Sarah's 57 gal extremely uncooperative SPS tank

[Water Dog]

Nice!

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Yep deep blue mp10s are more than fine on it

That is reassuring, thank you!

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

So I got a new stand! I finally decided it was always going to bother me that the old one looked too big for the space. The new one is a little more rough around the edges but I think it still looks great, plus it was cheap (craigslist):


It's got some nice details on the trim:


The brackets for the lights came today too! I plan to put them up tomorrow and will post some pics when I do. Also waiting on my dry rock delivery, can't wait to aquascape!

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Update time

The lights are up (but I haven't figured out the channels so it's very blue at the moment), and I got halfway done with the aquascaping. I really like how it turned out, but I used a lot more rock for the structure on the right side than planned, so I kinda ran out of rocks. Going to have to order another box to finish the left side, but thought I would post what I have so far.

Don't mind the smudgy dirty glass and dusty bottom!
FTS:


Aquascape (left side unfinished):


Aquascape right side detail:


Pics aren't great but I will try to get better ones with the lights dialed in.

I am pretty excited about these overlapping shelves in front:


I plan to put plating montis in two bright colors fanning out left and right, I think that will have a neat effect.

Hoping this tank will see water soon!

 

[Water Dog]

Nice progress... looking good!

 

[368]

Following. I have the same tank. I love it. It's baby bear. Not too big, not too small.

 

[Water Dog]

How well is that MP10 holding on there?

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

How well is that MP10 holding on there?

It's been fine, no issues, but since there's no water yet I haven't had it running. I would assume any issues would start once it was on due to vibration, but we will see

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Quick update... the tank is currently cycling! Yay! This is my first time doing a cycle using pure ammonia and all dry rock, I have always used live rock before and had a pretty much instant cycle.

I am 6 days in, with 1.0 ppm ammonia, 2.0 ppm nitrites, and high nitrates (around 25 I think last I checked). I am using Dr Tim's.

 

[Water Dog]

Moving along nicely! I'm a big fan of the pure ammonia cycling.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

The tank is cycled! You can see the first two inhabitants in the bottom right corner, currently getting used to their new home.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Update time! Here's a new FTS. Current inhabitants include a pair of clowns, 3 corals, an arrow crab, and 3 snails. Stupid arrow crab hides all the time though

My mother in law gave us a pretty nice camera, need to learn how to use it so I can post better pics than the ones my iPhone takes...

Also, don't mind the ugly maxijet I have in there right now, just increasing flow until I get a second mp10 for that spot

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Oh, and I also downloaded a couple of cool apps that let me number all the spots where I'd like to put corals:

I then drew up a spreadsheet with the flow and lighting in all the spots, and chose the corals I plan to have in those spots

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

In the three weeks since my last update, my corals have really started encrusting nicely. There's a good 1 cm encrusted base around my bonsai (see pic below). My plating monti has also been encrusting. Haven't really noticed any growth on either... do they generally encrust first, I wonder?


I'm also picking up 4 new frags tomorrow. Exciting!

 

[Water Dog]

Very nice!

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

In the last month, I have had two issues: cyano and red bugs (that's a new one for me). The cyano cleared up when I cut out the Reef Roids, which I was dosing once a week... I'll probably resume when my corals are bigger but for now it's just polluting the tank it seems.

The red bugs I just discovered the other day on my acro. I bought Dr G's coral dip since I couldn't get Interceptor, and I will be dosing tomorrow, after removing my arrow crab. Hoping that does the trick!

 

[Water Dog]

Did you dip your frags prior to putting them in your tank?

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Did you dip your frags prior to putting them in your tank?

Yes, I always dip my frags with Melafix before adding, and I used exclusively dry rock. So these must have gotten past the Melafix, which leads me to believe I need to try something harsher in future. I always thought Melafix was a nice balance between not dipping at all and using harsh products that can stress frags out, but I guess not

 

[Water Dog]

I'm a big fan of using Bayer Advanced complete insect killer. You just need to triple rinse when you're done... powerful stuff but easy on the frags being dipped. However with all dips, Bayer included unfortunately, they won't kill the eggs. I hope the second MP10 is working out for you!

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Yes it is perfect, thank you!!