Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics)

[KingfishJohn]

Hey guys! Sorry for not posting in a long time but tonight I got a chance to go check out this trainwreck of a tank in person (just kidding). Mike wanted me to post all my terrible criticisms of his tank but honestly there weren't many at all.

We took out a few dead monti cap pieces from the display but relocated them to the refugium (they make great grow out rocks for soft corals as they're easy to break into pieces) to clean up the tanks looks slightly. And wow, I've got to stress for Mike again that these were far from frags, they were colonies of montipora. I did see some great growth from alot of his stuff and overall everything looked happy.

That being said, PH seems to be the sand clumping problem's cause. Mike runs a relatively high PH of 8.4 with all the kalk he doses and I imagine this is the cause of these clumps of sand. And when he said "clumps of sand" he meant it. They were literally little rocks of compacted sand, already being covered in coralline algae.

The other thing that I've never liked about his tank was his lightbulb choice, an XM 15k bulb. At the time, this was the new bulb on the market and was a very very promising bulb. However, I'd never ever recommend one now, this same situation occuring with my original bulb a giesseman 20k. If any of you have never been to Sanjay Joshi's site comparing halide bulbs, I strongly recommend it ( http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/). So while I was there I decided to check his results for this bulb. We'll put it into perspective and compare it to the new hot bulb on the market (of which I'm currently using their new DE version with great results) the Coralvue Reeflux 10k. The XM bulb had a relatively low energy output at only 45 PPFD while the Coralvue bulb put out 113 PPFD. The XM bulb also had no real spikes at any wavelength and just flatlined. While the comparable Coralvue bulb had spikes at 410, 450, 540, 590, and 670 nm.

The comparable Phoenix 14k bulb had a PPFD of 88 and several spikes most notably a huge one at 450 nm. This is the bulb that Mike will be switching to shortly .

Mike's tank is looking great really though! Coralline algae has exploded all over the tank and the live rock looks incredible. Most people would probably be happy with their current XM bulb and I'd say that Mike's softies (especially his blastos) love it. The SPS and monti caps though show some polyp extension but I'd like to see more, and I believe this is directly linked to his PH and lighting which will be fixed in a snap.

Mike has a great tank and has made me decide that I really really need the new reefkeeper 2! I also forgot to tell you Mike that I think Salifert test kits have something like a year shelf life.

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6468990#post6468990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dudester
Hey melev - haven't heard from you in a while - I seem to recall a photo that you took of your stockpile of Salifert test kits (along with other items as well). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I remember you keeping quite a number of them on hand. Is that true and if so, have you had any problems with the test kits that you've had over a long period of time? I've not seen an expiration date or a "use before" notification.

They are usually good for about a year. Whenever I buy a kit, I write the date with a Sharpie on the lid of the box to give myself an indication of age. And I've used kits that are older, too. The results may be satisfactory until you compare it to a new kit. :eek2: Also, I've found that some kits change how to measure ingredients, so always read the fresh instructions to make sure you are getting the proper reading.

If in doubt, read the posts in the Salifert forum because updates are added there when instructions lack all the information.

 

[Dudester]

John - Glad you came over last night to eyeball my wreck of an excuse I call an aquarium . It's always nice to have you eyeball it since you see things in a completely different way than I. I hope those monti frags I gave you do well in your tank (thanks again, Salty in training!!!!) - please post pics here so we can all see how they're doing in your SPS-dominated tank.

As John mentioned, about 1/3 of the montis I got didn't make it. I guess I'd attribute this to the fact that they sat in a cold bucket of water without circulation for about 4 hours before I acclimated them very quickly and put them into my tank. I feel bad about losing them but, in all honestly, there wasn't room in my tank anyway, and I don't know enough people locally with reefs that I could have given them to.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6472016#post6472016 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thedude15810
PH seems to be the sand clumping problem's cause. Mike runs a relatively high PH of 8.4 with all the kalk he doses and I imagine this is the cause of these clumps of sand. And when he said "clumps of sand" he meant it. They were literally little rocks of compacted sand, already being covered in coralline algae.

Let me clarify this for those who didn't see the thread I started yesterday. If you recall, I ran out of B-Ionic around mid-December. Prior to that time, my pH remained around 8.2. Without the addition of the B-Ionic, my Ca and alk began to drop, so I increased the amount of kalk I was adding to my tank. This was associated with a rise in my pH, and I noticed that my sand began to clump into large pieces. It turns out that I've been adding TOO MUCH kalk, which has caused my pH to rise and calcium carbonate to precipitate in my substrate (i.e. clumpy sand) which likely, paradoxically, decreased my free calcium further. Now that I have more B-Ionic and I've begun to re-dose, I've dropped back on my kalk addition and I've seen an immediate decrease in my pH to 8.3 after just one night. I expect it to go down to about 8.1-8.2 soon, and I'll try to maintain it there. So the pH spike to 8.4 was a temporary thing as a result of too much kalk, and this is not where I "run my pH" intentionally, as John may have suggested.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6472016#post6472016 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thedude15810
Mike has a great tank and has made me decide that I really really need the new reefkeeper 2!

Thanks, and the new ReefKeeper 2 does look awesome. Another positive point about it (aside from the ones I mentioned previously) is that it includes a schematic on the multi-device powerstrip that labels which channel is which. This eliminates the guesswork that may arise if there is a small disaster and something has to be unplugged in a pinch. I think that today I'll make labels for each of my channels and stick them onto the device.

melev - It just so happens that I have a fresh medium-tipped Sharpie at home. And while I have your eye, can you tell me (us) how frequently you calibrate your PinPoint pH monitor? The instructions say to do it every month.

 

[melev]

I calibrate it maybe twice a year. I could do it monthly as I have two bottles of calibration solution, but usually I have more important things to do - like fight phosphate, change water, etc.

 

[Dudester]

Yeah, Marc, once/month seemed a little excessive to me too.

OK, here's some clarification on the test kit shelf life question from the man himself. Check out what Habib says in this thread. To summarize, it seems like all of the Salifert test kits will last for at least 2 years, and Salifert is now printing an expiration date on the top of the boxes. So we can all use our Sharpies for more important things, like drawing mustaches on the faces of passed out spouses.

 

[melev]

I thought you said "passed out sponsors." :lol:

 

[Dudester]

Naa, I don't think any of the distinguished SPONSORS on this site would ever find themselves in such a vulnerable scenario, do you? :hmm5:

 

[Dudester]

Last night I began to glue my monti frags and my new acro frag to the aquascape. I thought I'd just go ahead and check my pH with my new pH monitor, since it had been running high. Interestingly, after re-dosing the B-Ionic, the pH had decreased to about 8.25 (from 8.41), without taking out the kalk from my topoff. As a result, I didn't remove the kalk from the reactor, and last night my pH was 8.55 :eek2:. I did a Salifert test and confirmed this high reading. I therefore immediately removed the kalk from my topoff, as I'm sure this was responsible for the rise in pH. Fortunately everything in the tank looked great, so I did not do a water change. It was late at night and I was exhausted. When I get home tonight I'll check things out and if they look OK, I plan to do a 10% water change on Saturday (according to my every 2 week schedule). If things look stressed I'll change it tonight. I'm interested to see what the pH will be when I get home with only 24 hrs without kalk.

And I know, I owe y'all pics!

 

[Bax]

My pH swings about .45 units on average in a day, peaks just before lights out, at its lowest just before lights on, that's with a Kalk reactor. My Alk is a little low and I adjust it weekly with baking soda triying to bring it back up which should add to pH stability. You'd like a pH swing of about .2 or less but I have read of many "healthy tanks with swings of .4 to .5 daily. It has to do with pH/Alk/Ca balance and the photosynthetic critters. I'd like to see mine stay in the .2 range.

 

[Dudester]

I've not dripped kalkwasser in 4 days, and I've been dosing B-Ionic. As expected, my pH has decreased to a more favorable range. Now that I have a pH monitor it's ultra-easy to check it. This morning at 5:30 the pH was 8.09, and last night at about 10:00 it was 8.42. This is pretty much in line with what I'd expect, and is outside of the 0.2 range that Bax would like to see, but my tank occupants are healthy, for the most part. My coral polyps aren't fully extended, but that's probably a factor of light rather than chemistry, and I'll correct that once I get the urge to change out my bulb to the Phoenix 14K that's sitting in my closet. As far as my Ca and alk, they're both much better. After adding the Turbo Caclium my level increased immediately, and with the B-Ionic dosing, my Ca has remained at 415 and my alkalinity is much better at 3.26.

What I'm most pleased about is my skimmer. Since cleaning out my MaxiJet pump I've gotten tons more skimmate than I used to. I'm not sure if this is entirely a factor of cleaning out the pump, or maybe my increased bioload (corals) has contributed as well. But temporally, it seems like it was the cleaning that did it. I'm nowhere near the FULL CUP of skimmate per day that Calfo talks about, but my volume is markedly better than before.

Oh, I also placed a very small powerhead in my fuge section to turn the water over more. I was getting a ton of cyano growing in there, and John felt that adding a little flow might reduce the cyano and possibly improve my chaeto growth (which is currently nil). If this doesn't work I'll change to a 5600K bulb over my fuge.

 

[Dudester]

Hey Bax, how much baking soda do you add for your alk adjustments?

 

[Bax]

You need to test first then go to the Chemistry Calculator and figure out how much to add for your desired change.

I test if it is still low I mix about 1 1/2 tablespoons in a half cup of RO water and add to the sump. The pH may swing by .2 or so when doing this, you don't want any greater changge then that, if it does then you're adding too much at once.

And when Anthony Calfo says he gets a cup of skimmate a day, I think he's looking at a larger system than yours or mine. My EuroReef ES 5-3 kicks out a full collection cup of black coffee and over 3/8" of sludge coating every surface of the cup each week. I think that's about right for a 75 g system. Of course it depends a lot upon how much you feed and what your bio load is.

The HOT CPR BP2 on my QT tank used to need to be emptied twice a week or more when my 26 was running as a disply. AS a QT with only one fish in it, I only clean it when a start a QT period and when I end it.

 

[steg]

Dudester, I want you to know I'm enthrawled with your postings. I've read nonstop for a few days re reading some due to people bothering me at work. Like I'm supposed to be working anyway!

Thanks for all the helpfull insite. I plan to rebuild from a natural disaster and trip to korea for a short atay with a 100g LR and hopefully be successful this try. I've had many failed attempts. Lets just say waiste waiste waiste.

Thanks again,

A. Loyal Follower,,

Jason for short.

 

[steg]

Oops I forgot,

John,

Howabout Mississippi? The weathers nice and flooding is minimal up north. The fishing and hunting opportunities are endless. Oh yeah BTW My LFS store is being run by I.D.I.O.T.S.

Just checking...

 

[KingfishJohn]

I love Mississippi Steg, unfortunately you;

A. Don't have a National Championship football team such as I already do.

B. My favorite city in Mississippi (Pass Christian) was literally wiped from the map by Katrina

But that doesn't mean you can't ask me questions....

 

[Dudester]

Bax - My alkalinity has been just fine since dosing B-Ionic again. I really love this stuff! Now that my pH has drifted back down to normal range (I haven't dripped kalk in about 10 days) I'm going to add kalkwasser to my topoff again, but in a lower dose. Hopefully I'll then be able to add a little less B-Ionic each day, since that stuff is much more expensive than kalk. I need to do a Mg test soon to make sure I can safely reduce the B-Ionic and not harm my Mg levels and other "untested" trace elements that the B-Ionic provides.

My skimmate is not coffee black like yours, but instead it's a dark brown with lots of small black particulate matter. It doesn't reek but it smells bad enough to make me believe that it's doing the job. I certainly wouldn't try to sell it as a cologne.

So you use a skimmer on your QT? Do you put substrate and/or LR in there, too? Must be nice to have an extra skimmer laying around.


steg

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

Thanks for the compliments. Actually, the reason this thread is so helpful is because of people like John, Bax, Marc (Melev) and others who contribute and provide their years of experiential knowledge to this newbie's thread. I add what I know, and I'm learning more each day, but you can't top experience. I considered starting this thread in the Reef Forum instead of the Newbie Forum so that I would get more veteran eyes on it, but since I didn't feel like I could regularly provide definitive answers to the questions that might come in, I posted it here. I'd love to have more experienced people read this so I could get more input and ideas. That's not to say I'm not THRILLED with all of the great advice and comments that I've already gotten :lol:.

Good luck with your rebuild - I'm sure it will be a winner this time .

Keep A. Followin',

Mike

I am short.

 

[Dudester]

I've got pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!(finally)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've got pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!(finally)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's what my tank looked like on 1/9/06, a few days after adding all of those monti frags, a new acro frag, and a new zoanthid colony. Thanks again to Salty in training for giving them to me. Looking back on the photos, I can see that some of the montipora corals I received were dead on arrival, and this will be evident in some of the photos. All that lived then remain alive in my tank. This weekend I plan to change to the Phoenix 14K MH bulb, and hopefully this will result in improved polyp extension and growth of my corals. I'm a little worried that I might burn out my blastos, which are under direct light at about mid-height in my tank. They're doing extremely well and I'm seeing about 5 new blastos growing in with the colony. John, whenever you're ready let me know and I'll give you some! Keep in mind that this is not what my tank looks like today. I've removed all of the dead montis, and I've placed the remaining ones into locations I hope will be their final home. OK, enough talk, on with the pics.

This first shot is the full frontal view.

Here's the left side ...

and here's the right. Notice how my clownfish seems to get into all of the pics.

Here's a top-down view of one of my favorite pieces. I'm referring to the brown montipora with purple trim to the right of the frogspawn (sorry about the fan reflection, will work on that). The smaller pieces to the left of the frogspawn are from the same colony, and the large piece at the left of the frame was dead and has been placed in the sump as a base for frag mounting. At the very bottom of the frame is a frag of a nice red montipora.

Here are the same corals but from the front. See my sixline wrasse?

Here's the same stuff, just zoomed in a bit. See the nice piece at the bottom right of the frame? I mounted that in a sweet spot and hope it does well.

This one gives you an idea of my bryopsis problem, that continues to frustrate me. Every time I prune it, I must drop some because I always find a new outcropping somewhere else in the tank :mad2:. You can see my sixline streaking through as well, all fat and happy.

And here's one more shot, this time of a red-brown monti and a nice peek-a-boo of my sixline wrasse. By the way, to all you sixline wrasse experts out there, mine has the tail "eye" only on it's right side, is this typical of the species?

That's it for now. My current tank issues include:

1. The right side door of my cabinet is warped from the previous overflow and the door is popping open spontaneously. I'll have to either drill a 2x4 onto the inner aspect to pull it flat, or just replace the whole door.

2. Poor macro health in my fuge. I'm going to go ahead and get the 5600K bulb and see if this doesn't help. The powerhead I placed into the fuge doesn't seem to be helping yet, and I've noticed far less pods than I saw previously.

3. Need to mount a computer fan into my light rack, as discussed a long time ago. I've been putting this off for a long time. Any suggestions on a fan? I don't need a fancy IceCap temperature-controlled fan, since I'll just connect the power cord to my ReefKeeper.

4. Bryopsis is trying to take over. I prune it back weekly but may have to step this up. I've been reluctant to do so for fear of spreading it everywhere. While pruning I turn off all pumps and remove the plucked plumage by dunking my hand into RO water. I'm wondering if it's growing as a result of reduced flow in my tank ... maybe I should rinse out my SCWD with vinegar?? Nitrates and Phos read 0 and my skimmer's working well, so I don't think it's a nutrient issue but I guess it still could be.

5. Need More Stuff!

 

[Bax]

Dude

Great pics! Love the six line and those montis are awsome!

But they are so huge they may be stiffling flow so maybe kicking it up is a good idea.

Also, all young tanks get algea problems ... breath .... just breath .... you Ok now? Good, that's better.

I am sure like all of us newbs, you are over feeding so neutrients are always a problem especially in these small tanks we have.

Definitely get more flow in the fuge and display what ever you have is probably not enough I have like 25x in my 75 g and I am about to push it over 35 x cause I still have a little cyano just hanging around that won't just go away (again sign of a new tank and over feeding).


May be you should consider a mithrax crab if I am not mistaken, they will eat just about anything green .. at least mine did before some evil hitchhiker cleaned out my 26 g of all crabs ... still don't know what that was ... scary huh? I suspect a gorillia crab that I have yet to meet face to face.

 

[TippyToeX]

Mike, this thread is just outstanding. It' going to take me a little longer to read in depth but I had to say what a well put together system it is.

come aquascape my tank for me too will ya?!?!? :lol: I'd never get anything as close as perfect as you have done.

No fears with the frogspawns so close to your SPS? They are sooo aggressive when needed.

RE the Bryopsis. How is the pH and alk coming along? High and stable pH is a huge help against this algae. Also if you have the funds for a fancy tool, running ozone will help IME (not sure if you run it already, still reading..)

 

[Dudester]

If you look at the first photo, you'll notice 4 huge montis. The one at the top left and the one to the left of the large frogspawn (substrate level) were dead and are gone. The one to the right of the frogspawn (substrate level) had substantial die-off at the bottom but it was successfully fragged to some nice pieces. The one at the top right is the only large piece that remains in my tank and, in fact, is the only piece I didn't relocate. It seems to be quite happy there and I didn't think it would reduce flow in that position substantially. So from a total flow standpoint I don't think what I have left in the tank would have caused a significant reduction. I'll need to take another updated full tank shot so I can show you what I have left and where I put them (I'll then be sure to post the photo a month later ).

As far as flow is concerned, here's what I have. I calculated my CL (Mag 12) at about 750 gph, which would equal approximately 25x turnover for tank volume and approximately 16x turnover for total system volume (I'm not sure which one is the benchmark to which we're supposed to refer). My sump/fuge flow (Mag 5) is about 250 gph, which is approximately 8x turnover for tank volume and 5x turnover for system volume. Therefore, depending on whether I'm calculating pump turnover to tank volume or system volume, my total flow is either 33x or 21x. If it's the former, then I would think I'd be OK. If it's the latter, then I've got to step up the flow, right?

By the way, John, how are those monti frags doing in your tank? I gave him a green, a purple, and a red-brown. I tried to give him more but he didn't want them.

I have been feeding rather liberally. I guess I could try to cut back some. I spot feed all of my LPS and softies with every feeding, and I do so like to see rotund bellies on my fish. Isn't it odd that we want our fish to be fat, while obesity is looked upon as a serious disease and, in fact, an epidemic to the human race?

I do have an emerald mithrax crab. Initially when it was first placed into the tank, it went after all things green and the small amounts of bubble algae that I had. Since about a month ago, it hasn't touched the stuff, and I only see it pinching off small pieces of junk from the rocks. Valonia (bubble algae, for those not in the know) is growing here and there in small clusters, and as far as I know, my beloved emerald crab has no interest. Perhaps he's dining on easier, more palatable fare?

TippyToeX - So happy to have you along! Please take your time to read all of the details of this thread and then fire at will. I'll definitely get an updated photo of my coral layout, but you're right in that the small frogspawn up top is indeed close to the large monti cap and the small tricolor acro. It would be very easy to move, if necessary, and perhaps I should do so.

The pH and alk are quite good, IMO. pH ranges from 8.1 - 8.4. It would be nice if I could tighten that range a little, and once I get the whole kalk/B-Ionic balancing act worked out, I hope to accomplish just that. My alkalinity was 3.26 about 5 days ago (I check it every Saturday or Sunday). I'll look into ozone - I thought about it in the past but felt that my small system didn't warrant having it. On the other hand, I love gadgets and I could get an Orp monitor and other cool stuff :idea:. Thanks for getting that into my head again!