8 years, 2 months, and 20 days and I'm back!

[jwarren220]

And the hits just keep on coming. My Disbar decided to take the leap of faith out of the tank despite my egg rate top. Will be making screens for them now. Gonna empty and clean both tanks and start again fresh. Bent but it broken.

 

[jwarren220]

Well back at it again with a few changes. The 40g breeder I had reserved for my frag tank will now be my QT until the DT is established. Bought an AquaClear 70 filter for the QT and will start it up tomorrow with seeded water from my LFS. I like these filters with the 3 stage filter compartments. These tiger Anthias will be the first additions along with some blue chromis.

 

[jwarren220]

QT setup refresh. I broke down the smaller two tank setup after the first set of Randal Anthias didn't make it through and the lone Disbar Anthias went superman despite my egg rate top. Holes to big it seems.

Regrouped and decided to use the intended frag tank for the qt setup. The bigger tank will allow better control as the parameters won't shift so quickly due to bio load as my previous qt tanks (5&10g).

For filtration I went with a Fluval AquaClear 70. I liked the 3 stage filter option and ease of maintenance. Found a sale at Petco for $40. Recommended for 40-70g tanks. I also added an aqueon 2400 power head.

Introduced 3 red saddled (tiger) Anthias from my LFS. Amazingly lucky to have a solid shop literally at the front of my neighborhood. I lucked out that it opened right after so bought my house!

Fish settled in well so far. I have plenty of pvc to hide and also zip tied a few scrap pieces of egg rate for caves. Did not feed this evening but will give a big breakfast in the morning.

Feeling much better about this round!

SG 1.023
NH3 0
NO2 0
Temp 78

 

[jwarren220]

After a brief hiatus and reclusing in the final stages of the build I am happy to announce that I will be up and running by the end of the week. I have been quarantining my second set of fish after losing the battle to parasites for the first set. The second batch started as 3 saddle back anthias and a red headed Solon wrasse. Two of the saddles were overcome by internal parasites I could not treat in time. Fast forward and now I have one saddleback and the Solon that are vey healthy. Even eating from my hand. Here are some pics of the latest progress.

stay tuned!!!

 

[jwarren220]

Finishing up the build his week including the pallet wall behind the tank. This is a tedious project but will be worth it.

 

[jwarren220]

Bump

 

[cincyreef]

I'm hoping to set up a 75 soon, so I'll be following along. Very nice so far!

 

[jwarren220]

Thanks it has been a long time coming. TOO LONG!

 

[melypr1985]

Nice progress! I like the idea of the pallet wall too. I know it's too late now, but from reading your posts about the fish dying in QT at first, it seems to me that you needed to do much larger water changes on the tanks. like 50% or more even every day until it stabilized. It was a great move using the 40 breeder instead. It will surely give you a little more wiggle room. Can't wait to see what's next!

 

[jwarren220]

Holy fittings Batman! So close I can can taste the salt. Been soaking all the fittings in vinegar water for a couple days to ensure no foreign oils or lubricants end up in the water column. Then an RODI soak as a final rinse.

Doing the same thing with my dry rock. I'm using Marko Rock which I understand is reef ready no curing needed. But after playing with epoxy and being exposed in the garage I wanna remove any dust or particulate. Will do an RODI rinse as well before arranging in the tank.

Another heavy day tomorrow hanging the light and finishing the control panel. Stay tuned This Saturday is 'D day' as in display day!

Still gotta finish the pallet wall too. Luckily my wife and her gf are gonna get painting while I continue breaking down pallets. Here is a mock up of my vision for the wall and tank panels.

 

[jwarren220]

Got the pallet wall finished and final prep done for the tank installation. Extremely happy with the result and will be a great accent for the reef. Plumbing, wiring, and water this week! In the home stretch.

 

[cincyreef]

That looks really good!

 

[jwarren220]

That looks really good!

Thank you. It was exhausting but worth it. I plan to match the stand with the wall and put a pub table and barstools.

 

[revhtree]

That's very cool! Welcome back!

 

[jwarren220]

That's very cool! Welcome back!

Thank you. I derive so much inspiration from these forums. I am grateful to be a part of this community!

 

[steve&mari]

Looking awesome really came out great doing the pallet wall.

 

[jwarren220]

A plumbing question I have is if any of you have threaded fittings and if so, did you use teflon tape on the threads when assembling? Most of the fittings are slip fit but some like the bulkheads are threaded.
Thanks!

 

[steve&mari]

A plumbing question I have is if any of you have threaded fittings and if so, did you use teflon tape on the threads when assembling? Most of the fittings are slip fit but some like the bulkheads are threaded.
Thanks!

Use it all the time on plumbing our reefs for years no issues ever.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Absolutely use teflon. I use a lot of threaded fittings too.

 

[jwarren220]

Use it all the time on plumbing our reefs for years no issues ever.

Absolutely use teflon. I use a lot of threaded fittings too.

Thank you for the advice. This was my thinking as well.