New SPS Tank for JBNY

[JBNY]

By 10/27 the phosphate readings are almost the same 0.07, but the tank is looking significantly better. Bloom is almost gone. I took another reading later in the afternoon and it showed 0.03. Now I was a little confused, and then I realized I had taken the last reading in the sump right before the skimmer intake. In my rush during the day I forgot, you shouldn't take sump readings. Sump readings tend to show slightly different readings than the display tank, due to overflow pulling in surface films with higher organics including detritus that accumulate in the sump. It's ok if you are looking for trends, but better to pull samples from the main tank, especially for things like phosphate readings that would be skewed from the sumps higher concentrations of surface film. Anyway 0.03 is a good reading. Will test phosphates every few days now.

Oh boy, is the water looking clear now. Awesome. Now I start to ramp up the lighting from the 19% I had during the phytoplankton bloom, to closer to 40%. I'll do it over 4 days and watch to make sure no blooms or algae start to take over. I'll keep the spectrum at V 90 / RB 255 / B 255 / C 40 / W 70 / R 40.

(phytoplankton bloom is a thing of the past now)​

(tank is looking nice and clear on 10/28)​

10/28 Coralline algae starting to grow!! Just some specs but I am super excited to see that already. I have been making sure that alk is steady for a few weeks. On my 180 gallon in 2002 I noted that the system didn’t show much coralline for over a year, until I began strontium supplementation, which then kicked off visible purple coverage within about two months. So very happy to see this. My most current tank readings are Ca ~500, Mg ~1310, Alk 8.4, PO4 ~0.02, NO3 ~29. Good conditions for coralline calcification. I still have not done a water change, I don't see the point yet. Everything is in range and the Nitrate it slowing coming down.

(little specks of coralline, 7 weeks in)​

11/06 lights are have been at 35% for about a week. Tanks looks good. In the picture the glass has not been cleaned in about 4 days. Measured today in the morning, P is 0.02 and N is 27.5 Alk is 8.4. No MKP has been added since 10/25. Really happy about those numbers. Little bit of hair algae here and there now, but all good. The tank is going to grow algae, but nothing is out of control at all.

Thinking of adding some fish in the coming weekend!

11/11 finally got some fish!

(fish fish in the new tank)​

5 firefish
1 coral beauty
1 fairy wrasse

No problems at all, here they are after being in the tank for about 10 minutes, Coral Beauty is checking out the rock and wasn't available for photographs.

 

[JBNY]

Over the next 5 days all the fish are perfectly fine, I check ammonia levels 24 hours after putting the fish in the tank and they measured zero. Fish were all eating with a day, just feeding them Hikari Frozen Mysis and they took it just fine. Next I want to get some corals to test the tank with. With the success of the new fish I'm thinking I want to see if I can keep frags going. So I reach out to a few friends to get some frag donated to the cause.

1/16/2025 Added corals today. 7 acro frags and two euphoria frags donated by friends.

Added them to the tank and they seem to be doing fine. Here they are after 24 hours in the tank, polyps are out they look...good.

(frags after being in the tank for 24 hours)

I also on 11/16 my current parameters are Alk:8.3 PH: 8.2 Temp: 78.3F NO3: 21.2 PO4: 0.04 Ca: 387 Mg: 1280. I lose about 0.4 dKH every 3-4 days, so I have been adding 15g of baking soda to raise the alk every few days for the last 2 weeks. Based on the readings and the decrease in calcium and magnesium from the last time I took readings, I decided that this is a good time to turn on my dosers. For that I am using the Apex DOS. I know I said I am running Hydros on this tank. But I used to use Neptune and I already have the DOS pumps, so no real reason to get new pumps yet. I have an Apex classic hooked up to two DOS pumps as well as dosing container I had made for me a while back. I also have Triton Core7 from the old tank. I am just reusing this equipment here. I start the dosing low and will adjust accordingly. So on 11/17 I start at 7ml a day.

(dosing setup. Neptune DOS pumps and using Triton Core7 at this time)​

I run the Core7 dosing lines to the sump. On the alk tubing I was always getting crusting on the tip of the tube. Basically you dose a tiny amount of high-alk solution, a little drop sits at the tip exposed to air, the water evaporates, the carbonate precipitates. Repeat a few hundred times and it forms a hard carbonate crust inside the dosing lines that can both block the tube from dosing and make it harder to leave the tube and eventually a big chuck of alk crust falls into the sump.

Here is what I did to solve that. The 4 Core7 dosing tubes are grouped together in a ring that holds them together. The blue tube is placed in the middle of the dosing lines, this is the ATO line. So when the sump calls for water it comes out of the blue line and splashes all the adjacent Core7 dosing tubing, included the 3a/3b alk lines that normally form a crust on the tips. Since doing this the crust has gone away completely. I saw Randy mentioning something like this a while back. Works awesome.

(middle blue tube, is ATO water and cleans the dosing tube every time it runs)​

 

[JBNY]

Also on this day I send out an ICP test to get a baseline for the tank. I have Triton ICP already on hand so, this sample is taken right before I turn on the Core7 dosing on 11/17. At this point I have done no water changes yet, the tank is 10 weeks old. My readings using Hanna are:

Alk:8.3
PH: 8.2
Temp: 78.3F
NO3: 21.2
PO4: 0.04
Ca: 387
Mg: 1280
SG: 35

I always take readings before I send out an ICP just to keep the test kits honest.

A week or so later I get my results back. Pretty happy with the results. Obviously there is not much that has been happening, but seeing as how I used tap water for the initial fill, have not done any water changes and this is a new tank, It's nice to know I am starting with a clean baseline. Nothing action to be taken with the results, so I'll just use it as a data point and move forward. Oh yeah, Red Sea Blue bucket for the salt. Also nice to see my vee-gee STX-3 refractometer, from 13 years ago, is spot on.

 

[JBNY]

Adding some more fish.

11/23/25 In the past I have always kept pygmy angels, I had 5 in the last time, with some aggression but for the most part they all got along and they got along for 10+ years with no casualties. For this tank I am definitely going to keep more pigmy angles. Yes I know for an SPS tank, they might nip at the corals. The SPS might have less polyp extension, less like a captive tank acro and more like a wild arco, it's all fine. I did it last time.

I had had 3 flame angles in the last tank and it worked out fine, BUT I probably could have had more if I just added them at the right time. With the new tank, in the beginning is the right time. I want to add 5 flame angles and get a mini shoal going on. I let the LFS know what I wanted to do, and got a call earlier than I was expecting that flames came in. Here we go!

So here my rules the for the flames
The hierarchy forms fast. Within 48 hours I’ll see one dominant, one sub-dominant, and the rest hanging just outside their arc. It’s normal; they settle down after the roles get clear.

The coral beauty will back off. She’s the incumbent, but flames are way more tuned to group dynamics than a solitary Centropyge bispinosa. She’ll probably not be aggressive.

I will get occasional sparring forever. But in a 72" × 36" tank, the space wipes out 90% of the usual issues. They’ll flash, chase, and display but not wage war.

Add all five at once or don’t bother. Staggered introductions = bloodbath. One batch = clean hierarchy. I learned this last time, all go in at the same time.

That is what I am hoping for.

When I go to the LFS, this is what I am thinking.

Don’t pick five identical sizes. If they’re all the same size, I am going to get prolonged dominance fights because nobody clearly wins. So what I want is one slightly larger individual (this will be the future boss), two mid-sized, two slightly smaller.

When I get there, my choices aren't that easy but I end up finding two large ones (one slightly larger), and 3 mediums ones. Ok that should work.so I have the LFS bag them all separately and bring them home.

The LFS is no more than 20 minutes from my house so I am not doing any acclimatation. (BUT Wait, what about QT, you are supposed to do that! I know, I never do, I never have. We tell everyone they should quarantine, but we never do that ourselves. I know what I am supposed to do. I didn't do it.) I get them home and put them in the sump for about 15 minutes while I get myself prepared to get them in the tank.

I fish feed the tank, so all the other fish have been fed and there is no aggression over food. Then I shut off the lights, it's about 1 pm right now, so lots of ambient light to see what is going on, but the tank lights are off. Now to get ready to add the flames.

The key is to do this all at once. Dumping five flames in sequentially over time is how they fight and become victims. All at once means nobody has the psychological advantage of being the first in the tank and claiming it is their territory. My coral beauty is the only established one, but she’s not a tyrant species so the darkness should neutralizes any territorial instincts. I can't get them all in the tank at the exact same time, but I will plan on getting them in within 60-90 seconds of each other. I have a small transfer box that I use get the fish from the bag to the tank. So I bring the bags from the sump up and open them all up, and here we go.

I start with the largest ones, fish out of bag, into box, box into tank and release in the middle of the tank, repeat. Finally all 5 are in. I was able to get them all in in probably 90 seconds or so. Two were spinning and flashing for a bit in the first few minutes. The coral beauty did come over to see what was going on, then swam away. 10 minutes in all are exploring the rock work. No active fighting that I can see. I was so nervous watching everyone!

Over the next 40 minutes. The coral beauty is patrolling around. Doesn’t seem to be bothered. she is hanging around a cave a lot but still going to explore the flames all over the tank. She seems fine. The flames are exploring, nipping at the rocks. Once in a while one will shadow another but turn around and move on after a few seconds. But the majority of time they pass each other they don’t do anything. A few are nipping at each other from time to time but no outright chasing and attacking. Awesome!

At the 1 hour mark. turned off the gyre pumps and dropped the food in. Mysis shrimp. I saw the coral beauty eat. At least two of the flames eat too. A little more circling and nipping than when I had the flow on. But a few defiantly eat. Awesome again!

Ok 4 hours later. Still looks good. They are all just cruising around no one is harassing anyone. Everything looks good. No more food for the rest of the day/night I will see how they look tomorrow.

So next morning one of the flames is dead. I found him wedged in the rock work, probably caught and brought there by the current. No noticeable signs of attack or harassment. Fins look fine, maybe it just didn’t make it or died for other reasons. Ugh so unhappy. but the other four are fine. The other Flames are in and out of the rock work close to each other but no aggression at all. Nipping at the rocks. Doing their thing.

For that one flame angel I took a look at him and found no fin damage, the body isn’t bruised or scraped, belly looks normal (not sunken, not bloated), gills look clean, eyes are clear. So what probably happened is one or two of the most common causes of early loss of flame angles in the trade. Barotrauma or internal hemorrhage from wild collection. Flame angels are notorious for this.
They’re caught deep, rushed up, sometimes mishandled, and a subset of them just don’t make it due to stress. Silent internal bacterial issue that tips over under stress, extremely common in dwarf angels that come in big batches. It's common that these things can happened, but ugh I had such a clean introduction of all those flames, such a pity this happened.

But when the lights came on and I fed the tank, the 4 flames were fine no aggression to each other. I fed the tank mysis and I saw, I think 3 eat, no aggression during feeding. Some were right next to each other and no one bothered anyone.

That's it, 4 flames angle in the tank. Oh yeah I picked up 4 small captive bred Orchid Dottybacks _(Pseudochromis fridmani)_. they had no issues at all, so story there. It's tough to get shots of the Flames this early in the tank, they move around so quickly but this is what I got.

I also measured N at 20.8 and P at 0.0 I have dosed, at 8pm, 5.5ml of MKP to bring up PO4 from zero. I will test P again tomorrow in the morning.

 

[JBNY]

After the Flame Angels I decide I need to finally get a CUC in the tank. So far, I have just a few snails I picked up at the LFS, about 10 margarita snails. The tank has finally gotten enough algae that I feel getting a proper CUC is worth it. Here is what the tank looks like.

I feel that is is the time to get the CUC but if I get too much for the CUC right now they would starve and and then rot. Too little will let the algae take over. I decide I am going to get them from Reeftopia. After looking over what I think I need and what they have available I settle on:

Astrea snails (12) I have enough film and green fuzz on rock that 12 will work without starving. They will absolutely mow down those green tufts. Cerith snails (24) The sandbed has enough microfilm to support a decent cerith crew. 24 is a good number. I feel that Ceriths are the least risky snail in a young tank. They should easily be able to do work long term too. Scarlet Hermits (6) Of the hermits these guys always seem to work well for me. The rockwork has crevices where the fuzz is growing that snails will miss the Scarlets will pick that out. Fighting Conch (1) The sand is still young so one conch will keep broad areas clear, two would be too much.

Place the order and I add them on 11/26. All I do is temperature match and then just pour them from the bag over the sink into a net. Then hand place them on the rocks. Except for the conch, I put him on the sand.

Over the next hour. Most are moving a little. The conch immediately buried himself in the sand. He is not moving but the eye stalks I can see. I would say about 80% have moved at least a little in the first 15 minutes. I end up with a 90% survival rate. All good.

On the same day (11/26) I notice a significant difference in haziness in the tank. I just cleaned the glass yesterday and it could use a cleaning again today. I know that I have added a significant bio load to the tank, and the parameters seem to be fine, but I start thinking about doing my first water change.

 

[JBNY]

So I made two videos. This first one is to show the aquascaping on the tank. It is from about 1 week before I got the Flame Angels.



This next one shows the 3D printed Durso overflow silencers I am using, They work amazing well. I know that everyone uses the bean animal overflow, it's just not for me. I don't like having all my flow controlled by a gate/ball valve, as well as all the extra lines that you need to run. The Durso style I have always had good luck with. Here is the video for how it works on my tank.

 

[mfama417]

What store do you get fish from?

 

[JBNY]

What store do you get fish from?

Locally, are you in Suffolk?

 

[mfama417]

Locally, are you in Suffolk?

Nassau Suffolk border!

 

[Perry]

So good to see this! Welcome Back Joe!

 

[Bps619]

Nice. Following along

 

[JBNY]

Nassau Suffolk border!

I buy most of my fish at Aqua Hut in Coram. The owner has been there for 40+ years. He is able to bring a lot of nice , healthy fish in. But him being there so long is a bit of a problem for new comers. His business is solid, his prices are great. Dry good are better than most places online. But he doesn't answer the phone, and he gets his fish and corals middle of the week. Fish he picks up Sunday night. So if you show up on Saturday morning, chances are the place has been picked over and there is not much left. He moves a ton of fish and coral (mostly fish).

The other place I buy from is Country Critters. They are great as well, a ton of stuff, corals and fish.

Country Critters is a proper nice LFS. Aqua Hut is the wild west of the LFS.

For corals, I mostly tap people I know for frags, but Tropical Island Aquarium in Deer Park has some nice stuff.

 

[JBNY]

So good to see this! Welcome Back Joe!

Thanks Perry

 

[mfama417]

I buy most of my fish at Aqua Hut in Coram. The owner has been there for 40+ years. He is able to bring a lot of nice , healthy fish in. But him being there so long is a bit of a problem for new comers. His business is solid, his prices are great. Dry good are better than most places online. But he doesn't answer the phone, and he gets his fish and corals middle of the week. Fish he picks up Sunday night. So if you show up on Saturday morning, chances are the place has been picked over and there is not much left. He moves a ton of fish and coral (mostly fish).

The other place I buy from is Country Critters. They are great as well, a ton of stuff, corals and fish.

Country Critters is a proper nice LFS. Aqua Hut is the wild west of the LFS.

For corals, I mostly tap people I know for frags, but Tropical Island Aquarium in Deer Park has some nice stuff.

Yup, been to both! I love how “dingy” aqua hut feels.

 

[JBNY]

So now the tank is looking a little hazy. At this time I decided not to do any water changes. Initially I felt the increase in haziness was just adding all the fish and CUC and that it was just things being stirred up in the tank, then I felt it was the increase in bio-load, then I came to realize it was just the immaturity of a still new tank, and embraced the haze.

Then of coarse it got pretty bad and I knew that while the fish and inverts would all be fine, the frags I put in were probably going to have a hard time and was too early to have added them. I'm glad they were donation frags.

So I monitored my phosphates and alk during this time. Pretty much the only two parameters I watched. Kept P04 from bottoming out and alk from dropping below 8.3 with the aquawiz.

So now I've got a full blown phyto bloom, no where near what it was last time. By 11/28 I put some carbon in the tank and put in filter socks for the first time. The next day I think that it might be a little clearer. But not really, by 11/30 it starts looking worse. I'm a bit bummed with this happening, mostly because I know I'm going to have problems with those acros. By 12/02 the carbon and filter socks are out, and it does look slightly better, sand definitely looks better. My Core7 dosing is at 12.5ml a day up from the 7 that I started with. The aquawiz chart shows the alk over 24 hours, pretty stable 3 months in.

The morning 12/04/25 9:30am. Front and side shots of tank, and updated Aquawiz graph. Reading from Hanna this morning, PO4:0.02 N:16.9 Alk:8.2 Fish are all behaving fine, Coral PE is not extended, Algae on rocks is much better

But by 12/2 I have had enough of algae blooms and pull the trigger on a UV sterilizer. I've never used one, but I've also never had these blooms in my tank ever. Luckily the decision coincides with Black Friday. So I pick it up, plus a few other pieces of equipment that I wanted for the tank but had been putting off to see if I could score a deal. So I'll wait on everything to come to put this algae bloom behind me. Let's get some new equipment in!

 

[tripdad]

This should be great! You were one of my inspiration tanks back in the day over on RC.

 

[JBNY]

I picked up a Aqua UV Twist 57 Watt UV Sterilizer and I also pick up a Hygger 24V DC 24 watt 800GPH pump to feed the UV.

So I am going to hook this up in my sump. But the good thing is I have two sumps in my setup, a top and a bottom. All flow goes from the top to the bottom where the skimmer is and then it hits the return pump. So the setup will be to have the water pull from the top sump go through the UV then have the UV exit into the bottom sump before the skimmer. I'm choosing that configuration because the top sump will let the feed pump be in reasonably calm water so the UV won’t cavitate or suck in micro bubbles. The water level will always be stable and the UV gets all the water before the skimmer. The return line will be to the bottom sump to prevent recirculating the same volume through UV over and over. The biggest issues with UV are feeding it from a turbulent source, micro bubbles that can kill the UV efficiency, and running flow too fast. Should be able to circumvent all of them.

So I put the UV in... it only takes about 20 minutes all total, the longest part was gluing the PVC barbs in and getting the flow correct.

So when all was done, it looked like this.

and the return in the bottom sump

I settled on 400–430 GPH to kill off the bloom, measured by how long it took to fill a bucket. When I turned the pump on it was interesting because all the turbulent flow in my sump went away. I try not to run too much flow through my sump, so it's around 600 GPH, but the ~400 GPH now went through the UV and the rest slowed the flow in the sump down so much that all the micro bubbles just went away, so that was a little bonus!

Once I verified no leaks, no bubbles, I turned it all on in the late afternoon and waited. I went from this

To this overnight.

By the next day the bloom was a thing of the past.

Nice!

 

[JBNY]

I have been using ozone in my SPS tanks since 2004. I do not use an ORP controller as I am not chasing ORP, the sole purpose of the ozone is to increase water clarity. I used to run ozone for ~6 hours a day, generally 11am to 6pm. I have always injected ozone into my skimmer via a 1/4" tee. BUT my skimmer pump, a Sicce PSK 1200, is not ozone safe and the impeller comes apart eventually. I have extra on hand and just swap them out every few years when it happens. It worked, but it was never ideal. Ozone changes air chemistry, skimmers are sensitive to that, and over time I found myself compromising skimmer behavior just to get water clarity.

This time I wanted ozone completely isolated.

During the Back Friday Sale, I picked up a Reef Octopus Classic 110-SSS and set it up strictly to handle ozone, not to skim. The cup is on but the top removed and it’s run wide open with the water level as low as possible. The goal isn’t nutrient export or foam production, it’s simply controlled mixing of ozone and water.

Ozone is supplied by an Ozotech Poseidon 200,. I bought Ozotech intentionally oversized to run at a low level (dial set to 2). I don’t use a desiccant, I’ve tried that before and found it more maintenance than it’s worth, so oversizing the generator makes up for efficiency loss from humid air. A Fluval Q2 air pump pushes a small, steady amount of air through the ozone unit.

Instead of injecting ozone directly into the skimmer venturi, I modified the air mixing tube. Fresh air is still drawn in from the top, but now ozone is pushed right above the venture intake tube through a tapped threaded connector, and the two mix before being pulled into the skimmer. This keeps bubble structure stable and avoids the foam collapse and erratic behavior you can get with direct injection.

The skimmer is tuned the opposite of normal skimming: wide open, low waterline, dry neck. In this configuration it acts more like a gas-mixing column, giving bubbles a long rise path and plenty of space for the ozonated air to slow down and dissipate before exiting. Any remaining ozone is handled by a carbon pad sitting loosely on top.

I did look at dedicated ozone reactors, but felt they weren’t a good fit here. Reactors are built to force ozone and water together aggressively and make the most sense when the goal is heavy oxidation, ORP control, or sterilization. That’s not what I’m after. Using a skimmer body as an open, low-pressure contact chamber gives me a much gentler, more predictable result with fewer moving parts and less risk of over using ozone.

I’m running ozone on a nighttime schedule, letting it do its work during the nightly respiration phase rather than during peak lighting. This can also help reduce DOC, which tends to accumulate more at night than during the day.

My ozone use isn’t about pushing ORP higher. It’s just a simple way to improve water clarity without compromising the skimmer behavior. So far it’s doing what I wanted.

 

[Mellotang]

Nice idea Joe, makes sense since your not looking for disinfection

 

[JBNY]

Nice idea Joe, makes sense since your not looking for disinfection

I works really well. I sort of wish more people would get on board with just using ozone for water clarity. It works really well, very low chances of anything going wrong, and running at night also can minimize issues of ozone smell if your tank is not in your bedroom.