Reef nutrition

Alex’s IM 150 EXT

MichaelB said:
I'm nowhere close to many others here in exp or knowledge but I think you have a very tight range with the tests even counting 6 day shipping various temperatures the samples were exposed to along the route. Its probably
safe to say in my estimates the tests your using are accurate enough to notice differences in trends over time. It would be impossible and well beyond my capibilites to speak on the accuracy of the lab preforming the icp. I would hope they would have much better equipment and understanding of chemistry than our lowly hobbist available test kits. How do your personal numbers compare to the last few icps you done. If they look similar in range to these I would say Pat yourself on the back.
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Just to clarify my post: I did not mean to say I am great at water testing, it was more a shout out to the potential ‘quality’ of certain home test kits which are probably not as bad as it is often said, despite their low price. At least those test kits which are referred to as ‘more reliable’ vs others depending on the parameter we are testing. I specifically like the relative accuracy of the Milwaukee for salinity, since I had issues with this in the past (other posts), and knowing that what the ICP use for salinity is rather advanced.

To Thomas’ comment: I also did not mean to say that either is correct in their actual value (except maybe salinity). As you know, I was inside the Fauna Marin ICP lab and saw which equipment they use to test, which seems signficantly more expensive, with very expensive testing/calibration solutions etc. So coming close to what they test with very different equipment does speak to the reasonableness of using home test. And this result was almost every single time for each of the five ICPs I have done in the past 6 months.

And to clarify: This only refers to the parameters we can test at home (except potassium, which I am currently not testing), not to the fancy other minor traces etc.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Update on failed attempt to acclimate four fish:

The good news is that both Anthias are still alive (the Bellus is nowhere to be found). We have started feeding up to three times frozen food daily, including Mysis, which they like, according to Tu. They are both eating well but are very shy due to the lingering aggression from the Yellow Tang (hence no picture for now).
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Glad to hear the Borbs are still doing well! That Yellow tang really sounds like a punk! My other previous Borb really liked TDO pellets as well.
 
I believe this is widely known to improve the performance/durability of the ECOTECH MP wet sides, but I only learned about it last week. I lubricated my MP40s and MP10s with this, which are running better than the new ones.

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After approximately 7-8 months in operation, resolving the LCA/dino issues, and probably most of the cyano issues, and feeling good about most water parameters, including ICP results, the tank is ready for its next step. Will need to improve lighting (separate thread), and add more corals.

My aquascape is a bit odd, but I wanted to have a three-dimensional design to encourage viewing the tank from all three angles.

I would be happy to hear any ideas on what I should consider with placing corals, or which corals to add, etc. (refer to the video below (ignore the sump area, which I recorded for a different purpose).

 
My focus has been recently on adding more corals, i.e. acros, which will require me to move things around. I have increased the lighting over the past 50 days by 20% and measured today (as per picture).

In summary, a pretty bad distribution of (not enough) light and a couple of the smaller acros showing their unhappiness, so time to act.

Also, the birdsnext got far too large, stings the stylo and provides shade to one of the acro, so this will need cutting (which I have not done before). I am planning to remove the birdsnest from its current place and add the three acro colonies which are currently acclimating on the sandbed in this area.

I knew that the lighting was not sufficient at all for this tank, but due to previous cyano and dino issus, I wanted to wait until this is resolved, which it is.

I have been waiting for the dimmable Helix light bars from Quanta lights which should come out any day for pre-order at least, with shipping in September.

Alternatively, I am thinking of going with more Reefis since Derek seems to have great success with them and the ramping up and down is possibly easier.

Since I am still not sure what pieces I need to mount 2040 T Slots across the current 2040, I procrestinated this topic, but I can no longer do that and will need to figure out how to mount the cross bars to it.

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With a 36" deep tank, I wonder how well it would color blend if you added two blue bars. Might have too much blue at the front and back then a whiter center where the ReeFis are. Guess it'll depend on how far you space out the bars and how high the fixture is. Maybe 4 ReefFis in a square arrangement could be interesting since your tank and aquascaping is more cube'ish than long?

I'm also going through this mental exercise with my tank. I have 6 Kessil A360X's in near straight line and blue Quantas on the front and back. I may test out removing the LED bars and having 8+ A360X's in a zig zag pattern front and back to maximize coverage and avoid shading.

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CaseyP said:
With a 36" deep tank, I wonder how well it would color blend if you added two blue bars. Might have too much blue at the front and back then a whiter center where the ReeFis are. Guess it'll depend on how far you space out the bars and how high the fixture is. Maybe 4 ReefFis in a square arrangement could be interesting since your tank and aquascaping is more cube'ish than long?

I'm also going through this mental exercise with my tank. I have 6 Kessil A360X's in near straight line and blue Quantas on the front and back. I may test out removing the LED bars and having 8+ A360X's in a zig zag pattern front and back to maximize coverage and avoid shading.

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Thank you @CaseyP. I think you swayed me into the four Reefi setup as shown above, which is what I was considering doing.

I will need to ask Daniel which type of reflector I should use for this, but the setup should give me much better coverage without changing settings too much other than reducing each unit's intensity.

And I could consider a 3 x 2 setup down the road since it looks as if @derek_SR will have some Reefis to sell shortly :).
 
Alexander1312 said:
Thank you @CaseyP. I think you swayed me into the four Reefi setup as shown above, which is what I was considering doing.

I will need to ask Daniel which type of reflector I should use for this, but the setup should give me much better coverage without changing settings too much other than reducing each unit's intensity.

And I could consider a 3 x 2 setup down the road since it looks as if @derek_SR will have some Reefis to sell shortly :).
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I am not selling my Reefis any time soon…just adding more light. :)

I have 6 over my tank and still have some issues with shading as my acros grow. Looking to add more spread with the Quantas.
 
Hi Alex, Just thought I'd share a video of my tank. We have the same tank. It is an upgrade from my 50 gallon reef tank. 3 months running.

I use 2 Orphek Blue lights with 3 Radions Gen6 XR15'S. I hang them from the ceiling. Reef octopus 150 sss skimmer and CO2 bRS scrubber. I do have aBRS GFO and Carbon Reactor when I need to use it. I run a 57w uv sterilizer 24/7 amd currently doing Reef Moonshiners method. I am also doing H2O2 because i had a fish disease outbreak. So far so good.


I takes some pics of my sump too.
 
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I went back to a potential setup with Helix bars; I am currently thinking the following (terrible drawing!) - this would include two (or three Reefis) and four Helix bars that are tiltable.


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JerryG said:
Hi Alex, Just thought I'd share a video of my tank. We have the same tank. It is an upgrade from my 50 gallon reef tank. 3 months running.

I use 2 Orphek Blue lights with 3 Radions Gen6 XR15'S. I hang them from the ceiling. Reef octopus 150 sss skimmer and CO2 bRS scrubber. I do have aBRS GFO and Carbon Reactor when I need to use it. I run a 57w uv sterilizer 24/7 amd currently doing Reef Moonshiners method. I am also doing H2O2 because i had a fish disease outbreak. So far so good.


I takes some pics of my sump too.
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Is that your tank making all the water noise?
 
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