My 65G Rimless Reef

[joelbegt]

I’ve kept SPS in the past with little to no issue but this time around I’m having issues with mainly SPS. I have a weird algae which looks like it might be Dinoflagellates but it’s hart to tell without a microscope. I sent off an ATI ICP test and the results came in this morning. My RODI water was perfect but the tank has some elevated aluminum

Here are the issues/deviations

My current plan is to add some siporax media then slowly remove my Brightwell media and recheck in a month or so to see if this fixes the aluminum.

My surviving starter test sps are either pale and/or thin looking tissue. I picked up a couple new pieces to test the water after a couple months of water changes and the new pieces are have Stn from the tips and bottom...

Here are all the results

 

[joelbegt]

So my reef has made quite a dramatic change for the better thanks to a few things. The most dramatic difference was setting up automatic daily water changes. The next big change was to skim as dry as possible by opening the gate on the skimmer all the way. My remaining sps went from pale and no PE to healthier looking tissue and decent PE.

 

[dantimdad]

Good to hear!

Pics!

 

[joelbegt]

Good to hear!

Pics!

Thank you! I will try to post some pictures if I get time this weekend. I will warn you that things are a bit of a mess because I bought someone’s livestock that was getting out of the hobby last weekend.

 

[joelbegt]

Please excuse the mess! I purchased the mushroom rocks from someone getting out of the hobby the other week and haven’t had time to rearrange things. I also changed the bulb combo a bit whiter so I can take better pictures and bring out some warmer colors.

 

[Jon Fishman]

nice. clean.

 

[joelbegt]

nice. clean.

Thank you! It’s been a rough road but it’s starting to pay off a bit

 

[mta_morrow]

Coming along nice Joel!

 

[joelbegt]

Coming along nice Joel!

Thanks Mike!

 

[joelbegt]

You can see in the background that the basement is unfinished for now. I’m excited to work on finishing the basement, build a fish room, and an eventual upgrade.

 

[joelbegt]

What a difference using my DSLR camera makes compared to my phone!



You can see the Montipora caps that had issues during the rough patch are recovering nicely

Not sure why my last picture looked wonky while doing the top down shot

 

[Jacob Fawley]

Very impressive build. Really like the closed loop idea too.

 

[joelbegt]

Very impressive build. Really like the closed loop idea too.

Thank you! My only issue so far with the closed loop is That if I leave all the valves wide open flow is more to the left side so I adjust it accordingly. I will have to post a video of the flow sometime.

 

[mta_morrow]

Looking good Joel!

 

[joelbegt]

I made a quick video last night to show the flow. I threw in a cube of mysis with some reefroids and oyster so you can see how things dispersed.

 

[joelbegt]

Figure its about time for an update.

We drove down to Orlando and went to our first MACNA, visited Epcot, and went to Magic Kingdom with the kids. Overall it was a fun time and I found a couple of vendors I will use in the future. I picked up a cooler worth of corals and some reef swag at the show. It was a great experience and I would do it again.

I did a well overdue water change last night to vacuum up the piles of detritus. The auto water change setup is running great and probably the best investment I've made in the system. On a negative note I will need to do something to reduce suction on the closed loop inlet as it has killed a few fish at this point. In my experience two 1.5" bulkheads with low profile strainers as an inlet for a dart/snapper produces to much suction for those looking into closed loops.

The pic is a bit washed out but I got a green torch, zoas, and orange cloves on that rack

My favorite piece from MACNA is the yellow tip elegance I had to have

Got a crazy rainbow Trachy and a couple of encrusting montis on the bottom left

Picked up a few Digis.

 

[joelbegt]

We started working on slowly finishing the basement lately and had to set up protection for some plumbing work requiring digging up some of the basement foundation to move some drains