The "She Said Yes!" 120 Gallon Build

[dangles]

Yep looks like my tank. Maybe I'm weird but I preferred that to the sterile white rock look.

Tailspot Blenny Alert @Katrina71 @kevgib67 !!!!! Don't mind us, we're sort of obsessed.

Also is your TSB a gluttonous PIG? Mine won't stop eating no matter how FAT his belly gets! It often looks like it's going to explode, but he keeps eating! I thought maybe he was constipated but he proved me wrong

 

[Katrina71]

Also is your TSB a gluttonous PIG? Mine won't stop eating no matter how FAT his belly gets! It often looks like it's going to explode, but he keeps eating! I thought maybe he was constipated but he proved me wrong

Excuse me...are you fat shaming your tailspot? Lol

 

[Fishy Guy]

Yes, mine has a very healthy appetite too ha. I feed frozen with a syringe and pull a little tank water to thaw it. As soon as I stick the syringe in to pull water he and my clowns start nibbling at the tip ha.

 

[dangles]

Shoutout to @Eldredge for the order of pods. I've been ordering pods and/or phyto from him for maybe 6 months now on and off, and he's always treated me well and shipped things appropriately and on time! I just added 2x jars of mixed pods into my system last night in the hopes of battling back my ugly stage. I'm not sure it was necessarily needed because of the TBS live sand, but more pods is never a bad thing!

I'll post my updated weekly tank progress photo later today so you can all see the uglies that have started populating my rock work!

 

[dangles]

Ok another little update...

It's been about 1 week since my uglies started. They're "progressing" in the sense that they're slowly getting worse. The photos look more green than IRL. There is quite a lot of brown, which resembles diatoms. It's not bad enough for me to be worried yet though. Coincidentally it wasn't long after I added the TBS live sand that I first noticed them. It wouldn't surprise me if the introduction of all that microbiology kicked off some skirmishes between different micro-fauna. My nutrients (nitrate specifically) are still lower than I want them though.

NO3 - 3.4
PO4 - 0.07
dKH - 8.3
Ca - 400
Mg - 1250

Anyway, I stopped in at my LFS and they're tracking down a few fish for me. I plan to add the following:

Convict tang
Yellow tang
Scopas tang
One spot fox face
Molly miller blenny
and a trio of Lyretail anthias!

Seeing how well my Avast Marine Plank auto feeder disperses food throughout the water column has inspired me to try a "schooling" fish, and given the propensity of chromis to carry uronemia, I opted for a few anthias.

Adding these will also likely help with the low nutrient issue I've been having. Currently I only have 9 small-ish fish in 150 gallons of water with a fleece roller, so getting my nitrates up has been difficult. I'm reading up on dosing nitrates or ammonia until I can get those fish in and introduced. I really want to get my nutrients up so I can fire up my refugium and skimmer!

I may also start my kalk dosing soon. My system is obviously still young, and low demand. But since I last tested, my alk saw a mild drop from 8.7 to 8.3, so my new corals are starting to consume alkalinity. Obviously that will also help with my pH.

Speaking of pH - I recalibrated my probe, and now I'm reading between 7.98 and 8.09. ALMOST where I want to be!

Update on my angry goniopora: He's still kind of angry, but not AS angry. I did a 20% water change several days ago (the first water change for the tank d/t my low nutrients). He perked up a little, which makes me think the issue is related to something like manganese. I should probably just send off an ICP test but they're just so expensive! Plus the other Goni is doing just fine. So maybe that's not the issue!

My other corals are doing great. The seriatopora have had their polyps out like crazy.

I'm also going to turn on my auto water (ex)changes and start with about 1% per day.

I added 3 more tiger conches, and another clearer shrimp. He's SO LITTLE! I expected he would camp out on the rock scape on the right side of the tank (the established cleaner shrimp has claimed the one on the left side). But he is chilling out right alongside the original (much) bigger shrimp! I had no idea they would "pair" up like that. I was under the impression they were solitary. I'm curious if that will last.

Without further delay, here are the latest photos:

(I really need to UP my photography game )

 

[Fishy Guy]

Ok another little update...

It's been about 1 week since my uglies started. They're "progressing" in the sense that they're slowly getting worse. The photos look more green than IRL. There is quite a lot of brown, which resembles diatoms. It's not bad enough for me to be worried yet though. Coincidentally it wasn't long after I added the TBS live sand that I first noticed them. It wouldn't surprise me if the introduction of all that microbiology kicked off some skirmishes between different micro-fauna. My nutrients (nitrate specifically) are still lower than I want them though.

NO3 - 3.4
PO4 - 0.7
dKH - 8.3
Ca - 400
Mg - 1250

Anyway, I stopped in at my LFS and they're tracking down a few fish for me. I plan to add the following:

Convict tang
Yellow tang
Scopas tang
One spot fox face
Molly miller blenny
and a trio of Lyretail anthias!

Seeing how well my Avast Marine Plank auto feeder disperses food throughout the water column has inspired me to try a "schooling" fish, and given the propensity of chromis to carry uronemia, I opted for a few anthias.

Adding these will also likely help with the low nutrient issue I've been having. Currently I only have 9 small-ish fish in 150 gallons of water with a fleece roller, so getting my nitrates up has been difficult. I'm reading up on dosing nitrates or ammonia until I can get those fish in and introduced. I really want to get my nutrients up so I can fire up my refugium and skimmer!

I may also start my kalk dosing soon. My system is obviously still young, and low demand. But since I last tested, my alk saw a mild drop from 8.7 to 8.3, so my new corals are starting to consume alkalinity. Obviously that will also help with my pH.

Speaking of pH - I recalibrated my probe, and now I'm reading between 7.98 and 8.09. ALMOST where I want to be!

Update on my angry goniopora: He's still kind of angry, but not AS angry. I did a 20% water change several days ago (the first water change for the tank d/t my low nutrients). He perked up a little, which makes me think the issue is related to something like manganese. I should probably just send off an ICP test but they're just so expensive! Plus the other Goni is doing just fine. So maybe that's not the issue!

My other corals are doing great. The seriatopora have had their polyps out like crazy.

I'm also going to turn on my auto water (ex)changes and start with about 1% per day.

I added 3 more tiger conches, and another clearer shrimp. He's SO LITTLE! I expected he would camp out on the rock scape on the right side of the tank (the established cleaner shrimp has claimed the one on the left side). But he is chilling out right alongside the original (much) bigger shrimp! I had no idea they would "pair" up like that. I was under the impression they were solitary. I'm curious if that will last.

Without further delay, here are the latest photos:

(I really need to UP my photography game )

Are your phospates really at 0.7? Or was it supposed to say .07?

Can't wait to see the tangs get added and I love anthias so great choice there!

 

[dangles]

Are your phospates really at 0.7? Or was it supposed to say .07?

Can't wait to see the tangs get added and I love anthias so great choice there!

0.07! Fixed

 

[michealprater]

Thread binged! What a sick build. I took notes as I went lol.

I am super jealous of you being able to go through the wall, that space is premium when doing a build!!!

I too question the UV sterilizer position, hopefully you can get to the bulb. I mounted mine on top of my sump using custom 3D printed mounts for easy servicing. Speaking of UV… while in the uglies, run it 24/7. The most important bacteria is on the surface, not in the water column. It’s a vital tool, use it!

I love the longer stand pipe idea, I barely can turn up my cor 20 because it makes the overflow gurgle. I have to run at 5%. How much longer did you make the tubes?

I am a sucker for bare bottom, loved how it looked then… but I understand people love sand dwelling creatures. I just hate how sand always ends up nasty if you don’t stay in it almost daily.

I would say adding the sand late definitely gave you the algae issues… shipped sand would have die off for certain, but based off your nutrients, I wouldn’t be convinced its diatoms, maybe dinos. Does it go away at night?

If you are on the fence about kalk…. Make the leap! It’s a game changer! Look up Chris Meckley on YouTube. He is a kalk genius! I decided against a stirrer based off his research. Him and Chris Wood from Captiv8. Stirring really accomplishes nothing when it comes to saturation. Look it up, fun stuff to nerd out to.

Are you target feeding the Goni? They love to eat!

If it were me, I’d hold off on w/c right now… they will just inhibit getting your nutrients up. In fact, I’d turn off the fleece roller and watch the nitrates for a week or two until you can get them between 10-30.

I didn’t see a trident. They can be a pain in the butt, but once up and going they are awesome!

Anyway sorry for the long winded post. Really appreciated you taking the time to read and comment on my build and wanted to return the favor.

 

[dangles]

Thread binged! What a sick build. I took notes as I went lol.

I am super jealous of you being able to go through the wall, that space is premium when doing a build!!!

I too question the UV sterilizer position, hopefully you can get to the bulb. I mounted mine on top of my sump using custom 3D printed mounts for easy servicing. Speaking of UV… while in the uglies, run it 24/7. The most important bacteria is on the surface, not in the water column. It’s a vital tool, use it!

I love the longer stand pipe idea, I barely can turn up my cor 20 because it makes the overflow gurgle. I have to run at 5%. How much longer did you make the tubes?

I am a sucker for bare bottom, loved how it looked then… but I understand people love sand dwelling creatures. I just hate how sand always ends up nasty if you don’t stay in it almost daily.

I would say adding the sand late definitely gave you the algae issues… shipped sand would have die off for certain, but based off your nutrients, I wouldn’t be convinced its diatoms, maybe dinos. Does it go away at night?

If you are on the fence about kalk…. Make the leap! It’s a game changer! Look up Chris Meckley on YouTube. He is a kalk genius! I decided against a stirrer based off his research. Him and Chris Wood from Captiv8. Stirring really accomplishes nothing when it comes to saturation. Look it up, fun stuff to nerd out to.

Are you target feeding the Goni? They love to eat!

If it were me, I’d hold off on w/c right now… they will just inhibit getting your nutrients up. In fact, I’d turn off the fleece roller and watch the nitrates for a week or two until you can get them between 10-30.

I didn’t see a trident. They can be a pain in the butt, but once up and going they are awesome!

Anyway sorry for the long winded post. Really appreciated you taking the time to read and comment on my build and wanted to return the favor.

Through the wall is awesome. My last house had a basement, and I had my water station right below the tank. THAT was even better!

For the UV... my setup needs some improvement for sure. I'm going to have a really hard time dialing in the correct flow for a specific application (I don't trust the Neptune flow meters). With my current tank turnover, I'm only getting about 350 gph through the return with the UV, which is WAY too high a dose just for algae/microbes. I'm currently on the high end of what's needed for fish pests, but I'm less worried about that at this stage. And yes, access to the bulb won't be great, but there really were no good options with my plumbing/sump. I'll find out for sure when it's time to replace the bulb! My concern about running the UV all the time at this stage is that I JUST added all the biome with the live sand. Even though most of it resides on the rock/sand, I want it to populate the inside of my plumbing and sump as well.

My Vectra M2 return pump is running at about 80% now. My primary return is ALMOST flush with the bottom of the overflow box. The secondary return is about 1" from the TOP of the overflow box, and the emergency is 1/2" higher than that one. So my overflow box is NEARLY full. I'm CONSIDERING adding my second M2 back into the return setup so a) I can have dual returns for redundancy, and b) so I can dial in EACH line independently more easily. That would help with dialing in my UV.

I'm a sucker for chonky sand I may even add some Two Little Fishies Reborn to add some more variety to my substrate! My local buddy keeps telling me to go bare bottom. I just can't do it.

The brown stuff does NOT go away at night. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope it's not dinos I fought those for the last 6 months of my last build. SUCH a pain.

I'm not at all on the fence about kalk. I'm a believer for sure! I was running saturated kalk from a Brute trash can on my last tank. I love it. The reason I went with the stirrer for this build is simply space concerns. I just don't have a place for a kalk bin.

Not target feeding the gonis. However, my Plank does SUCH a good job of distributing the food throughout the water column, I'm not really worried about target feeding at this point. I'm using Avast's fish/coral food, which has a bunch of small stuff for corals too.

Trident is just another layer of complexity for me at this point. And cost lol. On top of that, I don't want to dig myself any deeper into the Neptune ecosystem than I already am. Honestly, if I wasn't so deep in I'd look very seriously at GHL or Hydros. I'm not a Neptune fanboi by ANY stretch. They've got some SERIOUS QC issues that they don't seem to care about addressing and I'm a little disillusioned with them at this point.

Shutting off the roller might be an option if I continue to have issues. We'll see.

Thank you for taking a look and offering your input!

 

[michealprater]

“My Vectra M2 return pump is running at about 80% now. My primary return is ALMOST flush with the bottom of the overflow box. The secondary return is about 1" from the TOP of the overflow box, and the emergency is 1/2" higher than that one. So my overflow box is NEARLY full. I'm CONSIDERING adding my second M2 back into the return setup so a) I can have dual returns for redundancy, and b) so I can dial in EACH line independently more easily. That would help with dialing in my UV.”

Little confused here, I have a planet crystalline as well. The drainpipe is flush with the bottom? So is the muffler underwater in the overflow box?

 

[dangles]

Little confused here, I have a planet crystalline as well. The drainpipe is flush with the bottom? So is the muffler underwater in the overflow box?

Ah yes I forgot to mention. I removed the mufflers. There isn't a reason for one on the primary drain, and my secondary drain is high enough it won't fit. Standby and I'll post a couple of photos.

 

[dangles]

@michealprater

 

[dangles]

Incoming!

More CUC from ReefCleaners and Top Shelf Aquatics

 

[michealprater]

@michealprater

I have some scrap PVC laying around, definitely going to have to tinker now lol.

 

[dangles]

I have some scrap PVC laying around, definitely going to have to tinker now lol.

The higher secondary drain reduced noise A LOT by raising the water level in the back section ABOVE the holes from the front section. I’m not a big fan of Planet’s overflow design. It’s needlessly noisy. I don’t know how anybody lives with the factory setup pipes!

There’s still room for improvement though. There’s still a trickling sound from the water flowing through the weir and falling slightly to the lower water level inside the weir box. I’m still trying to brainstorm a solution for that noise.

 

[dangles]

The higher secondary drain reduced noise A LOT by raising the water level in the back section ABOVE the holes from the front section. I’m not a big fan of Planet’s overflow design. It’s needlessly noisy. I don’t know how anybody lives with the factory setup pipes!

There’s still room for improvement though. There’s still a trickling sound from the water flowing through the weir and falling slightly to the lower water level inside the weir box. I’m still trying to brainstorm a solution for that noise.

Thinking "out loud" here...

What if I took a 12" long piece of 1/2" PVC, capped both ends so it floats, and set it inside the weir box? Water would still flow around it, so no real likelihood it would block flow. But it would provide a smooth surface for the water to flow over rather than just dropping into the weir box and making the trickling sound...

Thoughts?

 

[michealprater]

This is gonna sound dumb... I have no clue what a weir box is....

 

[dangles]

This is gonna sound dumb... I have no clue what a weir box is....

 

[dangles]

A semi-closeup of my uglies. They don’t “poof” off the rock (like dust) when I take a turkey baster to them. It takes some effort, and it comes off in flakes. It looks a lot like fish food flakes. Not at all like the dinos I dealt with in my last tank. And they don’t disappear at night. I’m wondering if it’s just run-of-the-mill brown algae.

A photo of what I’m dealing with for reference:

 

[michealprater]

Appears to be diatoms.