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Lexinverts' Red Sea Max reef tanks


Lexinverts

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Nice looking tank. Nice mix of sps lps and softies. I love the mix of colors. How do you like your Red sea. I have always liked the look of them.

Is that an Oregon mummy eye or original mummy eye chalice?

 

Thank you. Yes, I do like my Red Sea tanks. They work very well. It was nice to have an all-in-one setup when I was starting out with saltwater, since I wasn't experienced enough to do the builds on a piece by piece basis.

 

It's an Oregon mummy eye. I also have an orginal mummy eye frag, and it is much more green under the same lighting.

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Thank you. Yes, I do like my Red Sea tanks. They work very well. It was nice to have an all-in-one setup when I was starting out with saltwater, since I wasn't experienced enough to do the builds on a piece by piece basis.

 

It's an Oregon mummy eye. I also have an orginal mummy eye frag, and it is much more green under the same lighting.

 

Nice to see. I have noticed in higher light the OME will get an orange coloration. I like the green glow better. Nice chalice collection! They used to be more popular but I think they are too slow growing for most people! :) tank looks nice and healthy. I am sure your experience with freshwater has helped! :)

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Well, I've been fighting Dinoflagellates in one of my tanks for the past few months, and it is driving me nuts. I'm starting to lose corals, so it time to be more aggressive.

 

I reduced the photo-period to seven hours and I split it into two 3.5 hr increments to reduce the amount of time the dinos have to build up on the sandbed (they disappear after a few hours of dark). This hasn't worked.

 

I've brought my nitrates down to 1 ppm and have held them steady using No3-PO4-X. This hasn't worked either. I think it has helped a bit, though.

 

I've dramatically increased my flow. Now I'm running the Maxspect Gyre 150 and an MP-10 to keep things. This has reduced dino buildup in places with the highest flow, but they are everywhere else.

 

So, I just started a 3-day blackout. I think that I will start dosing 3% H2O2 after I finish the blackout. I've read that people have had success using 1 ml per 10 gallons dosed in the sump.

 

I think that after reading Albert Thiel's book that I will try to get an Oxydator in lieu of doing ozone.

 

http://saltwater-conversion.com/products/sochting-oxydator

 

Hopefully, I will have good news to report in a few days!!!

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Did you try raising your PH? The dinos cannot self regulate their own internal PH very well and the imbalances in the higher tanks PH cause them to go down hill pretty fast.

 

Hi Robert,

Well I was having some issues with pumps seizing up at high alkalinity, so I am reluctant to try to raise pH anymore. You'd do this with some Kalkwasser, right?

Andy

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www.theshrimptank.com I ordered the A size. It should be here by the weekend, and I'll let you know how it works.

Cool, thanks!  I was googling around and found the DIY version also:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/324974-diy-oxydator-experiment/

 

Huge caution though, a local reefer/buddy made one of the DIY versions (not the commercial).  It tipped over and put H202 and lead in his tank, lost almost everything.  So make sure it is in a safe place!!

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Cool, thanks!  I was googling around and found the DIY version also:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/324974-diy-oxydator-experiment/

 

Huge caution though, a local reefer/buddy made one of the DIY versions (not the commercial).  It tipped over and put H202 and lead in his tank, lost almost everything.  So make sure it is in a safe place!!

Good to know. Thanks.

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Update: I ended my 3 day blackout. I don't see any sign of the dinoflagellates right now, which is good. To keep them away, I am going to dose 1 ml per 10 gal of 3% hydrgen peroxide for a week or so.

 

I also got in my oxydator. Supposedly, these units, which are popular in Europe, are good at keep Cyano and Dinos away. Here's what it looks like in my tank. That's an MP10 next to it for a size reference.

 

IMG_3607_zps8wlkmmsf.jpg

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Cool, thanks!  I was googling around and found the DIY version also:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/324974-diy-oxydator-experiment/

 

Huge caution though, a local reefer/buddy made one of the DIY versions (not the commercial).  It tipped over and put H202 and lead in his tank, lost almost everything.  So make sure it is in a safe place!!

 

There's no way that the commercial version could spill hydrogen peroxide in your tank. For one thing, it's really heavy, but even if it fell over, the container inside that holds the H202 wouldn't let it leak out, regardless of orientation.

 

Right now the thing is absolutely cranking out tiny oxygen bubbles into my tank. I think it is pretty cool.

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  • 4 months later...

It's been a while since I gave an update on my tanks.

 

Unfortunately, I experienced a substantial tank crash that wiped out most of my SPS. As they say, you live and learn, and if it doesn't kill you (and your fish), you come back stronger and better than ever.

 

I had been fighting dinos for a while (they spread to both of my tanks), and decided that the thing that was keeping them in check the best was reducing nitrate and phosphate via carbon dosing. My nitrates had been between 10 and 20 ppm before carbon dosing. Everything was great until the dinos showed up. I decided to use Red Sea NoPox, since it is supposed to reduce phosphate better than some other options out there. Once I got my nitrates down to 1 ppm, and holding steady, the dinos disappeared after about 5 weeks. (I think having an oxydator running helped somewhat too. As an aside, my Bartlett's Anthias seem to really appreciate the additional O2 in the water.) After I conquered the dinos, everything in both tanks was growing like crazy and looking really nice for about 3 months.

 

Then I made a few critical mistakes that ended up costing me big time. I was super busy with work and got a little behind with testing my parameters, and let my nitrates get too low (<1 ppm). I should have reduced my carbon dosing when this happened. Also, because of my busy schedule, I was not able to stick to a regular routine of water changes. Right around the same time my nitrates got too low, I did several water changes on subsequent days in order to have tank water to drip acclimate some new corals that I got from Robert and from Unique Corals. This, undoubtedly, brought my nutrients down even lower while I was still dosing the same amount of carbon. Then the real kicker was when I left for a 3 day trip and did not feed my fish while I was gone. I had started to see a little bleaching before leaving on my trip, but just decreased my light intensity and added some amino acids to the water--I didn't want to panic and do something drastic. The three days without feeding the fish clearly brought my nutrients down even more. When I returned, much of my SPS was RTN-ing and my nitrates were sky-high. Over the next few days my alk spiked because I was dosing the same amount of two-part and my corals were not using it, and this caused more damage and more of a snowball effect. I rushed the surviving SPS to my other tank, and the added volume from the new corals caused a big drop in Alk in that tank. The partially RTN-ed SPS pieces I had moved in ended up spiking the nitrates in the second tank, and that led to a mini-crash in the second tank. When the nitrates went back up in the second tank, the dinos returned and ended up killing more of my SPS. Yikes!

 

So, I ended up losing most of my SPS, but none of my fish died, my Tahitian Maxima, and my Derasa are still doing great, and most of my LPS are fine. The nitrates are back down to 4 ppm in both tanks, and the dinos are gone again.

 

After this experience, I've decided to make some changes. I'm essentially starting over with SPS, so I decided to try the Triton Method. This is similar to the Classic Balling method, in which you dose Alk, Ca, Mg as well as trace elements. Because you are dosing trace elements, you don't have to do water changes, which I like because it should promote greater stability, and I have a hard time being consistent with water changes. (I cannot use a Calcium reactor because the RSM tanks don't have a below-tank sump with room for a reactor, so I am forced to do some sort of dosing.) As some of you may remember from when Scott Fellman spoke to our group, he is using the Triton Method for all of the raceways at Unique Corals with great success.

 

I've also started dosing Acropower with a dosing pump on a timer (Unique Corals also does this for their raceways), which should help prevent my nutrients from ever getting as low as they did during my tank crash. I also purchased a much more accurate dosing pump for my carbon dosing. I can now dose as little as .5 ml per day, and I can adjust with much more precision. This should also help me avoid over-doing the carbon dosing. I was using a BRS dosing pump on a timer, which pumped 1.1 ml per minute, so the finest adjustment I could make was going from 0 mls to 1.1 mls, to 2.2 mls, etc...

 

I got a 4-channel Kamoer dosing pump for the Trition Elementz. Triton Elementz are 4 solutions: 1 (alk + trace), 2 (Ca + trace), 3A (mg + trace), 3B (mg + trace). They mix up perfectly with no residue whatsoever. They are balanced so that you dose the exact same volume in ml of each solution to your tank per day. You adjust the dosing so that your Alk is at 8, and then this will also balance your Ca, Mg, and trace elements. So all you have to check every day while dialing it in, is the alk. It is very simple to do. So far my corals are responding very well, but I'll keep updating. Below is my new cabinet equipment.

 

IMG_3645_zpsz1q9fggj.jpg

 

Wish me luck!

Edited by Lexinverts
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Sorry to hear about your tank crash and you lost most of your sps. SPS can be so heartbreaking. They are like the canary in the coal mine. That's why I'm sticking with softies and lps. How did those fare for you. 

 

I will be curious to see how Triton works for you. 

 

When I had sps up we dosed, calcium, mg and alk and had an ati powermodule and sps did great. Still did some water changes as well. Well Beth did actually... :)

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Sorry to hear about your tank crash and you lost most of your sps. SPS can be so heartbreaking. They are like the canary in the coal mine. That's why I'm sticking with softies and lps. How did those fare for you. 

 

I will be curious to see how Triton works for you. 

 

When I had sps up we dosed, calcium, mg and alk and had an ati powermodule and sps did great. Still did some water changes as well. Well Beth did actually... :)

 

Thanks. My ORA red Goniopora, Wellsophyllias, Alveoporas, Caulastreas, and Lobos are all fine. I lost all of my Duncans, most of my Euphyllias and several chalices, though. I have a few chalices that survived. The hammers and frogspawn were the first to go when the nutrients got too low, but I have a torch that is still doing fine.

Edited by Lexinverts
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