HighEndOfTheLow's Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

[highendofthelow]

And as quickly as they came my diatoms are gone

As you can see I've got some serious sandbed displacement to work out but I'm pretty happy with the overall "feel" and have various ideas to combat some of the displacement (t piece / y splitter/ loc line on the return being the primary)

Waters still a touch cloudy but significant less then a few days ago pre sand.

Starting to see tufts of algae now the diatoms have gone.

 

[highendofthelow]

Look what came up on my feed, my old tank from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2012. (yeah it had flatworms but i got over them, this was super early on in its lifetime).

I'll also add; I think I'm going to need to re-think the return, I tried my Y splitter Loc Line set up but it put way too much back pressure on the pump for my liking / restricted the flow too much for my liking,

I'm going to look for a black T Piece to see if i can fine one ( I'm sure there will be a metric or imperial fitting ~22mm) that will fit and use that to divert the flow left and right instead of straight at the front glass hopefully preventing the sand from bowling away from the front.

 

[highendofthelow]

Urgh definitely progressing with the cycle.
Diatoms gone, rocks starting to get covered in some form of green hair algae that's light in colour.

Got my nitrates tested and nearly died 100 ppm (considering I'm typically a ULNS kinda guy / back ground).

Picked up another sack of sand to add to the tank.

 

[highendofthelow]

So things have been a touch quiet the last week or two, the hair algae stage is well and truly kicking off.

Gave the tank a few weeks to "just do it's thing" But gave the tank it's first haircut to try and guage the algae growth.

I harvested 1.5 ltrs worth of hair algae from the rocks thankfully it just breaks off with the lightest of pressures (and isn't bryopsis!)

I also started my algae refrigrum which is growing well under the XR15.

I still need atleast another box of live rock but local pickings have been slim and I haven't had time to go further a field so I'm a touch hesitant to put CUC / grazers in

 

[Brew12]

I love hair algae, free fish/invert food!!!

 

[highendofthelow]

I love hair algae, free fish/invert food!!!

There's plenty of it here!

I'm Hoping it's burnt through the majority of its cycle but I somehow suspect I've got a while to go yet; I knew pukani rock is generally "dirty" intially with high organics however I've been a bit surprised at how much theres been but it'll be alright in the end.

I've got some lanthium chloride knocking around if it gets real bad again.

I'm also not running any form of reactors currently so I've got options available but I'm kinda trying to save a bit of cash for an APEX but if needed it'll go on some reactors etc.

 

[Brew12]

There's plenty of it here!

I'm Hoping it's burnt through the majority of its cycle but I somehow suspect I've got a while to go yet; I knew pukani rock is generally "dirty" intially with high organics however I've been a bit surprised at how much theres been but it'll be alright in the end.

I've got some lanthium chloride knocking around if it gets real bad again.

I'm also not running any form of reactors currently so I've got options available but I'm kinda trying to save a bit of cash for an APEX but if needed it'll go on some reactors etc.

I'm with you on that one. I'm not exactly afraid of nutrients. I think once you get some algae eaters in the system it will shift production to your fuge.

I am a bit curious why you haven't added any algae eaters though.....

 

[highendofthelow]

I'm with you on that one. I'm not exactly afraid of nutrients. I think once you get some algae eaters in the system it will shift production to your fuge.

I am a bit curious why you haven't added any algae eaters though.....

Well just nipped to my friends LFS and he kindly did some quick nitrate and phosphate tests nitrates have definately come down from a few weeks ago but still high (this doesn't worry me just shows we have progress).

Nitrates were 50 - 75 ppm whereas two weeks ago approx they were 100+

Phosphates were zero but given the algae growth this is likely a false negative again not concerned.

In regards to algae eaters honestly... I'm not sure their tolerance levels and with me wishing to stick more live rock in which may cause another cycle/partial cycle.

I'm so used to being in the ULNS realms I actually don't know what levels are considered toxic for CUC and would feel uncomfortable putting a fish in the system with nitrates that were at the time 100+

^^

 

[Brew12]

Well just nipped to my friends LFS and he kindly did some quick nitrate and phosphate tests nitrates have definately come down from a few weeks ago but still high (this doesn't worry me just shows we have progress).

Nitrates were 50 - 75 ppm whereas two weeks ago approx they were 100+

Phosphates were zero but given the algae growth this is likely a false negative again not concerned.

In regards to algae eaters honestly... I'm not sure their tolerance levels and with me wishing to stick more live rock in which may cause another cycle/partial cycle.

I'm so used to being in the ULNS realms I actually don't know what levels are considered toxic for CUC and would feel uncomfortable putting a fish in the system with nitrates that were at the time 100+

^^

You should be fine for snails and hermits, but that is probably it right now. Definitely a no with the urchins and starfish.

Fish would be just fine with nitrates at your current level. I wouldn't even be too concerned about adding more rock. Algae process ammonia much faster than bacteria. You may get another nitrate spike but I doubt you would ever see any ammonia in a tank with that much greenery.

 

[highendofthelow]

You should be fine for snails and hermits, but that is probably it right now. Definitely a no with the urchins and starfish.

Fish would be just fine with nitrates at your current level. I wouldn't even be too concerned about adding more rock. Algae process ammonia much faster than bacteria. You may get another nitrate spike but I doubt you would ever see any ammonia in a tank with that much greenery.

Interesting; then I may start looking into getting some clean up crew ordered then soon,

My friend is going to the wholesalers again so with any luck he'll be able to source another box of something as the last few visits haven't been great.

Clean up crew wise I'm not a fan of sea stars nor urchins however do feel urchins can be useful in certain circumstances and have used a few in the past.

I'm hoping to stock a handful of scarlet/ red legs if I can get them though it's been a while since I've seen tany I generally find these stay small and are generally safer then most I'm quite a fan of Halloween's but admittedly find they do very little actual work.

I'm hoping to grab another 2 or 3 queen conches along with the nassarius snails and some cerriths for the sand bed

Then I'll end up going for a mix of "algae" snails turbos, tronchus, Asteria etc

Again given the size of the tank I'm not 100% sure on actual volumes and will probably add these in stages one thing I'm keen on doing is trying to minimize detritus build up which has in the past been problematic.

I've also got a majestic fox face and there will be a tang or two which will also help with algae control.

 

[Denisk]

Great start and love the minimalistic scape! I look forward to this one!

 

[highendofthelow]

Great start and love the minimalistic scape! I look forward to this one!

Thank you Denisk

It's not 100% there but we did have a few thoughts we wanted (and hopefully will!)

Firstly the main island in the left we want to bring higher and extend a small amount on the sand.

This is for sps real estate, I'm actually contempating about rising this to a spire that just breaks the surface or maybe a small plateau 6 inches below the surface

I guess I won't know for sure until I get the final box.

We also wanted to make use of viewing angle on the right hand side as you walk around the door in and out of the room.

We wanted a tall ish tower that the big montipora caps will grow on but with a small foot print as we envision fish swimming around it.

Add all that we also wanted a healthy balance of visible sand bed and negative space / swimming space.

Liz is more concerned with the watercolumn available for the mandarins to spawn in relation to water movement and she hopes that the negative spawn should give them good space.

 

[jhuntington12]

I'd cut your lights down a little bit and start running some GFO and let that clean up crew do to work. Should be good in no time.

 

[highendofthelow]

I'd cut your lights down a little bit and start running some GFO and let that clean up crew do to work. Should be good in no time.

Yeah it's actually on my to do list is to tweak the light duration I gave it a bit of a tweak last week but it's still on too long / too bright in the evening.

I kinda hate GFO/similar and find it a pain but equally feel I'll probably have to add something. Given the filter sock set up I'll probably dose lanthium chloride by hand and catch the particulate.

Tomorrow I'll probably have a other go at trying to scrape the rocks back as far as I can of hair algae as I'd like to guage how quickly it's growing, I'm also hoping that the now "free" nutrients will help the refigrium kick in quicker .

 

[jhuntington12]

Yeah it's actually on my to do list is to tweak the light duration I gave it a bit of a tweak last week but it's still on too long / too bright in the evening.

I kinda hate GFO/similar and find it a pain but equally feel I'll probably have to add something. Given the filter sock set up I'll probably dose lanthium chloride by hand and catch the particulate.

Tomorrow I'll probably have a other go at trying to scrape the rocks back as far as I can of hair algae as I'd like to guage how quickly it's growing, I'm also hoping that the now "free" nutrients will help the refigrium kick in quicker .

I too hated the use of GFO because it would always need to be rinsed and flow dialed perfectly, etc. etc. I do find it much easier now to use in my reefer by adding it to the filter socks in their own nylon bags. all that dust usually settles in the first compartment anyways and is easy to water change out.

I recently switched to those 4 plastic filter cups and run the GFO that way. Much easier than a reactor IMO. As for dosing LC, dont you have to have a rather small micron sock to catch the particulate? I think 50 or less if I am not mistaken and most socks are 100 or more... Let us know how it goes!

 

[highendofthelow]

I too hated the use of GFO because it would always need to be rinsed and flow dialed perfectly, etc. etc. I do find it much easier now to use in my reefer by adding it to the filter socks in their own nylon bags. all that dust usually settles in the first compartment anyways and is easy to water change out.

I recently switched to those 4 plastic filter cups and run the GFO that way. Much easier than a reactor IMO. As for dosing LC, dont you have to have a rather small micron sock to catch the particulate? I think 50 or less if I am not mistaken and most socks are 100 or more... Let us know how it goes!

Id stuff the socks with filter will if I were to dose lanthium chloride or possibly knock together a lanthium chloride reactor using bits I have.

So you you run your GFO passive?

 

[jhuntington12]

yeah, in their own little filter baggies and then a piece of filter in the bottom and top of those plastic filter cups (https://www.marinedepot.com/Filter_...Rimer_Machine_Shop_LLC-6V58752-FIFMME-vi.html)

 

[highendofthelow]

So we added another 10 kg of live rock, this time cured, smaller pieces for the most, which involved a re-scape, the left hand side is is looking reasonable but we're unhappy with the right hand "tower" (to the point where its just a stack of rocks at the moment).

I'll probably still go and pick another 5-10 kg of small pieces to act as finishing pieces. that are golf ball to tennis ball in size.

We currently have in the region of 50 - 55 kg.

slowly getting there now

 

[Brew12]

So we added another 10 kg of live rock, this time cured, smaller pieces for the most, which involved a re-scape, the left hand side is is looking reasonable but we're unhappy with the right hand "tower" (to the point where its just a stack of rocks at the moment).

I'll probably still go and pick another 5-10 kg of small pieces to act as finishing pieces. that are golf ball to tennis ball in size.

We currently have in the region of 50 - 55 kg.

slowly getting there now

I think your picture didn't post correctly.

 

[highendofthelow]

I think your picture didn't post correctly.

Tisk i was waiting for water to clear..

Here ya go. I'm going to pick up another 5 kg of small rock to help break up some of the larger pieces.

There's some interesting ledges forming on the left hand side but the right hand side had too large a footprint we feel just yet.

It's a touch difficult as I have 2 largish montipora to fit in somehow.

Edit: had to make claim that its liz that kindly spent an hour up to her armpits scaping not I!

Edit 2: just to clarify Luke's update; the right hand stack is either too high or too low.... I haven't decided yet, and I am feeling it needs to be more... rectangular. I have a vision in my head for it... but the rock wasn't having it!