93 Gallon Build: An introduction to patience...

[JBKReef]

Things are starting to settle down in the tank. I stopped feeding so much and stopped the Reef Energy A and B. Thankfully the hair algae is slowing down. GFO for the win.

My clown has began to be super aggressive towards everyone. My tang has a torn fin, my Wrasse now has a cloudy eye... I guess she is getting ready to lay eggs or something but it’s annoying. I’ve split my feedings into two smaller feedings in the AM and PM hoping it diffuses her food agression some as well.

Corals are mostly doing well. My utter chaos have grown over the older zoas that were dying off, still don’t know what caused that. My birds nest are growing very well and the green slimmer has started to shoot off additional stalks, good polyp extension in the tricolor acropora and it’s encrusting it’s plug.

Some photos of the tank over the last couple weeks.

 

[JBKReef]

As with the everything... there comes a time for an end. My wife and I have on our horizon a move... which I believe will be the end of this tank as we know it. This has been an amazing first tank, I've learned so much with the hobby so far... but with moving three hours away into a new home with a lot of uncertainty I believe this tank will be completely broken down and be looking to an upgrade. I have the 25 lagoon that I can can move some live stock and corals into, as well as a project for a Red Sea 170 that I can get rolling. So splitting up the 93 into the other two tanks might be my best option. Running fewer tanks, smaller tanks until the dream tank set up can be established. We're still almost 9 months away from the move, but I need to start planning now for whats to come.

What fish will I keep, what will I give away?
What corals are worth keeping, which have sentimental value vs financial value?
Will I be able to set up a holding tank prior to moving in?
Will the family house a tank temporarily while the house is being shown?

Tough decisions ahead. Here is a FTS from the weekend, even with the dirty glass things were looking good.

 

[najer]

Time to play, can't you fit everything into the 2 smaller tanks?

 

[JBKReef]

That is going to be a resounding no...

The 25 lagoon is already full of rock and bare bottom. The Reefer170 will be barebottom as well.

25 Lagoon

2 Bangaii cardinals

(Already has the follow)

2 Misbar clowns

1 Purple Fire Fish

1 Tribal Blenny


Reefer170

2 Mai Thai clowns

1 Starry Blenny

1 Tail Spot Blenny

1 Blue Green Chromis

Donate to LFS

1 Yellow Corris Wrasse

This accounts for all my live stock except one fish, my joy of the tank... an aberrant tang. Was sold as aberrant bristletooth tang however as it grows (purchased when it was the size of a quarter) its looking more and more like an Acanthuridae tang... This guy is only about 1.5-2 inches long however will quickly outgrow either tank. I do NOT want to get rid of it... So I'm going to need a third tank, or a holding tang.

One idea I've been kicking around is picking up a 55 gallon. In the long run this will be a fish QT tank but for the short term could be a holding tank for the tang and my live rock that wont fit in the Reefer.

Additionally I need to be concerned with my inverts... I have 2 shrimp, 1 blood and 1 cleaner. I have 2 tuxedo urchins. A banded serpent starfish. A smattering of crabs and snails.

All coral can fit into the Reefer and Lagoon. Right now the bulk of the rock work is empty in the lagoon, I have a zoa garden on the bottom of the tank, and one island dedicated to Ricorida mushrooms but the back wall of rock is bare which I should be able to move my birds nest colonies, euphyllia, and acropora over without issue. In the Reefer170 once its established I can move over all my LPS- lots of favias, position some of my monti's.

I will try to sell of as much of the spare coral I dont have any strong feelings for... I have some pieces that I love to look at daily but many others (I think I have somewhere around 75 different corals) I have picked up along the way in live sales or impulse buys at my LFS that did not pan out the way I wanted.

 

[JBKReef]

Nerding our for a moment... the #reef2reef Instagram account just used one of my photos for a story they shared. Another feather in the cap. Very happy.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

As with the everything... there comes a time for an end. My wife and I have on our horizon a move... which I believe will be the end of this tank as we know it. This has been an amazing first tank, I've learned so much with the hobby so far... but with moving three hours away into a new home with a lot of uncertainty I believe this tank will be completely broken down and be looking to an upgrade. I have the 25 lagoon that I can can move some live stock and corals into, as well as a project for a Red Sea 170 that I can get rolling. So splitting up the 93 into the other two tanks might be my best option. Running fewer tanks, smaller tanks until the dream tank set up can be established. We're still almost 9 months away from the move, but I need to start planning now for whats to come.

What fish will I keep, what will I give away?
What corals are worth keeping, which have sentimental value vs financial value?
Will I be able to set up a holding tank prior to moving in?
Will the family house a tank temporarily while the house is being shown?

Tough decisions ahead. Here is a FTS from the weekend, even with the dirty glass things were looking good.

What's the flowing green grass looking stuff in the bottom left of that picture? Looks really cool

 

[JBKReef]

What's the flowing green grass looking stuff in the bottom left of that picture? Looks really cool

Good ole fashioned GSP. Green Star Polyp.

 

[JBKReef]

“Nothing too crazy for the tank to report.” Is what I started to type then realized I’ve had some updates to share.

1) a fish up and disappeared... one of my two Banggaii Cardinals has been MIA and presumed dead for almost 2 months.

The paid looked plump and happy, to the point I thought the male might have been holding eggs in its mouth.

Alas I saw the fish on a Friday and on Sunday my wife asks “where is the other cardinal” that’s 48 hours of disappearance but I could not find a trace. Did a full search in sump, overflow, and around the tank... nothing. I’m going with my banded serpent star or the anemone. Nothing else seems remotely possible.

2) The yellow corris wrasse is entering the terminal phase. It’s been chunky for awhile but just in the past month or so it has started to show some color and stripes around its head. Very cool.

3) The tank is in shut down mode. Nothing new will be added only taken away in preparation for the move. I’ve been fragging corals or simply giving some away. The shut down plan has changed but we’ll cross that discussion another day.

We’re coming up on a 2 year anniversary for the tank, the first inverts went in on Jan 1, 2018 but rock cycling and the build itself started in June on 2017. So I decided to try to find some photos from back then to do some comparisons. Man it’s such a great feeling to see growth. I have a lot of room for improvement but I think I’ve done well for my first tank.

 

[NY_Caveman]

“Nothing too crazy for the tank to report.” Is what I started to type then realized I’ve had some updates to share.

1) a fish up and disappeared... one of my two Banggaii Cardinals has been MIA and presumed dead for almost 2 months.

The paid looked plump and happy, to the point I thought the male might have been holding eggs in its mouth.

Alas I saw the fish on a Friday and on Sunday my wife asks “where is the other cardinal” that’s 48 hours of disappearance but I could not find a trace. Did a full search in sump, overflow, and around the tank... nothing. I’m going with my banded serpent star or the anemone. Nothing else seems remotely possible.

2) The yellow corris wrasse is entering the terminal phase. It’s been chunky for awhile but just in the past month or so it has started to show some color and stripes around its head. Very cool.

3) The tank is in shut down mode. Nothing new will be added only taken away in preparation for the move. I’ve been fragging corals or simply giving some away. The shut down plan has changed but we’ll cross that discussion another day.

We’re coming up on a 2 year anniversary for the tank, the first inverts went in on Jan 1, 2018 but rock cycling and the build itself started in June on 2017. So I decided to try to find some photos from back then to do some comparisons. Man it’s such a great feeling to see growth. I have a lot of room for improvement but I think I’ve done well for my first tank.

Those comparison shots are awesome!!!

 

[najer]

Great pics.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have 93 cube myself and has been a fun tank.
I happen to have this very stand And am wondering how it’s holding up for you?
My whole bottom has fallen out and im less than impressed with stand.

 

[JBKReef]

Those comparison shots are awesome!!!

Thank you very much!

I use the Layout app on my phone to stich stuff together.

 

[JBKReef]

I have 93 cube myself and has been a fun tank.
I happen to have this very stand And am wondering how it’s holding up for you?
My whole bottom has fallen out and im less than impressed with stand.

I’m sorry... just saw this question. I’m so happy to be breaking this tank down in the near future solely because of the stand. It makes maintenance a nightmare and yes my bottom is warping currently. Would fully expect complete failure eventually.

 

[JBKReef]

Small photo heavy update. After battling Dinos in my lagoon due to undetectable nitrate/phosphate I decided to start dosing some ME Nitrate I picked up from SaltwaterAquarium.com...

Gotta say this stuff is bringing out some crazy colors I have yet to see before.

 

[dwest]

Small photo heavy update. After battling Dinos in my lagoon due to undetectable nitrate/phosphate I decided to start dosing some ME Nitrate I picked up from SaltwaterAquarium.com...

Gotta say this stuff is bringing out some crazy colors I have yet to see before.

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I live just a few minutes from you so let me know if I can help with your move. I can hold fish, etc. good luck with planning.

 

[JBKReef]

Not much to add here for the time being. The tank is a bit on auto pilot while we decide what to do and how to move forward. I've been selling off some of the duplicates and larger colonies of stuff i have frags of. Just slowly taking pieces out to not crash anything, keep it looking like a nice tank, but preparing for the move.

We have not yet established where we're moving (even though we're less than 6 months away from the move) so its difficult to try to get the temporary tank established.

Equipment gathered already:

• 80 gallon (48x24x16) rimless Reef Ready
• an Apex
• Bubble Magnus Curve 5 skimmer
• Aquatic Life 48 inch retrofit
• 4 Noopsyche K7's
• a 40 breeder for a DIY sump
• IceCap 1K gyre and 2 small Tunze Wavemakers
• Automatic Dosers from BRS
• Auto feeder from Neptune
• Sicce 4.0 return
• a Tunze 3155
• a spare RODI unit mixing pump and brute on wheels

Biological Filtration:

• About 60 pounds of rock
• microbacter7
• Marine Pure Gems

It was really cool to earn the Reef Tank 365 badge a couple weeks ago, and this tank has been an amazing experience for my first dive into the hobby. I'm really looking forward to what the future holds and the challenges to come.

This will be the final entry for this build. I loved the tank and journey with my wife building this and the community I found with Reef2Reef. As my other builds evolve I will update on the progress. Its bittersweet to see photos from this tank, I hope to have another thriving reef within the next year.