Zachtos 300G in wall SPS reef - Wisconsin

[revhtree]

Very nice bro!

 

[CoralWealth]

very nice.

interested to see how the corals and fish are doing. that is a lot of big fish, especially the tangs. interested to see how they are doing with each other

 

[zachtos]

300G in wall FTS (webcam above, Tablet for APEX on side)


Left Side


Right Side


*Changes
-I dumped 3 of 6 LED fixutres and added a T5 fixture. Mostly I wanted more even light distribution, and I just want to rule out some more unknowns why I was having bad luck vs. my old 240G reef.
-I dumped the tunze wavemakers AND MP60 vortechs in exchange for 4 gyres. I LOVE GYRES, they provide amazing flow, exactly how I need it. Nice sheet of water that moves across the top of the tank, with a nice undertow that pulls nutrients across the corals. I could never find a good spot for a vortech that did not strip flesh from corals. The wavemakers were fine, but they scare me, as over time they add stress to tank joints and I think I just need more flow. Also, vortechs killed many fish from their big impellors, and they are not fun to cover with foam. I am happy with my knockoff gyres from Jebao. Quiet and powerful, more so than the MP60s IMO.
-I drilled the house and brought air flow in from outdoors for the skimmer, to help combat low PH, it did work, and I think I'm 8.1 to 7.8 now, up from 7.8 to 7.5!
-I removed the algae turf scrubber. It was difficult to clean, and time consuming. I don't know if it was working well, and I think it may have been removing too many nutrients when combined with skimmer and barebottom.
-I removed the frag tank and turned it into a refugium for now, since It will be quite some time until I do a frag tank. I think I may at that time, just make a designated frag tank off in the corner isolated from the display, and keep the bioload very low.
-Apex control system and webcam added


Problems:
-Bad cyanobacteria infestation covered the entire tank. I ended up cleaning it up with chemiclean...
-then the leftover nutrients caused a spike which lead to me cleaning up with lanthinum chloride to remove excess phosphate...
-then that lead to too low phosphate and too high nitrate, which allowed dinoflagelate to take hold...
-which caused snails to die, and an endless loop of coral failure.
-Photobucket's policy reversal is great, now all my threads from the last 15 years are back online. No longer holding the internet hostage for $400/year is a good thing. I hope they continue to use an ad based model, why not just inject ads/watermarks into our photos?

Solution:
*Now I think it's all under control, just a bit of hair algae remains, but I'm trying my best to keep the system stable. Keeping Nitrates higher, feeding more and doing 0 water changes combined with ICP testing and trace dosing, that's the new plan. Water changes always seemed to agitate my corals in my old tank and this tank as well. Maybe this will work out better?
*Apex controller has been added so I can travel a bit longer, without worry.
*Also a webcam so I can monitor without worry.
*Added a special dosing pump to the calcium reactor which is very nice, constant 200ml/min rock solid, no more clogged valves

Parameters (verified with ATI ICP test)
N03 - 2.5ppm, trying to keep nitrate 2-5ppm now
PO4 - 0.05 ppm, so this maybe high still
Ca - 438 ppm
Alk - 7.94 dkh
Mag - 1399 ppm
SG: 35 ppt

Lighting
-T5 ATI sunpower 80Wx8 bulb (atiblu+ x 5, Coral+ x 2, Purple+ x 1)
-3 x Corona Rapid LED fixtures (supplement the T5)

Flow
-4 x Jebao CP-150 Cross Flow Pump Wave Maker with Controller

Equipment/Filtration
-5G remote deep sand bed (5 gallon bucket with fine sand and high flow, for N03 export)
-20G refugium with chaeto and bright 500+ PAR Red/Blue cree LED custom fixture
-Skimmer - Super Reef Octopus SRO-5000INT 10
-Calcium Reactor - SUPER REEF OCTOPUS SRO 3000 CALCIUM REACTOR
-Calcium Reactor Effluent control: Cole-Parmer 7523-60 Masterflex L/S Digital Standard Drive @ 200ml/min
-fresh air intake from outdoors for Skimmer - to help raise PH
-55W x 2 UV filters Jebao (for dinoflagelate, ich etc, feed from return)
- 2 x DCS-9000 2377GPH Submersible Pump with Controller Jebao (running at 50% each)

Control
-Apex (2016)
-PH/SG/ORP/Temp probes
-PM1 PH module for controlling calcium reactor
-EB832 power bar for pumps, ATO, feeder relays
-GPIO adapter for float switches (auto top off, skimmer bucket full)
-EB4 energy bar for gyres
-EB8 energy bar for lights/UV (GFCI circuit)
-Amcrest 2K Wireless Security Camera 3MP (2304TVL) for webcam on tank
-APC UPS 600VA Battery Backup for internet in power loss
-custom deep cycle battery UPS for Apex, returns and masterflex
-Tablet for Apex viewing - NuVision 8-inch Full HD
-3 auto feeder drums (custom with custom APEX code)

Maintenance
-I'm planning to switch to a no water change system. I will do ICP testing from ATI labs every 2-3 months, and dose missing trace elements as indicated by the tests. I do not feel it's worthwhile to do waterchanges just to replace trace elements, when nutrients are usually just fine.
-reducing GAC/carbon usage
-trace element dosing. I will dose based on ATI test results. Currenlty I am dosing DIY elements using basic chemistry to create solutions of various PPM. Flurid, Boron, iodine, barium, molybdenum, manganese, vandium, iron and Replenish by Brightwell aquatics.

Fish
-I lost a few fish for unknown reasons, I think from just fighting or not enough food? 1 yellow tang and 1 regal angel. A few small fish were killed by the vortechs, ground up in the impellors. One more reason I was happy to get rid of the MP60s. I have a new addition in the quarantine tank, convict tang.
-Feeding 3 x day, flakes and spectrum pellets x 2 and x1 frozen food (reef frenzy), 1 sheet of nori (nori-direct)

Inverts
-I lost nearly all my snails from the dinoflag. so I replaced them all with 200 assorted hermit crabs and a few emerald crabs.

Coral
-I lost a lot of coral over the last year. Some of the more common corals are doing fine, but others could not handle all the issues. I added a few new pieces recently, and hopefully, now that the system is becoming more stable, there will be an improvement.

Fish Room


50G Sump


20G fuge


CaRx pump to keep effluent steady


EB8 lighting controller and auto fan control


UV/EB4 Controller


EB832 controller for CaRx probe/pumps/feeders etc

 

[rigo07]

Nice tank I got the same 300dd