Ash's 400 Gallon Reef

Ashish Patel · Dec 6, 2022

Few more shots of blue vat system that i wanted to get rid of, however this systems saved so many corals so gotta just let it be. Eventually ill just use the lights and mp40s on a frag tank connected to the 400g. This system has bunch of liverock pest i am avoiding by running smaller frags through QT. I have aiptasia, astrena starfish, bubble algae, - which i never plan on dealing outside of my QT, which i have avoided even getting them in QT

Ashish Patel · Dec 6, 2022

If my new frags (5 front row) dont do well in my QT i will have no choice but to move them to the blue vat. However so far so good.. i have a feeling QT is good since i have coraline growing and some of the older corals are coloring up

Ashish Patel · Dec 6, 2022

Some more shots in my QT

Ashish Patel · Dec 16, 2022

Since My PO where out of control (1.1PPM) i did alot of research and got Phosban-L and dosed about 35ML solution in 48 hours to my reef tank. I effectively dropped my PO down to .20PPM. I used a feeding bag and dripped into a filter sock and just used one of my secondary drain. I dropped it alot more than my calculation but since i was off the chart and had to dilute the test water - I am sure testing could have been off.

I am so impressed with this product. The speed and price point is unbeatable. I for sure do not recommend this to any new hobbyist. I did dose a good amount but realized I was going to fast at first and later just had it 60ML solution diluted to 1200ML and doing a drop per 3-4 second is better than a drop per second. Dripping to fast or having too much flow in the sock results in cloudy water and I feel that will impact the health of the fish. Slower it is the better since the Protein skimmer can remove the PO over the course of the day.

I for sure have to setup a refugium or something so I can keep the PO in range of say .05PPM to .30PPM. Only if I see them going higher and higher I will use this product again for sure, but hopefully my corals and algae can be the main PO consumers.

Ashish Patel · Jan 2, 2023

Replacing 1" seaswirl return with a 2" p trap. The water flow increased over 2X and getting good turnover through the sump.

Ashish Patel · Jan 2, 2023

PO are a major issue. Daily it increases by .5 ppm so i have to dose LC every 4 days.

flagg37 · Jan 2, 2023

That seems really high. Where do you suppose it is coming from?

Ashish Patel · Jan 2, 2023

Wow. Finally getting good sump turnover... for the past 12 month i was at about 1.5X turnover through my sump. Initially it was fine but my fish have grown maybe 5 times in mass and my Phosphates increase daily at a mind boggling pace. By removing the 1" outlet and replacing it with a long sweep 2" trap i feel like I am easily over 5x turnover. My return pump is 6400gph at 0 head and has a max height of 24 feet. I am at 12 feet so like to think i am at 2000GPH

Ashish Patel · Jan 2, 2023

flagg37 said:
That seems really high. Where do you suppose it is coming from?

I just think its bc of lack of sump turnover and tangs are massive now and need to be fed heavy otherwise they get nippy. I also started getting high PO after adding 13 massive snails (4 months back) they have close to the mass of fish. If I had it my way I would like the option to run my turnover at 15X turnover when PO are too high - my last system I controlled my PO with this method.

I am still learning how to run a big tank. I feel smaller tank are easier to manage nutrients bc they have oversized gear relative to size of tank plus 10-20 turnover helps remove a lot of crap before it breaks down. In my system i was seeing alot of particles just hanging around the tank for few hours. Larger tanks have much larger fish compared to smaller tank so I find having a PO removal system has become a necessity. I know once the tank is packed with corals the PO will stablize to the point i can test monthly and bring it down if needed.

Ashish Patel · Jan 4, 2023

Under the tank

Ashish Patel · Jan 6, 2023

Added a bunch of new corals. Tank is about 5 months so still not mature but getting there

5 acros
5 montis
5 zoas
2 Acans
2 favias

Stylo, acan, and 2 montis been in the tank for 4 months and miraculously survived..i conside anything that survived my garlic and high light intensity a hardy coral

Ashish Patel · Jan 6, 2023

Ashish Patel · Jan 8, 2023

Ashish Patel said:
My Ph right now mid day is 8.24
How good is this? No corals or refugium yet.

6 month laters and lights at 50% intensity and some corals and the PH has increased considerably. Even during night it still stay above or slightly below. 8.3

This is with 1.5L kalk but what i found keeps it elevated is dosing it for 18 hrs or 3 hrs b4 full intensity and restarting dosing half way through full intensity. I moved this 6 hour window few hours and PH was reduced signicantly

Ashish Patel · Jan 8, 2023

Also, since increasing flow to my sump i just spend few mins to make this to dampen the noise. I believe this exposure to air increased PH to 2000gph of water. Also i used 1"pvc pipe that had holes from frag rack, i believe this helped.

Curious how much higher my PH will go when i am actually dosing few gallons of Kalk. In the future i feel my ph could easily sit 8.4-8.5

Ashish Patel · Jan 10, 2023

Its 9:30pm, these fish have gotten food every 75min since 11am and they still hungry.

Ashish Patel · Jan 10, 2023

The point where you know your tanks too young for acros but your patients is out and crossing your fingers for growth and not death...tanks too bright for my zoas but surprising since Par isnt ridiculous at the bottom. Run t5 for 2hours with 4×80watts T5 bulbs can be stressful to get acclimated too. I started at 1 hour last week. Maybe increase every 2 days by 15mins