CCOMBS FIRST REEF!

[ccombs]

UPDATE-Feburary 24, 2020

Very unfortunate update. As much as I love this hobby, I will actually be needing to get out of it. As of this week, all of my livestock and dry goods are on the selling forum.

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THIS THREAD IS RETIRED, I WILL STILL ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS THREAD HERE IF THEY COME UP. FOR MY MOST UP TO DATE PROGRESS, PLEASE SEE MY NEW THREAD!

Build Thread - CCOMBS Boujee Reef

This thread is a continuation of my thread CCOMBS FIRST REEF since I am doing a full upgrade. That experience taught me so much, and now I am at a place where I feel like I am ready to start a new upgrade and do things better this time around. I am taking the AIO tank from the original thread...

www.reef2reef.com

Please Note- The first few pages of this thread end horribly, if you want to start at my rebuild, click below-

Start of Rebuild

For Those That Want Complete Experience, Start With This Post.

Hello All,

Welcome to my build and progression. My tank has technically been running for 6 months now and I have had some weird issues. However, this thread is not about my issues, but my current progression. If you want to see my issues click here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/nitrate-issue-turned-emergency.562563/

I will kind of start from the beginning and walk you through what I have done so far until we get to current day!

Table of Contents:

Stand Build
Cycling
Lighting Faux Pas
Problems Arise
Gyre Added
Snowstorm!
Lighting Resolution
Uronema/Tank Breakdown
ccombs Bleach Method
Plans for Rebuild
APEX Programming Fun
Lasse Method
Life Support
Marine Velvet...Seriously?!?!
How I Hid My Equipment In Plain Sight
Wyoming Whites'
MTRC Frag Swap and Facepalm #3
Anemone!
Rebuild #2

I am new to the hobby and did quite a bit of research and lurking on forums before I decided to take the plunge into the hobby. The last time I had a hobby it became my full time job, which is a blessing and curse.... mostly a blessing though! I have not had any sort of hobby since high school when my business took off, and I realized that I needed to put time and energy into something else besides work for my own sanity.

First off, I will walk you guys through my build aquarium stand build.

I recently finished a DIY home renovation and decided I wanted to build a kitchen table, but I wanted a chance to practice some techniques first. This aquarium stand is the first piece of furniture I have ever made and was practice for my bigger project, the kitchen table. Overall I am fine with how it turned out, but I think I will build a new one soon now that I have a better idea of what I am doing!

The concept was to have a very open looking table as opposed to an enclosed cabinet. In hindsight I enjoy the open concept, but I would really like to be able to have a place for an ATO. I hate seeing wires and things like that, I hate even knowing that they are hidden and messy. I tried hard to keep everything nice and tidy.

I got the furniture idea and general steps to build it from a youtube channel called 'Fix This Build That' and it is a really great resource for DIY projects.

First thing I did is build the frame. The main body is a 2x4 Pine and the legs are 4x4 Pine.

This is the completed frame before finishing.

Paint being applied to table legs/stretchers/aprons. I used a color that went with our accent wall inside. I wish I had done something different.

This is the top while receiving stain. It is just joined together with glue and clamps. Proper use of this method creates a strong table top.

This is the table after the coats of paint and stain dried.

FWIW, here is a picture of my DIY kitchen table that this was practice for.

This table is a reclaimed walnut top with some metal legs I had custom fabricated (I don't do metal work). I will just post this one since it IS an aquatic forum. Sorry for such bad lighting in the pic! (I built the chessboard as well)

 

[ccombs]

Now that the stand has been built, it is time to get my aquarium going!

I want to eventually have a larger tank and integrate into a wall or do the built in peninsula thing, but before I did all of that, I wanted to run a smaller tank for a few years to be sure I actually enjoy the hobby and can manage it.

I chose a 30 gallon because I knew that no matter what, it was a size that I could manage with my time, money, and energy. My biggest fear was going too big and having something I couldn't sustain if the tank took a nosedive and required large financial investments to maintain. I knew that it was a size my wife could manage while I was out of town (I travel frequently) and I like the idea of a simple, small, well maintained reef that is stunning despite the size.

Note: My wife is a sweetheart and if I asked her to take care of a huge reef while I was out of town she totally could and would. While this is a joint effort, I take more responsibility for the maintenance, etc. because it was my dream and I didn't want to force it on her. She loves the fish and loves to help keep the healthy and happy, now that we know we both love it, we are looking forward to eventually doing something bigger in a few years.

Here is my wife and I trying to figure out the best rock configuration, we used live dry rock. In hindsight, if I were to do it again I would use true live rock from a LFS or someone else in the hobby.

We ended up liking this double island idea you see below. It was strategic because it did the following:

1) Gave open space near the top for fish to have plenty of room to swim
2) Gave a smaller island because I knew that I liked GSP and Xenia and that would allow me to isolate better and not have a tank takeover
3) Gave 2 caves for hiding
4) Created interesting pathways for fish and left room for good water flow with eventual gyre purchase
5) Looked like a natural environment

Ignore the pump you see at the bottom left, this was a placeholder for sizing.

 

[MTBake]

Welcome to R2R

Your table looks really nice!

Hope you get your tank issues under control sooner than later. Almost sounds like you need to let your tank do it's thing for a while to me. I didn't want to comment in your other thread as lots of good people were already helping you.

 

[ccombs]

Welcome to the first face palm post of many.

As I stated earlier, I started my tank 6 months ago after a lot of research.

I had all of the equipment, I had my game plan, I got the tank in place, put in the sand, and then added water.

Once I added the water I realized.......

I DID NOT WASH MY SAND!!!!

I had a cloudy mess to end all cloudy messes. I had the bucket to wash the sand, I had the water to wash my sand, I had it all outside ready to go, but I literally just forgot because it was on my patio out of sight....

It is fun to laugh about it now, but it was quite a face palm at the time!

 

[ccombs]

Welcome to R2R

Your table looks really nice!

Hope you get your tank issues under control sooner than later. Almost sounds like you need to let your tank do it's thing for a while to me. I didn't want to comment in your other thread as lots of good people were already helping you.

I appreciate it! I think there is something going on and my test reading might be a byproduct of a different reaction happening somewhere. I guess time will tell!

 

[MTBake]

I appreciate it! I think there is something going on and my test reading might be a byproduct of a different reaction happening somewhere. I guess time will tell!

Do you have a local fish store double check your test results? Just to verify.

I would also consider sending out an icp test kit to see what exactly is in your water.

 

[ccombs]

So now that my cloudy mess had settled, it was time for my first fish! Once again in hindsight, I wish I had done a cycle with ghost feeding, etc. over a month or so, but my tank came with this product that claimed it was safe to put fish in immediately.

Enter Dr. Tim's. I convinced myself that it was actually a better option, and the product required that you add a fish quickly, so I made my first fish purchase.

Meet Carl (This is him from a few days ago)

Excuse the blurry picture. Carl is the clownfish.

He is our second favorite pet only to this one....

But really, who can compete with that face.....


My original plan had been the true cycle with ghost feeding over a month, but this was my first audible and I was happy to get the tank up. This picture is from the very first day I added Dr. Tim's One and Only and Carl the Clownfish.

Contrary to what this picture suggests, the tank doesn't get beamed with sunlight because of the direction the house faces, but the window does let in ambient lighting which is nice!

You may notice that there isn't any lighting, stay tuned for what seemed like another great idea but is Facepalm #2!

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Again, welcome to R2R.

Good to have a build thread to keep track of everything.

As for the issues you are having with the tank, it will get sorted. Even if I have to bring my test kits to ya and do full battery of tests lol.

Great thing about a smaller tank, is a rip and clean or replace is easy. If it comes to that, but hopefully it won’t.

Look forward to seeing the progress from beginning to now.

 

[ccombs]

Oh boy, here comes Facepalm # 2!

The funny thing is that this one did not become a facepalm until many weeks later.

I work in the touring concert industry and as you may know, we use a lot of lighting. Due to my job, I didn't do as much research on lighting as I should have because I thought my knowledge of types of lighting/spectrum would be enough. It wasn't until later that I truly realized the considerations for PAR readings, UV spectrum, how much of the spectrum some lights put out. You see.... in my world I only have to worry about what lights drunk concert goers can see in an arena, not anything about growth for coral.

Having just completed my home renovation, I had a brilliant idea, why not make an aquarium light out of Phillips Hue strips. My home is 100% Smart lighting with a lot of it being Phillips Hue. This way I could control my aquarium lighting from my phone and it can run on a schedule like the rest of the home. My thinking at the time was that I was outsmarting APEX and other control solutions!

I do not really have pictures for this part of the build, but here is roughly how it went.

Step 1: Create Floating Bookshelf to Match Decor

Step 2: Route Out Channel for Strip Lights

Step 3: Install 5 Rows Of Lights, Solder Jumpers, Etc.

Step 4: Use Frosted Spray Paint to Frost Acrylic

Step 5: Cover Hue Lights with Frosted Panel

Step 6: Install Improper Lights Improperly High

Step 7: Ignorance Is Bliss As I Step Back, Look At Final Product, Feel Awesome

This lighting actually worked fine for just fish. It blended in with decor and I did it pretty cheap. Now that I am wanting to get my coral game up, I am ordering some Kessils lol.

I am not sure when this picture is from, but this is the lighting solution in action!

 

[ccombs]

Fast forward to week 6 with me. My wife and I find the cutest bicolor blenny at the LFS. We watch him in the tank and he is spitting rocks at us. We instantly fall in love and think he would make a good companion to Carl, so we take him home!

We name him Dwayne 'Spits Rocks' Johnson.

Dwayne hides most of the day and we spend about half the time thinking he is dead when we don't see his little head poking out of the rockwork. I do not recall what week it was, but as he grew bigger, I had to free him from the rocks one day when he got stuck. I had not seen him in days, but I finally find him and he is the same color as the rock and not moving. I observe over the next several hours and I start to wonder if he is dead. I dip the end of a pipette in the water and tap him lightly and he squirms back and forth, but can't get out. Over the next 10 minutes I gently easy the pipette down in the hole trying to basically 'pry' him free. It works and he swims off to his normal hole just as happy as can be.

Also on week 6 I experienced a white bloom in my tank. After some research and troubleshooting, I deduce that it is an Algae bloom. This leads to me getting the UV filter and running it a few days later. The bloom clears within 24 hours and we are all back to our happy selfs!

At this point I start kind of using filter floss. I jam it between chambers in my sump and it kind of works. I also begin experimenting with carbon media in the sump. The water looked really clear, some days it even seemed to not be there, so I kept that up!

 

[ccombs]

Another 6 weeks later everything has been running fine. My skimmer gets louder every day, turns out I have to replace the impeller. Tunze customer care was great. They quickly got me the parts and covered all costs.

Back to the LFS. I decide to get a diamond watchman goby (Eugene) and I wanted some easy coral, so I reached for the GSP. I know everyone hates them when they get out of control, but when managed well, I love the look of a large sheet of GSP.

Here is a picture of Eugene at the LFS before we took him home.

Now, I knew that gobies liked to jump out of tanks, but me (thinking I know better) put the look of the tank over the function, and decide to still not put the lid on the tank.

Fast forward to 5am first night we have him.

For some reason my wife accidentally set an alarm for 5am and when it went off it scared me, her, and Eugene. Eugene jumped right out of the tank and hit the floor. My wife quickly realized that, springs out of bed, and put him back in the tank.

We quickly turn the lights on and Eugene is there....just chilling....like nothing happened. Meanwhile Carl is swimming frantically. From this point on we always use the lid.....

 

[ccombs]

Welcome to Week 16 of the Reef! This is where life starts to get really interesting. From day 1 we had a plan on how we wanted to stock the tank, and today was the day we finished the stock! Eugene has been hard at work re-arranging the sand bed, Dwayne has been hiding and judging us from his perch, and Carl has just been swimming around being Carl.

I head to the LFS and pick up 2 Blue/Green Chromis. I wanted some little guys that swam around at the top to kinda fill out the space in the tank. This is also about the time that I receive an Aquatic Life 4 Stage RODI unit in the mail, and I get that set up under my sink.

We name the Chromis Frank and Gus and take them home to the tank.

Here is a picture of Dwayne judging you from a distance...

This is the best the GSP ever looked.

Now I am very happy. Tank looks clean, GSP doing alright, and my tank is stocked with the 5 fish that I want, I am done adding them and they will live for years! I am now switching to RODI water and I have my hopes up that the tank will take off to the next level as I slowly add corals and have water parameters that will make everyone jealous.

SPOILER ALERT.....THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN, WE BEGIN OUR SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS.

Night 1 with Chromis-
Frank is Attacked, I find him the next morning with a hole in his side from a bite. I have read that sometimes it happens with Chromis. I had hoped that a group of 2 would work (even though it really should be 3), but although I am sad, I chalk it up to a lesson learned and move on.

Night 3 with Chromis-
Gus is attacked and dies. I had thought he was the attacker....so then who is the culprit in the tank.....

Based on the interactions of the fish, I believe it was Dwayne the Bi Color Blenny, but I never know for sure.

I do my first WC with RODI water and I am ready for my tank to flourish.

I am religious about my water changes and care. I believe that the time/effort put into the tank will directly correlate with how successful the tank it.

I notice my Nitrates start to rise to around 80ppm. Ammonia and Nitrite stays the same.........hmmmmm.

I consult my LFS and they recommend a mangrove to absorb the nitrate. At this point it had been about 2 weeks since the Chromis incident so I pick up a dwarf angel fish named Hank. Hank is a great fish, kind of timid, but loves majestically swimming around the tank.

I decide that maybe 5 fish was too much bioload for the tank. Even though I thought I could pull it off with the religious water changes/care, and the fact the Chromis and Blenny were all very tiny. I change my fish cap to 4 fish max and now the stocking is the Clown, Blenny, Goby and Angel. 2 LFS confirm with me that it is not too high of a bioload.

Everything is fine now with the mangrove.....or so I thought.....

EDIT-This is terrible for story telling, but good for helping others learn. The fish were not attacked, they had Uronema and I did not figure this out until much later...

 

[ccombs]

We are closing in on week 20. Clownfish starts sitting idle on side. I thought it might be a swim bladder issue, but I don't think so, because whenever startled or has energy, he can swim like normal. He is almost acting lethargic.

He sat like this about 90% of the time, tried to eat but was acting too disoriented to get the food, it is almost like he would miss. He got very thin.

To avoid losing him, I would cup him in my hand during feeding time, barely submerged in water, and put bits of food in his mouth that he would then to proceed to aggressively eat. He was very hungry, just disoriented....

EDIT- I believe this was due to Uronema

 

[ccombs]

Around the same time Carl is acting up, Dwayne comes out of his cave (which is odd) and would curl up in random places. I wanted to believe that he was just getting more comfy in the tank, but I knew deep down something wasn't right. After a few days his breathing was very labored.

Nitrates are now at 160ppm and I am doing 5 gallon water changes daily to try to get nitrates down. No matter how many we did, the nitrates would dip, then return to 160ppm the next morning.

Here is the last picture I got of Dwayne, he was never seen again.

My wife and I agree that he receded back into the rock work where he died. I searched and searched to be able to remove him, but he found tunnels through the rocks and I am sure he died in the middle of one of the rocks.

Right before I go out of town I notice Eugene is breathing hard too.

A few days later while away from the home, my wife informs me that Eugene had died. Luckily we could retrieve his body so we wouldn't have to deal with the decay.

So to review-

Goby/Blenny Dead
Carl Swimming On Side
Hank is perfectly fine
Ammonia and Nitrite at acceptable levels.
Nitrate still at 160ppm.

I was about as over it as my pup is in this picture.

 

[ccombs]

About a week and a half later (Week 21), Carl is still on his side and I feed him by hand, he is slowly regaining strength.

Hank is doing great lol.

No parameters are alarming except Nitrates.

Now, I fully admit what I am about to say was a really bad call and it shows a moment of impatience.

I somehow convinced myself that because Hank was doing great and Carl was getting better, a pair of Bangaii Cardinals would be great to replace the 2 fish that just died.

Yes, I know I should have waited, but I didn't and it is another lesson learned in my journey of reefing.

I get a IM media caddy so I can more effectively and efficiently stage my filter floss, carbon, and I added GFO.

Over the next 2 weeks Carl slowly regains more strength (I am still worried that he won't make it through most nights), and everyone else does fine except for the nitrates, all other parameters are in check.

 

[ccombs]

Week 23

It is now showing that I don't have my Goby or Blenny. Algae forming on rocks, looks like my rocks are fuzzy, and the sand is looking kind of dirty, even with regular vacuuming. I also finally conclude my feeding research and between week 21 and 23 cut my feeding in half.

I get a clean up crew of 7 hermits, 1 peppermint, and 1 cleaner.

These hermits GO TO WORK! They got all the junk up in a couple of days and Hank (the angel) constantly pesters the cleaner for a cleaning.

I am happy with myself and add a Xenia. The coral looks fantastic for about 3 days. I thought the CUC might help get my parameters in check. I do see that they pull big chunks out of the rocks that I believe to be what was left of Dwayne. The odd part is that his death never led to a spike in ammonia or nitrite.

 

[ccombs]

At this point I find NoPox and begin to do emergency doses of 5ml per day. Xenia does not like the carbon and shrinks down but doesn't melt. GSP hasn't looked good in weeks.

HOWEVER!

One day I wake up and check on the tank, Carl is fully healed and swimming like Michael Phelps!

Everything is looking up.

All fish are healthy, NoPox is reducing nitrates, other parameters aren't necessarily perfect, but within an acceptable range for sure.

Water looks crystal clear, tank is super clean and I am happy. All the inverts are running around doing their little invert sorta thing.

I am so happy I finally pull the trigger on a 1K gyre.

I was unhappy with my flow in the tank with just the return pump nozzles. I mainly used them for surface agitation because I wanted better oxygen exchange, but it left a lot of dead spots lower in the tank.

I install gyre and it is pretty powerful. I turn it on and it is default set to 50%. I am not kidding you when next thing I know I see my peppermint shrimp come flying past the front glass like the cow in Twister.

The gyre is literally making him fly around the tank in circles around the rocks and his little feet are going crazy trying to grip something.

I would have been able to turn it off sooner had I not been on the floor in tears laughing!

I turn the gyre off, make all of my presets appropriate for the tank, and I get really good flow all throughout. They gyre has really help keep detritus from collecting in dead spots.

 

[ccombs]

Nitrates are now down below 40, I am still dosing NoPox. My pH is at 7.8, and it had been around that since day 1, and I really wanted it to be at 8.2. I had read on the forum that I should avoid buffers, but the employee at a really well known LFS recommended API 8.2. I decided to trust the employee since literally anyone can say anything on the internet.

First dose goes really well. Alk around 9 which I am happy with and pH at 8.0.

 

[ccombs]

The bottle of API 8.2 say 2 very important things

1) May take 2 doses
2) Water may temporarily be cloudy, this will clear up.

With my next WC I decide to dose 8.2 again since the bottle says it take 2 doses sometimes. I read in depth on their website just to be sure I understood the product, what it was, what it did, and what to expect.

I mix it in with my WC water, and after my normal mixing time, I see that the water in the bucket is just slightly cloudy, it doesn't look bad though. I know that API said it may be cloudy, and I figured once the water went in the tank and was diluted more, I would be ok.

Boy.... I WAS WAYYY OFF!!!

Here is my tank after the second dose of 8.2

Luckily this cleared up in around 24 hours, but man I was on edge.

 

[Hemmdog]

The bottle of API 8.2 say 2 very important things

1) May take 2 doses
2) Water may temporarily be cloudy, this will clear up.

With my next WC I decide to dose 8.2 again since the bottle says it take 2 doses sometimes. I read in depth on their website just to be sure I understood the product, what it was, what it did, and what to expect.

I mix it in with my WC water, and after my normal mixing time, I see that the water in the bucket is just slightly cloudy, it doesn't look bad though. I know that API said it may be cloudy, and I figured once the water went in the tank and was diluted more, I would be ok.

Boy.... I WAS WAYYY OFF!!!

Here is my tank after the second dose of 8.2

Luckily this cleared up in around 24 hours, but man I was on edge.

Lol I love the memes in your story. Keep it up lol.