Reefspace 900 Build, The Second Coming

[McPikie]

Guess I better make a thread for my new tank, another Reefspace 900, but this time in white.

Picked the tank up back in December after having a chat with the wife about changing the colour of the living room furniture from black to white. It came with a blue backing, which I hate, so that was whipped off

2017-12-30_05-27-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Had loads of dry rock pre-purchased, so left that soaking in RO for a few months with regular changes

2018-01-08_03-58-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-01-11_08-21-59 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Got some vinyl added to the back

2018-02-01_10-44-42 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Then after months of the tank being sat there, I actually got the motivation to move it into place.
2018-03-03_07-44-59 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-03_07-45-18 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-03_07-45-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Scott came round and made me a nice scape up
2018-03-10_05-07-51 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-10_05-07-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Got to filling
2018-03-12_10-57-16 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-14_10-20-43 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Then transferred stock over
2018-03-20_08-22-15 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-20_08-22-48 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-20_08-22-54 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr


Added my extra T5s last night on a home made bracket. Wires could do with a little tidying up, but sits nicely and makes a difference.

2018-03-23_08-22-51 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-23_08-22-57 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-23_08-23-03 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Put my UFP grow light in the sump. I really didn't like the idea of using the metal wires it came with, so fashioned up a "hanger" from some zip ties

2018-03-23_08-23-12 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-23_08-23-17 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Again, wire management really isn't my strong point, so that needs addressing in the sump area.

 

[steve861uk]

I love cable ties....they hold up my leds in my lid and also my filter sock in the sump plus they stop leaky pipes on my reactor and return pump

Great tank.........very clean (at the mo ).

 

[McPikie]

2018-03-28_09-53-22 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-28_09-53-28 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Also stripped down and cleaned my skimmer, but looks like the pump may have failed. Maybe this is where my copper is coming from

2018-03-28_09-58-41 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-03-28_09-58-31 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[McPikie]

Nipped to Kraken Corals at weekend to pick up my new skimmer pump. While I was there I had a quick browse of the SPS tray and decided on a bottlebrush, pink millie, and a bluey/green tenius

D7K_6425 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6428 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6430 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6432 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6433 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

D7K_6435 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6436 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6437 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[doug_amanda]

I can see this one is going to be just as stunning as the last

 

[McPikie]

Hopefully.

Now it’s a case of checking my alkalinity levels every night at 7pm without fail to see how much carbonate is being used up to work out my dosing schedule. I don’t want to lose any more coral.

 

[McPikie]

Managed to try my Hanna checker for the first time last night. Soooo easy to use, I should have bought one sooner

2018-04-05_08-36-26 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[McPikie]

Picked up an IT2080

2018-04-13_09-06-25 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[McPikie]

Grabbed a few more frags from Kraken at weekend

2018-04-16_08-38-42 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-04-16_08-38-49 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[McPikie]

D7K_6490 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6477 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6479 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6481 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6485 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[McPikie]

The postman arrived

2018-04-19_07-48-41 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-04-19_07-48-47 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

My new sump weir from Toby at Little Ocean. Had it made in black so it blocks the light going into the return chamber

2018-04-19_07-48-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Decided to also add a coloured baffle on the otherside to stop more lightspill. G-clamps and a heatgun

2018-04-19_07-49-05 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-04-19_07-49-14 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-04-19_07-49-26 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

And finally, I added another MP10 to the backwall. Running it on reefcrest but on low power, just to add a little more random flow.

2018-04-20_04-26-40 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[McPikie]

Picked up a couple of new pieces at weekend

2018-04-30_09-40-38 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-04-30_09-40-43 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

 

[Mayo]

Looking good mate[emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[McPikie]

So, given I looked like I had flatworm in the sump, and the only thing I transferred from the old tank was the fish and cheato, I decided to whip it all out and start again. Lastnight was spent on my knees for 2 hours with a DC2000 pump, some ehiem pipe and a filter sock. I handballed anything I could out, and then sucked up the rest. I went through 2 filter socks as I havent been running them on the tank since starting it up. Manky!!!

2018-05-02_09-27-46 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-02_09-27-52 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-02_09-28-04 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

It's now all nice and fresh, and I've actually left a filter sock on for now to see if that gets my water any clearer. Unsure whether to actually put cheato back in, or just stick with skimmer (in a vinigar bath at the moment) and a phos reactor. I do have a decent sized fuge area there though, so it would be rude not to use macro algae I think.

 

[jim_fitz]

ive just ditched my socks and gone back to floss
water looks much clearer

 

[McPikie]

UPDATE

I got hold of a nice handful of calupera off a local reefer and swapped my UFO out for a 165w chinese blackbox, running full spectrum 24/7, but on very low power. Over the period of a week, the tank looked fine, then on Saturday morning, I came in to the tank looking really milky. The tank smelt a little funky and when I pulled off the front panel to the sump, the sump was green and the water felt greasy. Fish and corals seemed OK, so I assume bacteria bloom, or that the calupera had crashed, so I pulled it out and cleaned the sump out again. cranked the skimmer up to wet skim and grabbed a fresh ball of cheato. a 20 litre water change and after a couple of day, the water seemed to clear up.

2018-05-16_08-38-48 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

I don't know what caused it, but recently I have been having hair algae issues and I wonder if I attributed to this, as I had been picking this out by hand and putting it down the drain to the filter sock (although changing this before it became full). So lastnight I checked Pho on my Hanna.......

2018-05-16_08-38-37 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

maybe this is a false reading if there is algae in the tank using the phos. If so, whats the point in testing it?

I put some fresh rowa in the reactor too and had a bit of a tidy up.

2018-05-16_08-38-43 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

All 3 MP10s looked like they were covered in an orangey coloured algae (not rust) and this was all inside my skimmer too.

2018-05-16_08-50-01 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

It never rains but it pours. The algae issue is really getting me down and I am close to throwing the towel in if I am honest. I've got a purple tank that doesnt touch hair algae, a bomb load of cuc that don't seem to be doing anything, and I do not want to put a foxface in there.

Last ditch attempt is to try dosing hydrogen peroxide (3%) at 6ml per day and maybe lower my photo period. If that doesnt work, I don't know what else I can do.

Some pics

2018-05-16_08-38-27 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-38-53 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-38-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-39-04 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-39-09 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-39-14 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-39-20 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-05-16_08-39-26 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Also noticed my Kh was low
2018-05-16_08-39-42 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Will buuffer this back up to 8 over next two days, but assume this is down to using a lot of Rowa trying to get rid of the algae

 

[jim_fitz]

phosphate exists in 3 different forms in water
you are probably on measuring one form

thats why i prefer the phosphorus (total P) version
though is quite difficult to find anything info on recommended values
0.03 is regarded as the acceptable level for SPS
6 is the amount im aiming for and ive only found this once

though the corals look happy and some good signs of growth

 

[doug_amanda]

Whenever I’ve set up a new tank it’s always gone through a hair algae phase, the good thing is it’s never lasted long and once it’s gone it’s never come back.
As above, the corals look very well so there can’t be too much wrong, maybe it’s just a case of waiting it out.

 

[Leigh williams]

The hair algae in mine lasted 8 weeks.
I started dosing no pox regularly and it was gone in a week.

 

[McPikie]

Well, I took my eye off the tank for a while. The hair algae was getting out of control and I basically got ###### off with it. Got myself 6 tablets of 200mg fluc and gave it one last try

2018-06-21_08-11-39 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-06-21_08-11-45 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
2018-06-21_08-11-58 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

Left it 10 days. Then 2 more. I was getting really ###### with it, the algae seemed to be melting, but not the fix all I was expecting. Day 14 came and I thought #### it, I am syphoning it all out. WOW. It peeled off the rock like old paint with a heat gun. I spent about an hour sucking it all through a filter sock, then did a 20% water change. I could actually see my rock again. Most of the corals look a little washed out, but that's probably due to a massive nutrient imbalnce. Got my Kh back up to 8, Ca at 420 and Mg is at 1290 (so that will need a little buffering.

Time to start buying some corals again I think. And some CUC. And maybe a fish or two.

D7K_6537 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6541 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6547 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6550 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6552 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr
D7K_6553 by Phil Cookson, on Flickr

(is this Lokani??)