Jstan84's 60 breeder build

[Jstan84]

Added a jar of galaxy pods and a small flame angel last week.

I have upped the light intensity and after a few days there are a few traces of diatoms showings up. Both the tang and angel are starting to pick at the rocks and larger pieces in the sand. Will probably start adding some CUC depending on what the LFS has available this weekend.

 

[Jstan84]

4 week update:
Added a flametail blenny and azure damsel
Added some CUC:
1 tiger conch
5 astrea snails
5 nassarius snails
3 small turbo snails
16 mixed hermit crabs
1 emerald crab

Tank has started to grow a little bit of brown diatoms that are fading out or getting eaten. Mostly popping up on the larger sand pieces. Tang and blenny are grazing on it and the crabs and conch are going to town on it. Started with I/O salt and dosed all for reef for a week to get parameters in line. Probably not going to dose anymore until corals are added. Salt going forward is going to be tropic marin pro. Petco labor day sale was able to get 200gal bucket price down to $100.

Also got reagents for my old hannah calc checker, new salifert mag test kit, and a milwaukee double junction PH probe added to the Hydros X4

Current parameters:
Salinity - 35ppt (milwaukee digital refrac)
Alk - 8.8dkh (hanna checker)
Calcium - 508ppm (hanna checker)
PH - 7.94-8.05 (only 1 day of readings)
Mag - 1350ppm (salifert)
Nitrate - ~12ppm (red sea pro - high range)
Phosphate - .03ppm (Hanna phosphorus ULR)

Parameters are in a pretty good place. I swapped out the IAOAI skimmer for my old eshopps S-120 and it is definitely working much better. I don't love the current PH level but will give it a few more days of measurement before I consider taking action. Would like to get PH stable at 8.2-84 prior to adding corals. I have already run skimmer intake tubing out a window, so not sure what else I will do as I dont want to start dosing kalk prior to adding corals, but I'm also on the fence on using a CO2 scrubber as I have a feeling I would exhaust media too fast.

My LFS got a pair of small juvenile emperator angels. They are currently in QT and as long as they do well I will probably grab one.

I am going on a cruise first week of Oct and probably wont add much else till I get back from that.

 

[jonelder68]

4 week update:
Added a flametail blenny and azure damsel
Added some CUC:
1 tiger conch
5 astrea snails
5 nassarius snails
3 small turbo snails
16 mixed hermit crabs
1 emerald crab

Tank has started to grow a little bit of brown diatoms that are fading out or getting eaten. Mostly popping up on the larger sand pieces. Tang and blenny are grazing on it and the crabs and conch are going to town on it. Started with I/O salt and dosed all for reef for a week to get parameters in line. Probably not going to dose anymore until corals are added. Salt going forward is going to be tropic marin pro. Petco labor day sale was able to get 200gal bucket price down to $100.

Also got reagents for my old hannah calc checker, new salifert mag test kit, and a milwaukee double junction PH probe added to the Hydros X4

Current parameters:
Salinity - 35ppt (milwaukee digital refrac)
Alk - 8.8dkh (hanna checker)
Calcium - 508ppm (hanna checker)
PH - 7.94-8.05 (only 1 day of readings)
Mag - 1350ppm (salifert)
Nitrate - ~12ppm (red sea pro - high range)
Phosphate - .03ppm (Hanna phosphorus ULR)

Parameters are in a pretty good place. I swapped out the IAOAI skimmer for my old eshopps S-120 and it is definitely working much better. I don't love the current PH level but will give it a few more days of measurement before I consider taking action. Would like to get PH stable at 8.2-84 prior to adding corals. I have already run skimmer intake tubing out a window, so not sure what else I will do as I dont want to start dosing kalk prior to adding corals, but I'm also on the fence on using a CO2 scrubber as I have a feeling I would exhaust media too fast.

My LFS got a pair of small juvenile emperator angels. They are currently in QT and as long as they do well I will probably grab one.

I am going on a cruise first week of Oct and probably wont add much else till I get back from that.

Looking good! Great fish additions also . Just be careful with the dwarf angles. They can become big time bullies! Hopefully the tangs will keep yours in check like mine do.

 

[Jstan84]

So far the Angel has been pretty good. He chases the damsel a little if he gets too close. The tang is the bigger aggressor mostly towards the flame but really only when the flame goes into one of the tangs hiding spots. Day 1 everyone would “chase” the blenny, wasn’t really aggressive, more like checking him out, but when the blenny gets backed into a cave he has no problem showing his fangs and chasing back. When the imperator goes in it will likely be in an acclimation box

 

[jonelder68]

Any updates!?!?!?!

 

[Jstan84]

Any updates!?!?!?!

The only updates to note are that I seemed to have completely skipped the ugly stage and my LFS had the dream fish, quarantined, and 25% off

 

[Jstan84]

First tester corals have been added.

I have 9 more frags coming this Friday from the WWC live sale.

So far so good with no nipping from either the flame or emperor angels. I went about 2 weeks without testing alk and it has dropped to 6.4 so the tank is consuming it somewhere. The only thing I can tell is it appears that the larger rubble in the gulf live sand is starting to grow coraline, but no noticeable spots of it growing on the rocks or anywhere else yet. Starting to dose some all for reef to bump up, and ordered some kalk that I’m going to dose through the ATO. Only other issue I’m having is low PH between 7.8-7.9, not sure what else to do hence the kalk. I’m keeping the window open in the tank room (while the weather is nice), ceiling fan on, skimmer tubing running outside, and gyre pump disturbing the surface. I’m hoping kalk can get my PH up to 8.2+ as I don’t really want to deal with the ongoing expense of CO2 scrubber media.

 

[Jstan84]

Something interesting I have also noticed. Even though the emperor angel is the youngest and smallest fish in the tank he lives up to his name. None of the other fish dare mess with him and if they approach he does not back down or run. He isn't aggressive towards anyone but also is not going to be bullied. Its so cool how he just glides around the tank and when he locks onto something he is inspecting goes fully vertical or even upside down checking things out. He is a pain in the butt to feed, the only things I'm getting a feeding response (other than picking at things in the rock and sand) are some fresh clams that I blended up into a paste and he picks at nori. Hopefully as he grows he will take to the TDO and Hikari algae pellets that get fed through the autofeeder. I attribute it to his size and how small his mouth is, but he could care less about the pellets. between 3 Autofeeds, a strip of nori once a day, and frozen clam puree 3 times a day I am happy with how the tank is handling nutrients. Nitrates are staying between 4-6PPM and phosphate is staying between .03-.06PPM.