d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

[TheAquarian]

Welcome back Dennis, can’t wait to see it come together.

Edit, funny this showed up in new posts and I didn’t look at the date. The tank is awesome Dennis!

 

[d2mini]

Welcome back Dennis, can’t wait to see it come together.

Wait wut? Where did I go?

 

[TheAquarian]

Wait wut? Where did I go?

Lol I edited it, seems I’m the one that was gone. Your thread showed up in my “new posts” and I didn’t notice the date ;Hilarious I’ve been out of the game for just over a year it’s nice to see a familiar name, even fits on a different forum.

 

[d2mini]

Lol I edited it, seems I’m the one that was gone. Your thread showed up in my “new posts” and I didn’t notice the date ;Hilarious I’ve been out of the game for just over a year it’s nice to see a familiar name, even fits on a different forum.

funny

Welcome back!

 

[najer]

Loving those shrooms!

 

[d2mini]

Loving those shrooms!

Thanks!

And here's the new edition.

 

[d2mini]

One more pic in whiter light.

 

[bubbaque]

You can't beat the WWC bounce mushroom!

 

[EddieJ]

Looking great Dennis !

 

[Janci]

Wow, what a great bounce mushroom.
I have been going through the tread but cannot find which Radion settings you use for your photgraphy.
I guess some tweeking with LR afterwards is always necessary.

 

[d2mini]

You can't beat the WWC bounce mushroom!

heh heh, truth!

Looking great Dennis !

Thanks!

Wow, what a great bounce mushroom.
I have been going through the tread but cannot find which Radion settings you use for your photgraphy.
I guess some tweeking with LR afterwards is always necessary.

It depends. Sometimes I'm lazy and just leave it on current settings like these pics.
Other times I open up the ecosmart live app and change them to around 12-13k.
There is always a little wb tweaking in lightroom.

 

[Mark Gray]

Wow really nice build Thanks for the info, I picked this up after you posed on trimming Cheato. My new build is coming I think I read most of this whole thread. Tank looks great. Do you still have any other types of micro algae in your fuge? I have 2 right not but the cheato seems to take over quickly, and unless i trim it it will be the last algae standing

 

[d2mini]

Wow really nice build Thanks for the info, I picked this up after you posed on trimming Cheato. My new build is coming I think I read most of this whole thread. Tank looks great. Do you still have any other types of micro algae in your fuge? I have 2 right not but the cheato seems to take over quickly, and unless i trim it it will be the last algae standing

Thanks!
Last time around the cheato took over everything.
This time the dragon's breath is what grows and the cheato stays the same size.
I'm wondering if there is something different about the spectrum of this ufo led vs the mars hydro I was running with triton.

 

[d2mini]

Finally got the Radion Diffusers installed!

Honestly, it's not that much different than before. Still plenty of shimmer. And not much loss in light. I have a hand held photography light meter than can measure LUX and I'm recording only a 3-5% loss. The tank looks very evenly lit with very little shadowing. I'd say it's a very subtle but nice upgrade.

Also, I kind of like not seeing those individual led domes on the pucks.
Looks more finished IMO.

 

[johntdaballa]

What camera and lens do you use?

 

[d2mini]

What camera and lens do you use?

Depends, John. That shot was my Nikon D750 with the Nikon 24-70mm lens.
All images shot in raw format and processed through Lightroom.

 

[d2mini]

Ok guys, need some help!

Had a couple things going on with the tank lately and it's having an affect on my sps.

First, my ph was going down below 7.6 in the mornings. Got that taken care of by making adjustments to my calcium reactor by changing the feed pump and co2 settings. But while this was happening, my Alk was bouncing around. Not a whole lot but it went down as low as 6.5 and up as high as high 8's. I normally keep it around 8.0.

Second, as I was getting the reactor pretty much dialed in, I added the Radion diffusers.
My lux meter didn't record much drop in light, just a few % but Ecotech says they record PAR drops of around 20%. So considering that, I should have been upping my overall brightness, but I only upped it about 5% and then forgot about it.

So thats the two things that have changed/been happening lately.
My Alk is now a steady 7.6 for a week.
BUT... this past week (or two) I've been having problems.
My SPS are losing color intensity or browning out. My Milli's have turned brown, my Paletta Pink Tip lost it's pink... almost white, but still have the green. Some other greens dulled out. Blues dulled out. Purple Bonsai has dulled. My ORA Joe the Coral has STN's to almost nothing. I lost two frags, RTN's overnight. All sps and zoas seem just dandy.

So first I was thinking alk instability... but it wasn't THAT bad. It's not like it shot up to 11. And the changes weren't overnight, they were over a few days.
Then I remembered about the light. Could the decrease in light have caused any of this?

Parameters are all stable and in line.
pH now ranges from 7.73 to 8.0.
Alk 7.6
Calc - haven't checked in awhile but was around 430
Mag - 1400 last i checked
Salinity - 1.0256
Nitrate - 2-3ppm
P04 - haven't checked in a while, but was .04

I'll try to update some of the above parameters later today.
But any thoughts on what's going on?

 

[HolisticBear]

So first I was thinking alk instability... but it wasn't THAT bad. It's not like it shot up to 11. And the changes weren't overnight, they were over a few days.

I don't know if I can find the thread, but there was a very experienced reefkeeper on R2R who described an Alk swing. Her comment that caught my eye was that after fixing the issue, she waited for the inevitable SPS decline in 2-3 weeks. That she knew the true repercussions would take a few weeks to manifest themselves was insightful.

I really don't know, but it's possible it's just the confluence of multiple stressors (no single one would have been sufficient?). Curious what others think.

 

[d2mini]

I don't know if I can find the thread, but there was a very experienced reefkeeper on R2R who described an Alk swing. Her comment that caught my eye was that after fixing the issue, she waited for the inevitable SPS decline in 2-3 weeks. That she knew the true repercussions would take a few weeks to manifest themselves was insightful.

I really don't know, but it's possible it's just the confluence of multiple stressors (no single one would have been sufficient?). Curious what others think.

Interesting, and that was my initial thought. Was hoping things stabilized soon now that my Alk stabilized.

 

[watchguy123]

The fluctuations in alkalinity certainly don’t sound overly dramatic. But the changes in your sps are remarkable. Loss of color, browning, stn, rtn are significant. I’m not smart enough to know whether it was all those relatively minor changes that were taking place that all added up to a big change or something remains off kilter.

I have followed with interest the discussions of pH throughout the years but I have never tried to correct or manipulate it. I never wanted to add a CO2 scrubber and I don’t have access to an outside wall. I have simply relied on my calcium reactor providing alkalinity, my chaeto on a reverse lighting cycle and the skimmer aeration to buffer pH. But I have never made any specific efforts to manipulate it.

Your nitrates are in a low enough range that it seems a dKh dip to 6.5 from 8 wouldn’t be a seminal event. Radion lights are so darn powerful. I learned that lesson by switching out my ATI t5 fixture for a radion in my frag tank. Do you want to double check your radion program to make sure nothing else changed when you modified your program.

Besides my likely meaningless ramblings, I wish I had some clear insight. I feel for you.

Oh, and you should check phosphates, when things are not going well, it just makes sense to test all of the more basic parameters. In times of crisis, I just recheck everything even the calibration on my refractometer.