BKHUNT 150G MIXED REEF DISPLAY AND ATTACHED 30 FRAG

[bkhunt]

I am getting ready to start a total wipeout of my entire system in the coming days/weeks/months. My tank is slowly being taken over by majano anemones and I have been managing them for the past year or so. I am going to setup a new 50g AIO frag tank and 29g fish holding tank.

Going to frag off all of my corals one rock piece at a time ensuring there are no unwanted pest. They then will be placed into the new frag tank in hopes of re introducing them back into the system when ready.

There are some corals unfortunately will not be able to be saved and I will source replacements when the time comes.

All rock will be putting to a bucket of straight hot tap water for 10 minuted and then scrubbed with a brush. Once the piece has been through my inital cleaning it will be placed into a trash can full of freshwater with a pool chlorine tablet in it for a week. The rock will then be pressure washed and set aside to dry and assessed if more cleaning is needed. Rock will then be placed in a can with freshwater and prime for a week.

All sand will be removed and placed into my garden. I have 150 pounds of new sand arriving soon.

Tanks and sump will be filled with freshwater and a pool chlorine tablet and let to run for a week. Tanks and equipment will be scrubbed and water emptied and refilled until everything is clean. Lastly tank will be filled with freshwater and prime and emptied.

New sand and clean rock will be placed into the system and RO/DI water added. Salt will be added into the sump for mixing into the tank. Cycling will begin.

I am planning on leaving the 50g AIO frag tank up and running as a quarantine system for coral in hopes of catching any pest prior to entering my display again.

I also am going to rehome a couple fish that will be a little cramped in the smaller tanks for a few months.

I hope all this will make my system 100% pest free starting back up. My goal is to be moving back into my display mid-August.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with your new tank!!!

 

[bkhunt]

Moving along. I got stand in basement and piece of yoga mat cut for under tank. I am also printing the legs for the egg crate. Just doing 4 on the first print but will be doing 12 more as soon as they are done. Picking up the new 48x24x10 AIO frag tank tomorrow morning. (Don’t mind my temporary mess behind stand)

 

[bkhunt]

Well the AIO frag tank is up and cycling. Added some Brightwell Tank Starter, dead filefish (jumped out of tank), bi color angelfish that was in my current connected frag tank. Set the light on the “refugium” area and it looks like nice flow. I am hoping to be able to save some of my red macro algae’s to reintroduce into the main tank.

 

[bkhunt]

Got some new to me dry rock today! I hosed it off and it is now in a can and old cooler with freshwater and chlorine tablets for a week or so

 

[jmarina]

Sounds like a great plan and build!

 

[bkhunt]

Well the rock has soaked for a week in chlorine water, been rinsed off, and is now soaking in freshwater with chlorine remover for a week.

The new frag tank want through a milky cloudy water and slime algae. Did a 5g water change and remembered I have my old I sump skimmer in a bin in the garage. Added that and so far I have emptied the cup once and it is ready to be emptied again tonight. Eventually will be upgrading to HOB skimmer so I don’t lose valuable space

 

[bkhunt]

First few coral from the display have been fragged off and moved to new frag tank. Will give them a couple days to see how they do before I add any more. Fingers crossed they do good and the tank is ready enough for them. The larger frags will be going back into the tank when it is ready.

 

[bkhunt]

Slow and steady but making some progress in the coral removing. Made a big hole in the rock work tonight.

I was down a couple days due to the coral saw going down. The lower wheel came loose and the power switch decided to fall apart when I was taking saw apart to fix. Today the new on/off switch came vs the variable speed knob that was on it. I used the saw mostly all the way up anyway so no big loss. I also got a momentary foot switch which I am LOVING so far.

 

[bkhunt]

Well the frag tank is officially empty!! It is now being filled up with mushroom rocks until I find a home for them. That is about half the mushrooms in my tank.

Her is a quick shot of the tank getting pretty empty.

New frag tank is looking a little milky right now. I am thinking it is adjusting to the increase in bio load.

 

[bkhunt]

Well yesterday was stack the rock day finally!! This morning is add salt day! Almost have enough salt in to add the Brightwell Reef Starter.

 

[bkhunt]

Well it has been a week of cycling so far. I have not registered any ammonia or nitrites when I tested. I did add 250ml of live starter bacteria last Sunday once salt level was at 35ppm. I have a pair of clowns in the connected frag tank. I have been feeding the fish and tossing in a pinch of flakes in the main tank also. Today I added a small single head of gold hammer and a bubble gum monti frag. I also turned on the light over the frag tank so we shall see how they do.

Think I may try and add a couple damsels or chromis this week to slowly build bio-load.

Finger crossed everything goes good.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Well it has been a week of cycling so far. I have not registered any ammonia or nitrites when I tested. I did add 250ml of live starter bacteria last Sunday once salt level was at 35ppm. I have a pair of clowns in the connected frag tank. I have been feeding the fish and tossing in a pinch of flakes in the main tank also. Today I added a small single head of gold hammer and a bubble gum monti frag. I also turned on the light over the frag tank so we shall see how they do.

Think I may try and add a couple damsels or chromis this week to slowly build bio-load.

Finger crossed everything goes good.

Best of luck to everything!

 

[bkhunt]

Well I am finally registering some ammonia and nitrites!!! Everything seems to be moving right along with the cycling!! Hopefully soon I will be able to add some corals!!!

Today I turned on the blue channel of my lights at 1%. The connected frag tank seems to be doing with the lights running. The frag tank has 2 clown and 2 frags in it and all seem to be doing good.

 

[bkhunt]

Figured I would update my build thread. I have had a lot of bad and a few good things happen to my tank since the last update months ago.

The BAD:
bacteria bloom
bottomed out nitrates and phosphates
dino outbreak - prorocentrum
lost 95% of all my corals - few LPS and monti digi survived

The GOOD:
New lighting - X30 Blue from Aliexpress
Dino gone - sodium silicates and loads of good bacteria
Nitrates back up - sodium nitrates
Phosphates back up - naturally
Few new coral from friends
UV sterilizer added
diatom bloom from sodium silicate dosing

Time to start looking for new corals to start restocking!!!!!!

 

[bkhunt]