Handsy Lobster's Fully Custom 60 Gallon Lagoon Build
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HandsyLobster
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Little Update:
Diglett is Chilling, he wasn't a fan of dry food so we are feeding him Mysis. He comes out and also hides at time.
Currently am in the Florida Keys so am planning to do some diving and get a clean up crew while down here. Also going to grab around 15 gallons of Ocean water and do a water change to get my cycle moving along a little quicker and establish the tank a little faster.
Also just picked up a a360x Kessil Fuge light off another reefer. I know this light is over kill for growing algae but I liked the aspect that it has a white light and when working under the stand I can turn that on to see. Got it for $200 and its over $400 new not including the mounting arm so I feel good about it.
Hoping to add a few more fish next week this is what I'm thinking for future fish. Any recommendations would be helpful. Im planning on feeding heavy and skimming heavy
For Sure Want
2x Skunk Clowns
1x Midas Blenny
1x Purple Tang (My tank may be to small I do want a tang so suggestions plz)
1x Flasher Wrasse
2x Red Firefish
1x Mandarin Goby (When I have enough established pods)
Maybe Want
1x Blue Spot Jaw-fish (Maybe on this I really like them and have had them before)
1x Long Nose Hawkfish (If I can add another fish)
3x Anthias (I know they need to be fed a lot with I plan on doing)
Diglett is Chilling, he wasn't a fan of dry food so we are feeding him Mysis. He comes out and also hides at time.
Currently am in the Florida Keys so am planning to do some diving and get a clean up crew while down here. Also going to grab around 15 gallons of Ocean water and do a water change to get my cycle moving along a little quicker and establish the tank a little faster.
Also just picked up a a360x Kessil Fuge light off another reefer. I know this light is over kill for growing algae but I liked the aspect that it has a white light and when working under the stand I can turn that on to see. Got it for $200 and its over $400 new not including the mounting arm so I feel good about it.
Hoping to add a few more fish next week this is what I'm thinking for future fish. Any recommendations would be helpful. Im planning on feeding heavy and skimming heavy
For Sure Want
2x Skunk Clowns
1x Midas Blenny
1x Purple Tang (My tank may be to small I do want a tang so suggestions plz)
1x Flasher Wrasse
2x Red Firefish
1x Mandarin Goby (When I have enough established pods)
Maybe Want
1x Blue Spot Jaw-fish (Maybe on this I really like them and have had them before)
1x Long Nose Hawkfish (If I can add another fish)
3x Anthias (I know they need to be fed a lot with I plan on doing)
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Update:
Soooo... Few new things to add. I added a clean up crew to my tank grabbed some hermits and some snails combined roughly like 40-50. I had some algae from cycling and I got to tell you after one day of having these hermits in the tank I haven't see one spec of algae its crazy
I was able to Grab 10 Gallons of Ocean Water and did a water change. It's crazy how low the ALK, Calc and Mag is with he ocean water it dropped big time in my tank so I ended up having to dose to get my levels back to normal. I think this ocean water will introduce some new bacteria in my tank to bio diversify it a little bit more which should help.
Also I finally put my first corals in the tank. Im predominately going for a SPS tank and met up with a local reefer and he hooked me up with 10 new SPS Frags. Honestly forgot the names of most of them some are easier SPS while some are a little harder to grow so we will see what sticks. A few that im excited about is the Walt Disney Acro that is around 1/2" and a 2" piece of Green Slimer which is a coral Ive always wanted since how easy they are to grow and how hardy they are. Im trash at taking pictures but all corals seems to be opening up nice and im putting them in high to med flow with a few is low flow.
Also Picked up another fish. He or She is a Midas Blenny and imma name it Poptart.
My Sump is a still a mess with Wires but I have my Fuge light hooked up and I forgot the name of the algae the guy who sold me the corals gave me but he says it does wonders for his tank and pods thrive it it.
I still need to find a return nozzle and drain pipe that looks better than the PVC I have so any help would be great.
As Far As parameters I tested them all Today
ALK- 8.2
CA- 438
MG-1397
PH- 8.12
NO3- 17.6
PHOS- 0.02
Salinity- 1.028
Im trying to bring my Phos up a Tad and Nitrates down a little.
LMK your thoughts
Soooo... Few new things to add. I added a clean up crew to my tank grabbed some hermits and some snails combined roughly like 40-50. I had some algae from cycling and I got to tell you after one day of having these hermits in the tank I haven't see one spec of algae its crazy
I was able to Grab 10 Gallons of Ocean Water and did a water change. It's crazy how low the ALK, Calc and Mag is with he ocean water it dropped big time in my tank so I ended up having to dose to get my levels back to normal. I think this ocean water will introduce some new bacteria in my tank to bio diversify it a little bit more which should help.
Also I finally put my first corals in the tank. Im predominately going for a SPS tank and met up with a local reefer and he hooked me up with 10 new SPS Frags. Honestly forgot the names of most of them some are easier SPS while some are a little harder to grow so we will see what sticks. A few that im excited about is the Walt Disney Acro that is around 1/2" and a 2" piece of Green Slimer which is a coral Ive always wanted since how easy they are to grow and how hardy they are. Im trash at taking pictures but all corals seems to be opening up nice and im putting them in high to med flow with a few is low flow.
My Sump is a still a mess with Wires but I have my Fuge light hooked up and I forgot the name of the algae the guy who sold me the corals gave me but he says it does wonders for his tank and pods thrive it it.
I still need to find a return nozzle and drain pipe that looks better than the PVC I have so any help would be great.
As Far As parameters I tested them all Today
ALK- 8.2
CA- 438
MG-1397
PH- 8.12
NO3- 17.6
PHOS- 0.02
Salinity- 1.028
Im trying to bring my Phos up a Tad and Nitrates down a little.
LMK your thoughts
Fishy Guy
Active Member
Excited to see how the SPS does. Are you running your lights really white or is that just for pictures?Update:
Soooo... Few new things to add. I added a clean up crew to my tank grabbed some hermits and some snails combined roughly like 40-50. I had some algae from cycling and I got to tell you after one day of having these hermits in the tank I haven't see one spec of algae its crazy
I was able to Grab 10 Gallons of Ocean Water and did a water change. It's crazy how low the ALK, Calc and Mag is with he ocean water it dropped big time in my tank so I ended up having to dose to get my levels back to normal. I think this ocean water will introduce some new bacteria in my tank to bio diversify it a little bit more which should help.
Also I finally put my first corals in the tank. Im predominately going for a SPS tank and met up with a local reefer and he hooked me up with 10 new SPS Frags. Honestly forgot the names of most of them some are easier SPS while some are a little harder to grow so we will see what sticks. A few that im excited about is the Walt Disney Acro that is around 1/2" and a 2" piece of Green Slimer which is a coral Ive always wanted since how easy they are to grow and how hardy they are. Im trash at taking pictures but all corals seems to be opening up nice and im putting them in high to med flow with a few is low flow.
Also Picked up another fish. He or She is a Midas Blenny and imma name it Poptart.
My Sump is a still a mess with Wires but I have my Fuge light hooked up and I forgot the name of the algae the guy who sold me the corals gave me but he says it does wonders for his tank and pods thrive it it.
I still need to find a return nozzle and drain pipe that looks better than the PVC I have so any help would be great.
As Far As parameters I tested them all Today
ALK- 8.2
CA- 438
MG-1397
PH- 8.12
NO3- 17.6
PHOS- 0.02
Salinity- 1.028
Im trying to bring my Phos up a Tad and Nitrates down a little.
LMK your thoughts
Only thing that jumps out about your parameters is the high salinity.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Yes my lights were white for the pics.
For Salinity I was curious about that. Should I lower it a tad? What are you running yours at?
InsaneClownFish
Active Member
Very nice so far!
Fishy Guy
Active Member
Mine is 1.026. Most of what I see posted here is in the 1.023-1.026 range; my salt has been mixing low for Ca so I've stayed at the top end of the range to minimize the amount of dosing correction I would need. Otherwise, I'm new to this and you should take my opinion with a huge grain of salt (pun intended ha).
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
HAHA Yeah mine was a little high and I Brought it down a little to 1.027 all my corals look very happy but anyone else who thinks I should bring it down a little im happy to know.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Update
Nothing to crazy going on My fish are doing good and Poptart the Midas Blenny is finally eating which is nice. He is super shy so hoping he comes out some more mainly just hiding in a rock.
Some good news is the micro algae I put in my sump had pods with it ANDDDDDD I finally can see pods swimming on my glass and in the water so super stoked fo that. Im going to wait a few weeks for the numbers to build up as I want to add a mandarin goby.
A question I have is how are y'all getting rid of micro bubbles from your skimmer every time I turn it on these micro bubbles go in the display and it looks bad....
Here is a FTS
Nothing to crazy going on My fish are doing good and Poptart the Midas Blenny is finally eating which is nice. He is super shy so hoping he comes out some more mainly just hiding in a rock.
Some good news is the micro algae I put in my sump had pods with it ANDDDDDD I finally can see pods swimming on my glass and in the water so super stoked fo that. Im going to wait a few weeks for the numbers to build up as I want to add a mandarin goby.
A question I have is how are y'all getting rid of micro bubbles from your skimmer every time I turn it on these micro bubbles go in the display and it looks bad....
Here is a FTS
Txoutlaw
Community Member
Nice build! As far as the bubbles. I would find a spot after the skimmer area and wedge poly fillter somewhere. So when water go's into the next compartment it traps the bubbles from going to the return area.one time I had to cut a strip of poly filter and run it across the top of a baffle to stop the bubbles.i use clothes pins to hold it on and i made sure to not have the clothes pin spring in the water.i use that poly pad from Walmart. It's in the craft section by that cloth material. They use in making blankets and it's like 6 bucks.it comes in a roll.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Imma look into that, I order some foam pad online so im seeing if that would work. Also using filter floss. Ill figure it out eventually.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Update:
So things are going smoothly, I have a fumigation in my townhome complex next Mon-Wends so I am mentally prepping for that.
Bought a 32 bio cube off Facebook Market place for $200 that I am going to put all my live stock in for a few days so fingers crossed everything can handle a move for a little bit. Thats kinda the reason I haven't bought any new fish and such. Im realizing I may have to many hermit crabs so Im going to give some away since I think they don't have enough food to eat and are picking at more corals.
Tank today is having an algae bloom im assuming as its a little cloudy so I threw some activated carbon in and pointed the return nozzle to the surface to get some more air in the tank. On a good note I have so many pods on my glass and in my tank swimming arounds its crazy. They are all over the place.
One bad thing is one of my SPS corals is having some tissue loss for some reason. All the polyps are out but the underside is losing some tissue. Imma dip it and hopefully it recovers.
Im really not liking my control panel and all the wires in the sump. Planning one redoing it and hanging on on the wall for a cleaner look
Parameters are good.
Temp: 78.5
Ph: 7.8
Alk: 8.05
Cal: 407
Mag: 1407
Phos: 0.04
N03: 4.7
So things are going smoothly, I have a fumigation in my townhome complex next Mon-Wends so I am mentally prepping for that.
Bought a 32 bio cube off Facebook Market place for $200 that I am going to put all my live stock in for a few days so fingers crossed everything can handle a move for a little bit. Thats kinda the reason I haven't bought any new fish and such. Im realizing I may have to many hermit crabs so Im going to give some away since I think they don't have enough food to eat and are picking at more corals.
Tank today is having an algae bloom im assuming as its a little cloudy so I threw some activated carbon in and pointed the return nozzle to the surface to get some more air in the tank. On a good note I have so many pods on my glass and in my tank swimming arounds its crazy. They are all over the place.
One bad thing is one of my SPS corals is having some tissue loss for some reason. All the polyps are out but the underside is losing some tissue. Imma dip it and hopefully it recovers.
Im really not liking my control panel and all the wires in the sump. Planning one redoing it and hanging on on the wall for a cleaner look
Parameters are good.
Temp: 78.5
Ph: 7.8
Alk: 8.05
Cal: 407
Mag: 1407
Phos: 0.04
N03: 4.7
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Update:
So..... I had the fumigation and moved all my corals to the Little Bio-cube that I purchased for a few days and things didn't go well. ALL MY CORAL DIED.
IDK what happened but I think when I transferred them into the Bio-cube the water may have been a little to cold and it shocked them. Kinda sucks a lot I just feel bad for the corals as they were starting to grow a little and the tank was finally starting to look good. So if anyone has any free corals they want to give away I know a guy who could use some
Moving forward I did a huge water change tested my water and added my 2 fish back in. They are doing great.
This was all last week ^
Here is a Few pics of what the tank looks like now.
This week my tank as been looking the most clear it ever has been. Ive been using activated carbon with my filter floss which seems to really clear things up. I also added a few new corals cause I couldn't help myself.
I changed my rock work a tad also since im going to make a Zoa Garden.
I got 3 new Zoas
1. Free Unknown Name (Upper right) PLZ ID if you can
2. Utter Chaos
3. Antimatter
Also got a softy
1. Firework Cloves
With having few corals I thought it would be a great time to get an Anemone. So im pulled the trigger and got a Rainbow Bubble tip from a fellow reefer. Its doing great and as expected and moving all over the tank to find a spot. Imma get some Skink Clowns here is the next week or so whenever I can find them that should host it.
Here are a few random shots of the Midas Blenny "Poptart" and a top down Pic if you are into that type of thing.
So..... I had the fumigation and moved all my corals to the Little Bio-cube that I purchased for a few days and things didn't go well. ALL MY CORAL DIED.
IDK what happened but I think when I transferred them into the Bio-cube the water may have been a little to cold and it shocked them. Kinda sucks a lot I just feel bad for the corals as they were starting to grow a little and the tank was finally starting to look good. So if anyone has any free corals they want to give away I know a guy who could use some
Moving forward I did a huge water change tested my water and added my 2 fish back in. They are doing great.
This was all last week ^
Here is a Few pics of what the tank looks like now.
This week my tank as been looking the most clear it ever has been. Ive been using activated carbon with my filter floss which seems to really clear things up. I also added a few new corals cause I couldn't help myself.
I changed my rock work a tad also since im going to make a Zoa Garden.
I got 3 new Zoas
1. Free Unknown Name (Upper right) PLZ ID if you can
2. Utter Chaos
3. Antimatter
Also got a softy
1. Firework Cloves
With having few corals I thought it would be a great time to get an Anemone. So im pulled the trigger and got a Rainbow Bubble tip from a fellow reefer. Its doing great and as expected and moving all over the tank to find a spot. Imma get some Skink Clowns here is the next week or so whenever I can find them that should host it.
Here are a few random shots of the Midas Blenny "Poptart" and a top down Pic if you are into that type of thing.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Tank is finally coming around
. Losing corals sucks especially when its out of your hands.Thank you Tho!
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Update:
Tank is moving along water is a little cloudy I think I'm having another bacteria bloom so I need to add some carbon to clear that up.
Was going to hold off on adding more coral and fish but I said screw it and wanted something new to look at. I added a skunk cleaner shrimp, a Duncan, an acan and this Fiji Acropora I saw that was cheap so I decided to snag it.
Also ordered a new lens to take pics with on my iPhone so here are some below.
Tank is moving along water is a little cloudy I think I'm having another bacteria bloom so I need to add some carbon to clear that up.
Was going to hold off on adding more coral and fish but I said screw it and wanted something new to look at. I added a skunk cleaner shrimp, a Duncan, an acan and this Fiji Acropora I saw that was cheap so I decided to snag it.
Also ordered a new lens to take pics with on my iPhone so here are some below.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Update:
So I've done a few things in the last month. First I went kinda crazy buying corals. I did one off those Online sale things on this site and just couldn't resist myself. Also met up with a few local reefers and restocked up on some SPS corals and Got some euphillia.
Another big thing I did was organize my control panel and cables! took me an entire weekend to figure it out and make it look clean but im beyond happy with it. I pretty much just got a cheap cabinet off Facebook and took the shelves out and made the entire panel fit inside. Only thing giving me issues is the RODI tubes don't fit my DOS Pumps and they keep sliding out... Does anyone know what attachment I need to fix this? Below is a before and after pics.
So I've done a few things in the last month. First I went kinda crazy buying corals. I did one off those Online sale things on this site and just couldn't resist myself. Also met up with a few local reefers and restocked up on some SPS corals and Got some euphillia.
Another big thing I did was organize my control panel and cables! took me an entire weekend to figure it out and make it look clean but im beyond happy with it. I pretty much just got a cheap cabinet off Facebook and took the shelves out and made the entire panel fit inside. Only thing giving me issues is the RODI tubes don't fit my DOS Pumps and they keep sliding out... Does anyone know what attachment I need to fix this? Below is a before and after pics.
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HandsyLobster
Active Member
Thank You its finally coming together sorta
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