CMO's SPS Dominant 165G Mixed Reef Build (Triton)

[Javamahn]

Sorry to hear on the cyano. Careful with chemiclean. I have no solid evidence but my nitrates and phosphates went zero and I ended up with large amphinidium which has never gone away. Do you have any tips on your aquascape? I am finishing up on a 150 upgrade with similar look and I am struggling with aquascape. I am convinced my right brain was removed at birth.

 

[CMO]

Sorry to hear on the cyano. Careful with chemiclean. I have no solid evidence but my nitrates and phosphates went zero and I ended up with large amphinidium which has never gone away. Do you have any tips on your aquascape? I am finishing up on a 150 upgrade with similar look and I am struggling with aquascape. I am convinced my right brain was removed at birth.

Yeah, the chemiclean sure was a pain to get out of the system. In addition to the 20% water change and 2 rounds of fresh carbon I had to skim out some 30 gallons before my skimmer stopped over flowing. My tank and skimmer is finally back to normal after about a week of trying to remove all the chemiclean.

Sorry to hear about the Dinos in your tank, big bummer!

So with the aquascape my best advise would be to try and not stack the rock directly on top of one another, but rather wedge and lean them into each other. This results in the rocks being connected to neighboring rocks with small joints that create interesting swimming caves and tunnels in my experience. The downside of this approach though is that you will need to cement the rocks in place at the joints in order for them to stay put. My scape for example is nearly completely held together by cement and would not stay in this position without. The cement is strong though and i have zero concern of it ever coming apart which is another story if I ever have to move my tank ;Yuck.

Also, I did my practice attempts outside of the DT and thought that once I got it they way I liked it I could just mark the rocks and replicate it in tank. Well, that failed pretty miserably and ultimately my final rock structure was a free-form in tank only creation. Since the structure is so unstable without cement it was really hard to get the the full rock structure to stay put in my practice attempts. I'd suggest practice building small structures outside of the DT until you get comfortable with the technique of wedging and leaning the rocks vs stacking, then go for it in DT and slowly build it up with cement (and be extra careful to not let any rocks fall which is easy to do with the leaning and wedging approach). The aquaforest stonefix I used set pretty quickly which was nice.

Good luck!

 

[CMO]

Well, my prior attempts at keeping detritus suspended with regular power heads and running jets off my manifold didn't work. Next and last attempt is an Ice Cap Gyre 1k at the bottom of the fuge. So far this seems really promising as it provides a nice wide flow pattern in both directions. I first tried a regular Korlia type power head but that kept clogging and didn't quite provide enough flow to keep the cheato clean and detritus suspended. I have the gyre set at 50% with primary flow on the bottom under the chaeto.

Update: Success! Not detritus build up in or under chaeto anymore with the gyre.

 

[OffTopic]

Really impressive setup/tank, looks amazing!

 

[CMO]

Added 25 watt aqua ultraviolet UV to try and help control nuisance algae (couldn't fit anything larger and needed to use my existing chiller pump). Cyano is gone but now I've got a hair algae and brown sand problem. It's under control with weekly manual removal and sand stirring but hoping this might help until the tank fully matures with greater coral coverage. Speaking of tank maturity, SPS is really starting to take off so I think it is pretty much there (took about 8-9 months).

 

[Donsreef]

CMO
How did you convert the Cadlight plumming from UPVC to PVC?

 

[CMO]

@Donsreef I used the metric to US unions available at flex PVC here:

https://flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?product=PVC-Fittings-Metric-Adapters

 

[CMO]

Photo Update:












BC Snipers Blue / UC Sunset Mille











Jason Fox Insane Rainbow Zoas

 

[Javamahn]

Yeah, the chemiclean sure was a pain to get out of the system. In addition to the 20% water change and 2 rounds of fresh carbon I had to skim out some 30 gallons before my skimmer stopped over flowing. My tank and skimmer is finally back to normal after about a week of trying to remove all the chemiclean.

Sorry to hear about the Dinos in your tank, big bummer!

So with the aquascape my best advise would be to try and not stack the rock directly on top of one another, but rather wedge and lean them into each other. This result in the rocks generally being connected to neighboring rocks with a small joints that create interesting swimming caves and tunnels in my experience. The downside of this approach though is that you will need to cement the rocks in place at the joints in order for them to stay put. My scape for example is nearly completely held together by cement and would not stay in this position without. The cement is strong though and i have zero concern of it ever coming apart which is another story if I ever have to move my tank ;Yuck.

Also, I did my practice attempts outside of the DT and thought that once I got it they way I liked it I could just mark the rocks and replicate it in tank. Well, that failed pretty miserably and ultimately my final rock structure was a free-form in tank only creation. Since the structure is so unstable without cement it was really hard to get the the full rock structure to stay put in my practice attempts. I'd suggest practice building small structures outside of the DT until you get comfortable with the technique of wedging and leaning the rocks vs stacking, then go for it in DT and slowly build it up with cement (and be extra careful to not let any rocks fall which is easy to do with the leaning and wedging approach). The aquaforest stonefix I used set pretty quickly which was nice.

Good luck!

So I finally got aquascape done and you are 110% correct. Everything I did outside the tank had no bearing on the final scape in the tank. The only thing I retained was the arch and the concept of 2 opposing structures with a channel between them. Your suggestion on leaning and stacking definitely helped though as I like this version better. Maybe more so because it is done [emoji6]

 

[CMO]

So I finally got aquascape done and you are 110% correct. Everything I did outside the tank had no bearing on the final scape in the tank. The only thing I retained was the arch and the concept of 2 opposing structures with a channel between them. Your suggestion on leaning and stacking definitely helped though as I like this version better. Maybe more so because it is done [emoji6]

Looks great! Glade to hear it worked it for you.

 

[CMO]

Alright, tank seems to be well established so time to get fancy. Not much to see yet but I have high hopes for these little frags. Saw the colonies in person and they look amazing. Especially the Confetti which is probably the nicest acro I've ever seen - (it looks just as good under whites as it does blue).

Vivid Signature Blue Berry Blast and Confetti


Vivid Signature Godfather and Adventador (center and right), Vivid Jelly Bean on left


Going to leave this whole rock open for the confetti to table out over

Adventador

Godfather

Blue berry blast


Also moved my purple tort colony, sunset and excalibur millie frags up to this spire / shelf. The millies weren't growing in their previous location down lower in the tank but are doing much better now with higher par.

 

[CMO]

Now the fun really begins. Amphidinium dinoflagellates confirmed in my sand. I've had this for months now but just thought it was some brown algae or diatoms. I started with clean dry rock, dry sand and religiously scrubbed and dipped every coral that went in the tank but still got dinos. First appeared when my nutrients hit zero, ugh. Currently raising nutrients by dosing nitrate / phosphate and going to start removing / UV siphoning sand to combat. Also adding copepods, amphipods and live phyto to increase diversity. So far the only thing that seems to have been effected are my urchins. All of them died but no issues with other inverts,snails, corals or fish.

 

[Reefahholic]

Tank looking good bro!

 

[Javamahn]

Omg I'm sorry buddy. There are many in the Dino thread that have had greater success then I had with my 90 gallon. I ended up going almost completely BB which did help. I have not done a water change in months which likely explains my neon nepthea doubling in size. Only now 8 months later just before I upgrade is the current tank looking good again. There was a thread on silicate dosing in hopes of diatoms outcompeting. Good luck!

 

[CMO]

Omg I'm sorry buddy. There are many in the Dino thread that have had greater success then I had with my 90 gallon. I ended up going almost completely BB which did help. I have not done a water change in months which likely explains my neon nepthea doubling in size. Only now 8 months later just before I upgrade is the current tank looking good again. There was a thread on silicate dosing in hopes of diatoms outcompeting. Good luck!

Yeah, I found that thread yesterday. Good info. Did you try silicate dosing and have any success? I'm a little hesitant to dose silicate in high levels since my tank is doing so good aside from the Dinos and really don't want to mess with the parameters. I was going to start with slowly removing the sand and regular UV sand vacuuming.

 

[Javamahn]

Yeah, I found that thread yesterday. Good info. Did you try silicate dosing and have any success? I'm a little hesitant to dose silicate in high levels since my tank is doing so good aside from the Dinos and really don't want to mess with the parameters. I was going to start with slowly removing the sand and regular UV sand vacuuming.

First credit to you for actully usign a microscope. too many say "look at this pic of my rock and tell me if it's dinos" That will not work because to have to identify the correct species of dino.

Here was my fight rounds:
Round 1: Chemiclean and PITA skimmer for a week
Round 2: Blackouts and then only 20% blues on my lights for 3 weeks.
Round 3: Vibrant which hide them but they never went away.
Round 4: Hydrogen peroxide 10 ml a day then it went to double dosing daily. Because Amphinium don't go in the water column normally none of the chemicals work very well.
Round 5: siphon tube with toothbrush attached siphoning into sump through a 10 micron filter sock. That worked pretty well but I just did not have the time or energy to keep that everyday and it lasted about a week. If you can stay diciplined this is really the way to go. NO More water changes. They multiply quickly on micronutrients like iron with no competition
Round 6: UV, UV and more UV. I had a 36 watt turbotwist running 200 GPH from my manifold in the sump and then another 55watt running 200 GPH from a pump in the DT. Not easy trying to keep the temperature maximum at 81.5. I had the Apex set to shut off the UV outlets when it got that high and would hold until it went back down to 80. Lots of Fans and ATO makeup water. Again the fight is that amphinidium don't go into the water column unless stirred up there. but at least they are less toxic then ovata
Round 7: KNOS and NO3 dosing daily to get back up to 10.0 NO3 and 1.0 PO4. GARF Grunge that was June of this year. I did not see any difference but like everything it could be a contributing factor to where the tank is now.
I pulled the UV out over a month ago and the tank is actually looking better. I have no doubt that there are still dinos in the tank but I think all tan ks have them its a matter of competition. Also I was going to try conch and load up on ceriths which I thoght would help. The nice thing is the Large Amphinium are far less toxic then other dinos and so a CUC that is tolerant may help. All I can say is don't give up and don't buy into the ULNS hype. I think that is a knife-edge I am no longer willing to chance. Carbon dosing and Carbon are about the most I am going to do besides water changes for Nutrient export. I warn everyone now about using GFO without knowing that zero is not the number you want.

 

[CMO]

First credit to you for actully usign a microscope. too many say "look at this pic of my rock and tell me if it's dinos" That will not work because to have to identify the correct species of dino.

Here was my fight rounds:
Round 1: Chemiclean and PITA skimmer for a week
Round 2: Blackouts and then only 20% blues on my lights for 3 weeks.
Round 3: Vibrant which hide them but they never went away.
Round 4: Hydrogen peroxide 10 ml a day then it went to double dosing daily. Because Amphinium don't go in the water column normally none of the chemicals work very well.
Round 5: siphon tube with toothbrush attached siphoning into sump through a 10 micron filter sock. That worked pretty well but I just did not have the time or energy to keep that everyday and it lasted about a week. If you can stay diciplined this is really the way to go. NO More water changes. They multiply quickly on micronutrients like iron with no competition
Round 6: UV, UV and more UV. I had a 36 watt turbotwist running 200 GPH from my manifold in the sump and then another 55watt running 200 GPH from a pump in the DT. Not easy trying to keep the temperature maximum at 81.5. I had the Apex set to shut off the UV outlets when it got that high and would hold until it went back down to 80. Lots of Fans and ATO makeup water. Again the fight is that amphinidium don't go into the water column unless stirred up there. but at least they are less toxic then ovata
Round 7: KNOS and NO3 dosing daily to get back up to 10.0 NO3 and 1.0 PO4. GARF Grunge that was June of this year. I did not see any difference but like everything it could be a contributing factor to where the tank is now.
I pulled the UV out over a month ago and the tank is actually looking better. I have no doubt that there are still dinos in the tank but I think all tan ks have them its a matter of competition. Also I was going to try conch and load up on ceriths which I thoght would help. The nice thing is the Large Amphinium are far less toxic then other dinos and so a CUC that is tolerant may help. All I can say is don't give up and don't buy into the ULNS hype. I think that is a knife-edge I am no longer willing to chance. Carbon dosing and Carbon are about the most I am going to do besides water changes for Nutrient export. I warn everyone now about using GFO without knowing that zero is not the number you want.

Thanks! that helps a lot. I have another 25w aqua ultra violet UV coming so I'll have 50 watts total on my main system (but like you said, this stuff lives in the sand so probably won't be a game changer). I also ordered a 10 micron sock to attempt what you tried in Round 5, but I agree, that sounds pretty miserable to do regularly. I also ordered a 15 watt aqua ultraviolet UV to use for sand siphoning but that 36 watt turbo twist you used sounds like it might be a better option.

What exactly were you using the toothbrush for attached to the siphon?

 

[Javamahn]

The Dino's will settle on rocks and coral and so I secured a toothbrush using rubber bands on the end of a vinyl siphon tube so they were removed immediately after I brushed the rock or coral

 

[xaflatoonx]

after so long - how do you think your eel has taken to the pipe that you built for him.
does he still like it?

what are your views? would you have done anything different?
is the pipe open from both ends?
what will you do when he gets bigger?

sorry for the questions - i love the idea so i am wanting to learn more.

 

[CMO]

The Dino's will settle on rocks and coral and so I secured a toothbrush using rubber bands on the end of a vinyl siphon tube so they were removed immediately after I brushed the rock or coral

Great idea! Luckily I don't have any issues on my rocks, but will try this if I ever do.... please no.....