Pete's 110 build

[psteeleb]

amazing!!

thanks

Your continues to be one of my favorite tanks. Incredible. Do you have a summary of all your equipment somewhere?

What lighting do you use for your videos?

also, thanks

General description:
110g peninsula style with single end over flow mixed reef tank.
-Return Pump = Mag12 (also feeds Ca reactor and 2 TLF reactors)

-300 watt titanium heater with analog control (also hooked up to APEX digital)

- cooling = wall mart $15 fan controlled by APEX
- other air circulation; 3 case fans in hood, 1 case fan in stand

- skimmer = Avast CS1 with swabby - I clean this about once a month and empty the DIY skimmer collection container weekly

- additional circulation; Tunze Nano wavebox and 2 Maxi jet 900 w/ sure flow kits

- sump = 30g tank DIY dividers with skimmer section, refugium/DSB and pump return areas

Other Filtration:
macro algae, small deep sand bed (DSB), Lots of live rock
Carbon – changed monthly (maybe)
GFO – hardly ever change

lighting
42 - royal blue cree 3w LED's (XPE's and XRE's)
18 - cool white cree 3w LED's (XRE's)
2 - UV actinic whites 54w T5's
1 - Giesemann POWERCHROME 54w T5
1 - Korallen-Zucht Fiji Purple 54w T5

Lighting Schedule:
7:00 start 2 hour ramp up of 24 royal blue LED’s
9:00 start 2 hour ramp up of 18 royal blue LED’s
11:00 start 2 hour ramp up of 16 cool white LED’s
3:00 – 8:00 4 T5’s on
9:00 start 2 hour ramp down of 16 cool white LED’s
9:30 start 2 hour ramp down of 18 royal blue LED’s
11:00 start 2 hour ramp down of 24 royal blue LED’s

Typical parameters:
Salinity = 1.026
Temp = 79.5 – 80.5
Ph = 8.15 – 8.35
Alk = 8.6+ dkh
Ca = 450+
Mg = 1450
PO4 = undetectable
NO3 = at most 0.2

Daily Feeding:
8:00am dose phytoplankton
8:00pm feed pellets
8:15pm feed cyclopseze
8:30pm feed mysis and rotifers

Water changes - 10-15% every two to three weeks

dosing
GEO 18" Ca reactor modified, runs ~18 hours a day
TLF kalc reactor, runs 15 seconds every hour if pH below set point

ATO - Dual switch from Atotopoff.com from a 7 gallon garbage pail, I'll clean it once every 6 months

My videos and pictures are taken with a Sony HDR-XR-150 digital HD camcorder. Unless I state other wise most pictures and videos are taken with just the LED's on (both the blues and whites).

 

[mess7777]

Wow thanks for the info, that's outstanding. I have a similar size and it's great to see a tank like this to aspire to.

How do you keep your Mg that high, I don't see anything supplementing it?

 

[psteeleb]

Wow thanks for the info, that's outstanding. I have a similar size and it's great to see a tank like this to aspire to.

How do you keep your Mg that high, I don't see anything supplementing it?

glad you asked as I kind of fell out of a normal routine to check and dose Mg. I brought the levels up so high trying to fight of bryopsis I let it go a few months to let it drop back down.

I was using the TechM to battle the bryopsis and it kicked it pretty good but not entirely. Adding more LED's with the higher kelvin ratings took care of all my in tank algae issues.


here are some top down photos I took today - I think these are the first top downs I've taken of my 110

 

[psteeleb]

this chili peper coral was not doing much, I actually thought it may be on the way out but the last couple days it's been showing out some great polyp extension

not a very good picture as I was in a rush getting out the door but this was it the other morning

and a couple pictures from tonight as it was opening, pictures taken using a flash light with the blue LEDs at about 30%

and about 30 minutes later with it almost full open

 

[Taqpol]

Was it you and Drummer talking about why TechM is good for bryopsis? I think I remember someone said it might have been a potential contaminate (maybe even copper?) at such low doses that killed the algae. Under this hypothesis you had to raise your mag levels by a percentage, not just to 1600 ppm.

I ask because one of the many confounding factors that led to my hopefully temporary tank decline was me raising the tanks Mag to over 1600 ppm with Tech M when my salt was only averaging ~1100-1200 ppm. I can't bash the product based solely on horribly confusing anecdotal evidence, but I did want to hear what you had heard and whether or not it is prudent to use Tech M sparingly?

 

[goma]

Great tank! Very inspirational.

 

[psteeleb]

Was it you and Drummer talking about why TechM is good for bryopsis? I think I remember someone said it might have been a potential contaminate (maybe even copper?) at such low doses that killed the algae. Under this hypothesis you had to raise your mag levels by a percentage, not just to 1600 ppm.

I ask because one of the many confounding factors that led to my hopefully temporary tank decline was me raising the tanks Mag to over 1600 ppm with Tech M when my salt was only averaging ~1100-1200 ppm. I can't bash the product based solely on horribly confusing anecdotal evidence, but I did want to hear what you had heard and whether or not it is prudent to use Tech M sparingly?

I did talk about it here on my build log and posted to several other threads on my findings. After reading a lot on the use of elevated Mg to combat bryopsis I tried it. I brought my levels from 1400 to over 1700 and the results were minimal and all I killed was about 80% of my snails. So I started to pm and ask people that had sucess directly on what they used, for how long, what were their starting levels etc etc


What I first found out was a comon denominator on sucess was using TechM for elevating the levels where I was using Randy's recipe. I set off using TechM bringing my Mg levels from around 1500 to 1700 again with little success, so I raised it more and started seeing results around 1750 but htis also had impacts on my CuC and other crittters in the tank. I went back and checked my notes and found that the peak total level of Mg was not consistant when sucess was achieved, what was consistant was the amount of change using TechM. I believe the amount of change was around a 15% increase in Mg levels using TechM regardless of where you started.

I posted my findings and hypothesis on the main Bryopsis thread along with several others that seemed to be getting some attention. Randy, Boomer, Cliff and other key contributors over on the chemistry forum started supporting my findings and added that it must be an impurity in TechM rather then the Mg that was killing off the algea. I can't remember for sure but I think it was Cliff that suggested a potential impurity such as copper may be what is killing off the bryopsis, but I don't think it was ever proven one way or the other.

Since then I have recomended if battling bryopsis to lower Mg to around 1200 then raise it to ~1450 using TechM. This seems to do the trick without the loss of snails and added stress of elevated Mg levels

All that said the TechM did make a significant dent in the bryopsis but I didn't take it full course and let it linger. For a while I just continued to pull the longer stuff out during weekly maintenance. What finally did do the trick for me was adding more LED's with a higher kelven then the previous lighting. Now I'm on convinced that if you keep your light spectrum above 10k in the display and around 5-6500 in the fuge, all you undesired macros, cynos and dinos will stay in the fuge and out of the display.

 

[psteeleb]

Great tank! Very inspirational.

thanks Goma

here is a top down of a couple corals, picture was taken over the surface of the water (not using a photo box)

 

[Korrine]

definitely an inspiration! How about a FTS?

 

[psteeleb]

updated FTS video
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[syedjilani]

Nice Video... love the colors.

 

[psteeleb]

thanks SJ

not much to update:
my ca reactor feed line clogged again and my alk droped to about 5.5 in 3 days. I change the tubing to a non transparent in hoes the algea wont build up as fast. I think I'll do some research and see if I can program an alarm to some how trigger.

corals are all doing great and seem to be going through a growth spurt

I fed my harliquen shrimp pair the 4th starfish in about 3 months. The blue linkas last about a month but small chocolate chips only about 3-5 days. I find the pair will always sneek up on the star together but in single file (one will always go back to get the it's mate). The two will slowly walk up to the star swaying back and forth while waving their claws in a circular tumbling motion. Then they will turn the star over and drag it back into their cave.

 

[psteeleb]

I just ordered 3 blue linkas for my harlequin shrimp, a couple more gorgs and an acropora from Divers Den. Can't wait

That pair of harlequins can go through some stars, a decent sized blue linka may last 3-4 weeks and a small 3" chocolate chip only 3 days.

 

[89Foxbody]

Have you ever considered just amputating their legs and feeding them instead? Renewable food source and I'm sure preferable to being eaten alive.

 

[psteeleb]

Have you ever considered just amputating their legs and feeding them instead? Renewable food source and I'm sure preferable to being eaten alive.

I know people claim they do that and I tried with 3 chocolate chip stars but they consumed the legs way faster then they grew back. The linca's are larger and may they would work cutting off a leg but the cheap ones only last a few months in a reef aquarium anyway. There are other stars but they cost a bit more. I'm still experimenting, thanks for the feedback

 

[psteeleb]

video of the ozone and carbon reactor before they are installed under my tank stand

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[psteeleb]

here is a picure showing the placement of the 2 new reactors in my stand. In this picture are the new ozone and carbon reactor, behind them is the GEO Ca reactor and behind that is the TLF Kalc reactor

 

[psteeleb]

a video of the tank while feeding mysis shrimp

I appologize for the glare on the back side as I forgot to close the canopy
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[TheFishTeen]

a video of the thank while feeding mysis shrimp

I appologize for the glare on the back side as I forgot to close the canopy
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Nice! I just found you thread, I have seen you post around but never seen your tank. In short, phenomenal!

 

[psteeleb]

thanks Kovy

here are the new corals acclimating

2 new gorgs - a deep purple/blue with yellow polyps and a resberry red with white polyps
both are clasified as Menella sp., I think this is the same as my orange gorg so I hope they do as well