Hubb's Reef D-D Reef Pro 1500s

[hubblephilip]

Hi All from across the pond,

So I have been in this hobby now for almost 4 years starting out with a 30L nano then moving onto a Reefspace 700 which is where I did a lot of my learning. Me and the wife bought our first house

and wanted to have a new tank in place so bought a Red Sea Reefer 350 which is my current tank and is thriving. Reason for the upgrade is I feel I am being held back slightly by the size of the display and sump that coupled with my career change where I will have more time to spend on the tank.

Originally I was going with a custom 5x2x2 peninsula but me and the wife couldn't find a new sofa for the living room we liked that worked with the peninsula so I compromised and went for a D-D Reef Pro 1500s as they look soo sleek and the wife loves the oak colour.

Current equipment that I have and will be used on the new system:

2 x AI Hydra 26HD
1 x AI Prime HD
Glamorca GP-03
Jebao OW10
Jebao DCP6500
Bubble Magus G7
300w Heater
Clarisea SK 3000
Smart Micro Ato
D-D Reactor
Kamoer X4 dosing pump

I have since bought:

1 x Ai Hydra 26HD taking me to 3 x Hydra 26HD

Potential Upgrades I will list when I decide.

Really looking forward to people's input and advice.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Looks like a great start

 

[SPR1968]

Sounds like a great start so far and we look forward to the pictures

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Welcome! Thanks for sharing.

 

[hubblephilip]

So guys sorry it has been a bit quiet last few weeks but was getting things ready for the switch over, I couldn't fill the sump with water until 5 days after it was delivered so filled the display with sand and started to fill with RO (mistake number 1). Took a lot longer to fill than I anticipated . Everything just seemed to take forever, finally the tank and sump were full and i started to mix the water in the sump and hand move it to the display tank which went wrong because i left salt mixing over night at a very concentrated amount and it went cloudy, this is something i will never do again lol. Made the siporax cage which turned out to be too small so had to re do that aswell. Clarisea wouldnt fit so moved the siporax and had to cut some pipe was a nightmare but as all shops that had the pvc parts i needed were closed i had to fudge it slightly although as per Dr Tims one and only instructions i didnt need it for 48 hours anyway. Managed to get all fish and coral across which much more ease than I first anticipated.

Everything has been moved over for nearly 3 weeks (3 weeks on sunday) and I must say I'm over the moon with how well things are doing, couple of corals have lost a bit of colour however all fish are loving the new surroundings. There is a sad story unfortunately my algae blenny took a turn for the worse and died I was gutted. Been testing daily and everything has been spot on, nitrate is now 2 and phosphate is 0.009 alk is steady at 7.9, calcium is a little low at 380 and magnesium at 1200 so will increase these slowly and get things stable. Managed to do a small amount of cable tidying but still a fair amount to do just been super super busy.

 

[hubblephilip]

Just did a quick round of tests, kh is at 8.4 calcium is too low for my liking so have Increased the dosage can't wait for it to be stable again.

Nutrients are very low considering the tank is 3 weeks old and I haven't done any water changes or carbon dosed or gfo phosphate is 0ppb on the Hanna ulr and nitrate is about 1ppm.

 

[hubblephilip]

Really struggling to get the params stable as in the main 3 (Kh, Calcium & Mag) Kh seems to be fine sitting at 8.4dkh but calcium and magnesium are quite low, I increased the dosing of the ATI Essentials Pro bottle 2 but doesnt seem to have increased so i have mixed up some Calcium Chloride and manually dosing that to raise it to the stable number of 420 which then ATI Pro should keep stable.

 

[hubblephilip]

So over the last couple of days i have had a couple of sps start to bleach and strip from the base, im totally gutted as one is my lovely deep pink milli. I have checked the tank for any metals and everything is fine, all tests have been spot on whilst the alk has dropped and raised while im trying to dial in the ATI Pro there hasn't been any wild spikes that you would associate with stripping. I will be sending off an icp next week to make sure, weird thing is most the sps are doing really well and even growing so im at a bit of a loss to be honest.

 

[dantimdad]

Looks good so far.

Sorry to hear about the bleaching.

I wish we could get the screen tops with the black mesh in the US. only clear here.

 

[hubblephilip]

Looks good so far.

Sorry to hear about the bleaching.

I wish we could get the screen tops with the black mesh in the US. only clear here.

Thanks bud, i think im going to have to put it down to one of those things unfortunately, if it was all corals then i would be seriously worries but most are fine but will keep a close eye on them.

The black mesh is amazing makes it look really stylish have you spoken to D-D about this? The black mesh only comes with the pro jump guard.

 

[dantimdad]

Thanks bud, i think im going to have to put it down to one of those things unfortunately, if it was all corals then i would be seriously worries but most are fine but will keep a close eye on them.

The black mesh is amazing makes it look really stylish have you spoken to D-D about this? The black mesh only comes with the pro jump guard.

I haven't spoken to them. I will try.

Thanks!

 

[hubblephilip]

I haven't spoken to them. I will try.

Thanks!

If you get stuck give me a shout and I'll see if theres anything I can do this end to get some out to you.

 

[dantimdad]

I am emailing with Stuart from DD if it doesn't work out I will give u a shout

Thanks!

 

[hubblephilip]

Little Update:

A few weeks ago I contacted Aquatic Life about the T5/LED hybrid fitting to see how much it would cost to have one shipped to the UK, it turns out that GHL had recently become the European distributor so was put into contact with Matthias at GHL HQ in Germany. We got talking about my YouTube channel and build threads and he was really interested in getting involved with the project so started by sending me 2x GHL Mitras LX 7200. I have since received the lights and I must say they are awesome, not many people in the UK use them or at least I haven't seen anyone in the UK use them so really excited.

Have set them up to mirror the WWC 900gal reef tank lighting but slightly different that it starts at 10am til 10pm so i get to see the tank lit up, the corals last night really popped more so than with my previous lights so cant wait to see the results I get.

Below are pictures of the lights being installed, just need some cable tidying work level them but getting there.

 

[hubblephilip]

Pics

 

[hubblephilip]

Hi All,

Extremely sorry for the lack of posts on this thread but in December I went through the worst thing I have in this hobby which nearly made me pack it in. I added a Powder Blue Tang & a Juvenile Emperor angel, all was well for the first few days then im sure you can guess it got whitespot, after a few days most of the other fish in the system had it and some come out in velvet as well. I rushed to set up a QT tank but unfortunately most didn't make it in time, I had to remove most of the rock to get all the fish out as I wanted to go fallow for 72 days and treat all the fish. During this time where I was concentrating on the fish my alk channel on my doser became blocked and wasn't dosing which led to a huge alk swing and lost most of my corals including a lovely deep pink milli colony I was distraught. The fish and corals were my number one priority and I tried to save as many as possible, luckily a few corals battled through and made it and the same with the fish but I lost a heck of a lot, about £1,000 worth but the money didn't bother me i was just concerned on saving what I could.

Fast forward 3 months and the fallow period is now over finally!!! it felt like forever looking at an empty tank with no fish but it was the best thing to do for the future of the tank and also the livestock. I now have a full time QT set up in my spare room where all new fish will be settled and then treated with copper for 2 weeks then transferred to the main display.

I will upload up to date pictures later as i have re done some pipework in the sump etc.