d2mini's "Mixed Reefalicious" Cade 600 Build

[BigAl07]

it's been about a year and half since I started this tank and it has FINALLY hit a good spot.
No more hair algae, no more bugs, parameters are actually stable, and SPS are starting to look better and beginning to get some growth.
Whoever said smaller tanks are easier is full of B.S.!

Your tank looks AMAZING! Too bad you don't have AWESOME photo skills (heavy sarcasm there lol)

You're one heck of an inspiration and always have been. Thank you for being an awesome mentor and inspiration.

 

[2Plus2]

it's been about a year and half since I started this tank and it has FINALLY hit a good spot.
No more hair algae, no more bugs, parameters are actually stable, and SPS are starting to look better and beginning to get some growth.
Whoever said smaller tanks are easier is full of B.S.!

LOL!!, So ill give ya a quick run down of what i have sofar. (We have "downgraded" so much you and I.)
Wait I don't see nothing ecotech? what happened? I remember you were big on that with your first big cube build.

This is a tiny list of what i have sofar, i will link you my build thread when i finally get around to taking pics.

1. Tank: Red Sea Reef 200G2+ Tank/Stand Only. (It does come with a glass sump, ATO, and plumbing all which I'm not using.)

2. Lights: Radion XR30 G6 Pro paired with a Reef Brite XHO 15" attachment kit. (Actinic.)

3. Sump: Fiji-20 advanced reef sump.

4. Plumbing: Complete custom work.

 

[d2mini]

LOL!!, So ill give ya a quick run down of what i have sofar. (We have "downgraded" so much you and I.)
Wait I don't see nothing ecotech? what happened? I remember you were big on that with your first big cube build.

This is a tiny list of what i have sofar, i will link you my build thread when i finally get around to taking pics.

1. Tank: Red Sea Reef 200G2+ Tank/Stand Only. (It does come with a glass sump, ATO, and plumbing all which I'm not using.)

2. Lights: Radion XR30 G6 Pro paired with a Reef Brite XHO 15" attachment kit. (Actinic.)

3. Sump: Fiji-20 advanced reef sump.

4. Plumbing: Complete custom work.

Sounds good! What made you decide to replace the G2 sump with the Fiji? The Fiji does look nice.

I should probably see if I can fit one of those reefbrite to my Mitras. I could use a little extra coverage. Cubes are tough to light evenly.

 

[LBCBJ]

it's been about a year and half since I started this tank and it has FINALLY hit a good spot.
No more hair algae, no more bugs, parameters are actually stable, and SPS are starting to look better and beginning to get some growth.
Whoever said smaller tanks are easier is full of B.S.!

Looking awesome!

What would you attribute to winning your hair algae battle?

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Doing a thing here Dennis! Bear with me I swear it will make sense soon

 

[d2mini]

Looking awesome!

What would you attribute to winning your hair algae battle?

Good question, thanks for asking!
It was a long road.

Battling any algae outbreak is always extremely difficult. There are so many variables. And then we want it gone as quickly as possible so we tend to be impatient and implement multiple changes so it's hard to know which individual thing made the difference, or which combo. But here's the strategy I implemented, pretty much listed by priority.

1. Nutrient control (might not be what you think)
2. CUC
3. Manual Removal
4. Water Changes/Blowing off the rocks
5. Reef Moonshiners - is anything fueling it?
6. PATIENCE!

Notice that there is no bottled "quick fix" up there.
I strongly believe in finding and fixing the source of the problem, not using a bandaid sort of solution, no matter how many people say it worked for them. I knew there was SOMETHING that caused the HA to appear in the first place, just needed to figure out what it was.

And past experience told me it wasn't lighting. So I didn't even mess with blackouts, reductions, spectrum changes, etc.

NUTRIENT CONTROL: I had fluctuating nutrient levels. Started with high p04 and no3, then it dropped to nothing, then it was back up, then back down to near nothing... Never at zero for long but it hit undetectable levels. One thing I have learned over the years is nutrients are not a bad thing but ZERO nutrients are and can lead to the dreaded dinos. So I concentrated on stabilizing Po4 and No3. No3 in the 5-6ppm range, knowing I could deviate a little either way. And p04 between .06 to .1
I had to dose both of these, putting them on my doser.

CUC: Tried to up my CUC collection. More snails, hermits, etc. Mexican Turbos seemed to help. I tried a couple of back short spine urchins, but they barely moved around for me. Tried a couple of emerald crabs, neither of which survived. The best thing by a MILE was the Sea Hare. He mowed it all down. Thought it was gone and didn't want him to starve so I brought him back to my LFS. Unfortunately, it came back!

MANUAL REMOVAL: Absolutely HAVE to do this. I did this pretty much every weekend. Used my fingers to grab what I could, then went back with a stiff toothbrush and scrubbed off whatever else I could manage to reach. Most CUC (other than the sea hare) won't touch the longer stuff. It has to be right down to the rock.

WATER CHANGES: I wasn't doing them really, since I do the Reef Moonshiners which replaces all elements. My socks and skimmer were doing the nutrient removal. But I went back to doing small daily water changes. Easy to swap out 4 liters of water on a small tank. The small changes wouldn't mess with the moonshiners program. And trying to remember to blow off the rocks. The HA is good at collecting a lot of debris. I don't know if this helps feed it or not but just in general it seemed like a good idea to get that stuff out into the water column so it could get filtered out. I just use a turkey baster to blow it out.

REEF MOONSHINERS: As I said, I follow this program which replaces all elements. ICP tests weren't showing anything either way. Nothing really elevated. But I started thinking about which minor ones could possibly be contributing to the algae, or at the least preventing it from going away. I have no idea if this helped, but a few weeks before it really stopped coming back I stopped my daily IRON dosing. Could totally be a coincidence and just the fact that all the previous items above had been working for me, but it was at this point I really starting seeing a positive change where I could definitely say it was on it's way out. When I would get to my weekend algae-pulling chore, there were be noticeably less than the previous week.

And here I am... totally free of GHA!
Can't really say for sure what it was in the end but I'm a happy camper.

 

[Snoopy 67]

 

[aaron186]

Doing a thing here Dennis! Bear with me I swear it will make sense soon

 

[2Plus2]

Sounds good! What made you decide to replace the G2 sump with the Fiji? The Fiji does look nice.

I should probably see if I can fit one of those reefbrite to my Mitras. I could use a little extra coverage. Cubes are tough to light evenly.

Sounds good! What made you decide to replace the G2 sump with the Fiji? The Fiji does look nice.

I should probably see if I can fit one of those reefbrite to my Mitras. I could use a little extra coverage. Cubes are tough to light evenly.

Honestly I don't like anything Red Sea other than the tank and stand, They don't have premium quality things other than those 2 things, IMO. (We obviously know about that bad batch of tanks that leaked years later.)

But if i can start all over I would go with a custom tank, but there is so many ifs and or butts, no brand gives me what I want.. A great stand with a tank that has great dimensions.

Red Sea came the closes to hitting all my targets, I just hate one thing from the tank the 3 different glass sizes they use, WHY? LIKE WHY? and their custom plumbing your forced to deal with, but Ive found a work around.

The supplied sump IMO is junk, any sump that comes with a package kinda sucks to me, they're layout, options, features, build quality, and it usually being glass. Were always in the sump messing with stuff, and i would feel a lot better knowing its acrylic.

The Fiji-20 is amazing, Ill send you some detailed pics when im done with, and It adding an additional 10 gallons is a plus.

I'm trying to go with a Coralvue Hydros system, but sofar I'm not impressed. I've reached out to them to ask a simple question but I haven't received a message.

 

[LBCBJ]

Good question, thanks for asking!
It was a long road.

Battling any algae outbreak is always extremely difficult. There are so many variables. And then we want it gone as quickly as possible so we tend to be impatient and implement multiple changes so it's hard to know which individual thing made the difference, or which combo. But here's the strategy I implemented, pretty much listed by priority.

1. Nutrient control (might not be what you think)
2. CUC
3. Manual Removal
4. Water Changes
5. Reef Moonshiners - is anything fueling it?
6. PATIENCE!

Notice that there is no bottled "quick fix" up there.
I strongly believe in finding and fixing the source of the problem, not using a bandaid sort of solution, no matter how many people say it worked for them. I knew there was SOMETHING that caused the HA to appear in the first place, just needed to figure out what it was.

And past experience told me it wasn't lighting. So I didn't even mess with blackouts, reductions, spectrum changes, etc.

NUTRIENT CONTROL: I had fluctuating nutrient levels. Started with high p04 and no3, then it dropped to nothing, then it was back up, then back down to near nothing... Never at zero for long but it hit undetectable levels. One thing I have learned over the years is nutrients are not a bad thing but ZERO nutrients are and can lead to the dreaded dinos. So I concentrated on stabilizing Po4 and No3. No3 in the 5-6ppm range, knowing I could deviate a little either way. And p04 between .06 to .1
I had to dose both of these, putting them on my doser.

CUC: Tried to up my CUC collection. More snails, hermits, etc. Mexican Turbos seemed to help. I tried a couple of back short spine urchins, but they barely moved around for me. Tried a couple of emerald crabs, neither of which survived. The best thing by a MILE was the Sea Hare. He mowed it all down. Thought it was gone and didn't want him to starve so I brought him back to my LFS. Unfortunately, it came back!

MANUAL REMOVAL: Absolutely HAVE to do this. I did this pretty much every weekend. Used my fingers to grab what I could, then went back with a stiff toothbrush and scrubbed off whatever else I could manage to reach. Most CUC (other than the sea hare) won't touch the longer stuff. It has to be right down to the rock.

WATER CHANGES: I wasn't doing them really, since I do the Reef Moonshiners which replaces all elements. My socks and skimmer were doing the nutrient removal. But I went back to doing small daily water changes. Easy to swap out 4 liters of water on a small tank. The small changes wouldn't mess with the moonshiners program.

REEF MOONSHINERS: As I said, I follow this program which replaces all elements. ICP tests weren't showing anything either way. Nothing really elevated. But I started thinking about which minor ones could possibly be contributing to the algae, or at the least preventing it from going away. I have no idea if this helped, but a few weeks before it really stopped coming back I stopped my daily IRON dosing. Could totally be a coincidence and just the fact that all the previous items above had been working for me, but it was at this point I really starting seeing a positive change where I could definitely say it was on it's way out. When I would get to my weekend algae-pulling chore, there were be noticeably less than the previous week.

And here I am... totally free of GHA!
Can't really say for sure what it was in the end but I'm a happy camper.

Thanks for the info! I’ve had a few clumps pop up in the last month or so but it hasnt been spreading *yet*, assuming it recently came in on a frag plug.

You’re spot on about manually mowing it down before CUC will touch it. One challange I’ve noticed are some clumps are in the nooks and crannies of the rock which makes it hard to brush out. Will keep the sea hare rental in mind god forbid it explodes.

One of the downsides of my small tank…cant throw a tang in to deal with it.

Now back to picking out bubble algae .

 

[d2mini]

Thanks for the info! I’ve had a few clumps pop up in the last month or so but it hasnt been spreading *yet*, assuming it recently came in on a frag plug.

You’re spot on about manually mowing it down before CUC will touch it. One challange I’ve noticed are some clumps are in the nooks and crannies of the rock which makes it hard to brush out. Will keep the sea hare rental in mind god forbid it explodes.

One of the downsides of my small tank…cant throw a tang in to deal with it.

Now back to picking out bubble algae .

Oh right, i forgot i tried a couple fish too! A lawnmower blenny (he ended up not making it for too long) and a small Tomini Tang, figured it was worth the shot. Neither touched the stuff, at least that I could see. Still have the tang.

And you reminded me so I added it above... blowing the rocks and HA with a turkey baster every day or two.
Especially since like you say, it's hard to get a lot of it out so all the stuff still in there collects a ton of debris.

 

[2Plus2]

Quick phone snaps of the sump.

I swapped out the bulkheads the sump came with, I also have 2 more bulkhead attachments on order from redsea so i can plumb the rest.

I have a question, i like a slow turn around, will a 3/4 gate valve drain along with 3/4 emergency work with a 3/4 pump return?

 

[d2mini]

Quick phone snaps of the sump.

I swapped out the bulkheads the sump came with, I also have 2 more bulkhead attachments on order from redsea so i can plumb the rest.

I have a question, i like a slow turn around, will a 3/4 gate valve drain along with 3/4 emergency work with a 3/4 pump return?

Nice fit on that sump.

Your 3/4 return is fine but I would want at least 1" drains to prevent clogging issues.
Mine are 1.25"

 

[2Plus2]

Nice fit on that sump.

Your 3/4 return is fine but I would want at least 1" drains to prevent clogging issues.
Mine are 1.25"

I have no choice, redsea has specified fittings for their tanks. I would need to gut the overflow area of that plastic attachment that’s glued to the drilled holes. I would be aiming in the dark, and ruin my warranty.

 

[d2mini]

I'm about to raise these light in the air like I just don't care!

Ok, I do care. That's why I'm raising them.
Currently 11" off the top of the water. The way the stand was constructed (I probably have pics back at the beginning of this thread) I can't get the GHL mounting arm up any higher.
There is too much shadowing and hot spots IMO.
I'm going to go up to around 17" or so and see how that goes.

I've had a couple frags sitting on the sand bed near the glass that had broken off from larger frags that are mounted up higher and central and both of those on the sand bed are looking healthier than the ones on the rock. So hopefully things will even out more with the light being higher. Should be better for my mangroves too, which are leaning against the back wall.

Older pic to show current light position. Will update soon.

 

[2Plus2]

I'm about to raise these light in the air like I just don't care!

Ok, I do care. That's why I'm raising them.
Currently 11" off the top of the water. The way the stand was constructed (I probably have pics back at the beginning of this thread) I can't get the GHL mounting arm up any higher.
There is too much shadowing and hot spots IMO.
I'm going to go up to around 17" or so and see how that goes.

I've had a couple frags sitting on the sand bed near the glass that had broken off from larger frags that are mounted up higher and central and both of those on the sand bed are looking healthier than the ones on the rock. So hopefully things will even out more with the light being higher. Should be better for my mangroves too, which are leaning against the back wall.

Older pic to show current light position. Will update soon.

Is the spread that focused? What are your par readings?

 

[d2mini]

Is the spread that focused? What are your par readings?

Haven't checked par in this tank, i just know from past experience that 11" is too low, especially with a smaller light. Too hot at the top center and I can tell by the coral there is too sharp of a light falloff between light and shadow.

 

[d2mini]

Here's the before/after with light on it's new wires.
Raised it from 11" off the water to 14".
Will most likely go higher but wanted to do it in stages.

 

[2Plus2]

 

[2Plus2]

D2, here’s the sump. I still have work to do but wanted to share how it looks since you seemed interested in it. It’s an amazing sump, I had to change up red seas layout, haha.