Doug's Reef Buildup

[Doug86]

So it seems the thing to do is a build thread. I like this idea, more for me to catalog the progress than anything else. If people want to come along for the ride then all the better.

Basics:
Aquarium - 5ft long x 2ft tall x 20 in wide (odd size i know, it was custom built for a spot in my old house)
Filtrations - home made sump. 5 chambers for filter socks and skimmer, fuge with Cheato, chemical media (generally just carbon when needed), Marine pure balls and return pump (5000l/h DC running ~60%)
Light - 5ft MakeMyLED marine panel light link here
Skimmer - Deltec 1000i
Flow - 3x Jebeo OW-40
Reef - Dry rock start, moderate size reef made of distinct islands of rock
Substrate - beach sand

The goal

The end point of this tank is a mixed reef, LPS and softie dominant, with lots of colour and movement. I am not overly interested in the rare or hard to keep things, more the tried and true colours, corals and fish. I have factored a few hours a week to maintain it, especially in the early days with weekly testing and 10% water changes. I am hoping that in the medium to long term the tank will become relatively low maintenance (compared to the CO2 Planted discus tank i had before).

The tank has been running for a few months now so I will do some posts recapping where I have been.

Thanks for coming on the journey with me

 

[Doug86]

Stage 1 - The reef and cycle

I decided to build my reef from dry rock as to avoid a lot of the issues that more experienced reefers try to avoid when starting a reef. Figure may as well listen to the experts ;Bookworm Rock was purchased from my local aquarium store and was a combination of old reef rock and reef saver type rock. All rock was soaked in RODI water for 7 days and then tested for phosphates to ensure they were not leeching. Two of the nicest bits were found to be leeching large amounts of phosphate so they were binned

All remaining bits were arranged into three islands and cemented together using Aquaforest Stone Fix. These islands were placed into the tank and the tank filled with RODI water. After a week and another clean phosphate test, salt was added, marine pure balls added into the sump and the return pump fired up.

Three frozen prawns were added into the tank along with some bacterial additives (bacter-M and Stability) to get the cycle going.

Ammonia never really got very high, I believe due to the bacteria additives. However, I do believe i overcooked it by using three prawns as my nitrates peaked at about 80PPM. By week three ammonia was undetectable, nitrite was about 2 and nitrate was still very high at about 80PPM. Cheato was added to the sump and a 30% water change helped get that into check. Week four saw the nitrite still up at 2PPM and the nitrate come down to 40PPM. Week 5 and the Nitrite was undetectable and the Nitrates were down to 20.

By this stage the ugly phase has really kicked in with a nice blanket of diatoms covering everything. Next stage, clean up crew!

 

[Doug86]

The clean up crew was added at the 5 week mark. The cleanup crew added consisted of

3x Trochus Snails
3x Turbo Snails
3x Zombie Snails
3x Stromb Snails
2x Stomatella Snails
2x hermit crabs
All were drip acclimatized to the tank and were relatively quick to get into the diatoms with the exception of the Zombies who were probably a poor choice at this stage as they are scavengers and there was nothing to scavenge. They all survived though and are happy.

 

[Doug86]

Towards the end of week 6 the tank was looking OK. The diatoms were still in full flight but the CUC were doing their job and patches of rock were clearing up.

Another good water test showed that everything was going well, Ammonia and nitrite were undetectable, nitrate was at 10, Ca, alk and Mg were all perfect. After a discussion with the local fish shop, it was decided that it was time to add the first fish.

2 Percula Clowns, 2 Picasso Clowns and a Blue Line Rabbitfish were promptly acquired and drip acclimatized into the tank. The 4 clowns instantly grouped up and migrated to the back left corner of the tank where they have stayed. All very happy and feeding well. The Rabbitfish took a little longer to come out of his shell but is now into everything and helping to keep the diatoms under control. Given the clowns have moved into the back corner, the rabbitfish has the run of the tank for now.

 

[Doug86]

Venturing into the world of corals

After the fish went in and everything was going along well my wife put the screws to me to get some coral in the tank to help provide some colour. So at the start of week 8 it was off to the local fish shop to sort out some corals. A good long chat with the guys down there and I happily departed with two mushies and three small zoa rocks. Foolishly I didnt dip them, I drip acclimated them and then popped them in.

Now I started to run into the first issues of my new tank

Issue 1: One of the mushies detached from his rock and was lost into the reef. I hold hope that he has attached in some obscure place but alas i suspect not.

Issue 2: Trochus Snails love to push corals around and knock them off rocks. I wanted to place them lower in the tank and given them a chance to get used to their new home before i moved them to their permanent spots. Seems the snails and Rabbitfish had other ideas and keep knocking them over and off the rocks. I have since acquired a frag rack to keep them a bit more secure.

Issue 3: It seems diatoms are not as innocent as I thought. The zoas closed over and were quickly covered in diatoms, never to open again They all slowly melted away. The Mushie did great but all of the zoas went to the big sea in the sky :'( At this stage i had not idea what had knocked them off, and the prime suspect was poor lighting setup with the LED. It took a bit of digging (and a thread on here) to help uncover the truth.

Issue 4: Seems i was not thorough enough with my inspection of the zoa rocks as two apastasia popped out of one of the rocks :mad: They were promptly hit with some lemon juice which slowed them down for a day or two but they came back. Once the zoas had all melted away the rocks were removed and dried. I think I also got a small brittle star that has moved into one of the larger bits of the reef.

 

[Doug86]

Coral Mistake #2

I spoke to a local Zoa fragger and went through what had happened to the zoas I had bought from the local fish shop. We went through the options and decided it was most likely a lighting issue. Lighting was tweaked, dropping the white (14k) part of the light and upping the actinic/UV to try and favor the corals over the diatoms.

Two weeks post my initial loss of Zoas (and two rounds of perfect water parameters), I went to see this local and happily left with 7 frags of different coral including some Neon Green Star Polyps, Green Palys, 4 different Zoas and a bit of Green Dallas he threw in as he had heaps. I got home and madly set to work attaching these new frags to the reef.

The GSP were always going to be a big part of my reef and I had a large island just for them to cover and they have been going amazingly well and have already spread off the plug. The green palys struggled at first but have come good and are now also budding on their own little rock island in the sand bed and the Green Dallas is looking good and gets it polyps out.

Alas, the Zoas followed the same route as the first lot. They closed over and melted away. This really surprised the seller and together we went digging for answers. Ultimately it was confirmed that it was the diatoms growing aggressively over the closed polyps and not letting them open. He has offered to replace them for free which is amazing but I will be holding off on the zoas until the diatoms are well and truely in check.

 

[Doug86]

Fixing the flow

Now three months into the reef tank the diatoms were still giving me grief. It wasn't the lights as they were now well setup at a low-ish level ready to be ramped up slowly once corals are in and happy. It wasn't excess nitrates or phosphates as they are all well in check and any excess is swallowed by the cheato. So the last issue is flow.

The setup I was running to this point was a series of Tunze and Sicce powerheads totaling about 9000-11000l/h, in combination with the return pump total flow in the tank was ~12000-15000l/h. The variability came from one of the pumps being DC and varying from 50-100% flow.

It was decided that this was not enough for the 5ft long tank and replacements were sought. The Tunze were good but expensive so after reading a heap of reviews three Jebao OW-40 pumps were bought and installed. These bad boys can pump up to 15000l/h each so I placed one at each end of the tank and one to the right of the overflow box aiming to the front middle. The two end pumps were set at max flow while the middle one is on about 1/3 power. I used the wifi link between them to have them counter-synced and run a relatively long surge to push water all the way to the other end of the tank and then back with the one in the middle running a more random flow.

What a difference! The diatoms instantly started to drop off, the water was clearer and all of the corals looked happier. I will say that the pumps are very loud, much louder than the Tunze but that said it is a little apples and oranges comparison as these are 3 times the flow rate of the biggest. Having heard some of the bigger vortech pumps i think its just a big pump issue.

I do need to play around a little as the lower left side of the tank is still not getting much flow so I think I will play around with the middle pump to see if is can get some flow down there. They also blow the sand around a fair bit but thats to be expected.

 

[Doug86]

More fish

The tank was going well with the extra flow. Being concious of not addition too many corals too early but getting itchy to add something too the tank I ventured out to the local aquarium store to see if they had any of my fish that I was after. Turned out they had an amazing little bi-colour angel that was a special order for someone who never came to pick it up. I snaffled him up for a good price and was a happy camper. I then learned that they were getting a big order in the following day and they had two Flame Hawkfish coming in. I asked for the nicer of the two to be put on hold for me.

They have both settled in really well and are feeding happily. My wive loves the bi-colour which is great to see her engaging with the tank. I love the Flame Hawkfish. Such personality in an angry looking fish!

The Bi-colour is still shy so no photos yet but the Flame is out and proud

 

[Doug86]

Well, this post now brings us up to date.

Lets talk the good stuff first

The tank is looking really happy and healthy. All of the corals are doing well including a few new ones that were a rescue from a friends tank. These include a purple with green tip Torch, small Duncan, green with purple tip Hammer and a light purple/pink Hammer. These were all on my shopping list so I thought I would try and save them...and they are going great!

I also have the first spots of corline algae in the tank. Never thought I would be happy to see algae in a tank but I was starting to get nervous that it wouldnt rock up.

The GSP and the green palys have spread off their plugs and spreading across their individual islands. Not much obviously as it has only been a month or so but they are growing and spreading.

Water parameters are all looking good:

Temp: 24.4 C
Salinity: 1.024
Ammonia and Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
Alk: 7.7dkh
Cal: 495ppm
Mg: 1470ppm

I have swapped salts to Red Sea Blue. The previous salt was a cheap brand to get through the cycle. After only 6 bags of it the sediment in the barrel was unbelievable!

I have also swapped in my DC return pump and have ordered a WIFI temperature controller with live read out to keep an eye on the tank temp. We are heading into summer and with our first 42 degree day (108 for the yanks) I thought it best to be able to check in at any point and see what needs doing. I can remotely turn on the air conditioning if needed.

Now the bad

These ;Rage;Rage diatoms! Since adding the new powerheads the diatoms have dropped off a lot but they are still here and growing. I keep waiting for them to burn themselves out but they are still ever present. They cover the sand in the less flowing parts of the tank and are still thick on some of the rocks. I have tried siphoning it out but it generally doesnt remove much. Mean no more Zoas until I can get them under control

I am still struggling with getting the powerheads in the right spots and powers. Currently I have one of each end blowing at near max flow towards each other running counter sync. They have a long surge such that the flow has time to make it to the other end of the tank. The third is running minimum power and is pointed from the back of the tank to the front. This leaves two dead spots in the bottom left and bottom right of the tank where I am getting diatom growth. I suspect I would also be getting it in the middle too except the sand keeps getting blown around. This is going to take some trial and error I think.

I am getting a lot of cyano in the refugium too. I have added a small powerhead to get some more water movement in there which has helped but it still grows in the top of the cheato ball. So far it dosent seem to be causing too much of an issue apart from looking average but I'll keep a close eye on it.

Finally, the Blue Line Rabbitfish ha developed some spots on his face. I'll need to do some digging as to what they are. He still seems happy enough and is eating like a trooper so not too bad but I want to get on top of whatever it is ASAP.

 

[Doug86]

Time for a quick update

after a bit of digging i suspect that i may in fact not have diatoms but dinos This both answers a lot of questions about why some things were happening but also begs the question where did it come from...same as any pest I guess. The phosphate in the tank was absolute zero so I figured that may have something to do with it. I dropped the time that the fuge light runs so hopefully i can get that back to detectable levels.

I have finally got the wavemakers sorted and am happy with the flow in the tank. It was the one on the back of the tank that was throwing things out of kilter and blowing the sand around too much. I have re-aimed it higher. This will serve two purposes, firstly it will provide more surface agitation to help with gas exchange and temp control, the second is that it means the LED lights produce more ripple

I have started dosing Vibrant to see if I can get this algae under control. Fingers crossed as the coraline algae starts to really take hold and other things get a chance the battle will be won in the long term.

 

[Doug86]

Time for another update for anyone who is listening...

The tank is coming along really nicely. It has been a while since the last update so here are the highlights.

1) The mystery of the dying corals was figured out when I put some new mushies into the tank. The Blueline Rabbitfish was attacking them. Apparently it does happen but very rarely. After so deft net work he was bagged up and returned to the store and replaced by a really nice foxface. Since he has gone there have been no more coral deaths or losses

2) The vibrant is working a treat with less diatom algae growth and generally clearer looking water. It is now 4 weeks into the treatment and I am sold on the product. I will continue to dose weekly for a further 2 months and then drop to fortnightly. Maybe try ceasing it all together in a few more months but we will see.

3) My bi-colour hammer has been really moody lately and is very much not extending its polyps as far as it used to. I am not sure why but the other Euphilias are doing great. It is not looking sick or bleaching, its just not as extended as it was for the first few weeks in the tank.

4) I have had to start dosing Alk into the tank. Alk dropped to 6.7 so I have started to dose Sodium Bicarbonate. I have added a little bit into the ATO and will gradually increase the dose until its stable.

5) My nitrates are still low and phosphate undetrectable so I have really dialed back the lights in the fuge and really trimmed the Cheato back. Hopefully I can get it up a bit.

 

[Dizasta]

Hey @Doug86 what can you tell me about the light? Are you happy with it?
was thinking about something like this on a frag tank...just wanted an opinion as I cant find much online.