Ricky's 120 gallon Stony Coral Garden

[schooleyosis]

Really nice frag tank man. Glad you are sticking it out rather than giving up. I'll say it over and over; You are a true inspiration in this hobby.

 

[revhtree]

Since there isn't much to show in my display tank yet here is a picture from my frag tank.

I run four ATI Blue Plus, one ATI Coral Plus, one ATI Purple Plus and two ATI Actinic Plus in a TEK 8x54 watt T5 Fixture. I do not run a protein skimmer but I do have macro algae growing and two fish living alongside a few snails.

How's it coming Ricky!

 

[Rickyrooz]

How's it coming Ricky!

Hey Rev,
All of my SPS are back in the display and encrusting, I see coralline algae covering the rocks and overflow again as well Tonight I will be hooking up my supplemental T5's. I am running the Phoenix bulbs for 7 hours per day and the ZEOvit keeps my nitrates undetectable, something I could never achieve in my previous builds while using a refugium and macroalgae.

 

[Rickyrooz]

The corals have been in the tank for two months are beginning to encrust and gaining color. The Mystery Wrasse has developed a strange red bump on its lower lip, I am not sure what it is.

My ZEOvit dosing schedule is:
Daily
0.5 mL of ZEOstart3
Shake rocks daily
Twice per week
4 drops of ZEObak
15 mL Micro-Lift Special Blend
5 mL Brightwell MicroBacter7
4 drops of ZEOfood7
4 drops of KZ Sponge Power
4 drops of KZ Amino Acid Concentrate

Current parameters:
Temperature: 79
pH: 8.1
Salinity: 35ppt
Alkalinity: 9.3 dKH
Calcium: 430
Magnesium: 1240
Potassium: 430
Phosphate: 0.11
Nitrate: 2.5

I am running ROX 0.8 carbon and GFO passively in a mesh bag in the sump.

 

[Rickyrooz]

My tank is currently an algae farm but here is a quick video of the fish I have. I added a Chevron Tang as well as a Male Pintail Fairy Wrasse. I am letting the tank run its algae course before I add corals back into the display. I removed the corals in August because the green hair algae was beginning to overtake the corals. I let the tank run for two weeks with no lights to kill the hair algae but to my surprise it did not make a huge dent. I am currently running a refugium with Chaetomorpha algae and dosing vodka. I still dose ZEObak and Sponge Power but the other ZEOvit products are not being used. Nitrates are at 2.5 mg/L and phosphates are between 0.05 and 0.08 ppm. I am no longer running GFO, I occasionally dose lanthanum chloride. I still run ROX 0.8 carbon passively in a mesh bag in the sump. I am currently running the metal halides for 3 hours per day and the T5's for 6 hours per day.

 

[schooleyosis]

Good luck battling the HA. Maybe think about adding an urchin and or a sea slug? I added a sea slug for a few weeks to mow the HA down in my tank and then gave it to someone else in the club when it completed its work in my tank.

 

[Tahoe61]

Glad to see you're still in the game.

I would not hesitate to add an Urchin especially since you have no corals to knock over. Get the ORA purple one, you can get them at LA. Your algae will be gone in 2 weeks and will stay gone.

 

[Rickyrooz]

I had a sea hair, it ate for a day then disappeared. I haven't seen it since. I tried an urchin and that died as well.

 

[spspirate]

+ 1 with the urchins. Your rock scape is really cool Ricky! I hope you can over come the algae and get this reef up and growing with corals! What's your TDS readings?

 

[schooleyosis]

Bummer.

 

[Rickyrooz]

+ 1 with the urchins. Your rock scape is really cool Ricky! I hope you can over come the algae and get this reef up and growing with corals! What's your TDS readings?

0, I have two DI resins after the RO membrane.