Reefing102’s 65 Gallon Rescue Build

[Reefing102]

Hey all,

So I bought a new to me tank off Facebook just a week ago. Looking at the pictures alone, I knew this was going to be a long process and rescue build. Little did I know just how much of a process. From the pics provided by the seller, I was anticipating significant cyano problems.

Upon meeting with the seller, I noticed there to be a significant vermetid snail infestation. Even knowing this, I decided to go forward with the purchase.

Fast forward to today and everything is finally set up.

Equipment list:

65 Gallon Reef Ready Aquarium Master (36”x18”x24”) with custom stand
20 Gallon Eshopps Channel Design Sump w/ Aquatop Return Pump
Reef Octopus 110 Classic Skimmer
Apex EL with Energy Bar, FMM ATK w/ Pmup, and 1 WAV
Jebao Wavemaker w/ SW8 powerhead
2 x Hydor Koralia Nano
ATI 36” 4 bulb T5 fixture (2 Blue+, 1 Purple+, 1 Coral+)
MacroGro Fuge Light
2 x No name glass heaters
Flipper Algae Scraper
SpectraPure MPDI 90 RO/DI system

Livestock:
About 20lbs Live Sand
About 35/40lbs “Live” Rock (Marco rock)
A 4 inch round colony of GSP
Colony of Firemouth Green Rhondactis Mushrooms (about 50+polyps)
2 x Green Toadstools
1 Percula Clown
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Neon Dottyback
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
1 Yellowtail Damsel (Bannished to the 2 gallon Pico)
Multiple Asternia Starfish

The plan:

Clean Everything (done)
Rinse sand in fresh saltwater (done)
Re-Cycle Rock in trash can to kill Cyano and hopefully most Vermetids (in prgress
Order “true” live rock from KP, Gulf, and/or TBS

Now for pictures:

Before:

It will be a minute before I get the after pictures.

 

[lapin]

nice

 

[Reefing102]

So after about 4 days of being moved and re-set up, here is the current product:

I’m aware there’s still some Cyano and I need to watch nutrients as it’s coming back on the sand bed and wires and such.

Also, the remaining rock is cooking right now (the right way…not in the oven) with the hope it will kill off most if not all of the Vermetids

Still working on getting the skimmer tuned. It seems to just want to overflow no matter which way it’s tuned, unless it’s breaking in again after a vinegar bath?

Also trying to figure out the ATK, they have it in the skimmer chamber not the return chamber but due to poor sump design, there’s absolutely no way and no room to put the ATO in there. I really can’t stand the sump layout but it’s a start. I may upgrade that later

 

[Reefing102]

40lbs of KP Starter Rock ordered! Can’t wait to see what I get. Hoping no huge ammonia spike. May toss it in. May cure it for a couple days first. I don’t know yet

 

[Reefing102]

The 40lbs has arrived!

 

[Reefing102]

This rock was shipped UPS overnight in wet paper and delivered by 9:30am. It smelled very fresh. Tons of bright orange and red coralline. A couple full size feather dusters. A couple pistol shrimp, various crabs and brittle stars. All unidentifiable crabs were sumped. Any dead hitchhikers were removed. I strongly encourage anyone to order this rock. It is incredibly porous.

I’ll be monitoring my levels to ensure no massive spikes as I did not cycle the rock. I have 320 gallons of salt mix ready to go for water changes

 

[Reefing102]

So good news is I had no noticeable spike just adding the rock straight to the tank.

Bad news is the dinos and Cyano (I had this issue before the rock) are still a problem. I have ordered an 8 species blend of live phyto from @Eldredge to see how that works to fight the algae. My hope is that it will out compete. With that said I will be doing manual removal as well and I’m looking into temporarily dosing phosphate and nitrate as well.

 

[Ro Bow]

great for no spike, and hope you get the dino and cyano gone

 

[Reefing102]

great for no spike, and hope you get the dino and cyano gone

I hope I can. I bought the tank knowing these issues existed so I’m hoping I can get it under control soon.

 

[Reefing102]

Brief update, Recieved the Live Phyto yesterday. A very nice dark green and very well packed. Started my first dose this morning at approximately 1ml/10 gallons.
Unfortunately, I likely will not be able to give an update on how it attacks dinos as they are going away on their own and not coming back so I will not be able to accurately say if it truly helped with dinos or not.

 

[revhtree]

Glad to hear the devil dinos are receding!

 

[Reefing102]

Glad to hear the devil dinos are receding!

Thanks! The only changes I’ve done is added the live rock and Cheato and also added a filter sock that hasn’t been changed recently. I haven’t tested recently so I’m curious if the cheato is beating some of the nuisance algae to the nutrients and the sock boosting the nitrates and phosphates

 

[Reefing102]

So as I was staring at my tank I figured I’d share a couple photos. Excuse the algae, it’s in the process of being taken care of.

First, in addition to the various sponges, feather dusters and tunicates that have shown themselves, I found a couple new hitchhikers from the Live Rock.

Appears to be a Curly Cue Anemone coming

Next appears to be what may be a Porites Coral? Its

Lastly, not a hitchhiker, but been watching the Toadstool for a while now, and it appears to be splitting into 3 separate coral

That’s it for now. Happy reefing!

 

[Reefing102]

Quick update…the Cyano is only on the sand and while getting “thicker” is not spreading and I have a little bit of hair algae. I need to boost my clean up crew.
With that said, the only think “new” is the lid. I switched out the glass tops for egg crate (I don’t have the patience to make my own mesh lid).

I learned also that I’m a semi-perfectionist like my dad when it comes to getting things to fit. There’s maybe 1/8th of an inch space on each side for the egg crate.

The other new thing is I will be switching from T5 to Metal Halide. I purchased a spectacularly clearanced Aurora BlueLine Metal Halide with bulb kit from @ChampionLighting. Only $100 plus shipping for fixture and bulbs. Just waiting on my ballasts to get here before I can put that up.

Anyway, couple quick pics:

Quick Full Tank:

 

[Reefing102]

Okay so Lighting Update!

As mentioned above, I bought a metal halide light and bulbs. And my ballasts came yesterday. I tested everything and it worked perfectly. Today I swapped out the T5 for the Halide fixture.

Before: ATI 4 Bulb T5

After: 2x 150w 10k SPS HQI plus 2 39w 420nm T5 Actinic and moon lights.

I’m still working on the algae issue. It’s a little yellow so I may add a ReefBrite strip (still deciding).

Here’s the fixture during testing

And where I mounted the ballasts

I realize the ballasts may get splashed but the odds are low and it keeps the heat out of the cabinet. Right now the ballasts are cheapo Odyssea replacement ballasts from eBay. Lacking funding for quality ballasts. And eventually likely going to upgrade to Hamilton Mogul Cayman Suns eventually.

Two cons to the fixture…but not deal breakers - moonlights and actinic are on the same plug with separate switches so can’t run them independent on APEX and the cooling fan in the fixture is quite loud compared to the ATI fan.

The lights are mounted 10 inches above the water. I can’t get them higher due to mounting restrictions. I have them set for 3 hours a day to not shock the coral. I’ll increase depending on how the coral do.

That’s it for now!

 

[Reefing102]

No major update. Halides are great. A lot more polyp extension than before.
Cyano is still an issue. Just put in two conchs and have more clean up crew on the way

 

[Reefing102]

Update: Cyano has been mostly defeated. A bit of hair algae which is slowly coming under control. The bleached hammer is slowly recovering and coloring up. New corals are Xenia, Duncan, Green Nepthea, and a browned out Jedi Mind Trick Monti (this is coloring up, it was purchased browned out)

 

[Reefing102]

Small update: Ordered 40 more pounds of rock from KP. 30lbs of their premium and 10lbs of their starter. Should be a good comparison when it arrives

 

[Reefing102]

Well bad news, 1 of the boxes apparently got damaged by UPS. Received this notification this morning:

I’m still waiting delivery for the other two boxes. I have reached out to KP to see what the next steps are.

 

[Reefing102]

Okay so 10lbs of starter rock and 15 lbs of the aquacultured rock got delivered. The other 15lbs of aquacultured appears to be what’s missing.

With that said, no major hitchhikers. Got an inch long mantis and a few crabs (all got sumped). No pics.
Found some kind of worm, looked similar to a bristleworm but no bristles. It got tossed, it was attacking the crabs and mantis in the hitchhiker container I was using.

I did find a baby pencil urchin in the rock. That’s somewhere in there.

Now a few pics:

FTS: I like the rock wall look soo yea

Some cool macros (unknown orange macro and a couple mermaids wine glass (couldn’t get it to focus)

Now my opinion on the side by side comparison

For me, I’d save the money and buy only starter in the future. The aquacultured does have more macros and sponges and tube worms, however since I know most of these likely won’t survive, in the future I’d have to pass as my starter rock from before is growing plenty of sponges and feather dusters and what not. IMO not worth the extra expense unless just starting out with a brand new tank. I would definitely consider mixing the starter rock as a base and putting the aquacultured over it.