Not Bad for a Teenager! Squid's 200+ gallon system

Sailaway · Mar 6, 2023

squidarcher said:
Oh wait do you mean in college? I'm majoring in biology and getting a minor in chemistry. I'm currently and intern at a lab that's part of a salmon aquaculture project that I'm continuing through my undergrad, and I want to do aquaculture as a PhD.

No way! I’m also 17 and going to college in the fall. I’m majoring in fish conservation and planning on getting a masters and maybe phD in marine bio. I also plan on doing some stuff in aquaculture!!!

squidarcher · Mar 7, 2023

Sailaway said:
No way! I’m also 17 and going to college in the fall. I’m majoring in fish conservation and planning on getting a masters and maybe phD in marine bio. I also plan on doing some stuff in aquaculture!!!

Awesome! I recommend asking around for PhD vs Masters. I was going to follow your track, before I learnt from a bunch of people at my facility that a masters in marine bio won't get you anything compared to a PhD, and the first two years of a PhD are basically the same as doing a masters.

squidarcher · Mar 9, 2023

Heres a current FTS of my 75 gallon:

Hair algae is still there but continual removal seems to be doing well. I’m a little worried though, as it seems to be coming back a little faster than it was a few weeks ago. My refugium is completely choked with cyano so o tried isolating a small ball of chaeto from my other tank.
Here’s some coral pics!

And here is my oldest fish, Aloo (hindi for potato)

and my scopas tang, Jason, who I got a tattoo of! (He’s shy, for a tang)

squidarcher · Mar 13, 2023

Another update, coming to you straight from my english class. The chaeto I isolated is growing alright, will wait to see if it affects anything. I had previously pulled my refugium offline and given away my chaeto as I was dealing with 0 nutrients and dinoflagellates. All corals doing great, and the acros are really coloring up and encrusting. I also bought an avast marine plank feeder. I got a factory second model for $60 less, and it has a very minor aesthetic problem. Great reviews for their customer service, I talked to them on instagram and they were very helpful and kind and responded to all my questions thoroughly. I bought it because I want to try to improve my fish nutrition, and I feel that keeping fish well-fed helps to prevent disease outbreaks in a DT. Don't plan on setting it up until I the big tank is running, but I might get impatient

I also want to drill an aqueon 40B to use asa temporary frag tank/cuttlefish raising tank /post-qt observation tank until the custom tank is ready early next year. Any help with drilling the aqueon tanks, and knowing if they're tempered or not?

Gumbies R Us · Mar 13, 2023

squidarcher said:
Heres a current FTS of my 75 gallon:

Hair algae is still there but continual removal seems to be doing well. I’m a little worried though, as it seems to be coming back a little faster than it was a few weeks ago. My refugium is completely choked with cyano so o tried isolating a small ball of chaeto from my other tank.
Here’s some coral pics!

And here is my oldest fish, Aloo (hindi for potato)

and my scopas tang, Jason, who I got a tattoo of! (He’s shy, for a tang)

Great looking tank!!! Also, I like the tattoo you got too!!

squidarcher · Mar 13, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Great looking tank!!! Also, I like the tattoo you got too!!

Thank you!

reacclimating 2 the hobby · Mar 13, 2023

Following along, super curious to see the divided tank. Is your current one in an attic?

squidarcher · Mar 13, 2023

reacclimating 2 the hobby said:
Following along, super curious to see the divided tank. Is your current one in an attic?

My current "lab" is in our unfinished basement. I'm trying to frame it and put up PVC walls this summer, at the request of my parents. I currently have about 8 aquariums running in this area, with 4 being freshwater, and all of the saltwater tanks will be combined into this new system.

death-by-reef · Mar 13, 2023

squidarcher said:
Hey y'all! I'm currently 17 years old, 18 next month. I started with a fluval evo 13.5 for my 15th birthday, and it was a train wreck! Upgraded to a 75 gallon DT 55 gallon sump feb 2021, and it's been a similarly bumpy ride.
FTS 3/9/23

I've had cyano, GHA, lyngbya, dinoflagellates, GHA again, and I finally have an almost clean tank. I try to reef on a budget, but almost every dollar I earn goes to this tank anyways I've been successful with a little bit of acros and I've had great success with Montipora, anacropora, and softies, over the last year. The tank's first coral was put in the tank in 2022, and I've seen a good bit of growth on everything. Tank still looks pretty sparse though. However, the main reason that I'm upgrading is because of tank issues with my 75 gallon. I bought it used, and it had a single drain instead of an overflow. This has resulted in numerous issues like leaks, clogging, and more that makes my life miserable. So, in deciding to get a new tank, I figured I might as well go for the biggest and best I can get, since I'm staying at home for college anyways (saving money for grad school). I decided to order the Innovative Marine EXT 150. I love the shallow cube style of the tank, the aluminum stand, the build quality, and it was 40% off since it had to be made and tehre was a long lead time. I ordered the tank on January 8th, and got an email this week that have started building it. Expecting it in April-May. In the meantime, I have to clean up and get ready for a tank transfer. I'm using most of the old equipment from my current tank. Reef octopus 150 SS skimmer, 55 gallon sump, maxspect/icecap gyres, and since the new tank is exactly the same length as my current tank, I can use the same lights, a 48" Aquaticlife T5 hybrid with two AI primes. I do probably need a new light in the center. Also moving over all my rock and livestock. I have a 29 gallon tank with lots of new rock I've bought, and its holding a striped fang blenny, baby coral beauty, and green chromis to be moved over to the new tank.
Current Livestock:
Red Coris Wrasse (My monster! she makes it impossible to put anything on the sandbed, moving to an even bigegr home soon)
Silverbelly Coris Wrasse
Redfin fairy wrasse
Hector's Goby
Cleaner Goby
Yellow Watchman Goby (my oldest fish)
Redhead goby
Scopas Tang
Royal Gramma
Flametail Blenny
4 Green Chromis
Aiptasia Eating Filefish
Ocellaris Clown
Coral Beauty
Striped Fang Blenny

Equipment:
Return: Jebao DCP 12000
Skimmer: Reef OCtopus SS 150
Lights: 48" Aquaticlife hybrid with two AI Primes
Sump: 55g with DIY baffles
Controller: Want to get a hydros in the future

Not a lot going on equipment-wise, my most success has been when I keep it simple!
Some interesting things also going on here: The entire right quarter of the tank will be dedicated to a 6-inch sandbed for garden eels! And I also plan to plumb in two custom 50g shallow acrylic tanks over the sump to house a frag tank and a mangrove/macro/nps tank with cuttlefish to replace my current 14g mangrove tank! I had baby dwarf currlefish, Sepia bandensis, in 2021 and I raised them from eggs and weaned them onto frozen, but I made a mistake with a water change and they all passed away overnight. Anyways, I love unique species! Will hopefully post photos when I get home today, looking forward to when the tank comes! Wish me luck everybody!

Nice tanks! Happy to know I’m not the only teenage reefer. I’m not quite that old tho. Good luck on the upgrade!

squidarcher · Mar 15, 2023

One of my friends is selling me a drilled 40B for $50. Pretty good deal! This tank will be set up as my mangrove and cuttlefish tank once the 150 is plumbed and ready. It's sort of an upgrade of my 14 gallon tank.

death-by-reef · Mar 15, 2023

squidarcher said:
One of my friends is selling me a drilled 40B for $50. Pretty good deal! This tank will be set up as my mangrove and cuttlefish tank once the 150 is plumbed and ready. It's sort of an upgrade of my 14 gallon tank.

sounds cool, ive always wanted to do mangroves

squidarcher · Mar 20, 2023

The hair algae seems to coming back

I need to do a big clean and water change this week, maybe on thursday? I can't figure out what the problem is at all. My nutrients are very low but that's probably a false reading as the hair algae is consuming it all. My sump is covered in cyano but none of it seems to be making its way up into the DT. I genuinely cannot tell what the problem is. I started feeding less to try decrease growth a bit. It might have to do with my lack of CUC, as my red coris wrasse seems to be eating more of them recently. Corals are doing well through, can see new growth every day on the SPS! I also lost one of my green chromis, and another one seems to have trouble swimming, so he's living in the sump for now. Going to try feeding pellets soaked in seachem metroplex and focus, as well as a freshwater dip to test for flukes.

Bruttall · Mar 20, 2023

squidarcher said:
So, the plan for this system is huge. I'm a sucker for a good deal and a friend of mine also builds custom tanks. So I'm getting a little deal there. In June, once I've worked a couple weeks full-time, I'm ordering a 6-ft custom acrylic (or glass, lemme know which yall think is better) tank with a wall in thge middle. Each side will have an overflow and return. Side 1 is going to be a mangrove/rock flower nem/NPS/ dwarf cuttlefish tank, and side 2 is going to be a frag tank. I also need to get a rubbermaid 150 set up and plumbed in for my red coris wrasse, who is incompatible with anything that lives on the sand and I don't have the heart to get rid of my favorite fish, so she's getting her own tank., with maybe some other non-reef safe fish.

I also got a few new frags on saturday, including a bali green slimer, which is a coral I've wanted for a while!

GLASS!!! I can't begin to tell you what you will feel if you buy an acylic the first time you're cleaning algae and leave a huge scratch on the outside of your Pride and JOY!! Glass scratches also in time, don't let anyone tell ya different, but you should see a 15 year old Acrylic sitting next to a 15 year old glass cage. You'd never even consider acrylic if you could use glass if you had ever seen one.

squidarcher · Mar 27, 2023

Update time! I have good news and bad news today. First off, I did a water change! 20 gallons from the DT after brushing a lot of the algae off. The algae unfortunately still seems to be growing back. I attribute this to a lack of herbivores. Currently the only herbivores I have are my scopas tang and one singular mexican turbo. I assume the tank is probably going to stay in this state until the red coris wrasse gets her own tank and I can buy a full clean-up crew

However, I did get my new drilled 40B from a friend on friday! He had used methylene blue in it so the silicone is dyed blue and i need to clean that out with vinegar, but other than that it looks great! I still need to order plumbing and one more gyre for the big tank, but other than that I'm good. I plan to finish up my control board this week as well, and figure out framing the wall behind the tank as it's currently just aluminum covered insulation and I would like a proper PVC wall behind the tank. One more piece of news, I dropped a wooden plank onto my 14 gallon rimless mangrove tank and it shattered last night

luckily I had an extra 10 gallon tank on hand to keep all the livestock in. There were only a few softies and one damsel in that tank, and as of 10 pm last night they all seemed ok. On the bright side, I got to pull out a lot of the algae and get rid of detritus that had piled up in that tank! Will put in pictures here one I get home.

squidarcher · Mar 28, 2023

Here is the new 10 gallon set up for the mangrove tank. I cleaned out a lot of algae after this photo, and am running it with no light for the next few days!