120G Rimless shallow peninsula tank

[choss]

Janci,

I'm just catching up on the last few weeks. For some reason I stopped getting email notifications so I un-watched and re-watched your thread and hopefully now I get the alerts again. I somehow missed your switch to the radions. My first thought was "what is he crazy??" - Things were looking great and while I have seen many good looking tanks with Radions, I've seen a lot of great tanks with all T5s. But that said, I know what you mean about the led effect. To me all T5s seem to washed out. I personally love a little shimmer.

Anyway, looking at your readings, you have plenty of PAR even before adjusting the intensity up. I guess the best way of jidging is that your corals look happy and based on your photos, I would agree.

 

[HolisticBear]

I'm just catching up on the last few weeks. For some reason I stopped getting email notifications so I un-watched and re-watched your thread and hopefull

The alert system is really sneaky. If you miss one alert or don't read the entire thread, you stop getting alerts because the system thinks you're no longer interested! It can easily bite you if take a quick look at R2R, but don't have time to read everything.

The savoir for this is "Watched Thread" from the Forums menu. Everything with a blue dot has content you haven't read. If you catch up, then your alerts will restart. You can click "All Watched Threads" at the bottom and it shows all the threads including the one you're up-to-date on.

I just learned this last week after wondering for like a year.

 

[Janci]

The alert system is really sneaky. If you miss one alert or don't read the entire thread, you stop getting alerts because the system thinks you're no longer interested! It can easily bite you if take a quick look at R2R, but don't have time to read everything.

The savoir for this is "Watched Thread" from the Forums menu. Everything with a blue dot has content you haven't read. If you catch up, then your alerts will restart. You can click "All Watched Threads" at the bottom and it shows all the threads including the one you're up-to-date on.

I just learned this last week after wondering for like a year.

Life saver!!!!

 

[choss]

The alert system is really sneaky. If you miss one alert or don't read the entire thread, you stop getting alerts because the system thinks you're no longer interested! It can easily bite you if take a quick look at R2R, but don't have time to read everything.

The savoir for this is "Watched Thread" from the Forums menu. Everything with a blue dot has content you haven't read. If you catch up, then your alerts will restart. You can click "All Watched Threads" at the bottom and it shows all the threads including the one you're up-to-date on.

I just learned this last week after wondering for like a year.

Wow R2R is making me earn my keep! This explains a lot.

 

[Janci]

Janci,

I'm just catching up on the last few weeks. For some reason I stopped getting email notifications so I un-watched and re-watched your thread and hopefully now I get the alerts again. I somehow missed your switch to the radions. My first thought was "what is he crazy??" - Things were looking great and while I have seen many good looking tanks with Radions, I've seen a lot of great tanks with all T5s. But that said, I know what you mean about the led effect. To me all T5s seem to washed out. I personally love a little shimmer.

Anyway, looking at your readings, you have plenty of PAR even before adjusting the intensity up. I guess the best way of jidging is that your corals look happy and based on your photos, I would agree.

I am sure there was something off with the T5 fixture.
With 8 bulbs I should have measured much more PAR if these really would have the correct reflectors, temperature,...
The light itself is a gorgeous design and that was what mostly made me go with the Giesemann.
Time will tell if the change was a good investment.

Now that I have the parameters more or less stable, I am playing with my nutrients a little.
NO3 and PO4 are still not detectable and when I add enough NO3 to get to 1ppm for this tank volume, it disappears in less then 12 hours.

 

[Janci]

Today I received back the results of the ICP test that was send last week.
I still use ATI lab for this as they test all the parameter as Triton, but also add results for salinity and alkalinity and include a Rodi water sample for analysis.

I am not sure how to enter the results here. Will give it a try.

Iodine and Strontium are low and need to be added to the tank.
Nickel, copper and zinc are still too high, but are slowly getting to better levels. Not sure where to start looking for these.
I changes my rodi station filters and DI resin last month and the automatic water change system, although started only shortly, might help a hand as well.
A new test will be done next month to have a better comparison.

 

[Janci]

In the last few days I started dosing NO3 and PO4.
My manual tests resulted always in zero ppm.
As I have ALK, Ca and Mg stable for the last weeks, it was time to check nutrients again.

I use here the products from the DSR line

Daily manual dosage:
NO3 -- 6ml (concentration: 1.44ml/100L will give 1 ppm)
PO4 -- 0.6ml (concentration: 0.1ml/100L will give 0.01 ppm)
Every test I do both NO3 and PO4 is still showing zero.
I will continue dosing at this rate to see if there is any effect to the corals or parameters.

 

[choss]

Its pretty cool to see the parameters from the tests. It does make you wonder about the copper and zinc. I also would have no idea where to start searching for the source. There must be some threads on this.

 

[Janci]

Its pretty cool to see the parameters from the tests. It does make you wonder about the copper and zinc. I also would have no idea where to start searching for the source. There must be some threads on this.

I am waiting the result of the rodi water sample.
I guess there can be some problem as well.

These elements will only come out of the tank by water changes so I will have to treat well the water station with new filters. Luckily I have received a complete new batch from a fellow reefer who quit recently due to relocation.

 

[HolisticBear]

These elements will only come out of the tank by water changes so I will have to treat well the water station with new filters. Luckily I have received a complete new batch from a fellow reefer who quit recently due to relocation.

No personal experience and you probably already know this, but Triton Detox is apparently most effective at removing Copper. So it's an option.

 

[Chrisfish]

I just finished this thread, your tank and pictures are beautiful!! Thanks for sharing it

 

[najer]

Do you dose Iodine or is it part of an additive?

 

[Janci]

No personal experience and you probably already know this, but Triton Detox is apparently most effective at removing Copper. So it's an option.

Nope. I did not know this. I know the Seachem Cuprasorb (or something like that) but never heard about the Triton Detox. Will give it a try.

At least my wife will be happy something is accompanying her in detoxing. Lol.

I just finished this thread, your tank and pictures are beautiful!! Thanks for sharing it

Thank you for reading it.

Do you dose Iodine or is it part of an additive?

No dosing of iodine yet.
I dose daily 4ml of the KZ Coral Colours (1234) bottles. But this seems not to be enough. I can dose more of KZ or just add some ml of only iodine on daily/weekly basis.
Some of the local reefers here swear by dosing iodine. They say it make corals have crazy polyp extension.
I probably will have to give it try.

You have experience with this?

 

[Janci]

Since some days I have 1 coral that seems to be bothered and lost colour at one side.
I think there is a crab somewhere (I know there is one black crab in the rocks) that is looking for food and likes this acro.
Any suggestions on what this might be?

If it is a crab, what is the best way of catching it?

 

[Janci]

Picture time...

Latest addition and still looking for a sweet spot.

This one has been in the tank for many months and now starts to show growing tips. Very happy about this.

Since long in the frag rack but now it has his spot on the rocks.

Steady grower

this one needs a fancy name

Sold to me a a Tierra Del Fuego... also now with growing tips after a long time in the tank.

One of the few coral that I fragged twice by now.

SSC was always happy. Since the last weeks, it has now a good growing rate.

An Aussie coral that I grabbed some time back.

 

[najer]

Nope. I did not know this. I know the Seachem Cuprasorb (or something like that) but never heard about the Triton Detox. Will give it a try.

At least my wife will be happy something is accompanying her in detoxing. Lol.



Thank you for reading it.



No dosing of iodine yet.
I dose daily 4ml of the KZ Coral Colours (1234) bottles. But this seems not to be enough. I can dose more of KZ or just add some ml of only iodine on daily/weekly basis.
Some of the local reefers here swear by dosing iodine. They say it make corals have crazy polyp extension.
I probably will have to give it try.

You have experience with this?

I dose Iodine at 2 - 3 drops a day but don't test so not sure what my levels are.

 

[Janci]

I dose Iodine at 2 - 3 drops a day but don't test so not sure what my levels are.

Simon, what product do you use for iodine dosing?
2-3 drops is like 0.1ml per day?

 

[najer]

England here, Tropic Marin Pro-coral Iodine.

 

[Janci]

After a small Easter break and visit to Belgium I finally could pick up some needed spare parts.
Reefing is nothing without spare parts.... LOL

So yesterday I installed the new rotor on the return pump.
It was mentioned earlier that the rotor of the Royal Exclusiv pump was found rusty after only 8 months. I wrote to the people in Germany and they immediately send a new rotor. As they wanted to save on some transport, I agreed to have it send to my home in Belgium where I could pick it up and bring to Dubai.
All installed and back in operation:

Another part was also picked up.
My GHL doser fell in the water a couple of months ago (still hurts..) and the main board was damaged as the power was still on.
After some discussion and comparing with GHL, I purchased a new board which was also installed now. I will hook up NO3 for daily dosing as the tanks seems to consume all and keeps nitrates at zero all the time.

No pictures of the tank yet as I did not get to clean the glass.

 

[Janci]

A quick FTS with the mobile from yesterday evening.
I started slowly moving some rocks to obtain more space for corals.

Now with the doser back in action, I am adding NO3 at 8ml per day, divided over 4 dosings.
This should raise NO3 for about 0.9mg/l, given my tank dimensions.
After 3 days of dosing I measured 0.2mg/l (give or take) with a new Salifert test kit.
Will monitor the next days if the tank can handle this amount and keep stable.

You can see also that I added 2 anthias specias... 5 squamipinnis and 4 cooperi.
They are not the most colourful anthias, but fill the tank nicely and are easy to feed.
They all eat frozen, pellets and flakes which makes it easier for me to feed them during the day with a auto feeder.
Nevertheless, from the lyretails I lost 2 from the original 7 pieces. They were very shy from the beginning and did not eat at all.