Slawmans Solar Reef

[Slawman]

Mixed Reef established April 2013.

Currently dominated by soft corals. I have a population of Aiptasia which I tried to eradicate and failed and now seems to have stabilized. Does not seem to be troubling anything in the tank.

I have a fish population which consists of a purple tang, FlameHawk, 10 blue-Green Chromis, Lineatus Fairy Wrasse.

One large Clam, one coral banded shrimp and one decent sized abalone.

Display Tank: 5 x 3 x 2 Starphire with coast to coast rear weir. Beananimal design plumbing.

Display Lighting: Solar tubes (2) supplemented with Hydra LED

Stand: Standard cabinet and collar stained to match the kitchen

Open top and back

Sump: 3 x 2 x 2

Support systems:

System Water: Natural sea water

Neptune Apex controller (Classic)

Schego heaters

Sfigoli chiller

Display Water circulation: 2 x Tunze 6105 and one Maxspect Gyre

Return Pump: Red Dragon speedy 3 80w (just replaces with Ecotec L2)

Skimmer: RLSS 8u until March 2015, then a Deltec 2060, now an RE Double cone 180 with a 50w speedy pump

Evaporation Top Up: Auto Tunze Osmolator

Chemical Support:

Calcium Addition: Kalkwasser as toppoff

Other Chemical Maintenance: Not right now

Usual Water Chemistry Target values:
PH between 7.8 (night) and 8.3
Nitrates: 1.5
Phosphates: Zero on a Hanna checker
Alkalinity: Around 7.5 dKH
Calcium: Around 410ppm
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 1.024/1.026

I have been through a few stages with this tank and have been fortunate to have never had a major crash. Some of the fish I have were moved from my last 2 foot cube setup 7 years ago as well as my clam, which is now about 14 inches long (bought when it was 4 inches).

I will update this with bits and pieces from my old tank journal which is on another forum (the old forum I used to frequent is now pretty well extinct in terms of user activity). Here are some photos of the build and progress over the years:

Here is a shot of my older cube next to the new tank. You can see the tubes at the top of the new tank.

I was very happy with the quantity of light the tubes produced. They continue (after 7 years) to output fantastic PAR levels.

A reading of 3000 PAR under one of the tubes at about 8 inches below the surface (you can see the probe in the tank)

SPS and sand on the bottom about 5 years ago.....

Shot along the back of the tank

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Like to hear more about your solar tube lighting hydra combo

And where do you collect your NSW?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Add a Kleini butterfly to your tank and you can say goodbye to aptasia plus fish is friendly, does not bother coral and will eat every food you introduce to the tank

 

[Slawman]

Hi Scrubber Steve, I was running T5s a few years ago as a supplement to the tubes that worked well for the SPS I was keeping at the time however the LEDs are now my preference. Better control over colour and not as much maintenance required. I am very happy with how the tubes have worked out, still pumping out plenty of free sunlight.

My water is from a (secret) location just south of Sydney. Collected just before the peak of high tide when it hasn't rained for a while. I keep it in a 1000l IBC in my garage. Pretty slack on water changes of late and 1000l lasts me about 6 months.

 

[Slawman]

Add a Kleini butterfly to your tank and you can say goodbye to aptasia plus fish is friendly, does not bother coral and will eat every food you introduce to the tank

Thanks VG, I actually don't mind it so much but if it starts to drive me nuts again I will keep that in mind. I quarantine all my fish so introducing one is a big deal for me.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Hi Scrubber Steve, I was running T5s a few years ago as a supplement to the tubes that worked well for the SPS I was keeping at the time however the LEDs are now my preference. Better control over colour and not as much maintenance required. I am very happy with how the tubes have worked out, still pumping out plenty of free sunlight.

Any problem algae or heat trouble from the tubes sunlight
What about the early light time, like 5 in the morning, do you cover the tank to stop that or do you just go along with it?

My water is from a (secret) location just south of Sydney.

LOL buddy; I collect mine at the bass point boat ramp shellharbour. Straight into the tank.

 

[Slawman]

Any problem algae or heat trouble from the tubes sunlight
What about the early light time, like 5 in the morning, do you cover the tank to stop that or do you just go along with it?

Have had a few outbreaks of this and that early on and I don't think related to the solartubes, more husbandry and new tank. No heat issues. They are "on" all the time with the real intensity of light between 10 and 3. The tank takes on the lighting of the day rainy/bright/overcast which I like.

 

[Slawman]

Having just swapped out a Royal Exclusiv, 80w speedy 3 for a Ecotech L2, I though some early comparisons might be worthwhile.

I ended up going with the L2 in the hope that they have nailed their overheating problems from L1, we will see. I am hoping it fills a mid-point between cheap and unreliable and stupid expensive.

The pump housing and assembly is nice but not quite up to RE standard. Small gaps around the impeller shroud and the way the rear casing is attached to the main body are just a little out but that's being very picky.

The ecotec pump did not come with many outlet options to hook into soft tubing, it just comes with a single 1.5 inch collar to glue directly into PVC pressure pipe i guess.

The L2 is not dead silent compared with the Speedy. It gets to the same noise output around halfway (so if the controller is linear around 6000lph). Starts to whine noticeably beyond that. The RE was dead silent up to it's full 8000lph, and I mean you could not tell it was running by listening to it silent.

The heat output from the controller and power supply is acceptable and the back of the external controller case is around 32c, the Meanwell supply is cool as a cucumber.

I am getting my RE fixed and will probably switch back to that when its done but very happy to have the Ecotech as backup and will give my thoughts if anything changes over time.

 

[Slawman]

And here is a couple of recent shots.

 

[Smite]

Amazing, I've gone back and forth on doing this since I set up my 180g. What diameter are those tubes and have you tried any diffusers under the tubes or is the par spread pretty good? I keep mostly sps in my 6x2x2

 

[Slawman]

Thank you. The tubes are about 35cm (14 inches). I have no diffuser, I put a clear mylar across the base of each tube and sealed them to avoid corrosion issues. A significant increase in PAR output is as a result of two slide-able "extension" pieces I put around each tube to take the tubes down to within 3 inches of the water surface. Guesstimate about 25% increase in light output which I was quite surprised by.

The spread is pretty good but I have supplemented with three AI Hydra's to bring the lighting up to SPS intensity.