New 75g Reef Tank

[SnakeBlitz33]

I didn't get more rock this weekend. It's fine though, I think I'll make due with what I have and if I don't like it, I'll add more cured base rock later on.

I guess this week will be spent ghost feeding and biting my fingernails.

I've never used a two bulb T5 unit over a 75g tank. Anyone know if it might grow some coralline while I'm waiting to buy LEDs?

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

Well, I am having some hair algae problems with my tank. I’m going to decrease the lighting schedule and order some high capacity GFO to take care of it – going to get my reactor online soon. My Skimz SN123 protein skimmer decided to make some funny noises late last night. I think that it must be in too deep of water or something and there is back pressure on the pump. I pulled the skimmer up a few inches and the noise/vibration stopped, but so did the water level in the skimmer. As I have it now, it’s still in 9†of water, and the micro adjustment valve that regulates the water output is all the way down – which doesn’t really do much other then get the water level up to where it needs to be. I’m kind of disappointed with this skimmer and all the vibrations and everything that I have had to adjust and do on it. It’s not like some skimmers that are just plug and play and tweak for a week.


The refugium section of the sump is growing some gnarly hair algae in it. Apparently the light that I chose to light it with is actually pretty decent. It’s a 5w chip LED light that can be purchased at the Home Depot – and is meant to be used to light rooms to work. I’m going to try to keep all the bad hair algae growing in the sump and clean it out once the initial cycle is complete. Speaking of…


Since the diatoms have completely gone away and the formation of hair algae is present, the cycle should be complete or nearly complete. I am going to the live fish store this next weekend and have my water tested. If my water tests out with ammonia and nitrite at zero, I’m going to put in an online order for a bunch of different snails and hermit crabs and some macroalgae for the refugium. Who do you think has the best clean up crew and macroalgae deals? It was reef-cleaners… I think I’m fixing to check them out again.


Anyways, I have a couple of months to add a few fish that I want to add and then I’ll be adding some low level corals and easy to move stuff. I figure buying $20-40 a week worth of corals is enough to fill it up in a year. I hope that my LFS has some gnarly looking SPS corals for sale. Usually they do have some $10 SPS frags…


I’m still searching for some decent LED lights for an SPS tank. I really want ATI radeons, but that’s not going to happen at $1600+ for what I really want. I guess I’m going to have to settle for something cheaper – like those cheap Chinese LEDs that I keep mentioning. The other option is to buy an eight bulb T5HO unit… I need something that is intense so that I can keep all the SPS corals that I want and all the clams I want…
I guess I’ll have to ask the gurus on the forum for lighting options and go that route.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

So after tinkering with the skimz protein skimmer and getting it to work again, it hasn’t made any more weird noises and has actually started producing quite a bit of skimmate for there to be nothing in the tank. I just dumped out about a half a cup of dark green skimmate and cleaned it up. Within about an hour it made a new foam head and has produced a little more skimmate. I’m watching it as I type this. I’m pretty happy with this skimmer so far, the only thing that made me not like it the other day was the noises that it was making – but so far, so good. I don’t know why it wanted to do that for some reason. Anyways, I’m glad that it’s working properly now. I guess if someone wants skimmer pics, I’ll post them in a couple more days if there is some skimmate to be had. There is only two snails in the tank and I have been feeding a small pinch of new life spectrum pellets every day to keep the cycle going and to ghost feed, but it seems like a lot of excessive skimmate production just for that. I think a lot of it though is phytoplankton or hair algae spores, which is a great thing.
I ordered GFO from Amazon. I need to go to the hardware store soon and get the rest of the adaptors and the stuff to hook up the phosphate reactor. I think I might want to get the kalkwasser stirrer online too by the end of the month. The tank should start to be leveling out this next month and should be ready for some kalk to grow some wicked coralline algae in the oncoming months. I believe I might as well order two more of those 4” wide 14” long nylon or felt filters for the sump, so that I can have some extra so that I can wash the dirty ones. My goal is to have at least six so that four can be washed at a time.
I’m really not having any luck with pumps. The liveguard aquatics pump that I bought for my return pump still has that whirring sound. I’m considering replacing it with a Jebao DC return pump, so that I can control the pump and not have to worry so much about using the ball valve to regulate the water flow.
Another thing that I have to think about right now is trying to get a rainbow locline that is threaded for a 1” bulkhead so that I can drill a hole in it and it won’t drain so much water out of the system when the pump turns off. It makes me nervous how much the sump fills up when the power is off.
Apparently the LED light that I bought at Home Depot for the refugium is GREAT at growing hair algae. I’m pretty sure that it will be great at growing some macroalgae as well. I’m thinking about going with Caulerpa mexicana in the refugium so that I can just keep it pruned. I’ve never had any success keeping chaetomorpha algae.
Anyways, that’s just about it for now. I’ll post some pictures after I get my GFO and kalkwasser reactors online and when I start getting in some more interesting livestock.

 

[kbourque]

I'd do more research on the jeabo pumps I've read ppl having to replace them after a year not sure if it's from poor maintenance or just the quality but being able to adjust the pump to the strength you want is nice. I wound up getting an eheim pump read really good reviews on it and I can barly hear mine when it's running, and that's sitting right next to it. Def take some time reading reviews.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

Thanks. I'm taking my time and listening to reviews. Anything would be better than the noise from the quiet one pump. They are only $60, so I could have a spare on hand just in case it does crap out on me.

I'm looking into two RW15 jebao powerheads. I just don't want to buy used vortechs and I'm definitly not satisfied with the used maxijets.

They will get an upgrade after I get a good lighting system in a few months.

 

[kbourque]

Also do you have anything under the pump so it's not sitting directly on the sump bottom? I bought one of those rubber mat things used to put under hot pans from Walmart to stop vibration noise from the pump. As far as lights make sure u go with somthing u can program with your apex or has a built in sun rise sunset feature on it. Will save u a headache. I bought the arctic s026 should of gotten the t247 or one of the ones u can control with the apex, but I'm sure I'll end up upgrading eventually.

 

[kbourque]

And I love the gyre I have the 150 the flow is amazing when I tested it, but I don't have anything in the tank yet so can't give definite advice on that cus I have 0 experiance with any of the other types.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

It's not exactly a vibration. I put silicone on the bottom of the pump and the pump already has rubber feet. It's a rattle on the inside of the pump. I was hoping it would all smooth out but it's not.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

I'm about to throw away the quiet one pump. I can't sleep.

Is the jebao DC3000 pump a 1" outlet? I'm thinking about ordering it tonight.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

Grind, grind, grind

I'm going to order a different return pump this weekend. I can't take the noise anymore. It wouldn't be so bad if my overflow wasn't dead silent.

GFO is supposed to be in the mail already. Hopefully I'll get it soon. The two snails I purchased are staying on the rocks and are really taking care of the algae on them.

I have a feeling that my tank should be pretty well cycled by Saturday, so I'll take a water sample to the LFS to confirm it. If everything checks out, I'll buy a fish and some more inverts, macroalgae and a feather duster. I really would like to add 4" of sand to my refugium as well.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

GFO arrived in the mail. Instructions say to use 12oz per 75g. I'll wait until after I add fish before putting it in the reactor.

I'm thinking about buying a fish tomorrow.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

Since I last updated this thread, I have added two cinnamon clownfish a week or so ago. I added a coral beauty angelfish last night and I purchased a sailfin tang and a Phillippine tang that is in quarantine at the live fish store this week.

I also purchased seven turbo snails and added five of them to my sump to eat the hair algae and two in the display. I'm good on snails for now. I'll keep those snails in the sump until I can get some caulerpa mexicana or racemosa in the refugium. At least I know my fuge light can support algae growth like nothing else!

The GFO really isn't doing much to take care of the hair algae in the sump. That's fine though. The snails will eat it and turn it into dissolved organic waste for the skimmer and GFO to take care of.

I'm happy with the progress. The next thin I want to buy is a lighting system and then I'll start adding some colored sticks if the tests come out ok.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

Update.

I added the sailfin tang and the Philippine tang to the tank Friday night. They came out immediately made friends with their tank mates. Since their addition, the angelfish has really come out and has been showing off. I think everything is happy eating and pooping and acting like fish.

The kalk stirrer is doing what it's supposed to do. The elevated calcium and alkalinity in the tank is really starting to make the coralline algae grow quickly already. The GFO has taken care of just about every spot of hair algae in the tank and in the sump- I'm very impressed with the GFO I purchased.

The next thing I want to do is buy a T5ho lighting system and slowly replace the bulbs with ATI and geismann 10k. After that, I'll start adding some seriatopora and montipora and pocilliopora to get the tank prepped and ready for a few easy acroporas in the oncoming months.

Anyways, not much to photograph. I just wanted to update the thread.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

The tank is settling in nicely. All of the fish are getting along great. The kalkwasser stirrer is still functioning to peak perfection, the only thing I'm concerned about is the flimsy check valve that is letting kalk back into the ATO reservoir. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if it was sump mounted and not tank mounted. Coralline is starting to take over the plastic parts and pH has been pretty stable. There is pretty much zero algae in the system and the snails have learned where to find the nori sheets I leave for the fish.

I might be buying a house soon and moving in May. We will just have to see how the paperwork turns out. I'm crossing my fingers. I hope that we are able to buy the house, but if not, that would be ok too. Less to move and less stress.

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

Well. My house plans are fouled up at the moment. I'm still moving though. It's just not going to be ideal.

The tank is doing great. The limewater is making the coralline explode. The fish are happy and being fed very well. I'm holding off on buying anything else for the tank until I know more about moving. Being stuck in limbo sucks.

 

[revhtree]

Hey any current photos?

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

It's a crappy iphone pic I took a week or so ago. Sorry for the quality.

 

[kbourque]

How's the tank doing?

 

[SnakeBlitz33]

I moved into a smaller home and had no room for the 75g tank after all, so I downsized to a 29g tall and I've been putting the new tank on auto pilot until I get all the new construction done on the new house. I'll make a new thread on it once I get settled in.

 

[Chris-tico]

what dimensions your tank have? love it