w3bbo's 120 Gallon Reef

[w3bbo]

I've seen some stunning tanks on here that have inspired me, caused me heartbreak and picked me back up again. While I have a long way to go to get to the level of some reefers here, the tips and advice I've picked up have been invaluable in my reefing journey so I thought I'd share my own reef with you guys and keep a log of successes and failures.

Tank: Clearseal 48x24x24
Weir: Twin Durso
Lighting: Evergrow IT2120 Pro Reef v2 wifi, sump 135w 5500k
Powerheads: 2x MP40wES Reef Crest full power, Jebao RW15 'Else' Mode
Sump: 36x15x15
Skimmer: NYOS Quantum 220 linked to an Avast Davy Jones Locker
Reactors: Vertex RX-U 1.5, Fish Street Zeo.
Controller: GHL Profilux 3, 2x4 GHL slave dosers.
Probes: Temp, pH, Redox
Ozone: TMC v2
UV: TMC Vecton 600
Heaters: 2x 250W Jeager
Return: Jebao DC12000

I've had the setup for just over a year and before this had a smaller 180L which I outgrew fairly quickly. I currently use the NOPOX clone recipe and mix my own Ca, Alk, Mg and K mixtures. Along with those, I've been giving the aquaforest Probiotic method a try for the pat 8 weeks with mixed results. I dose the following:

Probiotic salt - Water change 30litres every week.
ProbioS - 8 drops per day
Micro E - 4 drops per day
Iron - 4 drops per day
Pro F - 4 drops per day
Coral B - 4 drops per day

Current parameters

Temp: 26.3c
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.23
Ca: 470
Alk: 6.9
Mg: 1420
K: 390
Iodine: 0.05
NO3: 50 (!!!!)
PO4: 0.14 (!!!)

I've got a very high bioload (need to reduce this) which accounts for high nitrates/phosphates. Despite running Priobitic with Zeo and additional Nopox mix the nutrients just won't come down. Despite this the SPS have never looked better but I'd prefer the nutrients to get down to more reasonable levels of NO3 1-2ppm and 0.02 PO4 but it seems a long way off! I also run cheato which tumbles in 1st sump section. Before switching to Aquaforest these were my values but corals looked dull/washed out so I shouldn't complain but the current levels make me feel uncomfortable even the the corals appear very healthy.

Anyway, enough of my rambling here's a couple of shots of the tank:

I'll post some close up pics of the corals later.

I've still got much to learn from the experts here but I'm open to any and all advice.

 

[dson78]

Tank looks amazing, great job.

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Oooooo nice .. subscribed

 

[rockworm]

Very nice tank. I would say you are well on in your learning of reef aquariums and many of us can learn from you now. Looking forward to the coral shots.

 

[w3bbo]

Here are some of the shots I took yesterday. I really need a decent macro lens . Anyway, on with the photobomb :uzi:

 

[w3bbo]

 

[w3bbo]

 

[w3bbo]

Some top downs (through a chocolate box lid lol):

 

[M007]

Looks like a very fine SPS system to me :thumbsup:

 

[mirkus]

nice job, tank is looking good

 

[w3bbo]

Thanks guys. It's a work in progress but en enjoyable one.

 

[w3bbo]

Just ordered some PraziPro as I think a couple of my angels have flukes. It must be banned in the UK as nobody stocks it but hopefully customs will let it through. Also bought some brightwell koralcolor after reading through Biggles' thread. Biggles Juice here I come

 

[kevlow]

subscribed

 

[plyle02]

Beautiful tank and corals

 

[w3bbo]

subscribed

Thanks

Beautiful tank and corals

After seeing your tank (which is an inspiration btw!) that is some compliment. Thanks Perry :beer:

 

[Wrangy]

Just lovely mate! You should be proud!

 

[w3bbo]

Thanks Dom . I think like most of us, we're never 100% happy as there are always improvements. I want to tweak the colours a little as they are a little too vibrant (and green!). Some are not showing there true colours yet so I'm open to advice on how to achieve this. I've bought some koral color so hopefully that will help some.

 

[w3bbo]

I picked up some dry rock and started to cure it yesterday as I've been meaning to disguise the weir for some time but never got around to it. Here's where I intend to cover:

I also added 10L of siporax today which will hopefully bring down nutrients once the bacteria populate. I also cleaned all the powerheads down and repositioned an RW-15 really low down at the back to blow behind the back of the rock face. OMG what a mess! It blew loads of detritus out that the tank really clouded up. I guess there was a large dead spot there which had accumulated a load of crap. 5 minutes later skimmer was pulling thick brown gunk out so that got a clean once the Davy Jones was full. This certainly wasn't helping my battle with nitrates but the corals loved a quick blast of poo floating around the tank judging by the PE.

 

[w3bbo]

Just run a suite of tests and noticed my potassium level is dropping pretty consistently by 10ppm per week. This equates to around 8g of potassium chloride consumption for my setup. My current K level is 370ppm with a target of 400ppm. So to bring it back in line I've mixed 1L of potassium chloride at 10% strength (100g/L). So if my math is correct for every 10ml I'm dosing 1g. Using that formula my current daily dose of potassium to keep things stable is:


I need 8g per week to keep things stable.


1g = 10ml so dose 80ml per week.


80/7= 11.42ml per day.


However as I'm down 30ppm I need to dose an additional 24g. So to keep things simple and raise it back up slowly I will 'double dose' (23ml) per day for the next 3 weeks and then drop it back to 11.42ml.


Anyone care to check the above. Think its right but I'd prefer a second opinion.

In other news, my nitrate is still at 50 and refuses to drop! I'm pretty much certain this has something to do with the Aquaforest dosing as I have always been between 1-5ppm but for the past 5 months since switching to AF it has kept stable at 50ppm despite increasing NOPOX dosing (65ml per day) and adding Siporax (albeit the Siporax has only been in a week).

 

[w3bbo]

After a recent power cut (14hrs!!) a couple of pieces STN'd despite my best efforts. We lost power due to flooding in my area (I live 600ft above sea level too!).

With the power off, the main issue was circulation. I didn't have a battery back up so all I could do was 'ladel' water and stir the tank as best I could for 14 hours. Sadly this wasn't good enough.

This took a beating but was saved through cutting it back quite a lot.

This one was a total loss:

Only managed a 2" frag of this:

After a week of devastation and watching some corals STN completely, I took the opportunity to rescape slightly while the corals were already upset to fill in those places that were shaded, allowing more room for coral. Then did a series of 40% waterchanges to restart the tank. Thankfully now, 5 weeks later things have bounced back or at least are starting to.