1K Reef.... Miracles custom 1000 gallon aquarium 120”x60”x30”

[VanDalsenReef]

Any update?

 

[748S911]

During Thanksgiving, I noticed one bulb was out on my UV unit. Upon further inspection bulb and pin connection were melted and wires burned. Thank goodness it was contained and I caught it sooner than later. I needed to change glass sleeve that wasn’t available anywhere for my 240 watt unit so I took it off line until I could get a replacement sleeve, new bulb, and 4pin connector. It didn’t get back up online until 3 weeks after that.

In those three weeks my clowns got sick, they all died, lost some fish, two nems, and lots of brown turf algae killed remaining corals I had going.

Right now my aquarium looks likes it’s re cycling itself and looks like it is in the ugly stage once again.

Bummed out, but at least it’s getting back on track.

Fish remaining are happy and healthy now that the UV is back up and running I would like to do a big water change soon around 200 gallons. Just to help everything out.

I haven’t really been doing much and haven’t been on top of maintenance and cleaning due to being busy with work and life. So tank has definitely been neglected. There is hope, and hopefully in the next couple of months I’ll be back on track. Tanks been up and running for about a 1yr now.

 

[Janci]

During Thanksgiving, I noticed one bulb was out on my UV unit. Upon further inspection bulb and pin connection were melted and wires burned. Thank goodness it was contained and I caught it sooner than later. I needed to change glass sleeve that wasn’t available anywhere for my 240 watt unit so I took it off line until I could get a replacement sleeve, new bulb, and 4pin connector. It didn’t get back up online until 3 weeks after that.

In those three weeks my clowns got sick, they all died, lost some fish, two nems, and lots of brown turf algae killed remaining corals I had going.

Right now my aquarium looks likes it’s re cycling itself and looks like it is in the ugly stage once again.

Bummed out, but at least it’s getting back on track.

Fish remaining are happy and healthy now that the UV is back up and running I would like to do a big water change soon around 200 gallons. Just to help everything out.

I haven’t really been doing much and haven’t been on top of maintenance and cleaning due to being busy with work and life. So tank has definitely been neglected. There is hope, and hopefully in the next couple of months I’ll be back on track. Tanks been up and running for about a 1yr now.

Each tank will take its time to mature. Different uglies could also not be related to the UV being out of order.
Glad you noticed the issue and could resolve it without bigger harm.

With all the nems in the tank, I am curious how it looks.
How many do you have now?

 

[748S911]

I have only 3 nems left and they are in recovery mode from issues I was having end of year.

On plus side tank is bouncing back fast, I cranked up the flow, and gonna do another water change tomorrow.

1 yr update :

Disappointed in Kessil, not the best quality. I have 2 with red led gone they are probably fried and I’ve lost 2 total so far. They give off tons of shimmer, but they don’t last. I just don’t know of anything else on the market that gives that awesome shimmer and color mixing. They should be much cheaper cause of long term use issues.

All 12 AliExpress led bars 48inch that I purchased are flawless no issues.

Both Jebao mdp-20000 pumps running amazing, haven’t cleaned them and running strong.

All jebao wave makers running great, haven’t cleaned them and don’t have any that stopped. Huge difference from 2014-2017 models that would stop working after sometime.

All my deltec stuff is doing great and haven’t cleaned return pump and skimmer.

Love my Tunze magnet cleaner, I need to replace blade tomorrow , it comes with extra blades.

I wish that my tank temps didn’t fluctuate as much but its 77-80 range currently.


2024 goals are consistent params, re stock corals, and add some more fish.

 

[lubeck]

Nice update. It would be great to see a few pics of that beast.

I’m surprised about the kessil’s. I’ve used them throughout the years and never had one go. Did you try reaching out to them. Only issues for me were a lot of shading.

 

[748S911]

Honestly I’m kessils number one fan, but they just didn’t live up to my expectations!

Hopefully the next gen is better, and might consider getting them or if kessil sponsors there next gen lights on my tank, I wouldn’t say no lol.

I might sell the a500x here on marketplace for cheap soon.


Picture a 55 gallon tank with hair algea tuffs all over rocks and displaced sand that got blown around hahahahah. Definitely not pic worthy yet .

 

[Janci]

I am considering Kessils as well for my future build. Did not know about this issue.
But then they are not so common in our community.

Pictures are not only for showcasing or for us to gloat on. In your thread they are part of the tanks journal and might serve as a back up of the history of the tank.

 

[748S911]

Hit one year mark system has been up and running, lots of ups and downs. It’s been an interesting ride.

Manually removing hair algae off rocks and scrubbing with brush stuff I can’t get off by hand. Long and tedious process, but it’s helping a lot.

Reef is looking like is making a comeback, not ready for more coral yet, but hopefully by the summer I will stock up again with corals and more fish.

Fish are finally healthy again everyone is happy and healthy with big appetites! Happy reefing everyone and happy Easter

 

[VanDalsenReef]

What did you end up doing with your lights? Issues with the 500x I see

 

[lubeck]

Great to see an update. Tank is looking good. The fish still look tiny in that beast.

Excited to see what the rest of the year brings as the tank matures.

 

[748S911]

The 500’s are off line at the moment, might go with radions and blades in the future and use the 500’s for shimmer. Using led bars for now, not really lighting tank up as Im in the process of killing off the remaining hair algae issue.

 

[748S911]

Great to see an update. Tank is looking good. The fish still look tiny in that beast.

Excited to see what the rest of the year brings as the tank matures.

Thanks, it’s a work in progress at the moment.

Me too, I’m excited to see things level off and stabilize. I would love to see corals start growing like weeds and not look like a fish only tank with hair algae anymore.

 

[lubeck]

It will happen, just be consistent with good husbandry and patience.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Hows your NO3? I am having a hard time with them and been at war with them for 4 months. They keep me up at night. LOL

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hit one year mark system has been up and running, lots of ups and downs. It’s been an interesting ride.

Manually removing hair algae off rocks and scrubbing with brush stuff I can’t get off by hand. Long and tedious process, but it’s helping a lot.

Reef is looking like is making a comeback, not ready for more coral yet, but hopefully by the summer I will stock up again with corals and more fish.

Fish are finally healthy again everyone is happy and healthy with big appetites! Happy reefing everyone and happy Easter

Glad to see your tank is still going strong after a year!

 

[748S911]

Hows your NO3? I am having a hard time with them and been at war with them for 4 months. They keep me up at night. LOL

Not sure haven’t checked in a while, will look into it this weekend.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Not sure haven’t checked in a while, will look into it this weekend.

Mine are above 100PPM and done multiple 25% waterchanges and even a 50% waterchange and they are still up.. I started carbon dosing with vodka in December and hoping they are dropping but hard to tell with salifert test kit. You probably won't have the same issues as me, i started with dry Live rock, probably with alot of dead stuff and adding too many large turbos and tangs.

 

[748S911]

Reefing was much easier for me with real premium live rock from Fiji with all the pest and die off. T’5 and Metal halides, my cycle was less than 60 days. Ahhh the good old days..

I started with Marco dry rock and Carib sea life rock dry. My tank has been cycling for a year now smh. I thought long cycle was with only bare bottom tanks, but not for me.

Im in same Dino/algea/cyano/boat you are in too.

Only difference is that I didn’t go snail route, I have only urchins and a small amount like 10 or so, plus one sea hare that is huge now. Gotta bunch of serpent starts, emerald crab, lots of vibex nassarius, few sand sifting stars, brittle stars, tons of small stomatellas, and pyramid snails that appeared out of the blue. I figured the rocks would be super pink covered in coraline and corals growing like weeds, but I’m not there yet.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Reefing was much easier for me with real premium live rock from Fiji with all the pest and die off. T’5 and Metal halides, my cycle was less than 60 days. Ahhh the good old days..

I started with Marco dry rock and Carib sea life rock dry. My tank has been cycling for a year now smh. I thought long cycle was with only bare bottom tanks, but not for me.

Im in same Dino/algea/cyano/boat you are in too.

Only difference is that I didn’t go snail route, I have only urchins and a small amount like 10 or so, plus one sea hare that is huge now. Gotta bunch of serpent starts, emerald crab, lots of vibex nassarius, few sand sifting stars, brittle stars, tons of small stomatellas, and pyramid snails that appeared out of the blue. I figured the rocks would be super pink covered in coraline and corals growing like weeds, but I’m not there yet.

I added about 100lbs of established LR to my sump and truthfully i think my tank was acro ready in 6 months. I say that because my SPS did well for the first few months and then everything starting going south. I discovered that I overdid the garlic in my food to deal with ich, and whatever was not digested was falling to the bottom and rockwork (white specks on waste), It took me a month to find out what was going on but the 10 garlic cloves mixed me maybe 6lbs home made frozen causing major issues. After that I decided having an achilles and powder blue, feeding them 8 times per day (heavy and fresh seafood) is the only way to deal with fish parasites. Once they are stressed and their immune system is compromised its a rap, so i told myself saving the fish was first and I should be able to deal with nutrients later with water changes - however, this wont work in larger systems! It will work for dealing with Phosphates, which is easily stripped, but NO3 takes a long time when its get out of hand like mine.

Since you started with the fake rock you will for sure have a better experience dealing with lower nutrients but you will have challenges with lack of bio-diversity. You will need to source at least a little bit of clean LR thats filled with sponges. People say it can take 1-2 years without adding seed LR but thats only if your adding big chucks of LPS base. Someone like me who is re-fragging only living tissues could never get bio-diversity by adding small frags alone.

The crappy part is I have been trying to cut back on my feeding and in almost 18 months my achilles has not had any spots until today, so I am kind of in a battle where I can not reduce feeding by much. I am considering getting rid of my Orange shoulder tang, which grew to 9" in 1 year. I have 2 large urchins and they are great, they poop a lot, the 10 turbos I got when they where 1.5"-2" and now some of them are close to 4". these inverts waste unlike the fishes does not end up in the overflow, it is dense and ends up in the patches at the bottom or the rockwork so that is probably leading to the nutrient issues. I want to get rid of some but worried I will not be able to replace them if I expand my systems or a few perish so trying my best to deal with Nitrates before having to get rid of these animals, which to me are irreplaceable. I may set up a separate tank for the snails but don't think they will survive long and I am not trying to feed them a sheet of nori per day.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Sorry my post was long, but I had to vent