My indo rimless 5ft reef tank the big 40 bday pressie

[Hellybell80]

honestly ,i'd say no have not used bio balls since 90's,never used any bio media,once i started using live rock /rubble in sumps,i have used seachem denitrate in a sack on occasion but never as routine

I have another tank set up that probably 4 years running with live rock. I was going to put some of that in the sump. But since I have 40kg of rock in my display I thought another 5kg in the sump taking up alot of room wasn't worth it. I was informed that the maxspec bio balls were a good alternative smaller so I could not take more space up. Thats the problem with this hobby. So many things to use and so many different peoples view. Its hard to weed out the good advice.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Looking great.

 

[fishguy242]

all tanks are run different ,live rock and skimmer are your best friend

 

[Hellybell80]

all tanks are run different ,live rock and skimmer are your best friend

A very diplomatic response

 

[fishguy242]

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Hellybell did you use the maxspect bio spheres? They should help reduce nitrate. It will take time. I just looked them up. I was thinking the old school plastic bio balls. How is the tank? Also what is you PO4 and NO3 levels? If you have zero to very little PO4 the tank won’t digest NO3.

 

[Hellybell80]

Hellybell did you use the maxspect bio spheres? They should help reduce nitrate. It will take time. I just looked them up. I was thinking the old school plastic bio balls. How is the tank? Also what is you PO4 and NO3 levels? If you have zero to very little PO4 the tank won’t digest NO3.

It is the maxpec bio balls designed for nitrate removal. Never used the plastic ones in a marine tank, my experience with them in fresh isn't great.
I did raise my PO4 it was at 0.04 I think
Raised it to 0.08 for several months,to help the nitrate. Probably wasn't high enough for the red field ratio, but i didn't want too many other issues as the nitrate was not harming my corals. Then got bubble algae .
I've added Rowaphos about a week ago.

 

[Hellybell80]

So trying to get a picture of a little bit of algae to get a better ID of it and keep getting photo bombed by the cleaner... then the tangs then the wrasse. When I want to take a clear picture they don't stay still. Either way its had a dose of reef flux rx.

Also added phytoplankton, live rotifers and more copepods. Got the microbacter 7 and ill start dosing that. See if I can get my nitrates down a little.
The rowaphos got my phosphate down to 0.02 from 0.08 so that's better. Not really had much GHA before just a small patch that disappeared. Tangs just eat the cleaner rocks not the ones with the small GHA on. My tuxedo urchin was moved into the tank to help out.... he has decimated the coraline algae.
Looking at the tank all the rockwork was too far forward in the tank. So I've moved it back a little and changed the rockwork a bit. Gave me a chance to remove the bubble algae off the rocks and syphon under the rocks a little.
Don't like the scape but it has probably doubled my real estate for corals.

Still plenty of caves for all the fish to have their own space. I suppose eventually it will be covered in coral and the scape itself won't be seen.

 

[Hellybell80]

Finally got my nitrates down . Tested this morning its down to about 15.

Its taken a while but happy with that.
So what did I do to actually finally get it to drop?
Several things.
Started to rinse my frozen mysis shrimp very well.... (was kind of doing that before)
Added Prodibio bioclean. Two doses over a month.
Took down my 3ft marine tank and put some of the rock in the sump. Had been running several years.
My son printed me a plastic filter sock that I filled with filter floss. Was using socks before and changed them every two days. Plus had filter floss lying across the whole sock area. Did pull alot out. But washing and drying socks got mega annoying.
I was doing 40 litres 10% a week water change since day one.
So a few things that contributed towards the total result.
I also added extra copepods, phytoplankton and rotifers yesterday. To add some extra micro life to the tank.
Still need cheato but can't get clean cheato.
Finally received my microbacter 7 yesterday so I'll start to dose that.

 

[Hellybell80]

Some pictures... just because.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Stunning! You are on it. your tank and corals look great. I really like the picture of the two tangs. What is the stony Coral that is purple with green tips?

 

[Murica]

Great pics! Nice build

 

[Hellybell80]

Stunning! You are on it. your tank and corals look great. I really like the picture of the two tangs. What is the stony Coral that is purple with green tips?

If its the one I think you are on about its a bubblegum didgy. The other purple sps with green polyps is a tri colour acro.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Bubblegum digi is the one. I may have to find a piece.

 

[Hellybell80]

The coral buying has continued...
My nitrates issue seems to have been resolved. Its now at 5-8ppm much better then the 25ppm.
I have about 20 4ft tanks. Yes 20.... so I thought I would put them to good use.. no longer needed for the shop we were opening before the world turned upside down.

I'm going to use one of the 4fts to turn into a frag tank. Also replace my 3ft sump with a 4ft one we have spare. Run the frag tank off of the main display. So I can fit more equipment and a refugium into the sump.
Adding a total of about 270litres give or take depending on what goes into the sump.

So now if I add this additional water into the system I'm now worried my nutrients will be too low... we shall see. Its over 50% extra water into the system.
All the new equipment has been bought apart from lighting and wave machine.
New pump,
New skimmer nyos 160
Rollermat
Media reactors
Plumbing (main weakness)
So it starts......

 

[Hellybell80]

So ice been a busy bee this week.
Built a stand to hold the new frag tank. Made mistakes, fixed them.
Today I took the plunge and plumed in the main display into the new sump attaching the new frag tank as I went. Messed up several times. The angels and small space I had to get into was just swear worthy...... got it together. Not put water into the frag tank yet as I need more salt water made.
The scary part .... turning the new pump on as the pipe flew off spraying water everywhere .
Cable ties to the rescue...
So all running well.... until I spot slow drips, very slow in 3 of the joints....
My back is killing and they can wait till tomorrow. A towel and bowl will do for now.
If I come downstairs and my furniture is floating ill smack myself then... for now I need food.
With the sump its added another 120 litres.
Swapped all the media out, skimmer and uv.
Unfortunately my fleece roller won't go high enough to be in the correct place, so I'll have to 3D print a sock holder. ...

 

[Hellybell80]

 

[Hellybell80]

Finally got hold of a basic microscope today and looked at what was causing the brown sand. My thoughts were correct it was dinos.
Looks like ampindinium dinos.... going by the positive ids already on this forum. If im wrong please correct me.

Surprisingly it started when I had nitrate at 25ppm and phosphate at 0.08.
Since I did notice it slowly disappearing while I was dosing microbacter 7 and phytoplankton and extra pods. I'm going to start that again. I stopped the microbacter 7 when my nitrates dropped to 4ppm. I've got myself some phytoplankton to culture today as well. So I can dose that more often and I don't have to wait for orders.
Parameters are
No3 6ppm
Alk 8.4
Cal 460
Po4 0.05
Still haven't filled the frag tank its been far too cold to be mixing lots of water outside..

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

So after thinking about this, I don’t see how this is Dinos. You have some gha and green algae in the tank. Generally there would be none and dino would smother everything in your tank. Also your po4 and no3 numbers are healthy. If the pics above are recent, I would say not likely. The tank looks really good to me. How is the tank looking? All corals?

however your microscope pics look like it. I’m not sure if it could be diatoms or something else that look like Dino through the microscope.

 

[fishguy242]

Hi, @KJ ,mind taking a peek at these..TIA