New Build: Prostar V2 90

[Gumbies R Us]

Update 19: Progress

Been a few seconds since my last update, and for good reason. Not much has really changed in the last few weeks. I held off on confirming my fish order because it's gotten really cold in New England. Got to -15 where I was at, so I thought it wise to wait out the storm. Now that it's a little warmer out, I finished the order and am expecting the fish in late February. The only other update that I have is that something has been eating my emerald crabs. I'm pretty sure it's a mantis, so I have my work cut out ahead of me. For now, here's some pictures of the tank and some of the hitchhikers I've got, good and bad.

FTS. Algae on and near the ocean rock is on the decline, but growing on the other half of the tank with the fake rock.

End picture. Some macroalgae growth, as well as coralline and sponges.

Tunicate. Doesn't show in the picture, but actually kind of a lemon-yellow color.

Bubble algae. This is popping up everywhere, but I need to wait until the mantis is out to add pitho and emerald crabs.

Pencil urchin. I love these guys, and it does such a good job eating algae. It stays within about 4 square inches of rock, but that area is sparkling clean. It's only a baby now, but I imagine it'll be a formidable cleaner when it gets a little bigger. It has some nice reds and whites on it that aren't visible in the picture.

Pistol shrimp lair.

Purple sea squirt. Just noticed it yesterday.

Shrimp photobombing an astrea snail. The snail is one of two that came in on the rock, and they put my store-bought trochus to shame. They eat more algae, and they don't get stuck on their backs.

My overall goals for the tank have shifted slightly. I want the tank to have a greater focus on being enjoyable and easy to care for, and that means that I may cut out hard corals entirely. That would leave me with just anemones and softies, but it might also allow me to add an angelfish. If I did this, I would also add some invertebrates that can damage delicate corals, such as long-spine urchins and sea stars. Maybe a filefish too, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Tank looks like it is doing really good!!

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Tank looks like it is doing really good!!

Thanks!

 

[pinocchio]

Tank is looking great! I just finished up setting up my saltwater mixing station, and now finally setting up the tank. The instructions for setting up are pretty much useless, so trying to follow some YouTube videos. Also, @Anemone_Fanatic I bought that same return pump as you did. How did you attach it to the return plumbing?

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Tank is looking great! I just finished up setting up my saltwater mixing station, and now finally setting up the tank. The instructions for setting up are pretty much useless, so trying to follow some YouTube videos. Also, @Anemone_Fanatic I bought that same return pump as you did. How did you attach it to the return plumbing?

Thanks! Happy to hear that you are getting started. For me, there was a rubber return hose in the bottom of the sump. I cut it down to size and used it to attach the return line and the pump. I used zip ties to clamp it down, and I haven't had any issues so far. Most of the instructions I found were pretty bad. I found this one on a thread from a couple years ago. Certainly better than the one that was included with the tank.

 

[robdallimore]

@Anemone_Fanatic you were right about needing two wave pumps. Just got an Octo pulse 4 for opposite side to Icecap gyre 4k, makes for a much better flow pattern

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Found a little coral on the rock! I'm not sure what species, but I think it's probably a Porites. It's super tiny and kind of ugly, very brown. It seems to have grown a polyp or two in the days since I first saw it. Given how small it is, I'd say that it probably grew from a single polyp that came on the rock a few months ago. It could be a very small LPS I guess, but it does seem to have about ten polyps, each maybe two mm in diameter. Very happy that it seems to be doing well, I guess it means I'm ready for some more intentional coral!

 

[robdallimore]

Thats great! Fun to see things come to life!
I’m stuck in the brown algae ugly stage big time, hoping it clears soon….

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Shouldn't be too long. My live rock has almost no microalgae on it this point, but it's setting in on the dry rock big time.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

@robdallimore Any plans to start a build thread?

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Fish are here! Please excuse my photography, it took a while to get them all in one picture.

When they first arrived, they didn't look great. The gramma was playing dead, and the clownfish had faded to grey. They even looked like they had a few tiny spots on their fins, which wasn't great. They've colored up now, and everyone seems to be doing well, with no sign of the spots, which makes me think they were stress-related or I was just imagining them. I have the clowns eating readily, and the gramma is picking at some food here and there. I've been feeding them a mix of mysis and roe, which seems to get them excited. The tank feels more alive now, there's finally something other than shrimp and algae to look at!

 

[robdallimore]

@robdallimore Any plans to start a build thread?

Thinking I’m a bit too late to start one now

 

[robdallimore]

Great to get fish in!!!! The movement certainly helps !

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Update #20; Rescape, because why not?

Decided to change up the aquascape a bit today. Took down the NSA tree, and reorganized it into a more conventional pile. The fish weren't going on the right side of the tank, and I decided that I need better coral placement options. It seems to be working, the gramma is spending time over there exploring the new caves. The clownfish, being clownfish, are spending most of their time where the flow from the return pump goes. For such little and slow swimmers, you'd think they'd find the calmest place in the whole tank to live, but they seem to have other ideas. Hopefully putting some coral in soon, I'll start with some basic zoas, GSP, leathers, and RFAs.

Been having some trouble with the sump. The water levels in the return chamber seem to go down over time until the pump starts taking in air. I think it's because of evaporation, and the ATO can't sense it as it's in the skimmer chamber, which stays level. I'll be doing manual top off in there until I can find a better solution. Not sure why it is happening now when it was fine for three months before. Maybe it'll correct itself, and find a balance over time. Wishful thinking, probably.

Other than that, things are going well. I'm trying to think of a way that I can keep a mandarin in here. In a 65 gallon without a refugium and only 40 LBS of rock, I'm not sure I can make it happen. Maybe if I plant a ton of macroalgae in the DT, pod populations will grow? Maybe I can put a jar of 'pods in every few weeks from AlgaeBarn. Not going to feed frozen four times a day, that's for sure. One feeding daily makes the clownfish look like little zeppelins swimming about. I imagine they might well burst if I put much more in.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Fixed the sump! I think so, at least. I needed to run the skimmer and return chambers at the same height, a half inch above the baffle, otherwise the water would evaporate from the return chamber without it going down in the skimmer chamber, where the ATO is. Fixing this caused a drop in salinity when the ATO put around a gallon or two in the tank, bringing the salinity down a few 0.001s. The stress of this got the lympho my clowns came with to rear it's ugly head again, which isn't ideal. The bumps are still raised and located primarily on the head/fins, so I'm not too worried. It did appear on the gramma for the first time I can see, so I'll be keeping an eye on it to ensure that it isn't something more nefarious. Everyone's feeding well and growing, though. I'd say the clowns have put on a 1/4 inch since I got them.

Because nothing else new is happening with the tank right now, here's a picture of a pencil urchin from the rock. It's the same one from earlier in the thread, but it's turned red. You can't see much of that in the image, but it's there. I need an orange filter. There is another one in there that I first saw a few weeks back, I imagine that it'll also get some color in time.

Here's a low-quality image of the little coral that came on the rock. It has grown about an 1/8th of an inch in the last month. Not much, but pretty good for a wild SPS grown from a larvae in a 3 month old tank. I've heard that the only way to get fast growth from newly-settled larvae is to frag them, but I think this one is a bit too small for that. I'll give it a few more months, then we'll see. I'm not entirely sure what species it is. The two matches I'm getting for SPS without large corallites from the Caribbean are Porites and Dendrogyra. All I know is that it's an SPS, it has twelve tentacles on each polyp, and that it seems to have a "massive" rather than encrusting or branching growth form. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[pinocchio]

Your tank is looking great! I am FINALLY adding water to my tank, as well as some dry sand. I seem to be having a problem with my return pump though. I am using the same Sicce Syncra Silent 4.0 as you but it seems to be draining the sump compartment it is in way too quickly causing it to gurgle. I've tried turning the dial down to the lowest settings, but it's still draining too quickly. The pump itself is pretty tall. Any thoughts? Do I just not have enough water? I am filled all the way up to the line that the sumps suggests as "highest water level". Any advice would be appreciated. Also @robdallimore what return pump are you using?

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Your tank is looking great! I am FINALLY adding water to my tank, as well as some dry sand. I seem to be having a problem with my return pump though. I am using the same Sicce Syncra Silent 4.0 as you but it seems to be draining the sump compartment it is in way too quickly causing it to gurgle. I've tried turning the dial down to the lowest settings, but it's still draining too quickly. The pump itself is pretty tall. Any thoughts? Do I just not have enough water? I am filled all the way up to the line that the sumps suggests as "highest water level". Any advice would be appreciated. Also @robdallimore what return pump are you using?

I actually had the same problem. For me, turning down the pump a bit worked. Sorry to hear that isn't working for you. Good luck!

 

[pinocchio]

I just stopped the pump, let all chambers fill up, added more water and that did the trick! Everything seems to be working fine now. I will say, the pump is not as quiet as I thought. I like the sound of water moving through the sump, but the continuous hum of the pump is pretty loud. I may do some research on a quieter pump if they exist. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Update #21: Coral Time!

Got a few corals today at my LFS. Going with the "easy and fun" theme, I got some medium-sized colonies of softies. Also picked up two conches and three more emerald crabs. The emerald crabs are of biblical proportions, easily 3". Might be a bad idea in the long run, but I don't think the algae stands a chance.

GSP, who doesn't love it? Well, lots of people, but I need to try it at least. In keeping with my general desire to keep this tank enjoyable and simple, some green carpet that grows an inch a month seems nice. I also got a freebie discosoma on it, even better!

Some red/orange rhodactis. I really like these ones a lot. They seem to like their new home, they've opened up fully and are looking nice and happy.

I was planning to pick up a sinularia and some zoas while I was there as well, but prices were a little bit higher than I had anticipated, so I stuck to these two for now. Eventually I'll add some more stuff like that, but I'm pretty happy with what I got for now.

 

[robdallimore]

Your tank is looking great! I am FINALLY adding water to my tank, as well as some dry sand. I seem to be having a problem with my return pump though. I am using the same Sicce Syncra Silent 4.0 as you but it seems to be draining the sump compartment it is in way too quickly causing it to gurgle. I've tried turning the dial down to the lowest settings, but it's still draining too quickly. The pump itself is pretty tall. Any thoughts? Do I just not have enough water? I am filled all the way up to the line that the sumps suggests as "highest water level". Any advice would be appreciated. Also @robdallimore what return pump are you using?

I’m using a SICCE Syncra SDC 3.0, set to 82%

 

[robdallimore]

Update #21: Coral Time!

Got a few corals today at my LFS. Going with the "easy and fun" theme, I got some medium-sized colonies of softies. Also picked up two conches and three more emerald crabs. The emerald crabs are of biblical proportions, easily 3". Might be a bad idea in the long run, but I don't think the algae stands a chance.

GSP, who doesn't love it? Well, lots of people, but I need to try it at least. In keeping with my general desire to keep this tank enjoyable and simple, some green carpet that grows an inch a month seems nice. I also got a freebie discosoma on it, even better!

Some red/orange rhodactis. I really like these ones a lot. They seem to like their new home, they've opened up fully and are looking nice and happy.

I was planning to pick up a sinularia and some zoas while I was there as well, but prices were a little bit higher than I had anticipated, so I stuck to these two for now. Eventually I'll add some more stuff like that, but I'm pretty happy with what I got for now.

You are moving along nicely! great corals to add, I’m tempted to get GSP if my local LFS has it in.