making some adjustments on my sps tank

[tycoakley]

So my tank has hit its one year old mark this last month and with that im wanting to try out some new ideas that i have had in my head as of late. A little about my tank. I have a 95 wave sps dominate reef, couple nice colonies of lps and zoanthids. I have about 30 different sps corals ranging from frags to colonies and have seen some great results in the last year. I dose BRS two part, have a bubble magus nac7 skimmer, two mp40's and a refugium that grows chaeto. I run a single BRS reactor with GFO tumbling above some carbon. For my lights i run a coralife dual 150 watt HQI with phoenix 14k and dual 96 watt pc actinics. I had no issues with corals growth except one monitpora digitia and a green spongodes both died in the last month (due to low ALK). I have battled some algae growth from time to time but seems to come and go.

ca- 420
alk-8
mg-1350
ph 8.0-8-2
nitrates and phosphates aren't detectible but i know they are there from time to time


Let me know what you guys think about some of my ideas.

1- Change my HQI/PC light to a 8 bulbs tek t5 fixture that i have.
2- Reducing my sand bed from display from 3-4'' to 2''
3- Changing my GFO/Carbon reactor to Biopellets ( Not a fan of this reactor)
4- Changing to a Next reef reactor
5- Switching my skimmer to an aqua c ev 180 over driven with a mag 12 that i already have
6- Removing sand from refugium and just having chaeto

My tank is def thriving, but could def use some adjustments. As always.
Well this is the start of my bucket list. let me know what you guys think.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Sounds good in general though I would be curious about #3. Carbon dosing does something very different than carbon and gfo. What's your justification for that switch?

 

[AmherstReef]

I removed the sand bed from my refugium with no ill effects, cheato still growing strong

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Why are you making adjustments..what are you trying to achieve ..what's the problem?

 

[tycoakley]

I know whatthe difference between carbon dosing and carbon and GFO. I just want to use the reactor or a new one. As far as what im trying to acheive is a lower nutrient system. As far as the bigger skimmer and light. I figured why not!!!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

unless you have a specific reason for keeping it..... I would get rid of the litterbox... I mean sandbed... in the display.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

you topoff for evap with limewater (kalkwasser)?

 

[tycoakley]

Nope. I just dose two part for ca/ alk. Just rodi in the top off! Should i be using kalk as well and why?

 

[tycoakley]

I used to drip kalk at night on my tank for the 1st 6 months i had it set up and deciced to switch to two part. I def love using two part and have had a great deal of success with using it. Im going to do a nice water change tonight and start sucking out some sand in my display and all of it out of my sump. I think ill slowly remove it over a few weeks in my display with water changes since its not a old DSB. As for the light im def gonna give it a shot and see what happens, Worse case i can put the old light back on. I feel like i can get some awesome color out of my SPS with this t5 fixture. The reason i was going to use the bigger Aqua c ev 180 instead of the magus was due to maybe adding biopellets. I read that you want a bigger skimmer (go plus 1). Ive literally read at least 100 forums on the topic of Biopellets and seem to think that as long as i feed my coral and can keep my ALK stabalized and low i should be ok. Start with 1/3 of the recommended amount of biopellets and closely monitor the tank. Again worse case i take the reactor offline is there are any ill effects. I just wanted to see if anyone has had great success with biopellets on this forum or if any reef vets have made the switch. I know if it isnt broke dont fix it, but i also beleive that in this hobby we are always bombarded with new products and new ideas. In my 8 years in the hobby things have def changed a lot as im sure you all can attest. Well let me know what you guys think. Love the imput and thanks for the help guys.

 

[tycoakley]

some pics of my tank so i can show the difference between the two lights and update you all as i progress through my changes

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Just because one starts to use liquid two parts is no reason to discontinue using limewater to replace evap.
There's a good possibility your digitata would be alive and well today had you continued using kalk.

 

[tycoakley]

The thing is with kalk in top off (at least for me) is that while dosing two part and kalk the parameters can get too high if the top off unit is being used more from day to day. therefore not having stable water parameters? Unless i go back to dripping it which is a pain in the butt. So your telling me that you dose two part and use kalk in your top off unit?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I use two part, calcium reactor and limewater. Digi doesn't like a really "clean" environment. Tmz can maybe chime in with carbon dosing. I'm not a fan of it.

 

[tycoakley]

well what really happened with my digi was i snapped it off the rock while doing some stuff in my tank. Then after reglueing it to the rock it just RTN'ed and i lost it. Well i guess i may start using some kalk again. ill start with a smaller amount than i used to use and keep my eye on the CA and ALK for a couple weeks. gary what are your thoughts on using the tek t5 light instead of my coralife fixture?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

ironically enough... I have worked with that Coralife fixture and it can produce some wonderful light and great results. I've seen that t5 fixture in action and that one can produce some great results as well... so either one is fine IMO.

The BRS doser for evaporation is a good way to "drip" kalkwasser.

 

[tycoakley]

anyone using biopellets that would like to chime in about them.

 

[pascal32]

If things are well, no real need for change.


1- Change my HQI/PC light to a 8 bulbs tek t5 fixture that i have
T5 is nice for ability to change colors around. personally I have had great

success with halide and some success with T5. A lot of folks love teh T5 for SPS, have fun, and go slow - 8 T5s is a lot of light!

2- Reducing my sand bed from display from 3-4'' to 2''

soon it will all be gone

3- Changing my GFO/Carbon reactor to Biopellets ( Not a fan of this reactor)

if you have no nitrates I would shy away from carbon dosing. If anything consider vodka dosing [when your nitrates are rising]. personally I stay away, mostly because of TMZs comments that pellets are really sugar which isn't the greatest for reef tanks and require and extra layer of effort to break down (further down the chain than you want)

4- Changing to a Next reef reactor

these are awesome reactors, way nicer than the two little fishies ones. get two, one for GFO and one for Carbon

5- Switching my skimmer to an aqua c ev 180 over driven with a mag 12 that i already have

Why change the skimmer, you have a nice one? the Aqua-C takes way more power and is rated for a bigger tank than you have. I do believe there is such a thing as over skimming.

6- Removing sand from refugium and just having chaeto

yeah baby!

 

[tycoakley]

thanks Blurry for the great write up. Im def going to switch my light out and start it higher up and on a smaller light cycle. As for the pellets. I may hold off for now. I ordered 1000ml of the BRS bio pellets so i may just have to sell them on the FS forum. Im def going to switch the reactors out to next reefs. Im going to start getting ride of the sand as of tonight. thanks again.

 

[Flanders]

If you don't have detectable levels of nitrate and phosphate I'm not sure why you would want to start carbon dosing. Also I agree with Gary on resuming kalk for parameter stability.

Otherwise, if it's not broken don't fix it. The tank looks great.

 

[tmz]

These are my opinions and preferences; yours may vary ;

1- Change my HQI/PC light to a 8 bulbs tek t5 fixture that i have

I strongly prefer halides and vho actinic supplementation for my aquariums .

2- Reducing my sand bed from display from 3-4'' to 2''

Or less, you can keep some deeper pools of sand for animals you may wish to keep that need it . I keep some sand in most of my tanks ( 1/2 to 1 inch in most areas) for the beachy look and the extra surface area. It's easy to keep a shallow bed clean,ime and high flow can be acheived and managed to avoid blowing it around.


3- Changing my GFO/Carbon reactor to Biopellets ( Not a fan of this reactor)

Granulated activated carbon is a very good organics remover. If you plan to add more organics via organic carbon dosng ,granulated activated carbon is useful,ime.

GFO to address low PO4 levels may still be needed with organic carbon dosing as the bacterial activity in this process removes proportionately more nitrogen than inorganic phosphate relative to inputs in food etc. I've been dosing organic carbon( vodka an vinegar) for about 4 years and was able to reduce gfo use substantially early on. I was able to stop gfo entirely and maintain <.03ppm PO4 just 2 weeks ago.

Not a pellet fan. Monomers can be trouble . I prefer soluble organic( vinegar and /or vodka) . This thread may be of interest:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134105&highlight=organic+carbon+dosing


4- Changing to a Next reef reactor

No opinion.


5- Switching my skimmer to an aqua c ev 180 over driven with a mag 12 that i already have

No opinion on brand ;need realtively heavy skimming with carbon dosing



6- Removing sand from refugium and just having chaeto

Absolutely, sand under alge just makes a mess,ime