SPS Dominated 47G Reef

Just a quick update. It looks like all is well; apart from slight colour loss to one or two acros. The pink acro lost some colour,as well as Sapphire Millepora and my Echinata. All others appear fine. So glad thats all it is. :)

The colour loss could even be from the new lights as well, as PAR has increased. I am running the T5's lights much shorter hours than before; 5 and 6 hours max. One of two acros which I bought as brownouts look like they have coloured up a little.

Apart from the small setback. All is well. :D
 
pocci said:
I though this thread already have a recent FTS.....lol....
Click to expand...

LOL. No, I havent posted an FTS photo of the tank since I restarted the tank. Will do one soon. My SPS growth has taken off and things should look better early next year.

Sorry about the Photobucket account suspension...I went over my limit, but it will reset in the next few days.

Just a quick update regarding the tank: its going well. I think I am at the point where nutrients are low enough and the water is quite clean. I put in one of those wild Aussie SPS frag, its pink with blue tips. The very pale kind. Its been 8 days and it hasnt browned out. I used to place very coloured frags and previously they would have browned out a fair bit by the end of a week.

I also now only need to wipe the glass once a week and even then there isnt much of an algae film on the glass.

I have also started to use the T5 dimming function on my ATI LED Powermodule (I ran the tubes at 100% for nearly 100 hours). I love this light. :inlove: The ability to dim two channel of T5's and the 4 channels of LED's is pretty cool.

I am running a simple Berlin style of reefkeeping and its working quite well so far. I am using GFO, but whereas before I was changing it out once a week, I am now changing it out once a month which is pretty good progress.

I still have a few browned out SPS which refuse to colour up...I am hoping with the improved water quality these make a turn around.
 
I'm glad to hear that things are going well, Sahin! I, like so many others, am jealous of your new light, as well. Looking forward to seeing more pics! :D
 
sahin said:
Here are 3 FLASH only shots (NO T5's or LED's). The flash colour on my Nikon D70 is yellow, but note the coral colours without the tanks light. The colours are permanent; not an effect of the T5/LED lighting. The only colours that wont show this way are those which are fluorescent ie green.

1.
DSC_9923_zps7289bc0b.jpg

2.
DSC_9919_zps4a3711c2.jpg

3.
DSC_9922_zpsa5ba1095.jpg


Hope you enjoyed the photos. There wont be an FTS because my tank is like frag city. I have around 40 SPS frags stuffed into this 47G tank. At some point I will remove the less nicer ones to allow the better coloured SPS to grow out.
Click to expand...


Amazing colors...
 
Glad to hear things are adjusting well to the new lights. A little time and those last few brown one will be up in color.
 
your corals are looking great.
your light is nice and expensive I believe
now let's see the full tank shot with these corals in it and the light hanging on the tank :) picture worth a billion words
 
sahin said:
Thanks guys. Means a lot coming from you guys. :D



Thanks for the compliment. an FTS will turn up soon enough...not just yet. Bare bottom tank + Frag City = UGLY TANK. LOL.

My current parameters are as follows:

PO4=0.04ppm sometimes rises to 0.06ppm; working on this one slowly.

NO3=2ppm. Pretty happy with that.

Alk= 8dKH

Ca=420

Mg=1300

K+=400ppm, was as low as 290ppm...corals have improved in health since bringing this up. Used Potassium Chloride salt to increase the level.

pH=8.3 usually; this one is not a big deal to be honest.

I maintain Alk, Ca and Mg using Fauna Marin Balling Lite Solutions. I dont dose the extra elements from Fauna Marin.

I carry out 10% water changes per week...some weeks 20%.

Bubble Magus NAC6 skimmer. No sand; BARE BOTTOM tank. Only liverock for filtration.

My sump has nothing other than the return pump, the skimmer and a Phosban reactor with GFO. Nothing else. No fancy potions. Its as simple as that. The rest of the equipment is in my signature.

Hope that helps.
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I read all the way through looking for this info. Thanks for all of it, Sahin. We are running very similar setups, even with how small my tanks is.

How are you liking the NAC6? I have a 3.5 sitting in the closet waiting for the frag tank build.

Are you not running carbon or did I miss that in another post.

Your corals look great by the way. I can't wait for the full tank shot. I hear its going to blow us all away...
 

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I'm bloody glad you dodged that alk bullet mate, sorry for not posting sooner but i'll be jabbering away here regularly from now on lol. It sounds like the reef is slowly settling in and starting to look after itself without the need for too much mechanical filtration, i know it takes a while for the entire mini ecosystem you're trying to create to come to life but month by month the bio life will increase in response to your feeding levels and husbandry techniques and the water will be carrying all many of yummy stuff for the acros. :)
I know it's not ready for a FTS yet but i think you better give us a few closeups at least to keep us going...........:beer:

How much GFO do you have in the reactor mate, i'm sure others want to know. If you want a second opinion on that hybrid light unit i'd be happy for you to send it to me for evaluation......... i'll send you my blue/white LED unit to use lol - sounds like a fair swap to me mate :smokin:

What do you think of the lighting now, any colors giving problems under it (doubt that). What i'm really asking is do you think the ATI hybrid removes spectrum from the acro equation just as Radiums do imo. From the colors your getting i'm pretty sure i already know the answer lol.
Looking forward to updates :beer:
 
Fail_sh3d said:
I read all the way through looking for this info. Thanks for all of it, Sahin. We are running very similar setups, even with how small my tanks is.

How are you liking the NAC6? I have a 3.5 sitting in the closet waiting for the frag tank build.

Are you not running carbon or did I miss that in another post.

Your corals look great by the way. I can't wait for the full tank shot. I hear its going to blow us all away...
Click to expand...

Hey there mate. LOL. That picture is funny. :lol: Thanks for looking into my thread. I've had the NAC6 for over two years now. Honestly, for the price I paid, this is a beast of a skimmer!

Here are the pros:
1. Skims VERY well. DRY or wet, set it as you like.

2. Very easy to adjust, doesnt fluctuate or overflow. Only times it overflowed was when I had it set to wet and I added a newly washed filter sock...something in the sock caused the skimmer to go crazy. Others its been a brilliant skimmer.

3. I still have the ORIGINAL pump and impeller. I hear people talk badly about the Atman pumps, but mine is running fine since day one. I also havent even swapped out the old impeller for the extra one they supply you.

4. I used to dose Ozone into my tank, the skimmer performed just fine with that as well.

5. Built quite well. Skimmer body and cup is very well built. Pump doesnt have the best or strongest plastics used, but like I said its been running fine for me so far.

So I give it a 9/10 score. I would have given it a 10/10 but havent as I feel the pump does draw a lot of electricity compared to some of the newer skimmers and their pumps that are currently on the market.

If I had the funds, I would get the newer generation of Bubble Magus skimmer; the Curve 5 to replace the NAC6. But all in all it is a fine piece of equipment with a relatively cheap price.

As for GAC, no I do not use any. My system is pretty clean apart from the long term PO4 problem I had, which is now gone...I narrowed it down to a couple of pieces of liverock I had in the sump...these pieces would shed so much crap it was crazy. Got rid of those rocks and BAM! PO4 drops to around 0.01ppm

I have like 2KG of Carbon sitting in my cupboard...given free to me by my LFS...but I dont use GAC because I feel it takes too much out of the system.

I am hoping that when I post an FTS and some photos in a couple of months time, that my colours and tank look almost as good as Biggles's tank. For the moment, some pieces look pretty nice, but others look blah, and one or two pieces are even brown to this day.
 
biggles said:
I'm bloody glad you dodged that alk bullet mate, sorry for not posting sooner but i'll be jabbering away here regularly from now on lol. It sounds like the reef is slowly settling in and starting to look after itself without the need for too much mechanical filtration, i know it takes a while for the entire mini ecosystem you're trying to create to come to life but month by month the bio life will increase in response to your feeding levels and husbandry techniques and the water will be carrying all many of yummy stuff for the acros. :)
I know it's not ready for a FTS yet but i think you better give us a few closeups at least to keep us going...........:beer:

How much GFO do you have in the reactor mate, i'm sure others want to know. If you want a second opinion on that hybrid light unit i'd be happy for you to send it to me for evaluation......... i'll send you my blue/white LED unit to use lol - sounds like a fair swap to me mate :smokin:

What do you think of the lighting now, any colors giving problems under it (doubt that). What i'm really asking is do you think the ATI hybrid removes spectrum from the acro equation just as Radiums do imo. From the colors your getting i'm pretty sure i already know the answer lol.
Looking forward to updates :beer:
Click to expand...

Hello mate! I know some people say that Potassium levels dont affect acro growth etc...but after I brought up the Potassium levels, the growth in my acros has took off! I had to adjust my doser again last week as I noticed my alk dropping again!

I am still using filter socks...now you are making me feel like I need to take it out. But the only issue is that the sump gets crap all over it and its a pain to siphon the bottom of all of sections of the sump...Do you think I should take out the filter sock?

GFO: I use a slow acting GFO brand. Here is the info: http://www.thereef.info/aqua-phos-fe.htm

So I am running basically around 10litres per hours through the reactor. I tee'd off a line from the return pump and used a small valve to control how much flow goes through the reactor. I've been using this same GFO brand for many years now and like it better than other brands because it is slower acting and does not strip PO4 too fast. I am using 250mls through the reactor. To be honest I could just do what you have done Biggles and place a few bags of this stuff in the sump and it would work that way too.

ATI Lights: I love this light. I added a Red Acropora Abrotanoides frag yesterday. So I decided to measure the PAR to ensure the Abro was getting enough PAR. The only place left was a piece of space on the bottom of the tank. So I measured the PAR and was quite happy to see that the PAR here is between 300-350.

I have no doubt as to whether this light can colour up my corals. I already see improvements in some of my corals...and remember I had a custom T5/LED Sunpower previously, so the improvement must be due to slightly increased PAR in some areas of the tank and the improved spectral quality due to LED's and more tube combo's.

Let me give you a breakdown of the colours:

Red: My rose Millepora is showing nice colour. It could improve, but I put that down to water quality. I also have a BRIGHT PINK Millepora (not sure of species...but lets call it that for now)...I've never seen anything as HOT PINK as this acro.

Orange: I gave a frag of my Forest Fire Digitata to my LFS yesterday. The polyps are BRIGHT orange. You can even see the orange colour with the tank lights off!

Yellow: I have one deepwater acro with true yellow tips. No issue with this colour.

Green: easiest colour to pull.

Blue: I have MANY blue coloured acros. The blue can also be seen with the lights off. Another easy colour to pull.

Indigo/Violet: I have one deepwater acro which is purple in colour. But it is such a slow grower and taking its time colouring up. However, with the tank lights off, I can see that this acro is actually purple in colour. I think an overly blue spectrum masks the purple tones a little.

So, overall...yeah spectrum wise I'm very happy with the light. PAR: no worries there...IT IS A PAR MONSTER. I get 300-350PAR on my sandbed! :smokin:

Biggles you ship me your lights first and I will then send you my ATI. :lol:

I will post a couple of shots next week....just to keep you guys happy. :D
 
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