1000gal DT build

[New Jersey REEF]

About 3 months ago my stirring motor went out on the reefbot and I finally was able to fix it couple of days ago! Back to easy testing, I’m excited! I feel like I am a reefbot engineer now... lots of work of disassembling and reassembling went into this project...

ReefKinetics were able to help out with the process.



My alk is around 8dkh

Nitrates around 5ppm , I’ve turned down slimmer. Want to raise it up to 10ppm

Phosphates 0.02-0.04Ppm

Magnesium 1360ppm (I’ll be dosing a bit extra today to get it upto 1400 or so)

cal- 480ppm


I’ve yet to hook up reactor for purit, it’s for preventative/ precautionary type of method.

To remove any contamination’s like metals etc...

 

[Aussiemarine]

Any new videos?

 

[New Jersey REEF]

I took some pictures of corals from top this evening. Want to share with you guys:

Little bit of everything on this on

That hammer colony on the bottom is a size of a volleyball

Here is small frag of cb maleficent next to Garf Bonsai colony

and a wide shot

this red monti cap is very special to me, my very first sps coral. I got it as a tiny 1” frag about 4 years ago.

One more shot of anemones

here is a shot of this one bounce mushroom that split into 4 now. I forget exact name of this mushroom.

and another wide angle shot of the island

This one is in the very back side / middle of the tank, very hard to take good picture of these
One of my favorites, WD in the middle, PC rainbow to the right, TSA prince peach on the left

up close with prince peach

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Any new videos?

Thanks for following along @Aussiemarine, I appreciate it!
I will try to record video soon and share it. My last one was delete due to copy rights of background music. I’ll have to work with that in future

 

[New Jersey REEF]

This fox flame colony looks so good to me

Cherry bomb Frag starting to color up

This one is a beast mode frag. I moved it from middle of the tank to very top and it seem to love it. Lots of coloration here

And a wide shot

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Few updates:
Lowered lights from 18” to 12” over the water and added 4 x 48” Orphek OR3 bars. Pretty happy with results so far. Getting mid 300 par below 20” water bottle ranges from 100-200

Also added four more tenuis frags:
OZ & Xanadu beauties..
here is a picture of OZ colony

Here is Xanadu

HW and SC Orange Passion

 

[New Jersey REEF]

I’ve increase dosage of lanthanum to 80ml per day. Last phosphates reading was done yesterday .07ppm

I have received ICP Test results and I am pleasantly surprised. I have not done any water changes for at least 6 months now.
Here is what it looks like:

I already knew about phosphates issues, everything else seems to be more / less in order.

In the next few days I will be setting up DIY aminos dosing. Recipe for aminos is almost identical to whats in Brightwell's aminos.

Jo Mar Labs Black Label Pure Form 21 Blend Amino Acid Powder, 10g (two scoops that come with the amino acids) in 375 ml RO plus 125 ml vinegar to make 500mL.
Going to start dosing 120ml daily
I sharing the results as go.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

This week I’m on vacation and planning to add another section to aquascape. Small bridge, that will connect two sections and anothe bridge to the middle of it. It will be nice front acro section with very high par.

This will be supporting rock for that additional section

sort of like this ...

 

[New Jersey REEF]

I got lazy and have not tested alkalinity in 7 days. Yesterday I tested and it dropped to 6.1 dkh, I had to use seachem buffer (12 tablespoons) tested today and it’s 6.7. Did another 12 tablespoons just now.
I am wondering why my alkalinity dropped so much over a period of 1 week. Usually it was in the range of 7.4-7.8. Only thing different I did was start to dose heavy lanthanum.

My guess is after phosphates were removed uptake of alkalinity increased. I also suspect that maybe calcium reactor probe isn’t correctly read ph. I lower ph to 5.9 from 6.3 to see if it will make any difference.

Finally I have fixed actuator on reefbot and testing water won’t be an issue anymore. Currently running alk/ phosphates / magnesium and nitrates tests. I will probably do alkalinity test 2 times a day and phosphates once per day to get it tunned.

I will be changing calcium reactor media to triton media, I wonder if it will give me boost to alkalinity.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Changing calcium reactor media. Think I can reuse this old media in the sump for bio filtration? Seems like a waste if I through it away.

also I’m gonna try out this new triton media.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

I found a good way to keep Purple stylo from growing out of control. Just put two heavy rocks on top of it.

 

[JMM744]

My moneys on the stylo! Stuff is like a weed.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Few updates:
I did end up getting 2 harlequin shrimp but not seeing impact on the population of starfish just yet. The pair of harlequins are pretty large too about 1 1/2” each. Both have been in the display tank for about a week now.
As far as blue linckia, i put it in the 60 cube safe from harlequins.

Small update today, I’ve set up doser for two part on top of Carx and Kalkwasser. I made DIY 5 gallon containers out of buckets and starting dosing with 100ml per day to see how it goes. Currently I’m sitting at 7.6dkh, goal is 9

My nitrates jumped from 0-5 to 10-20 since I’ve stopped changing socks and lowered skimmer. I think I will keep it around that area.

Phosphates been an uphill battle, dosing 80ml lanthanum daily on top of GFO reactor.
Formulate for lanthanum that I use is this:
1500ml water to 48ml lanthanum

Currently I’m at 0.34ppm it jumped from 0.02 after I changed gfo and only had enough for about 1/2 of reactor size.

I am planning to set up DOS today for lanthanum dosing and DIY Aminos

Tank is looking good so far, no algae outbreaks yet...

 

[New Jersey REEF]

I’m continue to battle phosphates:
Changed concentration of lanthanum 2 days ago, where I double it.
9/22/2020
224ml lanthanum to 3500ml ro water
Started dosing:
100ml dosing start
Yesterday went up to 300ml. I wonder what test results will be today.
Before dosing reading was .17ppm Hannah UL

This is what test chart looks like:

 

[New Jersey REEF]

So I’ve ordered a few things to get these phosphates under control....
First my refugium lights been acting up so I’ve sent a ticket to Kessell to repair these two h380s. Meanwhile I’ve ordered smaller ones, two of h160. Should be good enough for the size of 75gallon refugium.
Second, I’ve ordered four these cheaper lights on amazon for DIY project (algae scrubber)
I’m hoping these works out well, I may build 2-3 more.

Meanwhile I’ve been dosing lanthanum manually but I want set up drip system of lanthanum right into skimmer. Still figuring out logistics of that.


Here is a start to a future 15-gallon kalkwasser reactor.

 

[New Jersey REEF]

That moment when your phosphates test below .1ppm

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Happy Sunday!
Feeding some nori here.. few shots of happy fish

 

[Mmoore0324]

Looks great! I’ve enjoyed reading this thread and following along. I also think you’ve done a great job discussing the issues that you’ve had to deal with along the way. I think there is this misconception in the hobby that when you have a huge system with high end equipment, that problems don’t happen. Great job dealing with those issues. I look forward to continue following this project.

 

[revhtree]

Few updates:
I did end up getting 2 harlequin shrimp but not seeing impact on the population of starfish just yet. The pair of harlequins are pretty large too about 1 1/2” each. Both have been in the display tank for about a week now.
As far as blue linckia, i put it in the 60 cube safe from harlequins.

Small update today, I’ve set up doser for two part on top of Carx and Kalkwasser. I made DIY 5 gallon containers out of buckets and starting dosing with 100ml per day to see how it goes. Currently I’m sitting at 7.6dkh, goal is 9

My nitrates jumped from 0-5 to 10-20 since I’ve stopped changing socks and lowered skimmer. I think I will keep it around that area.

Phosphates been an uphill battle, dosing 80ml lanthanum daily on top of GFO reactor.
Formulate for lanthanum that I use is this:
1500ml water to 48ml lanthanum

Currently I’m at 0.34ppm it jumped from 0.02 after I changed gfo and only had enough for about 1/2 of reactor size.

I am planning to set up DOS today for lanthanum dosing and DIY Aminos

Tank is looking good so far, no algae outbreaks yet...

WOW just wow! Amazing system!

 

[mattgsa]

You have a really nice system. Thanks for sharing.