SCA 94 Gal (60 x 18 x 20) Build Log
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LMDAVE
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Update on the tank, last picture before the canopy goes on. And yes I added a few corals also. Had a long discussion on #askbrstv Facebook page. Still amazed at how big this tank looks for only being a 94 gallon. I love these dimensions.
One of the reasons I brought the Trachyphillia on the right over was it was the clown's host in the previous tank. It took about 6 months before they hosted it, but they were in love with it, slept in it, etc....so I hated separating them. The funny thing is they act like it doesn't exist right now. It's doing well, but maybe the clowns "reset" when they change environments.
One of the reasons I brought the Trachyphillia on the right over was it was the clown's host in the previous tank. It took about 6 months before they hosted it, but they were in love with it, slept in it, etc....so I hated separating them. The funny thing is they act like it doesn't exist right now. It's doing well, but maybe the clowns "reset" when they change environments.
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LMDAVE
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Got the canopy on today and Installed the AI Prime lights, so I’m pretty close to finished on gathering equipment. Now picking a light schedule /intensity with these Prime light that works for me.
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LMDAVE
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I have a few questions about sump performance. I'm currently using a felt filter sock on the main drain which captures a lot, the next chamber is the refugium where I hope to grow Chaeto and Pod Production in hope for pods making their way back to the return line.
First questions is, the fact that most food particles/detritus will be captured in the sock, am I starving the refugium performance? I suppose Chaeto will mainly feed off nitrates/phosphates in the water column and light, but I want to seed the refugium with pods.
Second question is should I remove the sponge filter from the Refugium to the return (even though it is porous) because I want pods to make their way to the tank?
First questions is, the fact that most food particles/detritus will be captured in the sock, am I starving the refugium performance? I suppose Chaeto will mainly feed off nitrates/phosphates in the water column and light, but I want to seed the refugium with pods.
Second question is should I remove the sponge filter from the Refugium to the return (even though it is porous) because I want pods to make their way to the tank?
Schnizzle
Well-Known Member
I'm no expert but I have read a lot on a couple items here. I run an "unfiltered" system.
My display tank drains unfiltered into my refugium to allow the detritus and food leftovers to "feed" my macro algae and refugium clean up crew. RCUC consists of 5 trochus snails, 5 blue leg hermits and (now MIA) pods. The water then flows through my skimmer chamber. Further research now supports your setup being better as mine probably has the skimmer sucking up pods that would otherwise have me it to the display. Again this is arguable as some research also shows turbulence kills pods, such as that created in a return pump/line.
I had a decent population of pods going for a while but my cheato failed, taking away their primary home. I've also been battling hair algae and I believe the times I clean the tank and refugium with filter floss in the media tray (similar to yours) to catch debris has decimated my pod population. I can no longer find any along the glass by the sand bed or in the fuge.
My display tank water is crystal clear even without the filter media. I've switched to sea lettuce and its great so I may reseed the tank and fuge with pods again.
My display tank drains unfiltered into my refugium to allow the detritus and food leftovers to "feed" my macro algae and refugium clean up crew. RCUC consists of 5 trochus snails, 5 blue leg hermits and (now MIA) pods. The water then flows through my skimmer chamber. Further research now supports your setup being better as mine probably has the skimmer sucking up pods that would otherwise have me it to the display. Again this is arguable as some research also shows turbulence kills pods, such as that created in a return pump/line.
I had a decent population of pods going for a while but my cheato failed, taking away their primary home. I've also been battling hair algae and I believe the times I clean the tank and refugium with filter floss in the media tray (similar to yours) to catch debris has decimated my pod population. I can no longer find any along the glass by the sand bed or in the fuge.
My display tank water is crystal clear even without the filter media. I've switched to sea lettuce and its great so I may reseed the tank and fuge with pods again.
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LMDAVE
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I was think of maybe switching to mesh socks to let small particles through might be a good comprimise. Although I've only been up and running a few weeks. I've been changing my felt socks about once every 5 days. I've finally started seeing my nitrates going up quicker than I wanted, I wanted to keep this system between 0-5, and now its about 5 and going up, so I might be ready for my first water change. Chaeto has been in about a week and hard to tell if its grown any yet. I don't have any pods or CUC in my refugium yet. I'm just starting to gather my CUC for my DT. DT is looking great though, and diatom phase is in full swing right now. Tank is going great, just want to make sure I'm handling my refugium correctly since this is my first sump system. I have the grow light on from 6 PM- 6AM.
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LMDAVE
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YEah, this doesn't appear to be a stock tank. What happened was I wanted the 112 gal (60 x 18 x 24) tank but they were out of stock (eventough their website says 140 in stock, LOL). Anyway, they had this tank that has the same footprint but 4 inches shorter. I thought I may have been settling for this instead of waiting for what I wanted. But, now, I think I like this one better. With it only being 20" high I dont have to have a light powerful enough to penetrate through an extra 4" of water column, and the upper 4" probably wouldn't have been used much anyway. So yeah, if it's a custom tank, I like these dimensions.
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LMDAVE
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Been working on some of my external cord management. Added some wire raceway along the back, and built a little power supply rack on the non exposed side of my stand. Still a little more to clean up.
Also, picture of my 2 Tangs. My goal is to have 3 tangs. Powder blue being the last.
Also, picture of my 2 Tangs. My goal is to have 3 tangs. Powder blue being the last.
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LMDAVE
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Got my 3rd and final Tang, Powder Blue. He’s not in the new tank and my QT was probably too small for him, even though he’s pretty small
Himself (about 3”). So, he’s in my old tank for observation , since it was fallow anyway. Very healthy and active so far. Beautiful fish and the main fish I was looking forward in this new tank
Himself (about 3”). So, he’s in my old tank for observation , since it was fallow anyway. Very healthy and active so far. Beautiful fish and the main fish I was looking forward in this new tank
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LMDAVE
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State of the union. One month in. Most corals have been transferred over. Some green fuzzy uglies on top left to be expected. And clown are back with the Trachy, back In Their happy place.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
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LMDAVE
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Thanks, I have a video today of introducing the Powder Blue to the others. A little aggression but the 3 tangs are all swimming and grazing together now like 3 amigos. Very beautiful and happy with these 3.
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LMDAVE
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Finished adding the remaining corals, even the 3 little sps frags I had. It’s a good test to see where things are. The only coral giving me problems is my bubble. Can’t find a spot it’s happy.
I’ve been using a Hanna LR phosphate checker, and the last week or so it’s been exact 0.00 every time I check it. It use to fluctuate from .02 to .05 to even .07, even with GFO in but now it’s 0.00 every time. Weird that It just started doing this when using a new batch of reagants.
I’ve been using a Hanna LR phosphate checker, and the last week or so it’s been exact 0.00 every time I check it. It use to fluctuate from .02 to .05 to even .07, even with GFO in but now it’s 0.00 every time. Weird that It just started doing this when using a new batch of reagants.
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LMDAVE
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Added a second MP40 to the right side of the tank to replace the hydor 1950, now the two MP40's are being operated Master/Slave with the new one running anti-sync with the master. I'm running Reef Crest mode, with about 40% max. My two MP40's are about 4-5" below the water line in about 18" on total water height. I'm still getting some small sand hills being created on both sides now. I hate to lower the speed any since I have 5ft of tank length to cover, and that is also why I raised the up a little higher. For the most part I'm happy with the flow and hardly any dead spots.
Hard to find a good spot for my torch coral. I like to give the torch a good amount of space, but finding the best spot with low/medium flow has been a challenge.
My other concern in my tank so far is it's getting too clean again. With this being my first sump system, and having a refugium, a filter sock, media reactors,etc...I have way more tools than I had before. My phosphates and nitrates are appears to be close to zero on both now. I don't want to make any drastic changes but to let them rise up a little, not sure what my choices should be?
1) Take out GFO completely? Or just reduce it in half (I'm already less than half of the recommended amount)
2) Felt Filter sock is being changed every 2-3 days with a lot of gunk in it (should I think about a mesh filter sock that may let more stuff through?)
3) Protein Skimmer is being emptied about once a week with about 1" of skimmate.
4) Refugium light was running about 12-14 hours at night, I reduced it to 10 hours. Chaeto grew some, but I wonder how much it can grow with the system being this clean. Should I reduce light time until I see phos/nitrate again?
5) I'm feeding about 3 times a day. Frozen once, and Marine flakes/Pellets 2 other times during the day. Also some Nori on a clip for the tang. They love it. (Bioload is 3 small tangs, 2 clowns, 2 royal gramma's, 1 cleaner shrimp)
I'm wondering which of the above I should back off on, or change. I'd like to see about 0.03 Phos, and maybe 2-3 PPM on nitrate.
Hard to find a good spot for my torch coral. I like to give the torch a good amount of space, but finding the best spot with low/medium flow has been a challenge.
My other concern in my tank so far is it's getting too clean again. With this being my first sump system, and having a refugium, a filter sock, media reactors,etc...I have way more tools than I had before. My phosphates and nitrates are appears to be close to zero on both now. I don't want to make any drastic changes but to let them rise up a little, not sure what my choices should be?
1) Take out GFO completely? Or just reduce it in half (I'm already less than half of the recommended amount)
2) Felt Filter sock is being changed every 2-3 days with a lot of gunk in it (should I think about a mesh filter sock that may let more stuff through?)
3) Protein Skimmer is being emptied about once a week with about 1" of skimmate.
4) Refugium light was running about 12-14 hours at night, I reduced it to 10 hours. Chaeto grew some, but I wonder how much it can grow with the system being this clean. Should I reduce light time until I see phos/nitrate again?
5) I'm feeding about 3 times a day. Frozen once, and Marine flakes/Pellets 2 other times during the day. Also some Nori on a clip for the tang. They love it. (Bioload is 3 small tangs, 2 clowns, 2 royal gramma's, 1 cleaner shrimp)
I'm wondering which of the above I should back off on, or change. I'd like to see about 0.03 Phos, and maybe 2-3 PPM on nitrate.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
I have never run GFO, but understanding how it works and how quickly it can strip nutrients, that would be the first thing I reduced. I would make changes slowly with it.
Best thing I ever did for my tank was to remove the socks. While they do trap large particulate, they also trap everything else thats beneficial to the tank(microlife).
First thing I would do is to remove the GFO. Test in a couple days and see if it rises. If it starts to rise to much, turn the GFO back on, but maybe at half strength. I do use GFO from time to time, and it doesn't take much to lower PO4 a whole lot.
First thing I would do is to remove the GFO. Test in a couple days and see if it rises. If it starts to rise to much, turn the GFO back on, but maybe at half strength. I do use GFO from time to time, and it doesn't take much to lower PO4 a whole lot.
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LMDAVE
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I did try a mesh sock from the LFS, but it was 100 micron and look jsut like a thin solid sheet, it filled up and overflown faster than the felt. I think I want to try a sock with bigger mesh in it maybe. I'm not ready to go sockless after seeing how much it traps. I want some to go through but not all of that.
The only thing I hate about the BRS dual reactor is if I want to shut down GFO and keep carbon going, I have to unscrew the chamber and remove the GFO and leave it empty, just a minor pain. Also, even if I did just shut the line down, I don't know if you can leave GFO in a chamber without flow and start back up later with the same GFO? Guess it would be best to dump it.
The only thing I hate about the BRS dual reactor is if I want to shut down GFO and keep carbon going, I have to unscrew the chamber and remove the GFO and leave it empty, just a minor pain. Also, even if I did just shut the line down, I don't know if you can leave GFO in a chamber without flow and start back up later with the same GFO? Guess it would be best to dump it.
Yes best to dump it. Not only will the GFO clump together and become unusable, but the water left in the canister will become stagnant. I have the dual along with 2 mini's. I run carbon 24/7 in one mini, and just GFO on occasion in the other. The dual, which I bought when I originally bought my bigger system, sits on a shelf, for the same reasons.
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