My 47G Rimless T5/LED Hybrid SPS Tank

Hi Sahin,

Congrats on your excellent build...and your husbandry skills speak for themselves....

I am in process of a new build and your build thead has given me lots of insight and pointers which i am gonna keep in mind as my build progresses...

Hmmmm regarding the sand being used, seems there are two schools of thought here ....

This is a good topic for further discussion and maybe someone should do a study to find out if:
- live sand adds phosphates to the tank?
- whether bagged sand has a definite advantage over live sand?
- will rinsing bagged sand several times necessarily voids it of any phosphates or not?

Many have overlooked the possibility of phosphates being added to the tank via the sand being used....but guess we are not 100% sure if it is true,,,,

Good luck to ya and great reefing times....:thumbsup:

P.S. Please do take a look at my build, and welcoming suggestions from you please do rate....

:wavehand:
 
Hi Sahin,
I finally got a par meter ,MQ200, and did some measurement.
There are 3 48" T5 overdriven by ICE CAP.
Light array:
Front
Blue Plus -- new
Mixed cw, rb and nw (12 3W leds)
Purple Plus -- new
Rb (12 3W leds)
Blue Plus -- 4 months old

I have modified the cw strip so that now I have 6 royal blues, 3 neutral whites and 3 cool whites.
All leds have optics of 60 degrees.
The lights are 8" above water surface in a canopy.
The par values are not as good as yours but maybe good enough for my mix reef.
The par for 5" below lamps, above water is around 980 in the center.
2" below water surface is about 580.

PAR71611.jpg
 
Thanks for posting. Your tank is beautiful. Your PAR numbers are very very good. Excellent work on your build.

- from iPhone.
 
Love the tank, reminds me of Isla Escondido's old tank (only smaller). I look forward to seeing the progress!
 
clowndude said:
Hi Sahin,

Any updates on the tank? Would love to see some more pictures :)
Click to expand...

Hi there Nick, in answer to the above and your PM, here is the latest on my tank:

Dinoflagellates:

Thats right. Its made my tank very unisghtly. Looks ugly, and one or two corals are affected. The sand bed is completely ruined and its taking over the rocks too. The past few months or so I have been at battle with this and I am so frustrated.

I have over 10 years reefkeeping experiance. This is my 4th reef tank. I thought I could deal with anything reef related and always be the victor...

But no...:sad1:

I have tried the following:

1. Lights out for 7 days. It looked liked it all died...but it began to come back from death after a few days. My SPS turned pale, but none died.

2. Dosed Hydrogen Peroxide. I dosed much higher than others, but it wouldnt die. Caused some SPS to turn brown. :headwallblue:

3. I tried lights out again for 5 days. Didnt work.

4. I tried raising the pH to 8.4 like it says in Randys article. Didnt work.

5. I have zero nitrates and phosphates range around 0.019ppm (as measured by Hanna ULR meter).

6. I am running 500ml of Phosphate remover in a reactor.

7. I tried to run Chaeto in the sump...Dinos started to grow on the Chaeto. :headwalls:

I tried essentially all the usual things as well as reading Randys article and doing what I can from that. Nothing worked. I then doubted and thought maybe I have Cyanno and dosed Chemiclean (which I know from previous experiance that it does work very well with Cyanno).

Obviously the chemiclean didnt have any effect. So I then bought Fauna Marin Ultra Algae X, and dosed my first dose last night after getting proper instructions from Claude Schumacher (spelling?), the owner of Fauna Marin.

I have just got home from work and it looks like it might be working, but its too early to tell with any great confidence.

All of this has had a big impact on my SPS. Many are browned out. Others are just pale.

FWIW, even with over 10 years reefkeeping experiance, having dealt with AEFW's twice, regular flatworms, Cyanno, hair algae, etc etc etc, I have so far failed to put any significant longer term dent in the Dinoflagellates.

If the Ultra Algae X doesnt work, then I have to concede defeat, frag all my SPS above the base and restart the tank completely with new rocks and sand.

IF all goes well, and I can get the tank in good shape without having to restart the tank, I will post updated photos in 3 months time.
 
Last edited:
Hi Sahin,
So sorry to hear your problem with your tank. Don't give up. The reef tank is very resilient. With your experience, you will make it.
I can never get rid of my cyano either, which cover a little bit of my sand and a little area of my rock. But it is tolerable especially, if I skim very wet and feed less (like if I have 4-day short vacation away from home), the cyano reduce significantly. I know yours is not cyano but you shall overcome!

Cheer,
Bernie:wavehand:
 
Sorry to hear about that, Sahin. Like mentioned already, with your experience and patience, you'll beat it! Just keep at it, and try to keep things stable for the sake of your corals.
 
I am pleased to report that the Ultra Algae X has worked. This morning I cannot find traces of the Dinos even the dead bits that were stuck on one corals tips are gone. Tank looks wonderfully clean and the remaining sand looks very white.

I realise that the Dinos may reappear slightly but at least I know I can dose a bit more of the Ultra Algae X to deal with it.

FWIW I have realised that I am not even cleaning my glass in well over a week at a time, so the nutrient level in my tank must be very low. My Phosphate level hovers around 0.02ppm or lower.

Even though the inorganic phosphate test showed 0.02ppm for the past few months, I am certain that phosphorus was still present in high levels in the form bound organically.

Hopefully in the coming months the SPS will recover thier colours and I can be happy enough to post some photos. ;)
 
Hi Sahin, good news that to you are winning the battle. Just to let you know that I vanished all my dino's with silicate removal resins (use rowa), double dosage and clean up crew. Fill your tank with clean up crew, stop WC, check your RO/DI unit with silicate and phosphate test kits (or a good tds) and change rowa every two weeks. Dinoflagellates basically needs silicate in order to survive. A good skimmer is also important with these kind of algaes. Make sure your skimmer is sufficient and is working properly.

before you aks, pics will come as soon as I have a new camera! lol

best wishes
 
Rodrigo_BG said:
Hi Sahin, good news that to you are winning the battle. Just to let you know that I vanished all my dino's with silicate removal resins (use rowa), double dosage and clean up crew. Fill your tank with clean up crew, stop WC, check your RO/DI unit with silicate and phosphate test kits (or a good tds) and change rowa every two weeks. Dinoflagellates basically needs silicate in order to survive. A good skimmer is also important with these kind of algaes. Make sure your skimmer is sufficient and is working properly.

before you aks, pics will come as soon as I have a new camera! lol

best wishes
Click to expand...
Hi Sahin.. I'm gonna have to agree with Rodrigo, I had the same algae issue on my 115, and tried everything to get rid of it.. nothing worked.. turns out my RODI unit was shot.. I got me a new one about a week ago and just after 3 days of using its water the algae is dyeing off.. Good luck man, and keep us posted..
 
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