brissey02's 120 reef tank.

[brissey02]

I hope I do this right! Starting with tank delivery day (the living room is a mess during the process!)

next is filling and cycling the tank.. 6 week cycle using live bacteria. this is unfortunately the only pics I have of this stage.

after cycling, I finally added some fish, and emerald crabs. Here they are in buckets ready to be drip acclimated. 2 emerald crabs, 2 black snowflake clowns, 1 mocha clown, a chocolate mimic tang, and a powder brown tang.

after the tank settled, I finally got to add some frags..

and that's pretty much where we're at. have added a few torches since, turbo snails, a purple tang, sand sifting goby, and a fourth clown plus an oyster. oh! and two cleaner shrimp.

at some point in the middle of the whole process, we painted the stand, and upgraded the sump.

 

[Bo.]

Looks like you are off to a great start!

 

[Staghorn]

Good luck with everything keep us updated

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Lookin good. Welcome to r2r!
D

 

[brissey02]

Thanks everyone! It's definitely still a work in progress, that's for sure. Mostly my rock work. I think it needs more depth, but I'd really like to try an NSA aquascape. I'll definitely keep updating as I go along! I just wish I could figure out how to post videos!

My dad was a huge fish enthusiast, so I grew up around the hobby. He mostly kept freshwater with discus being the ones of note. His dream was a salt water setup. My uncle kept a FOWLR tank for years. I'm excited to finally be able to embark on my own salt water journey after many freshwater tanks.

 

[brissey02]

All in all this is the current stock list in full;
-diamond goby (the biggest pain in the rear!)
-chocolate mimic tang
-Purple tang
-powder brown
-1 mocha clown
-3 black snowflake clowns
-4 green chromis
-sand sifter starfish
-1 fire oyster (not 100% on the name)
-several mixed corals, including cyphastrea, zoos, Duncans, torches, hammers, and frog spawn.

 

[Bo.]

Thanks everyone! It's definitely still a work in progress, that's for sure. Mostly my rock work. I think it needs more depth, but I'd really like to try an NSA aquascape. I'll definitely keep updating as I go along! I just wish I could figure out how to post videos!

My dad was a huge fish enthusiast, so I grew up around the hobby. He mostly kept freshwater with discus being the ones of note. His dream was a salt water setup. My uncle kept a FOWLR tank for years. I'm excited to finally be able to embark on my own salt water journey after many freshwater tanks.

Easiest way is uploading to youtube and making the video private and just sharing a direct link here

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Very nice, welcome to R2R

 

[brissey02]

to update this thread: We're about a year and a half down the road from when I started the tank and hit some major snags in the process. Definitely verify the information you're getting with a trusted local reef store... or two. Something that I learned the hard way. We've experienced quite a few losses, all starting with that powder brown that I didn't know could be such an issue. 3 waves of ich finally got him, along with 3/4 of the rest of my livestock. (3 clownfish and a damsel are what survived. and they're still going strong)

After that, we started having algae issues. Upon buying a TDS meter, the water in our area (after running through an 8 stage BRS RODI unit) runs at around 400-500 ppm. I've done everything recommended to me, short of draining the tank and starting fresh. no amount of chemical, clean up crew, water change, black out period or rock scrubbing has managed to get the hair algae to even calm down.

I'm getting ready to send my trident in for the 3rd time to be fixed because while I followed the shut down process, it never seems to quite get all of the salt out, and then proceeds to dry up, causing a blockage.

during this time period, I've also started nursing school, and he started a new job, leaving us both with very little time. All in all, we're starting to feel the "newbie burn out", and have decided it's best we downgrade (we're looking at renting out our home and putting an RV on some land while we wait to build after I get out of school, so it was probably going to go this direction anyways)

I picked up a 20 gal peninsula, which is currently cycling now. I'll (hopefully) be doing a new build thread (once I figure out how to do it) with it, now that I've learned more about cycling for salt water tanks, and have gotten some way better information than what I was going off of the first time

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

There's no way your water is 500-600tds after a 6 stage rodi. I'm sorry no way.
D

 

[brissey02]

There's no way your water is 500-600tds after a 6 stage rodi. I'm sorry no way.

There is a possibility the TDS meter on the RODI is slightly off. Although, I did mean to hit 3 instead of 5. We had samples sent in for testing and there’s was alot of contamination from what they said. I’m thinking the outside hoses though may be off of a well, so that could be a huge part of the contamination issue. I’m just guessing on that one though, it could still be city.. my inside faucets don’t have enough pressure to effectively run through the RODI. I’ve heard the same from other fishkeepers in the county.

it’s usually around 400, but it’s gotten up to 650 around times they’re doing work to the water plant, via an external TDS meter I borrowed off a friend.