fermentedhiker
Well-Known Member
So I setup a new 125 back around the end of October. Using dry rock(some pukani, and some mined rock from reef rocks.net and a bit of tonga shelf). Some of it was reused so I acid bathed and bleached it and then soaked it in fresh. I used a mixture of PFS and oceans direct oolitic sand. Made a sump out of an old 40B with the first section being a clam bed instead of a skimmer, the second a chaeto growth area and then a return pump section.
I did a typical dry rock system cycle by adding ammonia and bottled bacteria.
Added three radion xr30(2 gen2 and 1 gen3) set to 25% max and using the intense color mode(or whatever it's called).
Had the usual diatoms which gave way to mild green spot/film algae on the rocks.
I designed the system to have a display refugium(72x12x12) above the DT. It finally arrived and I was able to plumb it in. I used oceans direct original grade sand. Initially I had no rock. I used a 72" Current IC pro marine and left it on it's default 24/7 cycle. At this setting it simulates sunrise/sunset/moonlight without me having to program the set points myself. It ramps all channels up to 100% for a good part of the day. I was fine with this as it's not a powerful light so I figured I would need all it could do to grow macros as well as some zoa/palys, and a maxi mini garden. Added a piece of dry rock and a live rock from the lfs that I picked up which had two maxi minis on it(the start of the garden) . It has three 660pgh powerheads for flow.
What I find interesting is that the display fuge is going through the uglies; diatoms, film algae, cyano(green and red) a little turf /hair alage. To the point that when I added some real live rock from florida that it overgrew the to surface of the rock just two days after it was added. This is happening mind you while the main display has nothing but film algae on the rock work. Also the chaeto is growing extremely well(just harvested 2 gallons of it and it looks like I could harvest another 2 gallons and still have tons left over.
The only difference between to two tanks is light and flow as they share the same sump. In fact the display fuge empties into the DT and not the sump. The DT has far more flow but I believe lower par based on the current setting in the Radions.
No great mystery to solve here. just found it interesting
I did a typical dry rock system cycle by adding ammonia and bottled bacteria.
Added three radion xr30(2 gen2 and 1 gen3) set to 25% max and using the intense color mode(or whatever it's called).
Had the usual diatoms which gave way to mild green spot/film algae on the rocks.
I designed the system to have a display refugium(72x12x12) above the DT. It finally arrived and I was able to plumb it in. I used oceans direct original grade sand. Initially I had no rock. I used a 72" Current IC pro marine and left it on it's default 24/7 cycle. At this setting it simulates sunrise/sunset/moonlight without me having to program the set points myself. It ramps all channels up to 100% for a good part of the day. I was fine with this as it's not a powerful light so I figured I would need all it could do to grow macros as well as some zoa/palys, and a maxi mini garden. Added a piece of dry rock and a live rock from the lfs that I picked up which had two maxi minis on it(the start of the garden) . It has three 660pgh powerheads for flow.
What I find interesting is that the display fuge is going through the uglies; diatoms, film algae, cyano(green and red) a little turf /hair alage. To the point that when I added some real live rock from florida that it overgrew the to surface of the rock just two days after it was added. This is happening mind you while the main display has nothing but film algae on the rock work. Also the chaeto is growing extremely well(just harvested 2 gallons of it and it looks like I could harvest another 2 gallons and still have tons left over.
The only difference between to two tanks is light and flow as they share the same sump. In fact the display fuge empties into the DT and not the sump. The DT has far more flow but I believe lower par based on the current setting in the Radions.
No great mystery to solve here. just found it interesting
