Solar dos Frades Reef v2 - 265g from Portugal!

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Hello ....

following and incidentaly practicing english..[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Thank you pigflied ...

A couple of news in the meantime!

Something that was bothering me was the lack of light ... having two times 6x T5 80W covering 1.4m out of 2.2m of aquarium was clearly short!

Paulo Oliveira was here and we did the experiment with an ATI 6x24W fixture I had laying around to see how the coverage would improve. I was surrender by the result

As I can't seem to stop quiet I had immediately to address the problem and decided to put the ATI T5 8x24W that I had over the frag system. The 6x 24W will take is place in the frag tank!

Since I had some leftovers from the previous hang lift I just had to purchase two more pulleys and make myself available for the task

With a couple of broom sticks I lowered the fixtures and you can also see the sides of the tank poorly lighted.

Fixtures down and ready to power down.

I aligned the fixtures to be able to mark the ceiling with the new drills. Don't mind the dust in the fixtures. They have been cleaned already.

Meanwhile by a friend suggestion I decided to buy a plumb bob! (I used google translate. Is this really the word?)

And the final result

above view and will all the fixtures cleaned.

and a video with all the three fixtures working in the shade lift


As for the corals and fished they keep growing ... I need to make time to take some updated photos!

All the best,
Rui

 

[najer]

Looking very nice.

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Looking very nice.

Thank you najer!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Hello everyone ...

Long time no update ... I have been out of home due to work. Hopefully I will have more time at home now.

Meanwhile there were a couple of changes. I leveraged the fact that I have travelled to US and bought myself the brand new ATK from Neptune.

I am very happy with the unit so far. Nicely built and a very nice addition to my APEX configuration.

The arrival of the box was a excitement for me. I think I am one of the first in Europe to have one ...

The only think I don't like is the grey of the new modules ... I have my APEX Classic all black and orange ...
Every cable is properly identified so the connections are a breeze!

It comes with an PMUP with adapter for 1/4" tubing, a check valve and the orange tubing!

The support is good crafting quality although I would love to have a little stronger magnet as any touch in the support will title the optical sensors. Since it is to be in the back of the sump I think people wouldn't be banging on the support.

And I really liked the instructions manual ... really nice!

And here it is in place! It took me roughly 5m to setup everything connected to APEX. In standalone mode would be even faster!

So far I am very happy with the security that this system brings to my installation. You can see in the above picture my old level sensors that will soon be replaced. I will only leave the low level one as I want the stop the return pump if the level in the SUMP becomes critically low.

Now I just need to add a flow sensor to FMM to control my flow in the Calcium Reactor and I am thinking also on a leak sensor to really have piece of mind!

Stay tuned as the next post will reveal more APEX new gear!

All the best,
Rui

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Hello again ...

And so ... the ATK could not be the only thing ... I was also planning to do an Automated Water Change system to my reef to change 12 litres of water per day. This will allow me to reduce my weekly WC to 100l instead of the 200l I was doing.

So I bought an DÖS also ...

Very well packaged ...

With a measuring cup ... plastic not glass ... and it does not seem very accurate to be honest. And it does not have also the decimal graduation so to read 41.3 is actually dificult because you only have 41 or 42ml in the scale

The configuration was also a breeze ... you set up the interval of the day you want for the WC to happen and define the total amount in millilitres you want to change

This is my setup ... I have a 1000 litres deposit where I store my Natural Sea Water

We will see overtime how this plays ... If 12 litres is too much for DÖS to handle I will change the system to PMUP to achieve the same goal.

Very happy with the purchases so far.

Also I need to give Kudos to Neptune Support. One of my WAV pumps was stalling with no apparent error and after getting an RMA I was delivered a new pump to replace ...

All the best,
Rui

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Hello again ...

And so ... the ATK could not be the only thing ... I was also planning to do an Automated Water Change system to my reef to change 12 litres of water per day. This will allow me to reduce my weekly WC to 100l instead of the 200l I was doing.

So I bought an DÖS also ...

Very well packaged ...

With a measuring cup ... plastic not glass ... and it does not seem very accurate to be honest. And it does not have also the decimal graduation so to read 41.3 is actually dificult because you only have 41 or 42ml in the scale

The configuration was also a breeze ... you set up the interval of the day you want for the WC to happen and define the total amount in millilitres you want to change

This is my setup ... I have a 1000 litres deposit where I store my Natural Sea Water

We will see overtime how this plays ... If 12 litres is too much for DÖS to handle I will change the system to PMUP to achieve the same goal.

Very happy with the purchases so far.

Also I need to give Kudos to Neptune Support. One of my WAV pumps was stalling with no apparent error and after getting an RMA I was delivered a new pump to replace ...

All the best,
Rui

Nice new toys!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Nice new toys!

Thanks mdbannister ... I am really excited!

I would actually like to know if there is anyone else in Europe with an ATK ... I would love to share some experiences ... Maybe Terence will know that?

Meanwhile here is my Fusion Dashboard. Sorry for the "missing WAV" as I haven't received the new one yet and also I had a powerline failure and need to buy new devices for my camera. That's why the image does not display.

All the best,
Rui

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

meanwhile ...

One year ago ...

June.2016

Nov.2016

Dez.2016

Jan.2017

Feb.2017

Feb.2017

Apr.2017

Jun.2017

All the best,
Rui

 

[VJV]

!!!!

 

[VJV]

Rui, I am trying to post a drooling emoji but it seems Tapatalk does not like drooling stuff!

I am SO jealous!! Every Acro input in my tank slowly looses color and dies... [emoji26].

I am thinking about inviting you for beers and knowledge [emoji1]

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Rui, I am trying to post a drooling emoji but it seems Tapatalk does not like drooling stuff!

I am SO jealous!! Every Acro input in my tank slowly looses color and dies... [emoji26].

I am thinking about inviting you for beers and knowledge [emoji1]

Don't be ... everything is solvable given the time and dedication!

The beers sounds like a very nice idea ... I will be on vacations the first two week of July and then we can arrange something!

Have you changed the rock?

All the best,
Rui

 

[VJV]

Don't be ... everything is solvable given the time and dedication!

The beers sounds like a very nice idea ... I will be on vacations the first two week of July and then we can arrange something!

Have you changed the rock?

All the best,
Rui

Thanks! Well, I will PM you so we can get something up. I am still curing the Pukani. I am not sure I will replace all because I do love the old coralline covered structures I have in the tank. Not only that, my Euphylia decided to spread like mad and I have baby Euphylias popping up everywhere in those rocks! At least ten new Euphilias growing. Had never seen it in an aquarium!

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Hello everyone ...

Long time no update ... work ... vacations ... and some misadventures with the reef ...

I had created the APEX board ... altough very nice and without cables in sight it didn't prove easy to maintain. Everytime I had to change a wire or clean a pump I had to disasemble the board ...
So I reverted back to the initial concept. Not so pretty but much more practical maintnance wise. Check the video!

went from this:

to this:



What I tought was a diatom outbreak turned out to be a major dinoflagellate outbreak ... So ... AEFW, Aptaisa, Dictyiota and now Dinos ... any thing left for me to handle? bring it on baby ... bring it on ...

I will update with pictures later but after one month dinos are in check. Massive water changes with sand siphon, more light to chaeto, more fishes hence more food to try and bring the nutrients slowly up and give a chance for corals and chaeto to compete.

Seems to be working ... not perfect yet but at least dinos are slowly going away.

Uploading pictures ... be right back!

 

[VJV]

Olá Rui! Seems reefing keeps throwing new challenges at you but still your corals keep looking amazing! One question for you: I believe you have used at one point Aluminium T Slot profiles right? Could you let me know where they can be purchased in Portugal? Cheers!

 

[VJV]

Rui, I hope you had a Wonderfull Christmas and I wish you a great 2018! I see you have been out for a long time now, hope everything is OK. Would really appreciate if you could let me know where I can get those aluminium profiles you are using. Cheers

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Hello everyone ... Happy New Year to you all.

Sorry for the long ... long time with no updates.
I almost broke down the aquarium.

I had a very severe Dino infestation. The result of almost 3y with PO4 at 0.00 and NO3 undetectable!

I started the DinoX after 3 month despair and stupid enough I stopped the Iodine dosing because I read somewhere it would fuel up Dinos. HUGE MISTAKE!

Almost all the corals haven't survived! I had several STN and RTN episodes that almost decimated all the tank. What I was able to salvage was the things I sent away to a friends house. Thank god my philosophy takes me to spread all the corals to everyone. For instance I have my setosa spread in 10 different tanks so if anything happens I am covered! I will be able to retrieve almost 100% of my corals or at least frags of it!

I tried everything to fight dinos before I went with DinoX.
Another friend told me (and I read several things also) that raising the PO4 and NO3 would make them go away as it would give a fighting chance to other algae that would be more managable.
So I cut down the bottom of a bottle, covered the bottom with net, drip aquarium water from the top and put the bottle half way in the sump. Then loaded the bottle with 5 cubes of frozen food. This would allow for the food to rotten and raise naturally the values.

So ... bottle ... and DinoX and the dinos slowly started to go away. The DinoX bottle finished and before I start the new bottle I decided to give some clean to the SUMP. So I did that and restarted the DinoX just to see a couple of days later a huge infestation again. I was about the pull the plug on the reef and sell everything when I realised that during the SUMP maintenance I left the bottle out ...

This made me see that DinoX was doing nothing ...

So I put the bottle back and loaded with 10 cubes of frozen food and turned my back at the reef.

3 days later I looked and NO DINOS ANYWHERE ... they were magically gone! Measured PO4 at 1.2ppm. Coral went all brown but ... have I said this???? NO DINOS!!!!!!!!

Did a huge water change, sent water to Triton to test and dosed whatever Triton said I should. K, I, Sr, Mo ... the STN Stopped finally and now the reef is recovering with better colours than I had before as my corals don't look pale anymore. I lost two years of growth ... A lot of beautiful colonies like my desalwii but now everything is on track!

I will post some pictures later.

All the best,
Rui

 

[rui.manuel.gaspar]

Rui, I hope you had a Wonderfull Christmas and I wish you a great 2018! I see you have been out for a long time now, hope everything is OK. Would really appreciate if you could let me know where I can get those aluminium profiles you are using. Cheers

Hello VJV,
Yes the holiday break was great. Thank you. Hope yours too ...

The profile (called T-profile) was bought here in Portugal:
Isoar - Equipamentos Técnicos e Ar Comprimido Lda.

It's expensive I can tell you!
All the best,
Rui

 

[VJV]

Hello everyone ... Happy New Year to you all.

Sorry for the long ... long time with no updates.
I almost broke down the aquarium.

I had a very severe Dino infestation. The result of almost 3y with PO4 at 0.00 and NO3 undetectable!

I started the DinoX after 3 month despair and stupid enough I stopped the Iodine dosing because I read somewhere it would fuel up Dinos. HUGE MISTAKE!

Almost all the corals haven't survived! I had several STN and RTN episodes that almost decimated all the tank. What I was able to salvage was the things I sent away to a friends house. Thank god my philosophy takes me to spread all the corals to everyone. For instance I have my setosa spread in 10 different tanks so if anything happens I am covered! I will be able to retrieve almost 100% of my corals or at least frags of it!

I tried everything to fight dinos before I went with DinoX.
Another friend told me (and I read several things also) that raising the PO4 and NO3 would make them go away as it would give a fighting chance to other algae that would be more managable.
So I cut down the bottom of a bottle, covered the bottom with net, drip aquarium water from the top and put the bottle half way in the sump. Then loaded the bottle with 5 cubes of frozen food. This would allow for the food to rotten and raise naturally the values.

So ... bottle ... and DinoX and the dinos slowly started to go away. The DinoX bottle finished and before I start the new bottle I decided to give some clean to the SUMP. So I did that and restarted the DinoX just to see a couple of days later a huge infestation again. I was about the pull the plug on the reef and sell everything when I realised that during the SUMP maintenance I left the bottle out ...

This made me see that DinoX was doing nothing ...

So I put the bottle back and loaded with 10 cubes of frozen food and turned my back at the reef.

3 days later I looked and NO DINOS ANYWHERE ... they were magically gone! Measured PO4 at 1.2ppm. Coral went all brown but ... have I said this???? NO DINOS!!!!!!!!

Did a huge water change, sent water to Triton to test and dosed whatever Triton said I should. K, I, Sr, Mo ... the STN Stopped finally and now the reef is recovering with better colours than I had before as my corals don't look pale anymore. I lost two years of growth ... A lot of beautiful colonies like my desalwii but now everything is on track!

I will post some pictures later.

All the best,
Rui

Hi Rui, I am desolated to hear this [emoji30][emoji30][emoji30]!

One of the most beautiful tanks out there! Really good that you can recover frags and rebuild it!

I fought Dino’s - Cyano - algae for about two years or more. One would die and the other would grow on top of it. I am extremely stubborn (or so my wife tells me) so never gave up. Read about 10 pages per day on the subject in forums, books, magazines, you name it.

Most of the time the advice was the same old “your nutrients are high!!” To what I replied (I have zero PO4 and NO3..!!!!” And would get back something like “your algae is consuming it” or “your test kits can’t measure it”.

To cut a very long story short, just as you did I realized that the problem was precisely that: zero nutrients. I have pinned it down to having zero Nitrates. Under this environment whenever PO4 would become detectable (like 0,02ppm) I would get Cyano, than Dynos, etc...

So I started dosing NO4 (Seachem Nitrogen Flourish) and kept my NO3 at 1-2,5ppm and voila! After all these years I have a clean tank!

Anyway, hope to see some stunning pics from you in no time!

 

[Janci]

Hi Rui, how is the recovering doing by now?