d3hree
New member
Sorry guys...I've been really busy with work...I will try and organise an update over the next few days
Matt's 5000ltr Display
- Thread starter d3hree
- Start date
Sorry guys...I've been really busy with work...I will try and organise an update over the next few days
d3hree
New member
Sorry for my lack of activity..I shall do my best to fill you guys in on the last few months.
Between January and April I was forced to work approx 150 hours per week. I had staff absences and illnesses and it is an extremely busy time for us when we are fully staffed.
As you can imagine working that much takes its toll and the tank was somewhat neglected.
Nothing was really happening with the tank anyways, most of the coral stock was wiped out with the great salinity incident of late 2013. The tank was young and hair algae reared its head and took over so in some ways i was grateful that work kept me away for 3 months.
I periodically swapped out the rowa and took care of pressing issues with the tank but on the whole it had to fend for itself with one frozen food feed per day and auto feeders feeding flakes and pellets.
A couple of weeks ago work eased up and I was able to actually sit infront of the tank and take stock of how it was performing.
Nitrates were at 3...alk hadnt altered and was a steady 9...p04 was 0.2...calc 420, mag 1440. I was pleasantly surprised if im honest.
During my absence I had to turn the skimmer off. One of the pumps was tripping the electrics and I just didnt have time to investigate further so those figures were with the tank running without a skimmer.
Also while I was busy with work one of the 1kw bulbs blew. I ordered a new one but had to wait as they are not considered stock items by anyone. I ordered the same kelvin but it was a different brand than I had been using.
When it arrived I simply installed it and went back to work. When I eventually got to see the bulb in action I soon realised my mistake. The different brand bulb was a very different colour rendition for the same kelvin and it was waay more powerful. What few corals I had that had survived the great salinity incident were fried by the new light.
I ordered two new blv 20k bulbs and waited for them to arrive.
It transpired that one of the skimmer pumps had a fault in the resin block. It was allowing water to come in contact with the electric feed…new skimmer recirc pump ordered and fitted now.
The new bulbs arrived and are now on the tank…but they came with their own issues. A couple of weeks ago I started to add a couple of colonies to the tank. All was well for a week but then the coral tips would die. No stn or rtn just white tips. The alk is very stable and is currently tested for twice a day using hanna checker. 8am it is 152 (8.664dkh) and 11pm it is 153 (8.721dkh) with such a large body of water all the elements are stable. I wondered if I had a contaminant of some kind and so began running carbon to see if that would help but coralline is growing well and other corals are un effected. I had loaned out my par meter and waited for its return so I could check the new blv bulbs.
When I finally got around to checking the bulbs I was very surprised to find that the new blv bulbs were 2x more powerful than the previous brand used. I was getting 350 par on the sand bed 5ft away from the lights. The couple of test colonies added were purchased from a LFS with 200/250 par and I thought I was placing them in around the same light based on the initial par readings. As it turned out I was adding them straight in at 600+ par!!...that’ll be why the tips were burning. Add to this now the skimmer is running I have 0 ppb phosphorous and very low nitrates. There are still a few algae spots in the tank so I know the phosphate reading is skewed somewhat but with such low nutrients you cant bake the corals.
So that’s where I am now. On weds I bought 23 colonies and they were dipped and rested in the frag tank for a couple of days. Yesterday I added them to the tank on the sand bed. I have raised the lights 6” and have reduced the light period down to 5 hours. Elevating the lights now means I get around 200 on the sand bed so I will have to see how the new colonies do. I am also trying to raise the nutrients with heavy feeds and I have turned off the phosphate reactor. If I continue to get stripped tips I will have to have a rethink, I don’t know what else it could be.
Some pics for you…as ever I apologise for my serious lack of photography skills.
Between January and April I was forced to work approx 150 hours per week. I had staff absences and illnesses and it is an extremely busy time for us when we are fully staffed.
As you can imagine working that much takes its toll and the tank was somewhat neglected.
Nothing was really happening with the tank anyways, most of the coral stock was wiped out with the great salinity incident of late 2013. The tank was young and hair algae reared its head and took over so in some ways i was grateful that work kept me away for 3 months.
I periodically swapped out the rowa and took care of pressing issues with the tank but on the whole it had to fend for itself with one frozen food feed per day and auto feeders feeding flakes and pellets.
A couple of weeks ago work eased up and I was able to actually sit infront of the tank and take stock of how it was performing.
Nitrates were at 3...alk hadnt altered and was a steady 9...p04 was 0.2...calc 420, mag 1440. I was pleasantly surprised if im honest.
During my absence I had to turn the skimmer off. One of the pumps was tripping the electrics and I just didnt have time to investigate further so those figures were with the tank running without a skimmer.
Also while I was busy with work one of the 1kw bulbs blew. I ordered a new one but had to wait as they are not considered stock items by anyone. I ordered the same kelvin but it was a different brand than I had been using.
When it arrived I simply installed it and went back to work. When I eventually got to see the bulb in action I soon realised my mistake. The different brand bulb was a very different colour rendition for the same kelvin and it was waay more powerful. What few corals I had that had survived the great salinity incident were fried by the new light.
I ordered two new blv 20k bulbs and waited for them to arrive.
It transpired that one of the skimmer pumps had a fault in the resin block. It was allowing water to come in contact with the electric feed…new skimmer recirc pump ordered and fitted now.
The new bulbs arrived and are now on the tank…but they came with their own issues. A couple of weeks ago I started to add a couple of colonies to the tank. All was well for a week but then the coral tips would die. No stn or rtn just white tips. The alk is very stable and is currently tested for twice a day using hanna checker. 8am it is 152 (8.664dkh) and 11pm it is 153 (8.721dkh) with such a large body of water all the elements are stable. I wondered if I had a contaminant of some kind and so began running carbon to see if that would help but coralline is growing well and other corals are un effected. I had loaned out my par meter and waited for its return so I could check the new blv bulbs.
When I finally got around to checking the bulbs I was very surprised to find that the new blv bulbs were 2x more powerful than the previous brand used. I was getting 350 par on the sand bed 5ft away from the lights. The couple of test colonies added were purchased from a LFS with 200/250 par and I thought I was placing them in around the same light based on the initial par readings. As it turned out I was adding them straight in at 600+ par!!...that’ll be why the tips were burning. Add to this now the skimmer is running I have 0 ppb phosphorous and very low nitrates. There are still a few algae spots in the tank so I know the phosphate reading is skewed somewhat but with such low nutrients you cant bake the corals.
So that’s where I am now. On weds I bought 23 colonies and they were dipped and rested in the frag tank for a couple of days. Yesterday I added them to the tank on the sand bed. I have raised the lights 6” and have reduced the light period down to 5 hours. Elevating the lights now means I get around 200 on the sand bed so I will have to see how the new colonies do. I am also trying to raise the nutrients with heavy feeds and I have turned off the phosphate reactor. If I continue to get stripped tips I will have to have a rethink, I don’t know what else it could be.
Some pics for you…as ever I apologise for my serious lack of photography skills.
muttley000
MTS Sufferer!
Looks great Matt, thanks for taking the time!
d3hree
New member
Thanks Reefocd.
That wrasse is a red head solon fairy wrasse / tricolour fairy wrasse from Indonesia. Heres some info http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1378+369&pcatid=369
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Great update and nice color you have going there.
NeverlosT
A bit fishy
Terrific work, great updates, compelling journey
Terrific work, great updates, compelling journey
Hello Matt,
I just stumbled upon this thread a few days ago, and slowly made it through in my spare moments. What a treat to have such an innovative and well documented build to learn about.
Your aquascape is terrific and the technical side of things is definite eye candy to an engineer like myself. Don't let the setbacks get you down, I started a new reef almost a year ago and went through a lot of the same growing pains, we learn and we try not to make the same mistakes twice. For the amount of work that you have in, and the myriad systems in question, just a handfull of issues is a great testament to your skill and attention to detail.
Keep it up, I am subscribing and will be excited to watch your progress. Make sure you get a comfy chair for in front of the tank to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Cheers from across the pond,
Ben
Terrific work, great updates, compelling journey
Hello Matt,
I just stumbled upon this thread a few days ago, and slowly made it through in my spare moments. What a treat to have such an innovative and well documented build to learn about.
Your aquascape is terrific and the technical side of things is definite eye candy to an engineer like myself. Don't let the setbacks get you down, I started a new reef almost a year ago and went through a lot of the same growing pains, we learn and we try not to make the same mistakes twice. For the amount of work that you have in, and the myriad systems in question, just a handfull of issues is a great testament to your skill and attention to detail.
Keep it up, I am subscribing and will be excited to watch your progress. Make sure you get a comfy chair for in front of the tank to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Cheers from across the pond,
Ben
hello Matt
i've read a lot, haven't really posted much, when i ran into this thread had to stop and carefully go through it, the attention to detail is second to non. im want to upgrade from my 120 to at least 300 us gallons and really like what can be done with playwood..
thanks for sharing.. very well done
i've read a lot, haven't really posted much, when i ran into this thread had to stop and carefully go through it, the attention to detail is second to non. im want to upgrade from my 120 to at least 300 us gallons and really like what can be done with playwood..
thanks for sharing.. very well done
wowkingjames
New member
Your tank is looking good, great thread.
d3hree
New member
Ben, thankyou very much for your kind words, glad to have you following
Thankyou noel...I very much enjoyed building the tank and the cost savings vs glass when you go really big are huge
Come on Matt its gotta be time for an update :O With Pictures of course
On its way Ash
No video as yet Dave...I will get to it soon I promise
Cheers James
d3hree
New member
Time for a looonngg overdue update, sorry for the lack of progress.
Ok, where to start...
Up untill about 2 weeks ago this tank was severely handing my *** to me, i couldnt keep an sps alive for love nor money. The symptoms were just tip burn, after that PE was still great, colours were still OK but the tips would be fried and over a month or so stn from tip downwards
I was running 1kw halides from the start with AFM Marine bulbs, getting about 170 par 5ft from the lights on the sand. All was good. Then I had a salinity swing which took out what few corals I had and one of the bulbs blew. I tried matching the kelvin with blv bulbs but couldnt get the colour temperatures to match so I opted to go entirely with blv bulbs.
The output from the blv bulbs was huge by comparison, what was previously 300par became 800 par and again I fried what few corals I had....and so it began, buy a coral, fry a coral, buy a coral, fry a coral...you get the idea. It didnt matter where I placed the coral the tips would burn after about 2 weeks and the coral would perish over a month.
Ok so the easy answer was to swap the 1kw ballasts for 400w ballasts and run 400w blv bulbs..right?...wrong.
Having swapped the 1kw replacing them with 400w I bought a couple of test colonies and placed them about halfway down the tank in around 180 par. 2 weeks later, burnt tips!!
The answer??...Iodine, a serious lack of iodine. Its obvious now...but I was so convinced the lights were at fault that I couldnt see the wood for the trees. Iodine quickly becomes depleated under intense lighting and to give you an idea I have over the last two weeks dosed 2 litres of salifert natural iodine and today finally got a reading of 0.06 mg/l which is where I want to be.
So, I have half a dozen frags that are doing well and feel that I can finally start stocking. I am still running the 400w blvs but plan on reverting back to the 1kw blvs so that i can have the sps dominated tank from the sand bed upwards as I intended from the start.
Here are some pics, sorry no fts as I was just playing with the macro lens. I will get around to doing some sort of video asap.
Ok, where to start...
Up untill about 2 weeks ago this tank was severely handing my *** to me, i couldnt keep an sps alive for love nor money. The symptoms were just tip burn, after that PE was still great, colours were still OK but the tips would be fried and over a month or so stn from tip downwards
I was running 1kw halides from the start with AFM Marine bulbs, getting about 170 par 5ft from the lights on the sand. All was good. Then I had a salinity swing which took out what few corals I had and one of the bulbs blew. I tried matching the kelvin with blv bulbs but couldnt get the colour temperatures to match so I opted to go entirely with blv bulbs.
The output from the blv bulbs was huge by comparison, what was previously 300par became 800 par and again I fried what few corals I had....and so it began, buy a coral, fry a coral, buy a coral, fry a coral...you get the idea. It didnt matter where I placed the coral the tips would burn after about 2 weeks and the coral would perish over a month.
Ok so the easy answer was to swap the 1kw ballasts for 400w ballasts and run 400w blv bulbs..right?...wrong.
Having swapped the 1kw replacing them with 400w I bought a couple of test colonies and placed them about halfway down the tank in around 180 par. 2 weeks later, burnt tips!!
The answer??...Iodine, a serious lack of iodine. Its obvious now...but I was so convinced the lights were at fault that I couldnt see the wood for the trees. Iodine quickly becomes depleated under intense lighting and to give you an idea I have over the last two weeks dosed 2 litres of salifert natural iodine and today finally got a reading of 0.06 mg/l which is where I want to be.
So, I have half a dozen frags that are doing well and feel that I can finally start stocking. I am still running the 400w blvs but plan on reverting back to the 1kw blvs so that i can have the sps dominated tank from the sand bed upwards as I intended from the start.
Here are some pics, sorry no fts as I was just playing with the macro lens. I will get around to doing some sort of video asap.
