100g Acrylic Reef

[Carabeo]

Hello, been following along, but working my way back around to the build thread. I have an 18 month mixed sps 32 biocube. I've ordered a 100g, 48" acrylic tank with a sump for delivery around August. Bare bottom. Ive bought two AI hydra and a 48" T5 retrofit to supplement it. Im running one AI puck right now on the smaller tank.

Advice for moving tanks? Stocking suggestion?

I have a pair of Darwin clowns, a neon goby and a pygmy cherub angel. I'm thinking of adding to the new tank tomini/bristletooth tang, black cap basslet, black line blenny, clown goby, melanurus wrasse, and a bangai.

I was planning on starting the rock in buckets and running the tank for at least a month with rock and maybe start a cycle with some bio products, frozen shrimp, and live rock transfer. QT the new CuC. Im hoping to move everything in my current tank into the new one at once when they are running parallel. Then adding groups of QT fish to minimize aggression.
Woohoo!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello, been following along, but working my way back around to the build thread. I have an 18 month mixed sps 32 biocube. I've ordered a 100g, 48" acrylic tank with a sump for delivery around August. Bare bottom. Ive bought two AI hydra and a 48" T5 retrofit to supplement it. Im running one AI puck right now on the smaller tank.

Advice for moving tanks? Stocking suggestion?

I have a pair of Darwin clowns, a neon goby and a pygmy cherub angel. I'm thinking of adding to the new tank tomini/bristletooth tang, black cap basslet, black line blenny, clown goby, melanurus wrasse, and a bangai.

I was planning on starting the rock in buckets and running the tank for at least a month with rock and maybe start a cycle with some bio products, frozen shrimp, and live rock transfer. QT the new CuC. Im hoping to move everything in my current tank into the new one at once when they are running parallel. Then adding groups of QT fish to minimize aggression.
Woohoo!

Take water down and with manpower move tank over and set back up
Place new tank and cycle and after cycling, acclimate livestock to new tank

 

[Carabeo]

Howdy all. I'm still waiting on the tank delivery, but its about time to gear up the build thread. I'm going to be moving my existing tank to the new house in 1 week and then setting up the 100 in the same room to move over to. Im mainly throwing around stocking ideas today. I can start quarenting new fish anytime in a 20 gallon.

Here's some of the stuff I've been buying meanwhile.

Too much rock
Apex Neptune controller for their power strip
Regal 150INT reef octopus skimmer
48" hybrid T5HO
2 Hydra 32HD
I already have a AI 16HD for the middle

Sooo, for stocking, I don't want to overshoot the mark. Any observations here? How many fish can really stay in a 20 gallon for a 60 day quarentine? Like 2 or 3?

These I like more or are utilitarian:
-Pseudochromis evanidus or tetrataenia (Scarlet pinstripe or four line wrasse in a bare bottom tank)
-Kole/tomini/bristletooth tang (I hear the grazing is a must)
-Chalk bass (s?)
-Pygmy cherub angel
-Pair of Darwin clowns
-Neon goby
-Black cap basslet

Then some out of this group-of-interest?:
Forktail or blackline blenny
Clown goby
Banggai cardinal
Flame hawkish
Roland's damselfish
Talbot damselfish

So what are we really talking about here? Cut it off in the first list so I dont overstock? Glaring compatibility issues? Maybe pick one or two from the fish-of-interest? Is the tang overrated as a reef-grazer?

 

[Carabeo]

We have delivery! Let it begin! I need to mount the lights once I decide how high and get longer screwes for the AI hydras. I'm deciding if I can come up with an adjacent electronics cabinet for the apex and such or if I'll try to divide the stand. I'm returning my 6" octopus skimmer because I need the "space saver" version that has the pump inside the 6"

 

[Carabeo]

We have light! Those T5s were a little tricky for me getting a good connection in the rubber sleeve. I was worried when I started with all 4 dark. I did 3 blue and one "purple".

The AI hydra 32s I programmed with the "brs recommended" levels. I think 20 inches above the tank is where I'll be, but I didn't feel confident on where the spill was. I'm wondering if I need water to see the spill really. Only seems reasonable. But I'd rather start high than fry things when I start moving over all the coral from their single AI HD prime at 10 inches over a 32 cube.

 

[dstockwell]

Looking good

 

[Carabeo]

I'm planning on putting the rock from my old tank on and around these shelves. I'm trying to keep rock up off the bare bottom, create tight caves, and have rocky ledges for fish. Some of my colonies are 5 and 7 inches tall, so I'm trying to keep a low profile in general.

I'm still waiting for BRS to credit my skimmer so I can get a space-saver version. I'm tempted to just buy the skimmer and deal with the credit later. I'm just not sure if points ever expire.

 

[Carabeo]

Oh boy. I made the big move. My parameters were beter in the big tank and it will be easier to maintain, so I transfered almost all the rock (left behind the palys).

I'm drip activating the fish because the alkalinity was higher (and more ideal). I was struggling with phosphates around 0.08 in the 32 gallon so I figured going with the fresh start might save my failing acro frags. They did well for 6 months but started punishing me more recently.

The stylos and birdsnest and montiporas will likely carry through fine. The zoas didn't seem to notice the move and look fantastic ha!

Omg I already scratched the dang acrylic though. Knew it. That's why I can't have nice things.

Before:

 

[Carabeo]

The zoas are such good buddies. The jedi mind trick will let me know if this was a bad life choice.

They birdsnest is complaining more than the stylos. But the birdsnest complains even in feed mode from the change of flow.

 

[Carabeo]

My sump area did not turn our how I expected after all. Is anyone else harboring an octopus of tubes under their tank. Ha!

 

[Carabeo]

The tank is doing well. I have very low nutrients and am feeding amino and some reef chili for target feeding. Some acrapora had almost died off before the move but everyone still had parts hanging on. I think it partly starved when i wasnt dosing aminos and i suspect acrapora eating nudi eggs made it through a dip 6 months ago but im hoping the new wrasse will manage that. All other kinds of sps are great.

 

[Carabeo]

Had to pull all the acro frags for regular dipping in coralrx. I did have one heck of an acrapora eating flatworm infestation that brewed up from frags I got over 6 months ago. I missed the truth that eggs dont die in the dip. I bought some new corals including acros at a show so I fragged some of the yellow tip I had, put the dieing frags on plugs, chucked any rocks with encrusting, and have been dipping a rack of old and new frags every week now for probably too long. They are tolerating it well so I think I'll keep over-doing it. I decided to do this in the display instead of the QT because the water quality and feeding will be better and the treatment of dipping seemed the same in either case.

Everything is doing well except for a micromussa that got the brown jelly.

 

[Carabeo]

Here is the frags today after a while has gone by of the dipping. Im glad the lime in the sky has a good amount of tissue and coloring up.

 

[Carabeo]

Cant wait for it to fill in. Everyone non acrapora is already taking off. There are some ugliest happening so a tomini is in QT. He was going to join eventually anyway.

 

[Carabeo]

I did a triton test last week and it came back with copper. Snails and crabs haven't shown ill effects. I have one piece of coral skeleton that came from my mom's patio but it's possible it was in a copper tank at one time. I verified copper in the tank with a hanna checker but haven't found any in my RO. I'll check my salt mix next. The only equipment that isn't new is a frag rack and a nero pump. Both look in good condition, but I might ditch the frag rack just in case. It's quite a mystery to me. I QT fish in copper but I can't imagine their little bodies brought 7 ug/l in. I can't find any forum history of coral rx Dips or flatworm stop bringing in copper. I use trace elements with my 2 part dosing, but none of the other elements in it were elevated on the test. But the tropic Marin k or a, whichever, did list copper in it. Could it OD copper above all others? So weird. I'm going to get some cuprisorb and do larger water changes but I can't think of a source. Maybe dry rock? I didn't test copper in the display in the past that I can recall.

 

[X-37B]

We have light! Those T5s were a little tricky for me getting a good connection in the rubber sleeve. I was worried when I started with all 4 dark. I did 3 blue and one "purple".

The AI hydra 32s I programmed with the "brs recommended" levels. I think 20 inches above the tank is where I'll be, but I didn't feel confident on where the spill was. I'm wondering if I need water to see the spill really. Only seems reasonable. But I'd rather start high than fry things when I start moving over all the coral from their single AI HD prime at 10 inches over a 32 cube.

Nice system. What are your 32's set at and how high? Did you lower them from 20"?
I run 4 16's over a 36x24x12 frag system all at 10" with great results.
This is it just before I added the fourth light. Great growth and color, imo.
T5's are fine but not really needed, imo.
This system was switched from halides almost a year ago now.

 

[Carabeo]

Nice system. What are your 32's set at and how high? Did you lower them from 20"?
I run 4 16's over a 36x24x12 frag system all at 10" with great results.
This is it just before I added the fourth light. Great growth and color, imo.
T5's are fine but not really needed, imo.
This system was switched from halides almost a year ago now.

Oh how nice! Im going to read up on that one.

Ooh yes, they're down to 13 inches. I've been moving them down and making sure everything adapts well.

I did the same general ratio as the sample programs and BRS. But I had to increase the white and leave off two of the 4 t5s because my husband and brother and law complain mildly that the blue lights give them headaches and make their eyes hurt. I know the feeling but only from the actinic at the lfs. I don't even have that problem at a coral market.

I'm hoping the t5s can help with even spread and a nicer look from the front of the tank. The top-down angle gets so impressive. I'm hoping t5s will help with shadowing, but 4 pucks would probably take care if it haha.

 

[Carabeo]

Okay here are some newer photos.

The acrapora are all growing after I dipped endlessly for the flatworms. I have a great time removing bubble algae each week. I can't keep nitrates up. I have a funky rock covering on everything that started as dry rock. It seems more like a fibrous slime than an algae. I only had like 2 crabs and 5 snails so I got many more recently to start moving things around.

I had copper come up on an ICP, but I think it's either coming from some dry rock or it's the copper from the tropic Marin trace I was adding to 2 part. There it was on the hanna checker. All new equipment and zero on RO and salt. Oddly I saw no side effects on livestock. In any case, I've been leaving some cuprisorb in all the time now.

But, what can I say, coral are growing. I like how it looks. Nothing dieing. Just keep swimming.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Okay here are some newer photos.

The acrapora are all growing after I dipped endlessly for the flatworms. I have a great time removing bubble algae each week. I can't keep nitrates up. I have a funky rock covering on everything that started as dry rock. It seems more like a fibrous slime than an algae. I only had like 2 crabs and 5 snails so I got many more recently to start moving things around.

I had copper come up on an ICP, but I think it's either coming from some dry rock or it's the copper from the tropic Marin trace I was adding to 2 part. There it was on the hanna checker. All new equipment and zero on RO and salt. Oddly I saw no side effects on livestock. In any case, I've been leaving some cuprisorb in all the time now.

But, what can I say, coral are growing. I like how it looks. Nothing dieing. Just keep swimming.

Tank is doing really well!!!

 

[Carabeo]

I guess it's about 11 months in. I thought I should drop some more pictures. It's about time to increase my doser or add kalk cause alk is dropping each week now. Lots of algae, but it doesn't detract from the total look to me. Things grow, no more diseases. Just trying to keep steering in the right direction. And clean my powerheads more. Hehe