75 Gallon to 120 Gallon Upgrade

thewbell · Mar 4, 2016

Thing just got a lot more exciting last night....

I did not have time to get it fully set up as I had some family in town but I do have the Apex plugged in and monitoring temperature. I went ahead and made some profiles this morning to control my rw-8s based on a thread on the Apex forum. I cannot remember who to give credit to since I found it a few weeks ago. Going to get the pumps plugged in with the Jabeo adapter this evening and see how it all works. Also going to mount the hardware and get the pH probe calibrated and installed.

Future plans include controlling the return pump, skimmer, heaters and an array of float switches for high/low alarms on sump level and ATO container level. Based on the results with the alarms I would like to add more controls but one step at a time. Haha

thewbell · Mar 7, 2016

I got the Apex all set up over the weekend and it is monitoring pH and Temp and controlling my RW-8s, heaters, skimmer, return pump and fuge light. So far I love having the control and it actually already pointed out a problematic heater. The tank has 2 Eheim Jager heaters and one of them apparently only turns on about half the time. I believe it is a bad connection in the thermostat section since I can fiddle with it and get the heater to come on. I have a replacement on the way, but for now I swapped my heater profiles to keep the problematic heater on all the time and turns the second heater on and off. With about 140 gallons of water volume my tank has been requiring 1 heater (250W) constant and the other cycles every few hours.

I also tested calcium/alk/mag on Saturday morning before going to a big frag swap and came up with some interesting results. I am going to test again to make sure, but it appears I lost 25 ppm of calcium but gained 2.1 dKH. Mag is right at 1500 but I am not confident in my first test. During the past 2 weeks the only coral in the tank was a fairly large 3 head torch and I can see some coraline growing. I have been adding 5 tsp of kalk per 5 gallons of RODI for topoff and up to now have added a total of about 20 tsp (4 refills). Any idea why my alkalinity would climb and the calcium drop? I am planning to retest today to confirm then make an adjustment with my Red Sea A/B/C.

2/24/16 9.8dkh, 440ppm calcium, 1400-1500 mag (I messed up the test)
3/5/16 11.9dkh, 415ppm calcium, 1500 mag (good test)

On Saturday I attended Fragniappe and left with a few corals and against my better judgment a BTA. I got 2 different favias, some multicolor zoas and a single head orange octospawn. So far everything is doing great and the BTA has stayed open and relatively stationary. He has walked all around the rock he is on but has not moved to any other rocks or gone into hiding. The clownfish are curious and keep looking at him but haven't quite gotten up the courage to really check it out.

thewbell · Mar 7, 2016

My son also approved of the new additions.

The anemone is doing great as well. He hasn't really moved since yesterday morning and has been inflated every time I have seen him. The only time he sucks in some is when my cleaner shrimp goes nuts and walks on him when I feed the fish.

thewbell · Mar 15, 2016

Everything is still doing great and the anemone has been pretty stationary over the past week. He made a circle around the Rock and ended up on the front giving me a perfect view. The fish all seem to hang out in that corner of the tank but the clowns have not quite gone in yet.

I have been testing mag, alk and calcium ever few days and am getting big swings in numbers back to back so I know I am having issues with testing consistently. I have been watching videos on the Red Sea tests to try to help identify the colors a little better and to know when to stop. The more I ask my self "how blue is that?" or "is that red enough?" The more I am tempted to get the Hanna checkers starting with Alk.

dbl · Mar 15, 2016

I would recommend the Hanna for Alk and Phosphate. I never could get the hang of the Red Sea tests and ended up switching over to Salifert for the others. Just my opinion on the widely disputed test kit saga! Glad things are going well for you.

thewbell · Mar 28, 2016

It has been a little while so I figure it is time for an update....

I have been testing my water once a week and after some practice I am getting much more consistent results. I think my issue before was finding the actual endpoint on my titrations (red sea).

2016-03-26 18:33 Magnesium 1600
2016-03-26 18:13 Calcium 450
2016-03-26 18:03 Alkalinity 9.38
2016-03-24 10:51 Phosphate 0
2016-03-21 16:42 Nitrate 0
2016-03-20 10:54 Magnesium 1600
2016-03-20 10:41 Calcium 435
2016-03-20 10:36 Alkalinity 9.38

The only thing that is sticking out to me now is the rise in calcium with steady alk (I am thinking this is my error) and my mag has been consistently off the chart for the red sea test. I almost always use .88 ml of titrant and the scale stops at .8ml for 1600 ppm. I am using Reef Crystals salt and 4 tsp kalk per 5 gallons of ATO. My mag has been consistent since I started testing so I am not sure if the issue is me, the test or the tank.

I also have a new dkH Hanna alk checker that will be here this week so I have something to compare my Red Sea tests to.

Nitrate and phosphate have stayed at 0 so I am really hoping I have my nutrients balanced out decently for now. I have a marine pure brick and chaeto and the chaeto is slowly growing under a 5000k PAR38 LED from Lowes.

I also picked up a Kole Tang last week and it has proven to be a good addition so far. It is super active and frequently follows my Coral Beauty around which draws the attention of the Foxface and it follows both. I end up with a ton of very colorful movement around the tank almost constantly, which is what I was going for. As of Now the stock list is (in the order added):

2 OC Clowns (from the 75)
1 Watchman Goby (from the 75)
1 Coral Beauty (from the 75)
1 Lawnmower Blenny (from the 75)
1 Flame Angel (from the 75)
1 Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp (From the 75)
1 Foxface
1 Kole Tang

I also have the following corals that are doing great:

4 head Green Torch (grew from 3 heads in a month and looks like another forming)
1 head Orange Octospawn (noticeable growth in 3 weeks)
Multicolored Zoas (looks like a few new polyps forming)
2 Favia/favites (I cannot remember what they are but they are both growing onto the frag plugs now)
1 BTA (eating great and growing)

thewbell · Mar 29, 2016

Well I just ended up buying 5 corals from World Wide Corals during their no reserve eBay sale. I ended up with the following:

Toxic Wine Chalice
ORA Neon Birdsdnest
PPE Favia
Rainbow Aussie Acan Lord
WWC Space Monkey Favia

They should be in tomorrow and now I just have to figure out where to put them all. I am thinking the birdsnest will go up top and the others I will distribute around but keep mid to low level in the tank. I am going to try to keep them off of the sand as I have a sand sifting goby and I do not want him to bury anything. Luckily he has already claimed his home under the rock my torch is on and he doesn't pile sand anywhere else at the moment. I would like to have the chalice plate out towards teh front or side of one of my rock piles and think I will try to mount it to one of the near vertical faces but be sure to orient it so that it gets direct light.

thewbell · Apr 6, 2016

I made another trip to the LFS and ended up with a two head frogspawn, Duncan and a harlequin shrimp. Picked up the shrimp to try to take care of my overwhelming asterina population so we will see how that goes. I rearranged some of my corals to make more space in the right areas as well and everything seems happy so far. My Duncan is sprouting 4 new heads in the week that I have had it so I think that is a good sign.

I am also debating on keeping my filter sock full time. I have a very healthy pod population in my refugium and can see some in the tank as well and I am currently holding 0s for nitrate and phosphate. I decided to remove the sock today and will keep an eye on everything and see what happens. I didn't run a sock in my last tank and didn't have any issues that weren't directly caused by a lack of attention on my part. Any good reasons to put the sock back in???

thewbell · Apr 13, 2016

I figure it is about time for an update. Since my last post, I have added a spotted mandarin and a fathead anthia. The new fish have settled in great and the mandarin is constantly on the move pecking at the rocks all over the tank. The anthia was a little slower to come out but it is now cruising around but staying close to the rocks.

I also lost my lawnmower blenny to one of my RW-8 powerheads when he decided to swim into the powerhead while it was cycling on and off. Luckily I was right there and saw it happen so I got it off before he was chopped up but it still beat him up pretty bad and he didn't make it. I had been eyeing the Neptune Wav pumps for a while now and pulled the trigger after that when I convinced myself that the smaller openings would protect my fish better

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The new pumps are in and installed and all I can say is WOW. I have moved them around a decent bit and find that the best balance I can get is with them on the sides of the tank about 4" from the waterline pointed at each other. I tried putting them on the back wall and angling off the front glass in various ways and it was beating my anemone up too bad and I was afraid I would make him move from the really good spot he is in. Otherwise I liked the flow with them on the back glass so if my anemone decides to move anyway the pumps will move as well.

My next project is running my ATO from a 55 gallon plastic water barrel I have outside. I will be routing the tubing through my attic and using an Avast diaphragm pump and for now I will manually use the pump to fill my ATO container and let my Osmolator keep up with the ATO. When Neptune releases the FMM and optical sensors I will ditch the Osmolator and internal ATO container and run everything direct. I just can't bring myself to abandon the optical water sensors in the Osomolator to go with mechanical floats as my primary means. I will post details on the system when it is done but for now I am working on some sketches of the piping arrangement with 3 barrels (RODI, Salt, kalk) with a mixing pump for salt and kalk. I will also plan to add an auto water change setup so I am going to go ahead and run the tubing for that too while I am in the attic. All of my pumps will be located in the stand and controlled by the apex so that should minimize the risk of any line breaks causing leaks in the system since the system will not be under pressure.

And one final shot of the tank....

ScottMyers123 · Apr 13, 2016

Looking good. Came along way from when you first got it.

thewbell · Apr 28, 2016

Time for another update....

I have not bought any new livestock lately but everything has been doing great. My zoas have started to encrust on the live rock from the small chunk they started on and my various favias/favites are all rapidly growing and almost off of the plugs. I have not noticed much growth on the birdsnest (but I haven't measured it so it is hard to say) but the polyps are extended constantly and the color is bright green so I assume it is happy as can be. My torch has also gone from 3 heads to 6 and the duncan is rapidly growing 4 additional heads as well.

Over the last 2 weeks I was able to run some RODI lines from my reservoirs outside to the tank then from the tank to a drain. I do not have the lines hooked up yet, but when I get my dosing pumps (trying to decide....) I will be able to top off from my 32 gallon brute and I will also have an auto water change setup. I had a diaphragm pump laying around that I hooked up on the RODI (topoff) line and it proved to be difficult (and finicky at best) to get the siphon to break when the pump turned off, so I am still using a 7.5 gallon ATO reservoir under the stand. I ordered a Liter Meter standalone pump that should be here next week and my low maintenance ATO will be complete. I am still using my Osmolator and made a DIY relay setup to control a standard 110 outlet so I can use any pump I want.

I also added an Avast DIY Kalk stirrer and got that installed. The build was super easy and so far the stirrer is great. I was adding nearly saturated kalk with my ATO so hopefully the stirrer will keep up for a a while before I have to add either a calcium reactor or 2 part. I am planning to test my parameters tonight, but they have been staying pretty steady at 9-9.4 dkh, 435-450 calc, 1600 mag.

I am now debating how I want to set up my AWC system. I have an Apex and it will most likely be run by a DOS, but I do not want to rely on the DOS alone for the volumes so I will have a high and low level switch as backups. However, with the announcement of the Neptune optical sensors I do not really want to invest in a float setup and breakout box then swap it out in a few months for the optical sensors. Decisions decisions.....

To finish things off, here is a a picture of my wife's new favorite fish. Her fathead anthias.

thewbell · Jun 12, 2016

It's been a while so time for another update. I picked up a MRC-6 calcium reactor from the classifieds and have been waiting and testing to see when I need it. I have been holding steady at 9.4-9.8 alk and 425-450 calcium so my kalk and water changes (3 gallons every 3 days) is keeping up for now.

Last weekend I finished a new stand for my old 75 gallon so I could move my wife's painted turtles and guppies out of the 40b they were in. The new stand was built the same height as my 120 stand and will look the same so I had the old one to get rid of. I was able to trade the old stand for a ton of small frags with a member of a local club so know I have some small acros, montis, more zoas, and a small gorgonia. I know i am forgetting some stuff but in all I ended up with 15-20 small frags. So far the frags as a whole are doing decent, I have 1 that is not showing any color and 3 that look like they partially bleached but the rest are doing great. After a week everything is looking improved.

I have not had any livestock changes lately but an explosion in asterina starfish has proven to me that my harlequin shrimp is MIA so I will probably pick up another one soon.

I am also up to adding 30 ml a day of vinegar and it has brought my algae to a very manageable level. I clean the glass every 3 days and have just a little algae on my overflow that the fish and snails go after. It had dropped to almost nothing then settled in here so I have not adjusted my dose.

thewbell · Jul 26, 2016

Time for another update....

The tank has been doing great except for one mysterious death a few days ago. A few evenings ago I noticed my fathead anthias was on the bottom of the tank and his tail fin was beat up. He wasn't moving much and I figured he wasn't going to make it through the night. Instead of leaving him in the tank hoping he would end up where I could get him out I moved him to the refugium to see if he could hold out there thinking the smaller space, lower current and abundant pods would be a good place for him. He did not show any common signs of disease (no spots, redness, swelling, etc...) and I suspect he starved. He never was a good eater and after thinking about it I had not seen him eat in the last few days. I really wish I had QT'd him to make sure he was eating well when I got him a few months ago..... Lesson learned....

Other than that everything has been doing very well. The corals I picked up off of a local club member have all recovered and are coloring up very nicely. I also put a clay pot in the tank to try to encourage my clowns to lay eggs but so far the female hangs out in the pot and the male hangs out in the RBTA right next to it most of the time.

I still have not had to set up the calcium reactor and am holding steady at 9.4-9.6 with my kalk stirrer. I think I am very slowly starting to creep down between water changes (3 gallons every 3 days) but overall I think a .2 dKh swing every few days is tolerable. All I lack for the calcium reactor is a CO2 tank and I need to go ahead and get one so I am ready as the corals start to grow. I would also really like to add more but I know I need to get the reactor set up first so I am stalling a little....

Here is a picture showing the clowns and you can also see a few of the new frags I picked up. They were down on the bottom for a few weeks before I moved them up on the rock work.

thewbell · Aug 17, 2016

Well I hate to say it but my aquarium will be down for the next several months. My house got 2-3 feet of water during the record flooding in Baton Rouge and everything in the tank is dead. The only good news is that just about all of the tank equipment other than 2 peristaltic pumps, my apex and some power strips and sump lighting everything else was designed to be under water so most of my equipment should be ok. I'm going to try to claim as much as I can on my insurance and see what happens but with the complete house renovation it will be several months before I get the tank going again. Only good news is I can now properly run some plumbing lines to the tank for water changes.

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Marty.h · Aug 18, 2016

Sorry to hear that i would be devistated I hope everything works out for the better in the end

thewbell · Aug 30, 2016

Well I have a shimmer of good news... The livestock is all gone but it looks like most of my equipment survived. My Apex, EB8 and 1link were all above the water line (barely) and it all powered up just fine. It looks like the power went out before the water came up because I also did not trip any breakers so I should not have fried anything. I have yet to spend much time on the tank but my thoughts are I will just need a few DC power bricks for my return pump and 1link then maybe some dosing pumps but I have not tested them yet. It will still be a while before the tank is running again but at least now as soon as the house can be lived in again I can fill it and start the cycle.

thewbell · Dec 26, 2016

The tank has now been restarted and the tank is cycling with the help of Dr Tim's One and Only. First time using bacteria in a bottle but I heard good things so I'm giving it a shot. Will have to take some pictures tomorrow but I made some changes to the sump and need to modify some plumbing once I get a new return pump to replace the jabao. Wanting to pick up the new Cor from Neptune but I may have to settle for a Vectra or Waveline instead. I am also planning an electronics cabinet to free up some space under the tank but for now everything is a mess. Things are picking up and I plan on a lot more coral this time around.

dbl · Dec 26, 2016

That's great news...Glad you're getting it fired back up.

thewbell · Jan 3, 2017

As the tank is progressing (nice coating of brown algae now) I am starting to prepare my fish and coral list. I plan to keep a variety of SPS and LPS in the tank and may be some Zoas along with the following livestock ranked in order of how much I want each one.

Pair of Clowns (Black and White or Platinum but something different than the typical clowns)
Bubble Tip Anemone for the clowns.
Purple Tang
Mandarin
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty (I have read mixed reviews on having the CB and Flame but plan to introduce both together like I did in my last tank)
Goby and Pistol Shrimp Pair
Kole Tang (Probably introduce with the Purple to avoid territorial issues)
A pair or trio of Anthias
A trio of Blue-Green Chromis
Some type of Wrasse to help guard against any coral pests that sneak in without outcompeting the mandarin for pods.

I am not dead set on getting every fish on the list and will slowly add them once the tank is ready but am open to suggestions as well. I will also have a CUC comprised of snails and a few emerald crabs (no hermits) along with a cleaner shrimp or two.

Any suggestions or comments on the stock list?

thewbell · Jan 12, 2017

I have been slowly adding to the tank and aside from an issue I had with a Potter's Angel (LFS suspects it was a cyanide fish as it was in his care for several weeks and would not put on weight) everything is going great. At this point I have added the following to the tank:

Pair of Snowflake Clowns
Potter's Angel
Damsel
Small frogspawn
Derasa clam

I have a few more corals coming in tomorrow and my calcium reactor is plumbed up and running and I am monitoring alkalinity to see when I need to turn the CO2 on. I have some Red Sea 2 part on hand to make the initial adjustment and any tweaks as the calcium reactor is adjusted and I also have a Kalk stirrer that I am debating on using.

I have been trying to decide whether or not to sell the Kalk Stirrer (Avast) but I think I decided that I am going to keep it and use it to help manage pH. Next question is if I should start it up and run it until it can't keep up with Alk demand or should I wait and use it if I have pH issues running the calcium reactor? I am thinking about going ahead and starting up with it so I only have to bring the calcium reactor up once instead of having to back it down and putting myself at more risk of overshooting if I add the Kalk later.

All of my parameters are staying right where they need to be and I am getting my Vinegar dose dialed it to maintain a very low nitrate level without bottoming it out. Last week I went a few days too many without testing nitrates and found that I hit 0 and my frogspawn got a little upset but I have since cut the dose back and started feeding more when I added the angel and clowns and everyone is happy now. I am watching algae and it is still receding slowly so I am on track but I will be testing again tonight.