history of lunar's reef

[lunar]

Krzysztof,

Long term admirer of your tanks, back to an old issue of coral magazine where it was featured (think it still had a refugium at that point).

Your colors are just so spot on. I've never seen yellow that sharp on any live coral (that wasn't dyed).

I use Zeovit for filtration but have recently switched my trace elements over to Fauna Marin balling, hoping to get a little more robust coloration. Hopefully my tank will be as vibrant as yours!

It's really nice to hear that you have followed me for so long time. Thank you, Funkateer. All the best for you and your reef!

Hi Krzysztof,
i have read your thread over and over. I believe you have the best tank i have seen! i am in the process of upgrading my current 90 gallon to a 200 gallon using your tank as inspiration. I will be running all in one biopellets in a recirculating reactor and bacteria dosing along with it. on my current set up i use fauna marin balling lite with their trace elements mixed into each canister. I believe you use this same method but please correct me if i am wrong. I also see that you use the fauna marin color elements. Do you dose the color elements instead of the trace 1,2,3 or are you dosing color elements in addition to trace 1,2,3?
are you still feeding reef pearls to your corals
This thread and tank are fantastic! A great inspiration and resource for all reefers.
Mike

Thank you, Mike.
200 gallon reef tank! That's great! :thumbsup:
My method is the same except that I don't add any trace elements to canisters with Kh and Ca solutions. I dose only their latest color elemets
and do that manually.
Yes, I love reef pearls and my corals as well. Moreover, I try to feed the corals with mixed seafood once per week or Salifert Coral food (liquid food)

Krzysztof

 

[Ink]

Hi Krzysztof,
I've recently started my new tank. It is a 1200 liter tank and it will be SPS dominated.
I started with light 1,5 months ago and some corals and fish are already in the tank. Inside there are also 75kg LR and a SSB with 2 - 5mm coral sand (FCC caribsea).
In the last weeks, seeing my NO3 and PO4 going quickly to zero, I progressively increased the food (I arrived to 10 cubes of frozen food). This caused brown slime (maybe dinoflagellates) and algae bloom, with corals sufference.
Actually I reduced food (only some dry food) and started with a glass of NBP (2 days ago) and adding bacteria (Zeobak).

I would like your advice about quantity of food and NBP.
Should I keep a low quantity of food till the tank find the right way, or should I increase it, because of very low NO3 and NBP use?
On what basis should I decide to increase NBP quantity and timing?

Thanks.

Luca

 

[MichaelW]

thanks for the reply.
Is there a reason you decided to go with the color elements instead of the trace elements in the canisters? Is it giving you you a greater level of control or the ability to focus on specific colors? would you be able to do both or do you think it would be too much trace elements added to the system?
with the growth of your corals you must have sps grow into each other and touch... when this happens in my tank both colonies end up in very poor shape. I can frag branches when they get close to each other but i have had more of an issue with bases encrusting into each other. do you have any tip or method to prevent this?

 

[syedjilani]

Do you recommend calcium reactor or you prefer Balling?

 

[glaukos]

Oh my god are the only words i can mumble while i watch(all those 5 times ) the vid Krzysztof!!

Amazing!

 

[reefmutt]

Yeah.. What he said..
Out of this world... The colours are totally unique..

 

[dtum]

Why did you switch from ATI hybrid fixture to Pacific Sun one?

 

[lunar]

Hi Krzysztof,
I've recently started my new tank. It is a 1200 liter tank and it will be SPS dominated.
I started with light 1,5 months ago and some corals and fish are already in the tank. Inside there are also 75kg LR and a SSB with 2 - 5mm coral sand (FCC caribsea).
In the last weeks, seeing my NO3 and PO4 going quickly to zero, I progressively increased the food (I arrived to 10 cubes of frozen food). This caused brown slime (maybe dinoflagellates) and algae bloom, with corals sufference.
Actually I reduced food (only some dry food) and started with a glass of NBP (2 days ago) and adding bacteria (Zeobak).

I would like your advice about quantity of food and NBP.
Should I keep a low quantity of food till the tank find the right way, or should I increase it, because of very low NO3 and NBP use?
On what basis should I decide to increase NBP quantity and timing?

Thanks.

Luca

Luca, you made a fundamental error. Your tank is only 1,5 months and you gave your fish 10 cubes of frozen food? How many fish do you have? 30, 40? In a new system? Sorry, my friend, but you're very impatient. To my mind everything is too quick.
How much food? I don't know how many fish you have and what fish. If you have algae grazers give them the minimal quantity of food once per day or once every other day.
If you have so low NO3 and PO4, don't increase NBP quantity. You should increase the quantity of them when the readings of PO4 and NO3 rise.

Krzysztof

 

[lunar]

thanks for the reply.
Is there a reason you decided to go with the color elements instead of the trace elements in the canisters? Is it giving you you a greater level of control or the ability to focus on specific colors? would you be able to do both or do you think it would be too much trace elements added to the system?
with the growth of your corals you must have sps grow into each other and touch... when this happens in my tank both colonies end up in very poor shape. I can frag branches when they get close to each other but i have had more of an issue with bases encrusting into each other. do you have any tip or method to prevent this?

I don't like to add microelements to a canister and dose them automatically. Think that dosing pumps are excellent for adding kh, ca, mg but not for trace elements. I want to control dosing these elements so I add them manually. Corals may absorb various elements in different quantities dependig on various factors.

One coral encrusts faster while the other more slowly. Have a good filtration, give good food, light and water circulation, the stabile parameters and nothing more.

Krzysztof

 

[Ink]

Krzystzof,
nowI know I made I big mistake. I followed NO3 lowering and so the large amount of organics probably caused an ammonia spike.

I only have 8 cromis viridis, 6 anthias, 3 clown percula and 3 other small fishes. No algae graezers; only some snails. In 1200 liter. I think fishes aren't too many.

I'm actually feeding with a minimal dose of dry spirulina-based grain food every day and skimming efficiently (BK supermarine 200 with all-open inlet).

In my experience NBP don't lower directly NO3. I mean eterotrophic bacteria don't use NO3 directly and I say it because I tried in a tank without light, using skimmer, live rocks and NBP, adding NaNO3 and after one month NO3 remained the same.
I think eterotrophic bacteria use directly organic and they produce ammonia, as is said in this article:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-02/rhf/

Heterotrophic bacteria can also be a big source of ammonia in aquaria. For example, uneaten fish food that is broken down by bacterial action will usually result in ammonia being released to the water.

We discussed that also in this topic:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2443286

Actually hairy green algae and brown slime are slowly reducing. Do You think I should wait them to completely to disappear before increasing food? I ask because today I saw some STN at the base of some SPS (that are dark, not light coloured) and it's hard to decide if increase food: I'm afraid to fuel algae and brown slime again.

Thanks.

Luca

 

[lunar]

Do you recommend calcium reactor or you prefer Balling?

Both of them. You should use what is more convenient and easier for you. It doesn't matter what method you choose but it's important to choose very clean media for balling or for a calcium reactor. A calcium reactor is cheaper for larger tanks in the long run.

Krzysztof

 

[lunar]

Oh my god are the only words i can mumble while i watch(all those 5 times ) the vid Krzysztof!!

Amazing!

Only 5 times?
Thanks, glaukos, I'm very happy you like it so much.

Yeah.. What he said..
Out of this world... The colours are totally unique..

Thank you, reefmutt. The real tank has better colours than in the movie or photos, I'm not a good photographer.

Why did you switch from ATI hybrid fixture to Pacific Sun one?

I like all ATI lamps a lot. ATI hybrid fixture seemed a good idea for me, nice blicks again, many ways to arranging lights. However, I noticed after some months that not all my corals like leds light. The more delicate acroporas started to loose their vibrant colour.

Krzysztof

 

[lunar]

Krzystzof,
nowI know I made I big mistake. I followed NO3 lowering and so the large amount of organics probably caused an ammonia spike.

I only have 8 cromis viridis, 6 anthias, 3 clown percula and 3 other small fishes. No algae graezers; only some snails. In 1200 liter. I think fishes aren't too many.

I'm actually feeding with a minimal dose of dry spirulina-based grain food every day and skimming efficiently (BK supermarine 200 with all-open inlet).

In my experience NBP don't lower directly NO3. I mean eterotrophic bacteria don't use NO3 directly and I say it because I tried in a tank without light, using skimmer, live rocks and NBP, adding NaNO3 and after one month NO3 remained the same.
I think eterotrophic bacteria use directly organic and they produce ammonia, as is said in this article:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-02/rhf/

Heterotrophic bacteria can also be a big source of ammonia in aquaria. For example, uneaten fish food that is broken down by bacterial action will usually result in ammonia being released to the water.

We discussed that also in this topic:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2443286

Actually hairy green algae and brown slime are slowly reducing. Do You think I should wait them to completely to disappear before increasing food? I ask because today I saw some STN at the base of some SPS (that are dark, not light coloured) and it's hard to decide if increase food: I'm afraid to fuel algae and brown slime again.

Thanks.

Luca

Do your anthias eat spirulina? To diversify a diet you can also try to feed your anthias with Reef pearls 500-1000 micron. They have neutral bouancy and allow for effective capture by fish so you can feed your animals well and not pollute water too much. My friend has a plenty of various anthias and they love this food. He accustomed fish to eat Reef pearls mixing them with artemia and small addition of Fauna marin Ultra energizer. After some time he gave a drop of Ultra energizer to the Reef pearls only.
I don't know whether those bacteria lower NO3 directly or not but to my mind your conclusion isn't so evident. Why adding NaNO3 didn't cause to increase of NO3?
I'd wait algae disappear and then increase food slowly adding small doses of aminoacids that could help your corals on their road to recovery.
In our tanks there are "žgood" and "žbad" bacteria. I'd increased a population of "žgood" bacteria before starting biopellets and then still dose them to prevent "žbad" bacteria from arising. Don't add more pellets for some time but bacteria. I'm dosing Biogro marine 123, I've never had so good effects using Zeobak. Look at the NO3 and PO4 readings, they'll tell you when to add more pellets.

Krzysztof

 

[lunar]

And put into your tank some good algae grazers, you have only fish that looks fine but don't help you controlling nuisance algae.

Krzysztof

 

[dtum]

It seems that the color spectrum of your tank has changed since the last few videos. It used to be a lot more purple and now it is a pleasant light blue. Can you please elaborate on that? I really want to mimic that color combo but blue+ is just not doing it for me. What's your current combo?

 

[Ink]

Thanks Krzysztof.

My anthias eat any kind of food, so no problem.

I agree with You continuing to add bacteria, so to keep good bacteria well present and contrast bad bacteria.

In the experiment I described about NO3, I added 2,5ppm NO3 using NaNO3 and infact I then measured 2,5ppm NO3. After 1 month running NBP, NO3 remained unchanged. In the topic I linked to You, there is a link to a fundamental (in my opinion) article about nutrients control using bacteria and algea.

Finally, about algae grazers: I have waited added them for two main reasons. In my experience, when adding the first bigger fish to a new tank, it often causes cryptocarion outbreak killing most of fishes. Moreover, I was afraid in this tank to destabilize again a critical situation, while algea are already disappearing eaten by snails.

Thanks.

Luca

 

[dtum]

After some digging I seem to have found the exact combo that you are using in your last video.

(front to back)
FM UR PS SW PS S+ PS CB PS PI PS SW PS CB PS S+ PS SW FM UR

Since I don't have access to Pacific Sun or FM here in Canada, I have found similar lighting with ATI and KZ, here's the analogue version.

Actinic AB Coral+ Blue+ Purple+ AB Blue+ Coral+ AB Actinic

And since I don't have a 10 bulb fixture I have approximated this for an 8 bulb.

Actinic AB Coral+ Blue+ Purple+ AB Blue+ Coral+

So I've put that exact combo on my tank today... and I just don't seem to nail the color spectrum that you have. My tank does not even come close to yours, so it is hard to compare, but I'm just looking for that white look with a strong tint of blue. I have an ATI 8 bulb Sunpower. When I tried that exact combo I was getting a purplish tank.

 

[youdontknowme]

After some digging I seem to have found the exact combo that you are using in your last video.

(front to back)
FM URPS SWPS S+PS CBPS PIPS SWPS CBPS S+PS SWFM UR

Since I don't have access to Pacific Sun or FM here in Canada, I have found similar lighting with ATI and KZ, here's the analogue version.

ActinicABCoral+Blue+Purple+ABBlue+Coral+ABActinic

And since I don't have a 10 bulb fixture I have approximated this for an 8 bulb.

ActinicABCoral+Blue+Purple+ABBlue+Coral+

So I've put that exact combo on my tank today... and I just don't seem to nail the color spectrum that you have. My tank does not even come close to yours, so it is hard to compare, but I'm just looking for that white look with a strong tint of blue. I have an ATI 8 bulb Sunpower. When I tried that exact combo I was getting a purplish tank.

I have got the exact light combi for my sunpower as well! It doesnt look purplish to me. im getting white with blue tint

 

[lunar]

After some digging I seem to have found the exact combo that you are using in your last video.

(front to back)
FM UR PS SW PS S+ PS CB PS PI PS SW PS CB PS S+ PS SW FM UR

Since I don't have access to Pacific Sun or FM here in Canada, I have found similar lighting with ATI and KZ, here's the analogue version.

Actinic AB Coral+ Blue+ Purple+ AB Blue+ Coral+ AB Actinic

And since I don't have a 10 bulb fixture I have approximated this for an 8 bulb.

Actinic AB Coral+ Blue+ Purple+ AB Blue+ Coral+

So I've put that exact combo on my tank today... and I just don't seem to nail the color spectrum that you have. My tank does not even come close to yours, so it is hard to compare, but I'm just looking for that white look with a strong tint of blue. I have an ATI 8 bulb Sunpower. When I tried that exact combo I was getting a purplish tank.

I don't know Aqualine Buschke lamps but if you have an access to Ati and Giesemann bulbs I'd use:
ATI blue+, Coral +, Giesemann Actinic +, Giesemann Aquapink, ATI Aquablue sp., Giesemann Actinic+ ATI Coral+, ATI blue+

Ultra Royal blue is an unique bulb, I've never seen any bulb that is similar to it. This is my favourite one that gives me this extra blue tint.

Following photos were taken with iphone 6, they are not realistic, too blue.







Krzysztof

 

[dtum]

Thank you, I appreciate the advice. This roughly translates to the following ATI and KZ bulbs (don't have access to Giesemann)

Blue+ Coral+ KZ S Purple+ ABS KZ S Coral+ Blue+

and I have changed on my tank to

Blue+ KZ NG KZ S Purple+ ABS Blue+ KZ NG Blue+

The tank does have a slight purple hue to it and I don't really see a clear blue tint (even though I supplement with a single strip of blue Reefbrites).

Does that match your expectations or would you suggest I tweak one of the bulbs? I believe I got the same setup as what you are recommending.