Reef Tank 365 Featuring acers 150 Build

Daniel@R2R

Living the Reef Life
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Well, this is certainly a surprise. I have been having issues so unable to keep SPS, have dealt with some of the usual reefer problems, and even a "poor attitude" of kinda giving up - so this thread is a perfect example of a very human reefer dealing with normal issues and making many if the same mistakes as others do. Thank you so much to whomever bestowed this honor on me. If anybody has a way to get rid of the "tent snail"/vermitid snails infestation I have - let me know. I have heard of Bubble Bee snails doing the job. Can someone confirm this. I just finally got my light situation under control this weekend, after dropping my G3 xr30 into the tank 2 months ago - ya not cool. If anybody has questions/comments please post them.
Congrats!! #ReefTank365

Maybe some from the @ReefSquad can help with the question. Kudos to you for staying with it!!
 

Idoc

Getting lazier and lazier with upkeep!
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So, what's my prize for this prestigious award?? Lol , I am, of course, kidding. But what does this actually mean and how did it come to my tank?
It means you have a really nice aquarium and something others can look at and enjoy as well. The reward...I think you bet a cool Reef Tank 365 ribbon on your profile!! Good job!!!
 

lapin

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Great job
So I had the "V" snails . They came with some coral colonies. I have some bumble bee snails and hardly see one of the pesky snails anymore.
Can not say they did a job on the snails or not.
 

P-Dub

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Congratulations @acer! That is a fantastic looking tank!
Regarding Vermiteds', are you tackling the large ones or the really small ones? If they are the large ones, I have found that a syringe with an 11 gauge needle filled with a Kalk slurry injected directly in the tube has worked wonders for me. If it is the really small variety, I just break them off and grind away and pulverize the base with a blunt object. Let us know which variety you are dealing with. Additionally, if you tell us about the other issues that are preventing SPS inhabitation, we could likely help out there too, if you want to keep them that is.
 

acer

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The V snails are both small and large. Many I do not even see the tubes or know they are there until I feed the tank then.... wham- mucus tents all over the place. I am no longer feeding our Reef Club's homemade food and have gone to 90% pellets because of this - I do not overfeed (1-2 times per day) as the Trigger and the Gold Rim are constantly following and "eying up" anybody that comes close to the tank hoping for food. I put in a 1/4 sheet or nori 1-2 times a week as well.

I also think the other issue I was (fingers crossed) was my lighting = old Reefbreeder V24 and a G2 xr30 upgraded to a G3 about 5 years ago. I dont think the Xr30 was working well even before I dropped it into the tank (cough.cough) 2 months ago as the par under it was not even as good as the Reefbreeder V24 which is also pretty old ( 5 years) . It will be interesting to remeasure the par values with my new lighting setup - please refer to the build thread for those details.

I also think an issue may have been that I was not changing out my GFO as often as necessary, so dealing with an imbalance between PO4 (averaging around , .12- .09 on my Hanna URL phosphorous test) and No3 which remained a trace only = below 2 but not zero on Salifert. In the middle of nearly just giving up over the last year, because I could not keep any branching SPS (which is my favorite), I did do a IP test = It came back looking good with only one thing slightly off = Iodine slightly low. Alk ranges from 7.8-8.6, CA = steady at about 450, Mg 1250-1400. I do have 2 BRS dosers- but had no reason to dose as the uptake was so minimal because coral was not thriving that my weekly 15 gallon water changes took care of it.

I did take a Purple Monty that was dying to the local store and had them look for bugs of any kind under a microscope- they found nothing.

Tank fish = White faced Gold Rim Tang, a Pygmy Angel , 3 Clowns, a male Blue Throat Trigger, a Melaranus Wrasse, a few Neon Cleaner Gobi's, a "Dori" Blue Tang, a Tommy Tang. I had a very nice Regal Angel that I sold thinking he was munching on the corals- but I only saw him eat Zoa's. NO change after I sold him - bummer, but my Zoa's thanked me.

Current water flow into the 150 gallon display tank is about 1800- 2000 GPH from the basement sump going to 4 sprayers ( 2 have those heads= inducers?? on them that make the water around it suck threw the sprayer to get move movement of more water ) located in different areas of the tank - and a MP40 on wave mode at 75%. I did have other wave type Jeboa pumps but they are gone ( failed and not worth fixing). If I start having success again- I do have another MP40 not being used that I will put into the tank. Skimmer is a older Vertex 180int with a newer pump - I have to clean out the skimmate and clean the throat about every 5 days. Also use 2 x 7 inch filter socks changed weekly or when they are showing any signs of clogging = have 4 sets of them and they are hand cleaned with a pressure hose when dirty , then put into a bleach solution for 48 hours, then rinsed with RODI water and then hang dried.

So have at it people- any additional ideas besides my own poor husbandry and or ignorance as top why my tank would not keep any branching SPS alive??

Thanks in advance- and please do not think I will be offended if you say something negative - I have pretty thick skin. LOL
 

Going off the ledge: Would you be interested in a drop off aquarium?

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