Who Doesn't Love Peninsulas? 40BR BB Mixed Reef - LED/T5 Hybrid

[ChouDawg]

My past tank was 12" Mr. Aqua 8.5G AIO, with my recent move I decided to "upgrade" and finally take a dip into a full size reef complete with overflow, refugium and a big ol skimmer.

Lighting is provided by a 36" Teklight that I removed four of the six T5 bulbs from, one ballast and added in two tubular heatsinks w/ pressurized cooling fans. The LEDs consist of four Philips Luxeon M RB 12W LEDs, two Philips Luxeon M NW 12W LEDs and eight StevesLED HV 3W LEDs. These are paired with a set of LET Miro-4 reflectors with ATI Coral Plus bulbs. LEDs are driven by Meanwell ELN drivers and controlled by a FlamingSystems DIM4.

Start Date: 10/25/2013

Hardware
Aqueon "40G" Breeder
20L Sump w/ DIY Glass Baffles - Center return chamber w/ refugium
Herbie Style Overlow - Hang on rim, tri-outlet returns
SWC 160 Cone Skimmer
2x Eheim Jager 100W Heaters
American DJ Power Switch
Reefkeeper Lite w/ SL1 + ATO / pH
Tom's Aqualifter ATO Pump
DIY 2x4 Stand w/ pine skinning held on by magnets
DIY 3/4" Conduit Light Hanger
DIY Mesh Top With BRS 1/4" Clear Netting
Jebao DC-6000 Return Pump
BRS Deluxe Reactor w/ Carbon/GFO
Vortech MP10 Circulation Pump
Custom Tek 36" T5HO/LED Hybrid Light

Livestock
Pair of Hybrid Percula/Ocellaris Clownfish
Starry Blenny
McCosker Wrasse
Misc CUC

Corals
Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
Tricolor Birdsnest
Tricolor Stylophora
Tricolor Acropora
Light Blue Acropora
Green Tip Purple Polyp Birdsnest
Forest Fire Digitata
Neon Green Frogspawn
Neon Green Hammer
Mint Tip Torch
LA Laker Montipora
Jedi Mind Tricks Montipora
Cutie Montipora
Green Monitpora Capricornis
Bali Green Slimer
Various Acans
Various Zoas/Palys
Varios Ricordeas

03/15/2014


Past FTS
02/01/2014


01/17/2014


01/04/2014


Thanks for tagging along, tank is almost five months old and in its infancy. Can't wait for it to mature and fill out

[ChouDawg]

And now a photodump from past shoots...

01/04/2014


01/17/2014









02/01/2014

[ChouDawg]

03/15/2014








Enter The Glow Realm (LED Only)

[hersheyb]

Nice setup! great pics

[ChouDawg]

"Macro" shots dump...can't afford a real 100mm F2.8 so I'm shooting with my 50mm reverse mounted...

[Sugar Magnolia]

This thread has been moved to the current forum.

[faithenfire]

nicely done
i like the scaping a lot

[ChouDawg]

Originally Posted by bobarker68

The rbta and zoa pics are great, nice tank

Originally Posted by faithenfire

nicely done
i like the scaping a lot

Thanks for the kind words, scaping a peninsula tank is tricky.

[matt.fhm]

Wow. Very clean and very nice! Good job!

[StaySalty]

Fantastic looking tank!

[ChouDawg]

The tank is 170 days old today, almost half a year!

Equipment and livestock wise nothing has changed, with the exception of the Bluefish LED controller that I'm patiently waiting for I did try to get my DIY recirculating BP reactor online a few times but gave up with priming issues. I'll have to re-design it or swoop up a pre-made one if I find one for cheap.

So the past few weeks I have been noticing a slow decline in my LPS/SPS and I couldn't figure out why. SPS were losing PE, color was fading away and acan frags were melting. My LPS weren't as plump and seemed a bit bleached but the fish were happy, the zoas were doing great and the anemone was gigantic. I had been using a big 200 gallon bag of regular Red Sea salt and was down to my last 50 gallons or so. Even with weekly water changes, the corals that needed the big three from the water column just seemed to be crawling along and some falling behind.

I decided it was time for a change so I ordered a Red Sea Reef Foundation Test Kit and a bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro salt. My hunch was the levels of the big three were very low in my system even with regular water changes the corals were using it too quickly.

Against my good judgement and what most people would suggest...I decided to do a 5 gallon water change entirely with RCSP, my test kit didn't arrive until a few days later. I wanted to mix RCSP exactly as they describe on YouTube to see if it really worked and it did! Perfectly crystal clear water in just 6 minutes with room temperature RODI, fastest water change ever!

Anyways, the next day I instantly noticed better PE, colors and overall coral health! I decided to do another 5 gallon water change the next day with RCSP following the same process and again the corals continued to look better. Today I used my RC test kit and got the following numbers:

pH: 7.9
Calcium: 405
Alk [KH]: 4.6!? (I did this test twice, very little titrant was needed to see the color change)
Magnesium (Mg): 1240

For all you reef chemistry gurus out there, what should I do from here? I heard GFO has a tendency to lower pH/alk and not having any fresh air near the tank can cause low pH as well. I've been running GFO since the tank was started and I try to open my windows/doors whenever possible. The next 5 gallon water change I do with RCSP I will be testing the fresh made water to make sure the levels of my mix are per the label and to make sure I don't have a bad batch.

Left FTS


Right FTS


View From The End


It's Lonely On Top


Mint Chocolate Icecream Cone


Unknown Zoas Make Another Appearance


SPS Grow Faster!


Slippery Slope


Thanks for visiting!

[bmullikin1]

great looking tank, might want to try refugium, or fresh air line, outside for your skimmer, or co2 absorbing media, as far as the alk, ck like you said, might need to start 2part dosing, also try cutting your gfo in half.

[Electrobes]

ChouDawg - What a great beginning for a new reef tank, awesome job!

As for your Alk issue, I have a couple questions (I may have missed some pertinent info):

- What is your dosing scheme? How do you replace used up Alkalinity and Calcium in particular?

- How are you mixing and changing water with RSCP? The instructions say you need to mix and change the water within two hours (I believe)... something that annoyed me and made me go back to Instant Ocean (I supplement it before doing my own water changes). I don't trust salt that can't stay in balance after being mixed for at least 24 hours.

[ChouDawg]

Originally Posted by Electrobes

ChouDawg - What a great beginning for a new reef tank, awesome job!

As for your Alk issue, I have a couple questions (I may have missed some pertinent info):

- What is your dosing scheme? How do you replace used up Alkalinity and Calcium in particular?

- How are you mixing and changing water with RSCP? The instructions say you need to mix and change the water within two hours (I believe)... something that annoyed me and made me go back to Instant Ocean (I supplement it before doing my own water changes). I don't trust salt that can't stay in balance after being mixed for at least 24 hours.

Thanks! I'm aiming for long term setup for this tank as all my previous tanks barely hit a year.

I currently have not been dosing because up until recently I had no test kit for the big three and all of my previous tanks thrived without dosing but they were much smaller nano tanks. I've just been doing 5 gallon water changes weekly with the regular Red Sea Salt, which I now am very curious what the levels are as I have a hunch their low from the start.

I mixed the RCSP per their instructions, room temp water around 20C, heavy flow with no aeration and no heat. Weighed out the salt and within 5 min had crystal clear water. Confirmed pH and salinity of the new water which was 8.3, label says 8.2-8.4. Even with the slight temperature and pH differences I drained and replaced the water and the corals didn't seem to mind at all. Oh ya no residue on the bucket or pump! I've always mixed SW with heavy flow, heat and for hours because that's how I did it with IO and the regular Red Sea and I gotta say imo it's WAY better to be able to mix and use it so quickly.

Let me know if there are any other details you need or if anyone has a good testing/simple dosing schedule, I'm all ears!

[ChouDawg]

Originally Posted by bmullikin1

great looking tank, might want to try refugium, or fresh air line, outside for your skimmer, or co2 absorbing media, as far as the alk, ck like you said, might need to start 2part dosing, also try cutting your gfo in half.

I do have a fuge running with some LR and chaeto. The fuge light is a standard home depot CFL flood light 5k spectrum run for 10 hours a day opposite the tank lights. I could try running an air line to my window but I don't see that being a long term fix as I can't keep my windows open all the time. I'm running half a cup of BRS regular GFO and carbon. I just replaced the GFO/Carb last week so I'll try halfing the GFO next time or should I do it now? Thanks for chiming in!

[bfin3]

Instead of cutting gfo maybe get a couple more fish

[ChouDawg]

Originally Posted by bfin3

Instead of cutting gfo maybe get a couple more fish

Have been planning to add a wrasse or two but have been holding off on any additions until I get everything situated. I'd much rather just cut my GFO than add a fish if it's the GFO causing my low pH

[mpderksen]

Beautiful job dude! Magazine quality.

[ChouDawg]

Originally Posted by mpderksen

Beautiful job dude! Magazine quality.

Ah, you're too kind, far from magazine quality but thank you!

[ChouDawg]

Here are some fish pictures from last Friday!

McCosker Wrasse




Clownin' Around





Tank Updates:
I did a 5 gallon water change last night with RSCP and another one just now. I ran test on the fresh mixed RSCP and got the following numbers:

pH: 8.3
Ca: 475
Mg: 1480
Alk: 11.8

Looks within the range on the label for 35ppt, I'm letting it mix with my tank water now then I will run a test on my tank and decide what to do depending on where it's at...to be continued..

[ChouDawg]

Alright so here are my numbers about an hour after a water change, shortly after lights out with increase since 6 days ago.

pH: 8.1 (+0.2)
Ca: 435 ppm (+30)
Mg: 1460 ppm (+220)
Alk: 5.3 dKh (+0.7)

Looks like Alk is still low, I'm planning to dose Baking Soda in my ATO tomorrow...I read I should not increase my Alk by more than 1.5 dKh/24hour is this correct? If so I plan to only raise it to 6.8 dKh over a 24 hour drip. Once I get my Alk stable I can monitor my levels in a week and see if water changes will maintain my levels or if I need to start dosing.

[dkeller_nc]

Don't raise your alkalinity more than 0.5 dKH per 24 hours. You can use Bulk Reef Supply's calculator to figure out exactly how much baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to add to achieve this. Calculate what you need, dissolve it in a glass of RODI, and add it to your sump.

One comment, however. One generally wants to add both sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride, even if it's just alkalinity that's low. Test kits for any of these parameters have a fair amount of error associated with them, and you don't want to go through a "yo-yo" cycle where your efforts to increase your alkalinity result in low calcium from abiotic precipitation of calcium carbonate.

If you don't have any calcium chloride, then you can still dose baking soda for the next several days to get your alkalinity where you want it, but you will definitely want to order some Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride soon.

By the way - It would be best to completely ignore pH values obtained from a liquid test kit. It'll give you a general idea, but they're easy to misinterpret, and pH simply doesn't matter in a reef tank unless it's way, way off (as in more than 1.0 pH units from 8.3 or so).

Nice DIY job - I've been thinking of setting up something very close to what you've done.

[TinManx]

Great looking tank!!!

[ChouDawg]

Originally Posted by TinManx

Great looking tank!!!

Originally Posted by dkeller_nc

Don't raise your alkalinity more than 0.5 dKH per 24 hours. You can use Bulk Reef Supply's calculator to figure out exactly how much baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to add to achieve this. Calculate what you need, dissolve it in a glass of RODI, and add it to your sump.

One comment, however. One generally wants to add both sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride, even if it's just alkalinity that's low. Test kits for any of these parameters have a fair amount of error associated with them, and you don't want to go through a "yo-yo" cycle where your efforts to increase your alkalinity result in low calcium from abiotic precipitation of calcium carbonate.

If you don't have any calcium chloride, then you can still dose baking soda for the next several days to get your alkalinity where you want it, but you will definitely want to order some Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride soon.

By the way - It would be best to completely ignore pH values obtained from a liquid test kit. It'll give you a general idea, but they're easy to misinterpret, and pH simply doesn't matter in a reef tank unless it's way, way off (as in more than 1.0 pH units from 8.3 or so).

Nice DIY job - I've been thinking of setting up something very close to what you've done.

Thanks a bunch for the input! I mixed up 8g of Baking Soda this morning in about 0.25 gallon of RODI and hooked up my ATO line to it. Will check how much was added in when I get home in an hour or so. At that concentration it should raise my dKh to around 6.7 which is just under a 1.5 dKh increase. I did some reading and it seemed like the acceptable dKh increase varied greatly from 0.5 dKh / 24 hour all the way up to 3.0 dKh so I decided on what I felt was a safe middle grown. Especially with the slow rate of dosing I think I should be okay. You're right I absolutely hate the liquid pH test kits but it's all I have on hand now. I do have a probe on the way for my RKL so once I get that calibrated and installed I'll have a better way of monitoring my pH for dosing.

Do you prefer to keep Sodium Bicarbonate (Alk), Calcium Chloride (Calc) and Magnesium Chloride (Mg) on hand to adjust / dose levels individually? I was planning to probably go with a 2-part solution (B-Ionic) once I get my levels in check and allow my Mg to be replenished by my weekly water changes.

[rostercp]

What is the bright red coral in your tank? I would like to do a little research on it. Thanks