Back in the game... RSR 250 build

[coley650]

Great tank and a great read!

Following along.

Thank you [emoji4] It’s getting there, I’ve been lucky in getting a handle on things that have popped up. The biggest lesson has been to balance taking action and reacting. Some things will do ok and some won’t, it’s tempting to mess around with the whole system for the sake something small that is just one of those things!

 

[dantimdad]

Thank you [emoji4] It’s getting there, I’ve been lucky in getting a handle on things that have popped up. The biggest lesson has been to balance taking action and reacting. Some things will do ok and some won’t, it’s tempting to mess around with the whole system for the sake something small that is just one of those things!

That right there is the making of a GREAT reef keeper! Most people never learn that.

 

[coley650]

This week changed the lighting to a LED/T5 hybrid. I like the look of the Giesemann Stellar but the quote was about £600 which I couldn’t really justify on a tank I’ll be upgrading in under a year.

Clocked a DIY job and the guy was nice enough to talk me through his build.

Used the Iquatics 4 bulb T5 controller which I got in the Easter sale for £115 incl 4 bulbs. I went for x2 Blue 50/50 and x2 Blue Plus. It was probably too white so ended up getting Purple Plus ATI, looks better but will swap out the other 50/50 for another Blue Plus.

So....

I switched the Radions from the mounting arms to the rail.

Got some black anodised floor edging strips.

I bent them to fit over the LED mounting rail and drilled them ready to mount the T5’s.

Drilled the reflectors and put bolts through them.

Connected the DIY mount to the rail and bolted it all together then tidied the cables up.

Pleased with how it turned out and cost under £200 incl bulbs. Turned the Radion’s down to 35% and a quick par reading shows 200-450 from the bottom up.

I’ve ramped the flow up too, annoyingly though the peacock wrasse is throwing sand and it’s keeping little bits of it suspended.

Timing... so I’ve brought a WIFI plug which I have the T5’s on with a schedule of 12:00-17:00. My question here is would you ramp up the LED’s after this as they don’t go off until 10 and 35% from 17:00 to 22:00 and a ramp down doesn’t seem effective.

 

[dantimdad]

That's pretty slick!

 

[drcrook]

How are you measuring your Nitrates, Nitrates and Phosphates and getting the great charts and displays?

 

[coley650]

How are you measuring your Nitrates, Nitrates and Phosphates and getting the great charts and displays?

I use an app called Aquarimate [emoji1417]. I like it because it can log everything in 1 place!

 

[coley650]

There’s not much to update really. My Triton ICP finally got sorted on the 2nd May, it was ok a couple of things needed dosing.

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/86187/

I’ve noticed I mainly end up dosing Potassium and Strontium. I’m going to measure how much gets used up and see if it can be dosed weekly rather than from test to test.

On Triton I find their packaging annoying to store. I get the environmental concept but storing the open cartons is frustrating. I ended up getting some food safe cartons with screw caps and I’ll reuse them.

In other news house extension is getting off to a flying start. Been thinking about the upgrade tank a lot and very much inspired by Johnny Ciotti so may try and create something similar to what he did on a RSR 250. I’m also hoping for more width on the new one, I have in mind 120x60x65cm. Plenty of time so we’ll see [emoji1417]

 

[coley650]

PH started to rise over this week. Initially I wasn’t over concerned as it was under 8.5. It’s always floated around 8.3 but peaked yesterday to 8.6.

Being at work I couldn’t do an awful lot other then try and figure out why it might have crept up. Did a round of testing when I got back and parameters were consistent to where they’ve been sitting.

NO3 - 1
PO4 - 0.046
CA - 438
MG- 1355
KH - 7.7
Salinity - 35ppt

Still struggling with low NO3 but wouldn’t have thought that be the culprit.

Checked the surface agitation which was fine as well.

Ended up doing a water change, the PH this morning was 8.5. Added some stability and it’s come down to 8.47.

I’ll keep an eye and see. The effects on the tank were grumpy corals and the loss of a small frag, must admit today after the water change everything is a lot happier so things have certainly improved. Just need to get to the why of the situation?

Had a little read up and suggestions were a dose of vinegar or bottled soda water. I won’t be using soda water but will consider vinegar if it doesn’t budge much more.

Hopefully it’s corrected, I’ll do another WC next week just to be on the safe side. [emoji1417]

 

[coley650]

Kept an eye on things the last week or so, I did end up with another coral stripping but cut it and it seems to be fine now.

The PH also looks like it’s sorted, I ended up using distilled white vinegar which worked well. Didn’t get to the root of it but it’s stayed consistent so who knows???

I was feeling a bit disheartened and was convinced I’d lose more but after some perspective taking actually I’ve had some more growth of bits and still getting great extension. Sometimes I think it’s hard to digest that sometimes some bits just don’t make it.

Plan is to keep things consistent now before considering any more additions.


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[coley650]

Silly clowns have decided to host my elegance [emoji23]. Luckily the elegance doesn’t seem to mind!

Picture under late night blues

 

[Flameback Pair]

This week changed the lighting to a LED/T5 hybrid. I like the look of the Giesemann Stellar but the quote was about £600 which I couldn’t really justify on a tank I’ll be upgrading in under a year.

Clocked a DIY job and the guy was nice enough to talk me through his build.

Used the Iquatics 4 bulb T5 controller which I got in the Easter sale for £115 incl 4 bulbs. I went for x2 Blue 50/50 and x2 Blue Plus. It was probably too white so ended up getting Purple Plus ATI, looks better but will swap out the other 50/50 for another Blue Plus.

So....

I switched the Radions from the mounting arms to the rail.

Got some black anodised floor edging strips.

I bent them to fit over the LED mounting rail and drilled them ready to mount the T5’s.

Drilled the reflectors and put bolts through them.

Connected the DIY mount to the rail and bolted it all together then tidied the cables up.

Pleased with how it turned out and cost under £200 incl bulbs. Turned the Radion’s down to 35% and a quick par reading shows 200-450 from the bottom up.

I’ve ramped the flow up too, annoyingly though the peacock wrasse is throwing sand and it’s keeping little bits of it suspended.

Timing... so I’ve brought a WIFI plug which I have the T5’s on with a schedule of 12:00-17:00. My question here is would you ramp up the LED’s after this as they don’t go off until 10 and 35% from 17:00 to 22:00 and a ramp down doesn’t seem effective.

@coley650 I love your T5 retrofit setup. I'm thinking about doing the same but emailed iQuatics to see if the T5 controller comes in 120 volt for US compatible. I might be able to use T5 retrofit ballasts from the US for compatible 120 volt. I would need something like your black anodised floor edging strips. Could you provide me a link to where I could get some strips online?

 

[coley650]

Took a few pictures to compare growth colour changes etc.

There’s around 8 weeks difference in these.

12 Weeks

Couple of Acros starting to colour up

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[coley650]

@coley650 I love your T5 retrofit setup. I'm thinking about doing the same but emailed iQuatics to see if the T5 controller comes in 120 volt for US compatible. I might be able to use T5 retrofit ballasts from the US for compatible 120 volt. I would need something like your black anodised floor edging strips. Could you provide me a link to where I could get some strips online?

Hi apologies for the delay!

Thank you! It was super simple to do!

I got the edging strip from eBay

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/152637471565

I suspect you could find the same locally, if shipping is an issue? Make sure you post pics of how you get on! I’ve been really happy with the iQuatics!

 

[Flameback Pair]

Thanks for the link @coley650 I'm definitely looking into a T5 setup like yours. I found a source here in the States for dimmable T5 ballasts and wiring that would retrofit into endcap leads and reflectors from iQuatics.

 

[coley650]

Not much to report, tank seems to be doing ok with growth still happening.

I was using a Jacod doser which I didn’t realise wasn’t feeding the tank alk, the pump was still sounding but after a weekly test my Alk was low so manually tested the pump and nothing!

Upgraded the kit ready to go on the upgrade tank which hopefully will be in place by Xmas!

Went for the Neptune Apex 2016, 2 DOS and 2 DDR. I struggled setting it up but got there!

Build going really well for the new tank, I mean house [emoji23]

 

[NY_Caveman]

I love a house designed around the tank.

 

[coley650]

I love a house designed around the tank.

Only things sprayed inside is the tank placement and plug sockets [emoji23]

 

[coley650]

So the hot weather has hit!!!!

Tank was ok at the beginning of the week however yesterday went up to 28.8! [emoji3508][emoji91][emoji91]
Obviously this is less than ideal and as we live on the 1st floor the heat comes up! Initially had a fan on, supplementary T5’s off frozen RO. Ended up with a big swing as it went to 26.5 in the night.

It was a bit of an error putting the RO ice float in earlier as it heated up toward the end of the afternoon.

Took to Amazon and brought 2 clip on desk fans for DT. Currently sat at 26.5 but expect it to climb later so hoping the 2 new fans do the trick.

On the plus the Maxspect Turbine Duo 12K return pump for the upgrade arrived today. All looks great and very robust! Now just have to be patient as I can’t play with it for months [emoji23]

 

[coley650]

Nothing too much to report, after some testing today it seems my nitrate has climbed, I do feed a lot so will feed less to bring it down. Alk has also dropped somewhat, I have some triton Alk Increaser so plan to bring it up to 7.5 over the next 8 weeks!

P04 - 0.092
N03 - 12 [emoji15]
DKH - 6

I have an ICP ready to go so will see what’s happening there.

A couple of Monti shots under blues on an iPhone so apologies for the blue!

Still looking like frag rock but still seeing growth.

My female clown isn’t playing nice, she’s living her best life in the elegance and forces the male into his little day cave. Thankfully he is eating and they still stick together at night!

Only new additions are two Malanurus wrasses, took a risk on this aggression wise but it’s been a couple of months with no issues so far.

Started to get things ready on the upgrade.

Started a slow going build thread.

Slow and steady 500L upgrade
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/Slow-and-steady-500L-upgrade.638230/

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[Flameback Pair]

@coley650 I can't remember the name of the brown wrasse with white dots and yellow tail. Is it a Tamarin wrasse? Truely a beautiful fish and so are the Melanarus wrasses. You are lucky to have them.