem to be coming back and even those were showing some growth.

Overall, it's definitely heading in the right direction.