The Frankenstein build

[Yooper Reef]

Well I will slowly be adding to this build thread. I started this tank in March 2023 when I was home after my son was born. The story behind this tank goes a little something like. I acquired it from my brother 10 years ago when I was still in school. We built a very unengineered box stand and I acquired some components along the way. Sump, return pump, skimmer, AI primes. Nothing ever came of the tank while I was in school. I graduated and moved to the far north in very small rural town. This tank sat around for 7 years and followed me on multiple house moves without ever being set up. One day I stubbed my toe on it and decided it was time. Additionally we had a whole house generator installed which gave me a lot of peace of mind due to losing power quite frequently, the longest time being 5 days.

March 2023 the build begins

We added fish and corals fairly quickly

 

[dstockwell]

Lookin good.

 

[Yooper Reef]

And we added more

 

[Yooper Reef]

And more

 

[Yooper Reef]

And a bunch of frags and we are at our current state

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Loving the way the tank is turning out!

 

[Yooper Reef]

Todays updated. Swapped out my AI blades for an orphek atlantik icon

 

[Yooper Reef]

Working on the Orphek settings. I’m going to increase the length of my max photo period from 3 hours to 6 hours and see what happens. With this I’ll keep an eye on alk consumption as I would assume that will change with more light

 

[mizimmer90]

Looking great! The rockwork is very nice; It reminds me of a cascading bonsai tree style!

 

[Yooper Reef]

Looking great! The rockwork is very nice; It reminds me of a cascading bonsai tree style!

This was the inspiration. Really didn’t take into account how big the colonies would get

 

[Yooper Reef]

I haven’t updated in awhile. Here’s some photos. We have a few new fish. 2 chromis and one basslet

 

[Yooper Reef]

It’s been a while since the last update. Phosphates got out of control. They were over the Hanna limit of 0.5. I’ve lengthened my fuge time add some GFO to the sump. It’s down to 0.23 but has stayed there for a couple weeks now. I’ve been trying to slowly lower it. I’ve moved some corals around and removed some. My JF homewrecker and CC pink highlighter seemed to take the worst hit

 

[Yooper Reef]

This past couple weeks I’ve been working hard on controlling the nutrients and it really shows in the corals colors now. I’ve been lazy with testing and did not realize my nitrates have bottomed out - my guess is from cranking my fuge time up trying to reduce phosphate. I’ve been dosing some neonitrate and after 2 weeks I have it up to 4.2. Phosphate current at 0.14 and I’m hoping to get it down closer to 0.1.
Here’s a picture of a Walt Disney frag (let me know if it is) - it has awesome color but no yellow. Hopefully I will be able to maintain or improve its color.
I also will be starting a kalk journey now. Dosing A and B has been throwing off my salinity- which I’ve kept in check with weekly water changes. I want to get away from weekly water changes. My plan is to first start with a 5 gallon bucket of kalk and dose with my X10. I eventually might get the avast kalk reactor.

 

[ryanjohn1]

This past couple weeks I’ve been working hard on controlling the nutrients and it really shows in the corals colors now. I’ve been lazy with testing and did not realize my nitrates have bottomed out - my guess is from cranking my fuge time up trying to reduce phosphate. I’ve been dosing some neonitrate and after 2 weeks I have it up to 4.2. Phosphate current at 0.14 and I’m hoping to get it down closer to 0.1.
Here’s a picture of a Walt Disney frag (let me know if it is) - it has awesome color but no yellow. Hopefully I will be able to maintain or improve its color.
I also will be starting a kalk journey now. Dosing A and B has been throwing off my salinity- which I’ve kept in check with weekly water changes. I want to get away from weekly water changes. My plan is to first start with a 5 gallon bucket of kalk and dose with my X10. I eventually might get the avast kalk reactor.

Looks like wd. Nice coloration in it