180 gallon reef tank update 3-28-15
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Acronuts
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Its been awhile from my last post 1 year so i will update the thread bc a few changes have taken place. I am thrilled to still be in the hobby and so far have had only one hiccup in early 2018.
Stay tuned guys!!
Stay tuned guys!!
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
Last I left off on this thread was June 2017. In the tank all was going fine. I was happy with the fish and the corals were growing out nicely. Since I still had a lot of real estate I knew that it would be a matter of time where I would add more livestock.
At the time I had not added any fish in a long time. Months passed I still had all my 7 anthias. Didn’t add anything till November 2017. I wanted to take advantage of the Black Friday sales of November 2017.
I went to a LFS and purchased some fish. With more fish in the tank it meant more food. At the time I was using AquaForest products and trying to maintain an “ultra low nutrient system. ” With adding new fish and dosing I added too many nutrients and totally caused a breakout of red slime algae. Not the first time my tank has had red slime but this time I decided to go about getting rid of it differently.
Here is were the old principal idea of take it slow was completely ignored by me. I was being lazy and decided to use the Red Slime remover from Boyd and misread the instructions on the 2nd dose.
Well,…….all "Hell" broke loose and I starved my tank inhabitants of much needed oxygen! I lost most of the new fish which was about 7 of them. I don't want to list them as it breaks my heart. With the rock scape I could not find most of them. This led to more water quality issues. If you are trying to keep SPS water quality is an important factor to success. There were several loses ( 12 to 16 small frags ) of sps’s.
Boy did I go thru a period of kicking myself and talking to myself for taking a short cut and not reading accurately!
I wanted to continue to update this thread so that others can learn from my mistakes. Plus there is still a silver lining to this story. What is the “silver lining,” some corals did survive! My older, more established fish survived as well!
At the time I had not added any fish in a long time. Months passed I still had all my 7 anthias. Didn’t add anything till November 2017. I wanted to take advantage of the Black Friday sales of November 2017.
I went to a LFS and purchased some fish. With more fish in the tank it meant more food. At the time I was using AquaForest products and trying to maintain an “ultra low nutrient system. ” With adding new fish and dosing I added too many nutrients and totally caused a breakout of red slime algae. Not the first time my tank has had red slime but this time I decided to go about getting rid of it differently.
Here is were the old principal idea of take it slow was completely ignored by me. I was being lazy and decided to use the Red Slime remover from Boyd and misread the instructions on the 2nd dose.
Well,…….all "Hell" broke loose and I starved my tank inhabitants of much needed oxygen! I lost most of the new fish which was about 7 of them. I don't want to list them as it breaks my heart. With the rock scape I could not find most of them. This led to more water quality issues. If you are trying to keep SPS water quality is an important factor to success. There were several loses ( 12 to 16 small frags ) of sps’s.
Boy did I go thru a period of kicking myself and talking to myself for taking a short cut and not reading accurately!
I wanted to continue to update this thread so that others can learn from my mistakes. Plus there is still a silver lining to this story. What is the “silver lining,” some corals did survive! My older, more established fish survived as well!
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
Thank you for the update and sorry about the issues and losses.
We all know many things about reefing and think we can handle anything till things go sideways.
Do not stop posting and updating your thread as there are many following up.
Keeping the thread updated, it helps me to keep my hands out of the tank and not to mess with it.
Anyhow, good luck.
I am happy there are still animals that will bring the tank back to live.
We all know many things about reefing and think we can handle anything till things go sideways.
Do not stop posting and updating your thread as there are many following up.
Keeping the thread updated, it helps me to keep my hands out of the tank and not to mess with it.
Anyhow, good luck.
I am happy there are still animals that will bring the tank back to live.
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
Some corals like this mystic monti lost a lot of growth
This seasons greeting monti also lost a lot of growth
This unknown Aussie acro. You can see the dead skeleton portions. You can also see the new growth as this acro slowly comes back. Wait till you see the beauty that this one has become! The orange hammer in the back also survived.
This seasons greeting monti also lost a lot of growth
This unknown Aussie acro. You can see the dead skeleton portions. You can also see the new growth as this acro slowly comes back. Wait till you see the beauty that this one has become! The orange hammer in the back also survived.
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
thx Janci!
I never give up as I love this hobby and love the success one can have even with all mishaps!
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
Onward with the catch up story!
First 1/4 of 2018 was spent in the barracks and back to basics.
Changed from AquaForest Probotics salt to Instant Ocean salt. Why? Because I needed to rely on a product that had proven results for me from before.
10% water changes every 2 weeks
No dosing of any kind with any products
Super zoned in on tank maintenance
Water testing every week to see whether my water parameters remained consistent.
Seeing that things had stopped receding or dieing in early April of 2018 (2nd 1/4 of 2018) I made the decision that I was going to start making changes.
I setup a calendar with 2 week intervals of one change at a time.
Change #1: Increase Radions to peak at an overall 60% (April 2018)
At that time the overall % was 40% at the max peak time. Every 2 weeks I increased the percentage by 5%. This allowed me to see how the change was affecting the remaining corals in the tank. Took 2 months to get to 60 with no adverse effects on the coral other than super nice coloring. The corals that needed less par like the red planet and the war coral were moved to lower parts of the tank. At this point in 2019 60% seems to be a good % for a 75% sps tank. Will revisit this when sps have achieved larger sizes.
Change #2: Start dosing AquaForest Aminos and Phosphate and Nitrate control (May 2018)
I started dosing AquaForest products. Since I had good success with the products before I knew that the products were not to blame for the mishap. It was “operator error.”
I started dosing half of the recommended drops of AF ’s NP Pro and Pro Bio S to help with nitrates and phosphates. Slow and steady every 2 weeks I would increase by one drop and waited to see how things went. At the moment in 2019 I am at 4 drops of NP pro and Pro Bio S and 3 drops of ABEV.
My dosing schedule for AF’s Amino Mix and AF’s Vitality are Mon/Wed/Fri. AF’s Build and AF’s Energy on Tue/Thurs/Sat.
I knew I was on the right track because all corals and fish showed great responses. Slow and steady was key! Even though I had heard it and read it a million times it took me well into my umpteenth year in the hobby to heed on this advice! That and the fact that I hate losing money to my own stupidity……
First 1/4 of 2018 was spent in the barracks and back to basics.
Changed from AquaForest Probotics salt to Instant Ocean salt. Why? Because I needed to rely on a product that had proven results for me from before.
10% water changes every 2 weeks
No dosing of any kind with any products
Super zoned in on tank maintenance
Water testing every week to see whether my water parameters remained consistent.
Seeing that things had stopped receding or dieing in early April of 2018 (2nd 1/4 of 2018) I made the decision that I was going to start making changes.
I setup a calendar with 2 week intervals of one change at a time.
Change #1: Increase Radions to peak at an overall 60% (April 2018)
At that time the overall % was 40% at the max peak time. Every 2 weeks I increased the percentage by 5%. This allowed me to see how the change was affecting the remaining corals in the tank. Took 2 months to get to 60 with no adverse effects on the coral other than super nice coloring. The corals that needed less par like the red planet and the war coral were moved to lower parts of the tank. At this point in 2019 60% seems to be a good % for a 75% sps tank. Will revisit this when sps have achieved larger sizes.
Change #2: Start dosing AquaForest Aminos and Phosphate and Nitrate control (May 2018)
I started dosing AquaForest products. Since I had good success with the products before I knew that the products were not to blame for the mishap. It was “operator error.”
I started dosing half of the recommended drops of AF ’s NP Pro and Pro Bio S to help with nitrates and phosphates. Slow and steady every 2 weeks I would increase by one drop and waited to see how things went. At the moment in 2019 I am at 4 drops of NP pro and Pro Bio S and 3 drops of ABEV.
My dosing schedule for AF’s Amino Mix and AF’s Vitality are Mon/Wed/Fri. AF’s Build and AF’s Energy on Tue/Thurs/Sat.
I knew I was on the right track because all corals and fish showed great responses. Slow and steady was key! Even though I had heard it and read it a million times it took me well into my umpteenth year in the hobby to heed on this advice! That and the fact that I hate losing money to my own stupidity……
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
Mystic Monti recovering nicely
Red cap growing again and plating once again
This bubble gum chalice on the other hand enjoys more light. It did lose some growth but you can see the new growth.
This monti sponge wasn’t effected at all! Extremely resilient!!
Red cap growing again and plating once again
This bubble gum chalice on the other hand enjoys more light. It did lose some growth but you can see the new growth.
This monti sponge wasn’t effected at all! Extremely resilient!!
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
In June and July of 2018 I added more sps and zoas.
Additions from Reef Raft live sale here on r2r:
RR LE Pink Halo
RR LE Space Invader Chalice
RR LE Candyland
RR LE Sweet and Sour
RR LE X Men
RR LE Sour Apple
RR Fallen Horizon Lepto
RR LE Sunfire
RR LE Dragon Heart Bowerbanki
i
These live sales are fun but be ready with credit card and be super super fast fingers, lol!!!
Additions from Reef Raft live sale here on r2r:
RR LE Pink Halo
RR LE Space Invader Chalice
RR LE Candyland
RR LE Sweet and Sour
RR LE X Men
RR LE Sour Apple
RR Fallen Horizon Lepto
RR LE Sunfire
RR LE Dragon Heart Bowerbanki
i
These live sales are fun but be ready with credit card and be super super fast fingers, lol!!!
Last edited:
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
Mid July I started on a project that I had been thinking about for awhile. An equipment cabinet for all the electronics and the cords that comes with it!
You guys can follow this build thread by clicking the link below:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/apex-cabinet-build.493371/
You guys can follow this build thread by clicking the link below:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/apex-cabinet-build.493371/
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
Change #3: Dose 2 part solutions CA and ALK to maintain CA and ALK (August 2018)
I started dosing Ocean's Blend 2 part CA/ALK.
Before the “operator error” moment of Nov 2017 I was using AquaForest Components 1,2,3. While the products worked great I still chose to go back to basics. 2 part solutions I knew had given me good results before.
Started dosing 10ml a day increased according to tanks needs. Today in 2019 I’m up to 35ml a day on both parts 1 and 2 to maintain a CA level of 425 and an ALK of 7.5
Right around this time a fellow hobbyist had come to a point where it was time to tear his tank down. I tried to persuade him to keep his tank but it did not work. He didn’t have it in his heart anymore. He gave me 1st choice on some of his equipment and live stock. You guys are probably saying at this point don't!!!!!!!!!!!lol
But this was a hobbyist that had great success in keeping corals and fish alive. I guess he wanted to simplify his life. But guys come on who can say no to tank equipment!!!
I acquired a few things from his tank.
2 large live rock structures
Reef Octopus 200 Int skimmer
Ecotech Vectra L1 main pump
Ecotech probe holder
Neptune doser
10 gal covered acrylic fresh water tank for an ATO
Hippo tang
Pair of gold nuggets clowns (female attacks my hand when its in tank)
3 Springer damsels
1 Lyretail anthias
6 peppermint shrimp
12 blue leg hermit crabs
1 porcelain crab
2 dozen astrea snails
Pic shows rock structure which was on the left side of his tank, but it was placed on the right side of my tank
Pic shows rock structure which was on the right side of his tank, but it was placed on the left side of my tank.
Why the switch - a -roo? It work better to switch due to my existing rock.
The 2 large rock structures had some corals that he had grown from small frags to impressive colonies. These rock structures were designed by the LFS to take advantage of a 24" wide tank. My tank is also 24" wide so it would be a great fit.
In order for me to incorporate these rock structures into my tank I had to do a of lot tearing down of my existing rock scape in order to make room for the incoming structures. I worked on right side of tank and removed rocks and detached frags.
What was supposed to be a simple transfer was a bit more involved than I thought.
The whole canopy had to be removed in order to get those rock structures in.
Lots of frag moving, lots of rock removal!
One rock structure in and one to go
Awful angle for a pic but was learning how to use a new camera
After both rock structures, all the fish and inverts were in I stopped dosing Aminos and monitored my water quality.
For sure I thought I would get some form of cycle. 10% weekly water changes the disruption of the tank seemed to go fine or the impact was minimal.
As everyone acclimated to their new surroundings, my feedings did increase. All was monitored to make sure I kept the tank as stable as possible.
I must have gone thru some sort of cycle because for about a 1 to 2 weeks the tank did show some brown algae. This eventually went away.
I started dosing Ocean's Blend 2 part CA/ALK.
Before the “operator error” moment of Nov 2017 I was using AquaForest Components 1,2,3. While the products worked great I still chose to go back to basics. 2 part solutions I knew had given me good results before.
Started dosing 10ml a day increased according to tanks needs. Today in 2019 I’m up to 35ml a day on both parts 1 and 2 to maintain a CA level of 425 and an ALK of 7.5
Right around this time a fellow hobbyist had come to a point where it was time to tear his tank down. I tried to persuade him to keep his tank but it did not work. He didn’t have it in his heart anymore. He gave me 1st choice on some of his equipment and live stock. You guys are probably saying at this point don't!!!!!!!!!!!lol
But this was a hobbyist that had great success in keeping corals and fish alive. I guess he wanted to simplify his life. But guys come on who can say no to tank equipment!!!
I acquired a few things from his tank.
2 large live rock structures
Reef Octopus 200 Int skimmer
Ecotech Vectra L1 main pump
Ecotech probe holder
Neptune doser
10 gal covered acrylic fresh water tank for an ATO
Hippo tang
Pair of gold nuggets clowns (female attacks my hand when its in tank)
3 Springer damsels
1 Lyretail anthias
6 peppermint shrimp
12 blue leg hermit crabs
1 porcelain crab
2 dozen astrea snails
Pic shows rock structure which was on the left side of his tank, but it was placed on the right side of my tank
Pic shows rock structure which was on the right side of his tank, but it was placed on the left side of my tank.
Why the switch - a -roo? It work better to switch due to my existing rock.
The 2 large rock structures had some corals that he had grown from small frags to impressive colonies. These rock structures were designed by the LFS to take advantage of a 24" wide tank. My tank is also 24" wide so it would be a great fit.
In order for me to incorporate these rock structures into my tank I had to do a of lot tearing down of my existing rock scape in order to make room for the incoming structures. I worked on right side of tank and removed rocks and detached frags.
What was supposed to be a simple transfer was a bit more involved than I thought.
The whole canopy had to be removed in order to get those rock structures in.
Lots of frag moving, lots of rock removal!
One rock structure in and one to go
Awful angle for a pic but was learning how to use a new camera
After both rock structures, all the fish and inverts were in I stopped dosing Aminos and monitored my water quality.
For sure I thought I would get some form of cycle. 10% weekly water changes the disruption of the tank seemed to go fine or the impact was minimal.
As everyone acclimated to their new surroundings, my feedings did increase. All was monitored to make sure I kept the tank as stable as possible.
I must have gone thru some sort of cycle because for about a 1 to 2 weeks the tank did show some brown algae. This eventually went away.
Janci
Staghorns will prevail
You made a lot of changes.
Fellow reefer buddies who quit the hobby are always a good resource for equipment and livestock.
Unfortunately for him, fortunate for you.
I like the rock work. Your buddy's tank must have been great.
Fellow reefer buddies who quit the hobby are always a good resource for equipment and livestock.
Unfortunately for him, fortunate for you.
I like the rock work. Your buddy's tank must have been great.
OP
OP
Acronuts
Well-Known Member
(Last 1/4 of 2018)
The last four months of 2018 were spent buying frags from LFS’s, fellow reefers on facebook, facebook auctions and live sales like on here. I also added a few of pieces of equipment hence the cabinet build.
I replaced my ATO aqua lift pump for a Neptune ATK. There was nothing wrong with the older Aqualift but I wanted to have more control. The new Neptune ATK works beautifully. I can control it via APEX Fusion thru my phone app. I Love it, love it!
Another buy was the Neptune AFS. Again control via app is great with allowing me to control things even while I am away from home.
I purchased two more Ecotech mp 40’s, upgraded my old mp40’s to the QD versions. Because I live in hurricane land I invested in 2 Ecotech battery backups. I installed those in the equipment cabinet. Heavy suckers but at least I have the piece of mind that if
we should have a power outage the tank won’t be left out without any water movement.
So now there are 4 QD mp40’s in my tank. Two on the back side glass running on sync mode program.
Screen Shot #1
Then on each side glass the new mp40’s. Those running on another sync mode program.
Screenshot #2
Screen Shot #3
Screen Shot #4
These schemes come from EcoTech. I believe they have this setup for tanks with more than 2 pumps. I do have to say that the flow is incredible. There is such a mix of water flow patterns and intensities that in my opinion it is perfect for my type of tank. Is my tank solely a sps tank? No it is heavy with sps but I have other types of corals. I even have a baby green neon tree that started growing out of nowhere.
Baby Neon green tree
The last four months of 2018 were spent buying frags from LFS’s, fellow reefers on facebook, facebook auctions and live sales like on here. I also added a few of pieces of equipment hence the cabinet build.
I replaced my ATO aqua lift pump for a Neptune ATK. There was nothing wrong with the older Aqualift but I wanted to have more control. The new Neptune ATK works beautifully. I can control it via APEX Fusion thru my phone app. I Love it, love it!
Another buy was the Neptune AFS. Again control via app is great with allowing me to control things even while I am away from home.
I purchased two more Ecotech mp 40’s, upgraded my old mp40’s to the QD versions. Because I live in hurricane land I invested in 2 Ecotech battery backups. I installed those in the equipment cabinet. Heavy suckers but at least I have the piece of mind that if
we should have a power outage the tank won’t be left out without any water movement.
So now there are 4 QD mp40’s in my tank. Two on the back side glass running on sync mode program.
Screen Shot #1
Then on each side glass the new mp40’s. Those running on another sync mode program.
Screenshot #2
Screen Shot #3
Screen Shot #4
These schemes come from EcoTech. I believe they have this setup for tanks with more than 2 pumps. I do have to say that the flow is incredible. There is such a mix of water flow patterns and intensities that in my opinion it is perfect for my type of tank. Is my tank solely a sps tank? No it is heavy with sps but I have other types of corals. I even have a baby green neon tree that started growing out of nowhere.
Baby Neon green tree
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