Kasey's 60g

[kaserpick]

A Story of Stability

A Story of Stability

Overall Summary: The tank is coming close to being 4 months old, and overall, it's doing well. Growth is nothing to write home about (although still there), but the colors are looking good. Chemistry is still the big challenge,of course.

Alkalinity: Typically, I keep my Alk around 8.6-9.0 dKH. My tank's not an ULNS, not yet, so I feel comfortable keeping it at this level. I may taper down to 8.0-8.3 dKH, over time. I believe I shared that I recently started adding Kalkwasser via a BRS dosing pump. Corals were growing bases quickly in this range. Well, one day I switch my dosing outlet to ON on my Apex Jr., and I forgot about it for a solid 12 hours. I think I dumped 2 gallons at saturation, which resulted in a 1.0 dKH increase in 12 hours. Nothing seemed stressed, and I was curious how the growth would be at a higher dKH. Because of this, I left the level at 9.9 dKH and switched the outlet back to AUTO, to keep up with consumption. I was stupid to not check my Alk for over a week. I noticed my canary coral, Purple Stylophora, was receding, so I checked my levels. Tonight, I'm at 10.9 dKH. That means my consumption rate has dropped; I had also noticed slow growth, indicating the same. Either the quick increase or the stable, yet high, level shocked the corals a bit. I turned the dosing pump off, and I'll be letting the system drop naturally.

Calcium: I have checked Calcium in quite some time, since it's been solid at 440 ppm for a long while. But, since my Alk was high, I thought I should check Ca as well; after all, if the carbonates aren't be utilized as quickly, then neither is the Ca. Sure enough, it tested slightly over 500 ppm. Luckily, turning the Kalkwasser off will remedy that situation as well, over time.

Nitrate and Phosphate: I inspect the tank daily to check with my eyes and make sure things look right. The colors are looking very nice; an Austera (I believe that's the right spelling) has changed from brown to purple, while a superman Digitata has changed from brown on brown to orange on light blue. That definitely has been encouraging. Overall, every coral has shown increased coloration. that leads me to believe that my Nitrates are decent. On the other hand, even at its high point, growth wasn't amazing and there's still a few small patches of hair algae. From this, I'm concluding that my Phosphates are still a bit high.

Upcoming Additions, Feedback Needed!
The first thing I'm considering is building an Algae Turf Scrubber to better export the N & P. I would be using red and blue LED's and build most of it out of acrylic. Any thoughts or experiences?

Lastly, I'm thinking about going back to the Dark Side. I'd like to build an LED fixture unlike any other I've done before. It'll be very different than what's out there, in some big areas. I'll also be testing it in my sump; that's at least 6 months away.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

Really nice setup Kasey, looking good!

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks!

 

[deeznutz1]

Nice setup, where the write up on the acrylic structures?

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks! On page 4, towards the bottom, I showed the first structure I made. I didn't use that one, but I still kept it, in case I wanted to bend it into something else. I just used acrylic rod and a heat gun. I kept rolling the rod while I heated the area I wanted to bend (making sure it was hanging off the table). Once the rod started to sag, I knew it was hot enough to bend. When it was complete, I glued and epoxied rock rubble to the acrylic. That's it!

 

[biggles]

Hi Kasey, glad that you caught that alk goof quickly mate. It sounds like the initial spike did cause the corals to sulk and stop growing and you turning the normal dose back on resulted in a further rise due to the slower uptake of alk by the sulky corals which then got sulkier as levels rose and on and on...... never ceases to amaze me how such little things can have drastic consequences on your reef, you really don't get away with much when you keep SPS dominant systems - we're all one goof away from disaster i think lol.
I think the ATS idea sounds good and it's the method i'd use if i ever added enough nutrients to actually get a reading lol - i am going to start adding fish so i'll be watching your build if you go down that route :thumbsup:
On the LED switch i might wait to hear of this new idea before commenting...cough, don't do it, cough cough.:reading:

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks, I'm really glad I caught it. The corals are still spreading their bases, so I'm happy.

I made a few changes with the rock positions. I wanted to provide more flow to a few pieces, while restricting flow to others.

How long do you wait to add fish? I used to add fish last, after I added most of the corals I wanted and let them establish. Somehow I got away from that, although right now, I only have 2 small fish. Anyway, I was curious to know how you go about on deciding when to add things. Is there a particular timeline?

As far as the LED fixture goes, it's kind of a pet project. I want it to have the look and feel of a metal halide setup, but I want it to have the low temp, custom spectrum, and low power cost that LED's offer (minus the unnecessary frills like clouds, lightning, and other things that add to the cost). In this sense, it's a type of hybrid, a reminder of the original but definitely newer tech. It's still in the design phase. I'm hoping to have a working prototype by the end of the summer.

That being said, I'll be testing the fixture for a while before I decide whether I'll use it. I have high hopes, and this is from someone that gave up on LED's for a while.

 

[biggles]

Hey Kasey, if i could control myself ideally i'd wait about 6 months at which point i'd have most of the tank fully stocked with SPS but i never make it past about 3 months lol. I like the tremendous advantage afforded once the algae cycle kicks in to stop all nutrient additions and starve/skim the tank clean. I really think new reefers would have a much easier time of their first cycling experience if they held off on adding fish for the first 3 months and then added them slowly rather than fully stocked over 3-6 months. I add one about every 4-6 months lol. Seriously though, i'is a good approach that isn't considered by most but it would alleviate a lot of the stress both the reefer and the tank inhabitants end up going through in their first reef adventure in many cases.
No fish, feed the tank nothing once algae shows - RO only. Skim wet to remove the dying algae before it rots and returns to the cycle chain and after a few weeks you will see it less and less until you completely break its back. I also run carbon to remove the coloration from the water the algae causes and GFO until i have exhausted it from the water. Very simple and drama free every time. :thumbsup: I added acros after one month so i had to run full lighting which didn't help but most don't take this faster approach lol nor do i recommend it unless you have lots of experience with SPS so little or no lighting at times will speed up the initial algae/nutrient removal.
I'm looking forward to your LED project Kasey as i too want to get a working LED system over my sump frag tank, the blue/white one isn't cutting it as i've had it for months now with ordinary results. I'm also tossing up whether to change the 250W Radium for a 400W or add some LED's either side of the halide in between the T5's to boost the tanks end lighting so they would have to be DIY i think. I am convinced that the lack of overlapping spread of individual LED bulbs causing a difference as to spectrum received by individual corals throughout the tank is leading to many of the issues being experienced by reefers. I think 100 mixed spectrum LED's run at 50% is way better than 50 run at 100% over the same area if you get my meaning.
Looking forward to more updates (and pics) mate :thumbsup:

 

[Charley Diesing]

update?

 

[kaserpick]

I'm sorry guys! I missed that anyone responded to my thread!

I have some nice updates, but they'll have to wait for the weekend. My work schedule is crazy for the next 2 nights. I'll make sure to post pics too. Thanks!

 

[biggles]

I'm sorry guys! I missed that anyone responded to my thread!

I have some nice updates, but they'll have to wait for the weekend. My work schedule is crazy for the next 2 nights. I'll make sure to post pics too. Thanks!

Just tell work there's a guy from Aus that's waiting for an update and pics and he gets very grumpy if your work causes delays - they'll prob let you go home early Kasey........:hmm2:

 

[kaserpick]

Just tell work there's a guy from Aus that's waiting for an update and pics and he gets very grumpy if your work causes delays - they'll prob let you go home early Kasey........:hmm2:

And here I am, home early!

...just kidding.

Biggles, I just wanted to say thanks for the info on how you add livestock to your tanks. I think that's a great approach; if more of us did that, there'd definitely be less headache when starting a tank. Rushing things really backs you up into a corner. Thanks again for the response!

!WARNING!

-Update Approaching-

 

[kaserpick]

The tank's been doing well. I stopped carbon & bacteria dosing. I've been doing at least 20% water changes for the past 3 weeks. Alkalinity is pretty stable at 8.3 dKH; at the moment, I'm just dosing kalkwasser. Since I've let the alkalinity drop to its current level, it seems that the corals have started to grow more. Whether it's from the current alkalinity level or more frequent water changes, I can't say, but I can say that the tank seems pretty happy. I'm still battling a bit of hair algae. Despite that, the colors are the corals are getting more rich, especially since I've stopped dosing carbon and bacteria.

The biggest news is that I'm currently building a light fixture. I have most of the housing done most of the other components in hand. I plan to be done with it within the next 2 months. My Radium bulb will be at almost 9 months, so the transition will be almost perfect. Originally, I was designing a light that was only LED's, but this fixture utilizes LED's and T5's. It'll be 4 T5's and only 14 LED's. It's a prototype, so I'm more or less testing my ability to make something that looks great and function very well.

Here's some pics of the tank!

I broke out the Nikon D60 manual. I've owned this camera for a while, but haven't read much on the settings (yeah kind of a waste). Anyway, these pics were shot RAW without touchups, so please be kind. The focus isn't amazing, but I'm pretty happy with the colors.

 

[kaserpick]

 

[kaserpick]

 

[biggles]

Wow Kasey, you weren't kidding mate - now that's what i call an update ( lots of nice pics ) :thumbsup:
Reef is looking great and the corals all look to be getting on with encrusting and growing. Despite the blue over the pics i can tell everything is colorful and not washed out. It looks like you're seeing some nice rich colors there mate. I'd pinch your clam given half a chance........
I'm sure you'll see that GHA clear up pretty quickly once the bacteria levels in the rock increase to take up the slack of the witch doctor dosing thing you were doing. I always like to see a very small amount of brown hair algae somewhere in the tank otherwise i know i'm bottoming out the phos and nitrates too much. If i don't have to clean the front glass of brown algae at least once every third day that's another good indicator that the water is too sterile. Obviously it works in reverse when building up coral food levels the increase in brown algae let me know the bio filtration needed to catch up with the added nutrient levelks present in the water. Sorry for rambling on lol, i know you know all this stuff but just wanted to share the info as to how algae and your eyes are better sometimes than any test kit when judging the health of your tank
The reef's been wet for 6 months now i think hasn't it mate, i'll be surprised if the green algae isn't replaced with brown over the next month or so and you see the tank 'click' into place so to speak. I know there's lots of debate about when a tank is mature enough and settled etc but i definitely think that things get better for the SPS when that fine brown algae appears in place of the GHA. Shoot, i'm rambling on your journal again.......
What food and types are going into the tank each day and how many fish are in there atm if i can ask. I had a very annoying red wire algae problem, i mean i had to use needle nose pliers to pull it from the rocks lol. Finally got a yellow tang a week ago and today i thought i'd see if he had touched any of it - it's all gone :dance:

I'm actually relieved to read you're going to create a T5/LED hybrid rather than going with just LED's. I'm really interested in the idea and will be waiting for some in depth details ( with pics ). Do you think you'll be able to overlap the two different light spreads to get a good mix of the LED and T5 output spectrums as i think that's what the ATI hybrids have aimed for unless i'm wrong - frequently am. :beer:

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks Biggles!
I'm finally pretty happy with the colors. I've still got some that are brown, but what're you going to do? I think if I continue on with the frequent water changes and heavy skimming, the outcome will continue to be on the up. I can't help wondering how far things might have been if I had stopped the dosing from the beginning. Lesson learned.

That clam was in my care for at least a year. Then I gave it to a friend when I moved; he kept it for a couple years. Last year he offered it back to me, since my nano was doing ok. It's been about 4-5 years since I bought it. Always makes me happy when I look and see a new white ring of growth on the shell. Thanks for the compliment!

You are correct; the tank hit 6 months this past 19th. I'm hoping to see that GHA whittling away soon. You're right about the film algae on the glass. I never mind being reminded of things like this, because honestly, I've forgotten a good deal of it. I changed my husbandry away from simple tried and true methods when bacteria dosing hit. Kind of got lost. It takes about 4-5 days for me to see algae on the glass. I used to see it only after a few weeks. I hope your right about the tank 'clicking' into place. That would be awesome.

Currently, I feed spectrum pellets 2-3 times a day, making sure the fish eat all of it. Those fish include: 1 Ocellaris clown, 1 common Firefish, and 3 blue/green Chromis. I've thought about adding a Tang of sorts, but my luck with fish is terrible. :lmao: I bet that yellow tang is nice. Their color alone brings some 'pop' to a tank, not to mention they're active swimmers. Glad to hear he squashed that wire algae! :thumbsup: I've experienced that stuff in the past; it's tough to beat.

I'm stoked about this light. Here's the plan right now:

The light will be aluminum, but skinned in carbon fibre. The fans will be neon green; currently I have two 92mm ones that put out about 40 CFM each. The LEDs will be in the middle (similar to the ATI hybrid), with the T5's on both side. The T5’s will be angled in at 10 degrees (unlike ATI) to mix the spectrums fully.

 

[kaserpick]

Sorry, had to stop typing. My wife made breakfast.

I'm planning on the T5's being 2 Blue Plus and 2 Coral Plus. The LEDs are a mixture of blue, royal blue, cyan, green, and UV purple. I'm leaving my options open for more colors of LEDs, but will try this first. I think LEDs are great in the blue spectrum but lacking in the white area. That's why I'm using Coral Plus T5's. But again, this is a prototype. I may the LEDs to full spectrum and the T5's to blues and purple. Pics to come!

Here's a before and after (6 months difference):

Never worry about 'rambling' (which I don't think you are); I enjoy the input. Thanks again! :thumbsup:

 

[mark54321]

Tank is looking very good Kasey, keep it up!

 

[kaserpick]

Tank is looking very good Kasey, keep it up!

Thanks Mark! I will do my best.