Duckhams' 75G Reef Build - Eurobraced/BeanAnimal

[Myka]

My tank is same height and width. Ime, he lack of pointing ability blows the sand around a lot worse. That's my main reason right now. I'm liking the Gyre, but it lacks control flexibility. It's deadly silent though.

I'll try online. ..Thx!

[Duckhams]

Originally Posted by Myka

My tank is same height and width. Ime, he lack of pointing ability blows the sand around a lot worse. That's my main reason right now. I'm liking the Gyre, but it lacks control flexibility. It's deadly silent though.

I'll try online. ..Thx!

Sand is always an issue when any type of flow hits the sand bed, especially the smaller grain sizes. I have the Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand and the vortech's create nice waves in it that make it look more natural. I like it anyway. Thus ends my pitch for the Vortech's.

[Myka]

I have same sand. I'm sitting at 75x turnover, and the sand barely stays in place! I've been eyeing up the QDs though.

[Bugger]

Hi Elliot!
What setting are you using for your vectra?
How high do you have it turned on to. Is heat an issue?
I want to use two vectra in my system tied to two mocean spray devices but I am worried about heat.
Do you use two drain lines as your sump drain or just one.
I want an XMN device to surge my vortec pumps every fifteen minutes for maybe two minutes or so

[Duckhams]

Originally Posted by Bugger

Hi Elliot!
What setting are you using for your vectra?
How high do you have it turned on to. Is heat an issue?
I want to use two vectra in my system tied to two mocean spray devices but I am worried about heat.
Do you use two drain lines as your sump drain or just one.
I want an XMN device to surge my vortec pumps every fifteen minutes for maybe two minutes or so

I was worried about heat too, but it only uses 80w on max output, and as I have it set, it only uses around 52w. So it's more efficient than the Eheim 1262 I had. Heat is not an issue at all.
When you calibrate the pump, it sets itself up within the flow capacity of your system and then gives you a percentage range within that calibration setting to use. So you could use it on a 20 gallon tank, or a 200 gallon tank. Its incredible, and you have a lot of control over the calibration, so you can really set it up any way you like (flow/power wise).
I have a beananimal drain system, so my 1 x 1" drain line at full siphon can handle over 3,400 GPH, but I run it at a lot less than that to maximize skimmer efficiency and to make the system absolutely, hear a pin drop, silent.

[Bugger]

SO two drains can handle 3400 gph

[Duckhams]

Originally Posted by Bugger

SO two drains can handle 3400 gph

2 standard non-siphoning drains? it would depend on the size, and orientation of the pipes. i.e. a 90 degree bend and a horizontal run at any point in the drain line could cause a 'backup' and limit the amount of air/water able to flow through. PM me your plans and I'll take a look.

[Duckhams]

Here's a quick pic update. I've been playing around with coral placement a lot, so things still need to settle and grow in, and there's a few corals to place still. But you get the idea of where it's heading, things are really taking shape now. A few corals didn't photograph well in this setting, and there's a few not shown. I'll try to do a full photo list soon.

I've also been battling a major 'brown slime' bloom (possibly dino's) for the last month. Long story short, i've been manually removing them once a week during regular water changes. For the last week i've been using Korallen-Zucht's Coral Snow in line with Brigthwell's MicroBacter7 and that seems to have done the job. Ultimately the algae is using up nutrients, which is a good thing, so I let it run it's course and try not to freak out while manually removing it so that it doesn't negatively effect my corals. In a more established tank, I might do other things too. But as the tank is so new, I let it balance itself out with little to no change in husbandry, accept the addition of the Coral Snow and MB7.

Feb 15th 2016 FTS
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Bali Green Slimer (Acropora Yongei)
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Superman/Bullseye Rhodactis
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Grape Vine acro (Acropora Secale)
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Yellow Highlighter (Acropora Caroliniana)
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Mr.Pacman (Acropora Hurlock)
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Purple Highlighter (Acropora Plana)
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Tear Drop Tridacna Clam
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Rasta's (Zoanthids)
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Superman/Bullseye Rhodactis
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Superman/Bullseye Rhodactis
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Mr.Pacman (Acropora Hurlock)
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Used to be neon yellow, now neon green (Acropora Vermiculata)
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Chilli Pepper Monti (Montipora sp.)
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Yellow Nebula Yuma Mushroom
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[Duckhams]

So this week I switched to the wide angle 120˚ lenses on my Radions. After taking some PAR readings, I switched back to the standard 80˚ lenses as the PAR was so low on the wide angles, even at 100%. As I have 3 x XR15PRO's above my tank, the standard lenses do the trick and I get great coverage and now great PAR too!

Below are my readings/settings. Im running them at 70% right now, but you can see what sort of PAR range I have up to 100% intensity. Obviously there is some variation in the readings as you go further toward the back glass/front glass. But all these readings were taken within the 6" center of the tank (front to back). PAR readings on the Apogee MQ-200 actually read <2% low, according to the manual.

At 70% they are incredibly bright already! I really love the Radion's. Im getting good growth from my SPS and i've kept colouration on 95% of them, but still expect to see improvements in colour as my SPS settle in and light intensity/feedings increase.

70% INTENSITY:
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100% INTENSITY:
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[Duckhams]

I also took a few readings at 100% on all channels just to see what the difference would be. The Radion XR15PRO's put out a LOT of PAR. However, I dont think many aquarists will run all channels on 100% percent as we tend to favour the blue 20,000k look over the bright 5,000k sunshine look. Though for heavy SPS tanks it may be worth ramping up to the 100% on all channels for an hour or so a day just get that extra bump in PAR. How effective, necessary or worthwhile that would be, i don't know. But I like that it's an option.

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