New 36 Gallon Bow Front Office Tank

[Razorp]

1 full day with the skimmer. Micro bubbles have almost fully subsided and skimmer is producing nice dark skimmate.

 

[bigjepp]

1 full day with the skimmer. Micro bubbles have almost fully subsided and skimmer is producing nice dark skimmate.

What skimmer is this?

 

[Razorp]

What skimmer is this?

It is the Macro Aqua M-50! It is rated up to 60 gallons, so i figured it should do me good for a while! So far so good!

 

[Razorp]

The office tank went 3 full days with no power. I lost all fish but one, and somehow the torch made it as well.

it’s been three weeks since that happened and the tank is looking better than it ever has. I picked up a beautiful hammer coral, and finally got my first anemone settled down. (Super exciting because i planned this tank as an anemone tank). Super fitting that the first Nem is actually a split from my favorite anemone in my biocube tank at home!!

here are a few update pictures!

 

[rmcrom]

Sorry to hear about the power outage, but glad you had at least some survivors.

 

[Razorp]

Sorry to hear about the power outage, but glad you had at least some survivors.

Its ok, live and learn I suppose. May invest in some kind of back up power supply in the future. Something that will at least run the aqua clear and heater for a few hours a day on and off. 3 days is a long time with no power though. I lost it for 7 days at my house. If i hadn't had generators, i would have been screwed. Cost me $300 in gas though.

 

[Razorp]

Look what my brother brought me to work today!! I just love clowns!

 

[rmcrom]

Those have nice patterns. Are those some kind of fancy clowns?

 

[Razorp]

Those have nice patterns. Are those some kind of fancy clowns?

Thank you! My brother unfortunately didn't pay attention to the names. I believe the black clown is just a standard "black clown" his stripes are normal and he has some orange on his face. The other looks to be a misbar. They are both ocillaris!

 

[Razorp]

Second AI Prime HD came in and I got it mounted up today! As far as equipment goes , other than an ato I think I’m done. I may eventually convert the aquaclear 110 into a refugium, but for now I’m happy.

enjoy some pics!

 

[Razorp]

The office 36 gallon is really looking great! The aquaclear return is acting as an algae scrubber and appears to be helping the tank from having algae problems. Kh is holding a tad high around 12 but it’s stable so I’ll take it. Nitrates and phos remain very low. Starting worry me a tad, I do have neonitro on hand and might start a very light dosing. Other than that things are great!

 

[rmcrom]

Corals are looking great. I am also looking at basically 0/0 in my 36gal. I'm going the NeoNitro and NeoPhos route as well to try to get back on track.

 

[Razorp]

Another update.

I dosed neo nitro 1 time about 2 weeks ago. At the time nitrates were undetectable. 2 days later they had climbed to 10. After another 2 days they were at 20ppm with no further dosing. The next day i did a water change. Throughout that week nitrates remained 10ppm and still climbing throughout the week. Did another water change yesterday and will test today to see where we are. I think its safe to say i broke the low nutrient barrier that i was stuck at, which is all i was striving for. I now have some gha starting to pop up and a tad bit of red slime. I knew eventually I would run a refugium in my aqua clear 110, so I guess its time to get that going. Wouldn't hurt to have a pod hotel going anyway!

As far as inhabitants, I'm maxed on fish for sure: (yes its unconventional, but for now its working.) 3 clownfish (1 of the three hosts my biggest rose nem) , 3 lemon damsels, 1 flame fish.

I have 3 bubbletip nems, 1 rainbow, 1 rose ( a split from my rose in my biocube at home), and 1 Colorado sunburst, aka my pride and joy. ( I have an acclimation box ready to go, if i can ever get it to split i will sell splits for a very reasonable price!)

Still have one huge torch colony that is very healthy, one hammer wall, one acan frag that is slowly growing into more than a frag, two small zoa colonies that i hope will make a garden, and several sps frags that i am trying out.

 

[Razorp]

Everything is going well in the tank! I switched from Red Sea Cora pro to Red Sea blue bucket. I’ve started adding reef roids in a pretty heavy dose once a week as well. My nutrients are coming up finally (and I’m glad because with my corals still not taking in many nutrients, I really didn’t want to dose to avoid dinos). Since nutrients are staying on the higher side I took advantage and started up the refugium I have been waiting to build in my aquaclear 110. Now I should be able to feed the tank even more without having to up water changes from once a week!

 

[Razorp]

Just an update.
Tank is filling in nicely! I have turned the aquaclear into a refugium, which was the original plan. I have added a canister filter with a built in UV. That was not the original plan, but I was not a fan of the in tank uv because it was taking up a lot of space. I also added a fan because after hours they set the temp to 79 degrees and this was becoming problematic. The fan in return made more evaporation, which called for the ato.
Other than those equipment adds, everything else is going well. Right now the only thing in the canister is filter floss. I will be adding bio balls and taking out most filter floss other than maybe a single layer, with a dense foam layer. Mainly because I have nothing else polishing them water. I will probably move carbon to here as well since the aquaclear is starting to need the room for the cheato!

here are some recent pics

 

[Razorp]

Some new corals came in, two really nice torches from @DropoffCorals !

 

[DropoffCorals]

Coming along nicely!!!

 

[Razorp]

So I finally bought a par meter….

the numbers are very surprising to me. I know this tank is pretty deep for AI primes, and they aren’t maxed out yet, but I thought my numbers would have been a bit higher. I’ll include both my schedule and my readings at peak intensity!

I don’t have the holder yet so I zip tied it to my long coral feeder. So I know there is a bit of error room from not getting the meter pointed exactly at the light. However I’m confident I got close enough to get a decent reading.

 

[rmcrom]

Which PAR meter did you go with?

 

[Razorp]

Which PAR meter did you go with?

I got this one from @Bulk Reef Supply ! It was super simple.

Literally just download the software that is linked on that website i sent you, plug it in, and start reading.

Took about 5 minutes lol

USB Smart Quantum SQ-420X PAR Sensor

PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) is the easiest way to measure the available light for corals consume and use for photosynthesis. With LED lights giving more and more control to the consumer the best thing is a PAR meter that is affordable and simple to use. With PAR readings you can...

www.bulkreefsupply.com