rjrobert
Premium Member
ok, Tank is about 3 years old. I'm always been thinking about moving from a relativly fish only tank (Just two Leathers) to a dense SPS and Plate Coral tank.
We'll I got a good start on the tank a few years ago and then just got busy with life and new kids so the tank stayed fish only.
I've decided a few months ago to change that so now I'm "refocusing" on the original intent.
I'll say the information and parameters I know. If their are paramaters I should figure out I'll have to hit the LFS to get test's.
System is seperated into 3 sections
120 Gallon AGA Display Tank
40 Gallan Sump
100 Gallon Rubbermaid Trough style Refug.
Lighting - about a month old (Changed from an 2x250W Aquaspacelight)
Display Tank
2x250W HW 14k 10am-8pm
4x65W PC Actinics 9am-9pm
2 IceCap LED Moonlights - Always on
Ref
2x55W PC 6500k 9pm-9am
2x55W PC Actinics 9pm-9am
Ref Lighting Schedule is opposite of the display tank
Parameters that I know (Or think I know)
Gravity 35ppm
Temp 81
Calc 410
Alk Recently droped from 4.5 to 1.26 Which doesn't seem right but I retested 3 times.
Fish
Small Yellow Tang
Decent Sized Salfin Tang
Engineering Goby
FlameAngel
One Clown
MacroAlgae
- ALOT -
In the Ref I purposly grow Chaeto. Been growing it for 2 years. I have alot of it. In the display tank I recently (Last 4 months or so) have seen a very rapid growth of other forms of MacroAlgae
Since I haven't had much coral I've left it in since it looked interesting. That and the tangs seem to pick on it alot - so I'm assuming they are getting some nutrients from it.
I will probably tomorrow take out the two rocks that most of it is growing on and scrub it off to try and export some of it.
Flow
The display tank has most of it's flow from the Iwaki 100 which send the water up from the equipment room in the basement underneath the display tank. I estimage I am getting about 900 GPH. I also have 2 MaxiJet 1200's Which I estimate a combined rate of about 600GPH. So my total flow is about 1500GPH or about 13x turnover
For SPS I've heard that your really need to get into the 30-40x so I'm thinking of adding a Tunze Stream 6100 and take out the two MaxiJets so My total estimated Flow will be 4070GPH or about 34x Turnover.
Is the water flow as simple as that? Wouldn't their be dead spots or wouldn't the coral only be getting "fed" from one side? I I looked into the wave box from Tunze but I don't think I want the aethstetics or logical issues with creating an actual wave in the tank.
DSB
The DSB in the Ref is about 2 years old so their is probably going to be a suggestion to change it. Which will be easy since it is in a sperated environment complete with gate valves.
I have no Coraline growth in the tank at all - Which I think is a little wierd since my Cal level has hovered around 410.
Water Changes
I change about 40 Gallons every weekend
add about 3 gallons a day of evaporated with RODI
About 3 months ago I changed the protein skimmer to a really good on and put it inline with the overflows. Since I did that I get outstaning output from the skimmer. So I think that is ok.
So my thought would be the next step is to increase the flow - try to determine what happened to the Alk a few weeks ago and then start slowly bringing in some Acro's to start with. But I am pretty concerned with the fact that I don't have any corline in the tank. I feel like that is telling me something....?
Thoughts, - Things I should determine before moving much further ahead?
Appreciate any feedback.. Been going through all the reefkeeping magazines trying to get re-caught up.
After I start getting the display tank and water params in check I plan on adding a Prop Tank to my setup in the basement.
Bob
We'll I got a good start on the tank a few years ago and then just got busy with life and new kids so the tank stayed fish only.
I've decided a few months ago to change that so now I'm "refocusing" on the original intent.
I'll say the information and parameters I know. If their are paramaters I should figure out I'll have to hit the LFS to get test's.
System is seperated into 3 sections
120 Gallon AGA Display Tank
40 Gallan Sump
100 Gallon Rubbermaid Trough style Refug.
Lighting - about a month old (Changed from an 2x250W Aquaspacelight)
Display Tank
2x250W HW 14k 10am-8pm
4x65W PC Actinics 9am-9pm
2 IceCap LED Moonlights - Always on
Ref
2x55W PC 6500k 9pm-9am
2x55W PC Actinics 9pm-9am
Ref Lighting Schedule is opposite of the display tank
Parameters that I know (Or think I know)
Gravity 35ppm
Temp 81
Calc 410
Alk Recently droped from 4.5 to 1.26 Which doesn't seem right but I retested 3 times.
Fish
Small Yellow Tang
Decent Sized Salfin Tang
Engineering Goby
FlameAngel
One Clown
MacroAlgae
- ALOT -
In the Ref I purposly grow Chaeto. Been growing it for 2 years. I have alot of it. In the display tank I recently (Last 4 months or so) have seen a very rapid growth of other forms of MacroAlgae
Since I haven't had much coral I've left it in since it looked interesting. That and the tangs seem to pick on it alot - so I'm assuming they are getting some nutrients from it.
I will probably tomorrow take out the two rocks that most of it is growing on and scrub it off to try and export some of it.
Flow
The display tank has most of it's flow from the Iwaki 100 which send the water up from the equipment room in the basement underneath the display tank. I estimage I am getting about 900 GPH. I also have 2 MaxiJet 1200's Which I estimate a combined rate of about 600GPH. So my total flow is about 1500GPH or about 13x turnover
For SPS I've heard that your really need to get into the 30-40x so I'm thinking of adding a Tunze Stream 6100 and take out the two MaxiJets so My total estimated Flow will be 4070GPH or about 34x Turnover.
Is the water flow as simple as that? Wouldn't their be dead spots or wouldn't the coral only be getting "fed" from one side? I I looked into the wave box from Tunze but I don't think I want the aethstetics or logical issues with creating an actual wave in the tank.
DSB
The DSB in the Ref is about 2 years old so their is probably going to be a suggestion to change it. Which will be easy since it is in a sperated environment complete with gate valves.
I have no Coraline growth in the tank at all - Which I think is a little wierd since my Cal level has hovered around 410.
Water Changes
I change about 40 Gallons every weekend
add about 3 gallons a day of evaporated with RODI
About 3 months ago I changed the protein skimmer to a really good on and put it inline with the overflows. Since I did that I get outstaning output from the skimmer. So I think that is ok.
So my thought would be the next step is to increase the flow - try to determine what happened to the Alk a few weeks ago and then start slowly bringing in some Acro's to start with. But I am pretty concerned with the fact that I don't have any corline in the tank. I feel like that is telling me something....?
Thoughts, - Things I should determine before moving much further ahead?
Appreciate any feedback.. Been going through all the reefkeeping magazines trying to get re-caught up.
After I start getting the display tank and water params in check I plan on adding a Prop Tank to my setup in the basement.
Bob
