I hope I remember how to do this

[JoshH]

Thanks for the compliment. Everything is starting to come together. I was just talking with a friend the other day and had the realization that it has been a year since I put the deposit down on this tank/stand/equipment for this build. I was really hoping to be further along than I am, but with the number of fish that I have in there now, it at least feels like a tank and not just an empty glass box full of water and rock.

Why do you feel like you need to wait until last to add tangs? I have never found them overly aggressive towards other fish unless you get a bastardly powder blue or zebrasoma of some sort. I have never had problems with a reasonable tang attacking a new addition.

Hey at the one year mark my tank was still dry ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

That is my worry is I'll get an unruly purple tang and adding other more peaceful fish after might be difficult

 

[cmaxwell39]

Catching clear photos of fast fish is never easy! Great shots. Beautiful kole! Tank looks great.

Thanks for the compliments. I used to be better at getting decent pics. Another one of those things that hopefully will come back with some practice.

I’m also not concerned about the reasonable tangs being aggressive. It’s those unreasonable ******** that you need to keep an eye out for!

I must have just been lucky to this point with tangs. I know there are those tangs that are just ********

 

[cmaxwell39]

Hey at the one year mark my tank was still dry ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

That is my worry is I'll get an unruly purple tang and adding other more peaceful fish after might be difficult

Your tank is going to be amazing. Your sump is worth the price of admission, even empty.


A purple tang is definitely on the list of “wait until later.” I am still undecided if a zebra soma will make its way into my tank. If so, a purple is definitely a possibility down the road.

 

[JoshH]

Your tank is going to be amazing. Your sump is worth the price of admission, even empty.


A purple tang is definitely on the list of “wait until later.” I am still undecided if a zebra soma will make its way into my tank. If so, a purple is definitely a possibility down the road.

A purple and a white cheek are at the very top of my list of additions. And I'm very worried about adding them next, unless really small.

 

[cmaxwell39]

A purple and a white cheek are at the very top of my list of additions. And I'm very worried about adding them next, unless really small.

I would worry about the purple, but the white cheek, ime, is a fairly peaceful tang. Had one in my last setup. Was added within the first couple of months and that system was up for 7+ years. Needless to say, there were many fish added after him and I never had a problem with him.

The white cheek was also ~6” when I added it, so not small.

 

[JoshH]

I would worry about the purple, but the white cheek, ime, is a fairly peaceful tang. Had one in my last setup. Was added within the first couple of months and that system was up for 7+ years. Needless to say, there were many fish added after him and I never had a problem with him.

The white cheek was also ~6” when I added it, so not small.

Good to know, maybe I'll spring for the white cheek earlier than I was going to. And add the purple last ;Smuggrin

 

[cmaxwell39]

Good to know, maybe I'll spring for the white cheek earlier than I was going to. And add the purple last ;Smuggrin

I have two words.... DO IT. ;Hilarious;Hilarious

Whether you decide to add it sooner rather than later you won’t be disappointed with a whitecheek. I thought about one for this system, but decided to try a different acanthurus this time.

 

[JoshH]

I have two words.... DO IT. ;Hilarious;Hilarious

Whether you decide to add it sooner rather than later you won’t be disappointed with a whitecheek. I thought about one for this system, but decided to try a different acanthurus this time.

You are quite the enabler! Having one previously, how do you feel about them long term in a tank your size? (We have the same sized tanks L×W wise)

 

[cmaxwell39]

You are quite the enabler! Having one previously, how do you feel about them long term in a tank your size? (We have the same sized tanks L×W wise)

Yes we have the same size tank as far as the footprint goes. I think a white cheek would do just fine in a 60x30 tank as long as the aquascape allowed for multiple swimming lanes. My last tank was a 72x24 footprint and the white cheek did not pace or seem cramped. It maxed out at around 7-7.5".

 

[cmaxwell39]

Water tests done for the week.

NO3 -- 1.0 Salifert
PO4-- 0.00 Hannah Low Range
Alk-- 8.0 Hannah DKH
Ca+ -- 450 Salifert
Mg+ -- 1350 Salifert

A week ago I had reduced the fuge light time from 3 hrs a day to 2 hrs a day and that allowed the nitrates to begin to rise. If the nitrates get to 2 and the phosphates don't begin to come up I will dose some phosphate to begin to bring them up.

I also got a message from the LFS that they have a female rhomboid in stock, so tomorrow or Sunday I will be making a trip and hopefully coming home with at least one fairy wrasse.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Been a while since I have updated this thread, but figured it was probably time.

I have been fighting some reduced flow from the return pump. After working with Sicce Italy customer service to figure out the problem, a new impeller/rotor assembly which was installed this week. It helped flow a little but it flow has still not returned to where it was.

Since this issue started right around Thanksgiving, I did take advantage of a greatly discounted price on the Sicce SDC 9 over black friday and purchased a back up pump. I think I will swap out the pump this coming week. Then I will continue to work with Sicce to get the issue with the original one taken care of.

On the livestock front, nothing has changed in the display tank. There will be some new fish soon. I didn't have any luck with the rhomboid fairy. It died within 24 hrs unfortunately. But I did also get a small transitioning hooded fairy wrasse that has made it through QT and is currently in the observation tank. It is still quite skittish, but I feel confident that it is healthy and will do fine once it is in the display tank with other fish life and will take on much more natural behavior. I also have an exquisite fairy wrasse in QT at the moment.

I am also starting to see some coralline showing up in the display tank. This is great news because I have a few "test" corals in QT that will be ready to be moved to the display by New Years Day. I think the tank will be ready for them.

Finally a FTS and an end view shot from this evening.

I have some plans for the fuge and a couple of other projects after the holidays, but I will update that in a future post.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Well, I hope you all had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Years.

I have quite a bit to share, but first the not so good. A couple of days after my last post I lost the hooded wrasse that was supposed to be making its way to the DT on Christmas day. Not a mark on it, had been through a full medication schedule and been in the observation QT for almost 3 weeks. Didn't eat one night, but I had done a water change late that afternoon and he was still quite skittish whenever I did anything in the tank so I wasn't overly concerned. The next morning he was just dead. Not a mark on him. Have no idea what happened.

Later that same week I lost the Exquisite fairy wrasse that was in the medicated QT and was scheduled to be moved to the holding tank when the hooded made his move to the display. He ate one night, got home after work the next day to find him laying there dead. Once again, no visible marks or anything odd, just dead.

I have also not seen one of the clownfish in the display for almost 3 weeks now, and I had a zebra barred dartfish die this week in the display. Not had a real good run with my fishy friends lately.

It would be easier to take all of that if I could point to some cause or issue that may have been the problem, but I am lost on every single one of these deaths.

Finally in bad news, my return pump died last night. Thankfully I had bought a backup, so I swapped that in and was able to keep going. The app for the sicce pump was giving me a blocked rotor alert. I went down to check on it and it was not running. Pulled it from the sump and took it apart to inspect it and everything looked fine. Put it back together, reset the controller and plugged everything back in. Didn't even try to start and within a couple of minutes I get another blocked router notification. So I swapped pumps out real quick and pulled the malfunctioning pump apart and rinsed it out real good. Called it a night and figured I would try again today. Trying to get the pump to run today proved fruitless, so a warranty ticket has been opened with Sicce.

I think it is in the motor block itself, as I can plug the backup pump into the controller and power supply that was for the malfunctioning pump and it will turn on and run just fine. Just glad I had a backup or I would have been scrambling last night.

 

[cmaxwell39]

The last post was kind of a downer, but some good things are happening too. I have had a few days off this week and got a little accomplished on a couple of projects for the tank. Will detail more in a future post, but let me leave you tonight with a FTS from yesterday.

 

[Gablami]

Thanks for sharing. Ain’t reefing a *****?

Ive also lost wrasses in copper for no reason. Three in the last couple months. None as expensive as yours though. I still don’t have a single wrasse in my tank. I think when it comes to wrasses, I might have to go back to tank transfer or something...

And about your return pump experience, at least you had that spare. Things happened as they should. All equipment will fail eventually, and you had the good foresight to have a spare. So that’s really not bad news imo.

Things will look up! Time for some good news in the next update

 

[cmaxwell39]

Thanks for sharing. Ain’t reefing a *****?

Ive also lost wrasses in copper for no reason. Three in the last couple months. None as expensive as yours though. I still don’t have a single wrasse in my tank. I think when it comes to wrasses, I might have to go back to tank transfer or something...

And about your return pump experience, at least you had that spare. Things happened as they should. All equipment will fail eventually, and you had the good foresight to have a spare. So that’s really not bad news imo.

Things will look up! Time for some good news in the next update

Thanks. Sometimes I really wonder why we do this to ourselves. I think all reefers like pain and frustration at least a little. ;Hilarious

On the QT front, I have broken down and am sterilizing by drying out both the medicated QT and the observation/holding tank. I will let them sit empty for at least a week, and then will get them set back up. This was one of the projects that consumed some of my time off this past week.

I am contemplating not running wrasses and some other sensitive fish through copper. On my last setup I did a 6 week observational QT on everything that included 2 rounds of prazi. Then if needed I added copper or other meds to the routine. I may go back to something similar and do a 6 week observational QT with 2 rounds of prazi and 10 days minimum of metro on wrasses and other copper sensitive fish and then do a more traditional copper forward QT on most other fish. Not sure yet, still debating. More to come......

 

[Gablami]

Sounds good. I don’t trust my eyes enough just to do pure observational QT. Afraid of something slipping through and then I’m screwed. The thought of catching all the fish and going fallow again sends shivers down my spine. But sounds like that’s worked for you in the past. I’m probably just not patient enough to look *extremely* carefully.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Sounds good. I don’t trust my eyes enough just to do pure observational QT. Afraid of something slipping through and then I’m screwed. The thought of catching all the fish and going fallow again sends shivers down my spine. But sounds like that’s worked for you in the past. I’m probably just not patient enough to look *extremely* carefully.

I think one of the keys to this method is the 6 week minimum time frame. And it wasn't purely observational. I treated everything that came in with 2 rounds of prazi. I was more watching for ich/velvet that would require a copper treatment.

I may still run everything through copper, and switch from cupramine which I have used before and have plenty of on hand to copper power which is what all the cool kids use these days. Not really sure yet, just kicking around some ideas. I have a week or so at least to figure it out.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Couple of other projects that I took on over the last few days while I was off...

First of all, I cleaned and reconfigured my skimmer. First step was cleaning the skimmer up. Ran in weak vinegar bath and then tore it apart to thoroughly clean everything.

Next I wanted to reconfigure the venturi. I had loaned this skimmer to a buddy while I was shut down for 3+ years. He had mounted the venturi horizontally because it was needed for his setup, and I just never reconfigured it when setting it up in my sump. It has always been a little awkward in this sump, but it has worked.

Finally, I wanted to make it so that I could run my spare SDC 9.0 or the Jabeao pump that I have been running on the skimmer so I made sure the pumps could be easily switched out...

Finally all mounted back up in the sump. Looks so much cleaner now.

Compare the footprint of the skimmer in this last picture to what it looked like running in the vinegar bath in the first picture.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Next I wanted to make water changes easier. So I tapped into the full siphon drain line and tee'ed off to add a line that would feed my QT tanks for doing water changes on the QT. Using display tank water in the QT's saves me some salt and it helps ensure that the fish inverts in QT are used to roughly the water parameters that are in the display.

I decided to run a 3/4" line over to hopefully not take away all the flow from the sump while doing a water change. Ran line over and added ball valves over both the Coral/Invert QT and the fish observation/holding tank. Did not do anything with the medicated QT so that when water changes are done on that tank water can be pre-dosed with the proper level of copper.

In that last picture you can see the other project for the fish room. I added a row of shelving up high that runs over 1/2 the way around the fish room to gain some more storage. I will store extra test kits, boxes from equipment, extra pumps, etc on this to free up clean up the fish room some. This hopefully will help keep everything organized.

Next update, some actual tank pictures....

 

[cmaxwell39]

So, as promised some actual tank pictures.

I broke out the "good" camera, and felt like a total newb again. I remember now that while I felt like I had gotten to the point of taking adequate pictures before, I never enjoyed that part of the hobby a whole lot. I remembered why trying to take some decent pics of the tank again.

But I persisted and got a few half way decent pictures.

First right and left half of the tank....

As you can see, I moved a few "tester" frags from the QT to the display.

Setosa:

Candy cane frag that my youngest had to have (after I talked him out of the $250 open brain coral)

Tri-color that has browned out in QT:

And Forest Fire Digi:

There are a couple of others as well, but QT was hard on them so we will see how they recover in the display tank before posting much about them.

All corals went through at least 45 days in QT and were dipped and remounted on new plugs before going into QT. This round of QT did not start out well, but I started making sure there were nitrates, phosphates and food in the water column for them and all stopped receding and most started recovering. I think this is a key. The setosa had about 50% receded and made a full recovery. Everything else had either receded or flesh that was looking really pale/dry and the flesh made a good recovery. I have come to believe that dosing amino acids in QT is key to keeping things happy. And don't worry too much about keeping algae completely under control in the QT. Clean it up, but don't starve it out or you will starve your corals out as well.