Scotts75 gallon tank

[loui]

Don't have much of a build thread didn't document much.

I had saltwater fish when I was around 12 (I am 43 know) I had an underground filter, no water flow other then the air pump for the underground filter). Looking back it was amazing anything lived I had a lion fish that I feed gold fish to and some other fish. I used to dump fresh salt directly into the tank after water changes and once again looking back it was amazing the fish survived.

I joined the military at age 18, I did have tanks during my tours, but was hard to keep things going I moved around a few times. I am still using a 40 gallon all glass tank I bought at my first base as a sump.

Moving to about 28 after getting a decent job and buying a house, I hit the hobby pretty hard, I wanted to try every thing. I bred banggai Cardinals, got every coral I could get my hands on for propagation and couldn't go to enough frag swaps and club meetings. After about 7 years I lost my job and was forced to take a break.

About 2 years ago I started back up and once again it is almost an obsession I am reading every thing I can get my hands on. All corals in the tank where started as frags, most of them came from LEAR frag swap (can't wait until next month). I have an old euro reef skimmer (old habits die hard) 2 165 Watt Chinese LEDS for lighting ( will be upgrading to AP700 with tax return money) I dose 2 part from BRS and use Acro Power about every other day.

here is my down stairs tanks and yes I did have upstairs tanks also.

here was my new tank started about 2 years ago

didn't realize how different things are until today tank, sry for the rotten pictures all i have is HTC one phone

 

[jsker]

I never to late to start a build thread.

 

[loui]

couple of new pics

 

[revhtree]

Awesome! I think you have an addiction!

PS. Thank you for your service!

 

[loui]

I was the lucky and very grateful winner of the coral dudes contest, I got my shipment or shipments (they made a mistake and sent me 2) today and thought I would post a few pics. On a side note it really made my day getting these and was very excited to get home to see what they sent. There really isn't a better feeling then getting a package with corals in it.


Over all experience has been great if I would have payed for the service I would be very happy with it. I did communicate a few times with coral dudes and they where more then helpful on all matters.

Thanks Coral Dudes and Reef 2 Reef

shipment very well packaged

Heat Pack still warm to touch

Frags in packaging good amount of water and very secure no leaking here

Frags are the 4 in middle nice size frags and colorful. For the ones that I requested are the acans the 2nd one was random, looks like blasto and ricordia.

 

[loui]

Quick update I changed out my 165W chinesse LEDS to reef breeders new 48 inch photon V2

What it used to look like.

New look I can't be happier with this light obviously a lot more control ability (wireless controller has worked flawlessly) and better spread I am currently running at 60% for the blue channels and 30% for the white channels, whites are at this amount for 4 hours a day. Will be moving up 5% each Friday until I get to 80% blues and 50% whites. The moon light gives the tank a very crisp and fluorescent look that I have never experienced.

 

[loui]

here is an updated pic with the whites turned up

 

[Salty1962]

Very nice tank!

 

[loui]

Thanks Salty1962

 

[loui]

quick update

I wanted to see how I was doing with my water chemistry, so i tried the Triton test and I was happy to be doing pretty well. Only real problem was Calcium, which I checked yesterday with my Hanna checker and read 426. I sent the test in about 2 weeks ago I may have had a problem back then, but for some reason I didn't record what my Calcium levels were at the time. Also I changed from Instant Ocean to Reef Crystals I only do 5 gallon water changes every other week unless I see something I don't like and I do more. The test where done when I only used Instant Oceans.

I looked up the issue with Lithium and from some old documentation there was higher levels coming from salt also was mentioned in the articles that it is really not that big of a concern.

For the Iodine being a little low which is strange since I use Acro Power. I am going to raise my dosage up a little bit and see if the reef crystals also help.

Also wanted to show after installing the new lights I am getting a little receding on the tips of a couple of my corals I am running at 60% blues on the 3 blue channels for a few hours and 30% whites I only have whites at this level for 2 hours. I did try to go to 65 and 35, but frogspawn and zoanthids (on bottom of the tank) did not like it one bit. I am ramping up slowly to these marks though out the day and dropping off slowly at the end. I really want to increase the white channels some more to get some more growth I may have to go up 1 or 2 percent every other week for the corals to get used to it.

 

[loui]

quick update

I wanted to try nano micro air bubbles I got an used SILENT-AIR X5 AIR PUMP - PENN-PLAX air pump from ebay, for 15 dollars shipped, it was making a heck of a racket when I first plugged it in but I tighten down a couple of screws and it is now as quiet as can be. I hooked it up to my RKE and I am running it for 1 hour per day starting at 4AM. I started this a few days ago and I must say the tank has never looked clearer. My frogspawn was not happy for a couple of days, but I think it was from the extra light it is now getting, it is already back to normal. I may increase an hour or so, I am concerned with running with the lights on and micro bubbles making it to my lighting, but so far I am not seeing any salt creep making it up that high. Can't be happier with the results and the minimal cost to make my corals happier is priceless.

I have been battling a problem with what I believe is dinoflagellates I am not able to positively identify it, but I think I am on the right track. After reading many articles I am going to try a mixture of things. I ordered some pods and live phyto plakton from Algaebarn (couldn't be more satisfied very much liked that the pods are in 1.025 salinity that's a nice touch). I removed my filter sock and will dose the phyto plankton at 30ML every other day and will increase after a week or so.

I will siphon though a filter sock and back into my sump then will rinse the sock with fresh water I read fresh water kills dino immediately. I will also blow off any areas where the dino may be at this time I am going to put the filter sock back in for 30 minutes.

What I am hoping is the siphoning and blowing the dino around with the addition of the pods and phyto will thin the dino out and hopefully be gone altogether. I will be doing this every day and will post results.

 

[loui]

here is an update from my dino battle the tank is a lot better. I ended up going with dino flag support group Cruz was great with helping me get every thing I needed.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1105945762763724/

 

[loui]

growth shot coral was sold to me as an eflo, still not sure that is what it is.

1/25/16

6/26/16

 

[loui]

not much new here is a new pic of the tank.

 

[loui]

Got a new bought used skimmer it is an vertek 150, great skimmer I am very happy with the ease of use, I have not had to adjust anything

 

[loui]

side view Anthias wouldn't get out of the way

 

[loui]

tank update slowly coming along

 

[Daniel@R2R]

tank update slowly coming along

Looks good.

 

[loui]

Small update

I had to move my green tenius away from my red planet. The red planet is a mean little you know what and takes over every thing it comes in contact with.

 

[loui]

Quick update

I changed out my jaebos pumps for 2 Eflux 2100 wave pump. I wanted more control over the pumps, which is the only reason why I changed them. So far I am happy with the build quality and performance of the pumps.

My SPS seem to me a little pale, so I have been doings 1ML of acro power, 1ML of RTN destroyer and 1ML ML KORALLEN-ZUCHT POHL’S XTRA SPECIAL. I have about 85 gallons of water. I am doing this about 4 times a week would like to do it every day but sometimes I forget. Wish I could mix them all together and use a dosing pump.I have not seen any negative effects so far. It is to early to tell if it is helping.

my last 3 test

11/25/16
ALK 153 8.5

12/01/16
ALK 159 8.9
CAL 415
MAG 1500

12/7/16
ALK 150 8.4
CAL 484
MAG 1410


Finally getting my Mag down it was over 1800 at one time. I am using salifert test for Mag I guess the first test kit was bad when I got the new test kit I wasn't happy to see how high it was. But to be honest I don't see much change from then to now.
Having a tough time keeping CAL steady I am using hanna calcium checker.
ALK is doing good I had it as high as 10 a couple of months ago. I am using hanna ALK tester.