TheGrimmReefer
Well-Known Member
Beautiful tank and set up. Hope the damage wasn't too bad
rossco's 210 gallon SPS reef
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- Thread starter rossco
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brian_reefragr
Active Member
Awesome build! I'm curious how you were able to build such a strong stand without seeming to have any framing other than hard wood and some plywood strips. Obviously it is plenty strong but is it pretty much gaining it's strength from just the pockets screws? Do you know the shear value of each pocket screw? I'm going to begin a build soon and want to make the stand as open as possible underneath while at the same time having it extremely strong and not weigh a ton. I imagine my tank will weigh about 350 lbs without any water, sand, or rock in it. Your insight is greatly appreciated!
reef lobster
Community Member
your filtration is really clean, good job. i also love the montis!
how is everything going now? been way too long since an update
OP
OP
Well, I am long overdue for an update. In mid 2014 I changed my lighting to 8 x 80 watt T5's, and now, since March of 2018, I am running 3 Radion XR30 Gen4 pro's along with 2 x 80 watt blue plus for 4 hours a day, so I am back to a LED reef, mostly.
There has been ups and downs, and I have been waiting and waiting for the tank to be in its best form for an update, and here we are over 6 years later. It is still not where I really want it, and was going to change the aquascape to a more open ridge and canyon style before making an update. I am still waiting for the large frag tank that was started last summer to settle in to where I am 100 percent confident it can house some of my large colonies while doing the re-scape.
There has been a few upgrades, a GEO CR818 calcium reactor with a second chamber, added a GEO Kalk reactor, and an ATO, and upgraded to an Apex controller. For flow there is now 4 x Vortech MP40's and 2 x MP60's.
In my case, I am going with low nutrients as the main root of my problems, coupled with forest fire smoke that happens here nearly every summer being injected via the skimmer. I have been running the tank skimmerless since July 2018.
Even running without a skimmer, the tank is so mature and consumes nutrients so efficiently that I have to dose nitrate and phosphate daily to keep detectable levels. My fish load is still fairly light. Ever since I started dosing, the tank has exploded with growth and the colors are spectacular.
This is where it is at currently. These photos have been posted in a couple of other threads so they may look familiar.
Thanks for looking!
There has been ups and downs, and I have been waiting and waiting for the tank to be in its best form for an update, and here we are over 6 years later. It is still not where I really want it, and was going to change the aquascape to a more open ridge and canyon style before making an update. I am still waiting for the large frag tank that was started last summer to settle in to where I am 100 percent confident it can house some of my large colonies while doing the re-scape.
There has been a few upgrades, a GEO CR818 calcium reactor with a second chamber, added a GEO Kalk reactor, and an ATO, and upgraded to an Apex controller. For flow there is now 4 x Vortech MP40's and 2 x MP60's.
In my case, I am going with low nutrients as the main root of my problems, coupled with forest fire smoke that happens here nearly every summer being injected via the skimmer. I have been running the tank skimmerless since July 2018.
Even running without a skimmer, the tank is so mature and consumes nutrients so efficiently that I have to dose nitrate and phosphate daily to keep detectable levels. My fish load is still fairly light. Ever since I started dosing, the tank has exploded with growth and the colors are spectacular.
This is where it is at currently. These photos have been posted in a couple of other threads so they may look familiar.
Thanks for looking!
Foothill Corals
Active Member
Looks great!
I always find it ironic that some people spend big money on skimmers when I see things like this.
I always find it ironic that some people spend big money on skimmers when I see things like this.
OP
OP
Thank you!
Thanks Glen!
I do think I am getting away with going skimmerless because of my low bioload and the large coral and sponge and other filter feeder populations under the rockwork. .
Thanks for all the interest! When I started this thread, I was preparing for the great reveal as the tank was almost where I wanted it. Growth was phenomenal. Everything was filling in and after a year already looked like a mature reef.
Unfortunately that was not to be as I have been having some problems, apparently but not confirmed, to be the result of an alk swing back in September. . My very successful SPS reef has started a meltdown. I am having a STN/RTN event that has me baffled. No signs of Red Bugs or AEFW. Only acropora are involved. More than 2 months ago, I had an Alk dip to 6 when my CO2 bottle emptied. Over 3 days I brought my alk back up, overshot it a bit and then let it settle to the normal 9.5 that I run. At the same previous CA reactor settings, the alk slowly crept up again after that to 11.5 which after the fact may have indicated that trouble was brewing as the corals were not utilizing carbonates as fast as they were before. My mag was also a touch low at 1260. About a month after the dip, one of my acros lost a bottom branch. Then another. Then a different coral was affected and so on until now I have recession, either on the base or sometimes in the middle of nearly every acropora I have. The coral looks totally healthy one day, the next a branch or more base is gone. The base recession is slower, the branches go so fast there is flesh flapping in the current. These are corals that have doubled in size in the last year, and are still growing at the end of the branches. Places where I took frags from skin over and grow a new terminal polyp and then the recession hits a few weeks later and wipes it out. Big colonies and small colonies are involved. Millis, torts, tricolors, speciosa, granulosa, tenuis, carolinina, sarmentosa, turaki, loripes, desalwi, even my green slimer and my Red Dragon! I did see a spot on my green stylophora yesterday as well, the one and only coral other than acropora showing any problems. The colors in my corals are as good or better than they ever have been. The polyps are extended and appear happy right next to the recession. The next day they may or may not be gone. Honestly, it looks alot like the written descriptions I have read about white band disease, which no causative organism has been conclusively isolated. Theory is that it is an immune modulated process which the dead tissue from one colony sparks a like reaction in the colony it lands on.
My sump which is also one of my frag tanks is mostly unaffected, same water and system as the display, the only barrier from the main display is a filter sock. All acans, scolys, caulastrea, chalices, cyphastrea, montipora, seriatophora, and softies like zoas and ricordia are unaffected. Once is a while frags in two separate systems will die, but for the most part are doing well .
So far I have tried changing salts, checked refractometer with pinpoint solution, water changes including over 60% water change over 10 days or so, changing my RO/DI cartridges even thought TDS was reading zero, cutting chaeto way back, feeding more (after the undetectable readings for nitrates and phosphates), checked for stray voltage and put in a ground probe.
My parameters are spot on for what I usually keep them at:
Alk 9.5
CA 450
Mag 1400
Salinity 35 ppt (lowered by a point recently to see if that helped - it didn't)
Nitrates undetectable
Phosphate undetectable via Hanna meter.
At this point, I have lost the main colony but still have frags of Red Dragon (have quite a few frags and a nice mini colony though), Your Reef green Turaki, ORA Red Planet,Ora Hawkins, ORA Chips, ORA Blue Polyp Acro, Ora Pearlberry, Upscales blue Speciosa, Turaki & Loripes, Purple Nana, Oregon Tort, Cali Tort, Blue/Green Gomezi, Sarmentosa, Your Reef Raspberry Prostrata, Blue Milli, Bubblegum Milli, Red Milli, Paletta Pink tip, Ora Bellina, Purple Bonzai, Plana, & a nice tricolor that I can think of right now.
Totally gone are the Your Reef Yellow singer, Upscales Suharsonoi, a lokani with yellow tips, & a granulosa.
I have backups of most in either/and/or my sump frag area, my separate frag tank, and at my friends house (Scoly here on R2R - thanks Dwayne)
I did take a few pictures back in August, so this is what once was.
Speechless bro. I just can’t understand or believe it.
So sorry this happened to you.
Last edited:
Well, I am long overdue for an update. In mid 2014 I changed my lighting to 8 x 80 watt T5's, and now, since March of 2018, I am running 3 Radion XR30 Gen4 pro's along with 2 x 80 watt blue plus for 4 hours a day, so I am back to a LED reef, mostly.
There has been ups and downs, and I have been waiting and waiting for the tank to be in its best form for an update, and here we are over 6 years later. It is still not where I really want it, and was going to change the aquascape to a more open ridge and canyon style before making an update. I am still waiting for the large frag tank that was started last summer to settle in to where I am 100 percent confident it can house some of my large colonies while doing the re-scape.
There has been a few upgrades, a GEO CR818 calcium reactor with a second chamber, added a GEO Kalk reactor, and an ATO, and upgraded to an Apex controller. For flow there is now 4 x Vortech MP40's and 2 x MP60's.
In my case, I am going with low nutrients as the main root of my problems, coupled with forest fire smoke that happens here nearly every summer being injected via the skimmer. I have been running the tank skimmerless since July 2018.
Even running without a skimmer, the tank is so mature and consumes nutrients so efficiently that I have to dose nitrate and phosphate daily to keep detectable levels. My fish load is still fairly light. Ever since I started dosing, the tank has exploded with growth and the colors are spectacular.
This is where it is at currently. These photos have been posted in a couple of other threads so they may look familiar.
Thanks for looking!
Tank is amazing as always brother! You have such a green thumb!
Incredible!
Rossco...how are things going bro!?
Any updates?
Any updates?
OP
OP
Thanks! Not much action to speak of, getting ready to trim down the plating Montis on the right side.
Quick question...
When you dose Kalk with the reactor...are you dosing 24/7 or only at night when the pH drops hard. My pH is getting dangerously low at night. How much are you dosing at one time? Like how much (mL’s) is hitting the water and how often. I have mine on a pump going 24/7, but I’m thinking about dosing more just at night from about 11pm to 8am.
Any thoughts?
OP
OP
I have the Kalk reactor plumbed in line with my ATO, so it is running multiple times a day. My overall pH was raised by .2, from a low of 7.6 overnight to 7.8 now, and a high from 7.95 before to 8.15 now.
My tank evaporates about 12 gallons a week so a little less than 2 gallons of Kalk gets added to the tank a day.
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