New Swiss 1900 liter (500G) Build

[Laith]

Hey, how are you finding this product? I am considering using it.

The EasySPS I can't say yet as I've only recently started and I imagine it will take a couple of months for any noticeable results to appear.

The combination of the EasyBooster and AMIN have in my opinion improved two things:

- the cocepod population has increased significantly. I already had a decent cocepod population but the EasyBooster has provided additional nutrition for them. My two Mandarins are getting fat!

- After several weeks of dosing the AMIN I definately noticed a deepening of the colours of the coral... more vibrant colours as well. But I must say I started the AMIN at about the same time I had to dose PO4 and NO3 as they wouldn't stay above zero so it may have been a combination of these that had the effect on colours and vibrancy (I also started feeding Reef Chili at the same time). Before dosing any of these my montis were pale and washed out which for me is always a sign of a lack of nutrients...

- And I've noticed increased growth and carbonate and calcium uptake which usually indicates that the corals are growing...

The EasySPS is a zooplankton which is more aimed at feeding the corals and should provide any deficient amino acids. Hence why it replaces the AMIN. And for the same reason I'm reducing feeding Reef Chili to once a week or so from the every two days before EasySPS.

 

[Laith]

I installed the two IP cameras.

The first is under the tank and gives me a view the length of the sump area. I can also pan it to see the AWC litermeter unit (can be seen behind the camera here).

The second one I decided to install up high in the equipment/electrical area. This gives me a view down the length of the top of the tank but also can pan down to look at the overflow wier and down into the end of the sump area where the RE Rollermat sits.

(the door to this equipment area was open when I took this snapshots from the camera).

If I turn off the flow pumps I can see down into the tank but don't see a lot of it. I'm looking into whether a third camera above the DT looking down would give me a better view inside the tank but the light units will probably still be in the way... Installing a permanent third camera facing the DT from the living room will not fly but I can always temporarily sit one in front of the tank when we are all away from home.

 

[Laith]

Don't know if people recall that I had an issue with two dwarf angels (a Potters and a Coral Beauty) having a go at each other. I decided to try to catch the Potters as I thought he was the instigator but caught the Coral Beauty instead and into the sump he went. The tank calmed down after that.

About six weeks later I decided to re-introduce the Coral Beauty into the DT. I put him into one of those floating acclim boxes for a couple of days and the Potters ignored him.

Took the plunge and released the Coral Beauty into the DT. After about an hour the Potters was having at him and beating him up. I decided to let nature take its course.

After about two days, the Potters was leaving the Coral Beauty alone. The Coral Beauty was pretty beat up but after another day started swimming around and eating. Now all is well and the two ignore each other and the Coral Beauty is healing up nicely. I guess they agreed who was boss and made peace! ;Happy

So after the sudden tang battles and then these two, it appears that with a big enough tank and plenty of hiding places, they sort themselves out. The tank is very peaceful now and everyone is getting along fine now.

I'm a bit surprised because I thought that these battles would end in deaths but it has not been the case...

 

[Laith]

I really want to get some wrasses but need to get the motivation to put together the D-D Jumpguards that I purchased.

Hopefully that will be soon ;Shamefullyembarrased.

 

[Laith]

It's been six weeks since I started dosing the EasySPS product (in addition to the EasyBooster product that I started dosing months ago) and slowly ramped up to the recommended full dose by the beginning of August. I've stopped dosing the FM Amin (amino acids).

The corals are looking really good; good growth and colouration. Carbonate and Calcium consumption have increased as well with carbonate consumption up by 50%...

NO3 is usually between 15 and 25ppm and PO4 between 0.05 and 0.12. As things are looking good, I'm happy with these numbers though the NO3 is creeping up slowly and whenever the PO4 reaches 0.12 or so I use Lanthium Chloride to bring it down a bit. I don't think this is due to the EasySPS product... I just feed heavily and there are quite a few more fish compared to when I was having to dose NO3 and PO4 to keep them above zero. Algae is almost non-existent except for the light stuff that accumulates on the glass; I clean the glass every three days or so.

If the NO3 continues to move upwards I'll go ahead and get the Tunze Macro Algae reactor and use that to control NO3 (and PO4). I prefer to increase my nutrient export capability rather than decrease the import.

 

[Laith]

Been a while since I've updated the thread.

A couple of things to comment on. I'll spread them over several posts for easier digestion!

I had previously questioned the quality of the Triton DI resin as I was suddenly having to replace that resin much more frequently than my previous resin. Well, since then the resin replacement has gone back to more normal levels.

I can only attribute this to two possibilities: I started using my second batch of the Triton resin so maybe I had a bad batch? Or for some reason I wasn't packing the resin in the canisters correctly...

 

[Laith]

Fish are doing great. They are fat and happy. I do feed quite a bit: various pellets four times a day with an autofeeder (small feedings), three cubes of frozen once a day (rotating between Mysis, Prime Reef and the Marine Quintet all from Ocean Nutrition) and Nori is usually available to them several times a day when I am home.

The current fish list:

- Magestic Angel
- Bicolor Angel
- Potter's Angel
- Coral Beauty Angel
- Foxface Rabbit fish (getting huge!)
- 3 Yellow Tangs
- Kole Tang
- Yellow tailed Purple Tang
- Blue Throat Trigger
- Lawnmower Blenny
- Two clownfish (they are over 11 years old!)
- Royal Gramma
- Blue Damsel
- Mandarin
- 3 Lyretail Anthias
- 8 Blue-Green Chromis

I had originally ordered online nine of the Anthias. Four were DOA, with two more not looking too good and they disappeared within a couple of days. The remaining three are doing great, beautiful colouration and healthy. One has become the male.

I have repeatedly seen mentioned that a school of Chromis will kill each other off until there is only one remaining. The eight Chromis I have are the original eight I purchased back in June and all are doing well. I think maybe the reason none of them have been picked off is that I have a very large staghorn coral where they can all go into, just like I've seen them do when diving in nature. Plus maybe the multiple small feedings is helping...

As I mentioned previously, there were some battles between the tangs as well as between two of the angels (the Potter and the Coral Beauty). All that has stopped and everyone is now behaving.

 

[Laith]

Corals are thriving. I will try to get some pics soon. Though it is not easy to find new SPS corals to be able to fill in the tank more... this will take time.

I'm dosing the Easy Reefs Booster and EasySPS product (phyto and zooplankton) for the microfauna and the corals. I stopped dosing aminos as the EasySPS is supposed to provide any missing amino acids to the corals. Very happy with the results of these products!

I also dose Reef Chili once a week.

The GHL Mitras are fantastic lights with great coverage that reduces LED shadowing considerably. In a 90cm deep tank I'm getting PAR of around 200-350 at the top of the aquascape and about 100-150 at the bottom of the tank. The only drawback to the Mitras is that they do get hot to the touch and heat up the air above the water. The air extractor I installed mostly takes care of this extra heat but I need to add ventilation vents in the cabinetry itself to allow a better flow of air from the room into the tank so the air extractor becomes more efficient. So light proof vents will be next!

My carbonate and calcium dosing constantly needs to be increased to keep up with demand. Carbonate has gone from 110ml a day to 400ml a day. Calcium from 30ml a day to 96ml a day... I never need to dose Mg, it always stays around 1500. KH at 8 and Ca at 425.

 

[Laith]

When planning this tank, I wanted to automate as much as possible and I've managed to do this successfully with the AWC, auto fill of the top off container etc.

What I didn't anticipate was the increased equipment maintenance requirements. And that is because there is so much more equipment involved in a bigger tank compared to my my previous 250l tank.

As an example, I had two Tunze pumps in the old tank. In this one I have six Tunzes and two Gyre 350s. I have two return pumps instead of one. etc etc.

Just something I hadn't thought through. I don't mind the maintenance, just my other half reminding me how I told her that this tank would take less of my time than the previous tank! ;Wacky

Though she does love the tank so...

 

[Lasse]

Lesser work with a bigger tank - that´s definitely a myth .

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Laith]

Lesser work with a bigger tank - that´s definitely a myth .

Sincerely Lasse

;Shamefullyembarrased ;Shamefullyembarrased ;Happy

 

[Lasse]

But a myth that I probably would use too

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Laith]

@Lasse , I love the quote in your signature:

"I am not young enough to know everything, but neither so old that I forgotten everything"

I know the first part comes from Oscar Wilde (I think), but did you add the second part? ;Joyful

 

[Laith]

Oh yes... forgot NO3 and PO4.

NO3 is currently varying between 15 and 25ppm. PO4 seems to be stabilizing at around 0.1-0.12ppm.

I'm leaving these as is and will measure every week or so to see if they remain at these levels. If they do, given the good health/growth/colouration of the corals, then I won't try to reduce or change these levels.

If needed, there is always the Tunze Macro Algea reactor as my backup though I haven't ordered it yet.

 

[Lasse]

@Lasse , I love the quote in your signature:

"I am not young enough to know everything, but neither so old that I forgotten everything"

I know the first part comes from Oscar Wilde (I think), but did you add the second part? ;Joyful

Sort of - the history behind that quote is that I always used the first part when I teached at a folk college many years ago - it was my opening phrase in every new class. When an old friend and I start to have courses in aquaristic together- I start the first lecture with that phrase but my friend directly replied - It is true - he is so old that he have forgotten everything. After that I had to change my opening phrase to the one I use nowadays I could not let him to score in every new class

Sincerely Lasse

 

[emvanburen]

Don't know if people recall that I had an issue with two dwarf angels (a Potters and a Coral Beauty) having a go at each other. I decided to try to catch the Potters as I thought he was the instigator but caught the Coral Beauty instead and into the sump he went. The tank calmed down after that.

About six weeks later I decided to re-introduce the Coral Beauty into the DT. I put him into one of those floating acclim boxes for a couple of days and the Potters ignored him.

Took the plunge and released the Coral Beauty into the DT. After about an hour the Potters was having at him and beating him up. I decided to let nature take its course.

After about two days, the Potters was leaving the Coral Beauty alone. The Coral Beauty was pretty beat up but after another day started swimming around and eating. Now all is well and the two ignore each other and the Coral Beauty is healing up nicely. I guess they agreed who was boss and made peace! ;Happy

So after the sudden tang battles and then these two, it appears that with a big enough tank and plenty of hiding places, they sort themselves out. The tank is very peaceful now and everyone is getting along fine now.

I'm a bit surprised because I thought that these battles would end in deaths but it has not been the case...

That’s great news. Fish battles I find very stressful!

 

[emvanburen]

When planning this tank, I wanted to automate as much as possible and I've managed to do this successfully with the AWC, auto fill of the top off container etc.

What I didn't anticipate was the increased equipment maintenance requirements. And that is because there is so much more equipment involved in a bigger tank compared to my my previous 250l tank.

As an example, I had two Tunze pumps in the old tank. In this one I have six Tunzes and two Gyre 350s. I have two return pumps instead of one. etc etc.

Just something I hadn't thought through. I don't mind the maintenance, just my other half reminding me how I told her that this tank would take less of my time than the previous tank! ;Wacky

Though she does love the tank so...

It’s definitely a lot. I use the apex reminders to stay on top of all the maintenance. Otherwise it would need a big spreadsheet!

 

[Laith]

I haven't had the time to update this build thread in a while. In October (the 22nd) the tank was officially 12 months old as that was when I moved my old tank inhabitants to this one. Overall the tank is doing really well, both coralwise and fishwise, with the occasional usual hiccup...

Life keeps getting in the way, especially with kids, dogs, gerbils, a lizard, tortoises, budgies, not to mention work to make enough money to keep the tank going!

But hopefully within the next several weeks I will be posting an update!

A Happy New Year to all... and hopefully a much better one than 2020!

 

[Laith]

Ok, I'll start with a video. This was taken in October... Not great quality, taken with an iPhone.

 

[Laith]

A reminder that I have an air extractor installed in the wall above the tank. This extracts air from the cabinet directly outside and it is linked to an air temp and humidity sensor through my Profilux. The extractor is on a 0-10v connection so the speed of it is controlled depending on the air temperature (I haven't seen how to use the humidity reading to vary the extractor speed, but I think air temp is more relevant: I rarely see more than 55-60% humidity max above the tank. Usually it is in the 40-50% range).

You can see it here in this pic of the top of the tank with all the upper panels removed. It's located at the top right corner:

Initially I didn't have any open vents in the cabinet panels as I wanted to see if I needed them.

Well, with all the panels closed the air temperature reaches above 30C (tank water set level is 26.5C) and the extractor starts running at 100% speed. Even at 100% speed the air temp doesn't drop significantly and the water temp slowly creeps up to 27.5-28C. And at that speed it is very audible and one thing I love about this tank is the lack of annoying noise so this is a problem.

So I tested removing the end panel above the tank and leaving the long door to the right of the tank slightly open. This solved the problem but obviously I couldn't leave it looking like that. But it did show that the problem is that not enough air from the room is being drawn into the tank cabinet.

So the first step was doing this in that end panel that I had removed:

This has helped but I still need to leave the long door to the right of the tank slightly open.

My next step is moving the two GHL fans from their current position (as seen in the first pic) to positions where they are blowing air from left to right instead of back to front. This will help pull air in through the new vent in the end panel and push it towards the extractor. If you're wondering why I didn't set them up like that in the first place: the clamps wouldn't fit on the eurobracing to allow it. Now I've had small mounts (square glass pieces siliconed upright to the eurobracing) put in. I just need to rewire to get the vents in place...

If that isn't enough, then plan C is to add a vent in the long door...

Why is the air temp going up? The GHL Mitras lights generate quite a bit of heat (they get hot to the touch) and five of them in that enclosed space is enough to do it. Love the lights though! ;Happy

In the summer this is less of an issue because I have aircon running in the living room.