Kayvon
Active Member
Introduction
My name is kayvon and I’ve been reefing for a couple of years now. I have had some success in the past, but it was always cut short by something or other. My first attempt at a reef was destroyed by biopellet overdose. My next was by velvet taking out nearly all of my fish overnight causing a chain reaction. Now is my third attempt.
Thanks to my experiences in the past, I plan on going with a more natural approach. I’ve used carbon dosing and gfo in the past, but I felt like these solutions changed too much too quickly. The universal advice is that stability is king and nothing good happens quickly. I plan on taking that advice to heart with this build.
Current System Equipment
• Display Tank: 120 gallon aquarium (48”L X 24”W X 24”H) with a Synergy Reef Ghost overflow on the back. Pukani rock and Tropic Eden Reeflakes
• Sump: Trigger Systems Sapphire 34
• Refugium: Chaeto grown using an old Evergrow 160W, 8x8x4 Marinepure brick, rubble rock, and Algaebarn pods
• Filtration Media: Bag of ROX Carbon every once in a while
• Lighting: Kessil A360W-E
• Skimmer: Vertex Omega 150
• Return Pump: Waveline DC10000II, uses a Random Flow Generator from Vivid Creative Aquatics
• Powerheads: 2x Vortech MP40 running on Reef Crest mode, MaxSpect Gyre XF230
• Auto Top Off System: Tunze Osmolator 3155, a 55 gallon barrel holds the water
• Heater: Finnex HMA-S 500W
Planned Equipment Upgrades
• Refugium: Maybe add HOG 1.0 algae scrubber I have laying around
• Lighting: ATi Powermodule 8x54W I’m waiting for my mounting arms to come in.
• Dosing Pump: GHL Doser 2.1 SA, 4 heads. Already have this. I just have to install it.
• Controller: GHL Profilux 4 with Vortech controller and spare powerbar
• Return Pump: Maybe upgrade to Vectra M1, or keep it as a backup
• Heater: Get something more safe/reliable
The tank so far…
I saved what livestock I could from my last build. I setup 2 tanks to house everything. One tank had my fish (small blue tang and maroon clown), and the other had my coral frags, bubble tip anemone, clean-up crew, and fire shrimp. I began medicating the fish tank with Cupramine to get the velvet and possible ich out of my fish. They ened up staying in QT for a month under Cu and a few weeks with Prazipro and other meds for a total of 6 weeks. The coral tank was pretty much left alone. I had my marinepure block and some liverock in that tank.
Meanwhile, I bought ~80 lbs of pukani, and it was cured using acid and bleach. I pretty much followed the BRS video of their experiment. Some of the other rocks and my Marinepure brick came from my old tank to get the cycle started faster. Also, I dumped in 2 bags of 5280 pods from Algae Barn.
I get the irony of rushing through the cycling after saying I’d be patient. One week into cycling my tank, the heater on my coral tank died suddenly, so I had to rush everything from that tank into the display. Luckily, the liverock and marinepure helped me ride out that hiccup. I did lose a couple of frags since the temperature dropped, but the crc, shrimp, and anemone made it. I added my 2 fish back in after they got the all-clear.
I currently have a copperband butterfly in QT. He’s been there about a week with no medication while I train him to start eating frozen. He’s currently eating live brine and blackworms. He refuses to eat miracle foods such as Masstick and LRS Fish Frenzy (even with the blackworms!). The LFS says he was in copper for 3 weeks when I bought him. I QT’d him just to be sure.
On the coral front, I am setting up a coral QT since I plan on going SPS dominant.
My name is kayvon and I’ve been reefing for a couple of years now. I have had some success in the past, but it was always cut short by something or other. My first attempt at a reef was destroyed by biopellet overdose. My next was by velvet taking out nearly all of my fish overnight causing a chain reaction. Now is my third attempt.
Thanks to my experiences in the past, I plan on going with a more natural approach. I’ve used carbon dosing and gfo in the past, but I felt like these solutions changed too much too quickly. The universal advice is that stability is king and nothing good happens quickly. I plan on taking that advice to heart with this build.
Current System Equipment
• Display Tank: 120 gallon aquarium (48”L X 24”W X 24”H) with a Synergy Reef Ghost overflow on the back. Pukani rock and Tropic Eden Reeflakes
• Sump: Trigger Systems Sapphire 34
• Refugium: Chaeto grown using an old Evergrow 160W, 8x8x4 Marinepure brick, rubble rock, and Algaebarn pods
• Filtration Media: Bag of ROX Carbon every once in a while
• Lighting: Kessil A360W-E
• Skimmer: Vertex Omega 150
• Return Pump: Waveline DC10000II, uses a Random Flow Generator from Vivid Creative Aquatics
• Powerheads: 2x Vortech MP40 running on Reef Crest mode, MaxSpect Gyre XF230
• Auto Top Off System: Tunze Osmolator 3155, a 55 gallon barrel holds the water
• Heater: Finnex HMA-S 500W
Planned Equipment Upgrades
• Refugium: Maybe add HOG 1.0 algae scrubber I have laying around
• Lighting: ATi Powermodule 8x54W I’m waiting for my mounting arms to come in.
• Dosing Pump: GHL Doser 2.1 SA, 4 heads. Already have this. I just have to install it.
• Controller: GHL Profilux 4 with Vortech controller and spare powerbar
• Return Pump: Maybe upgrade to Vectra M1, or keep it as a backup
• Heater: Get something more safe/reliable
The tank so far…
I saved what livestock I could from my last build. I setup 2 tanks to house everything. One tank had my fish (small blue tang and maroon clown), and the other had my coral frags, bubble tip anemone, clean-up crew, and fire shrimp. I began medicating the fish tank with Cupramine to get the velvet and possible ich out of my fish. They ened up staying in QT for a month under Cu and a few weeks with Prazipro and other meds for a total of 6 weeks. The coral tank was pretty much left alone. I had my marinepure block and some liverock in that tank.
Meanwhile, I bought ~80 lbs of pukani, and it was cured using acid and bleach. I pretty much followed the BRS video of their experiment. Some of the other rocks and my Marinepure brick came from my old tank to get the cycle started faster. Also, I dumped in 2 bags of 5280 pods from Algae Barn.
I get the irony of rushing through the cycling after saying I’d be patient. One week into cycling my tank, the heater on my coral tank died suddenly, so I had to rush everything from that tank into the display. Luckily, the liverock and marinepure helped me ride out that hiccup. I did lose a couple of frags since the temperature dropped, but the crc, shrimp, and anemone made it. I added my 2 fish back in after they got the all-clear.
I currently have a copperband butterfly in QT. He’s been there about a week with no medication while I train him to start eating frozen. He’s currently eating live brine and blackworms. He refuses to eat miracle foods such as Masstick and LRS Fish Frenzy (even with the blackworms!). The LFS says he was in copper for 3 weeks when I bought him. I QT’d him just to be sure.
On the coral front, I am setting up a coral QT since I plan on going SPS dominant.
