House on a Hill Red Sea 750 XXL

[Diesel48]

Decided to slow everything down, not turning on the lights yet. I was getting a little to excited with the progress I was making.

Going to let the tank sit for a bit, I am going to dose ammonia to 2ppm again next week. If it drops to 0 in 24 hours I know it is good to go. The slight haziness needs to go away as well. I am sure time will take care of that.

I did setup the Neptune DOS for AWC. Right now I have it doing 4 gallons a day. I will probably move the DOS as it is on the wall that is shared to the room the tank is in. I can hear it through the drywall. It is not crazy loud but noticeable. I have a wall that is not shared with the room that the tank is in so I might as well use it.

I also had to buy the Reef Octopus protein skimmer stand so I could get the 200INT at the appropriate depth of 7 - 8.5" of water. I added one more Brightwell Biobrick to the system as well. That puts me at a total of 4.

 

[Diesel48]

The display tank is starting to clear up. It was not quite as cloudy this morning.
I purchased 3 Bangaii Cardinals yesterday and put them in my QT tank. I am using the process outlined in the Sticky in the QT forum area. I wanted a fairly cheap fish to do this with as it is my first time doing QT.

 

[Diesel48]

7 days into QT, I lost one cardinal. It was my fault, when I got the 3 fish from the pet store I noticed 2 looked a little suspect. I should have told the employee to grab a different one as the fins on this one were noticeably shorter and damaged. The other 2 are doing pretty good. I did a 25% water change today. The DT is looking great, it is absolutely crystal clear right now. I am just continuing to let it do its thing. My Nitrate is around 10 - 15ppm. Doing 4 gallon water changes a day to get it more 5-10ppm. The tank should be all good to go once the Cardinals are done in QT.

 

[Diesel48]

Just an update. I lost all 3 Cardinals in QT. They never ate well so I think that was the issue. They were extremely thin. Not sure I will buy livestock from that pet store again. Sounds like they pretty much take the fish out of the bag from the whole sale shipment and put them for sale. No observation or anything. I found a pet store that is about 1.5 hours away and it is amazing. They pick out the fish at the wholesaler and do a general QT on them for 2 weeks to make sure they are eating before even displaying them. I liked what I saw, everything looked extremely healthy.

I did pick up a Royal Gramma and 2 clownfish. I bought them from a local hobbyist from a Facebook Group. The fish looked extremely healthy and are eating well. I am going to QT them just to make sure. One of the Clowns had some white stringy poop so I am feeding it food soaked with GC for the next couple of weeks.

The DT looks good yet. Nice and clear. I got my USB-C cables to connect the Kessil lights so I may start messing with the lighting schedule a bit. Not going to run them yet until I have a few fish in there, then I will turn them on. Still AWCing 4 gallons out a day. Nitrates are down to 5PPM as of last night.

 

[Diesel48]

The 2 clownfish and Royal Gramma have been moved to a sterile QT tank. They made it through the 14 days of copper treatment. I am still feeding medicated food as I still see some white stringy poop coming from the clowns. It isn't as stringy but still white. I guess it just takes awhile. They are all still eating and looking great.

I did add 2 bristle tooth tangs from a quarantined source to the display tank. They went in a week ago and are doing great. Both eating well and getting a long. One is a small white tail bristle and the other is a Indian Gold Ring bristle. After about 5-6 days in the tank the bacteria in the tank started to adjust. It is a bit cloudy now as things start coming back to equilibrium.

After having the rocks in a brute cycling for 4 months in the dark, running in the tank with lights for 1 month with no lights, I have finally turned them on. I am running around 4 hours of blues in the morning, 4 hours of white in the afternoon and 4 hours of blue at night. The 4 Blue + T5 bulbs run for 8 hours a day in the middle.

I am trying to add coraline algae with the cultured ARC product. I put 3 purple bottles and one pink bottle in this this weekend. I am curious to see what happens in a couple of months. Other than that just letting this tank run its course and slowly mature.

 

[Diesel48]

Noticed Diatoms last night on the rocks and bottom of the tank. Looks like the ugly stage is about to begin.

 

[Diesel48]

Diatoms have peaked, I think. They are not populating as fast as they where. I do not have to clean the glass everyday anymore. I added the two Clown Fish and Royal Gramma to the tank last week. They were my first batch of fish that went through my QT system successfully. That process was not to bad following the great thread in the Fish Disease section of this forum. It just takes time which is hard to come by with 3 kids under 5 with the youngest being 8 weeks. I have another batch of fish coming next Monday. Planning on adding a few Zebramosa Tangs to join the tang gang. The place I am getting them from QT's them which is great as it time consuming. I will probably wait a couple months after this fish addition before doing anything else.

So far I have not noticed any coralline algae after adding 4 of the ARC Reef bottles (3 purple and 1 pink). I am not to shocked as I expect it to be at least 2 months before seeing anything, it has only been 2 weeks.

When the diatoms started I added 10 Trochus snails. They are doing their job grazing all day. I got them from AlgaeBarn and only lost 1 in shipment.

The brown diatoms were not pretty but not to bad either. The rocks are a lot more interesting to look at right now since they are no longer stark white.

My protein skimmer is producing some great dark skimmate now as well. It really did not do anything until about a month after fish were added.

I have been feeding LRS mixed with Sprilina Brine Shrimp or PE Mysis, along with a clip of Nori each day. I do water tests each Saturday and my Nitrates continue to fall. Last Saturday I measured NO3 at 2.5 and P04 at .04. If they get to low I will try feeding a bit more, not running the skimmer 24/7 or reduce my 4 gallon a day Automatic water change. I do not want Dinos and people seem to get them when nutrients get to low.

 

[Diesel48]

Well, some not great news to report. The 1/8" ABS plastic sheet that I siliconed to the bottom of the tank has buckled. Not sure what more I can do besides drain the tank into some large containers to hold the live rock and fish while I remove the ABS and scrape the old silicone that was holding it down. After it is removed pump the water back in, setup the rocks again and put the fish in. I am pretty sure I can do this in an afternoon. The ABS is buckled, must have expanded in the tank? Seems strange but if I push the portion down and put rocks over it, it is strong enough to come right backup.

I plan on stopping by Tractor Supply Company to pick up 2 - 110 live stock tanks to use as holding tanks. I will throw in a heater as well as point a power head or two at the surface of the water. This is definitely frustrating as I was ready to let the tank go on cruise control for a few months before starting to add corals.

The diatoms were finished up. They were releasing from the rocks / glass and tank bottom going into the water column. It made the water a bit dirty for about a week. My roller mat was busy filtering the water. I went through one roll in about a week.

Live stock so far:
9 - Trouchus Snails
1 - White Tail Bristle Tang
1 - Indian Gold Ring Bristle Tang
2 - Clowns (some snowflake, bullet hole, whatever you want to call it designer breed)
1 - Royal Gramma
2 - Yellow Tangs
1 - Purple Tang

All fish are happy and enjoying their space. My tang gang should help eat any algae that grows in the tang before it becomes a problem. I am pretty set on fish for awhile. I will potentially add an Achilles tang and a few Anthias to finish it up. After that I will focus on corals when the tank is ready.

 

[Whip]

Sorry to hear all the problems with the ABS. It sounds like a lot of hard work to get it out. Bummer.

I’m also in cruise control mode for a few months before I add corals, so I can imagine how much of a disruption this is.

 

[Diesel48]

Sorry to hear all the problems with the ABS. It sounds like a lot of hard work to get it out. Bummer.

I’m also in cruise control mode for a few months before I add corals, so I can imagine how much of a disruption this is.

I went back and fourth before installing it, lol. Wish I would have skipped it!

 

[dantimdad]

That stinks.

Are you going to put anything back on the bottom?

 

[Diesel48]

Nope, I do not want this to happen again. Just going to put everything directly on the glass.

 

[dantimdad]

I can't say as I blame you. I am a sand bed guy myself but, I have seen some issues with boards on the bottom and would just leave it plain.

Nice setup!

 

[AZMSGT]

Just found your build. Nice job so far. I thought the ABS was an odd idea but thought to each there own. I however have been thinking about putting down white acrylic on the bottom of my tank. I'm planning the bare bottom too.

 

[BW1199]

What did you end up doing about the ABS? I had the same thing happen in my 625 but I feel like I'm already too far down the road to take everything out and remove the ABS. I have a ton of coraline growing on it and see tons of pods crawling out from under the ABS when the lights are out.

 

[special-ops-s2k]

Awesome build! I’m currently working on mine, adds up fast!

 

[Diesel48]

Tomorrow morning I am draining my tank into a 150 gallon live stock tank and a 55 gallon brute. I will have a heater and a few power heads to keep the fish happy. Hoping the black ABS comes out easily and the silicon scrapes off clean. Wish me luck!

 

[Diesel48]

5 hours later the ABS plastic has been removed! The entire process went really well. The longest part was scraping the silicon I used to hold the ABS down to the bottom pane of glass. After going over it multiple times I got it all off. My aquascape is slightly different as I could not get it the way it was before, however my wife and I both like it better now so that is a win. We will see if this destabilizing event has any impact on the system. I think it will be minimal as it is new and there was no sand in the tank. I left the lights out for the day so the fish could chill a bit. Hopefully now the system can just mature for a bit. I am hoping to add a Calcium Reactor in a month or two and then start with a few test corals.

 

[AZMSGT]

I made the call not to put anything on the bottom of my tank. Just bare bottom glass. Sorry you went through all this.

 

[Diesel48]

I made the call not to put anything on the bottom of my tank. Just bare bottom glass. Sorry you went through all this.

It stinks but things could be worse. If people add something to the bottom of their tanks make sure to leave 1/4” for expansion of any material. Now ready to let it do it things for a few weeks. If things look good, add a few more fish, calcium reactor and then some test corals.