FL-FL-FL Fillory's Reef - SPS Evo 13

[Flexin]

My reasoning behind two lights on this tank for SPS

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-with-tuning-ai-primes.382296/

I saw you had two on this tank, just a note, I have two on a 3 foot 65 gallon. You will find you will need to turn them down, way down even
I had to... At least you can cook your eggs there in the morning

 

[siggy]

Now i'm looking at ideas/opinions on flow in my tank.

I have been running a wave puck for 4 months and like it although Wave-line gets less respect than Jebaco. check it out https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/wave-line-puck-controller.340845/

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I saw you had two on this tank, just a note, I have two on a 3 foot 65 gallon. You will find you will need to turn them down, way down even
I had to... At least you can cook your eggs there in the morning

Are you running a SPS dominated 65g? With BRS's PAR testing, it seems like using their AB+ spectrum they were only getting <200 par at 6" with one AI Prime, and upwards of 280 between two at 6"

They also say that SPS need a range of 250-350 per a study done by Dana Riddle

 

[siggy]

two AI Prime on a 10 gallon... Man this guy lights.

It's a Michigan thing!

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I have been running a wave puck for 4 months and like it although Wave-line gets less respect than Jebaco. check it out https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/wave-line-puck-controller.340845/

That looks like it might be way too much for my tank? 13.5 gallons

I did order a Jebao ws-2 last night [with 3 year Amazon warranty], and depending on how that goes, i'm contemplating also adding a Tunze 6040. I've read some reviews about the noise on the 6040 thought that make me a little Leary of choosing that pump. My tank is essentially silent, and i'd prefer not to add a buzz if I can help it. @ksfulk - any opinion/insight to the noise level?

I've also read that even on the lowest setting, the 6040 can be too much for tanks smaller than 20 gallons?

The Jebao PP-4 that I had on my Biocube was pretty much silent, and didn't give me any trouble, although I only had that tank set up for around

 

[ksfulk]

Running any pump at the maximum rate will present some form of motor noise. The loudest part of my tank is the fans from the light fixture, so I have had no noise issues with the 6040s at all. Im likely due for monthly pump cleaning in the next week or so, I can easily pull out the entire pump and controller when I do that and you can give it a whirl for a few days if you are on the fence. On the lowest setting (assuming you arent using an Apex to control the pump) it puts out about 50 gph... which is pretty low flow. If you run it off the Apex, the minimum speed is 30% (which is around 400 gph) which still seems like plenty slow enough in that size of a tank. Clearly mileage will vary, but placement of the pumps and flow direction is going to be more important than sheer velocity. I think in your case, since you have the return at the top of the tank for water movement, I would place two small powerheads at the back wall of the tank, one on the right, one on the left, about 2/3 of the way down and program them to run the same pattern/function, but with a 15-20 minute offset in the pumps. That way you get some random chaoticness, but there is also some overlap as well. Thats how I run my WAVs and Gyres. My 6040s are simply on 85% without variation. With a small tank like yours, its gonna get cluttered really fast with all that equipment in there...

 

[Flexin]

Are you running a SPS dominated 65g? With BRS's PAR testing, it seems like using their AB+ spectrum they were only getting <200 par at 6" with one AI Prime, and upwards of 280 between two at 6"

They also say that SPS need a range of 250-350 per a study done by Dana Riddle

I had SPS at the top and the light was burning them.. I selected my settings that way also in regards to the color range but not the intensity. I had to turn them way down. And even when I mentioned what I was doing, a few people warned me that would happen. I later changed over to the profile on the link I provided in addition to turning my intensity down. I will post my intensity shortly. And my cabinet is tall on top, 15 inches.

 

[Flexin]

Here are the setting in regards to intensity and a picture of the cabinet overall. If you see them bleaching you will know to turn them down . Forgive the cord, I miss the tanks when I’m away so like a camera

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Made some mistakes with dosing by eye nitrate and phosphates last night...

I only have about 4.5 gallons instant ocean salt at 11 dkh, and the tank is at 9 dog currently...

Nitrates are at 25 and
phosphate is a whopping 2.5 ppm (Hanna ran 2 times)


At this point I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm going to be ordering some salt mix to have around for water changes, but that doesn't help right now. I have a phosban 150 reactor and some gfo. Should I

run gfo to strip the phosphates overnight

4.5 gallon water change with instant ocean

Full water change with instant ocean (10 gallons, jumping from 9 dkh to 11-12 dkh - lfs has pre mixed instant ocean I could get tomorrow)

Mostly worried about the phosphates Spike, possible ALK Spike via water change, and less worried about the nitrate level

Also I do not have a skimmer, so nopox isn't an option

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Running any pump at the maximum rate will present some form of motor noise. The loudest part of my tank is the fans from the light fixture, so I have had no noise issues with the 6040s at all. Im likely due for monthly pump cleaning in the next week or so, I can easily pull out the entire pump and controller when I do that and you can give it a whirl for a few days if you are on the fence. On the lowest setting (assuming you arent using an Apex to control the pump) it puts out about 50 gph... which is pretty low flow. If you run it off the Apex, the minimum speed is 30% (which is around 400 gph) which still seems like plenty slow enough in that size of a tank. Clearly mileage will vary, but placement of the pumps and flow direction is going to be more important than sheer velocity. I think in your case, since you have the return at the top of the tank for water movement, I would place two small powerheads at the back wall of the tank, one on the right, one on the left, about 2/3 of the way down and program them to run the same pattern/function, but with a 15-20 minute offset in the pumps. That way you get some random chaoticness, but there is also some overlap as well. Thats how I run my WAVs and Gyres. My 6040s are simply on 85% without variation. With a small tank like yours, its gonna get cluttered really fast with all that equipment in there...

That's what I was thinking - 6040 on the bottom right [under the output] facing towards the opposite corner about center height, and a Jebao SW-2 on the left side center [pointed to bounce off the glass so it doesn't blow straight across the SPS/rock]

The SW-2 is a total of 5" x 3" x 3" versus the Hydor I currently have at 3.5” x 2” x 2” and the Tunze 6040 at 2.5" x 2.5" x 3.7"

Seeing as my rockwork is all centered, I don't know that i'll notice any powerheads on the rear panel much [tank is set up peninsula style with the back panel furthest from view]


Does anyone in GR know of a LFS that sells Red Sea salt mix? Looking for the 55 gallon bucket of Red Sea Blue bucket, and didn't want to wait a week to get it from DrFS or Marine Depot if possible

 

[Flexin]

My recommendation, trying to dose a 13 gallon tank along with evaporation is a nightmare. It’s too easy mess up because you have a small margin of error with so little water. I would do 30 percent water changes daily to get you back to normal starting now. Doing a full 100 percent change will have an adverse affect if you have fish and corals in the tank. It can shock them. They most likely are going to be affected as is.

The last thing you want to do is dose something else like gfo because again your margin of error is high.

The more complicated you try to make a small system, the higher the risk of failure. JMO. Let us know how things work out..

 

[Reef of Fillory]

My recommendation, trying to dose a 13 gallon tank along with evaporation is a nightmare. It’s too easy mess up because you have a small margin of error with so little water. I would do 30 percent water changes daily to get you back to normal starting now. Doing a full 100 percent change will have an adverse affect if you have fish and corals in the tank. It can shock them. They most likely are going to be affected as is.

The last thing you want to do is dose something else like gfo because again your margin of error is high.

The more complicated you try to make a small system, the higher the risk of failure. JMO. Let us know how things work out..

The 5 G water change I had around brought Phosphate down to 1.5

If I hadn't of dosed the Nitrate and Phosphate, my levels would have been 3 Nitrate and .03 phosphate, tried raising them slightly, without testing and calculating the dose amount [eyeballing it] =O

 

[Reef of Fillory]

The 5 G water change I had around brought Phosphate down to 1.5

If I hadn't of dosed the Nitrate and Phosphate, my levels would have been 3 Nitrate and .03 phosphate, tried raising them slightly, without testing and calculating the dose amount [eyeballing it] =O

I also only plan to start using the dosers once I get a consistent daily intake in an amount large enough to accurately dose with my BRS dosers at their stock solution potency.

My problem this time is that I didn't have to measure nitrates/phosphates on my Biocube when I was dosing that taml [with Nitrate] as the tank took up all the nitrate I could add. This tank, not so lol - live and learn

 

[Flexin]

Sounds good. My comment hopefully was not rude just with a sense of urgency I had a problem in my 65 and it took me two months to get back to normal with water changes and letting things work their course naturally. As the saying goes, nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Sounds good. My comment hopefully was not rude just with a sense of urgency I had a problem in my 65 and it took me two months to get back to normal with water changes and letting things work their course naturally. As the saying goes, nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

Didn't see it that way at all! I definitely appreciate all feedback, i'm new to fish tanks/aquariums so I just soak it all up!

I wasn't sure whether a large, fast change [large water change + GFO bringing down the Phospate quickly] would be better than "asking" the corals to adapt to the suddenly outrageous nutrient levels [they have been this way since I dose last night presumably, so ~24 hours]

The dosing (once started) is intended to eliminate shifts/swings between water changes. I was on the fence between sticking at high(er) nutrients or ULNS, so I hadn't committed to a salt mix before tonight [Red Sea Blue Bucket parameters].

10% weekly would be about 1.2 gallons, i'm contemplating doing weekly 1 gallon changes, or bi-weekly 2.5 gallon changes [likely bi-weekly if dosing keeps parameters steady]

I'm not sure how the Red Sea Colors program [and possibly coral program] will affect nutrient levels/trace and minor elements, to where water changes might not be necessary down the road.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

This is what I was thinking in terms of flow

Have the jebao on for 30mins ramping up/down, then the tunze on for an hour or two, then start back up etc.

Not exactly sure what I can do with these pumps, was thinking about a MP10, but I don't want something obstructing the view on the glass panels, and I found that the 6040 is arguably one of the best MP10 competitors

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Current Lighting Schedule, based on a 4/20-4/30 acclimation

Acclimating from:

to

I've got a Jebao SW-2, Tunze 6040 and Apex Classic coming in the mail today to install on the tank.

 

[Sipec]

Anyone gonna be at the gr swap on the 6th?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Anyone gonna be at the gr swap on the 6th?

I'm planning to go, but not planning on buying much of anything

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Added both pumps to the tank, and nothing was happy. Bubbles moved to hide from the flow.

I decided to return the Tunze, even at it's lowest setting (no way it was only 54gph) it blew everything around like a hurricane.

Placed an order for a second jebao.