75 gallon SPS slow build thread

[tsharpe291]

Good news: diatoms dieing off.
Bad news: brown stinky water
*sigh* I'll get the bucket

Pic after 30gallon WC

maybe run some carbon

 

[aellis9369]

maybe run some carbon

That's actually a good idea, I didn't think about that. I was just going to do aggressive water changes the next few days and hope it doesn't reflare the diatoms

 

[aellis9369]

Update: Foxface died (I think Tang was bullying him, but not too sure) and Aptasia File Fish jumped ship. No progress at all on cloudy water. I need to find time, but at this point, I'm ready to toothbrush scrub rocks and do a 50 gallon WC.

 

[aellis9369]

Been a little over a month since I turned off the lights and scrubbed down the tank. Water is clear, a majority of algae went away (oddly a new type popped up even with lights off) and all that's left is my tang and angel fish.

My next move:
get back on schedule. I have been doing the bare minimum of only changing socks when they overflow and filling the ATO and auto feeders.

Get some snails: I really don't feel like QTing them, but I have everything else...sigh

Sell the tang to avoid aggression since she's been alone almost 2 months and restart my stocking list

Edit: That pink is weird lighting, not coralline. Rocks are actually white with brown patches

 

[aellis9369]

One year since I put water in the tank update:

• Why didn't yall talk me out of dry rock+Barebottom?
• ugh, hair algae
• Did I say SPS? Make that LPS until my kids are older...It's not lying, it's changing my mind
• For $2, you can get a paint algae scraper from HomeDepot

 

[Gumbies R Us]

One year since I put water in the tank update:

• Why didn't yall talk me out of dry rock+Barebottom?
• ugh, hair algae
• Did I say SPS? Make that LPS until my kids are older...It's not lying, it's changing my mind
• For $2, you can get a paint algae scraper from HomeDepot

Happy 1st anniversary to your tank! I started with dry rock in my tank as well. Next time, I will be doing live rock, for sure.

 

[aellis9369]

However old my tank is update

Changes:
Added more rock to mess up my tang's territory
lowered flow
Removed auto-feeder because my tang decided he owned it

"issues:"
Turf algae that mostly stabilized
high phosphates
Raccoon butterfly will definitely eat my frags, so thank gosh they were all cheap
All my trochus snails died, and my LFS said they have that issue often too, so idk what to do about that

Gripes:
why does every coral turn brown or green under white lights? (woe is me)
probably doesn't help that every coral I brought was in my LFS' $10-20 section
Was thinking of starting a new thread with a different name, but that sounds like work

Corals (no growth on any):
duncan that has not opened once since I got it
hammer
ricordea yuma (I think)
Candy cane
Used-to-be-red zoas
Micromussa Lords
some random green thing from my LFS' $10 rack
Kenya tree
random monti cap and birdsnest that my lfs gave me for free and is free floating around the back

Fish:
flasher wrasse
Anthias squa___
Star Blenny
Blue eye bristletooth tang
Bangaii cardinal
Cherub Angel
Raccoon Butterfly (still in QT)
Foxface (still in QT)

Params (from my LFS):
temp - 74.6 Fahrenheit
ph - 8.1
kh/gh (alk?) - 7.37
Calcium - 355
Magnesium - 1175
Nitrate - 1
Phosphate - 0.3 (no not a typo)
lights - 80K at 30%

Next steps:
See what my raccoon doesn't eat next month and get more of that coral (do I hear all galaxea tank)