Big Bertha: 180g Build

[forestsofkelp]

I ended up doing a 100% water change, which sucked, but should work to get the K even lower. I am not messing around with my chemistry any more.

Hopefully I can get everything back to normal and sparkly clean. I still have corals losing some tissue and looking mad. Time will tell...

One of my Panta Rhei powerheads also died. 2 year warranty, it's 3 years old. The other one also had an issue. At that price I am not interested in pursuing, so I am switching to good old Tunze. I can get 3x 6105s for less than 2x ECM 42. I popped one in today just to replace the broken one until the new hub version comes out. It's silent with tons of flow.I have a nanostream that is a >5 years old that still works great. Really looking forward to all Tunze. I'll post a photo at the end of the month

 

[forestsofkelp]

I got my potassium down to 435. Woo hoo!
The Nyos salt worked great. My ICP was nearly perfect.
Using B ionic, I got my alk stable and my parameters have been perfect all month with little effort.

The corals were looking really unhappy for a week or two. I was getting lots of algae...like so much it was choking out my coral. Poor to no PE. My mag was dumping algae.

I aggressively tried to absorb phosphates. I also scrubbed/removed algae every other day, and eventually did two super deep cleans back to back. I also turned my UV on (it overheats the tank in the summer). I ran double carbon for two weeks, twice, then back to my normal amounts of media today.

Not sure if it was the cleaning, time, or UV, but 2-3 days after the deep clean+UV on, algae basically stopped growing in new locations. I am now cleaning whatever shows up weekly. The lack of free floating algae stopped tangling up my corals.

So for the last 6 days corals finally started having great PE again and my mag is happy.

Looking forward to new powerhead to ramp up the flow, as I think flow is a huge deal. New fish are coming next week.

Hopefully I can then get another clam or two plus keep growing out my corals/replace the ones I lost.

a terrible experience, could have been worse, but I learned a lot.

These pictures are now, now that it looks good. I didnt take any pictures of it when it was full of algae.

Interestingly some of my corals were really hurting, some were good. Most are back now except my elegance is still grumpy and wont fully extend.

 

[forestsofkelp]

Sorry for the long update...not sure if anyone even reads this anymore. Since the tank has been pretty stable and its not longer a "build" thread, I've lagged in updating. Also, second kid. I do post semiregularly on Bluesky as mr.sandwichmaker regarding the tank though..


Since the K issue the tank has been doing great. Replaced some of the fish. Decided to hold on the corals. I really focused on growth for the last year and the tank has been thriving. Still, no water changes for year.

I run the Tunze 6150 eco powerhead now and love them. I dose B-ionic and Captiv8 trace. I have a few imbalance I am correcting but nothing major (I think..). Im really happy with the tank.

Hoping to add a few more corals this summer and a gigas clam, grow for another year or two, than maybe re-aquascape the tank. MAYBE. Also debating a new sump if finances allow.

 

[forestsofkelp]

Growth has been exploding. I’ve managed to fit more power strips in the cabinet too so I can expand to a ca reactor.

Except now weird stuff is happening. I’m worried a crash is due. My icps have been the usual, slightly low on few trace, high on stuff that’s been high for years/doesn’t matter really or I can’t do anything about.

So for the last 3 weeks my phos was undetectable. I fed a little more, tuned my skimmer. Then my Xenia started dying. Oh well I had too much anyhow. SPS looks good still.

Now I got brown jelly disease and my phos is 0.3. That’s too much change for me

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Growth has been exploding. I’ve managed to fit more power strips in the cabinet too so I can expand to a ca reactor.

Except now weird stuff is happening. I’m worried a crash is due. My icps have been the usual, slightly low on few trace, high on stuff that’s been high for years/doesn’t matter really or I can’t do anything about.

So for the last 3 weeks my phos was undetectable. I fed a little more, tuned my skimmer. Then my Xenia started dying. Oh well I had too much anyhow. SPS looks good still.

Now I got brown jelly disease and my phos is 0.3. That’s too much change for me

Do you have any update pictures?

 

[forestsofkelp]

Yes! I added pics of the good and the bad.
I try to make this thread about actually running the reef, and not just the highlights. I got my dying Xenia and unhappy gonis next to thriving sps and happy gonis

 

[forestsofkelp]

well I *think* I figured out the problem...I had been having unreadable Phos for 2-3 weeks. I slowly increased my autofeeder use (which had some new foods), and kept getting unreadable phos. I had a few sick corals. Then my phos became 0.3 ppm. I got a few more sick corals. Then I tested my phos shortly after my post above and it was....2.8 ppm.

I immediately stopped my autofeeder and dosed 15ml of lanthanum chloride. Next day I got 0.28. Dosed another 4ml. The next day I got 2.4ppm. I dosed 16ml LC. Next day I got unreadable high and had to leave town.

My fish keeper dosed minimal food. I got back today and I am so high on Phos I cant even get a number with 3x dilutions. I will be dosing 80ml tonight.

Now that I am back I will be dosing daily, up to 80mg (0.5ppm drop) and checking daily.

I am pretty sure it's real, as I used the hanna calibration vials and RO/DI blanks to check. My Calcium checker is now resulting brown instead of blue. Yikes.

Weird things is nearly all my corals and fish are totally fine. The illness I had were:
BJD on one torch, colony, but not my other 3 of the same species. My red xenia died (blue was fine), my nepthea detached and died, and my yellow scroll began bleaching. All the acros, gonis, mag anemone, clams, spaths, montis, turoki, hammers, octos, etc...totally fine.

 

[forestsofkelp]

ok, even weirder. My Hanna ULR phos kept reading "0.09" flashing. I used Hanna controls, it was working fine. I could not dilute my sample down. I was using in-date packets and even a new box. I aggressively tried to lower Phos and sent an ICP. weirdly, my phos is totally normal on the ICP; 0.04! I used a different Hanna ULR and got 0.02 PPM. Meanwhile, the bad reader would give me 0.09 flashing for any sample using my saltwater. So weird.

I have no idea why my Hanna ULR would give me bad readings on only my SW tests, but a new reader seems to do the trick.

While my aggressive Phos attack didnt seem to do much to the levels or my fish, I did RTN a turoki. It also seemed to affect a lepto nearby.

Something weird is in my tank killing my corals. Not sure why I am getting diseases.

In other news, my overflow is leaking....AGAIN. That plus a few pinhole leaks, and a promise to upgrade my sump at 5 years (it's at 4). I think I am going to treat myself to a nice, royal exclusiv sump plumbed nice and clean. Working on it right now!

 

[samcob]

Hello. I really like how you document all the changes you make and everything that happens with your tank. I'll be keeping a close eye on future updates. You have a very nice tank.

 

[forestsofkelp]

Thank you for the kind words! I feel like the real utility for these build threads is seeing how it all worked out, what did work, what didn't etc.

Plus my schedule makes it hard to go to the LFS, so the only place I have to regularly talk about my tank is online lol. I've also had requests to blog it, so this is as close as it gets.

I have a Bluesky acct for my buddy who likes to follow my tank at work (mrsandwichmaker).

 

[forestsofkelp]

All my parameters are back to normal and looking good after using a new ULR P checker
SG 1.026,
Alk 7.5,
Ca 427
P 0.03,
N 11,
Mg 1310

Trace elements improving on ICP, just a few high random ones (eg lithium) and the usual gremlins (a few heavy metals that come and go).

Still no explanation for those random coral deaths assuming my P never spiked. The yellow scroll is recovering. My tequila sunrise is splitting and the SPS are really cranking. The first pictured acro is ~6m old and I received it as a smooth Y; all those nub branches are new. I think the clownfish laid eggs again too

I did note two things:
A) my tank flow was way down, I cleaned my powerhead and it's now really mixing again.
B) my cyphastrea has been taking over my leather corals in the back. Perhaps the battle released toxins

 

[forestsofkelp]

The tank has been more or less doing great. A few alk and phos swings, but overall it's doing well. I am trimming large SPS chunks.

I think the corals are starting to compete as I have random corals that die, or grow for a few months, then die.My ICPs are fairly stable with just random trace elements missing.I take that seriously, but I dont a low level of a trace will kill a coral in a matter of weeks.

Im pretty sure it's due to poor flow from obstruction or just coral battling. I lost my large scroll coral recently and fragged it to save a chunk. Couldn't figure out why; it's been hardy for years. Then I had an alk swing that damaged it (its sensitive to alk) and my yellow leather was found to be laying on it at night! It never recovered.

I am now attributing losses to competition instead of poor husbandry (although I am still trying to improve). My goal for 2025 was growth and I certainly got that.

The plan was always to grow whatever I could as large as possible. I knew not every coral would be able to become a 12" colony.

The goal for 2026 is a gigas clam, reaquascape, and a new sump. 2027 perhaps a Ca reactor and new fish.

2028: new lights

 

[forestsofkelp]

Ok, so updates since my last post...:
Tank has been going overall very well, settling into its boring phase with, lots of good growth. My SPS are now fighting for space.
Unfortunately, my two clams, who had been fine for over a year, died within a week for no clear reason. I caught a leopard poly clad worm a few months ago, but had no issues since then. It may have been them.

Unfortunately I like to keep clams. Since I can't find the little jerks, disassembling the tank is a no go, and there is no treatment, my only options are hunt and leave fallow of their food.

I may use scallop as bait a few nights and leave the tank fallow of clams for a 6 months to a year.

They don't seem to bother my turbo snails, if polyclads are even there. I am not willing to buy another clam until I fairly certain they aren't there

I also have sky high lithium (3000) from using B ionic. This may have killed my clams too. Please note if you run a no waterchsnge system like i do, contaminants will build up and ICP testing is impotant. I fell off testing and then thought high lithium was ok. While it may be (everything is doing fine but the clams and one LPS coral), I am switching supplements and did a 100% water change. I will note, a yearly 100% water change (which is what I've ended up doing due to various errors) is faster and easier than the total of weekly or monthly water changes, and uses less water, although it carries risks

Unfortunately the water change incited some RTN in one of my larger colonies. Two prunings later, it appears healthy.

I also was fussing with my skimmer trying to improve its output after it slowed down. Well, I broke it. Time for another skimmer. Jeff at LifeReef who makes the best equipment, built me a new one and I got a mazzei upgrade. Probably a dumb idea but I can't wait to try it out!!

I also rerouted my doser lines (long term project) and troubleshot my khd. Still looking into a big replumb this year as I have very snall.

Regarding the khd, I've now been using it for a year or two. I am interested in aquawiz. My view in the testing devices is that it's dangerous to let them manage your alk. If they make a testing error, they could overdose over the course of days or week. I check and adjust my dosing weekly, and use the khd to monitor for sudden changes or trends. But they are great for checking trends or for issues while traveling.

If you have a big enough tank that needs accurate alk 24/7, I'd be nervous to trust it to just one of these machines. The khd in particular requires calibration every 2-3 weeks on top of whatever else you do. That's fine if your tank is your full time job, you are retired, single, no kids, etc but for me I got two kids and a full schedule. No time for that. Although I am going to try :-). Currently I don’t maintain mine at all (just did its first maintaince since they released) and the $100 probe frequently becomes uncalibrateable. Still checks with 0.5 of Hannah, usually.

If you are looking for a kh director, starting from scratch, or aren't all in on GHL, 100% get the aquawiz. It seems really simple and reliable as can realistically be. From a monitoring standpoint,'it seems great. Hourly checks with no reagent! I may still get one.

If you are in on GHL, the khd I think is more accurate, but it is more expensive and requires more maintainence for pinpoint accuracy. However I rarely maintain mine and it's pretty accurate, at least for what I use it for.

If I can scrounge up some cash I may run both

 

[MarsReefer]

Just read through this. Amazing tank and great documentation of everything you’ve done.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Ok, so updates since my last post...:
Tank has been going overall very well, settling into its boring phase with, lots of good growth. My SPS are now fighting for space.
Unfortunately, my two clams, who had been fine for over a year, died within a week for no clear reason. I caught a leopard poly clad worm a few months ago, but had no issues since then. It may have been them.

Unfortunately I like to keep clams. Since I can't find the little jerks, disassembling the tank is a no go, and there is no treatment, my only options are hunt and leave fallow of their food.

I may use scallop as bait a few nights and leave the tank fallow of clams for a 6 months to a year.

They don't seem to bother my turbo snails, if polyclads are even there. I am not willing to buy another clam until I fairly certain they aren't there

I also have sky high lithium (3000) from using B ionic. This may have killed my clams too. Please note if you run a no waterchsnge system like i do, contaminants will build up and ICP testing is impotant. I fell off testing and then thought high lithium was ok. While it may be (everything is doing fine but the clams and one LPS coral), I am switching supplements and did a 100% water change. I will note, a yearly 100% water change (which is what I've ended up doing due to various errors) is faster and easier than the total of weekly or monthly water changes, and uses less water, although it carries risks

Unfortunately the water change incited some RTN in one of my larger colonies. Two prunings later, it appears healthy.

I also was fussing with my skimmer trying to improve its output after it slowed down. Well, I broke it. Time for another skimmer. Jeff at LifeReef who makes the best equipment, built me a new one and I got a mazzei upgrade. Probably a dumb idea but I can't wait to try it out!!

I also rerouted my doser lines (long term project) and troubleshot my khd. Still looking into a big replumb this year as I have very snall.

Regarding the khd, I've now been using it for a year or two. I am interested in aquawiz. My view in the testing devices is that it's dangerous to let them manage your alk. If they make a testing error, they could overdose over the course of days or week. I check and adjust my dosing weekly, and use the khd to monitor for sudden changes or trends. But they are great for checking trends or for issues while traveling.

If you have a big enough tank that needs accurate alk 24/7, I'd be nervous to trust it to just one of these machines. The khd in particular requires calibration every 2-3 weeks on top of whatever else you do. That's fine if your tank is your full time job, you are retired, single, no kids, etc but for me I got two kids and a full schedule. No time for that. Although I am going to try :-). Currently I don’t maintain mine at all (just did its first maintaince since they released) and the $100 probe frequently becomes uncalibrateable. Still checks with 0.5 of Hannah, usually.

If you are looking for a kh director, starting from scratch, or aren't all in on GHL, 100% get the aquawiz. It seems really simple and reliable as can realistically be. From a monitoring standpoint,'it seems great. Hourly checks with no reagent! I may still get one.

If you are in on GHL, the khd I think is more accurate, but it is more expensive and requires more maintainence for pinpoint accuracy. However I rarely maintain mine and it's pretty accurate, at least for what I use it for.

If I can scrounge up some cash I may run both

So sorry about the loss of your clams!

 

[forestsofkelp]

Another update. I will also addend a few things I have learned. Hopefully I can compile them into a sticky so people dont have to wade through this.

The tank is doing great. I have switched to mixing own supplement from dry; I had a lithium level issue again.
I dont do any water changes, but what that translates to realistically is having to be on top of parameters/ICP (although I dont get potential contaminants/error like doing water changes, you can get build up/depletion of elements) and a 100% water change yearly (due to something I didn't do right). In all honesty its not that bad, a 100% water change takes me 3-4 days of making/mixing/heating and an hour to do, as opposed to the time and effort of weekly/monthly water changes. The stuff I have issues with is usually trace elements building up (so far Ive goofed with K and Li because I didnt realize my supplements had this in it); everything else is pretty easy to handle so far, truly.. Occasionally I my salinity rises due to supplement use, so sometimes I swap out 5-10g of salt water/sump sludge for RO/DI. I keep my refugium clean by stirring it up every week or two.

I am getting excellent growth on pretty much everything except LPS/euphyllia.
My SPS are now fighting/overgrowing each other as you can see in some pics below
I dont really have much else to add. Fish are happy, coral are growing.
I did do a large trim today of my plating monti. And a lost a lot of structure/years of growth. I trimmed about 2-3 years of growth off of mine today, or a FULL 3L bucket. I am very sad and feel like what I did was wrong. I know it will grow back, but it wont be the same...the problem is whats left is the higher stuff, not the lower stuff. I am nervous to trim due to the amount of monti shape I lost. However, it was truly blocking flow to about 25% of the tank. But dang it was looking good. Cue 1 week of depression. This prompted some "advice" I had.
-----

If you plan on becoming a successful reef keeper, I highly recommend a mentor and listening to what they say. Much of this I was told before and while I am not sad, mad etc a lot of it was true.

Montipora will take over a successful tank. It grows fast. I personally love the plating structure. I was told this and ignored it. Encrusting montipora can only be killed by smothering and even then it will escape. Plating is the way to go.

Corals *will* grow. You really need to give 8-12" of space AT LEAST for any coral. Mine are running into each other and fighting, and a lot of it is untrimmable. It's a great problem to have, but I may lose some colonies. I have already fragged a few prepping for the mother colony to die.

Some corals are basically impossible to remove. Be on the lookout for this.

A coral this is fun when small may not be fun when large. My euphyllia was awesome at 50+ heads. It cut the **** out of my hand, would collapse if touched, sting the crap out of any neighbors and eventually I got rid of it because it just didnt play nice in a SPS tank. My LPS mushroom is so big and beefy it shades or crushes whatever it touches, I am convinced one day decided it didn't like the coral below and decided to lay on it killing the coral once a I noticed a day or two later.

Dragonsbreath coral will instantly shatter (at the base) if even brushed with large metal tools. trim with small pruning scissors or your hand

While I have great growth, it's confined to 75% of my specimens. The rest are plodding along or cant compete.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of a good, clean sump layout. Mine looks like a mess and I hate getting in there..

If I had to do it again, I would *highly* recommend against a mixed reef. LPS, SPS or softies only. It's too hard to meet all their needs.

A lot of this hobby really is just maintaining consistent parameters.

Do not buy online if you have a good LFS. I drive 90min to my LFS every few months, it's far better than ordering stuff weekly; I see it in person, no acclimation time, I can see the conditions its living/growing in, I can see the size I get, I can check if it's thriving. Stuff is damaged in shipping, it doesnt look the same as some oversaturated online photo...dont get me wrong I order online sometimes and sometimes I have to. But nothing beats in person. I would say my "hit rate" on good, living, long term coral that looks like what I bough for mail vs in person is probably 20% vs 80%

You really should but the largest tank you can. It's more work when it goes wrong, but if it gets up and running it looks great. The problem is the corals get too large once you are experienced. IMO smaller tanks can only hold a handful of colonies, or it else it looks like a frag tank. The other option is to grow stuff that grows together eg mushrooms or euphyllias

____________-

My current plan was for last years to be a grow year, and this years to be a trim year. Well, I'll be trimming it slowly all year, making room for a few new corals hopefully around Reefapalooza time. And by few, I really mean few. Contrary to my own advice I'd really like an elegance coral in there, as well a Gigas clam. Ill probably skip the elegance.

My current plan for the tank is to:
Trim a little and add a few corals this year.
Keep it as is for another 5 years (a total of 10); at some point replumb it.
At year 10 covert it fully to SPS tank, softie tank, or dedicated magnfica tank
If more space is required in my home, it will be a 50g or 100g.