Joe's 60 cube

Just finished cleaning the tank so some corals a bit cranky. Sorry for the weird green :(

214455


214456


214457


214458


214459


214460


214461


214462


214463


214464
 
Hi,

So installed the diffuser kit. Noted that some area are less shaded. Definitely a big improvement in blending of light - disco ball effect on sand bed is gone :)

214473


One thing I noted is that the reflector plate does not fit properly - it is thicker than the original cover. You can see it when the diffuser plate is on. Other than that no complaints.

Will take some par measurements soon and also set the light to where it should be. Think I will aim for around 260 to 280 par and see how corals react. This however I will do over 12 weeks.
 
Ok light has been adjusted for the drop in par. Based on the reading I had to increase the intensity from 22% to 30% to match (approximately) the drop in par. I have however set the final intensity at 32% - this being done via the acclimation mode over 6 weeks (ie 30% to 32% over 6 weeks).

3 observations/comments:
  1. The drop in intensity as advertised/communicated by Ecotech is not 25% per my testing. Want to qualify this statement: no idea under what conditions this was determined (under air or water, if in water with or without surface agitation, PAR meter used, etc). Further to this I assume their tests were done on the G4 Pro. I am using the G3 Pro. I did not test this for the purpose of validating their claim.
  2. It seems that the intensity and power does not have a perfect correlation. I did these tests at less than a 3rd of the power and it could be that the 25% loss is at 100%
  3. Based on my test the spikes in intensity due to surface agitation has almost disappeared. At the top of the structure, in the middle, without the diffuser, the par ranges from 290 to 340 at any given time. With the diffuser, this was 290 to 305.
Taking all factors into account, I would definitely recommend the product should you, like me be running your lights at a low intensity purely based on the lack of the disco ball effect, decrease in par spikes and visually the reduction of shadowing.

Will have to wait and see if there will be any improvement in corals over the midterm
 
Hi all :m01:

Been a while since the last update. Seems like things are going well - some good growth. Colouration is slightly rubbish at the moment, but I think that is due to the change implemented on the radion.

Alk consumption is up significantly though. Dosing 70 mls a week - red sea alk powder stock solution.

Recently added some new frags. Will post pics in new post.
 
Hi :m01:

Busy cleaning the tank and thought I would quickly post an update.

Things seems to be going well. Some existing frags are starting to encrust the rock and some new ones are encrusting the frag plugs. 2 frags are not doing well and I doubt they will pull through.

The following were some of the new frags added recently:
  1. Chilli pepper monti
  2. Fireworks acro
  3. Green birdsnest
  4. Some Aus green acro ( no clue what it was named just looked nice at the LFS)
  5. Pink hystrix
  6. Aus strawberry shortcake
There are a few spots left but these are reserved for encrusting montis, pink pocillapora and (if I can find one) an ice fire enchinada. Most of the spots are on the side of the rockwork.

My ATO failed last week Sunday, but my RO container was running low. There was about 11 or 12 litres of water dumped in the tank. I did end up buying a new unit last week and picked up the replacement unit today. I guess the replacement will be kept as a back up.

Since I installed the diffuser and cracked up the intensity, I have been dealing with some brown type of algae. It was a problem for a whole after my cycle finished. I am not too worried about this at present as it did disappear the last time.

I added my final fish 2 weeks ago - cleaner wrasse. It's doing well and gets very excited during feeding time. Eats like a pig. I have seen it clean some of my fish.

Manderin is doing well and gaining some weight. Very happy about this.

Even with the amount of food I feed (4 cubes of frozen super shrimp daily) and amino acid dosing, I still have non detectable PO4 and NO4 readings. I have given up trying to get a reading on these parameters - nothing seems to be struggling.

All other parameters are in line with what one expects ina reef tank.

Will post some pics later once I am done and if I remember.
 
Last edited:
Hi :m01:

Things have been a bit bad in the tank :m20: I think with the difficulty of keeping a stable and detectable level of PO4 and NO4 and the addition of the mandarin (decimation of pods), I ended up with either cyano or dino's :banghead: Whatever algae this is, it's brown and grows over everything. Some patches are on the sand, some on the rocks and other on the Gyres.

Turned the photo period down on the refugium. Hope this will contribute to a bit of PO4 and NO3.

Just to make sure no one is concerned, the mandarin is healthy and happily picking away at pods still. It also eats frozen foods. He is doing very well :m01: He is camera shy though.

The difficulty to determine comes with the Gyres. Once these get a bit dirty they spew out small bubbles. These bubbles end up all over the tank and possibly attaching on some of the algae? :confused1: What I have noticed is that the algae on the rock and sand dissapear at night.

Added some more flow to the tank (Jebao SLW-20). Have not seen a major impact from the extra flow. Corals are loving it though.

Ended up installing a UV Sterilizer yesterday. Only been running a few hours, but it seems like the algae has been impacted. Will see how things progress over the next week. Water clarity is just insane though.

216787


216788


216789


216790


Some corals are starting to grow at a good rate. Most have encrusted the rock or is very close.
 
I saw that pic. That's definately dinos. And a big headache to sort out. I just battled it for close to 6 months. Was on the verge to throw in the towel.

I can see on some of your rocks there's also bubbles. Good luck sorting it out
 
Last edited:
Hi Dexter,

Thanks. Not looking forward to dealing with this.

Any advice on what worked for you?

What I have done or will try:
1 - UV Sterilizer
2 - Bacteria dosing
3 - Smaller water changes
4 - Manual removal as and when possible
5 - Dosing NeoNitros to bring up NO3 within an acceptable range
6 - Dosing NeoPhos to bring up PO4 within an acceptable range - Close monitoring of PO4 prior to dosing to avoid a spike.
 
Hi All,

Been a while since my last update. Just finished cleaning the tank.

Feedback in terms of the above issue is a bit minimal. The stuff on the wavemakers have been dealt with and that is gone. The stuff that started on the rocks is also gone. I still have some green slime algae that I am fighting at the moment. However this is very limited to specific spots.

I am still having loads of fun with my sand... I am still not sure what it is. It can clean it and it returns after about a day or 2. I have ridiculous flow in my tank. This being provided by 2 maxspect 4k pumps and 1 slow 20. Questioning if it is cyano but not sure. If this does not improve, I will try some chemiclean.

Parameters have been fairly stable and reasonably where one would expect it, except for NO3:

217600


I have reduced the photo period of the refugium by an hour to see if this will increase NO3. I am currently dosing NeoNitros at around 0.45 mls per day.

I have bumped up feeding too. Feeding 3 cubes of frozen 3 times per day.

Some corals have started responding well with the increase of PO4, this is showing through deeper colouration......now just for NO3 to rise a bit.


217601


217602


217603


217604



217606


217607


217608


217609
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20200518_110211_90.jpg
    IMG_20200518_110211_90.jpg
    117.3 KB · Views: 46
Hi All,

Been a while since my last update. Just finished cleaning the tank.

Feedback in terms of the above issue is a bit minimal. The stuff on the wavemakers have been dealt with and that is gone. The stuff that started on the rocks is also gone. I still have some green slime algae that I am fighting at the moment. However this is very limited to specific spots.

I am still having loads of fun with my sand... I am still not sure what it is. It can clean it and it returns after about a day or 2. I have ridiculous flow in my tank. This being provided by 2 maxspect 4k pumps and 1 slow 20. Questioning if it is cyano but not sure. If this does not improve, I will try some chemiclean.

Parameters have been fairly stable and reasonably where one would expect it, except for NO3:

217600


I have reduced the photo period of the refugium by an hour to see if this will increase NO3. I am currently dosing NeoNitros at around 0.45 mls per day.

I have bumped up feeding too. Feeding 3 cubes of frozen 3 times per day.

Some corals have started responding well with the increase of PO4, this is showing through deeper colouration......now just for NO3 to rise a bit.


217601


217602


217603


217604



217606


217607


217608


217609
Whens the next upgrade? Stunning tank
 
Hi :m01:

Been sneaking around in the forum and have not had much time to post. Work has been crazy.

Since the last post things have been up an down.

Experienced some STN. The root cause of this was due to low potassium. Thank you Sheldon @Premium Aquatics for helping get to the bottom of this.

For those that are following my journey, you know nutrients are problematic for me. I have been running at zero or undetectable PO4 and NO3 since my tank cycled - yes there were the odd occasion where I messed up and nutrients spiked.

Very interesting thing I found out after establishing that K was low was that in a ULNS bacteria use K in order to multiply. There are a number of topics on this for reading if anyone is keen.

Another interesting thing was that the STN started with my birdsnest, hystrix and Milka.

Have implemented K dosing since then and things are looking good.

Coraline algae started growing again too.

In general all parameters are stable now too. Bottomed out PO4 last week (Hannah ULR checker). This was corrected with 2 doses of Brightwell Phosphate supplement. Very liberal feeding of reef roids and not doing a water change.

Will get some pics on here later.
 
Back
Top Bottom