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

[SHNICI]

So looking at the last pics I put up ive had 1 loss.
The strawberry shortcake.
In the heat we had several weeks ago my tank went up too high over night when the fans failed. Bleached by the time I woke up.
Everything else was fine and growing.
My montis and digis all started to loose patched. Got to the stage where 6 frags started to loose polyps... thought it was tank parameters. But then I caught my emerald grab eating the polyps on one. Caught the little s#$£. But he had had a field day on them. All of them gone. He hadn't even ate the bubble algae he was in there for!
Moved him and luckily they all grew back even though they were all skeleton. Took a month to get them back to where they were.

But hey at least they survived

Pic update of the tank. Dirty background included need new blades.

So much coraline on the rocks. Almost all purple in just a few months. Not bad for dry rock to start.
My lobo has grown well and the colours under blues are so

So want more coral but funds are tight so will have to wait.

Hah, your one is much better in the coraline than my, even your is started a bit sooner and I dose nutrients and aminos for Coraline. Probably because my one is a bit lower on calc which I have to start to dose again (after overdosed).
But overall it look good, I do like it! And about the hot time this summer, I got a chiller for my one, be prepared for the next summer, and the chillers aren't that exp second hand for near £100 you can get good enough.
I hope you don't have problems with the RO/DI unit anymore. during the reading I was think all the time about the Membrane and the membrane canister need to be replaced, and the canister for the resin as well.
Since I had a lot of problem with few different hermits, I don't have any in my tank now, no more hermits for me, prefer to have snails kingdom instead snail killers
Can I ask you what brand Resin you got, because I can't find any on budget with the color change option?

Wish you good luck and more love with your pretty system

 

[Hellybell80]

I dont dose anything specific for coraline. But do dose alk, cal and mag using tropic marin. But lately its just gone crazy. My calcium is too high at the moment being at 480. I haven't dosed calcium in ages because the salt mix keeps it.
As for the RO UNIT I changed it all. Even though it was all new carbon, membrane and resin. Also added an extra resin chamber and an extra carbon canister. It works well now.
I use purolite MB400 mixed bed resin. Its not colour changing though.

 

[YaboiNathan]

I like your scaping, it looks really good

 

[Hellybell80]

I like your scaping, it looks really good

Thank you. When its full with corals it will look better.
There's loads of caves and holes for the livestock to all have a place.

 

[Hellybell80]

so a cpl of weeks ago I found aiptasia in my cheato. Mush have hitched a ride with the extra cheato I bought. So the whole lots been in a bin for a few weeks. Only found one since in my display. .
I have bubble algae, and a small patch of briopsis which I pull. And yes I know its down to my nutrients.
25 nitrate and 0.08 phosphate. I use these ceramic bricks around 25 of them. Feed every other day mysis. Use a bubble magnus 5 skimmer which i don't think is big enough.
Also a 30% water change a week where I syphon different areas of the sand bed.
I also carbon dose using bacto energy from fauna marin.

If I change for the max spheres does anyone think it would help? I don't want to spend on it if the ceramic bricks are already doing whats needed.

 

[SHNICI]

so a cpl of weeks ago I found aiptasia in my cheato. Mush have hitched a ride with the extra cheato I bought. So the whole lots been in a bin for a few weeks. Only found one since in my display. .
I have bubble algae, and a small patch of briopsis which I pull. And yes I know its down to my nutrients.
25 nitrate and 0.08 phosphate. I use these ceramic bricks around 25 of them. Feed every other day mysis. Use a bubble magnus 5 skimmer which i don't think is big enough.
Also a 30% water change a week where I syphon different areas of the sand bed.
I also carbon dose using bacto energy from fauna marin.

If I change for the max spheres does anyone think it would help? I don't want to spend on it if the ceramic bricks are already doing whats needed.

The MAX spheres aren't bad, they are a bit better, but the plates in your case will be more useful (but more pricey). I do use sintered glass, too much LR, Continuum Exodus all of them (this seller have them all), and few other. Also I do use PRODIBIO-BIO KIT REEF (it really worth it), BRIGHTWELL MICROBACTER 7, CONTINUUM POWER CLEANSE XL for filtering like the GAC. (the links are to the UK seller which I use and have most of the popular products on the market, that's not advertising hope that can help you). The Prodibio Bio reek kit and the Brightwell Microbacter 7 are the main to maintain the water filtration (bacterias carbon dosing etc), also like you I do carbon dosing (TMC both products) + Vodka

 

[Hellybell80]

I have used pro bio multiple times on my smaller 2 ft tank. But far to expensive for my larger one.
Microbacter products is similar to what I've been using.
I started with an imbalance of nitrates. Where my phosphate was only 0.004 but nitrates at 25.
So I needed to let the phosphate rise somewhat to get the nitrate down. .
I'm going to try adding some cheato again. If I can get clean pieces, everywhere seems sold out.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Your tank is looking great! You are doing something right. Is the high no3 causing issues? If everything looks good and is healthy I wouldn’t worry about it. Add a clam, it will soak up no3. Also you could try dosing po4 to bring down no3. Just go slow and easy with dosing, and test often.

 

[revhtree]

So looking at the last pics I put up ive had 1 loss.
The strawberry shortcake.
In the heat we had several weeks ago my tank went up too high over night when the fans failed. Bleached by the time I woke up.
Everything else was fine and growing.
My montis and digis all started to loose patched. Got to the stage where 6 frags started to loose polyps... thought it was tank parameters. But then I caught my emerald grab eating the polyps on one. Caught the little s#$£. But he had had a field day on them. All of them gone. He hadn't even ate the bubble algae he was in there for!
Moved him and luckily they all grew back even though they were all skeleton. Took a month to get them back to where they were.

But hey at least they survived

Pic update of the tank. Dirty background included need new blades.

So much coraline on the rocks. Almost all purple in just a few months. Not bad for dry rock to start.
My lobo has grown well and the colours under blues are so

So want more coral but funds are tight so will have to wait.

Wow looking great! Nice job!

 

[Hellybell80]

Your tank is looking great! You are doing something right. Is the high no3 causing issues? If everything looks good and is healthy I wouldn’t worry about it. Add a clam, it will soak up no3. Also you could try dosing po4 to bring down no3. Just go slow and easy with dosing, and test often.

No no major issues with no3 being high. Corals seem to like it to be honest. I try not to mess with my tank to much. Got my PO4 up a little from what it was to help bring it down a little. But now getting bubble algae issues.
I do test regular. Several times a week. My alk was stable but took a nose dive when I did an 80litre water change. So I've upped it to get it back to 8.3.
I've just managed to scrape the back glass and found several types of algae growing on it. .
So ill have to get my p04 down again.

 

[Hellybell80]

New algae for me. Its like a leaf.

 

[Hellybell80]

The story so far.....
Alk and calcium have been stable for the last couple of months. Some good growth on the corals. My hammers are now 22 heads going from a couple. So at least that's good news. Some of the coral that I thought had died a few months back, leaving just a polyp, have all grown back. Only a stylo that was lost.
Nutrients still at 20 nitrate and phosphate 0.05-0.08.
I did add extra maxspec bio balls, last month To my sump, on top of the ceramic media I had in there. No change so far on Nutrients.
But there has been a change on my sand bed the last month. A lovely layer of brown......
Started where the wave makers were not reaching. Now rocks and sand bed. was blasting it off the rocks and siphoning the sand bed, last a few days and comes back.
Looks like it could be dinos!! Oh the joy.... add it to the life list...
Raising nutrients..... its already high....
uv steriliser... already have been using... regular syphon the sand.... always on every weekly water change...
Stopped water changes and siphoned into sump through fine sock.
The growth of it dosnt seem to grow in areas of no light. So a blackout may work. But my one coral that ive had for ages that pretty much nearly died (acro that had teeth marks on, stripped) has finally got extended polyps and has coloured up and grown back. The risk of a blackout sucks.

At least the coraline algae is good lol.

Dam I need a new microscope to make sure its Dino.

 

[Hellybell80]

Oh and about mid oct I treated the tank with reefflux rx. I had a small amount of bryopsis. It worked well took the small amount of hair algae with it... wonder if that had anything to do with the imbalance.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Your tank is looking great. That looks like diatoms to me and not Dino. Bioballs can be a nitrate factory, so watch that. It will take time. Is there any way to get a power head low on the back wall to get good flow on the bottom of your tank? It would help. It’s also something I’d like to try on my tank as well.

 

[SHNICI]

The story so far.....
Alk and calcium have been stable for the last couple of months. Some good growth on the corals. My hammers are now 22 heads going from a couple. So at least that's good news. Some of the coral that I thought had died a few months back, leaving just a polyp, have all grown back. Only a stylo that was lost.
Nutrients still at 20 nitrate and phosphate 0.05-0.08.
I did add extra maxspec bio balls, last month To my sump, on top of the ceramic media I had in there. No change so far on Nutrients.
But there has been a change on my sand bed the last month. A lovely layer of brown......
Started where the wave makers were not reaching. Now rocks and sand bed. was blasting it off the rocks and siphoning the sand bed, last a few days and comes back.
Looks like it could be dinos!! Oh the joy.... add it to the life list...
Raising nutrients..... its already high....
uv steriliser... already have been using... regular syphon the sand.... always on every weekly water change...
Stopped water changes and siphoned into sump through fine sock.
The growth of it dosnt seem to grow in areas of no light. So a blackout may work. But my one coral that ive had for ages that pretty much nearly died (acro that had teeth marks on, stripped) has finally got extended polyps and has coloured up and grown back. The risk of a blackout sucks.

At least the coraline algae is good lol.

Dam I need a new microscope to make sure its Dino.

I'm not completely sure, but black out for 2-3 days (completely proper black out I mean), is it going to harm the acropora at all ?
I think you can check that (even if it's just recovered after issues).

About the Maxspect spheres..., like @Skynyrd Fish say it will take time... I hope you don't just took off the ceramiks and put in the spheres (the ceramiks are been already established for sure), and they will provide extra bacterias for the spheres to establish faster. I usually use brightwell microbacter 7 if I have to fasten bacterias faster and/or Prodibio it help me with stabilising sometimes (to can outcompete dinos or diatoms).
Here is the full list of them products if you need -> list <-, and for the bacterias mainly I'll use BIODIGEST in combination with or you can get it both together in BioClean SALT.
I do start to use them regularly (Microbacter 7 and BioKit Reef) after for few months I had issues with dinos and diatoms (both in the tank), they gone just for week and half, since no traces of them.
But check the more knowledged people about the acro and blacking out the tank, what will be the effect of that.

 

[Hellybell80]

Your tank is looking great. That looks like diatoms to me and not Dino. Bioballs can be a nitrate factory, so watch that. It will take time. Is there any way to get a power head low on the back wall to get good flow on the bottom of your tank? It would help. It’s also something I’d like to try on my tank as well.

You see i thought that too. For at least the last few weeks its been happening. I just kept stiring the sand. It does look like diatoms. But the behavior of it acts like Dino. I've 4 wave makers. I had moved the one lower which had helped. I'll have to have a look on how I can rearrange them. I thought bio balls helped nitrate?

 

[fishguy242]

hi,the bio balls collect and build nitrate in my exp

 

[Hellybell80]

I'm not completely sure, but black out for 2-3 days (completely proper black out I mean), is it going to harm the acropora at all ?
I think you can check that (even if it's just recovered after issues).

About the Maxspect spheres..., like @Skynyrd Fish say it will take time... I hope you don't just took off the ceramiks and put in the spheres (the ceramiks are been already established for sure), and they will provide extra bacterias for the spheres to establish faster. I usually use brightwell microbacter 7 if I have to fasten bacterias faster and/or Prodibio it help me with stabilising sometimes (to can outcompete dinos or diatoms).
Here is the full list of them products if you need -> list <-, and for the bacterias mainly I'll use BIODIGEST in combination with or you can get it both together in BioClean SALT.
I do start to use them regularly (Microbacter 7 and BioKit Reef) after for few months I had issues with dinos and diatoms (both in the tank), they gone just for week and half, since no traces of them.
But check the more knowledged people about the acro and blacking out the tank, what will be the effect of that.

All the ceramic blocks are still in there, I'm not that daft . But I do need to look into your list.
As for blackout I may have to. I'm going to do a water change today and I'll syphon the sand again. Try to change the wave makers around see if I can get a little more flow.
I much appreciate the help from you.

 

[Hellybell80]

hi,the bio balls collect and build nitrate in my exp

So no good to help reduce it then??

 

[fishguy242]

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