Matt Wilkie
New member
Hello just wondering what your guys input is on my tank setup and what changes need to be made. The tank has been up for 4 years, it originally started as a Zeovit tank but after starving my corals and battling Halimeda taking over all my rock work I just gave up. It's been fish only besides two plate corals, and relatively low stock of fish (only 5). I've been thinking about making some changes to help my success and get this reef started again. About a month ago I've started to have a lot of the algae die off so that's kind of what started all this, I think my rockwork had a lot of absorbed phosphates in it and finally my nutrient export has caught up. I will describe the system,
150Gallon display 48"x24"x30"
70 gallon sump
Vertex Alpha 200 protein skimmer
250ml of bio pellets in a TLF reactor (two weeks now)
2 x tunze 6105 on a 7095
Tunze wave box
Two metal halide with large reflectors
Galaxy selecta watt ballasts 250-400w I've ran radiums but I got 250watts in there now
4 t5 bulbs in retrofit fixtures
I have a vertex calcium reactor yet to setup bc I have no corals
Apex controller
Tunze ATO with RODI water
Snapper return pump
Refugium just got turned on again two weeks ago with a small ball of cheato
So the reason why I think the Halimeda won was bc I made the tank too hard to prune it back. The hood I have has the smallest window to basically only feed the fish and I made it such a pain to get the hood off that it became a chore to clean inside the tank. I've been thinking about ditching the hood and going with two Kessil 360w-e's with an open top. I think if I had more access to the top of the tank I'd be able to do more in there. I realize there's better led setups out there but I like the space and I can control em with my apex. I think my current lighting setup is aggressive compared to this but even tho I've had tanks for a long time I've been un successful for the most part in keeping a reef. I have to change my bulbs so this is one reason why I'm thinking about switching. Any input in the lighting change would be appreciated
I put the bio pellets on bc I'm not really a fan of daily dosing, im gonna keep the 250ml for a while to see how it goes. I'd like to keep things simple now after running the Zeovit system for 8 months and failing. It was too much and honestly I thought everything looked better when I just gave up and let things be.
I've also been thinking about adding more flow, I have the 12v resistor in my power heads bc they were turning up the sand. Been looking for some used tunzes to add not sure if 6105s or if I should get some cheaper nanostreams. Can they be used on a 7095?
My husbandry has been slack lately with no water changes and I haven't been running the halides for a while. I feed every other day right now. The two plates I have are happy and are growing but I know if I'm gonna be adding livestock im gonna have to up my game husbandry wise.
150Gallon display 48"x24"x30"
70 gallon sump
Vertex Alpha 200 protein skimmer
250ml of bio pellets in a TLF reactor (two weeks now)
2 x tunze 6105 on a 7095
Tunze wave box
Two metal halide with large reflectors
Galaxy selecta watt ballasts 250-400w I've ran radiums but I got 250watts in there now
4 t5 bulbs in retrofit fixtures
I have a vertex calcium reactor yet to setup bc I have no corals
Apex controller
Tunze ATO with RODI water
Snapper return pump
Refugium just got turned on again two weeks ago with a small ball of cheato
So the reason why I think the Halimeda won was bc I made the tank too hard to prune it back. The hood I have has the smallest window to basically only feed the fish and I made it such a pain to get the hood off that it became a chore to clean inside the tank. I've been thinking about ditching the hood and going with two Kessil 360w-e's with an open top. I think if I had more access to the top of the tank I'd be able to do more in there. I realize there's better led setups out there but I like the space and I can control em with my apex. I think my current lighting setup is aggressive compared to this but even tho I've had tanks for a long time I've been un successful for the most part in keeping a reef. I have to change my bulbs so this is one reason why I'm thinking about switching. Any input in the lighting change would be appreciated
I put the bio pellets on bc I'm not really a fan of daily dosing, im gonna keep the 250ml for a while to see how it goes. I'd like to keep things simple now after running the Zeovit system for 8 months and failing. It was too much and honestly I thought everything looked better when I just gave up and let things be.
I've also been thinking about adding more flow, I have the 12v resistor in my power heads bc they were turning up the sand. Been looking for some used tunzes to add not sure if 6105s or if I should get some cheaper nanostreams. Can they be used on a 7095?
My husbandry has been slack lately with no water changes and I haven't been running the halides for a while. I feed every other day right now. The two plates I have are happy and are growing but I know if I'm gonna be adding livestock im gonna have to up my game husbandry wise.
