My mixed reef dream tank

Christian0505

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Would love to share the progress of my dream tank with you guys.
I’ve started my reefing journey almost 3 years ago. I started out with a red sea max260. 3 months ago we moved houses and my wife let me build my dream tank. Although not as big as most people would go I love the size of my tank. I went with an inwall Waterbox Peninsula 3620. The tank is located in our dining room.

Just a quick overview of the equipment I run:

Tank: Waterbox Peninsula 3620
Lighting: Giesemann stellar with 2 Radion G5 XR30 Blues
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Regal 150 int
Wavemakers: 2x AI Nero 5, 1x AI Nero 3
Controller: Apex A2 with the Trident and ATK kit.
Return: Eheim 1200L per hour
Doser: Red Sea reefdose 4
Algae reactor: Paxbellum N18

The reef did great the first few weeks after the move, however after about 8 weeks my Phosphates hit 0 and there was some STN on a few acropora. I send out an ICP test and also found some heavy metals in the water, which were leaking from my RO water. Did a 30% waterchange and changed my RO filters. Hopefully the acropora will recover.

Enjoy the pictures of my set-up and would love some feedback!
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Christian0505

Christian0505

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Just came home from work today and sadly i have some more stn on my acropora. Checked my phosphates, and they were again at 0. New skimmer pulled them from 0,15 to 0 in only 3 days. Seems the reef octopus might be a bit to good at it’s job
 
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Christian0505

Christian0505

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Replaced my RO filters and membrane today. I was kinda nervous/excited as it was my first time doing it. However it is actually really easy, and hindsight, I should have done it sooner

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I’ve also started dosing some fluorine and vanadium according to my ICP instructions. After reading up here on the forum, and contacting some friends these elements seem to be more important than I first thought.
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The lack of certain might be related to my find last monday. Monday I fragged of the STN parts on my acropora. I don’t know the name of this acropora species, but it showed STN starting at the base. After reading up on my missing elements, this could either be due to a shortage in Strontium, or Vanadium. For now it looks like the STN has stopped, but the polyps are not out yet.
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also had to purchase some new glue to glue down some of the fallen corals.
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Gumbies R Us

Another Fish in the Sea
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Figured I would also showcase some of my fish :) sadly the purple dottyback and the mandarin did not fancy getting a picture…

The helfrichi are my favorites for sure
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Curious if you got a favorite fish, they all look amazing though!!!
 
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Christian0505

Christian0505

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Had to change my trident reagents this weekend. You can always see the change comming, as either the kh reading spikes from 8 to 10 or drops to like 6 or even low alk. To be honest I am quite dissapointed at the trident lately. The calibration solution supplied with the reagents is in accurate, and therefore you get false readings. So these days I calibrate the trident with my own tank water, tested with salifert kits. You would therefore assume, that if I don’t touch any sample line or waste lines, and calibrate with the sample line in my tank, at kh 8.3, the nexh offical test would read somewhere arround 8.3… This is not the case, as the trident tests my kh now at 7.8…. Every tests stays around the 7.8 mark from there. That still services me the comfort that my kh is stabile, which is the most important, but I still think it is rubish for such an expensive piece of equipment. I’ve done the major maintenance last month, like I do every year. Clean the sample line, inside and outside the machine, and clean the vial inside the machine… does not seem to help at all. If anyone has a tip, let me know :)
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Next I added more sand to the tank. I find it very hard to balance nutrients in a tank without sand. My nitrates were higher than I wanted, and the phosphates fluctuated way too much, as there was no sand to build up a “stable” waste pile.. also my mandarin has been suffering of a lack of copepods after the move, and my sand sifting goby appreciated some more sand as well.
My hopes for adding more sand is that it creates more surface area for the nitrifying bacteria, so my nitrates will be lower. As waste collectes in the sand, this will also supply a healthy amount of phoshates to the tank.
However newly supplied sand will first suck up phoshates… which I also saw back in my testing today. Phoshates came back at zero, eventhough I’ve added reefroids, Red Sea AB+ and phytoplankton daily. Hopefully I can prevent a dino outbreak with heavy feedings…
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Waterparameters for this week were
Kh: 8.3
Cal: 500 (dosages has been lowered, trident was testing at 418… I like it to be at 450)
Mg: 1500
No315-20ppm
Po4: 0 phosphorus
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As for the question, which is my favorite, that would be the Nemateleotris Helfrichi fish and my rainbow Symphyllia Wilsoni coral

Nemateleotris Helfrichi

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Close up of the Symphyllia, I love the patern inside the light blue mouth, with the rainbow colours in the wall surrounding the mouths
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Christian0505

Christian0505

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Made a new waste container today. Now my trident waste line and reef octopus skimmer cup empty in the same container. I also used the skimmercup sensor to alarm me through my apex incase the container is full and it will prevent spillage by shutting down the skimmer.

hopefully in the future I will be able to get my hands on the reef octopus neck cleaner.
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Christian0505

Christian0505

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The struggle with PO4 is still going strong. Finally managed to get a reading today at 0.04 ppm. Still aiming for 0.08, but at this point I am glad with every reading I get.

lately I’ve seen some nasty hair algae/ turf algae which my yellow tang refuses to eat. Therefore I’ve decided to pick up a yellow eye kole tang!
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I first put the kole tang inside an acclimation box as I wasn’t sure if my yellow tang would attack him. After a few hours it was clear my yellow tang showed no interest in the kole tang and he got released. The two do really great together. Hopefully the hair algae is gone soon :)
 

tbrown

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The struggle with PO4 is still going strong. Finally managed to get a reading today at 0.04 ppm. Still aiming for 0.08, but at this point I am glad with every reading I get.

lately I’ve seen some nasty hair algae/ turf algae which my yellow tang refuses to eat. Therefore I’ve decided to pick up a yellow eye kole tang!
IMG_2340.jpeg

I first put the kole tang inside an acclimation box as I wasn’t sure if my yellow tang would attack him. After a few hours it was clear my yellow tang showed no interest in the kole tang and he got released. The two do really great together. Hopefully the hair algae is gone soon :)
Welcome to my world! Phosphates hate my tank.
 

tbrown

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I used to have that problem with nitrates, until this tank
I love this hobby, but man I hate all these struggles haha
Moving houses and a reef tank just doesn’t work..
My post yesterday....
I don't get this stupid tank. Nitrates keep rising and I can't keep phosphates. Trates are at 65.8 with no dosing (ok, ok... so I feed heavy) and phates are at 0.03? I'm dosing 0.05 to 0.15 ppm per day. Calcium stays constant at 460-480 with no dosing. Alkalinity drops 0.1 every other day or so. Magnesium won't go above 1275... Salinity is solid at 1.026. Temp stays at 77.7 - 78.0. Fish tanks are stupid.

I love them.
 

jsker

Reefing is all about the adventure
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Worst tank on here......Just kidding. Wow very nice system!!

@Zach B
 
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Christian0505

Christian0505

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My post yesterday....
Any chance you have your tank recently set-up? Sounds like your rocks/sand is buffering, which would be normal in a fairly new set-up. I wouldn’t worry about the dkh drop, unless there is no coral in the tank.
My kh would drop by about 2.3dkh a day if I would stop dosing haha
 
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