SCA 125G

[JumboShrimp]

Eerily cool photo— looks like the surface of another planet. Lol.

 

[ilikefish69]

lot of work going into this thing. following along

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

9/6/22 Weekend update

-Added all livestock from pre-existing 30G tank over the weekend. This includes:

2 Ocellaris Clownfish
2 Conchs
3 Nassarius snails
5 or so blue legged hermit crabs

Also added two live rock from that system to help seed the bio filter a bit. Also added Chaeto from that system to sump.

Next up is to set up ATO, quarantine, WC system, and frag tank.

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

9/8/22 morning update

ATO is set up. Everything is going well with the new livestock.

Setting up quarantine tanks next. Pics to come.

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Some clown pics

 

[JumboShrimp]

They are your astronauts. Lol.

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

They are your astronauts. Lol.

Lol. You'll NEVER let this one go. Too funny. Well I imagine what you'll be calling things when it's full of coral.

 

[killerkosar]

Nice setup how do you like your sca tank?

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Nice setup how do you like your sca tank?

Hey there. It's a great tank, although truth be told I don't have much comparison. I'm newer to the hobby/inexperienced.

The tank is already 3 years used, but it seems to be nearly like-new condition. Only wear and tear are a few barely noticable scratches.

The silicone is all in great shape, and the tank seems to be over-built (which I like). It's eurobraced, and the eurobrace is inset which is a huge plus. This provides a nice ledge to put stuff on / hold a screen top.

The dimensions are also really nice, in my opinion. 60" x 24" x 20.5".

Finally, the glass is starphire or whatever, and again I don't have much comparison but the glass seems to be very clear/easy to look through.

Overall very satisfied. I'd recommend the eurobraced one... Inset.

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Tank update:

All livestock doing well. I have done the following since the last update:

1. Added algaebarn copepods
2. Added some phyto
3. I noticed cyano (I think) growing in the sump. I tested phosphate/nitrates. Looks like I have a bit of an imbalance problem. My Phosphates are .45-.55PPM, Nitrates are 1-2PPM. I'm all ears if anyone has suggestions regarding taking action (or inaction) on this.
4. Been dosing Microbacter7
5. I suspect that part of my phosphate imbalance issue stems from how deep my sandbed is. I had a ton of sand, I removed nearly half of it... Still appears to be ample sand, but I feel maybe it will help my lack of Nitrate.

I'm hesitant to add GFO, due to advice I have gotten from many. Here's some things people have said/recommended:

• Deep sand bed could be the issue, because it essentially reduces Nitrate in the water column.
• Rocks could be leeching phosphate. I cycled with dry Marco.
• Requisite bacteria colonies have not established yet (just wait, don't do anything).
• Piggybacking on above comment, "dose microbacter7" to accelerate bacteria colony establishment
• Some have said to add GFO, others have said don't even think about it... I'm playing safe for now (no GFO).

I would like to balance this out before I even think of adding coral. Right now I'm still taking it slow, attempting to tackle this issue. The other thing I haven't done at all since setting up the tank are water changes.

I also think I may try an ICP test for kicks soon. Attempting to work on the frag/coral quarantine tank this week.

Updated pics:

 

[killerkosar]

Hey there. It's a great tank, although truth be told I don't have much comparison. I'm newer to the hobby/inexperienced.

The tank is already 3 years used, but it seems to be nearly like-new condition. Only wear and tear are a few barely noticable scratches.

The silicone is all in great shape, and the tank seems to be over-built (which I like). It's eurobraced, and the eurobrace is inset which is a huge plus. This provides a nice ledge to put stuff on / hold a screen top.

The dimensions are also really nice, in my opinion. 60" x 24" x 20.5".

Finally, the glass is starphire or whatever, and again I don't have much comparison but the glass seems to be very clear/easy to look through.

Overall very satisfied. I'd recommend the eurobraced one... Inset.

Ya I’ve got a sca 80 I like it I can’t compare it with other brands but it’s been a great tank so far for me I would buy another one it’s hard to beat the prices

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

10/6/22

All is going well with current livestock in DT. Nothing has died, including inverts. Two firefish and tuxedo urchin on the way.

Added first corals to quarantine/frag system. Maybe a pic of these to come, I have no idea how to take pics of coral though (they all look blue... ).

And here's a pic from the other day, my girlfriend's mom was in town. I think they like the tank, that's always a good sign! (Too bad this was before I cleaned the glass...)

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

10/17/22 Update:

All livestock doing well. Observations / stuff of note below:

DT Livestock Additions:
2 Firefish
1 Halloween Urchin
Photosynthetic Gorgonian
3 monti caps


Fixed Nitrate / Phosphate Ratio
Since I set up the tank, I was having trouble getting a balanced Nitrate / Phosphate ratio. My phosphates were hovering around .2-.5 and my nitrates were bottomed out. I upped the feeding and dosed nitrates (for some reason, I was just reluctant to use GFO). Turns out this worked. I stopped dosing Nitrates, and my phosphates are .1 Nitrates 10. So I'm happy with these numbers and will stop screwing with it for a bit.. (but still monitor it).

Confused about Algae...
Interestingly, this tank really has skipped the uglies so far. I've had a bit of GHA, detritus, cyano in the sump.. But nothing crazy. It's been surprising for me, not sure what's up with that. My DT lights are at 150 PAR on the rocks, and fuge light running on a reverse cycle. Hopefully I get coralline soon I guess.... The one thing that worries me is if potentially the uglies are still coming... and I just haven't gotten there with my bioload.. >_<

PH been good
PH is easy to monitor with the apex, and really interesting how it fluctuates with what you do with the tank. Anyways, PH is hovering between 8.25-8.4, and never really ventures outside of that band... So that's good.

Quarantine Frag Tank
Started a (non build thread worthy) frag tank, and I added many corals in it over the last two weeks. 7 different hammers, 1 acropora, 3 monti caps, 1 duncan, and a gorgonian. Everything is getting dipped in coral RX and placed onto observation frag racks. So far everything looks like it's doing really well surprisingly. I've been very lightly dosing Restor.

That's about it! Thanks for reading.

Charlie

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

10/21/22 update. Funnily enough, after commenting about lack of uglies a few days ago... The uglies have been coming in strong the last few days.

I suspect the reason the "uglies" in my tank took so long to arrive are a few reasons:

1) 24/7 refugium light cycle

2) Small bio load for ~160G system.

3) Too low PAR on DT lights

So... Sometime last week or so I switched the refugium light cycle to run opposite to DT lights (at night). I also added a couple more fish. Think I'm going to keep going slow and let things stabilize. Noticing some coralline growing at the top of some rocks!

More FTS pics to come soon.

Charlie

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Hello everyone.

These were taken yesterday night (11-3-22).

Observations of the last couple weeks:

-Dealing with some GHA. My plan is to not do anything draconian. I'm going to just keep feeding moderately, and removing GHA when I see it get out of control. I'm hoping it just naturally stabilizes when coralline starts growing etc.

-Alk / Calcium consumption is finally there. I started lightly dosing two part and watching magnesium.

-Nitrates/phosphates have been pretty good actually. Every time I test nitrates are 1-5 and phosphates are .01-.1. Neither is bottoming out anymore or getting out of control.

Added to the tank:

• All the corals from the frag tank to the DT. I also shipped in a new batch of frags for the frag tank.
• Diamondback Goby
• Midas Blenny
• Fire Shrimp

-No livestock has died in this tank so far (including CUC), pretty happy about that but not about to get cocky...


If anyone has any comments, suggestions, or tips please LMK. Thanks!

Charlie

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Nothing much to report. FTS from 11/9/22:

As always, appreciate any comments or tips.

Charlie

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

FTS from 11-20-22. Nothing to report...

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Pictures from 11-27-22:

Updates:
-Sent in RODI / Tank water ICP test. Everything is in line, only a few depleted elements. No pollutants. Going to correct depleted elements.
-Struggling with continually bottoming out Nitrates. Going to start regularly dosing them. Phosphates bouncing between .01-.09.

As always I'm receptive to any comments or suggestions with this build. Thanks!

Charlie

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

FTS from 12-18-22. These came out with a really bad glare unfortunately...

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

1-25-23 FTS.

Updates over the last month:

Added the following livestock:

1) tangs
2) more CUC
3) two elegances
4) more hammers
5) frogspawns
6) Glued various encrusting corals to the back wall
7) another duncan
8) monti

Moved the big gogrgonian into my QT tank. Getting the flow right with it was kind of annoying, and constantly battling it getting covered w algae. It's thriving in the QT... Not sure what I'm gonna do with it.

Any suggestions or comments are always welcome and appreciated.