R2R Reef of the Month Spotlight: Rob's 300g Deep Dimension - January 2018

[Mortie31]

Stunning tank fella.. very inspirational
This might sound a stupid question, but how do you use the miracle mud? is it simply all in a chamber in the sump or in several different trays in the sump and you swap one out periodically? A pic would be good...

 

[LJLKRL05]

That is amazing!
I'd like a frag of each please

 

[Robs Reef]

Spectacular... I've been following. Congrats on the feature.

Do you have any zoanthids? Or any other corals that your angels like a taste for? Or do the 3 or 4 feedings a day keep them from picking?

What ever zoas I have in there are almost gone, Trachy and Acans are a no go, but surprisingly they dont touch mushrooms, euphyllias, blastos, long or short plates or clams.

 

[Robs Reef]

Really amazing tank! I was surprised to see you keep your alk at 7. Can you talk about why? Seems like most people run closer to the 9 range IME.

My corals in time have adapted to the low ALK and amazingly grow and have great color. I have tried to make adjustments and bring up my alk up slowly a while back, but the corals didnt like it too much. So I stuck with it and kept it there.

 

[Robs Reef]

Stunning tank fella.. very inspirational
This might sound a stupid question, but how do you use the miracle mud? is it simply all in a chamber in the sump or in several different trays in the sump and you swap one out periodically? A pic would be good...

All in the chamber, and change out once a year. Caulerpa grow dense and fast. Here's a pic of my frag tank. I trim back every 2 weeks.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

!!! WOW !!! What an AMAIZING tank !!! ;Jawdrop

 

[Haim]

Great tank indeed. what supplement you use to keep the colors of the acro?

 

[Robs Reef]

Great tank indeed. what supplement you use to keep the colors of the acro?

no supplements, Just a Calcium Reactor.

 

[Haim]

no supplements, Just a Calcium Reactor.

Thank you.

 

[Haim]

Hello Robert,

Please let me know which media you use in the calcium reactor? Do you add also Magnesium?

 

[Robs Reef]

Hello Robert,

Please let me know which media you use in the calcium reactor? Do you add also Magnesium?

Just regular crush coral from the lfs, I believe is around .99 cents pound. And I top is off with Brightwell NeoMag. Here's a pic of my Geo 418 for my frag tank, just filled it. You can differentiate the media inside.

 

[Haim]

Just regular crush coral from the lfs, I believe is around .99 cents pound. And I top is off with Brightwell NeoMag. Here's a pic of my Geo 418 for my frag tank, just filled it. You can differentiate the media inside.

Thanks

 

[BobSacamano]

Rob, thanks for sharing your tank, it's beautiful. Also, really appreciated your thoughts on the art of reef keeping and how it's changed. I'm still very much a novice in the hobby, but I couldn't agree more with your opinion of letting the corals create the aquascape. That's what I hope to create with my upcoming tank.

 

[Jmass015]

Hey awesome tank.I would love to see some up close pictures of your refugiums and skimmer.
Thanks

 

[Wiskey]

Stunning Tank!! I love the look of carefully selected huge colonies, you are right that the look isn't as popular anymore, but I'll help you bring it back!

I was wondering about your 0.38 Phosphate reading. What do you use to test that? Has it been that high for a while? Do you have any algae problems? How often do you clean the glass?
My tank seems to do better when I don't try and be too controlling with phosphate levels, but I find constant reminders that higher phosphate levels than 0.03 are okay to be very helpful

Thank you! And thank you for the great write-up!
Whiskey

 

[BigJohnny]

Stunning Tank!! I love the look of carefully selected huge colonies, you are right that the look isn't as popular anymore, but I'll help you bring it back!

I was wondering about your 0.38 Phosphate reading. What do you use to test that? Has it been that high for a while? Do you have any algae problems? How often do you clean the glass?
My tank seems to do better when I don't try and be too controlling with phosphate levels, but I find constant reminders that higher phosphate levels than 0.03 are okay to be very helpful

Thank you! And thank you for the great write-up!
Whiskey

One thing that you can also avoid by trying to control phosphate levels is paling/bleaching events associated with the use of gfo. I found out that my hanna ulr was testing 3x higher than actual. I had put gfo online thinking my phosphate was .28 when it was really only about .09. I ended up paling/bleaching some corals and couldn't figure out why (used 1/4 recommended amount, passively in a bag in the sump). That's when I bought new ulr reagents and another test kit, and sent a sample to triton. My corals looked great before but were growing slower than I liked and I assumed it was the "high" phosphate. I removed the gfo and it improved.

Use corals as the indicator, not a test. I wouldn't even use algae or cleaning the glass as an indicator. Some algae/bacteria/diatoms can grow just fine in a low nitrate/phosphate environment. Also nitrate/phosphate does not cover all nutrients. You can have a tank with low nitrate/phosphate readings but high nutrients. The ocean is the perfect example of this. Zeovit is a good example as well, but you don't need to carbon dose or be in the ocean for those conditions to occur.

 

[LagunaGlide]

Absolutely beautiful tank. I appreciate the simplicity of the way you run this system, and your outlook on it. I agree that this is what a reef tank should aspire towards.

 

[DanConnor]

Top 5 favorite sps in the tank?

 

[scott11106]

this is one awesome tank, i am building a 300 g tank that i can only hope to be as nice as yours... great work

i just started my build as my house is being built so any help would be great, also i will be looking out for your new build

my thread:
300 House and Reef build

 

[FlamingGrapes]

AWESOME!!!!