60Gal Build from Costa Rica

[Avengerx77]

Hi everyone. I have been in and out the hobby for about +10years now. This is my last chance to have a redemption reef tank or wife might file for divorce . I am opening the thread to keep progress, hold me accountable and get help when needed. Here are the initial specs of the build:

Display Tank:
Custom made (32" long x 20" depth x 22" height) + Sump

Equipment:
- 1 MP 40 Vortech
- 1 Vectra S2 for return pump
- 1 Octopus Int 110SSS Skimmer
- 1 Radion G5 XR15 Blue
- 1 Neptune Apex Controller (this is a first)

Future Livestock:
- 2 Clownfish (really liking the Snowflakes)
- 1 Lawnmower Blenny
- 1 Royal Gramma
- 1 Yellow Coris Wrasse (Might be a Melanurus or Six Line instead, still deciding)
- 1 Green Mandarin
- 1 Cleaner Shrimp and CuC accordingly
- Corals planning to introduce them very slowly and will be mainly Zoas, Mushrooms and LPS

Cycle Method:
Introducing the pair of clownfish and add MicroBacter7 to help with the cycle and parameter stabilization.
Dry Rock and Dry Aragonite Sand.

I think that's about it as of now. Equipment should arrive in about two weeks and DT, sump and furniture should be finished around 3 weeks, so is the waiting game now. The tank will be located in my home office, so I spent a lot of time in this room. Just hoping the tank overall doesn't get too loud that it will disrupt calls. For this reason I asked to add a bean animal overflow, so hopefully that will help. Will start loading some pics as I get closer to receive everything, so for now is a tankless thread!!!

 

[Dcal]

Sounds like a good plan and nice stocking choices!

 

[Avengerx77]

Thanks Dcal, for this tank I really want to take my time to ensure success as much as possible.

 

[Avengerx77]

Still waiting!!!! I think I opened this thread a little too soon ;Yawn Most likely I will get equipment on the weekend of Sept 18th, guess that will leave me plenty of time to prepare and make a step by step schedule on how I will approach this tank. Will try to get the tank and all installation to be done within the same weekend or else I might need to extend it for one additional week.

 

[Avengerx77]

Finally at the cycling stage. I decided to go with a fishless cycle using Microbacter QuikCyckl & Microbacter Start XLM. I am at Day 4, so will see how it looks on Day 7. I have purchased a pair of Picasso Clownfish which are still with my LFS. I expect to pick them up next Saturday if all goes as plan. My Ammonia is sitting at around 0.25 and Nitrates are starting to rise, so it seems we are on good track. I will introduce some more dry rock to cover the front with lower levels to get more coral area. Here are some pics:

 

[Avengerx77]

I am currently at Day 10 of the cycling. Ammonia has come down pretty much to zero, and Nitrites are sitting today at about 2.0ppm, so I would say that I am halfway through. Fish are still sitting with my local LFS, which they are under proper quarantine in the meantime. My booster pump arrived yesterday so I can attached to my RODI system, as I initially used tap water with Erase-CL to fill up the tank., moving forward all water will be RODI.

I also bought a refractometer as I was getting quite a different salinity reading between my very old hydrometer at 1.023 and my Apex probe ranging between 34.5-38.7, so not very keen to trust my Apex yet on this front. I had someone test this as well with a digital Hanna one, at read at 1.024. So once that I started to run my RODI system I will calibrate the refractometer and see where it stands, but I will incline to bet that it will seat somewhere in the 1.022-1.025 range, more accurate than my Apex so far. Good news is that I will have now 3 sources to compare salinity to give me a better idea and not to rely solely on one instrument.

Heater arrived as well, as I was getting some temperature on the 21Celsius (70 Fahrenheit), which is not too bad on the tropic, but started to increase when I start running my return pump and now is about 24Celsius (75 Fahrenheit). But better to be on the safe side and will try to keep a more constant temperature. I will be running the heater into one of the Apex slots to control it.

I will be adding more dry rock and give the aquascape a better look, but will do so until the cycle is completely done, even though I am not planning to remove any of the existing rock, I prefer not to mess around much with the cycle/bacteria that has already settle.

That's about how progress go, hopefully next update will include end of cycle, along with a new aquascape and the first pair of Picassos.

 

[Avengerx77]

Ok, so on the salinity topic, I have now calibrated the refractometer and it is giving me a read of 1.025. With that, I have the hydrometer at 1.023, Hanna at 1.024 and Refractometer at 1.025, while Apex is now reading at 39.6 (1.030). So will go with a 1.024 average on my salinity and will use these other readings until I can get my Apex to read something more accurately.

 

[Avengerx77]

At last my cycle is finished and I did yesterday a big water change. My readings are sitting at 0.0 Ammonia, 0.0 Nitrites and 2.5ppm Nitrates. I have introduced chaeto and will be running the lights in the refugium for 14 hours and opposite from DT lights.

I am using 1 Radion G5 XR15 Blue, so I have selected the LPS/Soft pattern as I am going to keep mostly these type of corals. However, I dial down the program intensity to just 10% as I still don't have corals and don't want to cause an algae outbreak right away and try to give the chaeto a better chance to grow and keep nutrients low.

My pair of Picasso clownfish are now in and so far they have taken one spot in the tank and have not move much, but there already have eaten some food. I expect that when the DT tank lights starts to come up they will start exploring more the tank. Seems to be paired already, so that is good. I will be uploading pics later on.

Will be activating the skimmer later on today.

 

[Avengerx77]

 

[Avengerx77]

Reef is now 2 weeks old from cycling completion and 1 week after I introduced my pair of clownfish. Did some quick checks on Nitrates and seems they are pretty much 0. I am not planning to introduced corals yet, maybe in about 1 month or so, but seems muy new goal is to raise Nitrates a bit more. Any water changes is off the books in the short term and I might start overfeeding a bit and give my clownfish frozen mysis and maybe turning off the skimmer for 12 hours. Chaeto seems to be doing fine so far, so will let it catch most of the nutrients.

I was able to have someone to lend me his Neptune PAR meter next week, so I will run some tests to identify the XR15 sweet spot in terms of intensity before introducing any coral.

 

[Avengerx77]

Combining my two hobbies: Reef tanks and Photography. I got burrowed a macro lens from a family member and took these quick pics. Now I regret it because it now convinced me to go ahead and bought a macro lens and orange filter for my own, so I can also use them when I start purchasing corals.

Oh why oh why, do I have such expensive hobbies??? ;Greedy Need to start looking for cheaper options, maybe chess...;Blackeye

 

[afrokobe]

Combining my two hobbies: Reef tanks and Photography. I got burrowed a macro lens from a family member and took these quick pics. Now I regret it because it now convinced me to go ahead and bought a macro lens and orange filter for my own, so I can also use them when I start purchasing corals.

Oh why oh why, do I have such expensive hobbies??? ;Greedy Need to start looking for cheaper options, maybe chess...;Blackeye

my chess friends tell me that chess boards are expensive, so maybe not that either... Great looking pictures! I have also debated on getting into photography. Have had interest for years and now I am constantly taking pictures of the tank.

 

[Avengerx77]

lol you might be true on the chessboards. I love photography, these are actually my first picture attempt to my DT tank, so a lot of to improve still to be made. Probably will take some more time during the weekend to practice, don't have too many models in my tank right now anyway

By the way, love your avatar. Gooo Kobe!!! Lakers fan here

 

[Avengerx77]

Wasn't too happy with my aquascape, so I have ordered a custom rock structure and to complement the rocks I already had. I broke some of the existing ones and move them to the sump as there were some very large pieces, which were hard to accommodate with the new structure, but did not want to mess with the existing bacteria either. Anyway, this how it began versus pretty much final set-up. This will help to increase the useful area for coral placement.

 

[Avengerx77]

After 3 weeks from the end of cycle, I can start seeing some diatoms spots in the tank, mainly in the sand and some in the glass, so ugly phase is upon me. I did my first water change on Saturday, which was about 20%. Before that had my Nitrates at 2.51 and Phosphates at 0.16 and the day after it, it was Nitrates 3.11 and Phosphates at 0.18. A bit weird as I am using RODI water with 0TDS output. Not too concern here yet, as I am still trying to aim for about 5ppm and the Phosphates actually came down from the initial first read at 0.26.

In terms of lightning, I am now at 20% intensity and I just got the PAR meter, so hopefully by the end of this week will have a better idea on PAR readings and how much do I need to adjust my lights.

In terms of livestock, waiting for my LFS to get the next import, but aiming to add a Royal Gramma, one Cleaner Shrimp and some CuC, which could take a few more weeks anyway to get them. My only doubt is if I should add first the Royal Gramma or the Yellow Coris. I guess it might depend on availability from the LFS.

 

[Avengerx77]

So these are my first PAR readings from my tank under a Radion XR15Blue at 90% intensity. Guess I can kiss those SPS goodbye ;Blackeye. Well, anyway I was going to do this a soft/LPS dominant tank anyway, maybe I can get away with some Montiporas.

 

[Avengerx77]

Diatoms are heeeere!!! So here we are, at the start of the ugly phase. For this reason, I have started yesterday to introduce part of my CuC, not much on the LFS so I only put 10 Nerite snails and Skunk Cleaner shrimp. Need to add more diversity to my snail army, so hopefully I can grab some Nassarius and Ceriths when they become available. I think I will skip any type of crabs at the time.

In regards of parameters, I got yesterday a reading of 4.26ppm Nitrates and 0.11ppm Phosphates, so I think I am heading into the right direction. Have upped the Fuge light from 10 to 11 hours, so chaeto can start balancing both.

For lightning, I think I will keep my XR15 G5 at 90% intensity and see how it fares with soft/LPS, not planning to introduce any yet, probably until 3 months.

For fish, next one up in the list is the Royal Gramma or the Yellow Coris, I am leaning to put the Royal first, but seems the wrasse will be available first in my LFS, so decisions to make lol.

 

[Avengerx77]

Today I got my third fish after the pair of Picasso clownfish, one of my favorites the Royal Gramma. He is very small so no pics yet, will be a challenge for sure but hopefully he will become less shy as the time goes. I have also added 3 Astrea snails to as part of my CuC and hopefully help with the diatoms.

By the way, Diatoms are at full speed which is expected at this stage of the process (1month after cycle). I increased my fuge light from 11 hours to 12, so chaeto can continue to gain some ground. I have also increased the intensity of the display tank to 60%, will need to be at 80-90% when I start purchasing corals. Increased flow on my MP40 from 20 to 25%.

I am doing biweekly water changes of 25%, should I increase them to weekly? I am using RODI water.

 

[Avengerx77]

Well, happy to report that the Royal Gramma is actually not shy at all. After pretty much missing his first 3 meals after introduction, he then went out of his cave like a madman and start eating like a pig. Now he spends most of his time outside and does not hide when I approach the tank, I think the his fellow neighborgs helped him a lot to tell him it is a safe reef environment.

 

[Avengerx77]

Not much of an update but have reached 1 month after my cycle was completed. My diatoms are pretty much gone, just a bit remains in the sand, but have not been able to get some Nassarius to help keep it aerated. I have added yesterday activated carbon as my water had some small particles that make the water to look a little cloudy, today is now looking a lot more clearer. Still battling to keep my Nitrates up, has now gone to 0.54ppm, so I have lowered Fuge light from 12 hours to 10 and a half. Phosphates are in the sweet spot at 0.03ppm.

I decided to discard the addition of the Royal Coris (don't want to run a lid 24/7 and the Madarin (avoid the hassle of keeping a vast supply of pods). I am now more inclined to get a Midas Blenny (if I am lucky to get one around here) and maybe a Dispar Anthias. Usually don't like to put too many fishes in my tank. I will be adding a Fire Shrimp when available as well. I will start to introduce my first corals in the next weeks and see how they fare with my lights, but need to address first my Nitrates.