47G SPS Tank with ATI LED Powermodule

[Sahin]

Since I joined here today and got a warm welcome, I thought I'd start a tank thread here.

Tank details:

47G Optiwhite (on 3 sides) 30L x 20D x 18H

Light: ATI 8 tube LED Powermodule

Can you tell how much I love this light?  ;D

Some coral photos:

Well that was quite a photo SPAM.   I hope my Photobucket account doesnt exceed bandwidth limit.

No FTS at the moment.  A video will hopefully be posted soon showing the FTS and the corals.

I only use the following for filtration: Liverock, skimmer (Bubble Magus NAC6), GFO and water changes.  Took me MANY years to learn that simple is best. 

Nothing else.  No ATS, no Refugium, no GAC, no Organic Carbon dosing, no Zeovit this or RedSea that.  I dont even have sand in the tank as I run a barebottom system.

Many corals still have some way to go before they are fully coloured and I am happy.  But it is getting there. 

 

[TORX]

Apparently your corals like your light as much as you do. Can not wait for the video to show off the whole tank.


:jawdrop:

 

[jroovers]

Took me MANY years to learn that simple is best. 

I'm getting there, but not quite there yet! 

What are your phosphate and nitrate levels at without the use of carbon dosing and GFO?  I know there has been quite a bit of discussion over on RC about phosphates in particular, just wondering if you can share your levels here - really, your only controls look like water changes, heavy skimming, and live rock?

 

[Poseidon]

looking good, is that an orange passion colony i see there?

 

[Darryl_V]

Welcome...... crazy seeing Sahin here.  You are a real addict brother.

thanks for joining our small Canadian community.

 

[spyd]

Very nice corals! And love that light!!!!!!!!! All ways wanted one of those hybrids.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Some very nice camera work as well.    8)

We'll need to hear about your gear in the photography section too.

 

[teebone110]

Welcome!  ;D

Now please tell us more of your secrets.

How much live rock do you have?

You have made the TFT international!

Sick 8)

 

[Sahin]

What are your phosphate and nitrate levels at without the use of carbon dosing and GFO?  I know there has been quite a bit of discussion over on RC about phosphates in particular, just wondering if you can share your levels here - really, your only controls look like water changes, heavy skimming, and live rock?

Hi Jordan.

My filtration is skimming, water changes 10 or 20% every week -depends on how busy I am etc, Liverock and GFO.  My parameters are:

NO3 = 0.2ppm (Salifert).  I even went 3 months without water changes (was ill), and NO3 only increased slightly to 0.5ppm

PO4 = 0.03ppm (Elos/Merck High Resolution PO4 test kit)

Alk =  7.5-8dKH (Salifert)

Mg = 1300ppm (Salifert)

Ca = 420ppm (API, which is their only decent test kit)

K+ = 400ppm (Salifert, the BEST Potassium test kit, I did a review thread on RC a year or so back).

With regards to NO3, once my tank reached about 6 months old, the rocks have since  pretty much been able to process nitrates.

With regards to PO4...I've been reading the thread you mention...but such tanks like Thales's tank are only a few...However, my buddy has a tank that is a few years old, recently he tested the PO4 and freaked out when it came back 0.5ppm...but man...he has awesome colour in his SPS corals...his SSC is crazy nice.  I dont know...I think its something to do with the age of the tank as well...

One other thing I have also changed in my reefkeeping methodology is feeding.  I now feed the fishes (and consequently corals) a whole lot more than before. 

 

[Sahin]

looking good, is that an orange passion colony i see there?

Thanks.  Yeah that is the orange passion (no lineage to RR).  Came into the UK on a shipment.  A buddy imports SPS corals.  Didnt have any blue when I bought it though, and was a tiny frag, as a lot of it STN'd.  I think I'v had the frag for about 8 months now.  That photo is about a month or two old I think.  Its a bit larger now and has deeper colour.  Its getting around 450PAR under my lights, so was a little pastel in that photo.  But with increased tank feeding, it looks nicer now. 

 

[davesolo29]

wow.... looks awesome.  cant wait for the video of the full tank
what do you have for swimming livestock?

 

[Sahin]

Welcome...... crazy seeing Sahin here.  You are a real addict brother.

thanks for joining our small Canadian community.

Thanks Darryl.  You are 100% correct: I am an addict! 

Very nice corals! And love that light!!!!!!!!! All ways wanted one of those hybrids.

Thank you.  The light is pretty amazing, and no doubt it makes a difference for my SPS. 

Some very nice camera work as well.    8)

We'll need to hear about your gear in the photography section too.

Thanks for the compliment.  My "gear" is now ancient technology!   The camera is a 10 year old Nikon D70.  I mainly use a Tamron 90mm Macro lens for the shots.  I really like this lens for these types of shots as it produces quality images and they are sharp! 

Welcome!  ;D

Now please tell us more of your secrets.

How much live rock do you have?

You have made the TFT international!

Sick 8)

LOL.  Ask BIGSHOW, Darryl_V, Duke, JRoovers...those guys are PRO!  And hold the secret LOL.  My tank is just beginning to look half decent.  As I said in my initial post, I follow a simple methodology; keep things simple.  Stick to the basics, keep parameters stable, feed the tank lots and let the tank mature. 

I have about 50lbs of rock in the tank. 

BTW I've just learnt how to multi-quote

 

[Sahin]

wow.... looks awesome.  cant wait for the video of the full tank
what do you have for swimming livestock?

Thanks for the compliment. 

I am not really into the fish at the moment as the tank size limits what I can have, but these are the fish stock:

4 x Blue/Green Chromis
2x Perc Clowns
1 x Bangai cardinal
1 x small Wrasse
1 x Bloodshrimp

I would love to keep a tang or two in the future; if and when I upgrade to a 100G cube tank.

 

[Sahin]

Some very nice camera work as well.    8)

We'll need to hear about your gear in the photography section too.

Forgot to add; the photos of the ATI LED Powermodule I took those with a 50mm f2.8 prime lens.  This lens is cheap, but tack sharp and produces beautiful images. 

 

[davesolo29]

Thanks for the compliment. 

I am not really into the fish at the moment as the tank size limits what I can have, but these are the fish stock:

4 x Blue/Green Chromis
2x Perc Clowns
1 x Bangai cardinal
1 x small Wrasse
1 x Bloodshrimp

I would love to keep a tang or two in the future; if and when I upgrade to a 100G cube tank.

Why stop at 100 gallons?  lol.    Once i take the plunge and buy my own house instead of renting, i plan on upgrading from my 200 gallon DD.  Probably wont ever happen tho.

BTW I've just learnt how to multi-quote

Me too i think

 

[jroovers]

[quote author=jroovers link=topic=7696.msg79965#msg79965 date=1391715288]
What are your phosphate and nitrate levels at without the use of carbon dosing and GFO?  I know there has been quite a bit of discussion over on RC about phosphates in particular, just wondering if you can share your levels here - really, your only controls look like water changes, heavy skimming, and live rock?

Hi Jordan.

My filtration is skimming, water changes 10 or 20% every week -depends on how busy I am etc, Liverock and GFO.  My parameters are:

NO3 = 0.2ppm (Salifert).  I even went 3 months without water changes (was ill), and NO3 only increased slightly to 0.5ppm

PO4 = 0.03ppm (Elos/Merck High Resolution PO4 test kit)

Alk =  7.5-8dKH (Salifert)

Mg = 1300ppm (Salifert)

Ca = 420ppm (API, which is their only decent test kit)

K+ = 400ppm (Salifert, the BEST Potassium test kit, I did a review thread on RC a year or so back).

With regards to NO3, once my tank reached about 6 months old, the rocks have since  pretty much been able to process nitrates.

With regards to PO4...I've been reading the thread you mention...but such tanks like Thales's tank are only a few...However, my buddy has a tank that is a few years old, recently he tested the PO4 and freaked out when it came back 0.5ppm...but man...he has awesome colour in his SPS corals...his SSC is crazy nice.  I dont know...I think its something to do with the age of the tank as well...

One other thing I have also changed in my reefkeeping methodology is feeding.  I now feed the fishes (and consequently corals) a whole lot more than before. 
[/quote]

Your parameters look pretty spot on to me (photography is spot on as well!). 

In regards to potassium, do you test this very often, and what do you do if it is out of whack.  I've never tested for it, wouldn't even know what the optimal parameters are in this regard, do you observe anything if it is too high or too low in your SPS?

 

[Sahin]

Thanks.  Took me a long while to get the parameters all in line.  What really helps is a good salt.  I use D&D H2Ocean, which almost matches my parameters.  Their Alk is a bit higher (I think around 10), but it doesnt really affect my parameters.

As for Potassium, my corals were pale and a little unhealthy looking around 6 months ago.  Back then I was using Tropic Marin Pro Reef.  My water had around 280ppm of Potassium.  I have no idea how it got so low...after checking everything else, I decided to check my Potassium level because I knew from messing around with Zeovit years ago those guys always attributed pale/thin SPS tissue etc due to a lack of Potassium. 

I bought Potassium Chloride online and dosed over a week to bring the K+ level to 400pm.  A month or so later, my corals recovered. 

Now that I use the D&D salt, I dont test for it, but I will test it next month, testing every 2-3 months when using this salt should be fine. 

If you know of Unique Corals, I read that they dose Potassium and even keep it higher than NSW levels.  They say it helps with colour. 

However, as long as it is not really low like I had it should be fine.  I think I might have had a bad batch of TMC salt. 

 

[tdb320reef]

Hi Welcome...

 

[pulpfiction1]

damn!!  those look hot!

 

[jroovers]

That is interesting about the potassium.  I may test just out of curiosity.`3