110g Seahorse Softy/NPS Reef

Samina

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Hey all,

I am going to be receiving my new tank on Tuesday of next week. I currently have a 55g mixed reef that I will be slowly breaking down and incorporating its livestock. However, I will be using new rock instead. I have been a lurker for a while and decided this was now the best opportunity to get out and actually create a build thread! Below is a breakdown of my current system:

- 55g display w/ Lifereef overflow, Bashea sump (24x 10x14), 5g ATO w/Kalk
- 60lbs rock, Eden Reef Flakes
- MP40QD, IceCap 3k
- Bubble Magus Curve 5
- Pax Bellum N18
- BRS Carbon Reactor
- BRS CO2 scrubber
- Avast Peristaltic ATO
- KH Gaurdian
- AWC through DOS (changes 15g/weekly)
- 2016 Neptune Apex
- 25w Pentair Aquatics UV Steralizer
- Finnex Heater
- Reefbreeders Photon V2 48”
- Sicce return pump

Macros:
- Red Gracilaria

Inverts:
- Dwarf Ceriths Snail
- Nassarius Snail
- Florida Ceriths Snails
- Nerite Snails
- Hermit Crabs
- Fire Shrimp
- Sexy Shrimp
- Randalli Shrimp
- Peppermint Shrimp
- Acro Crab
- Emerald Crab
- Chocolate chip Star (in sump)
- Rose Bubbletip Anemone

Corals:
- Green Star Polyp
- Red Plating Montipora
- Superman Montipora
- Orange Ricordea Yuma Mushroom
- Pulsing Xenia
- Cabbage leather x2
- Green Cabbage x3
- Lipton Tree
- Toadstool
- Sarcophyton
- Stereonephthya
- Rhodactis Hairy Mushrooms
- Purple Gorgonions x2
- Green Gorgonion
- Feather Gorgonion
- Hairy Sacrophytan
- Australian Warpaint Scoly
- Australian Acan x3
- Neon Green Hammer
- Green Goniopora
- Sour Apple Birdsnest
- Rainbow Pocillopora
- Purple Monster
- JF Homewrecker
- Purple Digi
- ORA Green Geko
- ORA Borealis
- JF Shocktart
- JF Foxflame
- ORA Red Planet
- ORA Hawkins Echinata

Fish:
- Bangai Cardinal x2
- Green Chromis
- Lyretail Anthias x2
- Yellow Watchman Goby
- Mandarin Goby
- Rubyhead Wrasse
- Yellow Tang

Tanks parameters are usually:
1.026
7.8-8.1 pH
~8.5 dKH
0.01-0.05 PO4
1-2 ppm NO3 (dose saltpeter daily)

I’ve had a lot of battles in this tank; GHA, dinos, brown hair algae, cyano, apitasia, ugh. Currently still battling brown hair algae or something like that even though my nutrients are low (not bottomed out).

This is a recent pic of my tank:

8fed7d997a0cb7342a2f87386dd0cc57.jpg


The 55g is 48x12x18, I believe. But I had bought a bigger stand so I would have more room. I want to keep the stand so that’s why I was looking at tanks that are 48x18x? I could only find a few and it came down to a 75g or 110 tall, hence why I choose the tank I did. I realize that maintenance will be annoying because it is tall but I do AWC’s and am planning on really good flow to keep detritus suspended so it can make its way into the sump. Also, it’ll help me keep my hands out of the tank more than I currently do! I am also planning on retrofitting T5’s in to the canopy on this one since I will have more room in width. I want to try out the LED/T5 hybrid setup that people seem to love!

I wanted to do a whole new rockscape so that’s why I am not going to use my current rock. I had bought it from my LFS when I first setup my current tank and did not know quite as much as I have learned over the course of these past years. It was the dense rock. The type that you can’t really break up and use like the macro reef rocks which can create some really nice scapes. I was never happy with my scape but ended up say to heck with it. This time, I want to use Stax to create a couple pedestals with shelf type overhangs (one that will kind of wrap around) and also plan on doing an expanding foam mixed with macro rock rubble and sand back wall to give it more texture and depth. I made a lot of mistakes with my first tank. Main one being that I didn’t plan on coral placement when creating my scape. Hoping to correct that issue with this one!

So I also plan on getting the below:
- Stax reef rock
- Shelf reef rock
- Macro rock rubble
- Great Stuff Foam (Pond version)
- Egg crates
- Eden Reef Flakes
- MP40QD? (what do you guys think, should I get another one?)
- Aqua forest Stone Affix

Now the big question....livestock!!
What do you think I should add to this tank? I really wanted a school of Anthias or chromis, what do you think? Maybe a couple ocellaris (I really like the mocha storms!)

Since I plan on eventually slowly transferring livestock to the new tank when it’s ready, I am trying to figure out how I should deal with the running 55g because the new tank will be sitting on the stand as soon as I can get it scaped and filled with water. I was thinking of just letting it sit on the floor in the basement with the heater, light, and power heads. And manually test the water and water changes. Does that sound ok?

Also, I was not really planning on curing the rock. I figured I will just let it cycle and that should take care of the curing process also. Thoughts on that?

Thanks for reading! That was a long post!! I love this community so I had to bite the bullet and finally create a build thread!!
 

Sumo Reef

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I would be sure you're ready for the longer process that using dry rock incurs. I started with stax and at 6 months barely any interesting stuff on the rocks. Maybe mix in some LR with it?
 
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Samina

Samina

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Thanks! Yea well you are right, it probably would be a good idea to use a couple pieces to seed/diversify and sped up the process. How did you like the Stax? I was wondering about how strong of a bond and how long a bond from stone affix will last on them. Did you use anything to glue them?
 

Sumo Reef

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Thanks! Yea well you are right, it probably would be a good idea to use a couple pieces to seed/diversify and sped up the process. How did you like the Stax? I was wondering about how strong of a bond and how long a bond from stone affix will last on them. Did you use anything to glue them?
I'm still on the fence about it. I love the look and wish I had more room to use it. However, I was one of the ones that got a box of a bunch of small pieces and had to epoxy them together to make large ones. Some people report getting larger sizes. Some don't.

I used marine epoxy from LFS and it has held great - although I haven't tried to bend or break the pieces. I'm not familiar with the cement stuff, but that should hold better than epoxy I would think lol
 
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Samina

Samina

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I agree about the anthias. Definitely leaning in that direction. And I heard about that happening with the rocks to a lot of folks. I wonder if they have beefed up the shipping packing to better help prevent that. I guess I will see, hopefully they have some nice pieces in there.
I won’t lie, I’m pretty nervous about this whole undertaking and eventual transfer. I just hope I don’t lose any livestock.
 

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The 55 looks great! Cannot wait to see the new tank.

I would start curing the dry rock in a vat if you can. At least to test if the rocks are leeching a high amount of Phosphate.
 

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Samina

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The 55 looks great! Cannot wait to see the new tank.

I would start curing the dry rock in a vat if you can. At least to test if the rocks are leeching a high amount of Phosphate.

Thanks!! You know your probably right. The thing is that I know I’m going to really plan out this aquascape so I I would have the rock out of the water for long periods of time, probably a few hours at a time, while working on it so I was wondering if curing the rock would even be worth it since it would have die off on it being out of the water for long periods of time. I wonder if I should make the structures and then place them in brutes or totes and then cure them for a month. I will place some of the rocks from the 55g in the sump so the system should seed that way also.
 
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Samina

Samina

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The current tank looks very nice indeed!

On the fish, well I love fish and I have lots, and I mean lots......

A shoal of anthias will look stunning, they are the jewels of any reef, chromis are under rated, I could go on.........

And this is a great article on aquascaping if you need any ideas:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-on-creating-amazing-aquascapes.97209/page-2

Thanks for that article!! I have been looking around a lot for ideas and drew a few different scapes just to get an idea of how it’ll look. I will try to shoot a pic of the sketches and post them later. I will be taking it slow with this build for sure!
 
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Samina

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So I wanted to some advice. Please feel free to critique or let me know how you would do it. So my plan is to setup a 110g tall in the same spot on the same stand where on 55g currently sits. I will be using all new Stax rocks and new reef flakes sand. I will be using the same equipment and sump though so I plan on giving everything a really good cleaning with vinegar. I also plan on using a new return pump externally (not enough space in the return chamber as it’s only 5x5) so I will be drilling the sump and setting up all new plumbing and finally creating a manifold! So here was my plan:

- create aquascape and cure rock in a brute. I was planning on using ammonia and Dr. Tim’s (powerhead & heater)
- Put plumbing together
- Setup the new canopy with the new retrofit LED/T5 fixture
- slowly disconnect extra equipment that can be off the 55g without issues and cleaning that up.
- Disconnect overflow and sump hookup (put heater and HOB protein skimmer on display)
- Clean out sump and drill
- Finally do some proper cord management and arrange everything neatly
- Put sump back in, setup plumbing/return pump (not hooking it up to the 55g system
- Put all remaining and new equipment back into place in the sump and cabinet
- Make a lot of saltwater
- Hopefully the new rock will be cycled in a few weeks.
- Setup a large tote as holding tank and transfer everything except sand from the 55g into the tote
- Remove the 55g display and replace with the 110g !!!! Finally!!!!
- Place cycled rock in display, add the sand and hook her up!
- Add a medium sized (well cleaned off) piece of live frock from the 55g into the sump to add some diversity to the 110g
- Add a small CUC
- Add pods (heavily seed)
- Transfer over coral
- Wait a week and add a few fish. Wait a week and add few more and then repeat until all fish have been transferred over

Now I really would love any input! Do you think I should add fish in first or the coral? I really want to build up my pods population because of the mandarin I have so am wondering if adding fish last will be a better bet.

Also, I still have a dinos [emoji30] and brown hair algae problem in my 55g. Do you think adding a piece of rock from the 55g display into the sump when the 110g gets hooked up will just spread that issue to this tank? Should I soak it in peroxide? If I clean it off with peroxide and a tooth brush, will that just kill everything (including bacterial colonization) and just defeat the purpose of adding that into the sump which I was planning on doing to better diversify the Stax rocks?
 

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Biggest concern I think would be the time between unhooking sump from your 55 and getting your new setup ready for your current livestock. Only thing I would be anxious about lol
 

count krunk

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Sounds good to me.

The 55 should be just fine with the HOB equipment. Especially after the corals are transferred over.

Putting in corals then fish is a wise move. I would cycle the dry rock for 2 months before putting in your new tank. In reality, I wouldn't use dry rock at all, but that's me :)
 
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Samina

Samina

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Yes I will definitely cure and cycle the rock before I put it in the tank.

And I just received the rock the other day!

ce27aa2d238c2dc61abbbce2dda9e73c.jpg
faa8c636ffabab05110be45dbb2316c2.jpg


Can’t wait to build the structures!! Once I build it and drill/zip tie/cement the pieces together the way I want them, I will place them in a tote or brute and cure and cycle them well before I actually take down the current tank and replace it with the new one. I am planning on giving it a good amount of time to cure and cycle and am hoping to be able to actually switch displays by February. Hopefully I can start the curing process by early next week. Do you see any issue cycling the rock in a brute or tote rather than the display? Seems so far from now but time goes by so fast, and it’ll give me the chance to do everything the right way and how I want it.

I am debating on the foam back wall though. What do you guys think? Would you do it or not? Originally was planning on it because it looked really nice in some other builds I looked through but am worried about how it holds up over time.
 

count krunk

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i would not do a foam back wall.

No issues cycling the rock in a brute, other tub, etc as long as the tub won't leach stuff into it. So brute is fine.
 
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Samina

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So today was a good day!!! Finally bought my new tank and canopy home!!!!

1493fc6994bd9ae686422921db66b89b.jpg


It is huge! Not even on the stand and it comes up to my shoulder when the canopy is on! So excited!! I will leave it in the garage until I am ready for the actual swap which will probably be around late February or early March. I live in northern NJ and the garage is not heated. Do you think there is a problem with the tank sitting in a garage for the cold winter? Would it compromise the integrity of the glass? It’s sitting on a piece of cardboard and I plan on putting some old blankets over it. Thoughts?
 

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