Slawmans Solar Reef - New Skimmer - TOTF May Winner

[jayellul]

:withyou:

[slawman]

Well the system is humming along very nicely, thank for your interest guys. I am planning on an update to my control system to an Apex in the next few weeks to get online access to the system. My old Profilux is still powering on but getting it online is too hard.

Probably time to start looking at dosing. I have been relying on water changes to replenish the system however I suspect the coral growth has started to outstrip this. Testing, testing. Just been a bit lazy

Here are a few pics;

The Fungia in the pic below grew from a 5c size polyp that came in on my first batch of live rock. It dropped off a month or so ago. There are another three growing out on the rock still. The birds nest is growing but curiously the vibrant hot pink coloration seems to move across the piece over time.



My Blue Chromis have started to school more which is interesting as in the past I have found schooling fish tend to stop schooling when there is no threat.



Clowns hosting in Zoos. Glad they picked the Zoos and not any of my LPS.



Duncan looks like the fastest growing coral in the system. It is really pumping and starting to take over the little bommie. Maybe frag time



The clam has grown from 6 or so cm to now what must be 15 or 20cm, looks fantastic and healthy but getting a bit big now for my liking.



I have really enjoyed watching four or five corals which came in on my LR growing out. You can see three different corals here which are all doing well. In particular the lime green one in the picture centre seems to be very happy.

[jayellul]

Loooking tops! love the look of sunlight

I think that purple background would be sucking up a bit of calcium lol

[nudibranch]

Beautiful tank. Very clean.

[slawman]

Thanks Guys, I am sure the purple stuff is sucking down the calc (and the rest). I have upped the water changes over the last few weeks but still having some recession on one of my montis which has been growing well for a few months. Supplementation coming up......

New toy!!



Spent a good part of the weekend playing. Replacing the Profilux with this. I will be doing most of the work next weekend after the Apex settings have settled. Not looking forward to the 1-10v re-wiring for my mean well power supplies I have to say

[ssscuz]

Nice new toy mate. They definately look easier to setup than the profilux!

[slawman]

Loving the Apex in comparison with the Profilux. In particular the web interface and my iPhone access.

I always found it very challenging to calibrate my Profilux conductivity however with the Apex It seems to be far more simple and dare I say more accurate for me (when using the temp compensation).

The only thing the Profilux seems to have over the Apex is the lighting profiles.

Next step will be to fully move to the Apex (LEDs are still running on the Profilux) and fire up my dosing system.

I have also installed 216 watts (4x54) of T5 to run through winter to compensate for the drop in PAR.

[slawman]

With three feeds a day, I am not happy with my Phosphate and Nitrate levels at the moment, just not getting the colours I want. Nitrate is hovering around 2.5 (Salifert) and Phosphate around 0.1 (Hanna). Salinity also moved a little over the two or three months between when my Profilux probe died and I installed my new Apex system (one of the challenges with a continual water change system is to keep a close eye on salinity).

I have upped my water change routine from 40 to 60 litres per day and seen a slight reduction in both over the last week. I have also just started GFO as well. Lets see how we go over the next few weeks.

Uncovered another one of these cursed little acro munching snails slowly digesting one of my Dallas frags just after lights out. They had already munched their way across my purple monti (I originally thought it was water quality). Taken up permanent residence in my Nano tank with Frank (the mantis). He may or may not eat them....

[slawman]

After giving a bit of thought to my approach (in sump DSB, algae scrubber, Vinegar etc..) I knocked this up this morning in an effort to lower nitrates. The Biopellets seem to be the right balance of effort and liklihood of success for my liking and lifestyle

Old Deltec 509 calcium reactor from my two foot cube. Didn't have to do much except put the valve into the top to control the flow inside the reactor. The in and out stay pretty much the same and I block up the CO2 input. I like the idea of being able to control the flow through the reactor to avoid stripping the system bare. Nitrates still hovering around 2.5.

[slawman]

Well the pellets have kicked in faster than expected with Nitrate down to 0.2 (Salifert) yesterday. I am now running about 600ml of pellets on a slow tumble and running about 30 litres per hour through the reactor. I have halved the tank water throughput and will continue to test daily until the levels are relatively stable.

There have been three main observations aside from the rapid reduction in Nitrate.

- My Dallas frag, which was growing nicely has RTNed and is now hanging on for it's life, don't think it will make it. Guessing the rapid drop in Nitrate has been the cause.
- The skimmer is pulling about twice what it was pulling but not much change in the skimmate appearance or smell.
- Significant colour up of one of my purple acro colonies and improved vibrancy, polyp extension and slight colour improvement on many others.

Heres a pic of the acro which has coloured the most. The purple is just in the last few days, used to be a uniform colour of the righthand branches.