450G Reef Reboot - Accessibility Edition

[LucasRe]

Hi Everyone,

This is my reef reboot thread for my 450G tank, you can find the previous build thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lucas-405g-simple-reef.843521/#post-9222121

Unfortunately this isn't the happiest beginning for the reboot, the tank has had a rough year. In January I was diagnosed with a bone cancer in my right knee, obviously, health comes first and with a lot of time spent in the hospital (~150 nights this year) the tank has suffered some neglect. We've had some fish deaths, some coral loss, and a huge influx of pest algae. We also have some challenges to overcome as a result of the treatments and surgeries I've had this year, namely, accessing under sump equipment is now significantly more difficult for me.

Anyway, as I'm now at the end of my treatments (all went well), it's time to get the reef back under control and make some accessibility improvements so I can continue to look after it long term.

Here is our starting point (Under white lights to show just how bad it is):

UPDATE: We've made good progress, the tank currently looks like:

Good luck to me.

Thanks for checking out my build thread.
- Lucas

 

[death-by-reef]

hope it goes well!!

 

[LucasRe]

First up, algae control!

A heavy reliance on auto feeding pellets throughout the year and insufficient nutrient export has resulted in some unacceptably high nitrate and phosphate readings. Our starting point was around 45ppm nitrate and 1+ppm phosphate. Given the size of the tank, doing multiple large water changes is not exactly my idea of a good time, so for short term correction of the nutrient levels we turn to chemical solutions.

Nitrate was brought down over a period of a few weeks by dosing Red Sea NoPox, it's currently testing at 14ppm which I am happy with. My ideal range at this stage is less than 20ppm, however single digits would be even better. I'm not currently interested in chasing numbers, maybe in the future. Given how effective the NoPox has been at controlling nitrates, I do see it being a part of the long term nutrient management of the tank.

I brought phosphate down a little faster, the NoPox seemed to have little to no impact on phosphate levels so I turned to Phosphate RX, which worked extremely well. Over the course of about a week I brought the phosphate level down to around 0.1ppm, I've been holding it here entirely with Phosphate RX however I don't feel comfortable with the continued use of Phosphate RX so long term I will find another way to manage phosphate.

Part of my long term nutrient management is the addition of a refugium, I assembled a cage out of egg crate to give some separation of the refugium to the rest of the equipment in the sump, and added an AI Prime light that I had laying around as a grow light. I got a little concerned that the egg crate may not be enough to contain the cheato, so I also added a plastic storage basket just in case.

I wasn't able to get a huge amount of cheato to start it off (limited sources that I trust for 'clean' algae). But it's a start, and has about tripled in size in the last 2 weeks. In addition to the refugium, I am considering running GFO to further control phosphates. I will wait to see how the refugium goes on its own before going down that route however.

Hopefully this is a good start to beating the algae that has taken hold in the tank. I've also significantly reduced the lighting schedule in the display tank to try and help the cheato in the sump out compete the display for nutrients. I've also begun some manual removal, however going is slow - I will continue doing a little bit of removal each day to help knock it down

Thanks for following along!
- Lucas

 

[ShoreReefer]

I’m glad all is going well for you and you’re able to enjoy the hobby again. Nothing like a good challenge to get you back going. Good luck!

 

[LucasRe]

I’m glad all is going well for you and you’re able to enjoy the hobby again. Nothing like a good challenge to get you back going. Good luck!

Thank you very much!

 

[RedReefer]

Glad to see you back in action! Good luck with the reboot!

 

[1ocean]

following long and wishing you the best...

 

[LucasRe]

Glad to see you back in action! Good luck with the reboot!

following long and wishing you the best...

Thanks guys, much appreciated

 

[1ocean]

Thanks guys, much appreciated

any questions please ask..there are lots of new equipment out there

 

[LucasRe]

To make the tank more accessible for maintenance I have plumbed a second sump into the adjacent room. This room used to be a spare room but has been emptied and is now a fish room.

New sump in! Looks suspiciously like an old frag tank The display tank is on the other side of the wall- the garbage bin is my RODI water storage. It's essentially plumbed in like a second display tank - return pump up to the sump and gravity flow back down into the old sump. Speaking of the old sump, it's staying connected as an extra large refugium when the cheato grows enough to fill it.

Skimmer was the first piece of equipment moved over - I now have enough space to have it drain into a very large skimmate container (25L, sitting underneath).

Drilled a sheet of ply to the wall as a spot to mount equipment! Cables desperately need to be managed... Also added some carbon in a reactor to clear the water up a bit. Next up, cables need to be managed under the tank, heating needs to be moved into the fish room, and the dosing pump needs to be setup as the tank hasn't had anything dosed in a year.

Thanks for following along!
- Lucas

 

[LucasRe]

Dosing pump setup! Running the full Triton method, with the KH Guardian monitoring alkalinity.

Going to hospital tonight for a few days so will be leaving it up to my partner to keep an eye on the alk and adjust the dose accordingly. For now I am dosing the 2ml per 100L that Triton recommends.

 

[LucasRe]

I just wanted to quickly say how great it is to have a camera or two on the reef, I highly recommend it for all reef keepers

 

[LucasRe]

I forgot to add, an electrical update for the gear staying under the sump. Nice and organised and brought back to labelled and categorised individual switches that can be reached with standing

 

[LucasRe]

Out with the carbon and in with the GFO. Today's water test was showing 10ppm nitrates and 0.3ppm phosphates so I ducked to the LFS and picked up some GFO to run in my reactor.

I also spent some time with a tooth brush dislodging as much of the hair algae as possible but this seemed largely ineffective, as did gravel vaccing the sand - the algae seems to heavy to be effectively picked up via siphon. Refugium growth seems negligible recently, I've picked up a stronger light and hopefully that helps out compete what's going on in the display tank.

On a happier note, I'm heading into hospital tomorrow for my last ever dose of chemotherapy. I'm very excited to be able to dedicate more time to the tank in the near future.

 

[1ocean]

glad you are getting better and there is a tank to help you be happy

 

[LucasRe]

glad you are getting better and there is a tank to help you be happy

Thank you! It's an amazing feeling.

GFO pulled phosphate down from 0.3 to 0.1 in the first day, looking forwards to seeing where it's at when I get home from hospital. Hopefully I don't exhaust the media too quickly!

Here's the fish room update! Peep the little nano tank project off to the side

And a sandbed update - we're making progress against the algae however I think I'm mostly burying it. Going back in almost daily to take out what is dying off inside the sand however and that seems to be working well.

 

[LucasRe]

Evening everyone! The GHA battle continues, my girlfriend says she sees an improvement but I'm not convinced. Manual removal is proving difficult, it's hard to see what I'm doing when I'm leaning over the tank and the tooth brush scrub seems largely ineffective. I did solve a long standing problem with my gyre pumps and blasted them for about 2 hours and that dislodged a LOT of algae off the rocks, now that the pumps are fixed there is substantially more flow across the tank and far fewer dead spots - everything seems happier for it.

Phosphates continue to trend downward, I'm attributing this to the GFO. Currently testing PO4 at 0.05 - I'm very happy with this number. Nitrates have actually risen a bit, they're now testing at 17. I've upped my nopox dose slightly to try and tip the scale back in the other direction.

I've also done a big sump clean, removing a years worth of detritus can only be a good thing. The detritus layer was so thick you could almost call it a sand bed - probably has a lot to do with my nutrient issues. In other news my calcium and magnesium are a little low, I started some correction dosing tonight and will continue for 3 more days before I send off a new ICP test next week. Very happy with how the tank is progressing all things considered, just need to find the solution to this dang hair algae.

Clean sump picture

And a bit of festive trim, because 'tis the season.

 

[LucasRe]

So to continue the GHA battle the lights are coming down for a bit, whether I go lights out for 3 days or 3 weeks remains to be determined. I guess I'll see how the hair algae responds to being starved of light. I'm quite confident in the nutrient export systems that are now running on the tank so I think if the GHA is brought under control it will remain under control.

If anyone has any thoughts please let me know, I'm all ears.

 

[1ocean]

sounds like your on a good track to get rid of the problem.

 

[LucasRe]

sounds like your on a good track to get rid of the problem.

Thank you, I really hope so!