TDB's 320 SPS Tank
- Thread starter tdb320reef
- Start date
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
I noticed that the only thing changed was your phosphates and nitrates? Do you think adding a little nitrates help keep your phosphates better in check and the decrease in GFO? I am only asking because I did an experiment with my tank and I noticed that after raising my nitrates to about 2-5 ppms and being constant that my phosphates dropped to where your levels are now and also use of GFO used decreased also.
Every time I see this tank I'm just floored. Fantastic colors and growth. There is an interesting thread on the advanced topics forum about adding small amounts of nitrates in systems that are "nitrate poor" and carbon dosing. I wonder if it would have applicability to your situation. Then again, with as fast as your corals are growing, I wonder if you'd really want any faster growth 
tdb320reef
Active member
Light change
Light change
Light change
6 D120's 100% blue 0 white 12 hours
4 apollo 100%blue 15%white 12/8 hours
4 Radium MH 20K 250w m80 ballast LMax II Pendants 6 hours
Light change
Light change
6 D120's 100% blue 0 white 12 hours
4 apollo 100%blue 15%white 12/8 hours
4 Radium MH 20K 250w m80 ballast LMax II Pendants 6 hours
Last edited:
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Wow I don't think you have enough lights. J/K that's a lot of lights.
I still haven't been able to find a link to your build. I am buying a 300 gallon tank, and would love to understand your build a little more. Also, do you have a current list of your fish population as well as recommendations of your favorite fish and ones you would stay away from now.
Thanks in advance, you have one of the nicest tanks I have ever seen, and I live in Orlando (SeaWorld as your competition) lol
Thanks in advance, you have one of the nicest tanks I have ever seen, and I live in Orlando (SeaWorld as your competition) lol
dotcommer
Active member
Light change
6 D120's 100% blue 0 white 12 hours
4 apollo 100%blue 15%white 12/8 hours
4 Radium MH 20K 250w m80 ballast LMax II Pendants 6 hours
Very impressive shot. I see that you added MH to your set up, was that done for a special reason. Do you notice that the SPS corals sparkle a bit more under the MH?
I noticed a difference when standing in front of the Vivid Aquariums 14 foot tank, that the MH side seemed more vibrant than the LED side. However, the photos I took looked the same on each side.
I am going with MH 20K Radium lights on my 300 Gallon build, but I am thinking
adding LED's as well like you just did. Curious to know how you like the new set up compared to before.
tdb320reef
Active member
The best looking SPS that I have seen have come from MH lighting. I got a good deal on the MH setup and decided to run them over the winter which will not force me into any major modifications from a cooling perspective. While I have a chiller, I have dedicated what is left on the circuit for a MH. So if I keep them through the summer I will need to run another circuit for the chiller, put a bunch of holes in my canopy, and spend 300 on new bulbs and save an extra 100 on my already eye popping electric bill.
I really like what I am seeing color and growth wise. For me the big question is will the changes be worth the aforementioned expenses to keep running vs the previous led only set up.
ridetheducati
20 and Over Club
I think you will begin seeing signs of diminishing returns soon.
Based on my 10 month experiment with LEDs; I was a 13 year MH user, LEDs provide enough benefits to permanently make the switch to LED. The MHs are currently packed away and stored under the basement steps, hard time selling. I am enjoying the low cost, less heat and humidity solution. The MH vs LED debate is ridiculous and non productive. Does it really matter that corals look and grow slightly different under LED, but some people thrive on splitting hairs.
When I saw that you added MH to your LED setup, I began scratching my head and said, What does he hope to uncover?
I remember the days I was trying to slow down growth in my system. Constantly throwing corals in the trash and giving them away. With your coral spacing do you constantly prune/frag your corals to maintain the packed look? Within six months, my corals would overrun anything with six inches, especially my tables, they require at least one foot of space.
Keep up the good job, I enjoy reading your thread.
tdb320reef
Active member
Thanks! It all depends on what you consider returns. For me the recent addition to supplement my LEDS with MH is to enhance color. Having designed the tank and grown most of the frags from 1” under LEDS you are 100% correct that they are lucrative and a perfect replacement from a reduction in cost of ownership. I considered the tank and where it has went very successful under LEDS.
What is also true is that every frag I received from a MH tank just had glow that for me I was not able to produce consistently with leds. In fact I received frags from a couple MH users before the change and I slowly watched the corals become much muter. What is also true is a good friend of mine that runs MH received a ton of frags from me and I have never seen the corals look so good.
For maintenance all corals are mounted to a small piece of Live rock. It is easy to move the coral or pull for trimming. When this is done the frags are moved to the sump where I usually distribute locally. If it doesn’t move I have an agreement with a couple pet shops that can move them.
For me the toughest thing with MH is the noticeable increase in ALK and CA usage. I have topped out my CARX in how much I can run to keep the PH Stable and do run Kalk but it still is not enough to meet the tanks requirements. I recently added two part on dosing pumps and this seems to have done the trick and I am able to fine tune the doses to dial numbers perfect.
tdb320reef
Active member
December Go Detroit Lions Update! Hard to get top down because of light density but this is the best I could do.
tdb320reef
Active member
HelgeSandberg
New member
Love it
lanshark
It's Landshark, aka SNL
Fantastic! Inspirational and Motivating for me...... I notice you run a Kalk reactor. I am confused on the method of running top off through a reactor. My question, if my reactor holds water volume of a liter and evaporation is 2-3 gallons a day, to have a saturated reactor of kalk hitting the display would take several intervals of (stir kalk, wait for settle in reactor, flush reactor of liter of slurry, stop flow and repeat) several times through the day? Is this what you do? Please explain your process.
And on another note, have you tried sandbed in reef before and why not now?
Thanks and Congrats on beautiful reef....
And on another note, have you tried sandbed in reef before and why not now?
Thanks and Congrats on beautiful reef....
tdb320reef
Active member
Hi thanks.
The way that it works - topoff water ~8G a day is injected into the Kalk surly in the stirrer 6 minutes every hour. The water becomes saturated and pushes the saturated water from the top of the stirrer into the sump. The stirrer keeps the kalk suspend at the bottom and minimizes it from clumping together. I use about 8-12 oz of kalk per week. I pull the reactor every 2-3 months for cleaning as any longer it will start to clump.
I removed 2/3'ds of the sand because it just kept blowing around and collecting detritus. I found that at about the 1 year point that the 300 lbs of live rock was processing the nitrogen just fine and the sand became overhead, the 1/3 in the back are for the wrasses and other sand creatures that I could not get out easily.
aquamanpc24
New member
Unorganized fruit basket? wow, far from it. I'd say ur very organized. Read and gawked at all the pics, ur coral selection is amazing. As much as I dream for my reef to hit that growth and color, I would almost be burdened by that kind of load and maintenance. As it is I have 1000 gallons of ecosystem. Fuge-Fowlr-Fowlr-reef-reef sump sump frag tank. I run 2 skimmers currently, basically devoting sro5000 to my small biopellet reactor and the mrc mr6r for overall system use.
