180 gallon reef tank update 3-28-15

[Acronuts]

Hey all!
This is my most recent update video shot with an iPhone 6+ using an old polarized lenses from sunglasses I can't wear anymore.
Unfortunately my MH's tend to wash out colors towards the top of tank.
for more specific details on my tank setup, etc follow my build out "saga" lol at:
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...71103-rebirth-rebuild-my-180g-sps-thread.html

Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drkie8sjA4Y

 

[rayn]

Looks nice!

 

[Acronuts]

Looks nice!

thx rayn!!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Looks great!

 

[Acronuts]

Looks great!

Thank you very much SeahorseKeeper!!

 

[Acronuts]

Well diving in!!!
Many Reefers out there have excellent results from using the program and their reef tanks look amazing.

I am however doing a slower decent as with anything new it is best to go slowly so that you can acclimate and not shock your tank corals and inhabitants.

On 12/2 I started manually dosing the following at half strength:
For my tank vol it recommends 9 drops I am using only 4 drops instead and plan to increase 1 drop per week till I reach the full recommended dosage. While it may take me a little longer to see results I am ok with that.

Pro bio s - Daily 4 drops
Np pro - Daily 4 drops
Af energy - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af build - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af vitality - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops
Af aminomix - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops

Af power food - 1 scoop - Sat-Sun

On 12/4 after testing my water I installed the chambers that will house Components 1+2+3:
Dosing 1+ at 25ml per day
Dosing 2+ at 5ml per day
Dosing 3+ at 25ml per day

These will be monitored and dialed in appropriately with rigorous testing using Red Sea tests.
Alk was at bit high at 9.5 so need to slowly lower it to 7.5-8.0.

On 12/5 the first 20% water change made with 1/2 Probiotic reef salt and 1/2 Instant Ocean.
Bought two boxes at Black Friday sale so will be using it till gone.

Will share my progress with you all here.

 

[Acronuts]

Well today marks one week since the implementation of the Aquaforest reef products.
When it comes to the dosing of Pro Bio S and Np on a daily bases I have not as of yet noticed a decline in phosphates and nitrates. But to be far there has not been an increase either. As a reminder I am not dosing full strength yet.
Each week I will increase each dosing element by one drop till I get to the recommended dosage for my size tank. I'm at 4 drops per 27 gallons the products recommend 9 drops per 27 gallons.

The regime of dosing these during the week keeps me engaged and allows me to see what if any changes occur:
Af energy - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af build - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af vitality - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops
Af aminomix - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops

What Neg/point of sale observations with corals has been?
No negatives so far. On the positive side I have noticed mostly a more robust look to all the zoanthids.
All sps's have nice polyp expansion but no signs of growing. Too soon as they have all been introduced into the tank within the last week to two weeks.

As for the:
Af power food - 1 scoop - Sat-Sun week 1
I increased to 2 scoops week 2.
This is way below the recommended dosage but again taking things on the precautionary side so that I can attribute any negative impacts on the tank.

On Components 1+2+3:
These are being dosed at 20ml a day for components 1+ and 3+ This maintains my Ca at 450 and my Mg at 1350

I had a little problem with a high alk that over several days has finally come down to 8 dkh. I have learned thru the forum that if you want to maintain a ULNS that you need to keep alk lower.
It will take me a few more days to dial in the component 2+ so that I can maintain a steady 8 dkh.

Now on to the so called "bad news"

Prequel:
3 weeks ago noticed that the right side over flow water was a bit higher than it should. I did not give it more attention. When changing filter socks I would close the ball values so again nothing struck out at me.

2 weeks ago I noticed that there was something plugging the intake in the over flow box on right because water was now really high. I took the pipe out and saw that the water did not drain. At this point you would think that this should have been the piano that would hit me on the head right? Wrong I ignored it!!
Forward to present day:
On Wednesday of this week I had a bit of a disaster but it was a disaster that I learned from. A costly mistake in the long run.

I woke up to find the actinic lights on at 7am. Not good! Come to find out the return on the left got clogged!!! Water return to the tank overflowed and fried the brand new cable modem and............ The Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Elite controller, SL1!!! Ouch!!!

I took the pipe that drains into the sump on the left side of tank and found the culprit! A snail was stuck inside. I was able to get it out and place the pipe back in. Snail still alive so it went back into tank.

What would be the chances of both pipes being clogged at the same time? The pipe on the right side was clean as a whistle. This meant the the clog is elsewhere in the line. My lfs suggested that it is most likely another snail and it is stuck right in the bulk head. I shined my cell light but could not see anything. So that may mean the clog is elsewhere in the line that leads to sump.
That will be a project for next week.

Other than that everything else shut off automatically except the LED actinic lights, because these were not on the power trips on the DA.

I got the main pump, the skimmer back on. Now plugged MH lights to old school timers and the search was on for the DA SL1.
I could not find one for sale anywhere, Amazon, Ebay not even DA had it. This lead to the cost in my lazy butt mistake!

Went and picked up a new Neptune APEX! Yep $800 later I could have totally avoided spending but have to eat and swallow that caster oil!!
So far the modem was replaced by cable company and now trying to figure out the setup of this puppy!

More on the setup later............

 

[Acronuts]

Today I went ahead and cut the pvc pipe under one of the over flows. The first one that got clogged which I ignored if you remember from the last post. Anyhow the culprit was the snail. Perfectly stuck in the bulkhead and perfectly suctioned where even when I drilled a hole no water came out.
Once cut I took a wood dolly and shoved it thru the pvc towards the overflow and BAM! The water that had been trapped went gushing and draining towards the 10 gal tank that I normally use for top off water. There was literally about 3 gallons worth of water in the overflow!
With a little cutting here and there and 2 hours to wait and let the pvc pipe glue set, the overflow is back in shape.



Dirty water



All fixed! No leaks (keep fingers crossed)!

 

[Acronuts]

At the moment I am dosing the still under the recommended 1 drop per 27 gallons but the only thing I noticed on week 2 was a growth of diatom brown algae on glass. This has been showing up less and less this week.


Week 3 dosing is as follows:

Pro bio s - Daily 6 drops

Np pro - Daily 6 drops

Af energy - Mon-Wed-Fri - 6 drops

Af build - Mon-Wed-Fri - 6 drops

Af vitality - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 6 drops

Af aminomix - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 6 drops


Af power food - 2 scoop - Sat-Sun


Components 1+2+3:

Dosing 1+ at 20ml per day

Dosing 2+ at 5ml per day

Dosing 3+ at 20ml per day


My test readings have been as follows:


Ca 400 -425

Mg 1300

Phos .8ppm*

Alk 7.6

NO3 25*


Both Phos and No3 have not increased since taking the bio pellets offline and the point of sale has decreased in half over the 3 week period. No3 I have not seen any drops yet. I will continue to monitor these two parameters to see the where they go as I dose Pro Bio S and NP pro.


After the disaster I purchased an APEX which as you all know can set you back a month's worth of mortgage lol. Anyhow after setup I truly love the fact that I get text alerts from the cloud based program called "Fusion" of my salinity and PH levels.

So far the controller handles Main pump, skimmer, all my lights. I will need to connect my doser and eventually my MP-40's.

Then from that point I can spend and add and spend and add lol!


My fav feature is controlling lights, pump, skimmer while at work. I plan on adding a web cam so that when I leave on weekends to work I can monitor the tank remotely by watching it live.


Now about the corals:


Week 1 purchases all were very inexpensive frags from WWC all are doing fine except a Hollywood stunner chalice and an unknown sps. Both have shown anger towards my ALK issues but none have completely perished nor have gotten to the point of no return. Both seem to be coming back. The chalice started to STN from the outside to the in but has stopped. The sps shown burnt tips but has also stopped. All zoes are super opened and look totally happy.


Week 2 purchases were aquaculture corals from Reefers Direct and they have lost color but polyp expansion is super. They were not happy campers after the bayer dip nor happy about the ALK spike. But no tissue recession, just a little brown but full polyp expansion. I expect a full recovery from them.


Week 3 purchase was from a local reefer. Got from him several pieces;Red Planet, red setsoa,


Week 4 purchase was from a local eBay seller. Bought several pieces:RA Figi tri-color sps, RA Midnight Fame Monti, RA Purple Monster, RA Purple w/ Green Polyps Birdsnest, RA Yellow Loripes. Went to pick those guys up and ended with a few more pieces mummy chalice, Aussie Highlighter acro, Fuzzy Blue Vermiculata, RA hot pink encrusting goni, RA rainbow pocillipora, blue tip tenuis, electric blue millie.


Week 5 purchase from WWC Green Thumb Tenuis, WWC Cool Efflo


All frags have not been placed in their permanent homes yet. I want to acclimate them to my tanks MH lights and it gives me time to watch them. During this period I plan on where best to place them to give them adequate water flow and the best lighting conditions. I want to avoid future coral wars so I take into consideration species.


I never really talked about what was left in the tank after my neglect of 9 months here is what survived and what has continued to grow:


Here are some pics:

Red digi


Orange setsoa


Leng sy cap


TSA Blue Monster


Tubbs Stellata

 

[Acronuts]

Here are some more pics:

ORA Red Planet



WWC Green thumb tennis


RA Midnight Fame monti


RA purple monster


Purple w/green polyps pocillipora


Figi Tricolor

 

[Acronuts]

Some more pics:

Yellow loripes


WWC Cool Efflo


Aussie Highlighter


RA Fuzzy green Chester


RA Hot Pink Panther Goni

 

[Acronuts]

Yet some more lol:

Electric Blue Millie


Blue Tenuis


Blue tip stag


Fuzzy Blue Vermiculata


6 of 7 Barlett Anthias

 

[Acronuts]

Now to the unknown's:

 

[Acronuts]

Here are the sponges that were growing in my tank during my 9 month leave of absence from taking care of the tank. They are still going which means they are getting nutrients from the water and I'm sure the AF products.








These guys also survived:

 

[Acronuts]

And finally the FTS as of 12-28-2016

 

[Acronuts]

Update as of 1-07-2017

Happy New Years all!!


Tank is doing very very well! I am seeing base growth as most typically happens with sps's.

I have started to place some of the older purchases into permanent locations. This is a big step because part of me did not want to glue them in place in the event that they died.


I did another Coral rx dip before gluing. Was happy I did because there were some critters on the sps's, lps's, and monti's. No AEFW but came across a spider, brittle starfish, and your usual critters you see when the lights turn off. I took each coral off their bases and glued each of them to new bases after a 20 min dipping bath.


I am not sure if it is the AF products but each coral within a day had fully expanded polyps.


I did additional calculations and I have a tank vol of 170g. This takes into consideration live rock water displacement.


One bit of a minor set back. I was paying attention to the new salinity probe that came with the new APEX and when it kept saying that my salinity was lower than it should be I started ATO with mixed saltwater. After a few days I started to think I might be heading for disaster and checked the salinity with my refractometer. My salinity measured a whopping 38ppm!!!

I did additional research on the the Neptune forum and they recommended I believe what was on my refractometer.

Since the salinity rose up gradually I wanted the salinity to drop gradually as well. I don't want to shock my corals. After another few days the salinity is down to 36ppm.

A little more to go!


At this point no loses, no RTN, water parameters as of today are:


Ca 425

ALK 7.6

Mg 1400

Po4 .08

No3 .16


AF Products:

6 drops of Pro Bio S and Np

6 drops of ABEV


2 scoops of the AF power food



I have dialed the components 1+2+3 to 20ml a day my next water change is next week.


Of course after a small break from purchasing for the tank I was back at it again lol!


Did some damage at a local fellow reefer and WWC eBay auction!


Battlecoral's Orange Passion




Cornbread's Maleficent




PC Rainbow




ORA Oregon tort

 

[Acronuts]

Additional scores from WWC:

WWC Frostbitten acro


Aussie smooth skin acro


WWC Just chillin' acro


WWC Death Widow acro


WWC 24k Litho

 

[Acronuts]

Its been a little while since my last post and wanted to get my thoughts down as I continue on this journey.
I picked up 7 Bartlett anthias and I have been feeding the fish twice a day.
Formula one and Two small pellets in morning then alternating days with mysid, lifeline and reef mix.

Along with using the probiotic reef salt I am still dosing AF products ABEV, Np Pro and Bio S.

Once I reached 6 drops per day I noticed I was getting red cyan bloom. No biggy just means I have excess nutrients in my tank.
Here is what I started to implement in order to get rid of excess nutrients.
1. 10% weekly water changes
2. I need to change my feeding schedule from 2x a day to twice every other day.
3. With the Np Pro and Bio S I have cut the dosing in half to 3 drops per day.
4. With the AF Amino - Builder - Energy - Vitamins I have done the same 3 drops per day. Alternating days with no additions on Sat/Sun

I must admit that even with the cyano creeping up in certain places all corals appear to be going strong and happy. However I certainly don't want to have this bacteria growing happily in my tank. As a last resort I purchased the Boyd's red cyanobacteria but would prefer not to use it.

Fish of course are fat, happy and corals have great PE!

I have been gluing frags onto the rocks in their permanent locations. Yes it takes me awhile but again it's the whole acclimating to my lighting and tank conditions etc etc.
The process I have taken before gluing onto rocks is a bit different than what I have done in the past but I am happy that I have decided to go this route.
The selected frags get dipped in coral rx for 20 mins. While they are bathing in coral rx I prep new, never used frag plugs. After the bathing is done each frag is then cut from its current plug at the base. I check for additional eggs or anything odd by using a tooth brush and brushing the bottom of frag. From here I rinse in fresh tank water then place frag on new plug. Place frag in a holding container to let the glue set then its time to transfer to DT and glue it in its new location.
Interesting I have found odd critters with the occasional bristle worm. Finding these critters lets me know that dipping should be in at least 2 to 3 stages. 1st time after you purchase is a must. 2nd time dipping before you glue and place on rock is also a must especially if you don't use a quarantine tank.

Now for some good stuff!
The new scores!!!


TSA Bubble gum digi


TSA Rainbow Fusion


Good ole ORA and one of my old time fav's Pearlberry


Princess Peach


Not a great picture but Christmas Mirabilis - This has awesome PE from day one!


Cool shot from left side towards bottom with sponge growth next to baby hammer

 

[Acronuts]

Update 2-4-2017

Lets see last where we left off............I was dosing AF products at a rate of 6 drops of Np Pro and Bio S with 6 drops of ABEV on alternate days along with feeding the fish twice a day because I had purchased 7 Bartlett anthias. While the anthias are thriving the feedings plus the dosing of ABEV caused an excess in nutrients that ultimately lead to red cyanobacteria.

I did a 20% water change and gave the tank a dose of Boyd's chemiclean. Within 48 hrs all signs of the red cyanobacteria where gone. I had another 20% water change ready to go as instructions tell you to do a 20% water change after 48 hours. During this entire time the skimmer has been going crazy. After the 1st 20% water change I added Red Sea's carbon in order to remove excess meds. After 48 hrs the skimmer is still going bonkers. I figured that I still had too much medicine in the tank and prep another 20%. I shut off the skimmer because keeping it running the splatter and salt spray were causing the cabinet base to dampen. I do not want the wood to fail and cause a huge disaster.

The 2nd- 20% water change was done last night using 95% Aquaforest Probotic sea salt. The water in DT got a little cloudy but cleared quickly. I went ahead and turned on the skimmer and it was still going bonkers. After 8 hrs, basically overnight, I turned on the skimmer and it is still going bonkers.
I am going to go ahead and run large amounts of carbon in the reactor for a couple of days to see if this is enough to get rid of the chemiclean in the system. I certainly hope this will work. I also adjusted the skimmer so that there is less pressure still it over flows big time.

All in all every one looks happy. For the last several weeks I have been gluing and gluing frags to their places on the reef. I'm astonished at the bases of some of the acros, they showing signs of spreading. That makes me very happy to see! It shows I'm on the right path.
I will posts some pics of the "sticks" Its nice to see the high end frags showing full PE and their color staying vibrant. On another note those frags I purchased really cheap. Some of those are gonna be some really nice surprises!

As for AF products other than the probotic reef salt I've had to dose less than the recommended dosage. I plan on adding some "siporax." One of the things I have come across is that my live rock is quite old and I may have maxed out their potential for bacteria strains that can reduce no3 and po4. While NoPox seem to work really well it strips the water too quickly. With AF's NP Pro and Bio S I can control to drops vs measure cups.

Was bummed today because I could not attend the Florida Frag swap in Tampa, I'm sure there were some awesome goodies there. Oh well time for me to hit another LFS I have heard about but have not been to!
Stay tuned!

 

[Acronuts]

Update 6-2017


Things are going really well in the tank. Visible signs of growth are apparent in most of the sps’s,monti’s and zoa colonies. I’ll post pics of the colonies and tank later in the post.


I still use Aquaforest products and so far they are producing great results.


Glued all frags onto the rock work and some things are already growing over those plugs.


After researching and looking at several tanks in the area I made the plunge into the LED world and purchased 3 - EcoTech xr30w gen 4’s for my tank.






Funny how an upgrade to the canopy was a 3 day event. Unhooking 3 - 250 metal halides, the 6ft reefbrite strip and the 10 power brites.





The gen 4’s are held by ecotech’s RMS metal track. That track I drilled 4 holes that would utlimately hang on with bolts, washers and lug nuts to the canopy.

The LED lights are then added using the RMS slides. These make it easier to hang once you screw on the arms to the lights you are done!

The RMS slides allow you to rotate the lights so you can get the best direction you want for your tank.





In order to control my radions I purchased WXM module. This module is connected to the APEX.




The module allows me to control upto 11 vortech pumps or radion lights. After researching the Neptune forums and looking at many youtube videos I was able to setup my own light schedule. The schedule will have an acclimation period of 5 weeks so that my corals and fish build up the tolerance to the new light source. Ecotech published an article called Coralab that shows the use of their LED lights in their lab and they actually share their light schedules according to what lighting source you had previously. I took the schedule that matched my old lights and made additional changes and voila I have an acclimation period and a short ramp up for feeding at 12 noon. With the WXM I was able to add random clouds and even a lightning show. Ultimately I plan on controlling my mp 60 and mp 40 so that when the storm comes the wave action in the tank increases.


I sanded portions of the canopy due to salt creep and once the lights were secure we placed the heavy canopy back on top of tank.