150G rebuilt/reset - lesson learned!

[AnthonyJerseyShore]

I'm using a similar Chinese version of the LEDs you are using. They produce growth just fine lol. Also, with the amount of corals you have, you shouldn't have to be thinking about dosing. Dosing should only be done when you have a abundance of corals that are using up a available resource before you can replenish it via water changes. If you bump your water changes up to 10-20% weekly. You should be fine.

Also, one of the reasons your testing a little low on certain things could be the brand of salt you are using. Instant Ocean?

Also, a Copperband butterfly could of solved your Aptasia problem fairly quickly. Or a File fish.

And lastly, I would skip on Anthias. Unless you intend on being religious with making sure they eat enough, they will die. Might I recommend some Firefish? Fairly colorful, and easily visible once they are comfortable in the tank. And, for a schooling effect, BG Chromis? They are relatively cheap, and can get large enough to be noticeable anywhere in the tank.

 

[dirtysven]

I'm using a similar Chinese version of the LEDs you are using. They produce growth just fine lol. Also, with the amount of corals you have, you shouldn't have to be thinking about dosing. Dosing should only be done when you have a abundance of corals that are using up a available resource before you can replenish it via water changes. If you bump your water changes up to 10-20% weekly. You should be fine.

Also, one of the reasons your testing a little low on certain things could be the brand of salt you are using. Instant Ocean?

Also, a Copperband butterfly could of solved your Aptasia problem fairly quickly. Or a File fish.

And lastly, I would skip on Anthias. Unless you intend on being religious with making sure they eat enough, they will die. Might I recommend some Firefish? Fairly colorful, and easily visible once they are comfortable in the tank. And, for a schooling effect, BG Chromis? They are relatively cheap, and can get large enough to be noticeable anywhere in the tank.

For some reason the led's I have now didn't do much for me, not sure if it was because the DT was always low in trace elements or perhaps there was alot of instability in the tank. I have determined that going forward I'll be doing a 30G water change every two weeks instead of doing 10-20% every week. I was using IO reef crystal for salt and just switched to regular IO since I'll be dosing a some point once I get more corals.

As for the aipstasia, I tried everything under the roof except for nudis, which I didn't want to do because of the cost.

About the anthias, feeding twice a day won't be enough to keep them?

 

[Zippy69]

How big is your system? Is it a 150 gal? I currently use LEDs IT 2040 for a total of 4 over a 120. They have programmable times in 30-60 min intervals for 2 channels. I also supplement 4, 25 watt t5 bulbs to fill in shadowing from LEDs. If you can mimic the natural daylight cycle ( equitorial that is) I feel you get better growth. In a nut shell, mimic Mother Nature cause she has 4 billion years of experience and evolution on her side.

 

[dirtysven]

How big is your system? Is it a 150 gal? I currently use LEDs IT 2040 for a total of 4 over a 120. They have programmable times in 30-60 min intervals for 2 channels. I also supplement 4, 25 watt t5 bulbs to fill in shadowing from LEDs. If you can mimic the natural daylight cycle ( equitorial that is) I feel you get better growth. In a nut shell, mimic Mother Nature cause she has 4 billion years of experience and evolution on her side.

Yeah my system is 150G. I currently have 2 led fixtures and a 4 bulb T5 retro kit, I planning to get a hanging canopy build to incorporate both; not sure if that will be enough lighting for the tank. I was looking at the evergrow it2040 as well, they look really nice. If I were to consider buying them I was leaning more towards the it 2060 instead and get 2 of them + the T5's.

 

[dirtysven]

***UPDATE****

I have to say the past 3 days has been brutal as far as working in getting the tank operational. I have acquired a 55G food grade barrel and converted that into the RO container. I added a float valve plus drilled it and placed a 1" bulk head at the bottom with a sch 40 valve, I'm very pleased with the outcome (picture coming later once I clean the closet). Since I was already working in the plumbing, I also added an Aquated cdp 6800 booster pump to the 4 stage RO unit. The pressure before the pump was around 25-30 psi thus consuming the filters quiet rapidly, the pressure now is 70 psi. It took me a great deal of time trying to figure out on how to set it up. I bought the pump with a solenoid and a pressure switch. It all works perfectly now, I did a couple of tests just to make sure the pump shuts off once the float valve activates.

Nothing works too perfect the first time around without issues. While I was trying to troubleshoot why the pressure switch of the pump wouldn't activate when the flow of water was interrupted, I contacted tech support of the company I bought the pump from, I literally was on the phone with them for an hour trying to figure out why the pressure switch wouldn't activate even though the water flow was cut off and shut off the pump. To say the least, we went through all types of scenarios and nothing worked so my argument to the guy was that everything worked fine before adding the pump that how come it doesn't after installing it. Long story short, I got off the phone with the tech and did a bunch of troubleshooting myself and with the help of good old YouTube I was able to set it up correctly but the pump still wouldn't shut once I cut off the product water flow. At one point I almost gave up on it and went to the bedroom, while I was walking I was like why is the carpet wet.... I found out that an union I had on the airline coming of the RO unit got lose and hence the leak which in turns wouldn't allow pressure to build to shut the booster pump off (frustrating to say the least lol ). The union has been replaced with a push fit coupling fitting.

The rest of the time I've been working at full length on getting a nice aquascape done and I think it came out really good; I'm happy with the results aside from my fingers feeling raw. I did a dry run and placed all 3 islands in the tank to see if they fit and the looks of it. After that I took them back out and added more rock in certain places to make them a bit bigger and looking better. Below are a couple of pictures of some of the things I've done so far. Please let me know if you have any suggestions as for making the aquascape better.

By the way, I drilled most of the rock and use fiber glass rods to hold it along with some putty to glue everything together.

 

[AnthonyJerseyShore]

I like the look of the rocks. Gives the fish tons of room to swim around happily. And I've tried keeping Anthias before, and even feeding twice a day, have noticed that they didn't do so well. Having a constant supply of pods/brine would solve the problem though. I can show you (if you don't already know) how to make a simple DIY brine hatchery if your heart is set on them. Also, with doing 30g water changes, should eliminate the need for dosing until you heavily stock the tank with LPS/SPS.

Also, good idea on the booster for the RO unit. You'll notice a HUGE difference in the length of time the filters/membrane last before having to be changed. And, you should also notice a pretty large difference in the amount of good water you produce lol. Are you also using a flow restrictor on the waste line?

Edit: I'd also recommend, if you have the room in the sump, adding a Algae Scrubber. They are great for keeping any nuisance algae out of the DT, and localized in a spot that's easily manageable. Been using them on a buddies home based shop for quite some time now, and they work like a charm for us.

 

[dirtysven]

I like the look of the rocks. Gives the fish tons of room to swim around happily. And I've tried keeping Anthias before, and even feeding twice a day, have noticed that they didn't do so well. Having a constant supply of pods/brine would solve the problem though. I can show you (if you don't already know) how to make a simple DIY brine hatchery if your heart is set on them. Also, with doing 30g water changes, should eliminate the need for dosing until you heavily stock the tank with LPS/SPS.

Also, good idea on the booster for the RO unit. You'll notice a HUGE difference in the length of time the filters/membrane last before having to be changed. And, you should also notice a pretty large difference in the amount of good water you produce lol. Are you also using a flow restrictor on the waste line?

Edit: I'd also recommend, if you have the room in the sump, adding a Algae Scrubber. They are great for keeping any nuisance algae out of the DT, and localized in a spot that's easily manageable. Been using them on a buddies home based shop for quite some time now, and they work like a charm for us.

Thanks on the compliment. What I've been thinking about is that there will be less hiding place for the fish, I know they'll be more visible but I also worry a bit that they'll get stressed. I already see the difference in product water by adding the booster pump, alot better and faster.

I'm definitely interested in that DIY, but would do it for pods instead of brine.

What do you mean an algae scrubber? can you post a pic.

 

[AnthonyJerseyShore]

For some reason, the site doesn't allow me to post links sometimes. Go to youtube, and search for DIY Algae Scrubbers, or the Hog Upflow Algae Scrubber. It'll help you understand what it is, and how it works.

 

[dirtysven]

For some reason, the site doesn't allow me to post links sometimes. Go to youtube, and search for DIY Algae Scrubbers, or the Hog Upflow Algae Scrubber. It'll help you understand what it is, and how it works.

I was reading into this algae scrubber thing and I think I might stay away from it. Doing water changes and maintaining the tank will suffice to keep nitrate and p04 at bay.

 

[AnthonyJerseyShore]

To each their own, as long as you're religious about it, that method will work just fine. I've been known to slack off every so often, so it's not that bad for me and my buddy. It forces you to stay on top of it, or it clogs up and starts to over flow. I'm all about forceful motivation

 

[dirtysven]

***Mini update***

the tank has been running now for the past 2 months and just noticed coraline algae growing on the rocks, I also noticed a bit of diatom on the sand; this is good and bad because it means that the tank is closer to maturing and more work I have to do getting rid of it.

I've been testing the water parameters and things are looking very good, below is what all the parameters:

temp: 78.5
salinity: 1.025
ammonia: 0
phosphate: .025
pH: 8.0
nitrate: 0
nitrite: 0
mag: 1380 (a bit high)
cal: 400
kH: 9 ( a bit high)

I've got a custom hanging canopy made were I'll put my 2x LED fixtures and a 4 bulb T5 retro kit. I have already stained and added the T5's to the canopy but will wait to set it up since I need a second hand helping lift it to hang it from the ceiling. I spent a couple of hours yesterday retro fitting the canopy with the T5's and I gotta say, the work came out nicely, the T5's lit up perfectly and it's ready to be put to use.

I place two T5 bulbs on the back of the canopy and two in the front; the led's will sit in the middle. I turned on the T5's on last night and it looks good but since the bulbs are all blue plus I was wondering if its going to be too much blue for the tank. The lfs store owner around my way suggested I go all blues for the T5's since I can use the whites from the led's to balance things out. The led's have 26 12k whites and 27 blues, wondering if the setup will work or should I look into other bulb color combination?

I thought of using an actinic and a purple but the lfs owner said that it would make the tank look too white, any opinion on this plz.

Here are some pics of the canopy from the lighting test from last night + the stain.

 

[redfishbluefish]

First off, the canopy looks fantastic! Nice job.


Color is a personnal choice........but I think the Blue + only T5's is an excellent addition to your LED combination. I have very blue LED's (36 blue / 15 white / 4 red) and still supplimented with two Blue + T5's. I think you'll be happy with the Blue +.

 

[dirtysven]

First off, the canopy looks fantastic! Nice job.


Color is a personnal choice........but I think the Blue + only T5's is an excellent addition to your LED combination. I have very blue LED's (36 blue / 15 white / 4 red) and still supplimented with two Blue + T5's. I think you'll be happy with the Blue +.

Thank you!

 

[dirtysven]

DanceToday I was able to put up the canopy with the help of a friend. I found two beams in a perfect location above the tank so I was able to anchor a couple of eye hooks. Very happy with the outcome of the canopy, noticed that the canopy color doesn't match the color of the stand even though I stained it the same color. When I bought the stand it was stained golden oak, I stripped it but since it is a stain it is harder to completely remove all traces of the previous stain. Because the stand being stained a different color prior to me staining it again it took a different color tone. I have already contacted the person who made the canopy to build me a stand that matches the canopy since the canopy design doesn't match the stand, not sure when we will set a date to get the stand build.

The only thing I have noticed is that the T5's are a bit high above the tank, higher than the led's. Not sure if the T5's being so high up will cause a lighting issue for the tank. As far as the led's, what I did was increase the intensity of the light to make it penetrate the water deeper. I have the whites at 50% and blues at 100% as of now, any suggestions or comments will be appreciated.

Here are some pictures of the canopy.

 

[dirtysven]

So I got ich, wth... I have a QT setup with a Hippo in it I bought yesterday. I dont want to take all the fish out of the main tank since basically the ich will still be there once I put the fish back + my QT is not big enough to house all the fish thus creating more stress on them. What would be my best course of action here?

 

[saltkreep88]

Is there coral in the big tank?

 

[dirtysven]

Is there coral in the big tank?

No corals yet, the tank has been running for about 2 months now. Was gonna start introducing corals but Ich came up.

 

[saltkreep88]

If you can't move the fish I would lower the salinity slowly until your in hypo salinity. I would not add any medication if you plan on coral down the rd. Inverts can't handle hypo so if you have snails, shrimp, etc. They will need their own qt tank.

 

[dirtysven]

If you can't move the fish I would lower the salinity slowly until your in hypo salinity. I would not add any medication if you plan on coral down the rd. Inverts can't handle hypo so if you have snails, shrimp, etc. They will need their own qt tank.

Ok, I have 4 pep shrimp in the tank and no other inverts. Will try and take them out today and put them in the qt. How much ppm should I decrease the salinity a day? I can start the process today when I get home.

Also, could it be that having 3 island and no place for the fish to hide the cause of the stress?

lastly, by doing the hypo salinity, does the ich eggs or ich for that matter disappear?

 

[saltkreep88]

Inverts can't handle any medication or copper so if you ever treat the qt you will kill them. I would setup a tiny invert only qt. 1-2 pts a day is fine but spread out, not all at one time per day