TMC 600 Nano - UK

[Rosie]

I would tone down your reds on the daylight setting that will help as GHA thrives on reds

That's a good shout, I will turn it down in the morning.

 

[Rosie]

I'm also dealing with hair alge my fix is cover your tank in cleaning crew

Any recommendations on what CUC to go for? I've got the usual hermit crabs and snails, I've also got an emerald crab and tuxedo urchin. My urchin is a machine and I've been tempted to get another one.

 

[Star reefer3]

Any recommendations on what CUC to go for? I've got the usual hermit crabs and snails, I've also got an emerald crab and tuxedo urchin. My urchin is a machine and I've been tempted to get another one.

Turbo snails are one of my favorites and nassarius snails and my favorite is the tiger tail seacucumber

 

[NY_Caveman]

Cerith and Astrea are good for hair algae. Cerith can right themselves if flipped.

 

[Rosie]

So I’ve dropped my red light in the daytime by two thirds so i’m hoping that helps.

As for snails - If they can right themselves then i’m sold on Cerith snails!! I will get some ordered today!

 

[Star reefer3]

So I’ve dropped my red light in the daytime by two thirds so i’m hoping that helps.

As for snails - If they can right themselves then i’m sold on Cerith snails!! I will get some ordered today!

Sounds like a good crew to me

 

[Rosie]

I finally painted the cabinet! I’m pretty happy with it I also added on wall mounts for the IPad

I also organised inside the cabinet as well, one of my remaining jobs is to finish the LED strip lights

In the lower section of the cabinet I have my RO and TMC Dosing containers. I’m going to auto dose Ca, Alk and Mg. I have a 4th dosing container but that might remain empty for now. I’m thinking about auto dosing Strontium after recently testing my tank and finding it had none.... So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been hand dosing and it was only last night that my test kit showed I was at a decent level. I think it was 10ppm. I’ve actually been reading a lot of opinions on whether there’s even a point in dosing Strontium, its a bit like marmite.... Anywho.... I didn’t actually dose anything yesterday or today as i’m going to work out my tank consumption of Alk, Ca and Mg and while I’m at it i’ll test Strontium to see if it’s worth auto dosing that or not. Then i’m going to make up my solutions and program the DOS!!

As for the other three larger containers. These are actually 8 litre food containers... As you can see I don’t have much room in the cabinet due to the radiator and window so it’s been a real headache trying to size containers up for the space I have. The reason I have three is one is for the RO and i’m planning on using the other two for small auto water changes. I’m no where near that stage yet and ideally I’d like to have much larger containers, so at the moment i’m just debating with myself if it’s actually worthwhile doing.

I suppose if I don’t dose Strontium and decide not to go ahead with the auto water changes then i’ll have much more room for a larger container for my RO, which I think realistically would make more sense...

 

[Rosie]

I gave the tank a good clean yesterday with a toothbrush and a water change. I’m slowly slowly getting on top of the GHA! I’ve also got an army of Cerith and Nassarius Snails and another Blue Tuxedo Urchin turning up on Wednesday to help win the GHA war.

I am also going to test all my parameters later on and start my auto dosing tomorrow. I’ve spent the last couple of days testing Alk, Ca and Mg just to double check the daily consumption of them. I’m so used to hand dosing that i’m rather nervous to start auto dosing ;Nailbiting

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looking really nice and colorful!

 

[Rosie]

Looking really nice and colorful!

Thank you! It’s slowly getting there

 

[Rosie]

My refreshed CUC arrived today!

Cerith Snails x6
Blue Tuxedo Urchin
Nassarius Snails x6

I have also reduced my overall hours of lighting from 16 hours a day to 13 hours a day. I’ve kept my daylight hours at 8 hours and taken 3 hours from the sunset and moonlight settings.

 

[Rosie]

My other half is out this evening so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to run every test I had in my cabinet!

All my test kits are Salifert apart from the TMC Refractometer and the APEX PH Probe

Temp: 25 Degrees C
Salinity: 1.026
PH: 8.1 (average over 24hrs)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2
Phosphate: 0.015
Alkalinity: 8.1 DKH
Calcium: 430 ppm
Magnesium: 1365 ppm

Potassium: 380ppm
Strontium: 3ppm
Iodine: 0.06ppm

My Nitrate and Phosphate levels are a little too low for my liking. I’m trying to keep them both away from zero whilst also trying to fight GHA, it deffo feels like a fine line at the moment. I’ve now dropped my chaeto reactor lights by a couple of hours to see if this helps the numbers rise slightly.

I’ve also been doing a little bit of reading on R2R about GHA and what people see as the causes and what they’ve done to combat it. I’ve taken two things away which i’m going to implement and that’s; getting the turkey baster and blasting the rocks to remove food debris and also increasing the flow in my tank. (Second Jebao wave maker now ordered...)

I’m still tweaking my Alk, Ca, Mg and Strontium levels with auto dosing. I’m currently testing these levels every day and I’m trying to aim for:

Alkalinity: 8.5 DKH
Calcium: 420 ppm
Magnesium: 1350 ppm
Strontium: 10ppm

 

[Rosie]

Tank Update! Or should I say tank issues…..

Just over a week ago I lost my Blue Cheek Goby, I’ve no idea what happened to him :-( I have a mesh cover over my tank so I know he hasn’t jumped. I’ve tested my tank as well and I couldn’t see any serious issues with the results.

Today I’ve also noticed my Montipora Digitata is turning white at the base… the polyps have completely disappeared around the base and on a couple of the branches. I’ve put it in the SPS Discussion thread and I’ve been told it looks like RTN. So I’m just going to frag it in the morning and hope for the best!



Most Recent Parameters:
All test kits are Salifert apart from the TMC Refractometer

Temp: 25 Degrees C / 77 Degrees F
Salinity: 1.026
PH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1 (a little lower than I’d like)
Phosphate: 0.03
Alkalinity: 8.3 DKH
Calcium: 430 ppm
Magnesium: 1470 ppm (I’m currently trying to lower this to 1350, I’m still making adjustments to my auto dosers)

Strontium: 16ppm (I’m also auto dosing this and have just decreased the dosage so it hovers around 10ppm)
Iodine: 0.06ppm

On a slightly brighter note! I added my second wave maker to the tank and I can already see improvements in the rocks that had low flow around them with regards to GHA. I’m also blasting my rocks with a baster everyday, well everyday I remember... and my CUC are cracking on nicely as well. I think the GHA war will be a slow one but I think i’m getting a better grip on it!

As for my time using the APEX controller, all I can say is WOW! I was a bit concerned that it would be overkill for my little tank but i’m so glad I bought it! I don’t think I’ve really scratched the surface with its capabilities but i’m definitely working on it!

 

[Rosie]

So I think the thread on the "Montipora" has come to a conclusion on what it could be.... for a start it's not a Montipora [emoji85] it's a birdsnest!

Anywho, a few things were mentioned; RTN, pests, Alk swings etc but one thing that kept being mentioned was shade. I didn't realise this could happen.

So I'm going to do a couple of things, I'm going to frag a chunk off that seems to be taking all the light and place that somewhere else highly lit in the tank and hope that the original coral will start to recover with more light on it.

 

[Rosie]

I also did a bit of tank maintenance today as well. I've removed a good chunk of chaeto from the sump and I also gave the skimmer cup a good clean!

The cup was the fullest I've seen it in a long time. I then realised I've been blasting the rocks every day with the baster so it's probably been working overtime!

 

[Rosie]

It’s been a while since I last updated my build thread and there’s been some big changes recently!

A few days ago I bought some T5 lights and the Neptune Systems PAR Meter.



I’ve switched my lights from LEDs to T5s, I’ve been thinking about changing the LEDs out for a while now as I’ve just not seen any growth in my SPS corals. I decided to go for the ATI Sunpower 6 bulb 24 watt fixture, which me and my other half set up today!!

I ordered 8 bulbs in total (4 Blue Plus, 2 Actinic and 2 Purple Plus), so I can play about with the combination. I’ve currently gone with 4 Blue Plus and one each of Actinic and Purple Plus.



Before I set up my ATI fixture I sat the PAR meter in the tank under the LEDs. That’s when I discovered how little light my corals were getting…. I had roughly 213 PAR in the highest part of my tank and 57 on the sand bed.

When I switched to the T5s today and turned them on for the first time, my PAR meter which was sat on the sand bed shot up to 216, so I’m already impressed! I will have to acclimatise the corals to the T5s gradually so I don’t send them into some sort of shock.

Other tank news, my APEX started alerting me that my tank was swinging in temperate, so I thought it was about time I bought a new heater. You can see on the temperature graph where my new heater kicked in.



I bought some more corals!

I picked up another platygyra coral which is orange and blue, it’s a great shape as well. I decided to create a shelf with it off my rock and I stupidly thought it would be a breeze…… I ended up having to make a support for it and even that didn’t quite work…. In the end I had to use the tank turkey baster…. I’m really happy with it now it’s set though!



I also decided to culture some Copepods using a kit I bought online, I’m going to hopefully load my tank with them as they reproduce. I think the fish will enjoy the live food and I’m hoping they add to my CUC and get in the places that the snails and hermits cant reach.



Lastly, the hair algae outbreak that I really struggled to keep under control is now most definitely on the back foot. I pluck the odd bit out on the rare occasion, but my CUC seems to be doing a great job!

I think that’s everything! Here is a photo of the new lights in action - I’ve just realised that it’s not the best picture, i’ll get a better one uploaded tomorrow along with some tank parameters (hopefully).

 

[Rosie]

I tested my tank yesterday, these were my parameters:

Nitrate: 10 ppm
Phosphate: 0.1 ppm
Alkalinity: 9.1 DKH
Calcium: 410 ppm
Magnesium: 1380 ppm

Strontium: 0 ppm
Iodine: 0.01 ppm
Potassium: 380 ppm

The alkalinity has crept up from a steady 8.3 to 9.1 over the past month, I will have to adjust the dosing pumps to get that back on track. I’m happy with my Phosphates and Nitrates though, I didn’t have enough of them a few months back.

As for Strontium… I really struggle with this one, I’ve either got none or too much…. I turned my dosing pump off a while ago as my reading was quite high, it seemed to drop quite quickly though once I stopped dosing. I think I just need to really cut down on how much I dose, that or I’m absolutely shocking at testing for it!

I noticed one of my wave makers wasn’t working yesterday, so I pulled it out to give it a clean to see if that was the problem and then I managed to snap something whilst putting it back together….. so now it’s a write off!

As promised, I’ve taken a better picture of the lights in action. You really can’t appreciate the how it looks with these photos, so you’ll have to take my word for it! I used a couple of coral lenses whilst taking these on my phone.

 

[Rosie]

I thought I'd utilise the PAR meter and map the readings I had on my LED fixture and the new ATI T5 fixture.

The LEDs were set at 70%



The ATI T5s are around 10 inches off the tank water surface



It's not a perfect representation of the numbers as the position of the PAR Meter for both sets of lights was most likely held in different areas of the marked out zones of the tank, but it gives you a rough idea.

 

[StacyW]

Hi Rosie

Fab pictures and posts of the tmc 600. Especially, since i have the same tank but, I was wondering whether you could post some extra pictures of the sump.
Basically, I want a refugium in the sump and the only place to put it was the same place as in your pictures. The refugium, was to have mud in trays with cheato, similar to your pics. However, im a little worried of seting up the sump wrongly or not benifically.

 

[Rosie]

Hi Rosie

Fab pictures and posts of the tmc 600. Especially, since i have the same tank but, I was wondering whether you could post some extra pictures of the sump.
Basically, I want a refugium in the sump and the only place to put it was the same place as in your pictures. The refugium, was to have mud in trays with cheato, similar to your pics. However, im a little worried of seting up the sump wrongly or not benifically.

Hi Stacy!

Thank you

I’m sorry I haven’t got back to you sooner! I tried the mud trays and cheato floating in the sump but I never had any luck with it, looking back I think the sump lighting was my problem. I ended up buying a TMC Reef Bio Grow when my Nitrates and Phosphates started increasing and it worked really well, the cheato growth was fantastic! If anything though, it worked too well.... I had to take it offline after a while as it stripped my tank of both Nitrates and Phosphates and i’m now trying to increase them again.... I’m sorry if this hasn’t helped.

I took a picture of my sump for you (it’s a bit of a mess). The Bio Grow was squeezed into the same compartment as my skimmer but i’ve Just lifted it out the way for now.