Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What challenge are you most looking forward to solving?

Well, perhaps one of the more risky ones is trying to get a trio of clowns to settle into my future magnifica anemone. I really like the behavior aspect of watching a natural grouping.

I don't think I will get the clowns until the anemone is in place, and then I was thinking to get three tank raised, small, ocellaris. The hope would be that they all dive into the anemone and set up shop. That worked in my last tank (in a gigantea), and they stayed as a trio for as long as the tank was still up (IIRC), but I know it doesn't always.

Any advice folks have for optimizing the chances of getting a successful trio, I'm all ears. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

By the way, I love the stand.

Thanks! :)

When I first set up my tank (90 gallons), I made a stand out of lumber. Then I used a tropic fish-themed shower curtain around the outside of it. Worked nicely for years, but when I upgraded to the 120, my wife said it was time for a furniture grade stand. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This is great to see and I’ll be following with interest. I’m pleased to hear it’s not just me that prefers the warm sunlight look so I’m keen to watch how you achieve this. In previous tanks years ago, metal halide would provide this look beautifully. In my current tank I have augmented an Orphek Atlantik with a few of their ‘Reef Day’ light bars.

I'll definitely show pictures, and I'm sure it will not be as easy as I'm hoping to get the most pleasing light out of it, but the fallback consideration, assuming I go with the 3 AI freshwater and 1 coral glow Blade, is that from the various leds present, it can be set up to be approximately equivalent to UV plus 2 coral grows, plus some additional white and red leds.

Freshwater (per segment):

• 16 – Cool White
• 4 – Warm White
• 2 – Blue
• 2 – Red

Coral Glow (per segment)

• 12 – Royal Blue
• 6 – 430nm
• 3 – 415nm
• 3 – 405nm

Coral Grow (per segment)

• 12 – Royal Blue
• 6 – Cool White
• 6 – Blue

I may end up wanting to town down the red on the app since the red bump on the freshwater blade is the one aspect that isn't great on paper:

Blade Freshwater - AquaIllumination

www.aquaillumination.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Salt Choice and AWC

My current plan is to use an automatic water change system, using 2 x 50 mL per min BRS dosers on a single timer, spread through the day and night. I plan to change about 1% daily, which means changing about 2.5-3 gallons per day. At 50 ml per min, that means an on time of just under 4 h per day. I'll spread that out over a bunch of 30 min periods.

I am using normal IO to start the tank, and probably will continue to use it. I have a bucket and just ordered a 200 gallon box. It's all I used on my last tank. Is it better than other mixes? I'm not saying that. It is cheaper than other mixes, and I think then the appropriate question is whether using a more expensive mix gains something. That's what I'm not seeing. Gains what?

I'm very open to being convinced to use a different mix, so any opinions on what is better and why, let's hear them!

 

[Reefer1978]

Salt Choice and AWC

My current plan is to use an automatic water change system, using 2 x 50 mL per min BRS dosers on a single timer, spread through the day and night. I plan to change about 1% daily, which means changing about 2.5-3 gallons per day. At 50 ml per min, that means an on time of just under 4 h per day. I'll spread that out over a bunch of 30 min periods.

I am using normal IO to start the tank, and probably will continue to use it. I have a bucket and just ordered a 200 gallon box. It's all I used on my last tank. Is it better than other mixes? I'm not saying that. It is cheaper than other mixes, and I think then the appropriate question is whether using a more expensive mix gains something. That's what I'm not seeing. Gains what?

I'm very open to being convinced to use a different mix, so any opinions on what is better and why, let's hear them!

I am using AquaForest. Why? It was cheap when I got it. Use what works :-)

 

[rishma]

Salt Choice and AWC

My current plan is to use an automatic water change system, using 2 x 50 mL per min BRS dosers on a single timer, spread through the day and night. I plan to change about 1% daily, which means changing about 2.5-3 gallons per day. At 50 ml per min, that means an on time of just under 4 h per day. I'll spread that out over a bunch of 30 min periods.

I am using normal IO to start the tank, and probably will continue to use it. I have a bucket and just ordered a 200 gallon box. It's all I used on my last tank. Is it better than other mixes? I'm not saying that. It is cheaper than other mixes, and I think then the appropriate question is whether using a more expensive mix gains something. That's what I'm not seeing. Gains what?

I'm very open to being convinced to use a different mix, so any opinions on what is better and why, let's hear them!

your hot thread it about to blow up. The endless debate….

I’m not very opinionated about this. I think it probably matters, but I am not sure my salt choice is a significant variable in my success. I used tropic Marin salt forever, I like its parameters, it mixes super fast and clean. Then I got a some reef crystals for free and have been using that for a while. My corals haven’t said a word.

 

[CHSUB]

using 2 x 50 mL per min BRS dosers

I use the 1.1 ml BRS Doser for kalk and it is fine. However, for AWC I would not trust them. I’ve done AWC before with much more reliable duel head pumps and iirc you have too?

 

[Miami Reef]

I use the 1.1 ml BRS Doser for kalk and it is fine. However, for AWC I would not trust them. I’ve done AWC before with much more reliable duel head pumps and iirc you have too?

The 1.1mL and 50mL per min pumps are very accurate, reliable, and consistent. I love them.

About the salt: Instant Ocean salt has a long, proven track record. I see no reason to use anything else.

 

[Eddielg]

Randy, What is your target volume turnover ratio with this tank? What was the turnover rate of this tank 10 years ago? Seems like suggested turnover rates have dropped pretty significantly over the years

 

[rishma]

The 1.1mL and 50mL per min pumps are very accurate, reliable, and consistent. I love them.

About the salt: Instant Ocean salt has a long, proven track record. I see no reason to use anything else.

I have 2 of the 1.1. They are 1.25 and 2ml per minute, but I don’t mind because I just run them based on time.

Randy, instead of plugging into one timer, I suggest you verify actual rates.

Miami, You use instant ocean?

 

[BryanM]

Salt Choice and AWC

My current plan is to use an automatic water change system, using 2 x 50 mL per min BRS dosers on a single timer, spread through the day and night. I plan to change about 1% daily, which means changing about 2.5-3 gallons per day. At 50 ml per min, that means an on time of just under 4 h per day. I'll spread that out over a bunch of 30 min periods.

I am using normal IO to start the tank, and probably will continue to use it. I have a bucket and just ordered a 200 gallon box. It's all I used on my last tank. Is it better than other mixes? I'm not saying that. It is cheaper than other mixes, and I think then the appropriate question is whether using a more expensive mix gains something. That's what I'm not seeing. Gains what?

I'm very open to being convinced to use a different mix, so any opinions on what is better and why, let's hear them!

BRS did tests to see how much each salt really cost, and most of them were surprisingly similar.

But if there were some really significant difference I think we'd have known about it for some time now.

 

[Reefer1978]

Wouldn't it be better to use a larger peristaltic pump, so that a single drive runs both new water in, old water out? Otherwise 2 separate pumps are bound to get out of sync eventually?

 

[rishma]

BRS did tests to see how much each salt really cost, and most of them were surprisingly similar.

But if there were some really significant difference I think we'd have known about it for some time now.

Haha, people do know! They one they use in the very best, just ask them :)

 

[Miami Reef]

I have 2 of the 1.1. They are 1.25 and 2ml per minute, but I don’t mind because I just run them based on time.

Randy, instead of plugging into one timer, I suggest you verify actual rates.

Yes, of course. I also calibrated mine several times.

2.1, 2.2, 2.0 per min (I have 3 of them.)

I use this calculator which easily makes a dosing plan for the pump (using a controller system.)

Apex Dosing Program Generator

Makes it easy to program your Apex for dosing of calcium and alkalinity supplements

www.reeftronics.net

 

[Miami Reef]

Miami, You use instant ocean?

I did for the longest time, but now I use natural seawater delivered home. I prefer to make very large water changes about once a year.

 

[Johnd651]

Only up to page 5, but i was going to ask about your heat.

Noticed you are in MA. I am in central NY. I was planning on running a 500W and 300W heater to be able to crank out up to 5W/gallon. I see you mentioned winter, will you just add a 3rd heater if needed, or swap for a bigger one?

Agree on both points.

I will have automatic battery backup of the in tank flow. That's a plus of the Tunze powerheads I got since they can connect straight to a battery and automatically switch over in a power failure. Two 100 AH batteries will keep them running a decent period of time. No need for inverters. Nothing else will be on automatic backup power, but I do have an inverter if i am home and want to put, say, a return pump on an inverter for some period of time.

Skimmer, lights, heaters, cooling, dosing, ATO, and AWC all can wait for power to return. I do not think we have had a power failure lasting more than 24 h in the 34 years we have lived in this house.

Temp will have redundancy. I do not have them yet, but am thinking of this plan:

Two 300 w heaters with their internal thermostat, one controlled by a wi fi inkbird and a second plus the cooling coil solenoid on a second wifi inkbird. In deep winter, I'll see if I need more heat.

Thus, each heater has two temp limits (internal and inkbird) and I'm using two different inkbirds. The wifi aspect will help me know if there's a problem. The sicce pump temp measurement will as well. I think in most scenarios, neither heating nor cooling can send the tank into a danger zone faster than I can solve it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Return Pump Turnover Rate

Randy, What is your target volume turnover ratio with this tank? What was the turnover rate of this tank 10 years ago? Seems like suggested turnover rates have dropped pretty significantly over the years

Perfect topic for a discussion. :)

I'm expecting to have pretty low turnover. 1x per hours seems plenty to me for these reasons:

1. In tank flow is provided by in tank powerheads (the Tunze stream 6105 eco). Each provides 3,000 to 12,000 L per h flow. In a 120 gallon tank, that's 6.6 to 26 x turnover on each one. I do not anticipate running them near 100%.

2. I cannot think of anything that would change in the water in the tank in less than an hour that necessitates it being run through the filtration system. Not temperature, O2, pH, organics, waste products, etc.

3. Lower return flow is easier to accommodate from return pumps and from overflows and return pipes, with potentially lower sound.

Does anyone see a reason to want higher than 1x turnover per hour?

 

[Johnd651]

You are obviously a neater worker than I am. Nothing looks that neat in my system after it's been out of the box for more than 5 minutes. lol

Not at all... :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:. I just still have not taken it out of the boxes. I do have a controller cabinet that will go on the right side to try and manage some of the cord mess. I am also looking at some of the plastic wire raceway for inside the cabinet. The left side has a cabinet door for the sump to go in and out.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Awesome stuff, @Randy Holmes-Farley .

I haven’t read through the entire thread yet, but as one who recently added a Heteractis magnifica to his tank, I can say that I have been surprised at how long it has taken it to acclimate to even moderately intense LED lighting.

It wandered around the rock structure for about 2 weeks. It looked fine, but not amazing. Then one morning I found it in the sand, looking flat and dead. I replaced one of the rocks with one that had a very deep and large bowl in the middle of it, placed the anemone inside of it, and then placed the rock on the structure with the opening of the bowl perpendicular to angle of the light.

The anemone settled in, and it moved around a little, but finally settled in to a spot where it could recede into the rock opening but still open up to open water water above. It seems pretty happy, but is still shrinking up a bit under peak lighting intensity. I’m sure it will acclimate eventually, but it is definitely taking a while.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Temperature Target

Only up to page 5, but i was going to ask about your heat.

Noticed you are in MA. I am in central NY. I was planning on running a 500W and 300W heater to be able to crank out up to 5W/gallon. I see you mentioned winter, will you just add a 3rd heater if needed, or swap for a bigger one?

Another good topic!

I previously had a whole bunch of heaters in my old system and maintained pretty high and tightly controlled temps (about 81 in winter and 80 in summer, the seasonal difference allowing for temp drift during a power failure).

In this tank, I'm planning to lower the range and allow more variability. The primary driver is to reduce electricity cost when heating, coupled with the fact that many folks run lower without issue.

I was thinking to run at about 76 in winter and up to 81 in summer. That is, set heaters to maintain at least 76 and cooling to maintain not more than 81. I cannot be sure how many heaters that will take, so I will start with 2 x 300 w and escalate from there if needed. I do not think the daily temp change will be especially high, but that remains to be seen.

Those target values are up for debate as I am not fixated on them.

Comments?