Kessil

Patrick's 81G - the last dance

After some back and fourth with ATI, it was discovered that the light was out of warranty (1 year) and if have to pay for the parts. Sucks because the actual usage of the light was less than a year, but they go by purchase date.

They did offer a discount, so it all came out to $175. Im hoping the new driver fixes things. Im hoping it comes in by Monday atleast.
 
Let there be light!

Driver came in today and straight on the tank it went. All previous programming was wiped, but happy its back up and just needs tuning.

With the kessils alone I was seeing a peak average par of around 200 at 100% intensity. Since it sat in that light for nearly a week, I'm planning on turning up the Straton at 50% of the target intensity of 60% for a week, giving it an average of ~400. Ill crank it up next weekend depending on how things react.
20260207_174314.jpg

With the light acclimation, I'm going to take the opportunity to use some bluer presets. The kessils produced some amazing color on some pieces on their own and id like to ride that wave and see how things pan out.
20260207_174415.jpg

Throughout the whole ordeal, I had 1 frag rtn but did have alot of algae growth die off. I kept a close eye on alk and had a significant decrease in utilization in the past week, so I'll have to observe again and ramp up accordingly.

Huge shout out to @MichaelB , @SupraSaltyReefer , and @Royce023 for offering up lights incase the driver solution didn't work. I appreciate yall!
 
With my sons basketball season coming to a close, I finally had a free Saturday to do some much needed maintenance.

Gave a bunch of corals haircuts to keep them from touching. Early on, I knew this would be a problem, I guess I just underestimated how often I would have to do it.

Diatoms finally cleared from the sandbed after adding TLF reborn. Nothing is blowing around, so mission accomplished on that end.

With all the light tinkering I've been doing lately, Im in search for a clean solution to add some intensity to the ends of the tank. I have pieces there that are growing, but I feel color would be better with a better spread. I like the results the kessils have given me, but they do create one hell of a hot spot where the reflectors focus dead on. Like a par of 800 kinda hot spot. I can probably remove the reflectors, but the light spill in the room is too much for me.
20260301_212121.jpg

Ive also been rethinking some filtration.

1) I removed the filter roller- I anticipated a rise in my nutrient levels after doing so, but surprisingly its been the opposite. Ive been having to dose po4 and no3 regularly now to keep them from bottoming out. The sump area looks way cleaner with out it anyway. In place of it I put some maxspect bio balls to add some surface area.
20260301_234001.jpg

2) I'm thinking about pulling the algae reactor off line- with my struggle keeping nutrients up, this seems to be ducking up everything I dose, along with a whole hell of of a lot of iron and manganese. It helped a whole lot when I didn't have much coral, but now that things have settled in, this may be the next to be gone.
 
I don't think filter rollers have much of an impact on nutrient levels at all - I had the same experience with mine. All it really does it keep the sump cleaner - which is maybe worthwhile. I just didn't want all the good stuff filtered out as well, so pulled mine a long time ago.
 
derek_SR said:
I don't think filter rollers have much of an impact on nutrient levels at all - I had the same experience with mine. All it really does it keep the sump cleaner - which is maybe worthwhile. I just didn't want all the good stuff filtered out as well, so pulled mine a long time ago.
Click to expand...
Seeing all the crap it pulled out had me thinking it was helping to keep my nutrients down...man was i wrong. I still saw a gang of crap settle in my sump with it on. I just got tired of fixing it everytime it jammed and having to smell it in my living room.

It would be nice to be able to bypass it and use it intermittently to polish water.
 
FinalPhaze987 said:
Seeing all the crap it pulled out had me thinking it was helping to keep my nutrients down...man was i wrong. I still saw a gang of crap settle in my sump with it on. I just got tired of fixing it everytime it jammed and having to smell it in my living room.

It would be nice to be able to bypass it and use it intermittently to polish water.
Click to expand...

If you're bored and wanted to be able to do it via a flick of a switch, you could get a two 1" motorized ball valves, hook them up to a tee and replumb it. But if you're just using it to polish once in a while, you probably should just use a sock.

 
RandyC said:
If you're bored and wanted to be able to do it via a flick of a switch, you could get a two 1" motorized ball valves, hook them up to a tee and replumb it. But if you're just using it to polish once in a while, you probably should just use a sock.

Click to expand...
I thought about it and concluded that the juice ain't worth the squeeze. I dont really find an urge to polish the water all that much unless I'm throwing in some coral snow, and you're right, its nothing a sock can't handle.
 
FinalPhaze987 said:
With my sons basketball season coming to a close, I finally had a free Saturday to do some much needed maintenance.

Gave a bunch of corals haircuts to keep them from touching. Early on, I knew this would be a problem, I guess I just underestimated how often I would have to do it.

Diatoms finally cleared from the sandbed after adding TLF reborn. Nothing is blowing around, so mission accomplished on that end.

With all the light tinkering I've been doing lately, Im in search for a clean solution to add some intensity to the ends of the tank. I have pieces there that are growing, but I feel color would be better with a better spread. I like the results the kessils have given me, but they do create one hell of a hot spot where the reflectors focus dead on. Like a par of 800 kinda hot spot. I can probably remove the reflectors, but the light spill in the room is too much for me.
View attachment 77771
Ive also been rethinking some filtration.

1) I removed the filter roller- I anticipated a rise in my nutrient levels after doing so, but surprisingly its been the opposite. Ive been having to dose po4 and no3 regularly now to keep them from bottoming out. The sump area looks way cleaner with out it anyway. In place of it I put some maxspect bio balls to add some surface area.
View attachment 77772
2) I'm thinking about pulling the algae reactor off line- with my struggle keeping nutrients up, this seems to be ducking up everything I dose, along with a whole hell of of a lot of iron and manganese. It helped a whole lot when I didn't have much coral, but now that things have settled in, this may be the next to be gone.
Click to expand...
The roller just reduces the effect of the skimmer, so it is not a surprise that your nutrients go down with its removal. I currently have a similar issue with ozone.

Good idea to remove the algae reactor also.
 
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