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Unread 08/22/2015, 01:40 PM   #1
nemodan
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Daniel's RSM 250 SPS tank

Hi All

I have been around for some months and today I decided is was time that the SPS experts of this forum take a look to my tank and tell me what honestly they think.

I will not make this a long story.

For who would like to read my full built and tank evolution, in a rainy/stormy day, here it is:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/i...rsm-250.91241/

This is the evolution in a nutshell. Pictures are better than thousand words

In July 2013 I set-up a 13 G Mister Aqua book-shell tank

~original

All was growing OK. After 6 months there was a remodeling of a section of the house and I had the opportunity to move all the SPS to a new Red Sea Max 250 tank.

By June 17 (2014) I finish moving all the SPS to the RSM 250


On October 2014 , a few months later I won the TOTM at Reef Sanctury

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/i...7#post-1272967

This is how the tank looked at that time


Tank info when I won the TOTM

Tank: RSM 250
Set-up: All standard. Refugium on Media Basket and chiller JBJ.
Lights: RSM T5 (the new T5 for the RSM C 250) + 1 36" Ecoxotic Purple and Blue LED + 1 TrueLumen Pro 36" Actinic LED + 1 24" TrueLumen Pro Actinic LED
Water: 100 % Petco Natural Sea Water
Water changes: Tank had a final water volume of 50G. I change ~7-8 G each weekend

Dosing: Ca and Alk (Kent Marine) and AcroPower (aminoacids)
From Yesterday at 10PM before dosing pumps start a new cycle.
Ca: 410
Alk: 9 dkh
Salinity: 1025

pH: 7.9 - 8.18 (night - day).

All happiness......but suddenly corals stop growing. Phosphates and Nitrates sky rocketed and what ever I tried to reduce them...I did it wrong and finish with this:

All coral brownish-ed, no polyp extension, Hair algae....RTN...etc etc. If you compare pictures you will see that some big bird nest colonies were already gone. February 2015


I decided to stop all artificial way of reducing Nitrates/Phosphates and let the tank evolve only based on biology. I was able to connect a 20G fuge tank


This fuge is filled with Macro algae and have 4 fish today. Hanging from it is an acrylic HOB fuge (3G) filled with Seacherm Matrix, to increase the bacteria population.

Last month my Nitrates and Phosp. were reading 0 ppm. I slightly increased the fish population (now 15 in total in a total volume system of ~ 78 G) and started to feed every day the fish (before it was every other day).

I see corals have recovered their color, almost all the survivors. There are very few (5) new frags added to the tank since the disaster.

July 30 tank picture:




Last edited by nemodan; 08/14/2017 at 09:07 PM.
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Unread 08/22/2015, 01:47 PM   #2
nemodan
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Now some close up pictures






















Last edited by nemodan; 08/14/2017 at 09:16 PM.
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Unread 08/22/2015, 01:58 PM   #3
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Last edited by nemodan; 08/14/2017 at 09:17 PM.
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Unread 08/22/2015, 01:59 PM   #4
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Last edited by nemodan; 08/14/2017 at 09:18 PM.
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Unread 08/22/2015, 02:01 PM   #5
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Last edited by nemodan; 08/14/2017 at 09:19 PM.
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Unread 08/22/2015, 02:02 PM   #6
nemodan
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To end a short video:

https://youtu.be/2b2q47c1KOk


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Unread 08/22/2015, 02:14 PM   #7
michael.lemke
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And a conure in the background wanting some attention. Lol


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Unread 08/22/2015, 03:26 PM   #8
nemodan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michael.lemke View Post
And a conure in the background wanting some attention. Lol
Jajaja.....here they are...LOL




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Unread 08/23/2015, 02:09 PM   #9
michael.lemke
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Lol


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Unread 08/23/2015, 06:48 PM   #10
nemodan
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Very pretty Conures !!! And the other looks like an African Grey, correct ?. That one is a real speaker.. :-)

The tank is also a beauty..... Thanks for shearing !!!

Daniel


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Unread 08/24/2015, 02:09 PM   #11
stevenc1187
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Nice pics


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Unread 08/24/2015, 04:58 PM   #12
michael.lemke
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nemodan View Post
Very pretty Conures !!! And the other looks like an African Grey, correct ?. That one is a real speaker.. :-)

The tank is also a beauty..... Thanks for shearing !!!

Daniel

Yup. The grey will talk your ear off with crazy off the wall stuff. If she is wanting attention while I'm on the phone she'll repeat everything I say. Or ask me to "get me out of here" when she's in her cage. lol


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Unread 08/28/2015, 03:08 PM   #13
nemodan
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Some upside down pictures.

I do not have the correct tools, but you will see some nice colored corals. Unfortunately I do not see them in that way through the glass tank :-(

Sorry for the lights reflection. You can zoom the pictures to avoid been distracted by the lights in the water.


This was a half inch branch broken ~6 months ago. I will point who was the donor coral in a later picture.




At the bottom you have the donor coral of the 1st picture. At that time it was ~ 2".








2 Pictures with different focal planes










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Unread 08/28/2015, 03:11 PM   #14
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Unread 08/29/2015, 05:00 PM   #15
nemodan
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Some parameters

Salinity 1025- 1026

PH 7.95 - 8.45 (Daily variation).

Alk : 6.4 - 7 dkh (measured ~ every 3 days to adjust dosing pumps accordingly)
Ca: ~ 400 ppm ( I have to measured again after 4 weeks)
Mg: don't know

PO4. 0.02- 0.04 ppm
Nitrates. 0 ppm

I feed the fish every day , once and well, to avoid having Phosp 0 ppm

Dosing B-ionic 2 parts (dosing always same volume of Cal and Alk parts).

Nutrients exportation: The refigium full of Macro and a lot of Seacherm Matrix for bacterial growth. Every month I seed the tank with Biodigest (living bacteria)

Light : 6 T5 39W and 3 LED strips of 24 and 36 " ( Ecoxotic and Trulumen Pro)

Pumps : 3 RW8 In the 65 G tank

Dosing pumps : Neptune DOS
Controller : Neptune Apex



Last edited by nemodan; 08/29/2015 at 05:14 PM.
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Unread 08/29/2015, 06:37 PM   #16
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Daniel, I followed the link in Andrew's thread and I had to post here to tell you how impressed I am with your current set up. And how impressed I am that you took the leap of faith of just letting the system balance itself out by adding a Refugium.
Bravo!
Your system looks super healthy and you do not have a spot of algae in the display. Very nice.
I would like to take some inspiration from you.... I just have to figure out how, exactly. I will think long and hard about how to follow in your footsteps.
Your thread is very interesting in how your system has transformed...
I will follow your updates with interest!


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Current Tank Info: 53x32.5x26 190g dt 60g of sumps 3 tank-100 gal frag system 6xAI prime 8xt5. 4x maxspect gyre. Skimz Dual internal sicce pump skimmer Deltec PF601s ca rx+Kalk stirrer
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Unread 08/29/2015, 07:47 PM   #17
nemodan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reefmutt View Post
Daniel, I followed the link in Andrew's thread and I had to post here to tell you how impressed I am with your current set up. And how impressed I am that you took the leap of faith of just letting the system balance itself out by adding a Refugium.
Bravo!
Your system looks super healthy and you do not have a spot of algae in the display. Very nice.
I would like to take some inspiration from you.... I just have to figure out how, exactly. I will think long and hard about how to follow in your footsteps.
Your thread is very interesting in how your system has transformed...
I will follow your updates with interest!
Thank you Matt !!

I have been following your thread. Your tank looks great !!!. And those corals have great color. I am astonish on how you are manipulating the Phosp. and nitrates. I tried carbon dosing using NOPOX and all went wrong in my hands.

When my tank was full of Hair Algae and all the corals brown and some dying, as you saw in my pictures, I thought also using pellets, GFO etc. but I stopped myself. I travel a lot and I am not able to be at home to control all those artificial ways of nutrient export.

As a biologist I told mysel " Daniel, you can't have a tank that will fulfill the biology of all SPS, you do not have time to control the mentioned methods for nutrient export, so you have to let biology do the work....like in the ocean".

I was able to connect a decent refugium (20 G bare bottom for a 50 G real volume tank - after sand/rocks-). I did the mistake of adding too much sand and not the correct one on my tank. To increase the bacteria population I used Seacherm Matrix. I filled an acrylic HOB (3G) refugium that Is Hanging on on side of the 20G refugium. I started seeding the system every 15 days with live bacteria and..........wait.

I also decided to stop buying ocean water. It was expensive and every weekend I started to do 15G water change (before was 5G). So I got my RODI system and during the WC the system went from ocean water to Reef Crystal.

The system was equilibrated at 7 dkh (ocean water) and the water brand change didn't modify that value. So I setup my dosing pumps to keep that ~ 7 Dkh.

I said to myself....what lives...lives. There was anything else I could do. After 2 months I started to see the changes.

And here we are today..... Very simple system with every day always the same parameters.

Of course, every day I am at home I am doing some maintenance. If I see that my macros are not growing at a nice rate, then I feed more that week.



Last edited by nemodan; 08/29/2015 at 08:27 PM.
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Unread 08/29/2015, 08:12 PM   #18
sh8g8delik
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Awesome tank and awesome recovery nemodan! I hope to have mine looking that good eventually. I'm currently dealing with nuisance algae ie dino and cyano, and i think its the cause of my corals stunted growth. Keep up the great work!


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[url=http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2455425]125g Peninsula Tank[/url]

Current Tank Info: 125g Peninsula Tank 48Lx30Wx20H, 24" Ati Hybrid powermodule 8 bulb, SWC 230 skimmer, Maxspect gyre 150, 36" Ruby Elite Trigger Sump, MP40W, 1" Sea Swirl, BRS Dual Reactor, Bubble Magus Dosing Pump.
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Unread 08/29/2015, 08:20 PM   #19
nemodan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sh8g8delik View Post
Awesome tank and awesome recovery nemodan! I hope to have mine looking that good eventually. I'm currently dealing with nuisance algae ie dino and cyano, and i think its the cause of my corals stunted growth. Keep up the great work!
Thank you Anh !!

Yes, if you have high nutrients, like I had, your corals stop growing. The first thing I noticed in my tank was lost of polyp extension, brownish of most SPS, STN, almost no growing and bleaching in my bird nest colonies. Tomorrow I will try to post some closeup pictures of the corals during my high nutrient period and now.

Cheers
Daniel


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Unread 09/01/2015, 09:46 AM   #20
reefmutt
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Dan, thanks for following my little marathon thread.
All of my systems in the past (and there have been many) have run like yours and they were stable and successful..
I really want to ditch my biopellets but am afraid to. I have to find a way to reduce them slowly while letting the other parts of my system take up the slack. I have too much invested to just take them off and watch.
I have a large cheato ball growing like crazy already and a small dsb as well.
Recently I added a second skimmer as well..
I still find that I have to run my pellets pretty hard.. And add significant amounts of nitrate to keep phosphate down.
I think I'll try adding more light to the cheato and deepen my dsb and then try to back off on the flow through the pellets.. At least get to a point where the n additions aren't necessary..
Question: throughout the process did you ever do anything to your sand bed in the display?
Also, you have 0 n and small amounts of p.. Are you ever tempted to try to switch these two numbers?


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Current Tank Info: 53x32.5x26 190g dt 60g of sumps 3 tank-100 gal frag system 6xAI prime 8xt5. 4x maxspect gyre. Skimz Dual internal sicce pump skimmer Deltec PF601s ca rx+Kalk stirrer
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Unread 09/01/2015, 10:55 PM   #21
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Wow Daniel.........



I read your reef journey to get where you are now mate, great stuff sticking it out when a lot tend to give the game away
I love the colors you're getting under your T5/LED combo, beautiful pigments on everything You should keep doing things just the way you are now mate.
I used to use NSW but since going to ASW i don't miss lugging water drums in and out of the acro ute lol........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was.................

Look forward to more updates Daniel.


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Unread 09/02/2015, 06:16 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by biggles View Post
Wow Daniel.........



I read your reef journey to get where you are now mate, great stuff sticking it out when a lot tend to give the game away
I love the colors you're getting under your T5/LED combo, beautiful pigments on everything You should keep doing things just the way you are now mate.
I used to use NSW but since going to ASW i don't miss lugging water drums in and out of the acro ute lol........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was.................

Look forward to more updates Daniel.
^^^^What he said


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Current Tank Info: 250G SPS Mixed Reef. ATLAS 84x28x24. SuperMarin 250. Cebu Sun 3 x 250WMH Radiums 4 x 80W T5. Profilux 3 w/GHL dosing CA-ALK-MG. Moved by Tunze and Vertex. Reef Octopus 5K return.
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Unread 09/02/2015, 07:22 PM   #23
nemodan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reefmutt View Post
Dan, thanks for following my little marathon thread.

Question: throughout the process did you ever do anything to your sand bed in the display?
Also, you have 0 n and small amounts of p.. Are you ever tempted to try to switch these two numbers?
Matt... I think that having that sand bed with fine sand mixed with crushed corals was one big mistake on my side. I believe it contributed to the high nutrient issue. BUT !!!! When I realized about that was too late. My rocks are not attached. I though about taking it out, but it will be probably a disaster for the rocks. They will fall with all the corals on it. An SPS reefer of the area told me "..... disassemble all, take the sand, and start again, if not where is the fun of this hobby, just sitting to watch the corals, no way..." He has many tanks and they never stay the same for long time.

I decided not to follow the easy path. So the answer for your sand question is ..... NO, I never did anything. Only once I did a WC removing a little the sand. I was afraid of opening another pandora box. The biology of the tank did the job. I believe the fuge has a nice size (20G) for a 55g of real space water. Full of macro, really full, and a lot of the Seacherm Matrix in the HOB acrylic fuge, did the magic.

About the P and N. You can not believe how many times a though about it reading your thread. But I decided that due to my work (I travel 3 days in average per week), it will be impossible to control the situation as you and others do. Again, because of my job, I have to have an easy tank. My philosophy, after my disaster, was " what lives in my conditions is what I will have". My conditions are: an ATO to replenish water, dosing pumps for Alk/Ca and the refugium....plus WC every week ( ~ 15- 20 G ).

Of course there has been STABILITY and REPRODUCIBILITY, All this recovery months, the most important aspect for SPS , specially Acros.

Daniel



Last edited by nemodan; 09/02/2015 at 07:30 PM.
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Unread 09/02/2015, 07:39 PM   #24
nemodan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by biggles View Post
Wow Daniel.........



I read your reef journey to get where you are now mate, great stuff sticking it out when a lot tend to give the game away
I love the colors you're getting under your T5/LED combo, beautiful pigments on everything You should keep doing things just the way you are now mate.
I used to use NSW but since going to ASW i don't miss lugging water drums in and out of the acro ute lol........

As soon as you order the Salifert Mg test and some Mg supplement be sure to let us know how low it was.................

Look forward to more updates Daniel.
Thank you Andrew !!! Those are encouraging words !!!

About the Mg levels..... I have the kits. Just lazy to measure it because with the frequent WC I do, I assumed there will be no change. This based on my readings before my nutrient crash.

I will do the measurement this Friday or Saturday and will update my data on this thread. I will also look how are the P and N..... And Ca. :-)

I have been measuring every 3-4 days Alk. And it has been always 6.4-6.7 Dkh. Because I use b-ionic 2 parts and dose equal parts, I look the levels of Ca , like once per month. Last time was ~400 ppm. Of course, to keep that level of Alk I have been adjusting the dosing pumps almost every week.


Daniel


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Unread 09/02/2015, 07:47 PM   #25
nemodan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M007 View Post
^^^^What he said
Thank you M007 !!!!

By any chance, do you work for the MI6 ?


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