120G Rimless shallow peninsula tank
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Charge ur phoneAnd I just found out this good news for us, GHL users...
Something I have been waiting for a long time.
How much is it?
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
This weekend I took the time get the DaStaCo operational. All worked fine. Following the steps in the manual and off you go.
Now, what the manual does not say is that you need to have your parameters in check before you start up.
I had all ok except KH as I let the tank recuperate after not dosing for 1 day. KH was still about 1dkh low.
As i do not want to shut down the calcium reactor to get this sorted, I have put it on the low setting and am dosing manually some ALK till parameters are back.
Calcium will lower a little but that can be good as I was at 460 and would like it to be at 420.
If all works out, by Tuesday all would be back to the correct levels.
Our local fish store had a nice shipment coming in and some corals had just my name on it...
Now, what the manual does not say is that you need to have your parameters in check before you start up.
I had all ok except KH as I let the tank recuperate after not dosing for 1 day. KH was still about 1dkh low.
As i do not want to shut down the calcium reactor to get this sorted, I have put it on the low setting and am dosing manually some ALK till parameters are back.
Calcium will lower a little but that can be good as I was at 460 and would like it to be at 420.
If all works out, by Tuesday all would be back to the correct levels.
Our local fish store had a nice shipment coming in and some corals had just my name on it...
Love them Janci!This weekend I took the time get the DaStaCo operational. All worked fine. Following the steps in the manual and off you go.
Now, what the manual does not say is that you need to have your parameters in check before you start up.
I had all ok except KH as I let the tank recuperate after not dosing for 1 day. KH was still about 1dkh low.
As i do not want to shut down the calcium reactor to get this sorted, I have put it on the low setting and am dosing manually some ALK till parameters are back.
Calcium will lower a little but that can be good as I was at 460 and would like it to be at 420.
If all works out, by Tuesday all would be back to the correct levels.
Our local fish store had a nice shipment coming in and some corals had just my name on it...
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
After a couple of days with the calcium reactor, I found it one day with the CO2 mixing chamber full of CO2 and water and was causing the float sensor of the reactor to get crazy.
After inspection by the representative for AMS (we have one person here in Dubai
) nothing was found inside the reactor to create the foam and it could have been proteins in the water.
As I was dosing Aquaforest ABVE, it is possible that there were extra proteins in the water. AF dosing was stopped and it took more than 5 days to get the reactor to act normal. In the meanwhile the skimmer was acting normal.
This makes me to believe that AF products have an amazing high concentration of what ever they contain. I will stay await for now from these products althought the other tanks look great.
So now for the last 4 days the reactor is running normal and I could measure on daily basis KH and Ca to fine tune the Dastaco.
pH is kept around an average of 7.9 (7.85-8.1 daily swing)
For now KH is at 7.3-7.6 dkh. In the past days KH went from 8.3 to 6.4 so I imagine the corals have lowered their consumption a bit due to the swings.
In the coming days I will keep monitoring and hope to have KH stable in a couple of days around 7.8-8.1 dKh.
From there on... keeping things stable and hoping for growth.
I could not resist this ice n fire echinata that came with an aussie shipment last week...
I have placed it high in the tank, with good flow. They are supposed to be difficult but until now it looks good with nice polyp extension.
A fellow reefer was closing his tank and I took advantage to add some fish:
small sailfin tang, brown tang and a clownfish. This clownfish was living in an bubble tip anemone in the other tank and I hoped it would take my clownfish to do the same... after 5 minutes both were in the anemone.
Nice green montipora frag. Also from the aussie shipment.
And a picture of the green echinata under blues
More update and pictures to follow as soon as I can take some better quality pictures.
And oh yes... the skimmer will be updated soon by something nice, very nice.
After inspection by the representative for AMS (we have one person here in Dubai
) nothing was found inside the reactor to create the foam and it could have been proteins in the water.As I was dosing Aquaforest ABVE, it is possible that there were extra proteins in the water. AF dosing was stopped and it took more than 5 days to get the reactor to act normal. In the meanwhile the skimmer was acting normal.
This makes me to believe that AF products have an amazing high concentration of what ever they contain. I will stay await for now from these products althought the other tanks look great.
So now for the last 4 days the reactor is running normal and I could measure on daily basis KH and Ca to fine tune the Dastaco.
pH is kept around an average of 7.9 (7.85-8.1 daily swing)
For now KH is at 7.3-7.6 dkh. In the past days KH went from 8.3 to 6.4 so I imagine the corals have lowered their consumption a bit due to the swings.
In the coming days I will keep monitoring and hope to have KH stable in a couple of days around 7.8-8.1 dKh.
From there on... keeping things stable and hoping for growth.
I could not resist this ice n fire echinata that came with an aussie shipment last week...
I have placed it high in the tank, with good flow. They are supposed to be difficult but until now it looks good with nice polyp extension.
A fellow reefer was closing his tank and I took advantage to add some fish:
small sailfin tang, brown tang and a clownfish. This clownfish was living in an bubble tip anemone in the other tank and I hoped it would take my clownfish to do the same... after 5 minutes both were in the anemone.
Nice green montipora frag. Also from the aussie shipment.
And a picture of the green echinata under blues
More update and pictures to follow as soon as I can take some better quality pictures.
And oh yes... the skimmer will be updated soon by something nice, very nice.
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
In the past days I have been monitoring the 3 basic tank parameters. Unfortunately my test kit was at the end of his life and when testing with the newly bought kit, Ca turned out to be 540ppm.
So now I am back to the doser with only Alk for the next days till .ca drops to acceptable levels and then we return to the calcium reactor.
So now I am back to the doser with only Alk for the next days till .ca drops to acceptable levels and then we return to the calcium reactor.
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
Today was water change day.
In the last week I have finished the water mixing station and preparing water was an easy deal. The saltwater tank is 120L. That is about 15% of the total water content.
For monthly changes that should suffice.
In the last week I have finished the water mixing station and preparing water was an easy deal. The saltwater tank is 120L. That is about 15% of the total water content.
For monthly changes that should suffice.
jsker
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Great system. The water changing station looks great.
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
During cleaning of my skimmer some weeks ago I broke a piece of it at the bottom where the overflow sits. It could be glued but as this skimmer is at the top of his capacity for this aquarium I started looking for a replacement.
After lots of checking, measuring and also saving, I got this...
Royal Exclusiv Delux 200.
Performance wise it is nothing compared with the Nyos Quantum 160.
The water that is being pumped through is enormous and I believe, although more expensive than they should be, it was worth the investment.
It has a dc pump of 26W which is easily adjusted.
Took the time to cut some more board for the dc pump display and control
The calcium reactor is back in operation and I am trying to get KH stable to 7.8dkh. Calcium is at the 440ppm range which I like.
After lots of checking, measuring and also saving, I got this...
Royal Exclusiv Delux 200.
Performance wise it is nothing compared with the Nyos Quantum 160.
The water that is being pumped through is enormous and I believe, although more expensive than they should be, it was worth the investment.
It has a dc pump of 26W which is easily adjusted.
Took the time to cut some more board for the dc pump display and control
The calcium reactor is back in operation and I am trying to get KH stable to 7.8dkh. Calcium is at the 440ppm range which I like.
Love the fish, nice pics and I really like that skimmer! I've been debating for some time to upgrade mine so I'll have to check into the Royal Exclusive line [emoji2]
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
The Royal Exclusiv Deluxe line is amazing.
Their adjustments are very easy and make it possible to use them in a wide range of sump water heights.
Along with the adjustable DC pump this skimmer was dialled in 5 minutes.
I wanted a bubble king double cone, but for the capacity I was looking for, the dimensions did not allow me to fit it in the sump. Sump design was made based on the Nyos (was not really planning on upgrading).
Besides the performance, the skimmer is dead silent.
OP
OP
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
Just came back after a 2 week holiday.
The tank is doing ok, not great but fine.
The shift from doser to the calcium reactor has not been flawless. The fluctuations in KH made most of the corals unhappy and some have started RTN.
During my leave KH was kept stable (various visits of the local LFS were needed to test and adjust the dosing)
Now all is more or less stable again so I hope things get better.
Some weeks ago I did some PAR measurements and changed 2 Pacific Sun bulbs (UV and Pigment INT) to ATI ABS and I was able to get better PAR values.
The output of the Pacific Sun bulbs is not that high. From an average PAR of 120 I went to 195 with only changing these 2 bulbs.
I have ordered extra ATI Coral+ bulbs as well to replace the 2 remaining Pacific Sun bulbs (Spectra+). The blue bulbs from Pacific Sun I will keep as I do like the visual result.
In the end I will have following bulbs in the 8x54W fixture:
4 pieces PS Crystal Blue+
2 pieces ATI Coral+
2 pieces ATI ABS (might change one later to a Purple)
With the last changes of light, I have added more whites to the combination.
That has resulted in a spread of the green cyano which I still had hanging, but previously under control... now not anymore.
So a complete gravel cleaning and water change is on the agenda for next weekend.
Here some FTS where the green slime is visible on the right, and making its way more and more to the left.
Coral knocked down during the last weeks and fell in the green zone. Coral still alive and happy...
Acans are in the danger zone and will need to be cleaned to prevent them being taken by the bacteria.
I think I will syphon out a complete layer of the gravel to get rid of the cyano as much as possible.
I have removed the GFO reactor already to see what phosphate levels are doing without it.
Now parameters are PO4 = 0, No3 = 0. I am dosing aquaforest to get some nitrates in the tanks and look for more balance.
I do have a bottle of pure NO3, but that I prefer to dose with a doser to have it spread over a complete day.
Unfortunately my doser fell in the sump during one of the my clumpsy preparations before the holidays. I opened it and cleaned it as much as possible before leaving it to dry, but it is not reacting.
I also stopped the biopellet reactor to see the change in NO3.
Biopellets (carbon source) are known to cause cyano if the outlet of the reactor is not skimmed properly.
Any way, here a close up of the cyano
The tank is doing ok, not great but fine.
The shift from doser to the calcium reactor has not been flawless. The fluctuations in KH made most of the corals unhappy and some have started RTN.
During my leave KH was kept stable (various visits of the local LFS were needed to test and adjust the dosing)
Now all is more or less stable again so I hope things get better.
Some weeks ago I did some PAR measurements and changed 2 Pacific Sun bulbs (UV and Pigment INT) to ATI ABS and I was able to get better PAR values.
The output of the Pacific Sun bulbs is not that high. From an average PAR of 120 I went to 195 with only changing these 2 bulbs.
I have ordered extra ATI Coral+ bulbs as well to replace the 2 remaining Pacific Sun bulbs (Spectra+). The blue bulbs from Pacific Sun I will keep as I do like the visual result.
In the end I will have following bulbs in the 8x54W fixture:
4 pieces PS Crystal Blue+
2 pieces ATI Coral+
2 pieces ATI ABS (might change one later to a Purple)
With the last changes of light, I have added more whites to the combination.
That has resulted in a spread of the green cyano which I still had hanging, but previously under control... now not anymore.
So a complete gravel cleaning and water change is on the agenda for next weekend.
Here some FTS where the green slime is visible on the right, and making its way more and more to the left.
Coral knocked down during the last weeks and fell in the green zone. Coral still alive and happy...
Acans are in the danger zone and will need to be cleaned to prevent them being taken by the bacteria.
I think I will syphon out a complete layer of the gravel to get rid of the cyano as much as possible.
I have removed the GFO reactor already to see what phosphate levels are doing without it.
Now parameters are PO4 = 0, No3 = 0. I am dosing aquaforest to get some nitrates in the tanks and look for more balance.
I do have a bottle of pure NO3, but that I prefer to dose with a doser to have it spread over a complete day.
Unfortunately my doser fell in the sump during one of the my clumpsy preparations before the holidays. I opened it and cleaned it as much as possible before leaving it to dry, but it is not reacting.
I also stopped the biopellet reactor to see the change in NO3.
Biopellets (carbon source) are known to cause cyano if the outlet of the reactor is not skimmed properly.
Any way, here a close up of the cyano
Last edited:
All Delight
2500 Club Member
Really nice tank
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