John's SPS Shallow 90g Peninsula-Lagoon build

MamReef · Mar 11, 2021

Thanks for the info on the Kessils..., how far are they from the water?
I´m having some problems when I raise the violet channel above 60%. Mt tank is only 14" in height and the kessils are about 16" from the water. Next day I have some sps complaining..., what do you think?

In my last cube (35x35x24) I used HQI with 4 kessils on swivel mounts... it worked very well!

minus9 · Mar 11, 2021

MamReef said:
Thanks for the info on the Kessils..., how far are they from the water?
I´m having some problems when I raise the violet channel above 60%. Mt tank is only 14" in height and the kessils are about 16" from the water. Next day I have some sps complaining..., what do you think?

In my last cube (35x35x24) I used HQI with 4 kessils on swivel mounts... it worked very well!

They're mounted about 8 1/2" from the water. It's funny, I usually add or change settings slowly, but with the violet, I just cranked it to 100% during the peak hours and it was fine, but my overall intensity was only 80 or 85% at the time. If there was a reaction, then only increase the intensity in 5% increments and wait a week or two before increasing it again. With lighting, small changes are better, especially with led's.

MamReef · Mar 11, 2021

minus9 said:
They're mounted about 8 1/2" from the water. It's funny, I usually add or change settings slowly, but with the violet, I just cranked it to 100% during the peak hours and it was fine, but my overall intensity was only 80 or 85% at the time. If there was a reaction, then only increase the intensity in 5% increments and wait a week or two before increasing it again. With lighting, small changes are better, especially with led's.

Yep... I did about 10% increments and after the bad response from the corals, I got back to 55%. Will try again with 3 to 5% increments. Probably because the tank is too shallow. Thanks

minus9 · Mar 11, 2021

Okay, here's my current schedule. I was kinda close. I'm going to bump up to 95% intensity next week at the 10am and 6pm points.

minus9 · Mar 11, 2021

Here's a quick shot as she sits now. I moved my WD up front, as I noticed two spots of TN on it. I gave it a witch hazel/melafix dip last week and I'll dip it again tonight and probably take a couple frags on the two branches that are having the issues. Meanwhile, everything else is growing like a weed. It's kinda crazy in there.
I also bought everything to make the DIY version of all for reef and will make that up tonight or this weekend? I bought a magnetic stirrer to make life easier as I mix it. Hopefully I can get the 35g going in the right direction?

MamReef · Mar 12, 2021

Looking great!

minus9 · Mar 12, 2021

MamReef said:
Looking great!

Thanks! This tank has been a lot of work, but that's okay, it keeps me humble.

Perry · Mar 14, 2021

minus9 said:
Here's a quick shot as she sits now. I moved my WD up front, as I noticed two spots of TN on it. I gave it a witch hazel/melafix dip last week and I'll dip it again tonight and probably take a couple frags on the two branches that are having the issues. Meanwhile, everything else is growing like a weed. It's kinda crazy in there.
I also bought everything to make the DIY version of all for reef and will make that up tonight or this weekend? I bought a magnetic stirrer to make life easier as I mix it. Hopefully I can get the 35g going in the right direction?

Stunning John!
I love cubes and especially your coral placement and scape, very very nice

minus9 · Mar 14, 2021

Perry said:
Stunning John!
I love cubes and especially your coral placement and scape, very very nice

Thanks Perry! Although I like placing corals next to each other, it sometimes doesn't work out the way I want it to. Which is why I've had some recent issues with TN (besides the acro eating bugs that I just wiped out). I just notice yesterday that my sarmentosa was peeling and it's pretty much gone today. My pink caddy is taking over that rock and the sarmentosa was the latest victim of the in-house drive-by. I chopped up my WD a little, so the "big hand" look is kinda gone a little? I'm really hoping it comes back to it's glory. I'll try to take a couple pics of the mess I made later. I still need to glue/mold some rock back together after removing the dead skeletons from the last in-house drive-by.

minus9 · Mar 14, 2021

Sarmentosa going down. It was probably the slowest grower for me, but started to grow more in recent months, but it was no match for the encroaching pink caddy.

De-fingered WD. Hopefully it will recover and take off? One frag is an 1 1/2" and the other is nearly 4".

Shaggy no name tenuis. Teal base with yellow tips and has orange polyps in some spots.

minus9 · Mar 18, 2021

Forgive the extremely blue pic, lights are still ramping up. Last night I removed the optics from the front Orphek bar to improve spread and color blending of the cyan 490-495 diodes. I'm very happy with the blending that's going on and the complete loss of the "green" look on the ends. Now it's a complete blue sheet of light, which is what I wanted to happen with the bars, but my mounting height prevented that from happening. I'm sure I've lost some par, but I'll take the coverage over par any day. I also moved the bar forward a little, which helps too. I'm going to do the other bars tonight, but I'm going to take some par readings to compare. I'll snap another pic when the Kessil's have reached their daylight peak setting. I may increase the color% on the Kessil's if it's too blue during peak hours?

minus9 · Mar 19, 2021

Well, I took the lenses out of one of the side bars and then measured par against the other one with the lenses on and it wasn't even close. The par loss was quite substantial. Without the optics, it measured in the 40 - 70 range and with the optics 120 - 175. In the meantime, I ordered some 120 degree lenses to replace the 90 degree lenses that are currently on the bars. I'm sure the par will drop with the 120 lenses, but not like the level without lenses.
I sent out another ICP to see how the moonshiners is coming along? I know I did 3 consecutive water changes recently, hopefully that will show some positive results? I really need to buy an overflow for my 25g lagoon, but it's hard finding and overflow with 3 drains instead of two for smaller tanks. I like the fiji cube overflows, just wish they had 3 drains. I'll probably settle on the modular marine overflow, it's a bit oversized, but at least it has 3 drains. Next, I'll have to figure out which UNS tank I want for the mangrove lagoon that's going to be connected to the 25g lagoon. 5 or 10g shallow?

minus9 · Mar 19, 2021

I still have cyano here and there, but that's okay, it's not killing anything. Still more frags to sell and some colonies to get rid of, especially the big monti in back. I'll keep the leng sy cap for now, but I'll move it to the other tank soon. I need to buy some F-aiptasia to kill some hydroids that have popped up in a couple spots. There's always something to be done. The frags I got from @Smite are doing well and the RP ultra violet is growing nicely.

Smite · Mar 20, 2021

Looking great!

you’ve got one of those high dollar tangs I see

minus9 · Mar 20, 2021

Smite said:
Looking great!

you’ve got one of those high dollar tangs I see

Thanks Matt! Yeah, I paid top dollar for him about 3 or 4 years ago, a whopping $35. It's insane what people are trying to sell them for these days, it's just crazy. How's your tank doing? Are you slowly winning the battle? I need to take some pics of the frags you gave me. That blue one with green polyps is taking off now. I still need to mount your shazam piece though. I've changed dosing the moonshine at night and I've noticed a slight improvement. I've also changed how I'm dosing EasyBooster and Evo too. I'm dosing the majority of it during the day now, with only one dose each after lights are off. How's the confetti doing?

Smite · Mar 20, 2021

minus9 said:
Thanks Matt! Yeah, I paid top dollar for him about 3 or 4 years ago, a whopping $35. It's insane what people are trying to sell them for these days, it's just crazy. How's your tank doing? Are you slowly winning the battle? I need to take some pics of the frags you gave me. That blue one with green polyps is taking off now. I still need to mount your shazam piece though. I've changed dosing the moonshine at night and I've noticed a slight improvement. I've also changed how I'm dosing EasyBooster and Evo too. I'm dosing the majority of it during the day now, with only one dose each after lights are off. How's the confetti doing?

Hahah it is crazy. I was on the hunt for a tiny one for my tank just before that shut down. An LFS finally got a small one in and it was $150, I just cant justify it..Scopas it is for me lol.

Doing pretty good, like you said slow battle. I've lost a few named pieces unfortunately but for the most part the tank is going well. I also swapped to dosing dailies at night, my only problem so far is remembering. I haven't been consistent enough to tell a difference so far. I've also been doing multiple water changes for the GHA. A buddy of mine started some great looking phyto cultures and is starting in on pods now so I plan to start dosing that once I meet up with him.

All the pieces you gave me are doing great, that one tenuis is getting very cool coloration. I'm looking forward to seeing if it grows out like that orange crush piece I gave you. So far the colors look similar. Confetti is a trooper and starting to grow for me, very happy with that piece.

minus9 · Mar 20, 2021

Smite said:
Hahah it is crazy. I was on the hunt for a tiny one for my tank just before that shut down. An LFS finally got a small one in and it was $150, I just cant justify it..Scopas it is for me lol.

Doing pretty good, like you said slow battle. I've lost a few named pieces unfortunately but for the most part the tank is going well. I also swapped to dosing dailies at night, my only problem so far is remembering. I haven't been consistent enough to tell a difference so far. I've also been doing multiple water changes for the GHA. A buddy of mine started some great looking phyto cultures and is starting in on pods now so I plan to start dosing that once I meet up with him.

All the pieces you gave me are doing great, that one tenuis is getting very cool coloration. I'm looking forward to seeing if it grows out like that orange crush piece I gave you. So far the colors look similar. Confetti is a trooper and starting to grow for me, very happy with that piece.

That's great! Dosing phyto is awesome, sponges and pods take off like crazy. Vermitid snails will take off if you have any. I might try some bumblebee snails to see if they help with controlling my growing population? I just seeded my tank with some ecopods from Algaebarn, hopefully they'll take off soon. I think pods are just as important when it comes to CUC, they actually do so much, but on a micro scale. I'm glad your tank is holding on and moving forward, I know I wanted to rip everything out when I was dealing with algae problems. I actually have a small patch of my purple/red milli left, so I'm hoping I don't need a frag from the one I gave you? I need to get my 25g lagoon going, but it's hard finding a small overflow with 3 drains besides the 800gph modular marine. I like the fiji cube overflows, just wish they had a bean animal style smaller one. I thought about getting their small one and drilling out a smaller emergency drain myself.

Smite · Mar 20, 2021

minus9 said:
That's great! Dosing phyto is awesome, sponges and pods take off like crazy. Vermitid snails will take off if you have any. I might try some bumblebee snails to see if they help with controlling my growing population? I just seeded my tank with some ecopods from Algaebarn, hopefully they'll take off soon. I think pods are just as important when it comes to CUC, they actually do so much, but on a micro scale. I'm glad your tank is holding on and moving forward, I know I wanted to rip everything out when I was dealing with algae problems. I actually have a small patch of my purple/red milli left, so I'm hoping I don't need a frag from the one I gave you? I need to get my 25g lagoon going, but it's hard finding a small overflow with 3 drains besides the 800gph modular marine. I like the fiji cube overflows, just wish they had a bean animal style smaller one. I thought about getting their small one and drilling out a smaller emergency drain myself.

Luckily no vermitid snails in this system so far. Kinda cool to see until they starting ticking things off

It's alive and well if you do need it. Holding color well too, i still need to get around to selling a couple pieces so I can put that somewhere prime but that'll be once the algae is under control. If you got the skill go for it just stay away from the MD brand overflow, I really regret using that. Is MM still way backordered or what?

minus9 · Mar 20, 2021

Smite said:
Luckily no vermitid snails in this system so far. Kinda cool to see until they starting ticking things off

It's alive and well if you do need it. Holding color well too, i still need to get around to selling a couple pieces so I can put that somewhere prime but that'll be once the algae is under control. If you got the skill go for it just stay away from the MD brand overflow, I really regret using that. Is MM still way backordered or what?

I'm not sure about the MM, but I think there are some on eBay? I may just go for the fiji cube herbie drain, but I like having the safety of the bean animal style. It's going on a 25g gallon tank, so I don't need the high turnover. The 25g lagoon is going to be a glorified frag/grow out tank with an added mangrove flat attached (UNS 5g or 10g shallow). I wanted to use a cube sump or similar under the 25g and have a separate refugium under the mangrove flat, which is gravity fed into the sump. Well, at least that's the plan. Now that Kessil came out with the a500x, I may revamp my lighting on my 90g? Having two 500's mounted high over my 90g like metal halides is super appealing to me. This hobby is crazy!