210 Gallon SPS dominante system.
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Thank you guysIll try to keep it updated for you
Out of curiosity, what's your SPS plans in terms of actual coral? Do you have anything specifically in mind?
As a side note, my display is 210g as well in the process of converting over to a full SPS system. I'm redoing the lights/aquascape in the next week or two. I'll be following your build closely
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alexjoha
Active Member
The Lighting
The tank has 4 Ecotech radion xr30 lamps on it, 3 of them are the G4 pros and one is a G3 pro, it will be changed out eventually but it`s been Christmas and so on so need to wait a bit before I use more on the tank.
The radions all have deflectors on them something I think is a great addon for these lights, the colors blend much better, just like BRS says and they don’t shine so much to the sides anymore.
The downside is the loss of PAR but in my case that doesn’t really matter sins I didn’t run my radions on more than 50%.
I did however test the par before and after I added the diffusers and it looks like in my case that I lose about 10% intensity in par.
So, when I increased my power output to 60% I got the same par as before I added the diffusor.
My reef has about 330-350 par at the top of the rock structure and 220-250 in the middle and about 150-170 at the sand bed.
These readings are more or less the same as on my last tank and I had great growth in that system.
I also run a Kessil H380 over my refugium, they really need to add some type of intensity control to that light because its way too strong for my setup atm.
My cheato do turn white at the top and I do need to turn it around from time to time.
But I did have great growth in the last system with this light, so I will be sticking with it.
In the future I may go with a hybrid fixture for my tank where I add some T5s to my existing radions, time will tell but it looks like people get great coloration with that combo. ;Playful
This is how the tank looks now with the current lighting setup
The tank has 4 Ecotech radion xr30 lamps on it, 3 of them are the G4 pros and one is a G3 pro, it will be changed out eventually but it`s been Christmas and so on so need to wait a bit before I use more on the tank.
The radions all have deflectors on them something I think is a great addon for these lights, the colors blend much better, just like BRS says and they don’t shine so much to the sides anymore.
The downside is the loss of PAR but in my case that doesn’t really matter sins I didn’t run my radions on more than 50%.
I did however test the par before and after I added the diffusers and it looks like in my case that I lose about 10% intensity in par.
So, when I increased my power output to 60% I got the same par as before I added the diffusor.
My reef has about 330-350 par at the top of the rock structure and 220-250 in the middle and about 150-170 at the sand bed.
These readings are more or less the same as on my last tank and I had great growth in that system.
I also run a Kessil H380 over my refugium, they really need to add some type of intensity control to that light because its way too strong for my setup atm.
My cheato do turn white at the top and I do need to turn it around from time to time.
But I did have great growth in the last system with this light, so I will be sticking with it.
In the future I may go with a hybrid fixture for my tank where I add some T5s to my existing radions, time will tell but it looks like people get great coloration with that combo. ;Playful
This is how the tank looks now with the current lighting setup
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alexjoha
Active Member
Out of curiosity, what's your SPS plans in terms of actual coral? Do you have anything specifically in mind?
As a side note, my display is 210g as well in the process of converting over to a full SPS system. I'm redoing the lights/aquascape in the next week or two. I'll be following your build closely
Hi,
I see now that my title maybe a bit miss leading, sins my system is 210 gallons of water volume not the display tank itself. Should I move my tank in to the members tanks group?
I don’t what to be miss leading, From the forum description I understood it to be water volumes.
;NailbitingMy tank will mainly consist of Acropora and millipora but I do like the branching montiporas as well. The will be some LPS like a few variants of the hammer coral, a golden torch and some Favia corals.
But it will mainly consist of SPS sins these corals are the once I am able to keep alive whit automation. For some reason I have problems with LPS corals outher then the once named.
I am away so much that I can`t spot feed LPS even thug I love Acans, they just seem to not like it in my tank.
I have lost a few high grade once in the last tank I had, so it seems like they just don’t like the way I run my reef ;Facepalm
emvanburen
Active Member
The Aquadriver is a piece of kit that most people just dream about, it`s so well made and does a great job.
I will mount up my break out box soon, I will be using it for a button panel for feeding and turning off equipment like the skimmer and so on.
I am going to add a float inn to the skimmer cup when the break out box is up and running.
Thank you for reminding me about that, any other automation you have setup on your system?
I did have a skimmer cup float up and running on an older reef tank I had, but I guess I have been a bit too lazy to add it to this setup yet.
I also would like to program my radions so that when a button is pushed they turn more white and camera friendly. Atm my tank is a pain to get a good picture of, especially with the Iphone X.
I have a D-D Coral color photographic lens that I will be using soon, just haven’t had the time to play with it yet. I will also go Hybrid soon but that`s a story for another post ;Wacky
Where to begin? I have doorbells that I use via bob for feeding - 30min where I set my return pump to 1% and knock my skimmer down to 50% so it doesn’t overflow. That keeps the food in the tank out of the filters and gives time for phyto and roids to be consumed. I have another doorbell at 45m for coral feeding that also kills my mp40 and a recirc pump in the tank. They work great.
Cabinet lights are on magnetic switches into the bob. I have two compartments - was lazy and put switches only on the sump side and just use that to turn on the other side. I keep the other side on for 15m then it shuts off. Seems to work. Switches were a pain!
I have it set up to do daily water changes - so I was able to find the idea to manually add a few gallons of saltwater to raise the salinity. “Up Salt”. This is also helpful when I pull out water for acclimation and would rather replace it with salt rather than ato. I have the opposite too but never use it.
My favorite feature is putting virtual outlets between floats/inputs and the alarms. That way, if I get an alarm that isn’t an emergency - like my house is too warm, I’m low on calcium liquid, etc - I can shut the virtual outlet off and stop the triggered alarm without cutting all the other alarms off. Peace of mind. This has the added benefit of letting me keep the name of the input standard - which tells me what it’s connected to - while giving the alarm for alerts an English name - house_hot instead of temp2 or whatever.
Oh - and I have a PM1 that I use for ambient temp (house hot) and my Alkatronic on the pH input. Love it.
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alexjoha
Active Member
Sound like you are a gear junkie too
I do have door switches ready to mount and a few different float switch types also, I did have a lot of this mounted on an older tank.
When I have the time to start again I would like to get it all mounted on this tank again, I am building my own CNC CO2 laser atm.
It will be an 80w with a cutting area of 100cm x 65cm, I will use this to get all my gear mounted on backboards with correct cut outs and so on.
(at least that’s the plan..) do you have a build tread for you system that I could look at?
I have looked in to the automation of the return pump, but sins I use the Vectra L1 then I am not able to turn it down whilst feeding and turning of the power using an EB is not a good option sins it will eventually burn out the pump. I am looking inn to getting a new return pump sins the L1 is the noisiest thing on my reef atm.
I did look in to the COR 20 but after reading about all the problems people are having, I decided that no I need something I can leave running and don’t have to be afraid of stopping.
I would love to get an abyss pump but it`s not in the budget atm.
;Blackeye
vetteguy53081
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Wow- Nicely done !!!
emvanburen
Active Member
Sound like you are a gear junkie too
I do have door switches ready to mount and a few different float switch types also, I did have a lot of this mounted on an older tank.
When I have the time to start again I would like to get it all mounted on this tank again, I am building my own CNC CO2 laser atm.
It will be an 80w with a cutting area of 100cm x 65cm, I will use this to get all my gear mounted on backboards with correct cut outs and so on.
(at least that’s the plan..) do you have a build tread for you system that I could look at?
I have looked in to the automation of the return pump, but sins I use the Vectra L1 then I am not able to turn it down whilst feeding and turning of the power using an EB is not a good option sins it will eventually burn out the pump. I am looking inn to getting a new return pump sins the L1 is the noisiest thing on my reef atm.
I did look in to the COR 20 but after reading about all the problems people are having, I decided that no I need something I can leave running and don’t have to be afraid of stopping.
I would love to get an abyss pump but it`s not in the budget atm.
My build thread is here. EVB's Red Sea Max S 650 LED
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sh...B's-Red-Sea-Max-S-650-LED.98002/&share_type=t
My new YouTube channel is here. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL6eh-EIDjF7xBux6V-2N9Q. The channel overview video is your best bet.
It’s been fun making things work!
Thanks.
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alexjoha
Active Member
I liked the channel video you made, hope you do more of those with a walkthrough of your setup and programing, some future plans and so on. You have a good voice for doing videos
Haven`t been able to look to much at your build tread yet but your system from the video looks well planned.
But why did you add those reactors? Sounds like the added a lot of water noise to your setup?
What was the problem with the old once?
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alexjoha
Active Member
Nutrient problem
The reason why I haven’t shared any photos of corals and live stock from this tank yet is because I have had a struggle with my corals bleaching out. They do still encrust on the rock and do have great polyp extension, but they have lost more or less all color. I have tried to figure out what`s been the problem. They did start to lose the color when they were in the tank down stairs, I had an algae bloom with hair algae down there and that`s when it started. So, after getting that sorted I hoped they would get their color back. But they never really got the color back, it took a few months before the tank upstairs was ready, and I hoped that the coral would recover and get the color back over time in the larger system.
6 months have past now, and the color are starting to come back after a lot of trial and error. First, I **** it had to be a lighting or flow problem, so I tried them in different places and under different par settings, but I knew the par was the same as it always had been. But flow could have changed. I got a few new corals too and they started to lose color too after a few weeks. They were still alive and did encrust to the rock. I sent in an ICP test to triton and got back that I needed to buffer a few things, ill share the document with you guys.
It took some time to get a hold of all the elements that was low in my tank. But I have dosed everything they recommended now, and a few months have passed. I will need to ship in a new ICP when I get back from work.
But I have never gotten a reading on the PO4 or the Nitrate test kits, and my macro algae had stopped growing more or less. I have never had algae grow in my main display either.
I need to empty my skimmer cup every 4-5 weeks, something that`s way less then the old tank.
So, after watching one of fishofhex videos on YouTube it hit me, it has to be the lack of nutrients. I have an oversized skimmer, a large refugium with a strong light.
Lighting period of 12 hours on in the sump and I feed once a day.
What I have done to increase my nutrients to this date is, increased feeding to 3 times a day, turned down the lighting period of my refugium to 3 hours a day. Turned down my skimmer wattage to 36w but keep my foam at the same Hight in the bottom of the cup. I also started dosing redsea energy A and B. and my color is finally coming back.
But ill take more pictures of the corals when I get back home and try to give you guys some before and after photos.
The reason why I haven’t shared any photos of corals and live stock from this tank yet is because I have had a struggle with my corals bleaching out. They do still encrust on the rock and do have great polyp extension, but they have lost more or less all color. I have tried to figure out what`s been the problem. They did start to lose the color when they were in the tank down stairs, I had an algae bloom with hair algae down there and that`s when it started. So, after getting that sorted I hoped they would get their color back. But they never really got the color back, it took a few months before the tank upstairs was ready, and I hoped that the coral would recover and get the color back over time in the larger system.
6 months have past now, and the color are starting to come back after a lot of trial and error. First, I **** it had to be a lighting or flow problem, so I tried them in different places and under different par settings, but I knew the par was the same as it always had been. But flow could have changed. I got a few new corals too and they started to lose color too after a few weeks. They were still alive and did encrust to the rock. I sent in an ICP test to triton and got back that I needed to buffer a few things, ill share the document with you guys.
It took some time to get a hold of all the elements that was low in my tank. But I have dosed everything they recommended now, and a few months have passed. I will need to ship in a new ICP when I get back from work.
But I have never gotten a reading on the PO4 or the Nitrate test kits, and my macro algae had stopped growing more or less. I have never had algae grow in my main display either.
I need to empty my skimmer cup every 4-5 weeks, something that`s way less then the old tank.
So, after watching one of fishofhex videos on YouTube it hit me, it has to be the lack of nutrients. I have an oversized skimmer, a large refugium with a strong light.
Lighting period of 12 hours on in the sump and I feed once a day.
What I have done to increase my nutrients to this date is, increased feeding to 3 times a day, turned down the lighting period of my refugium to 3 hours a day. Turned down my skimmer wattage to 36w but keep my foam at the same Hight in the bottom of the cup. I also started dosing redsea energy A and B. and my color is finally coming back.
But ill take more pictures of the corals when I get back home and try to give you guys some before and after photos.
emvanburen
Active Member
I liked the channel video you made, hope you do more of those with a walkthrough of your setup and programing, some future plans and so on. You have a good voice for doing videos
Haven`t been able to look to much at your build tread yet but your system from the video looks well planned.
But why did you add those reactors? Sounds like the added a lot of water noise to your setup?
What was the problem with the old once?
Thanks. I have a number of new videos planned - just need to get home from travel and have some time to record / shoot / edit them! Soon - I promise.
As will be said in one of the videos - I want easy maintenance and my aquamaxx reactor was a pain. Hard to get to, hard to remove, hard to change. Spyglasses are easy. And not as much noise as might appear. Thanks
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alexjoha
Active Member
Hybrid Lightning
I have been back and forth, if I am going to go with a hybrid T5 led fixture, should I go with a finished product? Or maybe I should make one myself, just adding some 80w t5 lights to a canopy. The problem is that I don`t want it to look to bulky and I don`t like when the entire top of my tank is covered. I have seen some nice looking fixtures on the market in the US but none of them have been available in the shops here in Norway.
About a week ago my local shop announced that they would be a proud sellers of the Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid lights. The fixtures looked great, but the shop didn’t have the size I would need, they only had the 24w,39w and the 54w fixtures and I need the 80w fixture. The reason the shop didn’t have the 80w fixtures was that they don`t fit on a pallet and need to be shipped one by one. So, the shipping was higher.
After talking back and forth he got a price from the Aquatic life European distributer, the price was good ok, so I have just ordered one!
It will be here in about a week! I will try to take a lot of pictures for you guys!
I am not shure what type of bulbs I will go for yet though, any suggestions?
I have been back and forth, if I am going to go with a hybrid T5 led fixture, should I go with a finished product? Or maybe I should make one myself, just adding some 80w t5 lights to a canopy. The problem is that I don`t want it to look to bulky and I don`t like when the entire top of my tank is covered. I have seen some nice looking fixtures on the market in the US but none of them have been available in the shops here in Norway.
About a week ago my local shop announced that they would be a proud sellers of the Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid lights. The fixtures looked great, but the shop didn’t have the size I would need, they only had the 24w,39w and the 54w fixtures and I need the 80w fixture. The reason the shop didn’t have the 80w fixtures was that they don`t fit on a pallet and need to be shipped one by one. So, the shipping was higher.
After talking back and forth he got a price from the Aquatic life European distributer, the price was good ok, so I have just ordered one!
It will be here in about a week! I will try to take a lot of pictures for you guys!
I am not shure what type of bulbs I will go for yet though, any suggestions?
JoeIII
Well-Known Member
Just put that same fixture in here, we love it so far.
I went with blue plus and coral plus t5 bulbs, not sure I like them. Too white compared to the ab+ program on the radions, which I am very happy with.
Ab+ is said to replicate blue plus and aqua blue special in a 4:1 ratio, so I think I will try those when the coral plus are due fore replacement.
I went with blue plus and coral plus t5 bulbs, not sure I like them. Too white compared to the ab+ program on the radions, which I am very happy with.
Ab+ is said to replicate blue plus and aqua blue special in a 4:1 ratio, so I think I will try those when the coral plus are due fore replacement.
Hey bud, I just read your post on coral nutrition. I too recently started to address my nutrient problem as my n03/po4 has been 0 for close to a year. I've started to dose pure n03 and I've been hovering around 3-5ppm since. I'm hoping to maintain these levels and track the progress.
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alexjoha
Active Member
Hi,
Do you dose KNO3 then salt then? or what do you use to dose nitrates?
Ill try out the Brightwell NeoNitro for a while sins I can’t get a hold of KNO3 atm.
Hope it will give me some color, did you see a difference?
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alexjoha
Active Member
I haven’t landed on what T5 bulbs I’ll go for, but I do have 30-40 80w T5 bulbs in different brands left over after I did buy out the local shop when they shutdown.
So, I have some gisseman, some ati and some Redsea. So, I will just need to look over what I have and then decide on a combo
Hi,
Do you dose KNO3 then salt then? or what do you use to dose nitrates?
Ill try out the Brightwell NeoNitro for a while sins I can’t get a hold of KNO3 atm.
Hope it will give me some color, did you see a difference?
I dose KNO3 through GreenLeafAquariums's powdered product. I mix 50 grams in 500ml of water (which in my system, raises nitrates by 1ppm~ for every 15ml I dose). It's FAR cheaper than NeoNitro and safer than stump remover.
Long term, doing what I'm doing isn't ideal. I shouldn't have to dose nitrates, but for now with my lack of fish it's kind of required. As a side note, my tank has been up and running for a year.
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alexjoha
Active Member
I did want to order from GreenLeafAquariums but they don’t ship to Norway, they do ship to countries inside the EU but sins Norway isn’t a part of the EU, then they couldn’t ship to me.
They needed a document that was 12 pages large that they don`t have.
KNO3 Is fertilizer and could be used in a bomb so it`s regulated quite hard.
So, guess I’ll have to go for a finished product. I do however have fish in QT atm ready to move in to my tank soon, so I hope I don’t have to dose over time.
Got to check out your tank build and your youtube channel, like the format of your videos keep them coming
