300 liter mixed reef build - start Sep. 2020.

[MadsDK]

Hello
I just started cycling a new 300-liter reef system this September 2020. The rocks have been cycling a bit longer though (start august).
The plan for the system is to become a bare bottom mixed reef system, with emphasis on stony corals (there is a small container with sand for wrasses - 20*10*5 cm).
The display tank measures 120 cm * 40 cm * 50 cm and the sump 80 cm * 30 cm * 40 cm (W*D*H). For flow, I use two jebao SOW 8 and for lighting an ATI sunpower dimtech 6*54 with the BRS recommended bulbs.


For downflow, it uses a modular marine ghost bean animal overflow rated for 1200 g/ph, connected to a Clarisea SK-3000 auto roller filter. In the sump, you will find a Tunze 9012 skimmer, a carbon reactor, a tunze osmolator, an aqua nuva nha-300 heater, a Jebao DCP-5000 pump for water circulation, a lumini asta 20 led for either growing frags or chaetomorpha, live rock, and a couple of containers for a 12 cm mobile DSB.
Down the road, I have plans of adding a dosing system to the tank, but for now, I will do with water changes.

I have done the nitrate and phosphate test for the last month, and the NO3 test results are as follows:

• 5th okt. 2020 - 50 mg/l
• 12th okt. 2020 - 35 mg/l
• 25th okt. 2020 - 10 mg/l
• 30th okt. 2020 - 2 mg/l

Thus the system must be ready for corals and more fish

Currently, the tank only has one inhabitant which is a six-line wrasse. I will soon get him a friend.

The stocking plan, for now, is the following:

• 1*six line wrasse for pest control (Tjek)
• 1*yellow Corris wrasse for pest control (Tjek)
• 1*royal gramma for a splash of colour
• 1*yellow tang or Scopas Tang for algae control
• 1*bristletooth tang
• 2*clownfish since they are needed in a reel reef tank ;P
• and down the line when the corals have grown out a group of green chromis

Do you guys have any suggestion then I would love to hear

This is my first real reef tank, that is not a pico reef and I would like to hear your critics and suggestion

 

[MadsDK]

So yesterday I brought a gallon of water to a fellow reefer to test my salinity and found out my salinity is way to high at 1.030.
The salinity is being reduced over the course of the next week 5 liters at a time.

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, nice looking tank

 

[MadsDK]

So I have a big question. The aquarium measures 120 cm wide * 40 cm deep * 50 cm high. The ATI 6*54w dimmable Sunpower almost fits the top of the aquarium completely. I would like to hang the light 5,5 inches above the waterline to reduce light spill, however, I fear that if set at 100% the light intensity/PAR will be to high. Now I run with 70% but I have no PAR-meter to confirm if this is sufficient or not.
Does anybody have experience?

 

[MadsDK]

I have now tested the Par using a plastic bag, white paper, and an app on an iPhone. The PAR levels at 100% intensity is roughly 400 PAR right at the surface, 350 PAR at 5 cm, 220 PAR mid tank, and 110 PAR at the bottom. So the light is great.
about 15 corals have been added over the course of the last month. A couple of corals however are bleaching ( However, not the polyps). The corals have been aclimated to the light slowly, starting with a couple of days at the bottom with 40% light intensity. Following the corals have been placed and light has been increased 5-10% each day.

The flow is good, with two jebao sow 8 wavemakers at full blast.

Thus I believe the problem not to be the light or flow but other parameters.
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0,01
Salinity: 1,025
Alkalinity: 7,7
Calsium: 395
Magnesium: 1370

I talked with another Danish hobbyist he believes the problem to be low nitrate and phosphate. Thus I have now purchased 250 ml of fauna marine min s coral food to boost nutrient levels. Furthermore, I will soon add more fish to the tank also as an attempt to increase nutrients levels. The tank now only includes 4 relatively small fish.

 

[MadsDK]

A new problem has occurred. after starting feeding corals with fauna marine min s and adding extra fish, a bacteria bloom has occurred. My nitrates and Phosphates are still at 0, although I have increased feeding. I think the new problem is the bacterial bloom, which uptakes all my nutrients. I have now added a UV-filter. Hopefully, the bacterias will die off and the nutrients can be utilized by the corals instead.

 

[kilnakorr]

Hello
I just started cycling a new 300-liter reef system this September 2020. The rocks have been cycling a bit longer though (start august).
The plan for the system is to become a bare bottom mixed reef system, with emphasis on stony corals (there is a small container with sand for wrasses - 20*10*5 cm).
The display tank measures 120 cm * 40 cm * 50 cm and the sump 80 cm * 30 cm * 40 cm (W*D*H). For flow, I use two jebao SOW 8 and for lighting an ATI sunpower dimtech 6*54 with the BRS recommended bulbs.


For downflow, it uses a modular marine ghost bean animal overflow rated for 1200 g/ph, connected to a Clarisea SK-3000 auto roller filter. In the sump, you will find a Tunze 9012 skimmer, a carbon reactor, a tunze osmolator, an aqua nuva nha-300 heater, a Jebao DCP-5000 pump for water circulation, a lumini asta 20 led for either growing frags or chaetomorpha, live rock, and a couple of containers for a 12 cm mobile DSB.
Down the road, I have plans of adding a dosing system to the tank, but for now, I will do with water changes.

I have done the nitrate and phosphate test for the last month, and the NO3 test results are as follows:

• 5th okt. 2020 - 50 mg/l
• 12th okt. 2020 - 35 mg/l
• 25th okt. 2020 - 10 mg/l
• 30th okt. 2020 - 2 mg/l

Thus the system must be ready for corals and more fish

Currently, the tank only has one inhabitant which is a six-line wrasse. I will soon get him a friend.

The stocking plan, for now, is the following:

• 1*six line wrasse for pest control (Tjek)
• 1*yellow Corris wrasse for pest control (Tjek)
• 1*royal gramma for a splash of colour
• 1*yellow tang or Scopas Tang for algae control
• 1*bristletooth tang
• 2*clownfish since they are needed in a reel reef tank ;P
• and down the line when the corals have grown out a group of green chromis

Do you guys have any suggestion then I would love to hear

This is my first real reef tank, that is not a pico reef and I would like to hear your critics and suggestion

Looking good. How do you like the skimmer?
Is it quite? I'm trying to find a smaller sized skimmer, but don't want to have to empty the cup 'daily'

 

[MadsDK]

The skimmer works fine, but I have seen/heard more quiet once. The smimmer cup needs to be emtiede once a week. However, depending on how often I clean the skimmer neck I can control the thickness of the skimmate. The more often the more wet and vice versa.

 

[josephxsxn]

0 phosphate and nitrates sounds like dinos. Can you take a photo of the bloom?

 

[MadsDK]

0 phosphate and nitrates sounds like dinos. Can you take a photo of the bloom?

The lights are turned off for today, but I will take a few pics tomorrow

The reef tank has for a long period had 0 nutritions and I thus added more fish to increase nutritions. However, I now believe the low nutrition problem is caused by a rapid uptake by algae and bacteria as I have seen various algae and bacteria blooms covering the glass and rocks (and few corals), and caused a few bacterial blooms clouding the water. To combat the algae outbreaks I have acquired a clean-up crew of 10 snails, 2 tangs, and 1 fox face as well as a UV-filter for the bacteria blooms. The UV-filter quickly fixed the bacteria blooms, however, I am still combating algae and low nutrition. My nutritions are still low at 0,01 ppm phosphor and 1 ppm nitrate.
Some of my corals are doing fine while others are turning pale and a few died.

In addition to this, my anemone has disappeared over the holidays, which I believe has caused further problems.

The plan, for now, is to wait everything out and to do 15 % weekly water changes, and when possible getting more snails to munch down on the algae. Until i have more snails i will clean the glass manually daily.

 

[MadsDK]

So the reef has been struggling for a while and I decided to do an ICP test. I believe the problems come from my osmosis filter which has become defect.

The bad values are:
Calcium = 478 mg/liter
Iodine =0,049 mg/liter

Silicon (ICP-OES) = 2354 mg/liter

Zinc = 19,99 μg/liter
Vanadium = 1,35 μg/liter
Copper = 1,88 μg/liter
Nickel = 7,75 μg/liter
iron = n.n.
Chrome = n.n.
Cobalt = n.n.

I don't do any dosing yet so the Calcium is a bit odd, however, I do use red sea pro salt and have the salinity at 34.

Silicon I guess I need a resin filter after my osmosis filter to remove the Silicon.

and a new osmosis filter to remove the metals?

I don't know much about this stuff so all help is welcome