Crystal Dynamics 135 Gallon Cube Build

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PhoenixReef91

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PhoenixReef91

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A few updates...

Added the Flasher Wrasse to the system and he is doing well. Eating like crazy and very happy so far. Only hid for the first day and then was out and about. Super social- him and the purple tang are best buddies. Probably wont add anymore fish until after the holidays, but with the 5 fish at least it doesn't look empty anymore.

Coral: Met up with a couple of local reefers who were thinning out there tanks or breaking them down. Got some pretty crazy deals and some mini colonies of some different things. Tank is filling up nicely. Already seeing some growth on the tips of the forest fire digi (the first "tester" coral in the tank.) I'd like to get a few more frogspawn or euphyilla in general, but have quite a few really nice pieces so far.

equipment: Family surprised me with an early x-mas gift and got me a trident!! Hooked it up to the apex and have had it running for about 6 days now. I would love to eventually get a DOS to automate the dosing process, but I am manually dosing for now. I have the parameters pretty dialed in at:

Alk: 9DKH
Calcium: 450
Mag: 1350
Temp: 79
PH: 8.1

Haven't tested Nitrates and PO4 lately (naughty) , but I have essentially no algae growing on the glass, or the rocks so it appears that nutrients are pretty low as well. Will test them again on my next day off.

I have been having a lot of issues with my NYOS skimmer...Maybe a really long break-in time? I didn't start running it till fish went in the tank, but it has been like a month. I should have just let it fully break in and do its thing, but I kept messing with it which I think made it worse than it would have been. It has 3 different tuning options associated with it and I could not get it figured out. Every time I thought it was good I would come out the next morning and it would be overflowing, I'd adjust- way under producing. The last three days I have had it pretty dialed in and have been getting some rich colored skim.

Starting to look like a real tank. Feeling pretty good about it before my family gets here for Christmas.
 
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Was able to get par reading done on the tank. We tested the par with the T5's running and didn't think to test it as well with them off. Will get another round of par testing done to see just how much par the T5's are contributing overall. Open to suggestion on par levels, but I feel like everything is pretty spot on at the moment. everything is super happy, and corals in the high par areas of the tank are growing fast. The forest fire digi is already 25% larger since I added it to the tank, and the plug is almost completely encrusted. With that said I only have the T5's running for 2 hours and 40 minutes right now. Started at 1.5 hours a day and have been slowly ramping up to make sure nothing is bleached or shocked.

Did have my first, and only death in the tank so far. A purple frogspawn. I think it was in too high of flow and some tissue was injured. I moved it where it seemed happier, but little by little it melted away. Weird/Sad, but everything else is looking great.

I am finding it annoyingly difficult to get the livestock off of my stocking list. All of the LFS in the area are struggling to get fish in right now with covid shipping, and the one that I feel is the nicest and quarantines their fish is pretty limited with options right now. I've been patient, but may adjust my stocking list again if I have to wait much longer.

Equipment:
-UV Sterilizer seems to be working wonders, I have very little algae growth.
- I did have to remove the float valve on the ATK as it was too close to my return pump pvc line and kept getting stuck in the open position. removed it and it works great now. Just not quite enough room in the return chamber of the sump for it to work properly.
-Skimmer is definitely broken in now. Pulling out thick skim and the microbubbles have decreased significantly.
-Need to get some lenses to take better pictures with my iphone with...looking into that.

Parameters today (before tomorrow's water change)
Salt: 1.025
Temp: 79.1
PH: 8.01
ALK: 9.03
CA: 445
MG: 1373
Nitrate: 1ppm
Phosphate: .03ppm

Par levels below:
Green Branching monti 355

Idaho Grape Monti 331

Orange Monti cap- 331

Birds nest 288

Purple stylo 369

Green digi 333

Forest Fire digi 240

Pink setosa 196

Green monti cap 136

Small birds nest 157

Acan (Blue) small 144

Acan orange yellow 153

Candi cane/ trumpet 164

Blondies Zoas 99

Purple Candy Cane Trumpet Coral 135

Orange ricordia mushrooms 90

Utter chaos zoas 125

Rastas/cyphastrea 128
 

Caring for your picky eaters: What do you feed your finicky fish?

  • Live foods

    Votes: 20 31.3%
  • Frozen meaty foods

    Votes: 52 81.3%
  • Soft pellets

    Votes: 10 15.6%
  • Masstick (or comparable)

    Votes: 7 10.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 3 4.7%
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