90 Long Build! The Wait is Over!

[ta88brian]

So I'll be using rock in my first chamber and allow the tank to naturally break down any waste, and the protein skimmer will remove orangics from the water.

If you follow @Perry on YouTube he speaks about natural biome of the tank. I was taught you had to use filters, or some sort of mechanical filtration to catch particles or your detritus builds up and causes increased live and dead organisms, uneaten food, fish poop, etc.. which in return will increase nitrate and phosphate.

But what if that's exactly what my system needs? I will be heavily stocked sps dominate system, some have sucess with heavy import and heavy export but imo that's riding a fine line and more work than required. I will be looking to dose small amounts of bacteria weekly to help my microbiome, introducing several different pods from algae barn, and seeding my sump with established rock from my nano for other organisms such as sponges to just further diversify my microbiome.

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Great pictures! Do you have like a camera or are you simply using your phone camera?

These are just phone pictures

 

[Gumbies R Us]

These are just phone pictures

Crazy what a phone can do now!

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Crazy what a phone can do now!

Haha that's no joke! Especially since most phones are water resistant you can take some very nice pictures inside the tank

 

[edsbeaker]

Nice set up! Those anthrax are beautiful!

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Nice set up! Those anthrax are beautiful!

Thank you! I love anthias, I did lose 3 more in the last 24 hours. I woke up yesterday around 2pm to find the 3rd one that came down with uronema has passed. All 3 showed signs and were gone within a 24 hour period

I couldnt do this all over again though, not with them straight from the wholesaler! So beware.. Uronema is a hard one to go through

 

[trellemania]

Thank you! I love anthias, I did lose 3 more in the last 24 hours. I woke up yesterday around 2pm to find the 3rd one that came down with uronema has passed. All 3 showed signed and were gone within a 24 hour period

I couldnt do this all over again though, not with them straight from the wholesaler! So beware.. Uronema is a hard one to go through

Man, its crazy how many came with it and how easily they succumb to it during Qt :anxious-face-with-sweat:

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Man, its crazy how many came with it and how easily they succumb to it during Qt :anxious-face-with-sweat:

That's no joke, I wish i wasn't sent so many on accident.. I wasnt ready to handle 10 extra

Today i removed the remaining anthias and cleaned everything with bleach and super hot water. Then dosed copper power back to 2.5 and metro into the system. Hoping maybe starting over sterile with a different approach may ensure the remaining do better

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Been following this thread, great progress so far. T5 great choice long term with acros. I’ll give my 2 cents, not sure how fast you want to add any sps. I would add some live ocean rock and you will be able to have an easier path to acropora success right away. Just coming from my experience with setting different systems up the last 5 years. Not sure if you are on IG but pristine marine aquariums has some nice Australian live rock fresh from Aussie right now. I believe he has a website as well.

Looking forward to watching this thread!

@Huskereef I lied, I picked up acros at $20 each for a banging deal I had put some montipora test pieces in 1 week ago and they are doing great so next test is some cheap acros seeing my parameters are where I wanted them

Only issue is they were kept under some bright leds that made them a little lighter in color. T5s will do the trick though like you already know

 

[Tinnerito]

@Huskereef I lied, I picked up acros at $20 each for a banging deal I had put some montipora test pieces in 1 week ago and they are doing great so next test is some cheap acros seeing my parameters are where I wanted them

Only issue is they were kept under some bright leds that made them a little lighter in color. T5s will do the trick though like you already know

$20!? Since when does that get you anything in this economy?! :face-with-tears-of-joy:

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

$20!? Since when does that get you anything in this economy?! :face-with-tears-of-joy:

Your not wrong it doesn't get you far but we will see how they color up

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Tank is starting to hit its ugly stage and have brown algae setting in. So went and picked up my cuc today. Starting small since I don't have any fish so lightly feeding the tank at the moment. I'll pick up more later

- 1 Halloween Crab
- 15 small hermits
- 1 zebra turbo snail
- 2 Trochus snails
- 4 nassarius snails

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Today's deal i found! Paid less for this mini colony than a 1" frag online

4" mini colony of BC Aquaticman table acro I'll have to get some better pics once it is settled in

 

[trellemania]

Yes!! Love the coral going in!! Im glad we are at that stage already :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Yes!! Love the coral going in!! Im glad we are at that stage already :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

Me too!! My favorite part

I'm thinking about picking up my calcium reactor next week to get ready for the demand. I have to start manually dosing today, alk has been consuming .2 each day so yesterday I was at 8.6

I plan to make a large coral order next week so I'm sure before I know it I'll be dosing to much by hand

 

[trellemania]

Me too!! My favorite part

I'm thinking about picking up my calcium reactor next week to get ready for the demand. I have to start manually dosing today, alk has been consuming .2 each day so yesterday I was at 8.6

I plan to make a large coral order next week so I'm sure before I know it I'll be dosing to much by hand

At what point is it better to switch to a dosing pump that maintains a CRI?

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

At what point is it better to switch to a dosing pump that maintains a CRI?

I start off with a calcium reactor usually ( i like adding a lot of corals fast )

But once you feel hand dosing is becoming to much for a daily task make the switch. So lets say you have to dose 20ml daily of 2 part, it could easily be put on a dosing pump and spread throughout the day instead of 1 or 2 manual doses.

But of your looking at colors on corals there's much more that go into that then just dosing. Stability, nutrients, lighting, flow, etc.. everything works together to give your corals what they need to be happy

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Updated pictures

Ugly stage is looking better today, less brown on the sand and rock is already gaining that light green algae and the brown crap is slowly disappearing.

Sorry if the pics are a little blurry, only way to get a more accurate color from lighting is to use pro in the camera which is hard to manually focus

Also added a 4" Eshopps Cliff Hanger which will allow me to run a filter sock when needed and really cut down on noise from the overflow

 

[Tinnerito]

Updated pictures

Ugly stage is looking better today, less brown on the sand and rock is already gaining that light green algae and the brown crap is slowly disappearing.

Sorry if the pics are a little blurry, only way to get a more accurate color from lighting is to use pro in the camera which is hard to manually focus

Also added a 4" Eshopps Cliff Hanger which will allow me to run a filter sock when needed and really cut down on noise from the overflow

Doesn't even look ugly to me. Better than powdery white rock. Am I the only one that has never experienced any issues when getting brown algae?

 

[ReefQuestCorals]

Doesn't even look ugly to me. Better than powdery white rock. Am I the only one that has never experienced any issues when getting brown algae?

My "Ugly stage" typically isn't bad especially compared to others out there. But also so many frown on issues starting a tank with dry rock, im 6 weeks in since water hit the tank and 3 weeks with lights on. Tank progress is on track for where I normally see it.

Starting with established live rock wouldn't really see this stage which might be why you haven't had much brown algae?