Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence - SPS/Mixed Reef - Build Journal

[zachxlutz]

Not sure if I've ever posted this but I took down the 29 gallon tank I was using as a QT next to the main display and swapped it out with this cute little Innovative Marine Nuvo 10 gallon AIO tank. Nothing special about it, stock LED lighting, upgraded the return pump to a maxijet, added a powerhead and a Tunze ATO. Just some macroalgae, a few pieces of live rock, sand and a cool shark head I found at petsmart. I won these clowns at an expo and couldn't part with them so now this is their forever home... At least until I plumb in a frag tank in this area...??? I don't do any testing on it, I just do 90% water changes with tank water from my main system when I do water changes on it. I figure if that water can grow SPS, it'll be fine to replace the water in the nano.

 

[zachxlutz]

Caught this shot right as the lights were about to dim and shut off. I love the glow of the tank at night.

 

[zachxlutz]

Since everything is going seemingly great in my tank, I've decided to make a change. Why not. I came across some new DIY two part recipes from @Randy Holmes-Farley recently and decided to give them a try. The new recipe should give a larger pH boost over using traditional soda ash (sodium carbonate).

I mixed up the sodium hydroxide recipe at standard "Randy's Recipe #1" strength to mimic the BRS alk/cal two part I have previously been dosing and primed the lines with the new solution this morning. My dosing pumps come on hourly with a 30 minute offset between alkalinity and calcium. Refugium with a long reverse light cycle. Lots of macro growth. I keep a window cracked in the room with the tank, hoping to be able to close that. I also have an airline run from my skimmer to the same cracked window (although my skimmer is undersized and I'm not sure it's making much difference). Hoping to get rid of that, as well.

Here's my pH from the last week for reference (original BRS recipe/randy's #1):

As you can see, it's not bad at all and well within the acceptable range with an average of 8.02. Since I'm dosing two part anyway, why not put it to work raising my pH a little bit more. The added benefit of dosing Magnesium via this new recipe is a bonus as well.

Alkalinity has been remaining stable at 8.0. Hoping to be able to stay stable at 8.0 with the same dosing quantities as the previous solution.

I'll update over the next few weeks with my experience with this dosing regimen.

It's been a few days, so I'll give an initial review of the new dosing solutions. In short, I like them.

They've provided a definite boost to pH as shown below:

As you can see the pH is trending higher, and that's with a house full of dogs and people during the weekend. pH usually trends down with more open mouths in the house on the weekends.

Today's average pH is 8.09. A bump up from last weeks average of 8.02.

Alkalinity initially was holding steady at 7.9 for the first two days. Last night the alkalinity read 7.5 and 7.7, tested twice to confirm. I'm wondering if consumption of alk/cal/mag is increasing due to the slight rise in pH. I'll check alkalinity again tonight and if it's trending downward, I'll go ahead and bump the dosing quantities.

Higher dosing quantity equals more pH boost which equals faster growth, which in turn, requires more dosing? Seems like a good cycle to be in.

For Large Cell Amphidinium only, anyone wanting to try dosing Silica to have diatoms outcompete the dinos as outlined in this paper previously discussed.

Brightwell SpongeXcel silicate source
Salifert Si test kit

I'm going to presume a 10 gal tank with 10ppm No3 = 2.25 ppm N

"1 drop per gallon of water increases ionic silica concentration by ~0.20 ppm."
Test (guessing zero Si)
day 1&2 - 5 drops (.20ppm cumulative Si)
Test (guessing zero Si)
days 3,4,5,6 - 10 drops (1.0 ppm cumulative Si)
Test (guessing some small amount Si)
days 7,8,9 - 16 drops (0.32 ppm per day, 2.0 ppm cumulative Si)
Test (no idea what it'll show at this point)

When It says "Test" I'd check for diatom growth, overall tank health, Si and N and P to see consumption by the tank to see if it's shifting.
If the Si keeps getting eaten up immediately, with no signs in tank changes, I'd continue upping drops by +5 drops per 10 gal every 3 days.
If something is happening like a shift toward noticeable diatom bloom, then I'd hold dose steady for a few days and monitor the relative amounts of diatoms/dinos.
If Si accumulates (I doubt, but possible) wait and see what happens around 0.5ppm Si for a few days. This is approximately the paper's Si levels.
If after a few days of monitoring at 0.5ppm Si, the dino growth is still much more significant than diatoms, then I'd continue upping the dose by +5 drops per 10 gal every 3 days, up to 1.5-2ppm Si then I'd hold/back off the dose. I wouldn't attempt to exceed around 2.25 ppm Si which is 1:1 Si:N at 10ppm NO3.
I suspect the system will start producing lots of diatoms well before you ramp up to a sustained 1:1 Si:N at 10ppm NO3.

In other news, I've got a boost of snails coming from reefcleaners.org, a bottle of Brightwell Spongexcel and a Salifert Silicate test coming on Thursday. I'm still dealing with some annoying amphidinium dinos on the sandbed and around the edges of the live rock and coral where the diamond goby doesn't sift. I'm hoping, with fingers crossed, that the silicates will help diatoms bloom and outcompete the remaining dinos while the increased CUC helps to vacuum up the diatoms. There's been some accounts of success over on the Dino thread. We'll see!

 

[zachxlutz]

Get to work you lazy bums!

Reef cleaners order showed up today and in the went. I’ll let em sort it out and deal with any turtles later this evening closer to lights out.

 

[zachxlutz]

Here goes nothing, I'm dosing silicates because I want DIATOMS(!!!) and I want these diatoms to outcompete the amphidium dinos on the sandbed! I tested Silicates at 0.00 ppm (not a hint of color) so I went ahead and dosed 70 drops of Brightwell SpongExcel. This should achieve 0.10 ppm. I'm going to keep dosing daily and bump the dosing quantity up daily until I see a reading of 1.5-2.0ppm per @taricha 's advice, linked above. There's been a light dusting of dinos on the sand bed, some cyano here and there, and the glass gets some film algae every few days. These are my benchmarks for success. If I see the glass filming up quicker and the sandbed changing appearance, I'll have a good indication of how this experiment is going to go.

Other than that corals are growing and coloring up beautifully... and my pH is holding steady quite a bit higher than previously... I'll update on that in a few days with a new pH chart and the new average for the week. It's been a substantial bump with no other changes, other than the new two-part recipe. Refugium growth is going gangbusters and it's time to trim back... again. ;Nailbiting

I ordered another Triton ICP test... Once I get to my target values for Si, I'm going to draw a sample up and send it in... Just for a checkup.

 

[zachxlutz]

New Two-Part Week 1 Update: Success!

Here's my pH from the last week for reference (original BRS recipe/randy's #1):

Here's my pH from this past week (New two-part recipe):

The average pH has risen from 8.02 to 8.11. pH across the board has increased, day and night. Alkalinity has remained stable, but may be falling a tiny bit, either due to an increase in growth due to the higher pH or possibly just continuing the trend of increased consumption due to new frags, larger colonies, etc. I'll continue to monitor and increase dosing as needed. I'm currently dosing .90 dkh and 6.285 ppm daily, which equates to 90 ml of the recipe strength solution into approximately 140 gallons of water.

Thanks again @Randy Holmes-Farley . I'll update in the future once I get through 1 gallon of the solution as a follow up.

 

[A4goulet]

The Behind the Seas Tour at the Georgia Aquarium is awesome. Amazing on how much goes on back there. I can only imagine how cool the beluga whales were.

Following along.

 

[zachxlutz]

The Behind the Seas Tour at the Georgia Aquarium is awesome. Amazing on how much goes on back there. I can only imagine how cool the beluga whales were.

Following along.

I was totally blown away by the filtration systems and the tech behind the scenes. The topside of the reef tank with the metal halide lighting and surge system, as well as the auxiliary tanks and lagoon setup up there was really something else. The Belugas were very interesting. I'm still torn on whether they should be in captivity, after hearing more about how Marineland and others treats their Belugas, I'm hoping that the Georgia Aquarium is an outlier and that they truly are doing the research and take great care of them like they claim they are.

Let me know if you'd ever like to check out the tank and pick up some frags.

 

[A4goulet]

Let me know if you'd ever like to check out the tank and pick up some frags.

I am holding off on adding anything to the tank for a while but would for sure like to come check out yours.

 

[zachxlutz]

I added in two pieces of rock, in order to make some nicer places for all the @Battlecorals sticks I recently purchased. I'm really happy with how they turned out and I can't wait for the little sticks to grow.

Left side:

Right side:

The stark white of dead rock compared to the live rock is pretty bad... It will match soon, but in the meantime it's unsightly.

Oh, and I also added in two Jebao OW-50 powerheads. Set them on random flow. These along with the Gyres really create some crazy and dynamic flow.

 

[zachxlutz]

I made myself a handy little guide to keep up with where all these fancy named Battlecorals got placed. Here's what I came up with... I present you, Zach's Handy Battlecoral Guide:

 

[zachxlutz]

Since 02/15, I've been dosing Si daily. So far, I've put in 125 ml over the course of the last few weeks. I've failed to get a reading on the Salifert Si test kit every time. I've noticed a bit of a change in the glass dusting and MAYBE a slight hue of brown on some of the live rock. Snails seem fine, no real change in behavior. I don't see them too often. I've upped the flow in the tank with two new powerheads, which is helping to keep the sandbed a little cleaner, but I'm not really sure the Si has done too much within my system. I emptied the last drop in the bottle yesterday, I'll have two new bottles coming tomorrow. I'm going to keep up the dosing, but ramp it up more and more, now that I don't see any negative effects and see what happens.

 

[mcphx]

Thanks... Yeah, they were quite nasty. The smell of them... Oh God... The smell of them was like a tidepool gone sour.

I used the Jebao 36 watt UV. If I had it to do over, I would have gone with the 55 watt, just for more peace of mind.

If I ever replumb this setup or build a new setup, I'll install the largest UV I can afford and run it in line with my return. I've seen no downsides whatsoever to using the UV.

Curious, what are the perceived downsides to using UV in a reef system?

Lurking and learning as I get acclimated back into the hobby. Thanks for the thread, very insightful.

 

[Pickleowl]

Zach? You have been through the ringer man! Glad everything is working out now.. I just found your thread, have my own 120 in the works so I found your build to be very helpful with all your problems, unfortunately but take solace that alot of us have learned alot with you sir,, thank you for taking the time to document everything you went through..

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@zachxlutz how's the reef? Hope it's going good! Give us an update!

 

[zachxlutz]

@zachxlutz how's the reef? Hope it's going good! Give us an update!

Honestly, not really that great. I've got these stupid vermetid snails that will not stop growing. I've cut back to feeding frozen once a day and just a few sprinkles of dry food a few times a day. Coral growth is SLOW and coloration isn't great. I've lost a few SPS over the last couple of months here and there.

I'm almost to the point of ripping it down and starting over. I'm not sure there is anything I can do at this point with the Vermetids.

I did upgrade my sump. I'll post some photos of that. I honestly like the equipment under the cabinet more than the display right now.

 

[zachxlutz]

Trigger Systems Triton44 and Skimz Monzter SM203.

The sump and skimmer are working on GREAT.

 

[Trevor40]

Any update on the Dinos. I am dealing with the same issue and will be dosing silicates.

 

[ReeferReefer]

Love the sump!

 

[Traian Boala]

Any updates? I just read the entire thread and it was incredibly educational. Thank you for documenting every step.