Mattdg's 120G SPS / Mixed Reef Build and Progress

[mattdg]

After posting yesterday, I decided it was a good time to pull some large base rock and coral out of the 120. Flow has been inhibited for some time and I wanted to reset some of the Acro's and hydnophora low down in the display. Was able to move the magic carpet rhodactus to a spot, where it will be able to grow out. After a whole lot of chipping away, I got the pieces glued back into the display and the leftover colonies settled in the frag system. I looking forward to seeing the limelight hydno populate the new "clownfish cave". Also giving the beautiful bright orange/red Cynarina some space to spread out as well as freeing up some space for the HOT pink/purple JF Clepto Lepto chunk. We will see how the evolves from here, but I am hopeful.

 

[Kodski]

Wow, what a beautiful tank.

I notice that you have a ton of powerheads in there. Is that more so to just provide random flow or do you try to push flow to the max that your corals can handle?

 

[mattdg]

Wow, what a beautiful tank.

I notice that you have a ton of powerheads in there. Is that more so to just provide random flow or do you try to push flow to the max that your corals can handle?

Thank You! Funny. Was thinking about adding another one, to help with a dead spot. Haha! It is a mixture of randomness and making sure there is enough flow directed to different areas in the system. There are 6 plus the two returns. The Koralias in the back are high flow, but very gentle, so they are pointed just shy of LPS and directly into channels in the rockwork where SPS are growing. They are nearing 6 years old and will need to be replaced soon. The Maxspect Gyre keeps the entire tank circulating and moves water at the surface. The two Tunze's on the left.. one is pushing water towards the center front and the other is helping with a dead spot towards the lower left. Wish there were more options for low profile pumps that could be positioned at precise angles, but can't beat the reliability of a Tunze. The MP40 is set very low flow and moves water through the two islands that make up the scape. All in all, pumps work together to keep detritus suspended and are basically just enough indirect flow IMO for this amount of SPS coral. I like to use a mixture of circulation pumps, based on the specific type of flow I need in particular areas. You know, the whole artist / brush analogy.

 

[mattdg]

Picture updates. 120 mixed reef, high noon and the new firefish nano display featuring a mixture of leather and macro algae.

 

[mattdg]

A few minor tweaks to the system.

I connected wifi plugs to the skimmer and GFO reactor. Nutrients are a bit low. PO4 last measure at .01. Aiming for .05.

It seems that skimmer could stand to run a bit less. It is only pulling skimmate for an hour or so a day, on average. I am going to start by running it for 3 hours / day.. 7-10am, while PH is lowest.

GFO reactor from 7-9am. I'll take measurements weekly and adjust from there. I am using a 90 GPH pump, so will cycle the 120 gallon system a little over 2x / day.

Using Wifi power strips with a manual on / off switch, so I can toggle when performing maintenance or feeding coral. I will report back on the results.

I continue to dose micro bacter 7 weekly, along with coral snow / flocculant / calcium carbonate. 1 cap MB7 with 1 tablespoon, sit for 5 minutes / add tank water and dose after blowing off the rockwork. I have been seeing positive results, with the increased bacterial dose. I have been wanting to experiment with alternative bacterial supplements, so ordered a 16 oz bottle of the PNS ProBio. Going to start with a low dose and see if the tank likes it. I might even order the cultivation kit, if I see positive results.

 

[mattdg]

Quick update on the above GFO and Skimmer timer settings. Turns out, the tank just looks best when the skimmer and GFO reactor run around 18 hours / day. This is a lot more than I had estimated. The Lifereef produces a ton of oxygen, which may be the reason for the skimmer. The tank has grown accustomed to the GFO. I run 8 Tablespoons in a reactor and swap it out once a month. The timers are working great. I love on/off switch in conjunction with the bluetooth. Whatever is plugged in will turn back on automatically, when the next timer/power cycle comes around. Saves me from forgetting to turn them back on, following maintenance. The only foreseeable issue is having to log into the app or physically unplug the devices, when performing extended treatments.

I have only been dosing the PNS ProBio for several weeks and have to say, I am not all that impressed. I received one of the older bottles, which has the issue of smelling worse than the stinkiest skimmate. Apparently, they have resolved this issue, which leads me to believe my bottle was at least several months old. It may just be me, but the tank looked better with the weekly MB7/Coral Snow dose than it does with the ProBio/Coral Snow dose. I will be trying other bacterial supplements in combination with the MB7, until I come up with a formula that works for this system. If anyone out there can recommend a good dry bacterial supplement, please do.

Other than that, nearly all of the coral SPS&LPS in the system are looking healthy and growing. Color is 80%. Definitely room for improvement. I believe increased stability will bring that improvement. Now that I have some leaky plumbing sealed and the AWC system nearly sorted out, I believe that increased stability will come over the next few months. I am making a video and will post a link here soon.

 

[mattdg]

Link to the latest video about this reef tank. Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[mattdg]

Happy 2024 Reef Friends! Here are a couple pics, so I can check back and see how the tank did this year. I've been working on dialing in Trace and nutrients using Captive8 products... mainly remediate dry bacteria and MT. The results are subtle, but noticeable IMO. I'll go into detail, in the next post.

 

[mattdg]

Feb 2024

Here is a hand painted nano reef display, that I made for my brother's 50th. He loved it!

 

[tsouth]

HEAT!

 

[mattdg]

Some recent info on the tank. I have been lowering salinity, due to calibration being off on my Hanna checker. I believe I may have drifted up to 1.029.. peak, which caused some slower growth and unhappy LPS coral. dialing things back to 1.026/25 range has helped, especially with the frag system. I performed my first ICP recently, which was decent. I'd say around an 80%, if the tank were to be graded. Manganese, Vanadium, Iron and Strontium were noticeably low. Iodine was through the roof. It may have to do with the amount of Captive8 MT I have been dosing. I dialed that down from 2 drops a day, to 2 drops 3 times per week. Also dosing the V,Mg (3 drops 3 times / week) and I (1 drop 3 times / week) elements separately. I fixed Strontium imbalance over 1 week and will be dosing 1 Tbsp / month, moving forward. I continue to add 80 ml of Tropic Marin Trace A-&K+ to the Alk/Cal dosing containers. I am currently dosing around 125ml of BRS soda ash and caclium chloride / day. I have had to monitor these levels closely for the last 3 weeks, due to the increase in uptake resulting from dialing in my trace.

NO3 dropped noticeably after starting remedi8 combined with the MT. I was down to 2.5, which is far too low for my mixed reef. I did dose a bit of NO3 to bring the color back and have since seen improvement. Nitrate has stabilized at 7.5 ish, so have discontinued dosing additional NO3. PO4 was low too. Hanna checker fluctuates in its readings between .09 and 0. I despise all PO4 test kits. Why can't they all be as good as Salifert Alk test kits? My guess is it is low. I dialed my GFO reactor down to 12 hours / day (off during daylight / fish feeding / PO4 input hours) alternating with my trace dosing schedule, given GFO's tendency to absorb certain elements. There are usually between 6-8 tbsps of GFO in the reactor, changed out monthly. It's too soon to seen if having the GFO reactor run only 12 hours a day will yield any benefit. I'll report back on that.

I'll leave the update at that, for now. Here are some recent pics.

 

[mattdg]

Reporting back on a few things, as promised.

I am continuing to run the GFO reactor on a schedule, but I have increased the time from 12 to 20 hours a day. The increase was due to some red cyano popping up around the gravel and system. This likely has to do with PO4 leaching out of new rock that I have been moving from my live rock prop system up to the main tank. The substrate (coral rubble) is nearing 6 years, so that probably isn't helping either. Regardless, I'd rather have to work at balancing PO4, than having none at all. Coral color has been improving. I prefer deep color with dense tissue, rather than the pastel / thin look, so this method is good for me as a reef keeper.

As far as the lower salinity, the only change I have noticed is the bounce mushrooms seem to be a little unhappy. They are not out as fully, but maintaining good color. I have reduced all of my dosing of trace, as outlined in the entry above, by 1/2. Especially the MT, which is now 6 drops / week. With the tropic marin trace / 80ml per gallon of Alk and Cal, being dosed daily at 135 ml / day, the coral seem to be happy with the current dosing schedule.

I continue to perform bi weekly DIY coral snow treatments, with 1/8 tsp remediate and a tsp of reef roids added to 1 tbsp of calcium carbonate. This is mixed into 4 cups of tank water and dosed right after I blow off the rock with my DIY DC reef blaster. It is an awesome device, that is way better than any pump or commercially available option. Sadly, my "vintage" algae mower vac has been acting up. It might be the plug.. hopefully, as these amazing devices have not been available for 10 years. Anyway, HA is growing in spots, but not too bad since I added 3 sally lightfoot and 3 large emerald crabs, beginning of the year. They came from my LFS and have been kicking serious butt. They, along with my dozen or so urchins, have been doing a bang up job keeping the reef clean. Too bad there aren't any inverts that specialize in cyano, but not the worst problem to have. Bumblebee snails and super glue have desimated the vermatiid snail population, which is awesome. I don't mind a few in the tank, but as soon as I see a web during snow treatiments, out comes the super glue gel. Bumblebees take care of the smaller one's.

All said, I have been very hands off with the tank, only performing weekly duties. No new coral or pruning for the last few months. No hands in the tank, unless 100% necessary. I even let the algae film cover the front glass, only cleaning a few times a week. I have been diligent with testing and husbandry, but sticking to a schedule. Tank looks fine, maybe even good.

Til next time.