Reefspace 900 - UK member

McPikie · Mar 23, 2018

So, after being out of the game for a couple of years, I started again with a 600 x 450 x450, but it really wasnt' enough, so I picked the new tank up back in December after having a chat with the wife about changing the colour of the living room furniture from black to white. It came with a blue backing, which I hate, so that was whipped off

2017-12-30_05-27-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

I had loads of dry rock pre-purchased, so left that soaking in RO for a few months with regular changes

2018-01-08_03-58-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-01-11_08-21-59 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Added black vinyl to the back of the tank

2018-02-01_10-44-42 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Then after months of the tank being sat there, I actually got the motivation to move it into place

2018-03-03_07-44-59 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-03_07-45-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

My pal came round and made me a nice rock scape up. Went for minimalistic, but with enough real estate for some nice SPS up high and LPS down low

2018-03-05_10-14-51 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-10_05-07-51 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-10_05-08-20 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Got to filling the tank up

2018-03-12_10-57-16 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-14_10-20-43 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Then transferred my fish stock over, consisting of:

2 Common clowns
2 firefish
leopard wrasse
Juv purple tang

2018-03-20_08-22-15 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-20_08-22-48 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-20_08-22-54 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Added my extra T5s last night on a home made bracket. Wires could do with a little tidying up, but sits nicely and makes a difference

2018-03-23_08-22-51 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-23_08-23-03 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Going to run those for 4 hours at peak for extra growth hopefully.

UFO grow light in the sump

2018-03-23_08-23-12 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

So, that's the tank as it stands, now time to get lots of nice frags and watch them grow out. Will be adding my BM Curve 5 skimmer into the sump this weekend and a phosphate reactor.

Moving onto flow, I currently have an MP10 on either side, the left one being a little higher. Don't know why, just thought if they were both at perfect same height it might cause an issue. The flow from the return comes out left hand side, points at the middle of the front glass, and the Oceanlife drain is on the right.

I have managed to obtain another MP10, and was thinking about putting it on the back wall, right in the middle, but running it on low power, just to add some extra flow into the mix.

I run left side on purple (which I think is nutrient mode) and the right on yellow (which I think is reefcrest). Both pumps have the LED up to about half way.

Do we think I am over complicating this?

ihavecrabs · Mar 23, 2018

Love the aquascape!

If you do a third MP10, I would run two at the top of one side of the glass on Reef Crest (unless you have an Apex to do multiple programs, you can do more) which will give a nice gyre effect and run the other MP10 on the otherside slightly lower on Reef Crest unlinked to the first two. This will give you a gyre effect and random high bursts as well.

If you get an apex and the module for the ecotech, then you can really go to town on the daily programs.

McPikie · Mar 23, 2018

ihavecrabs said:
Love the aquascape!

If you do a third MP10, I would run two at the top of one side of the glass on Reef Crest (unless you have an Apex to do multiple programs, you can do more) which will give a nice gyre effect and run the other MP10 on the otherside slightly lower on Reef Crest unlinked to the first two. This will give you a gyre effect and random high bursts as well.

If you get an apex and the module for the ecotech, then you can really go to town on the daily programs.

I was actually just looking at the reeflink. Only thing I think would be a problem would be if I had 2 on one side, the back one would be pretty close to the rockwork, so I may struggle to put any corals on there, hence me thinking 3 seperate placements.

I also have two RW4 jeabaos, one of which I was going to run bottom right side at the back to aid flow behind the rocks

ihavecrabs · Mar 23, 2018

McPikie said:
I was actually just looking at the reeflink. Only thing I think would be a problem would be if I had 2 on one side, the back one would be pretty close to the rockwork, so I may struggle to put any corals on there, hence me thinking 3 seperate placements.

I also have two RW4 jeabaos, one of which I was going to run bottom right side at the back to aid flow behind the rocks

If you end up going Apex, there is an aftermarket Jebao module that allows you to program the pumps also. I currently have 2x MP40 and 2x Jebao PP15 on my tank. Boy is it a lot of flow once they all get going. That only happens a few times a day at random to clear out any detritus.

The nice thing about creating a gyre, if possible, is that you manage to get rid of a lot of dead spots, including behind the rock. Then if you have a strong 15 min cycle, that helps to clear out anything the gyre wasn't strong enough to move.

Your rock work will have a lot to say about your placemnet too. Best thing to do is play around with it a bit before you stock it with corals. That way you can find what you (and the corals) will like without upsetting anything!

McPikie · Mar 26, 2018

Well, my velcro failed and one of my controllers for an MP10 dropped into the sump water on friday evening. Great.

McPikie · Mar 28, 2018

2018-03-28_09-53-22 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-03-28_09-53-28 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Mar 29, 2018

Hopefully picking a piece of this up this weekend, along with a few other frags

2018-03-29_02-45-55 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Apr 3, 2018

Nipped to my LFS at weekend to pick up my new skimmer pump. While I was there I had a quick browse of the SPS tray and decided on a bottlebrush, pink millie, and a bluey/green tenius

D7K_6425 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6428 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6430 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Need to brush up on my photography skills. And invest in a more solid tripod

D7K_6424 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6426 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6432 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6433 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6435 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6436 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6437 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Apr 5, 2018

Managed to try my Hanna checker for the first time last night. Soooo easy to use, I should have bought one sooner

2018-04-05_08-36-26 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Apr 18, 2018

D7K_6477 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6479 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6481 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6485 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Apr 20, 2018

The postman arrived

2018-04-19_07-48-41 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-04-19_07-48-47 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

My new sump weir from Toby at Little Ocean. Had it made in black so it blocks the light going into the return chamber

2018-04-19_07-48-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Decided to also add a coloured baffle on the otherside to stop more lightspill. G-clamps and a heatgun

2018-04-19_07-49-05 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-04-19_07-49-14 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-04-19_07-49-26 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

And finally, I added another MP10 to the backwall. Running it on reefcrest but on low power, just to add a little more random flow.

2018-04-20_04-26-40 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · May 2, 2018

Picked up a couple of new pieces at weekend

2018-04-30_09-40-38 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-04-30_09-40-43 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-04-30_11-11-45 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

So, given I looked like I had flatworm in the sump, and the only thing I transferred from the old tank was the fish and cheato, I decided to whip it all out and start again. Lastnight was spent on my knees for 2 hours with a DC2000 pump, some ehiem pipe and a filter sock. I handballed anything I could out, and then sucked up the rest. I went through 2 filter socks as I havent been running them on the tank since starting it up. Manky!!!

2018-05-02_09-27-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-02_09-27-52 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-02_09-28-04 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

It's now all nice and fresh, and I've actually left a filter sock on for now to see if that gets my water any clearer. Unsure whether to actually put cheato back in, or just stick with skimmer (in a vinigar bath at the moment) and a phos reactor. I do have a decent sized fuge area there though, so it would be rude not to use macro algae I think.

McPikie · May 16, 2018

UPDATE

I got hold of a nice handful of calupera off a local reefer and swapped my UFO out for a 165w chinese blackbox, running full spectrum 24/7, but on very low power. Over the period of a week, the tank looked fine, then on Saturday morning, I came in to the tank looking really milky. The tank smelt a little funky and when I pulled off the front panel to the sump, the sump was green and the water felt greasy. Fish and corals seemed OK, so I assume bacteria bloom, or that the calupera had crashed, so I pulled it out and cleaned the sump out again. cranked the skimmer up to wet skim and grabbed a fresh ball of cheato. a 20 litre water change and after a couple of day, the water seemed to clear up.

2018-05-16_08-38-48 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

I don't know what caused it, but recently I have been having hair algae issues and I wonder if I attributed to this, as I had been picking this out by hand and putting it down the drain to the filter sock (although changing this before it became full). So lastnight I checked Pho on my Hanna.......

2018-05-16_08-38-37 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

maybe this is a false reading if there is algae in the tank using the phos. If so, whats the point in testing it?

I put some fresh rowa in the reactor too and had a bit of a tidy up.

2018-05-16_08-38-43 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

All 3 MP10s looked like they were covered in an orangey coloured algae (not rust) and this was all inside my skimmer too.

2018-05-16_08-50-01 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

It never rains but it pours. The algae issue is really getting me down and I am close to throwing the towel in if I am honest. I've got a purple tank that doesnt touch hair algae, a bomb load of cuc that don't seem to be doing anything, and I do not want to put a foxface in there.

Last ditch attempt is to try dosing hydrogen peroxide (3%) at 6ml per day and maybe lower my photo period. If that doesnt work, I don't know what else I can do.

Some pics

2018-05-16_08-38-27 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-38-53 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-38-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-39-04 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-39-09 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-39-14 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-39-20 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-05-16_08-39-26 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Also noticed my Kh was low

2018-05-16_08-39-42 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Will buffer this back up to 8 over next two days, but assume this is down to using a lot of Rowa trying to get rid of the algae

McPikie · Jul 13, 2018

Well, I took my eye off the tank for a while. The hair algae was getting out of control and I basically got ticked off with it. Got myself 6 tablets of 200mg fluc and gave it one last try

2018-06-21_08-11-39 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-06-21_08-11-45 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-06-21_08-11-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Left it 10 days. Then 2 more. I was getting really ticked with it, the algae seemed to be melting, but not the fix all I was expecting. Day 14 came and I thought **** it, I am syphoning it all out. WOW. It peeled off the rock like old paint with a heat gun. I spent about an hour sucking it all through a filter sock, then did a 20% water change. I could actually see my rock again. Most of the corals look a little washed out, but that's probably due to a massive nutrient imbalnce. Got my Kh back up to 8, Ca at 420 and Mg is at 1290 (so that will need a little buffering.

Time to start buying some corals again I think. And some CUC. And maybe a fish or two.

D7K_6537 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6541 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6547 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6550 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6552 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6553 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

(is this Lokani??)

D7K_6558 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6567 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6573 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6574 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6576 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6577 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6582 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6583 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6586 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

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D7K_6615 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6616 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Jul 16, 2018

I've now removed my dying cheato and turned the sump light off for now, will leave that for a few weeks, see if it helps with the lack of nutrients.

I also treated myself to a tierra del fuego frag at the weekend, a nice electric green millipora and a lovely colourful tenius mini colony

2018-07-16_08-56-16 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-07-16_09-36-56 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-07-16_09-37-04 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-07-16_09-37-11 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

VID_35440417_092045_679 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

VID_28821029_073033_017 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Jul 25, 2018

So, after a week without cheato and my ROWA being exhausted, I was getting a dusting of algae on the glass every day. If i left it 2 days it was getting bad. I also have cyano all over the rock and sand now. ***** sake. It never rains but it pours.

I guess this is a result of the nutrients being released from all the algae the fluc killed?

So last night I nipped to Oasis to grab a fresh ball of cheato, turkey basted all the rockwork, syphoned out as much as I could into a filter sock, did a water change, fresh sock in, put cheato in and plugged light back on. Took PO4 reactor out for a day or so while I clean it all out and replace the media.

2018-07-25_09-24-08 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Also while I was at Oasis, had a quick look in the SPS tray and treated myself to a frag of a nice aussie piece. I think it's tenius?

2018-07-25_09-23-56 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Aug 14, 2018

Treated myself to a new coral viewer lastnight.

2018-08-14_09-12-37 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Well, I had to eat all the chocolates first, but a nice little acrylic tray was left, so I took a few top down shots with my phone

2018-08-14_09-12-44 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-08-14_09-12-49 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-08-14_09-12-54 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-08-14_09-13-12 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-08-14_09-13-18 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-08-14_09-13-24 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

McPikie · Aug 20, 2018

Nipped up to my local store, Kraken at weekend and did a buy. 3 frags for £40 and a brew.

2018-08-20_09-00-25 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-08-20_09-00-31 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

One was a peach and green milli, not got a clue what the other two are

2018-08-20_09-00-39 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
Possibly a gomezi?

2018-08-20_09-00-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
Right at the top of the pic. It's a weird blue and cream colour to me

2018-08-20_09-00-53 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
and the milli

McPikie · Sep 10, 2018

Went to Oasis at weekend for some cheato as mine has died off again. I had a swap round of my sump, so cheato is now in the first section, then skimmer and phos reactor and heater in middle section, then floss in baffle before return.

But while I was there I had a little look in the SPS tray. Whooops.

2018-09-10_09-37-52 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-09-10_09-37-37 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

2018-09-10_09-37-32 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

And managed to find a piece of Paletta Tricolour Acropora

2018-09-10_09-37-14 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Hopefully I can get it to grow out like my old one

1622197_10156434219935096_6763892157382849764_n by Phil Cookson, on Flickr