My 1300 gallon addiction: A Miami reef build story.

Wow. What a setup. I to look at it but I'm glad it's u having to maintain it. That only looks fun for a couple months after that looks like work. U r a brave person to add corals that didn't go through qt on such a large system will be almost impossible to fix a pest problem. I hope I missed it and u did QT everything and not just dip it once or twice even.


How does the t5 and mh blend?


Awesome setup I will be following along.
 
Sorry for the delay in posting everyone, it's been a bit crazy with the job, home remodeling, and the wife and I preparing for our first child who should be arriving in the next 2 months or so.

The tank is coming along fine, the priority right now for me being stability and dialing in the doser. I added a pair of LED "China box" lights to the refugium and it's absolutely exploding the Cheato growth and out-competing both the display as well as the frag tank. The phosphates are steady at or just above zero, and the algae in the display is slowly diminishing. I think the "new tank" symptoms are on a downward trajectory and that's obviously a great thing. The alkalinity is stable between 9-10 as I'm dialing in the doser, and I've slowly been reducing the amount of alk I've been dosing nightly (currently 70ml). The calcium is locked in about 430 and so far I've have only dosed 10ml here and there. The magnesium has been the most stubborn and right now even by dosing 300ml nightly, it won't get over 1200. I adjusted the doser tonight to hit it with 400ml, so I'll retest again tomorrow and see where it's at.

Believe it or not, the general maintenance on this thing hasn't been bad at all, which I credit to both Pedro and my project planning, and his system design and setup. Besides replacing filter floss and cleaning skimmer weekly, and testing 2-3 times a week, there's not much I have to do.

Oh yeah, and I swapped out the Ushio 14k's or the 20k's, and thanks to Hector at Hydra, added the 4 remaining ATI bulbs to the T5 fixture. I gotta say, the combination looks great, especially with the 20k's! I've never been a super blue tank guy, and so I was worried the 20k's would be too much...but let me tell you, I think it's due to the 48" deep tank, but it's actually very natural looking while making the corals pop. The coloration is really great.

I also couldn't contain myself and have picked up numerous frags at Hydra, and they've been loving life so far.

Photos to be uploaded soon!
 
I'm really glad to see the tank is in the perfect home! Can't wait for more updates and the impending micro-reefer!
Congrats man!
 
Wow having to put your face in the tank when reaching in would worry me. Contamination both ways. Shampoo into the tank and palytoxins into your face. Haha. I've been poisoned by something in my tank and it was not an experience I ever want to relive.
 
I've only had to place my face inside the tank once so far, and it was due to me needing to pull a few pieces of hair algae off, which would've been difficult without the mask. Even when placing corals in I haven't needed to put more than hand in to control a pair of gripper arms. So far it hasn't been too crazy accessing the inside of the display.
 
Hey everyone, I have an issue, and wanted to ask if anyone had any advice.
I've been dosing 300-400ml daily of Magnesium for a couple of weeks and it hasnt budged from 1170. I tried ramping it up (starting 3 weeks ago) from 50, then 100, then 150, then 200, then 300, and finally 400ml per day, and no matter the dose, it's stuck at 1140-1170. I'm testing with Salifert kit each time and my other parameters have been/are as follows:

Salinity: 1.024/5
Alk: was 9.3 but I dosed it up to a max of 10.2. Currently 9.4
Calcium: 420-440
Ph: 8.2
Nitrate: 25/30ppm
Phosphate: undetectable
Temp: 78

What does everyone think?

Thanks.
 
It's a huge system. Have you figured out how much Mg solution it would take to raise your Mg levels to where you want them? I did a quick calculation using the BRS dosing calculator, and if you wanted to get up to 1350ppm you'd need to do a one-time dose of over 18L!

Bottom line is that 400ml a day is probably just not enough to actually increase to where you want your levels. In fact, that seems to be your maintenance level at this point.
 
Yeah, I've taken a look at this calculator, and even though I've only got a couple of years experience in the hobby and remain a complete novice, I cannot imagine a one-time dose of that size would be a good idea. I agree that maybe 400ml MIGHT be a daily maintenance dose at this point, but what's strange is two things: 1) that the MG level remained the same (between 1140-1170ppm) regardless of my dose, whether it was 50ml/day or 400/ml; and 2) that even though the system has a large volume, my "maintenance" dose for alkalinity is now around 40ml (where alkalinity is presumably being consumed at a higher rate than MG), and my calcium dose is 10ml/day, even with about 20 smaller sized SPS corals and a clam.

I definitely think having another test kit evaluate my water to get a baseline would be a good idea, although keeping in mind your theory that 400ml is the current MG maintenance dose...that may very well be on point.

Thanks!
 
I got it from a friend of mine who was breaking down a very large system. It's an impressive piece of equipment. I may not even need to run it on the system if I maintain a lower bio load, and maybe end up selling it at some point. It really is cool and its size makes it a sight to see when you walk into the fish room.
 
I'm certainly not recommending a single dosing of 18+L... that was just for reference. You'd need to break that up over a week most likely. I think it's best to avoid changes in Mg of 100ppm or more in any given day.

Try the salifert test kits... I really like those. I know some really like the nyos kits as well. Both come very highly recommended. If you end up getting a Ca reactor up and running at some point, you can include some Mg media and you'll be able to just let it run. I can't remember if you've decided to go that route...
 
Thanks for the advice. I haven't decided if I'm going to stick with dosing 2/3 part or eventually move towards the calcium reactor route...

As far as test kits go, I have always used Salifert and continue to do so. I'm going to have a LFS test the water tonight and see if it's kit related or if I need to readdress my dose.
 
DannyDJD said:
I got it from a friend of mine who was breaking down a very large system. It's an impressive piece of equipment. I may not even need to run it on the system if I maintain a lower bio load, and maybe end up selling it at some point. It really is cool and its size makes it a sight to see when you walk into the fish room.
Click to expand...

turn it into a sulfur reactor?
 
This is going g to be a really cool looking tank when it grows in some more. Looking forward to seeing it.
 
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