Bills Reborn 120 gal Mixed Reef Tank

Judgemofo · Jan 29, 2019

Your build thread has taught me a lot since i'm setting up the exact same tank. I'm almost done with my stand and will be starting my own build thread. Just wanted to thank you for all the great tips on the setup.

Billldg · Jan 29, 2019

Judgemofo said:
Your build thread has taught me a lot since i'm setting up the exact same tank. I'm almost done with my stand and will be starting my own build thread. Just wanted to thank you for all the great tips on the setup.

I'm glad it helped you.

Billldg · Jan 30, 2019

Over the past weekend I notice my ph steadily going down, I fixed the air line on my skimmer to allow air to be sucked into skimmer and not water. I turned skimmer on and it's amazing what a little air does to the ph level as you can see below.

My parameters as of Sunday are:
Ph 8.07
Alk 8.7
Cal 400
Phos .1

I have my skimmer skimming I guess you would call dry, I turned it on mainly to oxygenate the water and possibly raise ph, I have the bubbles breaking roughly 4 inches below top of cup.

Billldg · Feb 2, 2019

Ok, the deed is done, I just put 4 more fish in my DT. I now have 1 Purple Tang, 1 LT Tang, 1 Tomini Tang, 4 Blue/Green Chromis, 1 Pintail Fairy Wrasse, 1 pink Streaked Wrasse, and 1 Oynx Clown Fish in the DT. Fireworks are starting with the tangs as expected, hopefully they will set the pecking order before I have to intervein. As of right now I only have 1 more fish in QT, a Black Fin Fairy Wrasse, I did have a Crescent Fairy wrasse also but for unknown reasons it died and I don't know if I will get another to replace it, I should make up my mind by today. If I do get another Crescent that will put the total number of fish at 12, fully stocking my DT to capacity.

Billldg · Feb 6, 2019

The tangs finally settled down a little and are currently tolerating each other, so hopefully that means that a won't have to pull fish out. My parameters are starting to stabilize, phosphates were starting to get a little high so I ended up using a little GFO until my chaeto starts to grow, if ever. My Cal was a little low, so I bumped up the dosing amount a little.

Alk 8.9
Cal 380
Mag 1400
Nitrate 20
Phosphates .17

Billldg · Feb 16, 2019

Tank is starting to come around and I'm finally starting to feel like I may be getting ahold of the dinos and my parameters. Starting to get some green algae in the tank which is good because it out competes the dinos and other unwanted algaes. I am finally starting to see the dino level drop off. My parameters are 9 Alk, 360 cal, .10 phosphate. My Alk and Cal are steady, bumped up my Cal DOS 1 mil today, now that it leveled out at 360 I want to raise it to 420 to 440. My phosphates were up to .17, I added a 1'4 cup of GFO to lower it to .09-.1, I want to get the phosphates down to .03, waiting on Chaeto to start to grow, some of it died off, may need to add more, trying to find what it takes to grow so I don't have to use GFO to keep my parameters steady, some of the corals that survived are starting to look happy and may even be growing again, others are a bit happier but not what I want. I may take them out and dip them in Coral RX or some other stuff I purchased because it has Iodine in it, not sure if Coral RX does which is why I bought it. The only problem with having an Apex is that it allows you to worry about the tank all day, watching the parameters swing throughout the day makes you realize that the tank does in fact change with temp and photosynthesis from corals and algae. My PH swings roughly .1 a day from 8.1 to 8, hopefully when my chaeto starts to grow it will level that out. It also have its perks, I found a heater not coming on properly and my tank dropped from 78 to 76.5, one heater was coming on, but it takes 2 200 watt heaters to raise the temp in the winter. I ended up changing out the heater with a spare I bought, I will use that heater for the mixing tanks as its not bad, just the t-stat is acting a little funky.

Update on the tangs, they have settled down, but I will be the first to tell you that the purple tang is a punk, still trying to throw its weight around and control the tank, LOL!!!

Billldg · Feb 23, 2019

Not a great photo, but it will do. My tangs being buddy buddy, LOL!!! I may buy a canon with a micro lens to start taking better photos.

View attachment 20190223_155803.jpg

Billldg · Mar 2, 2019

I took my PAR reading for the tank and I was totally surprised. I can see why my tester sps frags under my previous light were browning out. I had no where near enough PAR with that setup. I had to turn my current T5/LED lights past were I thought I had to have them to get at least 300 PAR on the top rock structure. At least now I know where they need to be, power wise. If I raise the percentage on the LED's to 70 percent I get roughly 320 to 400 par on the top rock structure with the T5's on also, with a section on the side staying around 230 PAR. All I have to do is move the left LED light towards the outside a little to remedy the problem. If I raise the percentage anymore then I will raise the lower outside PAR values to high for a mixed tank, at 50 percent my PAR would stay between 80 to 110 PAR on the sand bed on the outsides, I want to be able to keep blastos there, I can keep some acans on the lower rock structurfes, they can handle a little higher PAR and the PAR value on the lower rocks structures was between 100 to 140 PAR with T5's and LED's on.

MichaelClark55 · Mar 2, 2019

Billldg said:
Today I built a support wall in the basement. Even though the floor joist can handle the load the extra support puts me at ease. I used 2x6 lumber and support the floor joist with the wall. The tank will be against the wall supported by the poured concrete foundation wall. I pulled the new support wall of the concrete wall to support the front of the tank. My sand and another 40 lb box of HW Marine Reefer salt arrived today, so if everything go's to plan the tank will be wet tomorrow

That was a good idea. I think you need it.

NY_Caveman · Mar 2, 2019

Billldg said:
I took my PAR reading for the tank and I was totally surprised. I can see why my tester sps frags under my previous light were browning out. I had no where near enough PAR with that setup. I had to turn my current T5/LED lights past were I though I had to have them to get at least 300 PAR on the top rock structure. At least now I know where they need to be, power wise. If I raise the percentage on the LED's to 70 percent I get roughly 320 to 400 par on the top rock structure with the T5's on also, with a section on the side staying around 230 PAR. All I have to do is move the left LED light towards the outside a little to remedy the problem. If I raise the percentage anymore then I will raise the lower outside PAR values to high for a mixed tank, at 50 percent my PAR would stay between 80 to 110 PAR on the sand bed on the outsides, I want to be able to keep blastos there, I can keep some acans on the lower rock structurfes, they can handle a little higher PAR and the PAR value on the lower rocks structures was between 100 to 140 PAR with T5's and LED's on.

Excellent. Always a surprise when you test for the first time. So important to know and for some, just borrowing a PAR meter once could make a huge difference.

Billldg · Mar 2, 2019

NY_Caveman said:
Excellent. Always a surprise when you test for the first time. So important to know and for some, just borrowing a PAR meter once could make a huge difference.

I am most surprised by how much your return pipes and the center brace affect PAR readings. Also surprised by how much the wake from the return pumps and wave makers affect PAR.

NY_Caveman · Mar 2, 2019

You did with and without? Smart.

Billldg · Mar 16, 2019

I installed a Co2 scrubber to try and raise my ph. Throughout the day my ph would fluctuate between 7.95 and 8.07. Changing my tank to mainly sps I wanted my ph a little higher. After installing the scrubber my ph went from 8.03 to 8.19 in less than a day.

Before

After

Billldg · Mar 21, 2019

After I installed a Co2 scrubber my ph raised up and looked good for 3 days, then all of a sudden if fell back to normal levels, I was like if the media only last for 3 days then this isn't going to work, to expensive. So on a hunch I checked and found that the little bit of water u put into the container to moisten the media had dried to. I added more water to the container to see if that was why my ph fell. As u can see in the picture below, that was the reason and my levels came back up to 8.17. I learn something everyday.

Billldg · Mar 21, 2019

My silent assassins at work, these little guys r awesome, bergia nudis that is.

Billldg · Apr 7, 2019

I learned today that when you raise your ph, you do in fact use much more Alk and Cal. I have been steady raising my DOS, trying to match the usage. I have been steadily running my PH between 8.15 and 8.3 since installing my Co2 scrubber, raising it from 7.9 to 8.05. That increase has caused my consumption of Alk to raise from 32 ml a day to 65 ml and climbing, and my cal to raise from from 24ml a day to 50 ml a day. I am still trying to find the happy spot to keep my Alk and Cal steady. The upside to this is that I do in fact see my frags growing daily, literally. I received a JF Raja Rampage chalice a month ago and it has already started to overgrow the plug it came on, my montis are also doing the same, so like @Bulk Reef Supply tested and proved, there is merit to running your PH higher, the draw back is you use more supplements, LOL!!!

Hemmdog · Apr 7, 2019

Billldg said:
I learned today that when you raise your ph, you do in fact use much more Alk and Cal. I have been steady raising my DOS, trying to match the usage. I have been steadily running my PH between 8.15 and 8.3 since installing my Co2 scrubber, raising it from 7.9 to 8.05. That increase has caused my consumption of Alk to raise from 32 ml a day to 65 ml and climbing, and my cal to raise from from 24ml a day to 50 ml a day. I am still trying to find the happy spot to keep my Alk and Cal steady. The upside to this is that I do in fact see my frags growing daily, literally. I received a JF Raja Rampage chalice a month ago and it has already started to overgrow the plug it came on, my montis are also doing the same, so like @Bulk Reef Supply tested and proved, there is merit to running your PH higher, the draw back is you use more supplements, LOL!!!

My tank just started consuming like crazy too, out of no where. It’s a good thing though!