My 4x2x2 120 Gal Build

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Time to catch the filefish.... It's eaten it's fill and peed off some zoa's!

 

[Miami Reef]

Time to catch the filefish.... It's eaten it's fill and peed off some zoa's!

Good luck!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Good luck!

No dice so far. Got the long nose hawkfish and Anthias in the trap, just got to work. Will give it a few days.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Not much to report, finally got the filefish. It's residing in the sump currently. Placing more zoa frags and still on the hunt for leathers/softies.

Did some stocking...

Current stock as of 12/25/22: (single fish unless noted)

2x Maroon Clowns (pair)
2x Skunk clowns (pair)
4x lyretail Anthias (all female)
Dispar Anthias (male)
Long Nose hawkfish
Falco Hawkfish
2x Yellow Tangs
Purple Tang
Sailfin Tang
Coris wrasse
Melanurus wrasse
Christmas wrasse

That's it for now...

 

[Spicy Reef]

Small update: lost the Lamarck's... Totally went on a hunger strike and was gone in a week. Tank may of been too busy for it, it would eat but was timid due to the tangs going crazy @ feeding time.

Finally gave in to aiptasia... Got tired of squirting Aiptasia X constantly, so went with a filefish! Since I have it in both tanks, it was worth the 20 bucks. Then it will be banished to the sump or back to the LFS.

Nice tank! I hope that filefish works out, when I added mine I slowly started loosing zoa's and gorgonians... it took a couple months before I noticed and another couple weeks for my puny little brain to pin it on the filefish! + side was zero aiptasia. I rehomed it and a year later am starting to F-aiptasia every now and then... I know what's coming :-(

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Nice tank! I hope that filefish works out, when I added mine I slowly started loosing zoa's and gorgonians... it took a couple months before I noticed and another couple weeks for my puny little brain to pin it on the filefish! + side was zero aiptasia. I rehomed it and a year later am starting to F-aiptasia every now and then... I know what's coming :-(

The filefish was a pain in the rear. It eradicated the aiptasia and a fairly large zoa colony. It's now living it's life in the sump. Need to put it in the cube tank, but I'm kinda askerred.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I recently got on the gfo wagon, man if I would of knew sooner.... Phosphate number before GFO:

2 weeks of GFO usage:

Recent FTS:

Softie photos!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Decided to pull 2x bulbs from the t5 fixture and add two smat farm g5's, as I love shimmer. I may remove the alie 460nm bars, but haven't decided yet.

 

[Miami Reef]

Decided to pull 2x bulbs from the t5 fixture and add two smat farm g5's, as I love shimmer. I may remote the alie 460nm bars, but haven't decided yet.

Wow. I like the spectrum a lot!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Wow. I like the spectrum a lot!

Gratzi! I'm running two Reef Brite 14k 50/50 bulbs (ATI coral plus more or less) along with two alie 460nm bars. The two smat farm g5's are running in 'mix' mode, no channel over 50% currently. I'll dunk in the par meter tomorrow so I can adjust channels as necessary and post up some numbers. I hate Windex lighting, been doing it long enough to know halides & t12's/vho setups. Frankly I'd prolly buy two Kessils 360x's but I can't justify the price if these cheapie lights will do the same, also from experience hanging Kessils in a canopy is a pain unless you have a high canopy, which I don't.

 

[Miami Reef]

Gratzi! I'm running two Reef Brite 14k 50/50 bulbs (ATI coral plus more or less) along with two alie 460nm bars. The two smat farm g5's are running in 'mix' mode, no channel over 50% currently. I'll dunk in the par meter tomorrow so I can adjust channels as necessary and post up some numbers. I hate Windex lighting, been doing it long enough to know halides & t12's/vho setups. Frankly I'd prolly buy two Kessils 360x's but I can't justify the price if these cheapie lights will do the same, also from experience hanging Kessils in a canopy is a pain unless you have a high canopy, which I don't.

I also don’t like blue tanks, in fact, I used to run a 1:1 blue plus : coral plus, but I ordered 2 aquablue special bulbs to switch out half of my coral plus‘.

I like white tanks.

Here’s an example of my aesthetic. This tank is perfect to me. I want my tank to look like this one day.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Got around to doing some par #'s, not bad, expected about what I got. Still have room to go on the smat farm lights as they are pulling approx 45 watts each as per kill a watt & eb832. Should I go up, down, or stay where I am. Mainly softie, zoa and some basic LPS. I check par with pumps running as usual as I feel that's a much more accurate and realistic manner to measure. Par meter is a Apogee SQ-420.

Edit: some numbers didnt come out as well, lower left in near mushroom and candy cane is 125, lower center near the toadstool is 155, lower near the closed finger leather is 135.

Current lighting is 2x Smat farm G5's, 2x 14k Reef Brite 50/50 bulbs and 2x 460nm AliE led light bars.

 

[Tcook]

Those are some nice thick healthy yellow tangs!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Those are some nice thick healthy yellow tangs!

They are utter pigs, the purple and sailfin are the real thick ones. I'd lean towards the sailfin having a glandular problem....

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Not much to report. Had to leave town on emergency Monday evening as my 92 year old granny had a rapid decline in health. Usually I do a water change before I travel but time was of the essence. She passed yesterday so I just flew home for a few days before I head back out for the funeral. As usual tank automation did it's thing and I'm glad to have a auto feeder running. Got home to no issues today now It's time for to cook up some water.

 

[Tcook]

Not much to report. Had to leave town on emergency Monday evening as my 92 year old granny had a rapid decline in health. Usually I do a water change before I travel but time was of the essence. She passed yesterday so I just flew home for a few days before I head back out for the funeral. As usual tank automation did it's thing and I'm glad to have a auto feeder running. Got home to no issues today now It's time for to cook up some water.

Sorry to hear about your loss but good your tank did well.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Sorry to hear about your loss but good your tank did well.

It survived round 2 (flew back for the funeral last monday morning and returned last night) with no issues. Didn't have time to make RODI for top off & water change water, so just top off was made (25g between both tanks).

Came back to what I look for with N&P... The phosphate has dropped great over the past 5-6 weeks. Now to figure out the right GFO usage to maintain the phosphate side.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Not much to report... Beginning stages of bubble algae so I decided to check parameters...

I've been running gfo since the beginning of the year, I've never been bottomed out. Sooooo I'm going to cut the number to 25% of recommended dose, currently at 50% of dose for gfo. Otherwise tank is going great. Only downside is that the falco hawkfish is starting to go pale and lethargic. Figuring old age is here and ill find it gone to king neptune sooner or later. After it and my longnose hawk passes no more hawkfish (I want shrimp again).

Also deciding on something to go on the overflow, I was planning to frag the larger gsp and place it but im open to suggestions!

FTS as of today:

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Not much to report, giving the klein butterfly a shot on aiptasia....

The usual posturing from the purple tang, the klein got beat up a bit, but that has settled after a few hours.

So far so good and its still eating!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

SITREP on Klein: Upside, Aiptasia eradicated so far. Downside, its nipping at zoas, much like when it was in the cube tank.

All tangs can officially care less about the klein butterfly, the purple is now over it.