Ryan’s 75 gallon

[ryany25]

I want to report that the Elimi-Aiptas works well. I got another few coral and had another aiptasia on of of them and the product took care of it easily. Photo of my new favorite coral. I need more fish and coral.

 

[ryany25]

I’m looking for some help guesstimating my water volume so I can think about getting an ato and dosing kalk. I’ve been testing alkalinity every couple days and it is in the low 7’s. I dose reef fusion 2 part to get it into the 8’s. I’d kalk the best option for maintaining alkalinity?
Edit, latest fts.

 

[tbrown]

75 gallon. Got a sump?

DSB or how many inches deep approximately?

Maybe 20-25 pounds of rock?

 

[tbrown]

I have a 135 with close to 100 pounds of rock and 80 pounds of sand plus a 40 gallon sump running about half full. I have about 155 gallon capacity with almost exactly 100 gallons of actual water (about 65% of my capacity). Looking at your tank I'd say your rock and sand is about half as much (or less) than mine per cubic foot so I'd estimate about a 15%-20% displacement. Assuming no sump you're probably at about 60-65 gallons of actual water volume?

 

[ryany25]

Thanks for the sanity check. I was thinking the same number. No sump.

 

[kevgib67]

Looks like this is coming along nicely, well done!

 

[ryany25]

I may be getting ahead of myself, but I put in a BTA, a pistol shrimp, yellow watchman goby, and a torch. I’m staying on top of parameters so I think I’ll be ok. The shrimp immediately found a hole but the goby found it within 20 minutes and is standing guard. I am also seeing growth in my zoas and my mushrooms. This is fun!

 

[tbrown]

I may be getting ahead of myself, but I put in a BTA, a pistol shrimp, yellow watchman goby, and a torch. I’m staying on top of parameters so I think I’ll be ok. The shrimp immediately found a hole but the goby found it within 20 minutes and is standing guard. I am also seeing growth in my zoas and my mushrooms. This is fun!

Keep an eye on that BTA! They like to wander. Sometimes....

All mine stay piled up.

 

[ryany25]

I’m watching him. Meanwhile I am fascinated by this.

 

[ryany25]

Put in a sailfin tang, 6 line wrasse, and a neon goby today. Been fun watching them work things out.

 

[ryany25]

And a flame angel today. Getting close to fully stocked I think. Everyone is getting along well so far but I have t seen the shrimp/goby today.

 

[ryany25]

Current tank status:
2 clownfish
Sailfin tang
Blue hippo tang
Flame angelfish
5 green chromis
Neon goby
6 line wrasse
Lawnmower blenny
Green mandarin
Yellow watchman goby
Pistol shrimp
Multiple turbo snails, small snails, hernia crabs
Tuxedo urchin
Bubble tip anemone
Rock carpet anemone
16 assorted coral frags.

Time to let things grow.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

And a flame angel today. Getting close to fully stocked I think. Everyone is getting along well so far but I have t seen the shrimp/goby today.

Flame angel looks great!

 

[ryany25]

Went down to the tank this morning and the angel was laying on its side on the bottom. I have no guesses as to why it died. Parameters are good and everything else is fine.

 

[tbrown]

It could be Cyanide. Unfortunately we lose a lot of wild caught angels in this hobby from Cyanide poisoning due to the way they are caught.

 

[ryany25]

Hippo was scratching itself on rocks so I did a freshwater dip. This stuff came off of him.

 

[ryany25]

I have a fluval breeder box hanging on the back of my tank with gracilaria in it. I have the smallest power head I could find hooked up to it. The intake for the power head is set up to skim the surface. Fun little diy project.

 

[ryany25]

Few pictures of the tank taken today.
Watchman and his pistol shrimp. Saw them for the first time in 10 days yesterday.

My diy surface skimmer/refugium.

 

[ryany25]

Yesterday I got this

And today my hammer looks like this

Cause and effect?

 

[ryany25]

Current stock:
2 clownfish
Long tip anemone
Rock Carpet Anemone
2 banner cardinals
Sailfin tang
Mandarin goby
Firefish goby
Yellow watchman goby
Vampire goby
2 tiger pistol shrimp
Cleaner shrimp
Neon goby
Sand sifting starfish
Tuxedo urchin
6 line wrasse
2 blue chromis
Around 30 coral frags
Various snails

Harvested my first phyto today. Things are going well overall after a rough patch a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been running gac since then. I can’t decide if I want to continue that I definitely or not. I started it because I couldnt find anything wrong with my water but things were dying. I thought maybe gac would remove any present toxins. Things did stop dying but I haven’t been able to keep a flame angel or hippo tang alive. I’ve made two attempts with each. Also had a bubble tip and an emerald crab die in the same timeframe.