My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[DiscusHeckel]

Enjoy your vacation Bulent, sounds like a solid plan, look forward to seeing your return Glad to hear the Setosa is recovering
Cheers!

Cheers Perry. I came back two days ago. My family and I had a good break. The weather was too hot though (41C at times). My neighbour looked after my tank really well.

Well well well, come half way round the world and stumble across someone's tank from ten minutes down the road. Love your tank bülent.

We need to meet up at some point.

Beautiful update Bulent, so happy to see you posting your tank again. :beer:

Thank you.

Corals looks excellent. Good to see the recovery on the setosa.

The setosa has recovered.

Glad the setosa recovered! I just looks at the pics from July, fantastic. How about some August pics?

Cheers. Here are some pictures I took a few hours ago after a big clean up and water change:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

As I said above, the setosa has recovered. My action plan appears to have worked:

2nd July 2016

11th July 2016

[/QUOTE]

12th August 2016

 

[Johnyman]

Glad to see the setosa full recovered!! By the way, did you know what was the issue after all?

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[DiscusHeckel]

Water test results as of 11th August 2016:

NO3: 1-2.5 ppm (Salifert)
PO4: 0.046 mg/l (Elos High Sensitivity)
Mg: 1290 ppm (Salifert)
Salinity: Just under 35 ppt
KH: 7 dKH (Salifert)
Ca: 415 ppm (Salifert)
K: 400 ppm (Salifert)
Iodide: 0.03-0.06 (it is more like 0.04) (Salifert)
Iodate + molecular iodine > 0.03 (it is more like 0.04.

Moreover, I am beginning to replace my tubes tomorrow morning. I am going to consider two alternative combinations.

The current combination: front blue+ coral+ actinic abs purple+ blue+ coral+ blue+ back I am really happy with this combination.

First alternative: front blue+ coral+ blue+ abs purple+ blue+ coral+ blue+ back This should give rise to faster coral growth.

Second alternative: front blue+ coral+ blue+ blue+ purple+ blue+ coral+ blue+ back It will be interesting to see whether or not this combination will promote reflective colours. I have no doubt that fluorescent pigments will look great.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Glad to see the setosa full recovered!! By the way, did you know what was the issue after all?

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Thank you.

I shortlisted a few causes a while ago (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24624419&postcount=690). There may a single cause or multiple interrelated causes. I may never know.

 

[Johnyman]

Yep, I read that post but I was asking if you suspicious from anything specific from that shortlist.

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[DiscusHeckel]

Yep, I read that post but I was asking if you suspicious from anything specific from that shortlist.

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I was particularly suspicious of bacteria due to overdosing of Tropic Marin NP-Bacto-Balance and KZ ZEObak.

 

[Big E]

Those first two shots are outstanding:thumbsup:

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Bulent, your tank continues to look fantastic.
Your two semi fts truly are outstanding. The colours are so rich, varied and absolutely spot on.
You are in top form!!
Those added blue+ are going to be a feast for your eyes

 

[reefmutt]

It has been a while since I last posted as I do not spend much time on here lately. Here are some photos I took a few days ago:

My current dosing regimen:

Tropic Marin Bacto Balance: 1.6 ml per day
K[SUP]+[/SUP]: 0 ml
A[SUP]-[/SUP]: 2.5 ml per day
KZ Sponge Power: 2.5 drops per day (maximum dose) (i.e. 2 and 3 drops in alternate days).

Latest test results:

KH: 7.65 dKH
Ca: 415 ppm
Mg: 1360 ppm

Bulent, I just have to tell you how in awe I am of the colour on your ice/fire.
Sublime.

 

[plyle02]

Bulent,
Your deep water acros have a sheen, like they glow, just amazing, I am speaking of the ice fire, and that presumably granulosa or lokani, absolutely colorful man! To see that saturated blue acro with the purple monti shows how amazing your colors are, OUTSTANDING

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Those first two shots are outstanding:thumbsup:

Thank you for your praise Ed. This means a lot to me.

Hey Bulent, your tank continues to look fantastic.
Your two semi fts truly are outstanding. The colours are so rich, varied and absolutely spot on.
You are in top form!!
Those added blue+ are going to be a feast for your eyes

Thank you for your praise Matt. I appreciate it very much. I need to invest on a tripod for my cheap digital camera as I was told that some of my images lack focus. I did not notice this before but after a close inspection I agreed with this feedback.

I began tube replacement last night, which was a nightmare. I could not take some of the tubes while the unit was still hung. So, I had to remove the whole unit. I then mixed up one of the old Blue+ tubes with the new one. I could not decided if I reinstalled an old tube instead of a new one. I was not impressed with myself. I had to use my Apogee sensor to measure PAR values of the suspected tubes. In the end it was obvious which Blue+ was old. I replaced four tubes and I will order another four from Germany today. I am included to use the first alternative combination I suggested in my previous post, so that I can determine whether or not the Actinic tube was the culprit that gave the green sheen on my Acropora granulosa.

Bulent, I just have to tell you how in awe I am of the colour on your ice/fire.
Sublime.

Thank you again Matt. I need to be careful with this coral as it is sitting on top of my purple plate (M. monaseriata) on a small rock. I have noticed that the montipora started to encrust the rock and started to touch lower branches of my ice/fire. It seems that these branches died off. I hoped that the montipora would die on contact, but the opposite happened. I will have to take some drastic action to stop the montipora's advance on this coral.

Bulent,
Your deep water acros have a sheen, like they glow, just amazing, I am speaking of the ice fire, and that presumably granulosa or lokani, absolutely colorful man! To see that saturated blue acro with the purple monti shows how amazing your colors are, OUTSTANDING

Thank you Perry. I am trying hard to keep up with you, advanced reefers who are obsessed with coral colouration, on this forum. All of you who contribute to my thread have influenced me in a very positive way. So, I thank you for that.

By the way, I have a surprise for you, but you need to be patient. It will be revealed soon.

 

[kainic]

Hi Bulent,

I'm interested in TM NP Bacto Balance. Are you still dosing it? What would be your recommended dosing schedule to start with it in a 300l net volume tank? To me it seems to be the safest of all nitrate reducing products over there (if not overdosed).

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Bulent,

I'm interested in TM NP Bacto Balance. Are you still dosing it? What would be your recommended dosing schedule to start with it in a 300l net volume tank? To me it seems to be the safest of all nitrate reducing products over there (if not overdosed).

Greetings (Salutacions) Serci,

Yes, I am. I agree with you that the product is quite novel in that it does not appear to be suffering from the main drawback of vsv dosing, i.e. eventual nitrogen limitation and inevitable rise in phosphates.

In the light of growing empirical data coming from the hobbyists like us, Tropic Marin modified their recommended maximum dosages. Here are the latest recommendations:

New and young tanks (0-1 years): up to 0.25 ml per 100 l tank volume
Medium age tanks (1-2 years): up to 0.5 ml per 100 l tank volume
Matured tanks (> 2 years): up to 1 ml per 100 l tank volume

Please let me know how old your tank is, so that I can make a specific recommendation for starting dose.

Cheers

Bülent

 

[kainic]

It's 10 months old. Should I stick to TM recommended doses? Should I increase the dose every 2 weeks?

 

[DiscusHeckel]

It's 10 months old. Should I stick to TM recommended doses? Should I increase the dose every 2 weeks?

Let's treat your tank as a medium age tank, which means that the maximum daily dose will be 1.5 ml. Herr Hans Werner-Balling states that most aquarists see positive results when dosing reaches half the recommended maximum dose. I agree with him. In your case, when you get to 0.75 ml you should see positive changes, and then you start to tinker at the edges. I do not think that you will ever need to dose 1.5 ml daily ever.

My recommendation is as follows:

Start with 0.3 ml daily. After two weeks, increase the dose by 0.1 ml per day, i.e. 0.4 ml per day. Then carry on doing that until you reach daily dose of 0.75 ml. After that take it from there.

For coloration and overall vitality, I would also recommend daily doing of Tropic Marin K+ and A- elements. Dose A- elements 3 ml daily (1 ml per 100 l). Bacto balance also contains K+ (on a ml by ml basis). So, for initial dose of 0.3 ml bacto balance and dose 2.7 ml K+ (next time dose 0.4 ml bacto balance and 2.6 ml K+ and so on).

I hope this helps.

Bülent

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Here are some photos I took a few hours ago. I have replaced four tubes already and will replace the remaining four within the next hour. In the current combination, actinic is replaced by Blue+. I have been using Tunze 6095 housings on my Tunze 6055 nanostream pumps. The flow has become so wide and powerful that I have had to reduce the pumps' voltage settings. Despite that I cannot stop sand moving about. In the second photo, the fish without eye is the only resplendent anthias. He lost his eye after infection. He must have knocked his eye to a sharp object while doing his courtship dancing around females. He can still do what he is best though...

 

[cFloor]

Tank looks epic! That setosa is something, love the growth pattern.

 

[reefmutt]

Bulent, you keep blowing me away with your tank photos.
The corals just look look so, so good.
Having seen many (many!) zeo tanks and AF tanks and all sorts of tanks in between, no nutrient management system has me more intrigued than your implementation of TM Bacto Balance.. Along with the trace supplements.
I just don't seem to be able get the products.. It is a system that is almost completely overlooked in Canada, it seems.
I am going to make some changes to my system which will probably take a few months and then, depending on the state of my system, I am going to try very hard to get the Tropic Marin products and give them a try.
You have really weilded the TM system with absolute precision.
Bravo!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Tank looks epic! That setosa is something, love the growth pattern.

Thanks a lot. Trying to take a full tank shot is a massive endeavour in my home office in which my tank is situated. Because my tank's close proximity to my desk I have to literally lie on the desk to take a good position. I also have to put a black cloth on the desk so that the reflection of objects on the desk won't show up in the photos.

I love my setosa. It was a tiny baby when I bought it April 2012, but grew fairly fast.