joporeefpro's 1000 gallon TWV build

[Rcfiftyone]

Wow beautiful tank/build. Love the floors of your home. Looks like the sole of a Hatteras or somthing along those lines.

My question was going to be nitrate levels also. I over dosed biopellets and stripped the water with results similar to what you describe. Only difference being that you said you have browned acros. From what I understand browned out acros usually points to excess nutrients rather than a deficiency.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Browning of the corals could be nutrients but if they are growing just give them time I have some that took almost two years for the colors to look good. Anything by your torch or frogspawn dying maybe chemical warfare. Especially the torch.

 

[Groentje]

Following... great project you've got there!

Im also guessing the Nitrates will be the cause.
A Triton test would be great so you can show us the results here. Could be useful for us to help you out. ;-)

 

[Groentje]

Wat test kits do you use?

 

[Sabellafella]

Ok guys really loving all your input so I'm going to keep it going just tested everything calcium is at 450 dkh is at 9.52 phosphate is at 0 and magnesium is at 1420 to try and respond to all of your questions. I've been thinking about buying the apex pat meter any input? Since they are gen 1 radions I assume your all going to tell me I need something different wether it be halides all the way through to t5 supplement, I am hoping to not have to spend more now but.... it happens I guess as far as a triton test. I have sent my water out to aquarium water testing . Com and they say there isn't anything crazy as far as chemicals in the tank. Stray electricity is doubtful as everything in the tank is relatively new and there are only 4 power heads that aren't vortechs in the system... to address the what is happening questions I'll show a few photos but it's mostly browned out acros and dead plate and open brain corals while frogspawn and torch directly next to them are flourishing. Stylophora are doing well... I need help I guess because some of your tanks are truly stunning and I want to achieve this

It may just be the health and being of the corals you bought. Some acros tend to brown out even if you look at them wrong. But what a nice tank, just give it some time youll get a nice grip on it soon

 

[jt17]

Love your setup. Beautiful work.
You could be nutrient limited. IMO a refugium that size combined with the biopellets may be out competing your sps. 0 phosphate is low and I'm guessing the biopellets are keeping your nitrates close to zero as well. I had that problem when I ran biopellets.
Some nitrate and phosphate are good.
+1 on sending in a triton test. For the money it's good peace of mind knowing what's in, or not in, your water.
Thanks for sharing your tank and I look forward to following along.

 

[joporeefpro]

Wat test kits do you use?

Using Red Sea for magnesium and Hanna checkers for phosphate calcium and dkh haven't tested nitrate in so long because it has and always is 0 I know the "some nutrient" band wagon is all the rage now but back when I started having tanks it was the goal to have 0 nutrients. Not arguing just saying that I finally achieved what the goal was in 2012 and now everybody is like nope haha. The frogspawn and plate and hammer I lost were 12-14 inches apart each. With similar species nearby all of them but still far enough apart to not touch... very odd I was waiting for white lights this am to post some photos and I will do so shortly

 

[justingraham]

With ur depth I think u want leds and yea u need nutrients for corals feed more

 

[N4sty T4te]

Most recent parameters are Calcium 483 DKH 9.69 phosphate 0.00 magnesium 1600 Stay tuned for tonights parameters

Need more nutrients?

 

[locito277]

Awesome system following along. Got a similarly deep situation. LEDs are a must. I'll be removing the T5 set up in my tank. Just leaving my LEDs

 

[Outdrsyguy1]

@joporeefpro I'm in an EXTREMELY similar situation as you, it's almost comical. I've finally gotten my sps to turn the corner in the last month and here's my 2 cents.
Large tanks started with dry rock (marco rock type) seem to take a while to flourish and go through phases to get to stable. Mine's almost a year old and I can tell it's not quite "mature" but getting pretty close.
Corals respond weird at times so I wouldn't try to determine issue based on coral color/behavior too much. Remember, in a tank this size, it's going to take a LOOOONNNGGG time for nutrients to build up and fill the rocks/sand. Everything is in the absorbing nutrients stage imo for both our tanks. So small tanks cycle/mature faster.
I would focus heavily on fixing the nutrient issue, 0 nutrients kills corals (trust me, i've done it on dry rock tanks multiple times). Now if you have TONS of nutrients going in and being sucked out immediately that's different but i'm guessing your just feeding the fish once or twice a day and you have maybe 50 fish at most? That alone doesn't do jack squat to raise nutrients in a tank this size that's so young.
I would remove the biopellets for sure and any other phosphate/nitrate reducers you have and try to get phosphate to at least .01+ and nitrate to 4+ as a bare minimum.
I started dosing stump remover off an on in my tank to maintain phosphates and it's made a BIG difference and saved some dying corals.
Also, your alkalinity (dkh) seems high to me for an ULNS tank. If i get over 9 things start to go south when there's so close to zero nutrients. I think you'll find most ULNS systems are in the 7.5-8.5 range.
I didn't see you mention an apex but I would recommend one if you don't have it (or some other brand). I have 2 - 800 W titanium heaters and a 300w heater that maintains my tank within .5 degrees no problem.

My tank stats so you can see the similarities...
118" x 56" x 33" plus 6" x 6" coast to coast overflow on the back
100 gallon sump
3 - 40 gallon frag/back of house tanks plumbed in (no refugium currently, though plan to add some day)
2 - hammerhead pumps (one 100% tank to sump, one 75% back of house tanks/skimmer and 25% tank and back)
10 penductors to boost flow in tank (i'm trying to go no power heads to reduce maintenance)
~1,000 pounds dry rock (marco rocks style, but another vendor), Seeded tank with about 20 lb's live rock from my old tank that i knew had no pests
6 ocean revive led's and 2 - 4' t5 bulbs (i'm only lighting front half of my tank until i get more corals, then i'll add another 4 led's and ~6 t5's)
Tank started september 2016
currently ~55 fish
400 ppm calc
8.5 dkh alk
1350 mag
.0031 phosphate (elos color test read zero, and ULR phosphorus hanna registered a 1 ppb which converted to .0031 ppm PO4)
.5 nitrate (red sea professional low range, though i've been dosing kno4 for the past week so hopefully up to 4 or 5 by now, and it's definitely helping as it has in the past)
par for corals mostly in the 250-350 range (apogee par meter)
also just used chemi clean on entire tank to kill cyano that was covering EVERYTHING and keeping my tank from maturing (about a month ago now)


if you don't have any yet, try some digitata, i've got red, green, and purple that grow like weeds and were a good start into sps for my tank. This stuff always did decent even when my acro's/milli's were dying or trying to die lol.

feel free to post here or send me a pm if you want to discuss more. We are in a very similar situation for sure lol!

 

[joporeefpro]

i feel like I am feeding a lot... I have a pretty heavy fish load also... Feeding LRS nightly like a 3" x 3" chunk and pellets 3 times a day out of my feeder, feed corals once a week with 3 teaspoons total of Reef Frenzy, reef roids and a algae powder. Do approximately 175 gallon water changes every 2 weeks and change my filter socks 3 times a week... My skimmer is producing pretty heavy. I am also running gfo, because as soon as I stopped running gfo I had some algae show up in the display.

 

[joporeefpro]

@joporeefpro I'm in an EXTREMELY similar situation as you, it's almost comical. I've finally gotten my sps to turn the corner in the last month and here's my 2 cents.
Large tanks started with dry rock (marco rock type) seem to take a while to flourish and go through phases to get to stable. Mine's almost a year old and I can tell it's not quite "mature" but getting pretty close.
Corals respond weird at times so I wouldn't try to determine issue based on coral color/behavior too much. Remember, in a tank this size, it's going to take a LOOOONNNGGG time for nutrients to build up and fill the rocks/sand. Everything is in the absorbing nutrients stage imo for both our tanks. So small tanks cycle/mature faster.
I would focus heavily on fixing the nutrient issue, 0 nutrients kills corals (trust me, i've done it on dry rock tanks multiple times). Now if you have TONS of nutrients going in and being sucked out immediately that's different but i'm guessing your just feeding the fish once or twice a day and you have maybe 50 fish at most? That alone doesn't do jack squat to raise nutrients in a tank this size that's so young.
I would remove the biopellets for sure and any other phosphate/nitrate reducers you have and try to get phosphate to at least .01+ and nitrate to 4+ as a bare minimum.
I started dosing stump remover off an on in my tank to maintain phosphates and it's made a BIG difference and saved some dying corals.
Also, your alkalinity (dkh) seems high to me for an ULNS tank. If i get over 9 things start to go south when there's so close to zero nutrients. I think you'll find most ULNS systems are in the 7.5-8.5 range.
I didn't see you mention an apex but I would recommend one if you don't have it (or some other brand). I have 2 - 800 W titanium heaters and a 300w heater that maintains my tank within .5 degrees no problem.

My tank stats so you can see the similarities...
118" x 56" x 33" plus 6" x 6" coast to coast overflow on the back
100 gallon sump
3 - 40 gallon frag/back of house tanks plumbed in (no refugium currently, though plan to add some day)
2 - hammerhead pumps (one 100% tank to sump, one 75% back of house tanks/skimmer and 25% tank and back)
10 penductors to boost flow in tank (i'm trying to go no power heads to reduce maintenance)
~1,000 pounds dry rock (marco rocks style, but another vendor), Seeded tank with about 20 lb's live rock from my old tank that i knew had no pests
6 ocean revive led's and 2 - 4' t5 bulbs (i'm only lighting front half of my tank until i get more corals, then i'll add another 4 led's and ~6 t5's)
Tank started september 2016
currently ~55 fish
400 ppm calc
8.5 dkh alk
1350 mag
.0031 phosphate (elos color test read zero, and ULR phosphorus hanna registered a 1 ppb which converted to .0031 ppm PO4)
.5 nitrate (red sea professional low range, though i've been dosing kno4 for the past week so hopefully up to 4 or 5 by now, and it's definitely helping as it has in the past)
par for corals mostly in the 250-350 range (apogee par meter)
also just used chemi clean on entire tank to kill cyano that was covering EVERYTHING and keeping my tank from maturing (about a month ago now)


if you don't have any yet, try some digitata, i've got red, green, and purple that grow like weeds and were a good start into sps for my tank. This stuff always did decent even when my acro's/milli's were dying or trying to die lol.

feel free to post here or send me a pm if you want to discuss more. We are in a very similar situation for sure lol!

wow I feel like I have a ton to address here! Really cool meeting people in similar situations! First off I am running an apex and have been since day one, this is my 4th tank with an apex now, and It does the job. I am not updated, so the fusion app doesn't work well for me I am planning on updating it shortly. I think my magnesium is high because I use Red Sea coral pro salt, and have few corals using it. I am considering switching to the blue bucket from red sea and seeing if anything improves. I highly recommend a fuge! that's for sure. I probably have less than 50 fish. I do not envy your electric bill with 2 reef flo pumps as I only run one and radions and my bill is absurd. I have 1 1000 watt titanium heater and I think I just need to narrow the temperature range on the controller for it. as for raising nutrients its like against my religion. Haha I haven't been familiar with that. The fact that your tank is still dealing with cyano leads me to believe you have not fully cycled. My tank cylcled in the first month with dr tims and I have had no cyano and no fish casualties. My tank is starting to show maturation as there is lots of little purple algae spots showing up and like I said I have certain corals like your saying that are thriving even though others are dying. I can up my coral feeding a bit but my skimmer just sucks it right back out anyway I'm sure. Food for thought. Would love to chat more about your tank with you too.

 

[Outdrsyguy1]

how's the cheato in your fuge doing? growing a lot, maintaining, or turning white?
It's pretty easy to overdo things with biopellets and gfo. Plus your chaeto, just my opinion you need more nutrients. I think a little algae's natural and i'd rather have a little algae and corals than no algae .
You might check out the 2 "masters" articles that mike paletta put together along with the BRS research on chaeto refugiums. Both were very informative to me and all have very measureable levels of no3/po4 i believe
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-parameters-of-some-masters.263/
can you post some decent sps pics from your tank?

 

[joporeefpro]

how's the cheato in your fuge doing? growing a lot, maintaining, or turning white?
It's pretty easy to overdo things with biopellets and gfo. Plus your chaeto, just my opinion you need more nutrients. I think a little algae's natural and i'd rather have a little algae and corals than no algae .
You might check out the 2 "masters" articles that mike paletta put together along with the BRS research on chaeto refugiums. Both were very informative to me and all have very measureable levels of no3/po4 i believe
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-parameters-of-some-masters.263/
can you post some decent sps pics from your tank?

Will do when I get home, I keep forgetting and going to work. then when I get home the lights are blue and if I mess with my radions they always glitch out and screw up the program on one or two of them. Gen 1 thumbs down. The fuge chaeto is out of control green and lush and filling completely a 200 gallon tank, I have been meaning to take some out and give it to my lfs but I haven't gotten to it. I watched the brs guys stuff I will have to look into mike's summaries.

 

[joporeefpro]

triton test ordered

 

[justingraham]

I recomend cutting the gfo out slowly as ur nutrient deprived and if algea shows up buy some rabbit fish and tangs from tsm corals

 

[joporeefpro]

I guess stupid question, if the goal is not to have ultra low nutrients, aside from removing the biopellets and limiting gfo, what am I supposed to do? feed more? less water changes? less filter changes? run the skimmer less?

 

[justingraham]

Th object is to find the sweet spot in feeding and skimming drier and maby less amounts of water to be changed so like 50 gallons instead of a hundred also more fish equals more food equals more poo. Maby change out the socks less if u can

 

[Outdrsyguy1]

I do a 5% Wc 50 gallon every two weeks or so, no filter socks and add kno3 (stump remover mixture) at times since mine is a new tank. Once your nutrients rise you can add the gfo etc. if you want. Let my skimmer run as normal and feed as much as I can (I don't like the obese fish look).