210 Gallon - "Texas" (First Build)

[Aaron-A2]

I started QT on Friday for 3 fish:

• Orange-back Fairy Wrasse
• Longfin Fairy Wrasse
• Bellus Anglefish (male)

I had a pretty big scare with the salinity differences between the wrasses, but with the help of the community I solved the issue: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/two-fish-3-different-salinities.536147/#post-5551872

It's now 2-3 days later, and I began my first feeding of GC+Focus. I made half a tablespoon of frozen (drained) mysis and mixed in 1/2 spoon of GC and 1/2 spoon focus. This should last 3-5 days and will be in the fridge. This treatment should continue for 14 days.

On Monday, I will begin raising copper to 1.75ppm using Copper Power by .25ppm/day. The tank was 1ppm when adding the new fish per @HotRocks method and so far all fish appear to be doing well.

Bonus Ricordea my gf bought:

 

[Aaron-A2]

QT Update

Been feeding frozen mysis + GC/Focus since Saturday. No change in appetite, all fish eating the same.

Fish

• Bellus Angel - Eating like a pig. Sleeps vertically against the sponge filter. What a weirdo, but I love him.
• Longfin Fairy Wrasse - Eats tons. Nothing much to say.
• Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse - Hides most of the time. Comes out to eat, but eats sparingly.

Overall, the fish appear to be in good health. No labored breathing, no visible markings, but the orange-back is usually not visible so it's hard to give good visual inspections.

COPPER
My tank has been at 1ppm copper since the fish were first introduced. Today is the first day where I start raising copper up to 1.75ppm where it will be maintained for 14 days followed by the tank transfer.

Calculations (Per HotRock)

30gal * 1.475ml = 44.25
2.5ppm / 44.25ml = 0.056
0.75ppm / 0.056ppm = 13.27ml Total​

What i'm doing is taking my total water volume (30g) and deriving how much CopperPower should be dosed to bring me from 1.00ppm to 1.75ppm (13.27ml). Can you look over my work, teacher? @HotRocks

This should mean that over the next 3 days (starting today), I will be increasing copper by 4.425ml each day.

I feel like I'm in school, lol.

 

[HotRocks]

QT Update

Been feeding frozen mysis + GC/Focus since Saturday. No change in appetite, all fish eating the same.

Fish

• Bellus Angel - Eating like a pig. Sleeps vertically against the sponge filter. What a weirdo, but I love him.
• Longfin Fairy Wrasse - Eats tons. Nothing much to say.
• Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse - Hides most of the time. Comes out to eat, but eats sparingly.

Overall, the fish appear to be in good health. No labored breathing, no visible markings, but the orange-back is usually not visible so it's hard to give good visual inspections.

COPPER
My tank has been at 1ppm copper since the fish were first introduced. Today is the first day where I start raising copper up to 1.75ppm where it will be maintained for 14 days followed by the tank transfer.

Calculations (Per HotRock)

30gal * 1.475ml = 44.25
2.5ppm / 44.25ml = 0.056
0.75ppm / 0.056ppm = 13.27ml Total​

What i'm doing is taking my total water volume (30g) and deriving how much CopperPower should be dosed to bring me from 1.00ppm to 1.75ppm (13.27ml). Can you look over my work, teacher? @HotRocks

This should mean that over the next 3 days (starting today), I will be increasing copper by 4.425ml each day.

I feel like I'm in school, lol.

Lol! It looks good to me student!

I would recommend splitting the 4.4ml per day into 2.2ml am dose/2.2ml pm dose.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Lol! It looks good to me student!

I would recommend splitting the 4.4ml per day into 2.2ml am dose/2.2ml pm dose.

Good call. If that's the case, I'll dose starting tomorrow (I'm in CST) unless you think it would be fine to dose when I get home (5:30pm~) and again at 11-12pm before I go to bed.

 

[Aaron-A2]

I just noticed that my QT ammonia badge is reading slightly elevated ammonia (somewhere between .02 and .04). I'm running copper, so I can't get a more accurate read.

What I've Done:

• Ringed out/added two additional double-sponge filters that were sitting in my DT for months (4) sponges total
• Ringed out some cheato from my DT, threw it out
• Dosed some Microbacter 7

I believe this was caused by my heavy hand feeding and the bacteria being unable to keep up. The original tank was cycled instantly using a cycled sponge filter plus MB7.

I am putting a halt on dosing the second half of my copper dose today to reduce stress. Copper is currently at 1.12ppm.

 

[HotRocks]

I just noticed that my QT ammonia badge is reading slightly elevated ammonia (somewhere between .02 and .04). I'm running copper, so I can't get a more accurate read.

What I've Done:

• Ringed out/added two additional double-sponge filters that were sitting in my DT for months (4) sponges total
• Ringed out some cheato from my DT, threw it out
• Dosed some Microbacter 7

I believe this was caused by my heavy hand feeding and the bacteria being unable to keep up. The original tank was cycled instantly using a cycled sponge filter plus MB7.

I am putting a halt on dosing the second half of my copper dose today to reduce stress. Copper is currently at 1.12ppm.

I would highly recommend a large WC ASAP. Just predose your WC to match the existing copper level. Ammonia in the slightest can start to cause damage to gills and internal organs in SW fish.

The badge will read accurate even in the presence of copper.

I would also recommend sourcing biospira as soon as you can. It will create a working biofilter very quickly.

 

[Aaron-A2]

I would highly recommend a large WC ASAP. Just predose your WC to match the existing copper level. Ammonia in the slightest can start to cause damage to gills and internal organs in SW fish.

The badge will read accurate even in the presence of copper.

I would also recommend sourcing biospira as soon as you can. It will create a working biofilter very quickly.

I'm heating/salting water atm.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Here are a few pictures of the ammonia badge. @HotRocks - In some light, it looks fine. In other, it looks sketchy.

No lights

WITH FLASH

WITH TANK LIGHTS ON FULL

 

[Aaron-A2]

Fish are still doing good after last nights scare. Pretty sure it was just a play on the lights and overreaction.

Either way, copper is up to 1.15ppm as I did not dose last night to avoid any additional stress. I dosed this morning and will dose again before bed.

 

[HotRocks]

You do want to view them with light.
I would still error on the side of caution. With light it still seems to be changing slightly. Hard to tell on a pic.

Glad to here fish are doing well!

 

[Aaron-A2]

So I decided to make a video on my entire QT process. And by that, I mean I basically took @HotRocks QT process and stole it (Credit in the description!!!)

As a side note, copper JUST reached 1.75 this morning so I'm looking at moving the fish to the new sterile tank on 1/24/2018.

 

[Aaron-A2]

BIG UPDATE

So with a lot of consideration, I have decided to convert my 210g (72x24x28) into an SPS-only system. Over the past year, my love of SPS (specifically acropora) has done nothing but grow. That said, I will be making the following changes in the near future.

Aquascape

I like my current aquascape in general, but it will certainly have shadowing problems later down the line. With that said, I will be re-designing my aquascape with sps in mind. While I will be using most of my existing rock (Pukani), I have purchased some Reef Saver to help add to my new design.

Lighting
I'm going to be moving away from a LED-only build (Radion) to using the Giesemann Spectra (MH/T5 hybrid). This took a lot of consideration for multiple factors, but in the end I felt like this was the right course of action for an SPS-only tank. Here is my current bulb configuration:

• (3) 250w Hamilton 14,000k
• (4) 80w E5X Blue Pop

I will also be adding a 250W IceCap ballast . ((Obligatory YES you can grow SPS in LED/T5/MH/the sun))

Flow
I currently have (2) MaxSpect Gyre XF250's in my tank which provides a TON of flow, but they are turned down quite a bit for the sake of my other coral. I will be increasing the power of those gyres plus adding on some cheaper powerheads/wavemakers on the back of the tank


tl;dr
Going SPS-only. Gimmie that light and flow.
Tagging my SPS bros @FarmerTy @bubbaque @Broadfield

 

[Aaron-A2]

Quick update on the QT setup.

All 3 fish are doing very well right now. Eating, no signs of external issues, poop is brown so (probably?) no internal issues I can see.

Copper at 1.75 should run until the 26th of this month and then I'll transfer them to the sterile tank I setup this past weekend. I used another cycled double-sponge filter from my DT, so we should be good to go. Regardless, I'm adding bacterial/ghost feeding just in case.

 

[Aaron-A2]

SPS Conversion Step 1: Aquascape

I'm receiving the rock I'll be using to add to the scape later today. In the mean time, I'm prepping the tank by moving the potentially impacted coral so they aren't damaged:

Tanya (The clown) has made the entire experience frustrating as hell....

More pictures to come later this afternoon.

 

[revhtree]

Looks great and thanks for sharing!

 

[Aaron-A2]

Looks great and thanks for sharing!

Thanks! I just did a bunch of rockwork changes in prep for the new rock coming later today. All I got to say is my coral is ticked off. Lots of slime, but it seems to be calming down.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Aquascape Update

Tank is clearly not settled, but after a few hours here's the result:

The goal in mind was to add surface area for acropora and arches to support encrusting monti's on the side. So far, I like it. I'm going to like it a LOT more when it's covered in SPS colonies...

 

[Aaron-A2]

Alright, as promised, here's a video update converting the tanks aquascape over and talking about my general thoughts/feelings on switching from a mixed reef to a SPS dominant system.

 

[Aaron-A2]

@HotRocks So on the 26th (Next Sunday) that will mark 14 days at 1.75ppm copper. I'll be moving them over to the sterile QT on the 26th.

My current plans are to add a batch of 5 small lyretail anthias to the 1st QT so I can keep the cycle of QTing fish going. I'm curious if you have any specific experience with this type of fish? Based on what I've read, here are a few things I plan on following:

• Chelated Copper (CopperPower)
• All females
• Feed (x3) per day (Morning, late afternoon, evening)

 

[HotRocks]

@HotRocks So on the 26th (Next Sunday) that will mark 14 days at 1.75ppm copper. I'll be moving them over to the sterile QT on the 26th.

My current plans are to add a batch of 5 small lyretail anthias to the 1st QT so I can keep the cycle of QTing fish going. I'm curious if you have any specific experience with this type of fish? Based on what I've read, here are a few things I plan on following:

• Chelated Copper (CopperPower)
• All females
• Feed (x3) per day (Morning, late afternoon, evening)

Personally I haven't had much of a desire to keep anthias.

My recommendation would be copper power + Metroplex for them. They are quite succeptable to Uronema so you need the Metroplex in with copper for 14 days. Multiple small feedings as you mentioned. Also feed Metroplex or GC soaked food as you did with your current batch to cover internally.

Good luck and keep me posted!

Your other batch doing well?