Ben's SPS Dominated 120

Hello!

I've been mostly out of the hobby for a couple of years, and told myself when I decided to set up a new tank I would create a build thread to document progress and what not. I've had a few tanks (at my house) in the past my last being a 30gallon cube. I was also taking care of my boss's 150gal and a 65gallon at work, and coupling that with a small child and moving plans, I got kind of burnt out. Fortunately I was able to sell all of my corals to my boss, so they basically remained mine. Unfortunately while i was out of town, someone topped off the office tank with a few gallons of saltwater from a previous water change. All SPS dead... Both tanks went on cruise control for a couple of years.

Current FTS:
3/14/19


Current Fish list:
2xBlack Ice Clowns
Flame Hawkfish
Powder Blue Tang
Kole Tang
Mystery Wrasse
Orange Back Fairy Wrasse
Midas Blenny
2xBanggai Cardinals



Equipment rundown:
Lights-T5 Hybrid w/3X Hydra 26HD
Sump-40 breeder with room for a huge refugium that I may turn into a frag area down the road
Skimmer-Eshopps Axium X-160
Return- DCP1200
Powerheads- 2x Gyre XF250
Controller-Apex Classic
ATO-Tunze


Old Tanks:

24gallon aquapod circa 2013


30gallon cube circa 2014. this was a while before i broke it down, but I can't find any later pics. Unfortunate because my acros really started taking off shortly after...


Fast forward a couple of years...
My boss is trying to sell his house, so we go ahead and breakdown his tank. This had the unintended consequence of rekindling my passion for the hobby. The original plan was to set up something in the 180-300gallon range. I don't intend to be in our current house forever though, so I settled for something a little more manageable/movable. I started slowly collecting parts that I knew I would be able to use down the road, and planned on making it happen 6 months to a year down the road. That didn't happen. I happened to see a guy selling a complete 120gallon setup local for a price I couldn't refuse. That brings us up to last month. I had a bunch of rock curing already, so things moved fast.


Less words, more pictures...

June 1
In the Garage, and Cleanish



June 12
We have a sump!

June 14
Plumbing done



June 15
Aquascaping


July 9
Water!!



As I stated before, I had a bunch of cured live rock, and on top of that, I used a couple different bottles of bacteria. Fully cycled in nine days.


July 24
First fish! (excellent pic)



Aug 9
Still not sure exactly what this was, but it completely covered the tank in a matter of days.


August 17
Almost gone...


August 19
Completely Clean! Whatever it was, My powder blue tang loved it!



I also added a couple different euphyllias and zoas when I added the first fish to test the waters. I purposely chose ones that weren't doing so well in the tank at work to see how they fared. All are flourishing.

A week or so after that, I added an almost dead bonsai frag, and faded frag of CB maleficent(duplicate freebie) to see if they would live. I had PE on both within a couple days, and they are both really starting to look like they are supposed to. More to come...

 

not sure where that last pic came from, but whatever...

 

Great job!! Kinda funny how things turn out.. I had my 240 and then "a deal that I couldn't pass on" added a 60 to the collection, and another that turned the 60 into a 120...
Glad you are back in the game!!
Keep the posts and pics coming!!

 

All of these are in the office tank for now...

The only remaining acto from my old tank

ASD rainbow


AA chameleon


These are waiting to be moved to their new home...

Top to bottom
ORA pearl berry
TSA bill Murray
RRC pink caddy
Oregon tort
Cc voodoo majick
WD
Tyree pinky the bear

I just got a couple of those from budmancorals.com

He’s got a pretty insane sale going on through tonight if anyone is interested. That pink caddy was a freebie

 

Thanks for the pictures and write up Ben, very nice and I really like the aquascape

 

Very nice! I love that aquascape!

 

Thanks guys! I am really happy with the way the aquascape turned out. I wanted as much depth as possible, and I think I achieved that. I was planning on drilling all of the rocks and putting fiberglass rods in, but it worked out to where I only needed a couple. I had about 250lbs of rock to work with so I was able to pick and choose ones that fit my plans. I have a couple of decent sized shelf pieces that I am considering adding, but I'll probably just leave it the way it is.

 

Bad news in the office tank. I'd been having some really bad fading, and no PE on my acros for a few weeks. I chocked it up to my nutrients being too low, so I started dosing to bring them up a little. A week or so ago I found a screw and a bunch of rust in my ATO container... The strange part is minus the poor coloration, and the lack of PE they still seemed to be growing. I lost a small frag of pink lemonade last week and a lepto a week before, but i thought I was out of the woods. This morning I noticed some STN going on at the base of my chameleon, and my ASD rainbow looks terrible (as does the bonsai, but it's been through worse. I was planning on cutting a large piece of it for the new tank today anyway) I also have a little nub of fox flame that i dropped a rock on a while ago, but it is growing better than ever at the moment.

Question is do I pull everything, and pull it in my immature tank, or let it ride?

Lights are Reefbreeders photon v2 maxing at 60% blues 10% whites

Parameters

Work
Alk-8.1
Cal-400
Mag-1400
Nitrates-5
PO4-.02

Home
Alk-9.8 (bring it down slowly)
Cal-440
Mag-1450
Nitrate-.5
PO4-.04

 

moving discussion of this issue to it's own thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fading-acros-stn.443141/

 

QT in my office at work. As frustrating is my job is sometimes, it's nice that they let me do pretty much whatever I want as far as fish stuff goes

 

The canopy that came with tank was pretty much useless. It wasn’t hinged like a normal one. There was sort of a trap door on top to access the tank, and it didn’t leave much room for lights. Not to mention it added an extra eleven inches on top of the tank your need to reach over to get in. I decided I would hack the first ten or so inches off, and and pull all of the wood off of the top. Then I could just mount the lights on top. I figured if I didn’t work, I could toss it , and make a mount to hang the lights. Fortunately for me it worked better than I could’ve planned.

 

Couple updates. I’ve got coralline popping up all over. I added a couple more acros. Everything seems to be doing quite well.

Bubble gum digi, WD, Oregon Tort

Oregon tort mounted and malificent
Malificent is looking better every day

Better pic of clowns

WD

 

Looking good! You have some nice coral on that list. How are you liking the gyres in the 120? Are dead spots pretty much eliminated? Thinking of adding one or two along with the WAV pumps on mine. The corners of my tank could use a bit more flow.

Looking forward to updates!

 

Thanks man! I can't wait to add the rest of the ones I've been collecting. My flame hawk in the work tank won't stay off of the frag rack. I replaced two korelias(never again) with a single XF 230 in my 65gallon to test the waters, and was very pleased with the performance. The only real dead spot I have noticed with them is like an inch or so wide uniform ridge along the back glass, but I only have them at 50% at the moment. I turn my other one up to a constant 100% to stir everything up on occasion, and I plan to do the same with these once I start noticing detritus collecting.

 

Added a trio of carberryi anthias to QT this morning

 

I’ve always wanted one of these guys

 

Minor update. Finally mounted everything to the wall. I was building a cabinet to match the stand, and I recently discovered that my daughter is a little jerk and can’t be trusted with wires/buttons. The cabinet was too big for the other side, so I just put everything on the wall. Plan B was inside the stand, but i foresee a calcium reactor in my near future.


Still needs some tidying, but much better than it was on the floor...

 

I emptied the frag rack on my office tank last week, and got everything mounted over the weekend. Everything seems happy. Significant encrustation on most of the acros.

TSA Bill Murray behind the WD. WD is encrusting nicely, and starting to sprout some branches. BM was almost a casualty of whatever was going on in my office tank, but he seems happier now. Polyps are out more often than not, but color is AWFUL


Tyree Pinky the Bear
He was very happy in my office tank, but seems to be even happier with the added flow of the home tank.


CC Voodoo Majick
I added this one a couple of weeks ago, and it is starting to color up nicely. It's also started to encrust over the super glue.


My mystery wrasse is the most camera shy fish I've ever owned i think. He'll be nose to nose with me against the glass, and the second I pull my phone out, he disappears.

 

Bonsai!!
This one looked as bad (or worse) than the bill murray frag in a previous picture when I added it last month. It's about to be off the plug on the other side.

 

Some coral warfare going on in the office tank.