New build - 90g Planet Aquarium rimless

[powers2001]

Way to go @Snowxcross . Great start!!!!

 

[Snowxcross]

Hi all - i havent posted a bit in this thread and it's been 4 months since my last post. So yes, i have some updates!

Sometime in June i experienced dinos. I didnt have a microscope but i knew how to treat them based on what i was seeing. It wasnt much, so i caught it early, that's first and foremost, but what i did see was more prominent during the day. That was the stringy type with a little bubble on top. My sand would be white at night, but more dirty during the day. I test weekly NO3 and PO4, so right when i noticed this only a few days after a test, i had just about zero'd out those numbers with PO4 being 0.02 and NO3 at 0. I am consistant with 0.05 PO4 and between 6-9 NO3. So that explained why i was seeing dino's. Here's what i did explained in this youtube video: and here's the summary:

1. Reduced my lights from 12 hours to 6 hours.
2. Cut all white out, run only blue lights.
3. Stop feeding Amino Acids such as Reef Energy, lessen feeding for fish, didnt feed corals anything.
4. Kept running Algae Scrubber (if you have one)
5. Kept skimming, if you reduce your skimmer a few hours a day like me, stop that and keep it on just about 24/7.
6. Get a cheap UV and run that 24/7 for a few days
7. Add beneficial bacteria such as Dr. Tims waste away or Microbacter 7
8. Continue running GFO (rowaphos)
9. Dose Nitrates (Assuming you're nitrates are bottomed out). I used NeoNitrate by Brightwell.
10. Make sure you have a sufficient cleanup crew
11. No water changes

After 2 weeks my parameters were close to normal and no signs of Dinos. I reverted back to my white lights and adjusted my skimmer back to normal, as well as removed the UV.

So now we're just about 2 months post that, and things are great! Last week i did a 30G water change. I have better success doing water changes every 3-4 months versus weekly/monthly, success meaning more stable parameters.

I added a new XR15 G6 to the mix! I now run 3 XR15's to bump my par. The reason was definitely par, i thought i was good enough, but i bought a par meter and turns out i was off by a lot! Currently running all three at 80% and hitting 300-400 par where my SPS are now. The sand is averaging 50-60 in most areas.

I'm close to reefapalooza here in NJ, I had a great time buying frags, i bought quite a bit, and stocked up on both this system and my 25G nano downstairs (i need to do a build threat/video on that system) super fun tank!!

My zoa garden has grown a lot, and i've started to frag some of my corals do to them just getting big. Additionally, when i did my water change last week, i also decided to clean the sump, that was fun and glad i did it, it's like the day i set this tank up, looks super clean. I needed to use my small shopvac though, there's really no better way in my opinion.

Everything is growing great and fast, fish are really healthy, tank is just awesome. The only maintenance i do daily is clean the glass for a whole 3 minutes! LOL

Some pictures below!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hi all - i havent posted a bit in this thread and it's been 4 months since my last post. So yes, i have some updates!

Sometime in June i experienced dinos. I didnt have a microscope but i knew how to treat them based on what i was seeing. It wasnt much, so i caught it early, that's first and foremost, but what i did see was more prominent during the day. That was the stringy type with a little bubble on top. My sand would be white at night, but more dirty during the day. I test weekly NO3 and PO4, so right when i noticed this only a few days after a test, i had just about zero'd out those numbers with PO4 being 0.02 and NO3 at 0. I am consistant with 0.05 PO4 and between 6-9 NO3. So that explained why i was seeing dino's. Here's what i did explained in this youtube video: and here's the summary:

1. Reduced my lights from 12 hours to 6 hours.
2. Cut all white out, run only blue lights.
3. Stop feeding Amino Acids such as Reef Energy, lessen feeding for fish, didnt feed corals anything.
4. Kept running Algae Scrubber (if you have one)
5. Kept skimming, if you reduce your skimmer a few hours a day like me, stop that and keep it on just about 24/7.
6. Get a cheap UV and run that 24/7 for a few days
7. Add beneficial bacteria such as Dr. Tims waste away or Microbacter 7
8. Continue running GFO (rowaphos)
9. Dose Nitrates (Assuming you're nitrates are bottomed out). I used NeoNitrate by Brightwell.
10. Make sure you have a sufficient cleanup crew
11. No water changes

After 2 weeks my parameters were close to normal and no signs of Dinos. I reverted back to my white lights and adjusted my skimmer back to normal, as well as removed the UV.

So now we're just about 2 months post that, and things are great! Last week i did a 30G water change. I have better success doing water changes every 3-4 months versus weekly/monthly, success meaning more stable parameters.

I added a new XR15 G6 to the mix! I now run 3 XR15's to bump my par. The reason was definitely par, i thought i was good enough, but i bought a par meter and turns out i was off by a lot! Currently running all three at 80% and hitting 300-400 par where my SPS are now. The sand is averaging 50-60 in most areas.

I'm close to reefapalooza here in NJ, I had a great time buying frags, i bought quite a bit, and stocked up on both this system and my 25G nano downstairs (i need to do a build threat/video on that system) super fun tank!!

My zoa garden has grown a lot, and i've started to frag some of my corals do to them just getting big. Additionally, when i did my water change last week, i also decided to clean the sump, that was fun and glad i did it, it's like the day i set this tank up, looks super clean. I needed to use my small shopvac though, there's really no better way in my opinion.

Everything is growing great and fast, fish are really healthy, tank is just awesome. The only maintenance i do daily is clean the glass for a whole 3 minutes! LOL

Some pictures below!

Glad to see the tank is still doing good!

 

[Snowxcross]

Hi everyone - It's been a while since i've posted and we're now one year in on this system. To say the least, i'm super pleased with everything. I haven't had any hiccups, any negative impacts, death, etc. I think that's because i'm pretty anal around checking my tanks. I will sit in front of them for an hour every night (when home) and just look for signs of anything, mostly enjoying an ocean in my house. Throughout the day while working (tanks are in my home office), i also check the tanks out.

The most important thing for me (and you all) is stability. I use an Apex, but do counter tests with Hanna, and every two months send out an ICP (moonshiners) to be sure my elements are in check. I test via Hanna every two weeks, pretty easy. I also dont do water changes, although since adding a frag tank into my system i have gotten into the habit of doing a 5gal water change each week or bi-weekly. This is only because the frag tank (bare bottom) will get detritus in a corner and i like to suck it out - that's really it.

As for hardware, a few months ago i plumbed in a UV and run that 24/7. Really just for preventative measures that may come up in the future.

My corals even though only a year needed a lot of trimming, mostly softies, but having frag racks in the main display was just too annoying for me when cleaning the glass and keeping my hands out of the tank. So i went old school and found locally a 30g deep blue tank and custom aluminum stand for cheap. I plumbed that into my main off an open manifold. I added a Nero3 that blasts the bottom of the tank from the back facing the front. Obviously i quickly grew algae (long stringy dark), i added a tomini tang, peppermint shrimp and about 20 astereas snails along with an urchin i borrowed from my main. A week later it was all gone and whatever algae pops up, the tang grabs it. The frag tank came with custom acrylic frag racks that are angled upwards and mount perfectly around the overflow corner, really looks good.

So yea, parameters are stable, the only thing is my PO4 is higher, but it's stable and there's zero signs of anything having a problem with it. However, in my 25g lagoon system downstairs, i have more "normal" parameters and some corals do better than others in that system. Whereas my larger system, all corals are thriving.

PO4 - 0.10 - 0.13
NO3 - 10 - 15
Alk - 8.5
Cal - 480
Mag - 1400

I've been using the Reef Moonshiners method for 6 months now and it's pretty impressive. I will say, the most noticeable thing for me is the LPS flesh on the skeleton - super fleshy all the way down, the LPS have never looked better. My SPS's are very colorful, and the zoa's, etc are all fluffy and multiplying like weeds.

Some pictures below! Thanks for reading.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hi everyone - It's been a while since i've posted and we're now one year in on this system. To say the least, i'm super pleased with everything. I haven't had any hiccups, any negative impacts, death, etc. I think that's because i'm pretty anal around checking my tanks. I will sit in front of them for an hour every night (when home) and just look for signs of anything, mostly enjoying an ocean in my house. Throughout the day while working (tanks are in my home office), i also check the tanks out.

The most important thing for me (and you all) is stability. I use an Apex, but do counter tests with Hanna, and every two months send out an ICP (moonshiners) to be sure my elements are in check. I test via Hanna every two weeks, pretty easy. I also dont do water changes, although since adding a frag tank into my system i have gotten into the habit of doing a 5gal water change each week or bi-weekly. This is only because the frag tank (bare bottom) will get detritus in a corner and i like to suck it out - that's really it.

As for hardware, a few months ago i plumbed in a UV and run that 24/7. Really just for preventative measures that may come up in the future.

My corals even though only a year needed a lot of trimming, mostly softies, but having frag racks in the main display was just too annoying for me when cleaning the glass and keeping my hands out of the tank. So i went old school and found locally a 30g deep blue tank and custom aluminum stand for cheap. I plumbed that into my main off an open manifold. I added a Nero3 that blasts the bottom of the tank from the back facing the front. Obviously i quickly grew algae (long stringy dark), i added a tomini tang, peppermint shrimp and about 20 astereas snails along with an urchin i borrowed from my main. A week later it was all gone and whatever algae pops up, the tang grabs it. The frag tank came with custom acrylic frag racks that are angled upwards and mount perfectly around the overflow corner, really looks good.

So yea, parameters are stable, the only thing is my PO4 is higher, but it's stable and there's zero signs of anything having a problem with it. However, in my 25g lagoon system downstairs, i have more "normal" parameters and some corals do better than others in that system. Whereas my larger system, all corals are thriving.

PO4 - 0.10 - 0.13
NO3 - 10 - 15
Alk - 8.5
Cal - 480
Mag - 1400

I've been using the Reef Moonshiners method for 6 months now and it's pretty impressive. I will say, the most noticeable thing for me is the LPS flesh on the skeleton - super fleshy all the way down, the LPS have never looked better. My SPS's are very colorful, and the zoa's, etc are all fluffy and multiplying like weeds.

Some pictures below! Thanks for reading.

Glad to see your corals are doing great! Those pictures look amazing!

 

[Snowxcross]

Glad to see your corals are doing great! Those pictures look amazing!

Thanks! I really believe that keeping parameters stable leads to a successful system. It's funny, it's a mixed reef but the only corals that don't fluff up are acans. They do fine though, just not fat and fluffy.