175 mixed reef

[asting]

5/24/19

Equipment:

Tank: "175g" 60x30x22.
Sump: 40g Breeder with baffles. 7" filter sock
Refugium light: Acke 24w
ATO: Autotopoff.com double float switch (for redundancy), 20H tank as reservoir
Return Pump: Jebao DCP 6500
Skimmer: Simplicity 240DC (not yet run)
Circulation: Jebao OW-25, SCP-120
Heater: 2x 200w, 1x 300w cheap heaters
Controller: Inkbird ITC-308
Doser: Jebao DP4 (Offline through cycle)


Livestock:

DT:

90lbs of dry rock
4.5lbs of live rock (seeding)
120lbs of live sand
10lbs dry rock in sump
small ball of chaeto in sump
2 mangroves in sump

Fish:
6x blue-green Chromis
2x YWG - I've had these guys for 18 months or so. 4" each

Inverts:
1x Tiger pistol shrimp - about 2.5"
Stomatella snail - saw one on the live rock.
2x Asterina stars - I threw these in from another tank. hoping they multiply.

QT/Other Tanks

2x Picasso clowns
2x Pajama Cardinalfish
1x Banggai Cardinalfish
1x Blue Hippo Tang
1x McCoskers Wrasse - I think this guy is my favorite and is the super genius (relative to fish).
1x Royal Gramma
1x Mandarin Goby
1x Tailspot Blenny
1x sailfin tang
1x Powder Blue Tang
1x flame angel
1x foxface lo

Coral/nems coming over from other tanks:

3x RBTA
1x Green BTA
2x Maxi Mini (if i can coax them out)
10-15 types of zoas.
Frogspawn, Hammers, couple colors of torches
Nice Acan mini colony
Monti Caps - Green & Red
A few acros

 

[Orko]

Nice I like the rock work lots of frag placement places.

 

[Orko]

Nice I like the rock work lots of frag placement places.

 

[asting]

Thanks! I'm trying to upload about 100 photos. Rockwork used fiberglass driveway marker rods for support. I've always liked minimal rockwork rather than the "pile-o-rocks" look.

A good chunk of the small pieces will come off, i was just seeding the dry rock.

 

[asting]

Okay - so this is my first big tank! Started with dry rock, seeded with some live. So far I've added tisbe pod cultures and coralline in a bottle. Tank has been up about 3 weeks. Time for a photo dump


Plumbing in place. It has 3x drains, 1x full siphon, one backup, then a third pointing up as an e-drain. 1.25" plumbing. The person i bought the tank from had it plumbed through their floor, but i was able to cut it up/replace some joints to save having to purchase new gate valves.

Figuring out sump

leak testing

15g ATO reservoir with top. later replaced with 20g (today).

moderate cable management:

Built a frame for the lights

Screen top:

Skin in front

20H ATO reservoir in place. Think this gives me a bit over 2 weeks. sump can take it, although i would not want it to dump all at once. the failsafe float switch gives me some comfort.

Control panel. Everything else is wired into 2x smart outlet strips, so i have the lights set on a timer that way, and can turn things off for WC.

Tore apart the fixtures, added 240x80mm heatsinks, replaced fans initially with arctic f8 standard, then f8 silent (and they are now).

Part of the QT setup, and some inhabitants

 

[asting]

Unfortunately, lost a chromis today. He went down the overflow, and I have the gate valve turned down a bit. When I couldn't find him I opened it up fully and he had what looked like a broken spine and could not swim. I euthanized him


What can I do to prevent this? My overflow is just a plain box. I could try lowering my return pump, but then definitely nothing is getting through the gate valve. I worry mess over the top will just cause a fish to be trapped out of water.


The space is quite narrow so it seems to only be a risk for the baby chromis.

 

[asting]

The YWG love the big tank and are voracious eaters. This is before they were fed.


Fat or pregnant?

 

[AZMSGT]

He went down the overflow,
What can I do to prevent this? My overflow is just a plain box. I could try lowering my return pump, but then definitely nothing is getting through the gate valve.

Would you be able to put something in front of the holes of the drain pipe? White over head light grid? Maybe something smaller like Plastic Canvas? Plastic Canvas is a great thing if the mesh is to tight you can open it up and still get the benefit of blocking the holes.

 

[asting]

Would you be able to put something in front of the holes of the drain pipe? White over head light grid? Maybe something smaller like Plastic Canvas? Plastic Canvas is a great thing if the mesh is to tight you can open it up and still get the benefit of blocking the holes.

Thanks for the reply! I ended up wrapping 1/4" mesh around the overflow lid (which has 3/4" risers, so did not block any on its own)

This should get them through their tiny stages!


Tank update:

I got my reefcleaners package, and i should have gotten an even smalelr one. there were probably 150 baby cerith in the package. I probably have 500 snails in the tank! I did get some good algae growth before, which they have been diligently working on.

here are some of the RFAs I got in:

They mostly stayed put, but a handful crawled under the rocks and mostly buried themselves. I hope by getting 8 i'll get good breeding of them.

Here's QT2: Everyone enjoying a nori snack!

 

[asting]

Moved a bunch of fish up over the last week or so! I don't give them a full 72 day fallow period, but observe and they have been getting 4+ weeks of QT.

Also ordered some more frogspawn (this stuff is doing great in my evo 13.5, so i bought 12 more heads from the same seller). That is gluedonto the middle rock. also got my 4 quadricolor BTAs in on the rightmost island. will be adding a few more colors of nems, maybe maxi minis.

Moved a ton of frags over - getting the evo ready for a dwarf angler.


Stocking wise this is pretty close to full - i've got a kole eye tang in QT, and kind of want to add a CBB, but otherwise will just be a few more small wrasses, maybe a pair of dartfish. I know it's heavy stocking, but I don't care! Everyone is happy and swimming together, and when i think about heavy stocking in a 30g or 20L (4-6 fish not uncommon), and extrapolate to a 175 this doesn't seem that outrageous.

 

[asting]

Well I had the first major fiasco. The plexi sump walls i cut must have been a little tight because my back pane cracked. I noticed a pint nor so of water under the tank. Applied silicone to the crack best I could and bought a new sump and cut new walls (thinner this time). Over the next two days. I lost maybe half a gallon?

I swapped the sump last night (took about two hours) and did a 10g water change. All looks well again.

I used this opportunity to also relocate my dosing line holder to the side.


I also think I need to cut my drain pipes a little shorter so that the siphon restarts more easily.

Tonight I'll be moving my torches and hammers over and this weekend will start monitoring all, mag, and calcium for dosing. I'm just planning on using non reefing additives (baking soda, Epsom salt, etc) based on a guide I read, and may use the fourth doser part for trace elements. Any suggestions on brand?