A Reef in the Desert - 120 Gallon Build

[Hentz]

Hello everyone! My wife and I are finally moved into our first home together as we just got married 3 months ago. I temporarily down-graded to a Reefer 170 from my 56 Gallon SPS Reef Tank about 7 months ago due to lack of space. While its a great tank, I couldn't wait to upgrade! I'm beyond excited to finally be in the 100+ gallon club. Blows me away at how big the system is as I've only been up to a 75 gallon before. I hope you all enjoy my build progress as much as I do!


System Type: SPS Dominant


Display System:
Display Tank: 48"x24"x24" - Visio Eurobraced 120 Gallon
Display Lighting: ATI 6x54w Sunpower T5HO
Sump: Vivid Custom Sump - 36"x18"x20"


Support System:
Display Flow: Maxspect Gyre-130 + Ecotech Marine Vortech MP40x2
Return Pump: Simplicity 1600 DC Pump
Reactor: Chaeto Reactor
Skimmer: Simplicity 240 DC Protein Skimmer
ATO: Tunze 5017
Doser: BRS 1.1ml Doser x2 (For now. Will be adding new dosing pump.)
Controller: Apex Jr. w/ Energy Bar 4 & 8


Additives:
Alkalinity: Triton Core7
Calcium: Triton Core7
Magnesium: Triton Core7

Planned Water Chemistry: Triton Recommendation
Nitrates: 0-5 ppm
Phosphates: 0.02 ppm
Alkalinity: 7.5-8dKH
Calcium: 410-420 ppm
Salinity: 1.026
Magnesium: 1250-1300 ppm
Potassium: 400 ppm

System Plan:

The system goal is to be as simple as possible. I've used ZEOvit with great success, though I'd like to change it up to a more "natural" approach. I'll be running the Triton Core7 method. Though instead of having a "true" refugium, I'll be using a Chaeto Reactor instead. I'm an Acropora fanatic which is what I'll be mainly adding to the tank. While I do enjoy some of the high-end Acropora, my focus will be more on color instead of names. Granted, that doesn't mean no fancy named Unicorn Fart Acroporas. I'll also add various Zoanthids over-time to add some color near the bottom of the tank. As for fish, I'll be adding my current live stock which includes: 2x Black Onyx Clownfish, 1x Melanurus Wrasse, 1x Yellow Watchman Goby (Recently went female and ugly, but I still love it.) I've had these fish for the past 4 years, aside from the Wrasse who is a month or two old in my Reefer 170. I plan on adding other fish as well such as: Various Wrasse's, Various Anthias (Especially a Sunburst Anthias), and a Tang or two.

The right aquascape is representing my current aquascape, which I'll be adding to the tank once its cycled.

And my current Reefer 170. Note the picture was taken 2 months ago.

 

[bubbaque]

Following along! Looking forward to how triton will go for you. I get my doser tomorrow to start using triton also.

 

[Hentz]

Following along! Looking forward to how triton will go for you. I get my doser tomorrow to start using triton also.

That's awesome man! What doser are you going to use? I was thinking of just using the AquaMedic doser since it comes with 4 channels. Are you doing a mixed reef or dominant?

 

[bubbaque]

I bought two ghl 2.1 dosers. I am going to try it on two different systems, one a mostly sps dominant main display and a newly setup frag tank that will be a sps grow out tank.

 

[Hentz]

I bought two ghl 2.1 dosers. I am going to try it on two different systems, one a mostly sps dominant main display and a newly setup frag tank that will be a sps grow out tank.

Awesome brother. Looking forward to your experience with it as well. Are you going to be posting any of your progress with it on a thread or anything? If so, I'd like to follow.

 

[bubbaque]

Maybe I can do it on the new frag tank. I tried taking pictures before of my main display but since all I have is a phone camera they always look horrible because of the blue light but on the frag tank its more of a white light so they might not be as bad. I will let you know if I start one.

 

[Hentz]

Afternoon Reefers!

Can't believe I haven't updated this thread! I've been so stuck on ReefCentral I often forget about Reef2Reef. However, lately I've been enjoying the layout of R2R much much more. It also seems R2R is much more involved in the reefing community as they're constantly posting pictures and threads on their social media. So from here on out, I will most definitely keep this thread alive.

Left off on setting up the tank.

I ended up just dosing 2-part Fritz for a little while until my tank settled in. Shortly after that I purchased my first round of Triton's Core7 which has worked well for me. I traded corals for a Jebao DP-4 after running circles around which doser to get which has worked well so far.

Corals have been doing absolutely amazing with growth and color I never thought I'd be able to achieve. I'm beyond happy I went with my first dream tank as the dimensions are absolutely perfect for my house and what I need. I've fragged multiple Acropora multiple times now for local reefers. I think I'm becoming addicted to fragging my corals and trading/selling them. I've never been at that level where I could frag and have it encrust in that two weeks of healing without having issues as the mother colony grows back.

I've since added a Reefbrite LumiLite Blue LED Strip to my tank to allow the coral's to have that "pop". Ever since adding it, I've finally been able to see the true colors on my Walt Disney Acro as it was a Beige turd before the LED's.

My current fish list is as follows:
2x Black Onyx Clownfish
1x Yellow Tang
1x Yellow Watchman Goby (went female last year, no longer as pretty )
1x Blonde Naso Tang
1x Melanurus Wrasse

I've added 2 wrasses prior, a Leopoard and Yellow Coris. However, my Melanurus would not let them live even after placing a mirror along the front of the tank.

My Acropora collection has grown as well. While I've lost some due to Alk/Temp swings, after everything has stabilized I've been golden since.

For the bad:
- The initial setup was rough. I battled another surprise small break out of AEFW just after moving some into the 120 from my Reefer 170. I was no longer dipping any of the Acropora with signs, but instead throwing them away. I didn't want to risk any AEFW getting into the 120 and dealing with them in there. Been clean ever since.
- With no doser and only dosing my 2-part by hand, Alkalinity was far from stable. I was go a day or two without dosing (working close/open shifts) and my Alk would drop from 8dKH to 7dKH and the lowest I found was 6.5dKH. This is when some Acropora didn't make it. Temperature would also fluctuate from 78-73 which is too big of a dip. Got a heater on board and all was stable after that.
- My Chaeto Reactor was not running for 2+ months. Little did I know, I had accidentally unplugged the pump to it. While the light remained on its normal schedule 12 on/12 off, the only water in there was at the bottom. I fed heavy and thought my tank was too clean as it was. Soon followed small patches of Cyano and some fuzzy algae, no big deal.. New tank syndrome. Though after testing my Nitrates to see them at only 2-5ppm, my Phosphates were at a whopping 1.48ppm. As of last night, they're sitting at a 1.59ppm.

I've added a bag of Rowaphos with no signs of decreased PO4. My Chaeto Reactor is going full force with no signs of decreasing PO4. But I forgot all about the Redfield Ratio after people mentioned to dose Nitrates to help get them down. Going to add a GFO reactor first before adding Nitrates to help balance it all back out.
With the high phosphates, my coraline algae was brownish and not growing healthy as, along with two Acropora colonies brown/purple. I've also noticed a slow in growth which I'm sure will be back to normal once the PO4 is balanced back out.

Enough writing, here is a current FTS. I'll post better quality ones later tonight!

 

[Denisk]

Looks beautiful so far! Glad to see you post an update as well as get passed aefw!

 

[bubbaque]

Tank is looking pretty great! Please do keep us updated over here at r2r.

 

[Hentz]

Got lucky and got some goodies today from @FraghouseCorals including some $0.01 Corals I happened to some how luck out on.

 

[Hentz]

After adding all my goodies from @FraghouseCorals , I decided to target feed the tank.

Started off with some Polyp Booster to get them hungry followed by a mixture of RF Oyster Feast and Dr. G's SPS Max. Needless to say, my acro's absolutely loved the combination.
Below is my Pearlberry colony having more slime than I've ever seen it have.

 

[Hentz]

Day to day, you do not realize the growth of your reef until you look back at previous months. Aside from the swings and neglect prior to getting my tank settled, its great to see how hardy our corals are.. For the most part, I should say lol.

Here's a little throw back of some previous months up until almost exactly a month ago.

 

[bubbaque]

Nice growth and beautiful tank!

 

[Hentz]

FTS from today. Full daylights on with an orange filter. Some Acropora look brownish, but IMO shows somewhat of the true color. I’ve always had a soft spot for that “natural” look in the corals no matter how vibrant and colorful they are under Blue LED’s.

 

[bubbaque]

Looks stunning to me!

 

[Ashish Patel]

Great looking tank.. Excellent color placement of your acros.. something i am trying to figure out!

 

[xPhilx]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Hentz]

Great looking tank.. Excellent color placement of your acros.. something i am trying to figure out!

I too am still trying to figure it out
Regardless of the success I’ve had previously in my SPS Dominant tanks, I’ve yet to have such intense colors with amazing growth until I’ve reached this tank. I’d likely dedicate my success (so far) to Triton, Macroalgae, and dirty Filter Socks!

 

[Hentz]

Little update, the tank isn’t in the greatest health right now. Unfortunately I ran out of my Alkalinity to dose and it dropped to 6.4. I noticed my Corals had a dull look to them, some the Polyp extension wasn’t the best during the day like usually is.

I’ve been dosing Fritz Alkalinity for an emergency dose to get it slowly back up to normal. Ordered Triton Friday and should be getting here tomorrow. Excited to get the tank back on track this week and let things continue the way they were.

 

[bubbaque]

I'm curious what's your current no3 and po4 levels?