120g mixed reef build

[JoshH]

Big day yesterday. Started filling the 120g one 30g bin at a time. Had a big meeting at work so I was only able to make one, but today should be clear for me to finish filling it up. While getting ready to add salt to the mix my cat decided to take a dive. Normally the lid is on and they sit on it from time to time. She got a big surprise.

The other big thing was I pulled the trigger on a powder brown tang. I was sitting at 70/20 on getting one but my wife showed me our LFS had them for $30 off with some small ones to choose from. To top it off she offered to get it for me as an early Christmas present. He's beautiful and has great personality. Until the 120g is ready he's hanging out in my 55g. I get it they shouldn't be in a tank that size, but he's a small young one and will only be in there till the 120g cycles. He's been at my LFS for at least a month in a tank smaller than a 55g. He's getting along with all the fish. My Stark's Damsel is afraid of him. Won't be on the same side of the tank and has been hiding in the rocks. Figure it's just getting used to each other. No signs of aggression, the tang appears to ignore the damsel.

Poor Kitty, atleast she didn't get attacked by fish my clowns would have a field day if a cat landed on there turf. They are mean little buggers. Beautiful addition to the reef! I was on the fence for forever as well when it came to what tang I wanted in my tank. I settled on a Hybrid powder blue tang myself. And have thought about adding a yellow or purple as well but we shall see.

Things are looking great so far!! Tagging along ;Bookworm

 

[aws2266]

It's a bit of a mixed bag this week. I believe I've lost my Starcks Damsel. We haven't seen him since Saturday night. He got really freaked out by the pb tang even though from my observation there was no aggression. The tang swims its laps and munches on algae, that's it. On Saturday we noticed a gash on the damsels side, likely from the rocks he was hiding in. That was my favorite fish so I'm pretty bummed about it.

On to some brighter news. The tank is up, running and the cycle started. I'm doing a fishless cycle by ghost feeding. Did some testing over the weekend and the ammonia and nitrites are rising slowly. From what I've read there isn't going to be a huge increase but enough to know it's cycling. Going to put those test kits I got from my secret Santa to use this weekend. Gonna do a full workup on Sunday. I'll post the results then.

 

[aws2266]

So the last month has been insane. My father had a heart attack then the entire house came down with this nasty non-covid virus. Knocked us all on our butts over Christmas and New Years. Thankfully my dad's heart attack was a minor one and everyone is on the mend in the house.

On to fish business where it's been a rough one as well. I got all the fish transferred to the 120g but had some problems along the way. The powder brown tang turned into a homicidal maniac. I lost three fish, an emerald crab, and he at my GSP. The fish didn't die from the move. I moved them slowly over the course of a few weeks all while monitoring my parameters which stay at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 40ppm nitrates. Everything was fine until the powder brown came on the scene. I really thought he'd do ok in my 120g, lesson learned I guess. Now that he's gone I'm looking towards my next step. Adding a second light. Right now I'm running one current-usa IC light strip and will be purchasing my second early next week. Other than that I'm saving up for a Bluezooaquatics.com order. Plan on adding a couple wrasse, a royal gramma, and a blenny. Hope everyone is having a good start to 2022.

 

[aws2266]

Welp, it's been a crazy few months. The winter blues set it so I haven't been online much. During my little sabbatical I still had fish randomly disappearing. They all looked and acted fine. I couldn't see anyone bullying or being bullied. I originally thought it was the powder brown tang doing the killing but I got rid of him and was still losing fish. My wife suggested I look into the pistol shrimp being the killer. I did some research here and found some precedent. I decided to move the shrimp and his goby into their own tank. Setup a 13.5g fluval to house them. They've been in the 13.5g for about a month now and I haven't lost another fish in my 120g. Fingers crossed he was the issue

Since I moved the murder shrimp to his own place, I've added a few guys. My lfs had got a couple yellow coris wrasse in. I pulled the trigger and brought one home. Since I lost my clownfish I went ahead and got a black and white, and a orange ocellaris. I'm going to hold off on getting anymore fish for a couple months to make sure the murder shrimp was indeed the culprit and not some kind of disease or anything. That and my nitrates are spiking. Sitting at 50ppm. I'm working on getting those lowered.

On the equipment front, I added a couple items. First, I got my second set of lights. I went with the current usa IC led lights. I've now got two strips of them. I'm wanting to find a par meter and see what kind of readings I get. The other purchase was a hang-on refugium. I'd love to get a mandarin and there's a couple wrasse I'm looking at that like copepods. I added some cheato and seeded it with some tiger pods. About once a month I get a container of pods and dump into my refugium. Love seeing those little critters run around in the fuge. My curve 5 skimmer seems to be on it's last leg, got it used with the setup. Hope to get new one next week. Any suggestions?

Currently, my stock is as follows:
3 Green Chromis
Black and white Ocellaris Clown
Orange Ocellaris Clown
Possum Wrasse
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Cleaner shrimp

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Good to see some progress overall. Sucks about the pistol shrimp being a raging murderer, lol.

 

[aws2266]

It's been a while since I posted. Summer came and I had some issues with my nitrates. I read an article about how we aren't feeding our fish enough, so I started feeding more and was overfeeding. After a month of just about weekly water changes I finally got my nitrates under control. I'm back to feeding them proper amounts and decided not to take "advice" so easily. That was a bit of a bummer because the money that I would have spent on coral and fish I spent on salt, and doing 50% water changes on a 120g ain't cheap(My wife is gonna kill me when she sees the water bill). So now I'm back to a steady NO3 of 20ppm and I'm adding fish and coral again.

My recent fish additions
Blue tang
Sleeper Dragon Goby

Today my lfs is having a big sale. He's got rainbow bubbletip anemones for $49.99, so I'm planning on picking up one of those. Hoping he'll have some good deals on coral. I put back $250 to spend on black friday fish deals. Last weekend one of the lfs had a pre black friday deal, 50% off fish and coral. By the time I got there, everything was picked over but I did snag the Sleeper Dragon Goby for $40. We'll see what the day brings. I wouldn't mind snagging a blenny today. I like the tailspot and stary. I'll post any finds from the day.

 

[aws2266]

Yesterday was a bust for the most part. Started the day out with a flat tire while dashing at 5am. Since Kia in their infinite wisdom decided my car shouldn't come with a spare tire I had to call my wife to come to pick me up. Went to my lfs who was supposed to have tons of great sales per the owner but had nothing. Betta fish were 50% off. Super bummed. Last year they had door prizes and lots of sales. I did walk out of there with a Canary Blenny and RBTA. After all was said and done I had to buy a new tire and I caught a cold. Not the way I wanted to start the Holiday Season.

I feel I'm pretty much at the limit for fish:
3 Green Chromis
1 Black and White Ocellaris
1 Orange Ocellaris
1 Yellow wrasse
1 Possum wrasse
1 Sleeper Dragon goby
1 Blue tang
1 Canary blenny

1 cleaner shrimp

I'd like to get two more fish
Starki damsel
fairy wrasse

That would be 11 fish in a 120g with a 20g sump. Would that me on the low, mid, or high for stocking
level in a tank like mine? Will post some pics of the new inhabitants soon.

 

[aws2266]

A few pics of my recent additions

 

[CasperOe]

How's it going here? Its been ages with no update Hope you're doing well..

 

[kevgib67]

Jeez, I wish I would have known about the plasma before I sold one of my kidneys on the black market! I know this is an old thread but what a great read. Would also love an update. O-H!

 

[aws2266]

This is the motivation I need to update my build threads. lol Lots has happened in the last year. I'll get working on an update now that I'm on Christmas break. Thanks!