Eric's 120G build

E_reefer · Oct 5, 2018

Ok so the ammonia has dropped to the .08 range after two big doses of ammonium chloride and the addition of some partially dead rock. I never detected nitrites but I think this may be due to expired api test reagents... nitrates are showing between 10-20 ppm, but again from 1 year expired tests. I ordered new red sea nitrite/ nitrate test kit to be sure, but if these readings are accurate the cycle should be almost complete, right?

E_reefer · Oct 31, 2018

Hello salty friends and happy halloween! [emoji316]

Things have been happening quickly with the tank- I added the fish shortly after last update and they have been doing great! I also added some coral frags to see how they would do and I am happy to report they have all colored back up and have new growth- what I am not so happy about is hair algae hitched a ride in on the frags and I suspect there was some dormant algae in the live rock, couple that with a higher temp- around 82.5, and elvated nitrates having just cycled (20-30 ppm) algae has exploded!!

So I am determined yo tackle it head on from the start- added 60 hermits- 30 reds/30 blues, 20 margarita snails, 20 turbos, 5 mexican turbos an 5 zebra turbos, a sea hair, a ball of chaeto, And the lawnmower blenny over from the nano cube. I haven’t even tested phosphates yet but I can use my eyeballs to tell I have phosphates, so I will setup the reactor to start running GFO this weekend. Also on the agenda this weekend: a water change (have been doing weekly about 10% total volume for 2 weeks now) and will be removing the rocks to go into a tub in garage to sit in dark and scrub.

I am considering an algae turf scrubber as well- found one on ebay for $125 rated for 120 g tank.

I need to get the temp down, I know this is from the radions being closed in the canopy so I need to cut vent holes. I also bought a tank mount fan off amazon- I really don’t want to have to buy a chiller.

Pics:

saintsreturn · Oct 31, 2018

When i started reading this thread, i wanted to cry. What a beautiful tank to take down. But as i scrolled, i just found myself getting more excited! What a tank! Beautiful all the way around!

E_reefer · Oct 31, 2018

saintsreturn said:
When i started reading this thread, i wanted to cry. What a beautiful tank to take down. But as i scrolled, i just found myself getting more excited! What a tank! Beautiful all the way around!

Thank you, I am still excited as well!

E_reefer · Aug 3, 2020

Hey salty friends, after what appears to be a 20 month hiatus I am back! I became very busy with work and another project that took all my spare time, so unfortunately posting here, and really any aquarium work, was put on hold. I neglected the tank for quite a while, I think I maybe did 2 water changes over the course of a year, so the tank suffered.

I had a terrible outbreak of hair algae, I mean it was BAD!! I will try to find any photos I took while at its worst, but trust me when I say it was completely taking over and proliferating the tank, totally covering some rocks and growing on the back wall and on the sand, in some places it was over a foot long. I think about six months ago or so I finally started to tackle the issue and it was rough. As I manually pulled as much out as I could it only seemed to come back worse than before. This went on for over a month, so I started to get pretty frustrated, considered quitting and selling everything (more than a couple times) and just felt defeated. I switched gears, started running GFO, phosban I think, lowered the intensity and time lights were on, fed the tank only every 2-3 days, bought an entire 120g reef cleanup crew from reef cleaners, a sea urchin and a sea hare (only one out of 4 I bought over the course actually ate any algae), started bi-weekly water changes, and continued to manually remove the algae as often as I could. Slowly the algae began to recede, and after about 3 to 4 months it was completely GONE!!

You read that right, it took a good 3 months, but I am so glad to be able to say I defeated it, and want anyone else out there who is going through a HA outbreak, you can do it, it just takes time and dedication, but it can be done.

Once the algae was gone, things were going pretty good for a little while, then I noticed some of the sps coral was beginning to bleach, starting on the tips and moving down. I dusted off the old test kits, which were all expired, and found the chemistry was out of whack, but couldn't be sure because the kits were expired so I ordered new ones. A few days go by, I receive the new kits and realize the chemistry is way off... alk was down around 6dkh, calcium was around 280 and mag was like 1000. So I ordered all of the supplements from BRS, and another week passes, all the while the tissue necrosis has been happening on all of the acros and montis, and now beginning on the stylo and meteor shower.. Supplements arrive so I mix them up and run the calculators to determine what is needed to bring up to a normal level, and due to the large difference, I need to break it up over several days so I don't shock anything. So after about another week I got the chemistry back to where I want it: Alk 9 - 10 dkh, calcium 400 - 420, and magnesium at 1350-1380. Also phosphates are at .05 using hannah ulr phosphorus checker, which also has expired reagents so I am awaiting the new ones to double check.

I also setup the dosers that were in the garage since getting this new tank, so I now have the BRS 2 part alkalinity (soda ash I believe) and calcium chloride, dosing about 40 ml a day, but still monitoring this to fine tune so the elements stay where they need to be.

The STN has stopped for what sps I have left and color has begun to come back to the monti caps. The stylo may be too far gone with the damage that was done, but I'm holding out hope for that one.

All in all it has been a pretty wild 2 years, but I am happy I decided to stick with it and glad to be back on the forum. Sorry for the long post but wanted to give an idea of what has gone on since the last time. Pics to come shortly.

Cheers!

E_reefer · Aug 3, 2020

E_reefer · Aug 4, 2020

So now that I am back at it I did a little online shopping Yesterday and stumbled across “Budmans corals” and got 5 nice sps frags with shipping for $119.

Now granted these are not any type of high end or designer or anything like that but they looked like they have some nice vibrant colors online for a very good price so I decided to go for a test batch to see how this supplier is and if my tank is better and ready for those higher end specimens. I also placed an order with Aquarium depot 2 days ago for some other stuff- zoas, a superman digi, snails, a sea whip (because why not), and some halimedia.

So I ordered budman corals yesterday and instantly got an email asking when I wanted it overnight shipped, which I responded as soon as they could. Now this was already in the afternoon but they responded and said they got it out for the same day, so I actually received the coral today at 10:30 AM- very impressive!

The order was packaged in an fedex box insulated with a cold pack. Each frag was double bagged which was a nice touch, and they threw in some phyto, amino acids and a little swag too! Only one frag fell off the plug- no biggie, easy fix.

so I acclimated to temp for 20 mins and threw into a coral dip for another 10 and then got them into the tank.

Sorry for the blueishness- I will try to get better photos tomorrow. From left: shnozberry acro, bubblegum digi, tri color granulosa, ORA bird of paradise, and wwc slimeball anacapora. So far I am very impressed with Budmans- from communication to shipping and quality of product. As for aquarium depot, I did get an email today that the order will ship tomorrow.

E_reefer · Aug 6, 2020

I received the aquarium depot order yesterday afternoonThe outside of the box was wet which is never a good sign, but fortunately it was packed well and none of the bags were totally out of water- just a little from the snail bag.

All were double bagged and they tie the plugs to the knot of the inside bag so I guess that keeps the frag from touching or rubbing up against the bag. The digi fell off its plug but still looked fine. They threw in a bottle of phytoplankton which is nice.

so the only real disappointment is the sea whip- it is Tiny! My fault though I went back to the order and it says ‘nano’ so I must’ve overlooked that. I floated everything, then dipped and in they went.

Here is a look of them today:

The polyps were out on the fan a moment before this but I think a fish nipped it just prior to photo.

here is a brighter image of the buds order With photo bomb wrasse.

E_reefer · Aug 7, 2020

So I have had the jbj auto top off since my previous tank but never setup because I don’t have a container that would fit in my stand so I have been adding top off water by running a long hose from my rodi filter in the garage. I finally decided to Pickup a matching trigger systems 5 gallon reservoir and like all their stuff it is so clean and pretty.

So I will be setting it up today. I also received the new hanna reagent so it will be interesting to see how far off the old expired ones are and what my true phosphate number is.

E_reefer · Aug 9, 2020

I got the ATO tank and system all setup, it fits nice and snug and operates properly.

Also went to LFS and picked up some acans and zoas, and another cheap acro.

the others are looking good so far.
I really need to get some filters so I can take better photos and I can’t figure out how to post videos, so I will be researching that. Once I get it I will add a couple showing the complete setup with sump and hardware.
I also picked up a mandarin that I have been observing for a few weeks. I haven’t had much success in the past, hopefully now that this tank just passed the 2 year mark it has developed enough of a pod population to support her. I have been dosing the phytoplankton that came with the aquarium depot order so that should help with the pods.
I made another little frag rack for the sandbed.

I did a 20 gallon water change today as well.

E_reefer · Aug 13, 2020

So now that I am back “all in” I have been researching and reading a lot of threads and posts and my mind is blown- 5 or so years ago to succeed with a good mixed reef with emphasis on sps, acropora in particular, the goal was always to eliminate nutrients, I mean zero phosphate and less than 5 ppm nitrate and I see now that is definitely not the case, in fact not even close. Now I am seeing amazing reefs, busting outta the water with sticks as proof, whose owners are dosing— DOSING- phosphates and nitrates. . The goal is to keep some phosphates- I guess the number is between .1-.2 ppm and as much as 10-20 ppm no3. As I was reading this it dawned on me that in my efforts to eradicate the bryopsis, which meant to me eliminating Po4 and N03, I (potentially) starved my sps!?! Now, granted some of the other elements were off but I remember when the algae was at its worst, the corals were thriving and I wasn’t even testing alk/ca/mg let alone dosing anything.

So naturally my fish are super stoked now as Ive been feeding like crazy and slowly bringing phosphates up which registered at .17 ppm yesterday, still not showing any N03 though, maybe 2 with the redsea kit so that’s something to think about.
Anyway I wanted to share my revelation, and how awesome this forum is for the hobby- always evolving and always learning. Also I traded in this 16 head frogspawn euphillia for a cool $200 store credit at the LFS.

I kept a small colony of course, but remember buying the first 2 heads from the same store back in the beginning.

E_reefer · Aug 19, 2020

After seeing thread after thread of thiving sps reefs under led/t5 combos I have decided to do a small diy lighting upgrade and Add a reef brite retro fit 36” t5. Ordered from BRS last Friday, arrived yesterday.

The reflector was a little damaged from what looks like packing, but no big deal its a reflector. The rest of the unit is well built and honestly looks better than expected for the cost.

my existing homemade light bracket has holes that I could put a wire or zip tie through, which I can connect to the provided hooks, which screw into the top of the t5 body frame.

Going through the hooks on top made the unit way too low so, while zip tied to the hooks, I ran another zip tie through the same hole in bracket and around the t5 frame to pull it up snug to the light frame.

There were no ATI blue plus bulbs in 39 watt so I am starting out with the Giesemann aquablue coral which appears a little more white, despite how the iphone photo looks (tank is still waking up).
So this will be temporary as I still feel it to be too low and would restrict my ability to do any work in the tank. I need to develop a bracket or way to have the t5 frame snug to the ceiling of the hood, which will fit as per measurements, and get rid of the hooks.