New custom DSA starphire tank ~ 450g

[ekovalsky]

New custom DSA starphire tank ~ 450g

Preliminary aquascaping is done courtesy of my wife. I've started dosing Microbacter7 too. Tomorrow I will start measuring nitrogen cycle parameters. Since this rock was all cured not sure how much of a cycle there will be... If I don't detect any ammonia within a few days I'll toss a peeled shrimp in to see how it is handled.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances I am hoping to add the substrate (special grade reef sand) next weekend.

The system is essentially silent, except for the hum of Dart when the closed loop is running. The submerged RODC skimmer pump and RedDragon RD3 speedy return pump are not audible. The gyres are only audible for the swooshing of the water when in wave mode. I have not installed the Vortechs yet but they are the latest QuietDrive version so expect them to be nearly inaudible too.

I have the GHL Profilux and Mitras configured and running in the next room. I'll transfer them to the fish room this week. Setup is pretty involved but it's very robust and powerful system once it is programmed.

Once I detect any nitrate and phosphate I will start adding NP A-I-O biopellets immediately. They will go in a full size minimax that will sit in the overflow, with output directed to siphon drain supplying the skimmer. I'll start with a tiny bit ~ 250 cc and add more as the bioload demands. I'll change out the standard Innovative Marine pump for a stronger one, based on how the tumbling looks.

I'm using Red Sea Coral Pro salt which has fairly high dKh and an Avast Kalk stirrer on the ATO (no kalk added yet since there is no livestock). I will monitor alkalinity and either fire up a calcium reactor or start dosing B-ionic when necessary - which will probably be many months.

 

[ekovalsky]

Rock has been in for eight days now. I've dosed daily with Microbacter7 and also started running a small amount of NP AIO biopellets in a Minimax full size that I've placed in the overflow, right over the skimmer siphon drain. My goal is to avoid the heavy bacterial films/sheets in the DT that I previously had with Vodka dosing, and the daily maintenance associated with Zeovit.

I've checked various parameters and have not yet seen much of a 'nitrogen cycle' - no ammonia or nitrite detectable but ~ 5ppm nitrate. Since it was all fully cured live rock from LFS (only life I've seen is a couple of < 1 cm worms) the usual ammonia then nitrite spikes may not occur. Some diatom film has of course formed. With all the flow in the DT from the Gyres, closed loop, and Vortechs, most of it is nicely settling into the sump or overflow where I can easily vacuum it out. I have the flow in the tank setup where all the detritus accumulates in the middle of the tank rear, where I can easily suck it out using a Python, from the fish room. I'm hoping this will make less work of maintaining the shallow sand bed. I have 200 lbs of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes on hand for that, once I am confident the primary cycling of the LR is complete.

Alas at least some of the LR is leaching quite a bit of phosphate, I am registering 1-2ppm on the Salifert test. And yes only RO/DI water with 000 reading was used for the fill. Since there are neither animals nor substrate yet in the tank, I have started daily dosing of lanthanum chloride via slow drip. The drip goes into the overflow right above the siphon drain to the skimmer. Each dose should be enough to drop the PO4 in 500 gallons about 1ppm; however, I am expecting to need numerous treatments since the PO4 equilibriates between the rock and water (hence why I'm not bothering trying to handle it just with water changes, I don't think they would be very effective). With this slow drip technique, the skimmer seems to capture most of the precipitate - the skimmate has turned whitish and I only see a minimum amount of precipitate film in the DT.

I am carefully monitoring pH and alkalinity, since lanthanum ions can precipitate carbonate as well as phosphate. But it seems to have a much higher affinity for phosphate - there has been almost no change in dKH yet, tested 12 hours after the first dose. I've read that it can drop alkalinity quite a bit, but maybe that only happens when dumping in a full dose where the concentration of LCl rises too fast ? I have set up my ATO with kalk stirrer so that should help maintain alkalinity if it does drop some; if necessary I will dose to bring it back up.

Once the substrate goes in and I start adding animals, I will try to manage PO4 with bacteria/carbon dosing (starting off with NP AIO Biopellets) and GFO. I think the biologic use ratio of N is about 16:1 so this time around I'm going to aggressively manage phosphate and not worry so much about nitrate, it is a lot easier to manage via carbon dosing and water changes.

I finally got GHL controller up and running, after staging in the game room where I had more room to play around with it, and will be moving the light rack in this weekend. I'm not sure if I should start running the lights to allow algae to grow with the existing nutrients in the system and then try to remove it, or keep the tank in mostly dark until the nutrients are very low, minimizing any algae blooms. Any suggestions on that ?

On Tuesday, I'm picking up a pair of 105g Norwesco vertical storage tanks and will set up a automatic water change system with those. I already have a 35g horizontal tank under the stand which holds RO/DI for ATO. I am using an Aqualifter to pump RO/DI from the tank through a Avast kalk stirrer, and it should last a long time with minimal head and only RO/DI running through it. But I might upgrade to a more robust Litermeter peristaltic pump anyway.

I'm still organizing the fish room and will post photos of it when it is more complete. It is a relatively small exterior/pool bath that I gutted. In the future I may expand via an addition, putting a new exterior bath behind it. I'd really like to have room for fish QT & hospital tanks, invert QT tank, frag tank, etc. The space I have now is adequate - and I feel fortunate to have a 'fish room' at all - but its really cramped.

 

[scubadan206]

One question and one comment...
Regarding your old tank, how does it have and acrylic eurobrace on a glass tank? You can't silicone the two together.
I have heard about bacterial problems on tanks that run bio pellets with a minimal to non-existent bioload. The bacteria you want to grow needs a constant source of nutrients. The bacteria also processes nitrites better than nitrates. Skipping from nitrite right to nitrogen. If you have nothing to fuel the full process you risk a bacterial bloom that will be difficult to remove.
I would wait until you have an actual need for carbon based nutrient removal.
love the setup. It will be awesome when mature.
Daniel.

 

[ekovalsky]

Hi Daniel, the brace is actually glass with a piece of acrylic or some other plastic underneath it. A ridge was left where the two come together which is perfect for a screen cover, important since I plan on keeping some jumpers and escape artists (bluespot jawfish, fairy wrasses, zebra moray). Tom Hudson the tank designer, formerly with AGA and now with DSA, seems to know how to secure acrylic to glass although typically you are right in that they do not bond together; my old tank from AGA did have a full acrylic perimeter brace and I never had problems with it. I read there were issues with a few AGA tanks in systems with MH lighting in enclosed canopies, so the attachment method may have been vulnerable to significant het exposure; my old system had an exhaust vent which kept the temperature near room level. But apparently he now only does glass bracing, or glass-acrylic hybrid bracing like mine.

As far as the biopellets I just got a very tiny amount - about 250 cc - started for now, a small fraction of what the tank will likely need in the future. I will add more as the bioload justifies. Even though the rock was all cured there is still plenty of die-off/decay resulting in some nutrients in the water. They were out of balance, with P much higher than N from the calcium phosphate in the rock establishing an equilibrium with the new saltwater, which is why I'm aggressively treating it with LCl. So far I have dosed three times and the P:N ratio has dropped from 2:5 to about 1:15, which is near the point where normal biological processes should keep them in sync. My goal is to keep the nutrient levels under good control from the beginning, rather than try to chase them once they get very high. P is usually the trouble, as water changes are not so effective in reducing it, since the rock and substrate act as capacitors, compared to N, which is all in the water column.

 

[Socaltoaz]

Your tank is looking great! Congrats.

 

[scubadan206]

Mechanically, how are your biopellets working? I have tried several varieties and they all tend to float a bit too much. Currently I have the BRS one's. I'd say about 1/10 of them never want to sink. Regardless of the flow through the reactor I always have about 1 inch gummed up around the top screen.
I suppose I could reach in and separate the sinkers from the floaters... EEEWW

 

[ekovalsky]

Your tank is looking great! Congrats.

Thank you. Nice to finally get it going after a year!

Mechanically, how are your biopellets working? I have tried several varieties and they all tend to float a bit too much. Currently I have the BRS one's. I'd say about 1/10 of them never want to sink. Regardless of the flow through the reactor I always have about 1 inch gummed up around the top screen.
I suppose I could reach in and separate the sinkers from the floaters... EEEWW

I bought the NP All-in-One biopellets. They seem heavier and darker than most others I've seen but they are tumbling nicely with only a couple stuck near the top. I placed the reactor (an Innovative Marine MiniMax full size, pump is only 211gph) in the overflow right next to the siphon drain for the skimmer, so all biofilm escaping should get removed before it reaches the DT. Bacterioplankton does make a good food source for filter feeders and non-photosynthetic inverts - including some gorgonians, dendronephthya, etc - so ultimately I'll likely keep some biopellets in the overflow and some in the sump. Once the tank is matured it will likely need ~ 2.5L of biopellets, right now I'm only using 10% of that amount since there is minimal bioload.

On a good note, phosphate is down to about 0.1-0.25ppm (Salifert test) after three LCl administrations, which is a big improvement from 2-3ppm. The stuff definitely works. I may try to design/build a LCl reactor, using a dosing pump 5 micron filter socks, for regular use.

 

[ekovalsky]

Making progress in the fish room, here are a few pics.

Phosphate is pretty much gone, have had the lights on a couple days now and no significant algae growth yet. LPo4 precipitate did coat the glass and bottom but it comes right off... Going to clean everything off and blow off the rocks once the 5 micron socks arrive, then will put in the 200 lbs of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes.

 

[ekovalsky]

New custom DSA starphire tank ~ 450g

Picked these up today. Short term will be for RO/DI and mixed saltwater storage. Will eventually make a mixing station with an external pump, uniseals, and a bunch of valves.

Also picked up a 65g long tank and stand for $250 at Petsmart, to be set up as a permanent QT.

 

[nuxx]

Those look familiar

We use one for RODI and one for AWC water.

 

[ekovalsky]

Norwesco 105 verticals. I really should have gotten the 50 vertical which is 18" diameter and a bit shorter, but it would be cramped in my fish room with those already... so figured might as well be more cramped with 23" diameter tanks that have double the storage capacity. The 65 gallon QT tank and stand are going in there too. I need to keep my body fat in the single digit range otherwise I might lose access to my own fish room :hmm2:

 

[smklaw]

Where did you source the holding tanks?

 

[ekovalsky]

I got them locally from Ag Spray in Tempe. Luckily the two just barely fit into a BMW X5. For those local to the Phoenix, AZ area, they have a good variety of tanks in various sizes and shapes, from 35 up to probably 25,000+ gallons.

This week I set up a 65g quarantine tank (learned my lesson with parasites last time around) and have my 8" sohal tang in there. I had some sponges soaking in the display to prime the filter but am keeping a close eye on NH4 and will use Seachem Prime and do water changes as necessary. He's been in a holding tank at a local service company for the past 9 months. He was real fat and a perfect specimen when I broke down my previous setup, despite the tank being neglected for a long time. Now he is pretty skinny and has manifestations of HLLE. Hopefully being in the new tank and feeding him lots of algae with vitamins will clear it up over time. Once I confirm he isn't carrying any parasites he'll go into the display... needless to say he'd be among the last fish I'd prefer to put into there, but I just cannot keep him in a 65 gallon for very long. Hopefully with the large volume and lots of rock with hiding places, he won't pester the smaller fish I plan to add. If he does, he's fortunately easy to get into a trap and he'll temporarily go back into quarantine. There won't be any other acanthurus tangs (he'd likely kill them), and I will find a hippo and/or Vlamingi and/or unicorn that's bigger than him. Zebrasomas would be added as a school of 5 which should diffuse the aggression. I'd like a Kole or Chevron too - that might be problematic. Only other large fish planned will be a zebra eel that he'll ignore, and a pair of mento/crosshatch triggers, which generally are shipped as good size adults so they should not be a problem. Hopefully in his relatively old age (now about 9 years) he's mellowed out a bit - he definitely seems more shy after spending 9 months in jail!

 

[ekovalsky]

Today I used a pump to blow as much detritus/diatoms/algae off the rocks as possible, and cleaned the PVC bottom and tank sides. I had filter socks in place of course.

Then I added 200 lbs of Tropic Eden Reef flakes, six dry bags and one 'live' bag. The sand was pretty clean so I didn't bother washing it, as there is no livestock in the display and it didn't really matter if the water clouded. Water of course did cloud but is already starting to clear after a couple hours, I can already see the rocks. I highly recommend this sand, it is worth the few extra dollars over the ubiquitous CaribSea stuff... it is much cleaner, whiter, and ideal grain size for moderate to high flow tanks. I think only Premium Aquatics carries it here in USA, but they ship for free and I'm very glad I purchased it.

I forgot to turn off the skimmer pump so it overflowed, but the Reef Octopus is cleverly designed to cut off the air once the cup is full, and it worked nicely. And even though it's an external model, having it in the sump is an added layer of insurance. For the $850 or so I paid, it is an incredible skimmer! I never thought I'd use the DC pump control - who would want to cut down the air flow into their skimmer ? - but I was able to restart it at lower speed and keep the foam head manageable, while all the particular matter is still in the water column. So it can be useful

I'll post a photo of the tank once the water clears up a bit more.

My Sohal tang was not properly fed while in holding and was brought back with mild to moderate HLLE :mad2: I'm feeding him vitamin soaked algae sheets and hopefully that plus the new water will allow him to return to his normal gorgeous self. Even though the quarantine is 65g it's obviously way to small for an adult Sohal so he will go into the display pretty soon as long as he doesn't show any sign of parasitic disease; he may have to come out again for new fish additions, depending on how much of an *** he decides to be.

 

[ekovalsky]

Water clearing up quickly

Clean up crew mid week then first corals next weekend [emoji106]

 

[dave.m]

If you didn't pre-rinse the sand you may want to keep close tabs on nitrates and phosphates the first few weeks. Any organic materials in the fines will start to rot.

Dave.M

 

[ekovalsky]

I definitely will. I did plan on rinsing it, but after examining it with a loupe it seemed extremely clean.

Water is already crystal clear this morning.

 

[ekovalsky]

Clean up crew added this Wednesday, ordered from Reefcleaners. I got the 265g package with 'reef safe' hermits; many are pretty big - none seem to be the typical tiny red and blue legged ones, and the more obnoxious acting/looking ones will be relocated to the sump/refugium before I stock any smaller fish. I will replace with scarlet leg reef hermits, the ones with yellow eyes. Good things is the bigger ones seem to be snacking on the anticipated green hair algae that followed the diatoms.

A few Trochus snails seem to be dead or non-viable, but all the others got to work pretty quick. The fighting conch is pretty interesting, never had one before. There isn't much in the sand bed yet so need to figure out how to feed it.

 

[dave.m]

Flake food or pellets that land on the substrate will keep the conch and any nassarius snails happy.

Dave.M

 

[ekovalsky]

New custom DSA starphire tank ~ 450g

Photo update

You may notice the fish stocking is kind of reversed. This is out of necessity and intent... Had my 7 yr old Sohal who needed to go in ASAP as he developed HLLE in holding. Luckily as Sohals go he is pretty mellow and is mostly friendly with the smaller female naso already. The trigger is of course the boss, he has a girlfriend en route too.

The only other large fish I anticipate adding is a zebra eel. And a regal angel although they're more medium sized really.

A flame hawkish is going in next. Angels, anthias, blennies, and clownfish will follow in groups, after making it through quarantine, with mystery, leopard, and fairy wrasses and dragnets last. This should allow the pod population to get well established and support the fish that largely rely on them.