CDA 100g Acropora Journey

[mxnutz]

Hello fellow reefers. My reef tank hit the 1 year mark today of getting wet and what better way to celebrate than to have a belated build thread. =) I was initially going to start a build thread once my tank went through the cycle and ugly stage but I got busy with work in April and now that it has finally slowed down a bit. I have some free time to spend with yall.

My current display tank was set up in Nov. 2019 and the cycle began with dry rock (aquaroche) and ceramic (marine pure and Brightwell xport) media. Did a 5 month no light cycle and began adding corals to the tank in April.

Crystal Dynamics 100g - 48x24x20
Trigger systems 36
ATI LED powermodule - 4 blue+, 2 actinic, purple+, coral +
Orphek Or3 blue plus LED bars
Vortech MP40 QD
Versa dosers
GHL Propeller fan
Avast Marine auto feeder
Avast Marine kalk reactor
Reef Octopus skimmer
Neptune Core return pump
GHL KH Director
Aqua UV sterilizer
Tunze ATO
400w IM Helios heater system
Spectrapure RODI system
BRS Chloramines Buster
Apex


Dosing Coral Essentials Full Range
CE Calcium + trace
CE Carbonate + trace
CE Magnesium + trace
CE Power Trace A
CE Power Trace B
CE Power Trace C
CE Coral Power Amino
CE Coral Power Gro
CE Chroma +
CE Vibrance +
CE Energy +
CE Coral Power Iodine
CE Coral Power Reef Kl3
CE Coral Power Fluoride
CE Coral Power Potassium
CE Coral Power Iron
CE Coral Power Bio Clean
CE Coral Power Bacteria Food
CE Boron
CE Bromide

I have 12 fish in my system. Orange storm clown pair, lyretail anthias pair, 4 line wrasse, springeri damsel, gem tang, blue tang, mandarin dragonette, helfrichi firefish, tomini tang, and marine betta.
As for inverts, there is a couple trochus, couple turbos, a blue tuxedo and pin cushion urchin.
I feed 4 times a day. LRS frozen, Reef Nutrition Phyto, Oyster Feast, R.O.E., and a mix of dry food in the auto feeder.

Tropic Marin Pro Salt 10-15% weekly WC
Alk 7
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1300
Salinity 35 ppt
Phosphate - .02
Nitrate - 2

I’ve taken a few pictures along the way and will start from the beginning and every few days I will add new progress pictures so I don’t have to bombard this thread with 100 progress pictures in 1 day. haha

Enjoy!

CD finished building the tank. YAY!

Went to CD and got her home safe and sound.

This is the best feature I love about this tank. Armored side seams. I don't have to worry about scrapping the silicone with algae scrapper and I can blast the flow on the MPs.

Started plumbing the tank. I ran out of red 1.5" red pvc pipe and didn't want to wait an extra 4-5 days for BRS to deliver. So I said F-it, I had some white pvc laying around. haha

First stages of the sump set up so I can get it cycling.

I saw Abe's video on his peg system (love his vids btw) and wanted something similar but I suck at DIY so I went with Aquaroche acroporock.

It comes in pieces and you assembled to the way you want it to look.

Assembled and I started the cycle with Dr. Tims one and only and ammonia.

The cycle took about 5 weeks to complete and by mid December I was able to add my first batch of fish that was in QT. After this, I let the tank run for 4 months without any lights. This part was really testing my patience. ahha

 

[mxnutz]

While I was waiting for the tank to mature. I had some time to start setting up some equipment.

Versa doser - I had so many issues with this since I bought it when it was first released but Ecotech was able to assist quickly and send replacement parts. Luckily, I was only using one or two at a time and had spares to use while the issue was getting fixed.

KH Director - Since I was familiar with some of the GHL products and have used their user interface. I chose to get the KH Director. Even then, it took me a day and half to figure it out. But it was my fault. While I was watching the videos. Somehow, I missed a step to calibrate the ph and I was lost after that. haha. Also, my unit was off by 10% according to the 7.5 reference solution but I read a lot of people was off by that much. No biggie, I compensated the result by their +/- feature they have. Now, it reads perfect every day. This device has been a life saver for me. It has caught a few issues already and paid for itself. Daily alk testing FTW!!!

Avast Kalk Reactor - It has been doing its job. Only issue is if you set up the reactor outside the sump. You have to clean the output tube regularly or else it will clog and since this design does not use thumbscrews at the top to keep the lid secure/tight. It will overflow and leak at the top. Not sure if it was in the manual but yea....ask me how I know. =( so now I keep it in the sump.

I love side doors on the CD stands. It makes working on the equipment so much easier.

Also, during this time. I converted my red sea nano into a frag tank so I can start QTing all new additions to the display. I built some frag racks and in it went.

 

[mxnutz]

Our city uses chloramines and just to be on safe side. I added a chloramines monster from BRS. This thing was huge. Totally didn't expect that when I opened the box.

Yep...ugly stage in full swing...

After waiting 4 months with the lights off. I would say it is mid April. I turned the lights on and started adding some tester corals. I love how I can take the rock out of the tank and mount the coral and then put it back in the tank.

The tank was cruising along for a couple weeks....

and then...all of a sudden my tank hit a bacterial bloom and my tank got cloudy for a few weeks. I lost a shortcake and decided to pull all the acros out of the tank and put them back in the frag tank.

I let the tank run for another 3 weeks and decided to add some sponges to the sump. My nano has been running since 2016 and it has built up some sponges on the egg crate. I carefully cut some off the egg crate as I did not want anything else going into my main display. Currently, there are sponges growing everywhere in my sump and I believe this is what has helped the tank's filtration a lot since adding them.

3 weeks has past and by the end of May. I started to put a few tester acros back in.

 

[mxnutz]

tester corals were a lot happier this time around.

July 2020 Full tank shot.

 

[mxnutz]

In the next few months. I started to add my acroporas I had in QT. As I put them in the display, I wanted to give them a little more pop since the 36" powermodule only has 2 LED clusters and wasn't as bright. I was debating to get the 48" model which has 3 LED clusters or mount some Orphek OR3 bars. After doing some research, I decided to add the OR3 Bars.
I followed Rakies advice and drilled a pilot hole, then used some 6 x 3/8" self-tapping metal screws to mount the brackets.

I added the Avast plank auto feeder to the display. I love this auto feeder. My fishes love it too. Only issues is the fishes goes crazy in the tank when the feeder comes on and starts crashing into my acros. There have been a couple accidental frags because of this.

September 2020 FTS

Not much happened in October. Just added a few more acros to the QT.
October 2020 FTS

 

[mxnutz]

OR3 Blue top down shots. ;Happy

 

[mxnutz]

My nitrates and phosphates were bottoming out at 0 so decided to run a smaller skimmer. After the switch, my nutrients are now just detectable which is where I want to keep it at. Also, swapped out the DOS dosing containers for Aquamaxx containers.
Current filtration.

Acros were looking happy this week so decided to snap a few pics.

 

[t5Nitro]

You want to come out and build my aquascape and plumbing on my future tank in a few years??

 

[mxnutz]

You want to come out and build my aquascape and plumbing on my future tank in a few years??

To be honest, that sounds good right now. Been stuck at home all year! haha

If you haven't yet..check out aquariumpartners.com. They have some pretty cool rock scape sets that you can build depending on your tank size. take your time and look at some reef scape pictures that you feel fits what your trying to accomplish and try to emulate it the best you can. Example, this was my inspiration when I was looking for a scape and I just tried to duplicate it. I know mines will never look this nice but I'm trying...;Happy

Hit me up in 2 years or when your about to do the build. If I'm around, I can definitely help you out. If not in person, I'm a pro on zoom now. haha I've helped out a few of my reefing buddys build and set up their tanks over the years. =)

 

[mxnutz]

Yay!!! The best part about T5s are the bulb changes. haha. Decided to swap them out since these bulbs were used when I got them.

Some shots I took after the switch.

 

[mxnutz]

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello fellow reefers. My reef tank hit the 1 year mark today of getting wet and what better way to celebrate than to have a belated build thread. =) I was initially going to start a build thread once my tank went through the cycle and ugly stage but I got busy with work in April and now that it has finally slowed down a bit. I have some free time to spend with yall.

My current display tank was set up in Nov. 2019 and the cycle began with dry rock (aquaroche) and ceramic (marine pure and Brightwell xport) media. Did a 5 month no light cycle and began adding corals to the tank in April.

Crystal Dynamics 100g - 48x24x20
Trigger systems 36S
36” ATI LED powermodule - 4 blue+, 2 actinic, purple+, coral +
48” Orphek Or3 blue plus LED bars
Vortech MP40 QD
Versa dosers
GHL Propeller fan
Avast Marine auto feeder
Avast Marine kalk reactor
Reef Octopus skimmer
Neptune Core return pump
GHL KH Director
Aqua UV sterilizer
Tunze ATO
150w Neotherm heaters
Spectrapure 8 stage RODI system
BRS Chloramines Buster


Dosing Coral Essentials Full Range
CE Calcium + trace
CE Carbonate + trace
CE Magnesium + trace
CE Power Trace A
CE Power Trace B
CE Power Trace C
CE Coral Power Amino
CE Coral Power Gro
CE Chroma +
CE Vibrance +
CE Energy +
CE Coral Power Iodine
CE Coral Power Reef Kl3
CE Coral Power Fluoride
CE Coral Power Potassium
CE Coral Power Iron
CE Coral Power Bio Clean
CE Coral Power Bacteria Food
CE Boron
CE Bromide

I have 8 fish in my system. Orange storm clown pair, lyretail anthias pair, 4 line wrasse, springeri damsel, gem tang and blue tang.
As for inverts, there is a couple trochus, couple turbos, a blue tuxedo and pin cushion urchin.
I feed 4 times a day. LRS frozen, Reef Nutrition Phyto, Oyster Feast, R.O.E., and a mix of dry food in the auto feeder.

Tropic Marin Pro Salt 10-15% weekly WC
Alk 7
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1300
Salinity 35 ppt
Phosphate - .02
Nitrate - 2

I’ve taken a few pictures along the way and will start from the beginning and every few days I will add new progress pictures so I don’t have to bombard this thread with 100 progress pictures in 1 day. haha

Enjoy!

CD finished building the tank. YAY!

Went to CD and got her home safe and sound.

This is the best feature I love about this tank. Armored side seams. I don't have to worry about scrapping the silicone with algae scrapper and I can blast the flow on the MPs.

Started plumbing the tank. I ran out of red 1.5" red pvc pipe and didn't want to wait an extra 4-5 days for BRS to deliver. So I said F-it, I had some white pvc laying around. haha

First stages of the sump set up so I can get it cycling.

I saw Abe's video on his peg system (love his vids btw) and wanted something similar but I suck at DIY so I went with Aquaroche acroporock.

It comes in pieces and you assembled to the way you want it to look.

Assembled and I started the cycle with Dr. Tims one and only and ammonia.

The cycle took about 5 weeks to complete and by mid December I was able to add my first batch of fish that was in QT. After this, I let the tank run for 4 months without any lights. This part was really testing my patience. ahha

I'm liking it. awesome.

 

[mikeg18]

Looking great! Very informative. I’m awaiting my new tank arrival in a couple months so I have been searching for LR sources. Things have changed a lot.

How are you liking the Aquaroche product? Would you do it again? I have some time to decide but any further info/pics would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[mxnutz]

Looking great! Very informative. I’m awaiting my new tank arrival in a couple months so I have been searching for LR sources. Things have changed a lot.

How are you liking the Aquaroche product? Would you do it again? I have some time to decide but any further info/pics would be appreciated. Thanks

Hey thanks bud, sorry for the late reply. I've been stacked at work so far this year. Yes, things have changed. I remember back in the day. I could go to the lfs and hand pick live fiji rock that just arrived. Not so much anymore. But dry rock is the way to go if you want to start with a pest free sps tank.

The aquaroche rock has been good. Only issue I have so far at this moment is that you get a lot of detritus build up in the rocks with drilled holes for the pegs. Maybe, thats why I get a lot of algae build up on the rocks. haha. Yes, I would definitely use these rocks again if I can't get my hands on real tonga branch.

I'll try to get out the camera this weekend and update with pictures. The tank has been on cruise control. Not much happened. Just letting stuff grow out. Good luck on your build. I'll be sure to stop by and take a peek.

 

[mxnutz]

Haven't updated in a couple of months but the tank has been on cruise control. As the corals are growing. I have been slowly taking out some of the ceramic media in the sump. As for livestock. I added a marine betta, tomini tang, and helfrichi firefish. So total fish now is up to 11. Also, I added back the bigger skimmer as my nutrients were getting higher than I would like after adding the new fishes. I added a few chalice frags I grabbed from CaliKids and a from few locals here. My goal from the beginning is for this tank to have acros up on the rock and chalices on the bare glass bottom. One of the reasons, I went with this scape to give both types of corals lots of room to grow.
Did a water change and cleaned up the sump of detritus yesterday and today the tank was looking good so decided to take some quick iphone pics with orange filter. ;Snaphappy

 

[mxnutz]

Here's my first Triton ICP test of the year I sent last month. I plan to send one every 2-3 months to try and lock down my trace element dosing. Everything looks good so far. I have stopped dosing iron and up'd iodine one more drop a day.

 

[steevareno]

Hello fellow reefers. My reef tank hit the 1 year mark today of getting wet and what better way to celebrate than to have a belated build thread. =) I was initially going to start a build thread once my tank went through the cycle and ugly stage but I got busy with work in April and now that it has finally slowed down a bit. I have some free time to spend with yall.

My current display tank was set up in Nov. 2019 and the cycle began with dry rock (aquaroche) and ceramic (marine pure and Brightwell xport) media. Did a 5 month no light cycle and began adding corals to the tank in April.

Crystal Dynamics 100g - 48x24x20
Trigger systems 36
36” ATI LED powermodule - 4 blue+, 2 actinic, purple+, coral +
48” Orphek Or3 blue plus LED bars
Vortech MP40 QD
Versa dosers
GHL Propeller fan
Avast Marine auto feeder
Avast Marine kalk reactor
Reef Octopus skimmer
Neptune Core return pump
GHL KH Director
Aqua UV sterilizer
Tunze ATO
150w Neotherm heaters
Spectrapure RODI system
BRS Chloramines Buster


Dosing Coral Essentials Full Range
CE Calcium + trace
CE Carbonate + trace
CE Magnesium + trace
CE Power Trace A
CE Power Trace B
CE Power Trace C
CE Coral Power Amino
CE Coral Power Gro
CE Chroma +
CE Vibrance +
CE Energy +
CE Coral Power Iodine
CE Coral Power Reef Kl3
CE Coral Power Fluoride
CE Coral Power Potassium
CE Coral Power Iron
CE Coral Power Bio Clean
CE Coral Power Bacteria Food
CE Boron
CE Bromide

I have 12 fish in my system. Orange storm clown pair, lyretail anthias pair, 4 line wrasse, springeri damsel, gem tang, blue tang, mandarin dragonette, helfrichi firefish, tomini tang, and marine betta.
As for inverts, there is a couple trochus, couple turbos, a blue tuxedo and pin cushion urchin.
I feed 4 times a day. LRS frozen, Reef Nutrition Phyto, Oyster Feast, R.O.E., and a mix of dry food in the auto feeder.

Tropic Marin Pro Salt 10-15% weekly WC
Alk 7
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1300
Salinity 35 ppt
Phosphate - .02
Nitrate - 2

I’ve taken a few pictures along the way and will start from the beginning and every few days I will add new progress pictures so I don’t have to bombard this thread with 100 progress pictures in 1 day. haha

Enjoy!

CD finished building the tank. YAY!

Went to CD and got her home safe and sound.

This is the best feature I love about this tank. Armored side seams. I don't have to worry about scrapping the silicone with algae scrapper and I can blast the flow on the MPs.

Started plumbing the tank. I ran out of red 1.5" red pvc pipe and didn't want to wait an extra 4-5 days for BRS to deliver. So I said F-it, I had some white pvc laying around. haha

First stages of the sump set up so I can get it cycling.

I saw Abe's video on his peg system (love his vids btw) and wanted something similar but I suck at DIY so I went with Aquaroche acroporock.

It comes in pieces and you assembled to the way you want it to look.

Assembled and I started the cycle with Dr. Tims one and only and ammonia.

The cycle took about 5 weeks to complete and by mid December I was able to add my first batch of fish that was in QT. After this, I let the tank run for 4 months without any lights. This part was really testing my patience. ahha

Is that the 9710 or the 9720? Looks great either way!

 

[mxnutz]

Is that the 9710 or the 9720? Looks great either way!

Hey, the setup is the 9720. I did have to buy a few extra branches to complete the look I wanted.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[mxnutz]

March update...right after I cleaned my sump and I siphoned out about 80% of the sponges out. I had a huge PO4 spike the last 6 weeks and counting...haha. It had to be this event as I don't recall doing any other task/changes to the tank. But I just left it and didn't do anything out of my normal routine except run the skimmer 24/7.

2/07 = .02
2/14 = .15
2/22 = .25
3/01 = .36
3/04 = .38
3/14 = .18

Nitrates staying in the 25 range..

All the corals have been fine. If anything, they have been looking the best since the tank has been setup. Only issue I have is the brown and green film algae starts taking over the tank more and is harder to scrape off the glass.

Some shots I took last week during this crazy po4 spike.

 

[mxnutz]

some bottom dwellers...

March FTS