Born on the 4th of July

[dragon99]

Thanks, it's finally starting to settle in (after 2 years). The next challenge will be installing a calcium reactor. Nearing the end of what limewater can do for me by itself. I've got a regulator on the way from Alan Le and now I have to decide which reactor to go with, Geo seems to be a common recommendation, but can be pricey.

 

[Haimat]

Nice tank!

I may have missed it, but do you mind sharing your maintenance and dosing regime? Also requesting a photo of the sump (primary to know your choice of filtration).

 

[Chrisfish]

Just went through your thread, really enjoyed it and your tank and pictures are awesome. I will continue to follow and look forward to seeing more

 

[dragon99]

Dosing -
BRS limewater (still using the old stuff) and vinegar (~30ml/g) in the ATO
Red Sea Colors trace elements - 1ml each every other day or so. It's about half the dose calculated by Ca consumption
Brightwell Neophos - occasionally when my PO4 tests low. Trying to keep it above .02ppm
Prodibio Biodigest - 1 vial every 2 weeks

I'm doing weekly water changes of about 18g with Instant Ocean since June. During each WC, I vacuum sand where I can reach. That's becoming tricky as corals grow in, I've made a few frags already
Empty the skimmer cup every 3-4 days.
Empty KH Director waste every 2 weeks.

Clean pump/powerheads occasionally. I did all of them in the last couple weeks actually. Quick soak in muriatic acid cleans them right up.

I stopped using filter socks because I got tired of rinsing them every 2 days. So now I just deal with the floating particles.

Here's my Sep maintenance:

 

[dragon99]

Skimmer is main filtration, Vertex Omega 150.
Also a couple marinepure blocks

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Great build! Glad to see the tank doing well. What is on the top of the tank on the right side in this picture?

 

[dragon99]

Great build! Glad to see the tank doing well. What is on the top of the tank on the right side in this picture?

Tunze cooling fan, not the cheapest cooling option, but it's less obtrusive than some.

 

[dragon99]

Picture update

Halichoeres cosmetus (adorned wrasse)

 

[dragon99]

Lighting since last December has been an ATI 6x54W T5 fixture (non-dimmable). Fixture is hanging 9.5" above the water. I started out with 4 Blue+,2 Coral+. I switch to 3B+/3C+ this summer and prefer the look. I knew I haven't been hurting for light, but the Seneye I was using had me feeling it was a bit on the low side (reading ~450 above the water). I recently got a Apogee MQ-510 and what a difference!

The lowest I'm reading on the sand is ~200 in the back corner. Even with ~10 month old bulbs, all of my sps are in the 250-350 sweet spot.

 

[dragon99]

I have no one to blame but myself. Found 5 SPS with aefw when I hit them with a baster.

I removed and dipped several corals last night. KCl seems to make a good dip (5g in .5gal, ~1600ppm K), the worm pictured below died at about 15min into the dip. I'll be starting KZ Flatworm Stop.

 

[dragon99]

Time to kill some AEFW, trying Purge. Except for the few acro's that were hit by the worms, the tank has been looking pretty good.

Purge definitely clouds up the water at first.

 

[dragon99]

Flow at the center of the tank

VID_20181030_183729

• dragon99
• Oct 30, 2018

Polyps on green digitata in flow

And my shrimp came out for a picture

 

[dragon99]

Last dose of Purge goes in tomorrow. I'm cautiously optimistic that it's been effective at eliminating AEFW. I've only found 1 aefw when blasting corals, and that was the second week. Since then everything appears to be bite free!

Not sure if it's the daily PO4 dosing I've been doing, or the skimmer cup being off for 3 weeks, but all of the sps look great. Some are bit on the brown side which is expected as my nitrates have gone over 20 now with the skimmer not doing it's thing. But even with daily doses, PO4 was only at 0.02ppm (7pbb Hanna ULR) last night.

RR Aussie gold in the center, then and now:

My green digitata monti has never looked this vibrant. The picture doesn't do it justice.

This morning I caught my bubble tip starfish out. The monster from the deep has stirred...

 

[dragon99]

I think I'm winning the AEFW battle. I haven't found a worm when basting since the second week of treatment.

Late Sept (before I realized I had a problem), late Oct, right before treatment, bite marks are very evident, and today. Part of the darkening is probably due the water being quite brown right now. A month of no skimmer and Purge dosing will do that.

This is late Sept and today:

 

[dragon99]

Well, unfortunately I found AEFW on a coral after the final dose of Purge. UWC is sending a new batch that is properly bottled so that more of the active ingredient should be in every bottle, fingers crossed the next round knocks them out.

Meanwhile, everything actually looks pretty good. Been dosing PO4 daily and I think the corals are looking much better. I have some of the darkest colors I've ever had.

RR Aussie Gold in the center
6 months ago

vs Today

Bonus pic, side ****

 

[dragon99]

Equipment upgrade time. Black Friday sales brought me a new skimmer and calcium reactor. I needed a skimmer with a smaller footprint to fit a carx into the sump. I ended up with a Simplicity DC240 and so far I'm extremely impressed with the skimmer for the price (much cheaper than even a equivalent Skimz unit). Simple to setup and get running and it's much quieter than the Vertex was. I can't hear the skimmer at all now whereas I could always hear the Vertex across the room.

Since I was in the sump, the heater got replaced also. Out with the old:

In with the new:

Calcium reactor is next. Plan is to hopefully get it installed today and running (without CO2) and then this coming weekend make the switch so that I can monitor it while I'm home.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Awesome build thread and updates!!! Thanks

 

[dragon99]

Full tank video

• dragon99
• Dec 15, 2018

 

[mmw64]

Flow at the center of the tank

VID_20181030_183729

• dragon99
• Oct 30, 2018

Polyps on green digitata in flow

And my shrimp came out for a picture

Interesting that you have shrimp and wrasses. Always wondered if shrimp would be a wrasse snack. It's working for you. Might give it a try. Beautiful tank!

 

[dragon99]

Interesting that you have shrimp and wrasses. Always wondered if shrimp would be a wrasse snack. It's working for you. Might give it a try. Beautiful tank!

I was careful to check which wrasses I went with. Many of the halichoeres wrasses are shrimp/snail friendly, but not all.