120-SR Predator softie build

[TheWB]

You got water in this thing yet?

 

[Oredigger77]

Nope.

I've got a bunch of salt water made and sitting for almost two weeks. For a variety of reasons I had to back burner the tank so I haven't even got the rocks glued together. Hopefully the rocks will come today.

I'm on light duty for another week so I can't carry the water up from the basement which may give me the excuse to buy a pump and tubing to pump the water from the mixing station to the tank but so far my wife doesn't like the idea.

 

[Oredigger77]

Well, I did manage to get my rockwork glued. The structures managed to shift a bit as I was gluing them outside the tank. Now instead of three structures there are 4 and they are a lot shorter and wider. There is also more movement front to back in the tank. Over all I'm much happier with it.

Now the plan is to get water in the tank Thursday/Friday this week and then get sand in and the bacteria over the weekend.

 

[Oredigger77]

I managed to get 70 gallons of water into the tank yesterday afternoon and my sand just showed up. This after noon we'll get in the next 50 gallons in and add the 15 gallons of RO to the reservoir so I can get the system moving.

My sand just showed up and I got it into the tank so that when we add the 50 gallons I have it at the right tank level. I've read the the Ocean direct had a lot of silt so I wasn't surprised when afterwords my tank looked like this

Once that calms down some I'll get in there and move the sand around and get it where it's supposed to be.

Hopefully, I'll be fully functional tonight. 15 days to cycle possibly starting Tuesday when my bacteria from algea barn shows up. Looks like I'm timing that well with TSM coming back at the start of February.

 

[Oredigger77]

We got the rest of the water in the tank last night and filled up the ATO reservoir. This morning. I got the pumps up and running but when I plugged in the heaters the breaker tripped. After a bit of trouble shooting it seems on of the heaters burned out and was drawing 17 amp+ since it could be on my 20 amp circuit by its self but when anything else was plugged in it popped the breaker. My heater controller could only control one element any how so we've tossed the busted one and I'm looking to upgrade to the new hellos heaters once my budget recovers a bit.

I've got the gyers down at 20% on the OGC preset. Between that and the return pumps it's cleared out most of the remaining cloudiness. I've also got the lights on for now just to get a feel for where they are position and how the tank will look. I'm pretty happy with where we're heading.

I checked and the bacteria that I bought from Algea barn on Wednesday still doesn't have any shipping info so I put in a help ticket to see if they can give me an idea when it'll show up. They are only like a 30 minute drive from me so it's too bad I can't just drive down and pick it up rather than waiting for shipping.

 

[Oredigger77]

I'm enjoying looking at a bunch of rocks in water more than I should. This morning I had about a 12" bare spot on the left side of the tank in the front where the gyres had blown the sand clear. I turned the gyers down to their minimum on the OGC preset and it is reoccurring. All of the sand was leveled out this morning.

I may have to program my own cycle at the true minimum unless you guys have any better ideas?

 

[TheWB]

I'm enjoying looking at a bunch of rocks in water more than I should. This morning I had about a 12" bare spot on the left side of the tank in the front where the gyres had blown the sand clear. I turned the gyers down to their minimum on the OGC preset and it is reoccurring. All of the sand was leveled out this morning.

I may have to program my own cycle at the true minimum unless you guys have any better ideas?

I had that same experience looking at a pile of wet rocks, in my case for 4 months since I did a long fishless cycle. In hindsight that was way too long. Can’t really help with your gyre settings, I’ve never had that type of pump before so no experience. Just mess around with it until you find something that works.

 

[Oredigger77]

I had that same experience looking at a pile of wet rocks, in my case for 4 months since I did a long fishless cycle. In hindsight that was way too long. Can’t really help with your gyre settings, I’ve never had that type of pump before so no experience. Just mess around with it until you find something that works.

On the plus side I found a shark tooth and some possibly not dead (it was slimy when I touched it in the sand) coral when I was putting the sand back this morning.

I knew the gyers were too big for this tank since the bottom of their listed range (80-800 gallons) but the glass was too thick for the magnet on the next size down. I think some of it is the sand is pretty fine and some of it is the rock work directing the current into this open area. I just don't have a good way to fix either of those problems so all I can do is turn the pump down.

 

[TheWB]

On the plus side I found a shark tooth and some possibly not dead (it was slimy when I touched it in the sand) coral when I was putting the sand back this morning.

I knew the gyers were too big for this tank since the bottom of their listed range (80-800 gallons) but the glass was too thick for the magnet on the next size down. I think some of it is the sand is pretty fine and some of it is the rock work directing the current into this open area. I just don't have a good way to fix either of those problems so all I can do is turn the pump down.

Just put a bunch of rubble in that area and your done.

 

[Oredigger77]

I got my ultimate cycle kit from Algea Barn today. It's been a cold 24 hours and the mail man just stuck the box in a snow bank rather than come up to my house but at least I was notified of delivery immeaditly. Got the ammonia and bacteria dumped and then the first of 4 doses of their other bacteria. Looks like we'll be about right to be cycled the weekend of the 12th.

I've started going back through my stocking list and seeing what order I want to put in the fish and I'm leaning strongly towards getting the magnificent foxface in first possibly with an anthias trio.

 

[Oredigger77]

In utterly terrifying news we just ordered the first two fish for the tank and we're probably looking for delivery the week of the 19th assuming we can get some decent weather. I'm going to try and delay the fish start date since I want to make sure the bacteria are well established and it'll give me a little time to make sure I've got all my stuff together to feed these little buggers right.

We just picked up two captive bred regal angels from Elite Reef. They're 1-2" and the first time I'm seen them for sale in the US. We were going to hold off on the angels until the second or third round of fish but I'm pretty sure these guys are going to go fast and it's exactly what I wanted as the show piece for the new tank. Now I just need to get everything ready to keep them happy.

 

[TheWB]

In utterly terrifying news we just ordered the first two fish for the tank and we're probably looking for delivery the week of the 19th assuming we can get some decent weather. I'm going to try and delay the fish start date since I want to make sure the bacteria are well established and it'll give me a little time to make sure I've got all my stuff together to feed these little buggers right.

We just picked up two captive bred regal angels from Elite Reef. They're 1-2" and the first time I'm seen them for sale in the US. We were going to hold off on the angels until the second or third round of fish but I'm pretty sure these guys are going to go fast and it's exactly what I wanted as the show piece for the new tank. Now I just need to get everything ready to keep them happy.

Those are gonna be great. Can’t wait to see them in your tank.

 

[Oredigger77]

In less terrifying news we just ordered a small handful of snails (10 Ceriths, 10 Nerites, and 2 Nassarius snails) from @reefcleaners and the Ultimate Eco Pack from @AlgaeBarn. That'll be the first life in the tank after our cycle is complete next week. Hopefully, that'll keep the tank in decent shape for a while.

 

[TheWB]

In less terrifying news we just ordered a small handful of snails (10 Ceriths, 10 Nerites, and 2 Nassarius snails) from @reefcleaners and the Ultimate Eco Pack from @AlgaeBarn. That'll be the first life in the tank after our cycle is complete next week. Hopefully, that'll keep the tank in decent shape for a while.

Be careful with those marinepure cubes. I got one of those starter packs and the cubes really broke down pretty quickly. Maybe put them in a mesh bag or something to contain the debris if they start to come apart.

 

[Oredigger77]

Interesting, we've got them in the sump of our 40 and they haven't showed any signs of falling apart in a bit more than a year. I got a couple dozen with my cycle kit that I've already thrown in. I'll see if I can dig up a mesh bag. I wasn't planning on leaving the blocks in long term since they fill two chambers that eventually I'll want for other stuff.

 

[TheWB]

Interesting, we've got them in the sump of our 40 and they haven't showed any signs of falling apart in a bit more than a year. I got a couple dozen with my cycle kit that I've already thrown in. I'll see if I can dig up a mesh bag. I wasn't planning on leaving the blocks in long term since they fill two chambers that eventually I'll want for other stuff.

Maybe mine were just part of a bad batch or there was something in my tank that caused them to break down. They created a lot of dust and debris. This was 3 years ago so maybe they’re just better now.

 

[Oredigger77]

Maybe mine were just part of a bad batch or there was something in my tank that caused them to break down. They created a lot of dust and debris. This was 3 years ago so maybe they’re just better now.

Either way bagging them won't hurt anything and it may save me a problem down the road. I just need to find a bag...

 

[Oredigger77]

We finally ha e visible life in the tank. I put the first shot of pods in the tank two days ago and when I look close I can see some white specks swimming around the tank. Today we got our order from @reefcleaners of 10 Florida Ceriths, 10 nerites, 2 Nassarius and a tiger Conch. The tiger looks awesome

And the nerites hut the water and immeaditly started climbing on the rocks and the glass.

We'll have to drop in some algea wafers tonight to feed them since we don't have any yet but I got them to keep it that way.

 

[Oredigger77]

It seems that the tiger conch didn't make it and most of the ceriths were DOA as well which is weird because the nerites all survived from what I can tell and they've been doing work. Our rocks turned brown the day after we added them and the snail trails have been obvious.

Over the weekend I picked up three mushrooms from @TopShelfAquatics to start our journey towards a softie tank.

I'm not certain where to put them in the tank though. These three locations will all be fairly high light and lower flow. The canyon on the left is where I'm leaning towards the hardest. Its by far the most protected spot in the tank and despite being in direct light its on the bottom of the tank. The middle one is towards the back of the tank. It will have higher light and higher flow than the canyon but there are more options for the shrooms to grow into lower light and adjust how they like the flow. The spot on the right should have most of the flow from right gyre blocked and be on the opposite of the tank from the left power head so should be low flow but it would be the highest light situation since there would be nothing between the shrooms and the light and its mid level on the tank.

Any idea what would be best? Possibly spreading them around the tank? Though they are a yuma, ricordea, and rhodactis so I'm tempted to put them together in case one spot is good but for only one type and not the other two.

 

[TheWB]

It seems that the tiger conch didn't make it and most of the ceriths were DOA as well which is weird because the nerites all survived from what I can tell and they've been doing work. Our rocks turned brown the day after we added them and the snail trails have been obvious.

Over the weekend I picked up three mushrooms from @TopShelfAquatics to start our journey towards a softie tank.

I'm not certain where to put them in the tank though. These three locations will all be fairly high light and lower flow. The canyon on the left is where I'm leaning towards the hardest. Its by far the most protected spot in the tank and despite being in direct light its on the bottom of the tank. The middle one is towards the back of the tank. It will have higher light and higher flow than the canyon but there are more options for the shrooms to grow into lower light and adjust how they like the flow. The spot on the right should have most of the flow from right gyre blocked and be on the opposite of the tank from the left power head so should be low flow but it would be the highest light situation since there would be nothing between the shrooms and the light and its mid level on the tank.

Any idea what would be best? Possibly spreading them around the tank? Though they are a yuma, ricordea, and rhodactis so I'm tempted to put them together in case one spot is good but for only one type and not the other two.

Those are nice looking mushrooms. I’ve always wanted a small ricordia garden. Get them to attack to some rubble and then you can move them around if they aren’t happy in a particular spot. Do you have an acclimation box?