120G Rimless shallow peninsula tank

[Janci]

Latest pictures...

When i got this it was completely brown.

This is the same coral as in the previous post but in different lighting.

This milli used to have the most PE of the complete tank. Still it needs time to get back on track but seems happy already.

Nice blue tips

I try to get these 2 montis to grow next to each other. The green one is an Aussie which started growing well from a tiny frag, till one of the tangs broke it in one of the tank chases... The other piece I could recover and put on another rock.

One of the little zoas still remaining. The rest is eaten or has disappeared.

 

[Janci]

I was out of town for the last 2 days and did not install the auto feeder.
As my wife was at home I assumed she would feed the fish (apparently I did not ask with so many words) but she did not. My fault of course...
But when I came back I saw that some sps coral had white spots. Like small patches were damaged.
Later I observed one of the hippo tangs nipping on the corals... I guess they got hungry in the past days and found another food source.

They were very tiny when I got them (named Paracanthurus hepatus) and have now developed more colour. According to the fish store owner, the ones with a yellow belly are known to nip more and faster on corals than the full blue tangs.
Mine are 2 yellow belly tangs... so they will have to go to a new home.
Catching them is another story as they are very shy and as soon as I move my hand above the tank, they dive in the rocks and hold still.
So the trap is set for tonight. I will put some seaweed and hope they enter before the rest of the fish run away with the it.

Another update is this.... no more T5... all LED now.
As some one offered me a great deal for the XR30 G4 Pros, I took it and quickly fabricated an aluminium structure for 3 Radions and the 2 GHL Lightbars to cover a little bit more the sides of the tank.
Right now all is on aclimation.
The side of the canopy will be covered later with a white sheet to have a cleaner look.

Fish traps are already set in below pictures.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

What made you get rid of the T5’s ? And am I glad that I have a pair of XR15PRO’s G4’s over my tank! Seeing you switching over is making me glad that I decided to go with G4’s and T5’s !

 

[Janci]

What made you get rid of the T5’s ? And am I glad that I have a pair of XR15PRO’s G4’s over my tank! Seeing you switching over is making me glad that I decided to go with G4’s and T5’s !

I got a very good deal on the radions and was missing the pop and shimmer from full LED.
I know there are other ways to add LED, but this was a deal I could not refuse.
I also noticed that my T5s did not give so much PAR. The corals placed closest to the fixture received only 300 par. Enough you should think but I expected more from the T5 setup.
The 3 radions only give that PAR at 50% intensity.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

I got a very good deal on the radions and was missing the pop and shimmer from full LED.
I k ow there are other ways to add LED, but this was a deal I could not refuse.
I also noticed that my T5s did not give so much PAR. The corals placed closest to the fixture received only 300 par. Enough you should think but I expected more from the T5 setup.
The 3 radions only give that PAR at 50% intensity.

That’s good to know about the Radions , and I love mine even though I don’t have coral just yet in my build. But I know I am very impressed with as much light output that they have ! I understand you on the deals that you can’t pass up !!

 

[Iceman001]

I was out of town for the last 2 days and did not install the auto feeder.
As my wife was at home I assumed she would feed the fish (apparently I did not ask with so many words) but she did not. My fault of course...
But when I came back I saw that some sps coral had white spots. Like small patches were damaged.
Later I observed one of the hippo tangs nipping on the corals... I guess they got hungry in the past days and found another food source.

They were very tiny when I got them (named Paracanthurus hepatus) and have now developed more colour. According to the fish store owner, the ones with a yellow belly are known to nip more and faster on corals than the full blue tangs.
Mine are 2 yellow belly tangs... so they will have to go to a new home.
Catching them is another story as they are very shy and as soon as I move my hand above the tank, they dive in the rocks and hold still.
So the trap is set for tonight. I will put some seaweed and hope they enter before the rest of the fish run away with the it.

Another update is this.... no more T5... all LED now.
As some one offered me a great deal for the XR30 G4 Pros, I took it and quickly fabricated an aluminium structure for 3 Radions and the 2 GHL Lightbars to cover a little bit more the sides of the tank.
Right now all is on aclimation.
The side of the canopy will be covered later with a white sheet to have a cleaner look.

Fish traps are already set in below pictures.

Awesome, Love the canopy.

 

[tj w]

Looking great Janci, a beautiful system indeed. Looking forward to following more.

 

[Janci]

GHL Santa got my special delivery in time.
These dosers are massive and looks very well build. Much heavier and bigger than the DOSER 2.1 but will be great for the AWC system.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

That GHL Maxi looks amazing !!!! Love the black ! We match lol !! I am looking at either a pair of the Maxis , or a Doser 2.1 !

 

[Janci]

Winter holidays are past so we are back in town.
Left the tank on auto pilot for the last 2 weeks with ATO and an auto feeder.
On returning i found 2 acros completely STN’ed and a 3rd on his way.
One was a nice millipora which was doing fine when i bought it about 6 months ago but was less happy in the past months. I guess it never fully recovered from the ALK swings during the calcium reactor set up.

I have not done any water change yet, not even tested the parameters but will do that soon.

I did take some pictures to keep some track of the growth. Now with the radions it is easier to get a good light setting with less blues.
I have to say, the radions do a good job. The AB+ setting was a good choice as i see some nice growth here and there.

 

[Janci]

So the corals are doing good, except for the STN issue.
And there is more bad news...

I found montipora eating nudibranch on some corals frags.
I did not take a picture because as soon as I saw them, I took the frag out. These nudibranch are believed to have come in on another frag which was dipped. Seems like in the past weeks there must have been some eggs that were hatched and they made a feast on the montipora.
I did not want to take any changes and removed the frags, hoping the nudibranch were only there.
I have other montis in the tank (picture in previous post) so lets hope for the best.

During the holidays I received the GHL Doser Maxi and brought it home to instal the AWC.
During setup there were some difficulties to get the calibration right and turns out that 1 stepper motor is not working properly.
GHL is sending me a new one (at least they promised that) but that will take a while I guess.

So we continue with water changes for now.

 

[najer]

Sorry to hear about the losses and bugs, great pics as always.

 

[Janci]

Yesterday was maintenance day.

I had not done a water change since mid December and this was very overdue. With the end of year festivities and getting back to work there was not much time left to put a lot of time on the tank.

I started yesterday with taking out about 15% of water and a thorough glass cleaning. Taking out water is done much faster then the glass cleaning.

After that tried to clean the MP40's which was no success. The quantity of coralline is too much. Luckily I have a spare wet cover and I will soak the dirty covers one by one in vinegar to get them clean again.

Skimmer cleaned and new carbon in the reactor.

I also opened my return pump and found some disturbing damage at the rotor. There is some rust on the rotor of the impeller which should not be there after less then 1 year of use. I wrote to Royal Exclusiv Support to find out if they replace it for me. Due to the weekend I hope for a positive answer next week.

I further removed some dead corals and placed some frags in the open spaces. Water parameters were ok but some coral have STN'ed in the past weeks due to unknown reasons. They are fine and growing but all of a sudden they start losing tissue without any clear reason.

Is it the flow due to dirty impellers? Is it lack of nutrients? Light?

I am sending an ICP test again this week to find out more.


Further some picture taken from the top:

 

[Rakie]

Everything looks great! I love seeing beautiful bare bottom reef tanks. I'm always tempted but never could pull the trigger.

@Janci -- If I could convince you to do one thing, it would be get the diffusers for your G4's. Holy cow are they a game changer, they are more than they're cracked up to be. Just put mine on tonight and it's beyond a simple 'improvement'. Total game changer.

 

[Janci]

Everything looks great! I love seeing beautiful bare bottom reef tanks. I'm always tempted but never could pull the trigger.

@Janci -- If I could convince you to do one thing, it would be get the diffusers for your G4's. Holy cow are they a game changer, they are more than they're cracked up to be. Just put mine on tonight and it's beyond a simple 'improvement'. Total game changer.

Lol. Waiting to see your tank with those diffusors!
It might take a while till they are available here in UAE.
Which would also give me some time to read first impressions.

 

[Rakie]

Lol. Waiting to see your tank with those diffusors!
It might take a while till they are available here in UAE.
Which would also give me some time to read first impressions.

People are saying it's not that great, because it lowers par by about 15% or more. Those people are both A) Missing it's entire point and B) Apparently unaware that running G4's above 65% gives MOST people severe coral death! So raising the par is easy, and not an issue to almost anybody. Also, I went from having my radion 14" off the water, to 9" off the water. The spread is HUGE, and this was designed to be used with an RMS. Any higher and most of the light isn't even making it inside the tank anymore.

This is what LED lighting has needed for years. It basically is the best upgrade the Radions have ever received, and it's a freaking piece of thin plastic -_-

The Pros:
- Balances spectrum, improving coral color immediately -- not on a biological level, on a straight up 'lighting' level
- Diminishes Shadows
- Gives the coral more light, reaching the sides and undersides of corals a little better
- Improves spread dramatically
- Reduces HotSpots
- Easier on the eyes having the LED's covered physically if you're watching TV or sitting on a couch, etc etc
- Looks basically like T5 with some shimmer -- Less than a halide, but very much halide like shimmer.
- Removes discoball effect almost entirely
- Cheap

The Cons:
- Flimsy, because it's very thin plastic
- Doesn't fit as snug as I'd like

I've seen these in person months ago -- the improvement they make is as dramatic as going from a G3 to a G4, maybe more.. I can't say enough good things about it.

Now to get some photos that don't suck. . .

 

[Janci]

I wanted to share this with you.
This is the reef of a friend of mine. It is a 400 gallon tank that ran just over 2 years and was taken down last week.
The branches and tips of the impressive green slimer had reached the front and back side of the tank. That is a diameter of 32 inches.
Enjoy.

 

[sebastiaan1985]

People are saying it's not that great, because it lowers par by about 15% or more. Those people are both A) Missing it's entire point and B) Apparently unaware that running G4's above 65% gives MOST people severe coral death! So raising the par is easy, and not an issue to almost anybody. Also, I went from having my radion 14" off the water, to 9" off the water. The spread is HUGE, and this was designed to be used with an RMS. Any higher and most of the light isn't even making it inside the tank anymore.

This is what LED lighting has needed for years. It basically is the best upgrade the Radions have ever received, and it's a freaking piece of thin plastic -_-

The Pros:
- Balances spectrum, improving coral color immediately -- not on a biological level, on a straight up 'lighting' level
- Diminishes Shadows
- Gives the coral more light, reaching the sides and undersides of corals a little better
- Improves spread dramatically
- Reduces HotSpots
- Easier on the eyes having the LED's covered physically if you're watching TV or sitting on a couch, etc etc
- Looks basically like T5 with some shimmer -- Less than a halide, but very much halide like shimmer.
- Removes discoball effect almost entirely
- Cheap

The Cons:
- Flimsy, because it's very thin plastic
- Doesn't fit as snug as I'd like

I've seen these in person months ago -- the improvement they make is as dramatic as going from a G3 to a G4, maybe more.. I can't say enough good things about it.

Now to get some photos that don't suck. . .

Anyone tried these on G3 Pro's?

 

[Rakie]

Yeah that green slimer is no joke LOL. Nice big colony.

 

[SuperHaze57]

I wanted to share this with you.
This is the reef of a friend of mine. It is a 400 gallon tank that ran just over 2 years and was taken down last week.
The branches and tips of the impressive green slimer had reached the front and back side of the tank. That is a diameter of 32 inches.
Enjoy.

Awesome tank and system! I really like what you've done from start to finish. With that being said is there ever a finish lol