Sierra_Bravo's "What did I get myself into??" 120g in-wall build thread
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OP
OP
I realized I had not updated this in a while. I did receive the second shipment of TBS rock and associated critters at the end of May. I know there are a lot of people who are pro "real" live rock and those that are against it because of hitchhikers, but I sure am glad I went the TBS route. There is SO much life in the rocks and sand. Even without fish I was watching the tank for hours with a magnifying glass.
Two and a half months later and everything is settling in. We've brought two Ocellaris and a YWG/Pistol Shrimp combo through QT and have introduced them to the display tank, as well as a torch coral and my first SPS, a red Montipora cap. The gorgonians are doing well, but as expected the sponges are having a difficult time. Two have been removed already and the few I have left are looking rough.
I'm waiting on dosing pumps to come in so I can be ready for keeping my calcium/alk in line and then I'll start looking to begin collecting corals. This has been a lot of fun so far! Here are some updated pics...our iPad camera leaves much to be desired.
Two and a half months later and everything is settling in. We've brought two Ocellaris and a YWG/Pistol Shrimp combo through QT and have introduced them to the display tank, as well as a torch coral and my first SPS, a red Montipora cap. The gorgonians are doing well, but as expected the sponges are having a difficult time. Two have been removed already and the few I have left are looking rough.
I'm waiting on dosing pumps to come in so I can be ready for keeping my calcium/alk in line and then I'll start looking to begin collecting corals. This has been a lot of fun so far! Here are some updated pics...our iPad camera leaves much to be desired.
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marissas47
Active Member
Wow, your first tank is a LOT more impressive than my first one was lol it looks great !
OP
OP
Thank you! Honestly all the information a new person needs is here online becuse of the great community involvement at R2R. All you have to do is take the time to find and study it to create a solid plan. Oh, that and the wife freeing up the bank account for you doesn't hurt either... 
Giraffe0621
Active Member
@Sierra_Bravo -- you mentioned being very pleased with your TBS Package, but that many of the sponges didn't make it (some quickly, some slower). Silly question: is it easy to tell when one is on it's way out? Did you get a lot of larger CUC as well, or mostly snails & crabs? I saw the lone starfish leg, but wasn't sure if there were other larger critters that made it into your boxes? Thinking about doing the Package for my new Reefer 250 that I just received, but not 100% convinced yet.Thank you! Honestly all the information a new person needs is here online becuse of the great community involvement at R2R. All you have to do is take the time to find and study it to create a solid plan. Oh, that and the wife freeing up the bank account for you doesn't hurt either...
OP
OP
I did not have high hopes for the sponges. From everything I read prior to getting the second shipment the sponges were going to eventually perish from starvation. I bought Sponge Power and other additives trying to keep them going. They start by the outside texture becoming rough and pitted, which eventually leads to tissue becomming transparent and losing color, then the crabs clean it down to the skeleton which leads to random bare spots. The two red sponges have done the best and may last. The gorgonias also seem to be doing well.
For a cleanup crew I received 120 blue leg hermits, 60 Astrea snails, two large brittle stars, one serpent star, six sea cucumbers, and three peppermint shrimp as part of the second shipment. TBS unexpectantly threw in two decorator crabs as well. That's just what was in the actual package: As hitchikers I had a ton of the tiny common white leg hermits and cerith snails. I have also somehow managed to gain another brittle star, along with many micro brittle stars. I had around 12 of the purple long spined urchins grown from tiny dots to full size (kept two and gave the rest away to my local fish forum members) and various other snails and limpets. I have two porcelin crabs and a red ruby crab.
"Bad" hitchikers, which really haven't been a big deal, have been two blue leg Caribbean pistol shrimp, a dozen or so small gorilla or stone crabs, a polyclad flatworm (the kind that eats clams), three olive snails and some whelks. That sounds like a lot, but it has not been that difficult to get them out and gives you something to occupy your time while the tank is getting established and fish are QT'd.
All that being said, I cannot even begin to tell you how completely blown away I was with all the LIFE that came in with my sand and rock. I have spent hours looking at the rock and finding things I've never seen before even after almost 5 months: Sponges, tunicates, cup corals, clams, barnacles, all sorts of worms, amphipods, copepods, feather dusters, coraline...I guarantee that I found something new every time I looked the first few weeks. To each their own and I get why people use dry rock, but I couldn't imagine ever starting with lifeless rock.
Remember that Richard's package is based on filling your tank like a wall with rock. I went with only 160# of rock for my 120 instead of the 240 that was recommended and I still had more than I needed for my aquascape. Here's a link to the chart of what you get:
http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/thepackage/package_chart.html
Good luck with whichever way you go!
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Giraffe0621
Active Member
Thank you SO much for your detailed response! I guess my concern is about trying to gauge when to pull a sponge out if it's dying, as I wouldn't want them to mess with the tank's cycle that's just beginning. Wasn't thinking about the fact that the myriad of hermits, snails, etc. would help quickly dispose of anything that wasn't doing well. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to feel like things were constantly dying, that's all. Wouldn't be the happiest way to start a new tank! Guess the answer is patience & to take it slow before adding anything else
OP
OP
Thanks! It's been a lot of fun. I'm learning you can spend all sorts of money on a good build and still have a hard time figuring out how to actually keep corals alive. That's where I'm at today. The learning never ends.
OP
OP
Update:
I borrowed the club's par meter and found out that I've had the lights way too low. I slowly have been raising the level for a month and a half and have them where I think they should have been all along. I've been keeping a few cheap "test" frags and I'm finally seeing some growth and polyp extension as well as seeing seeing my calc and alk being used. After a few months of wondering what was wrong it's good to feel like I'm starting to get on track. I'm looking forward to getting some of the frags off the rack and onto the rock work. I'll be giving Adam @Battlecorals a shout here soon for a pack of his more noob-friendly acros to see if I can get them established in my tank. I'm also lucky enough to have @FarmerTy, who has one of the nicest and most well documented tanks I've seen, as a member in our local reef forum and hope to get some livestock from his collection as well.
In turning up the light I think I cost myself the few sponges that I had left - the tree sponge and ball sponge declined as the par readings went higher. Moving them to allow some shade just made it worse as they don't like changes to the flow.
I added a White Tail Bristletooth tang - love this fish. Coming from the QT to the display tank was a big deal for him. I don't know if fish feel joy, but based on how enthusiastically he swims around the tank, munching on live rock as he pleases, I'd say he's pretty darn happy to be out of the QT and back to a more natural setting.
I borrowed the club's par meter and found out that I've had the lights way too low. I slowly have been raising the level for a month and a half and have them where I think they should have been all along. I've been keeping a few cheap "test" frags and I'm finally seeing some growth and polyp extension as well as seeing seeing my calc and alk being used. After a few months of wondering what was wrong it's good to feel like I'm starting to get on track. I'm looking forward to getting some of the frags off the rack and onto the rock work. I'll be giving Adam @Battlecorals a shout here soon for a pack of his more noob-friendly acros to see if I can get them established in my tank. I'm also lucky enough to have @FarmerTy, who has one of the nicest and most well documented tanks I've seen, as a member in our local reef forum and hope to get some livestock from his collection as well.
In turning up the light I think I cost myself the few sponges that I had left - the tree sponge and ball sponge declined as the par readings went higher. Moving them to allow some shade just made it worse as they don't like changes to the flow.
I added a White Tail Bristletooth tang - love this fish. Coming from the QT to the display tank was a big deal for him. I don't know if fish feel joy, but based on how enthusiastically he swims around the tank, munching on live rock as he pleases, I'd say he's pretty darn happy to be out of the QT and back to a more natural setting.
OP
OP
I have Maxspect Ethereal's mounted about 10" above the water. The lights have five channels to control and I was running them all around 50%. Turned out that gave me only 60-80 PAR mid-rockwork. I now have the whites and blues peaking at 100% and the other three around 70% and I'm hitting 100 PAR at the bottom, 175 PAR mid-rockwork and 240 PAR around mid tank. The upper third of the tank where everything will grow out is 300-400 under the center of the light.
I now have the lights set to ramp up over five hours to peak, stay there for three hours and come back down over five hours.
I now have the lights set to ramp up over five hours to peak, stay there for three hours and come back down over five hours.
Will Milberger
Aggie Aquarist
Very, very nice.
Ken Tuttle
New Member
Well done Sir.
OP
OP
I have a full thread on this in the DIY forum but wanted to document it here as well.
In a nutshell I used 80/20 T-slot to create a light hanger that I could use to supplement my existing Maxspect Ethreal's with T5 bulbs:
Before:
During:
After:
Specifics here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...-using-extruded-aluminum.351777/#post-4372996
.
In a nutshell I used 80/20 T-slot to create a light hanger that I could use to supplement my existing Maxspect Ethreal's with T5 bulbs:
Before:
During:
After:
Specifics here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...-using-extruded-aluminum.351777/#post-4372996
.
OP
OP
New addition in quarantine, compliments of @NYAquatic. Eats anything put in the tank and is doing well. He's on week 3 of QT.
OP
OP
Some pics since I added the T5's, just so I can judge progress later:
OP
OP
Well, I guess I'm stocked for a while. I'm lucky enough to have two very successful reefers nearby in Austin: @FarmerTy and @gig 'em . Today I headed up to pick up frags from both of them and they hooked me up very well:
From FarmerTy
1. FarmerTy Purple Eflo
2. Oregon Tort
3. Palmer's Blue Millie
4. Aqua SD Rainbow Millie
5. Green Slimer
6. Blue Bonnet
From Gig 'em:
1. UC Bali Shortcake
2. Unnamed. It's a really nice reddish-pink and green hyacinthus. The colony was awesome.
3. Red Planet
4. Blue Tenuis
5. Reefwise Blue Iris
6. Sarmentosa
Last but not least - I finally was able to get my hands on a Sherman RBT from @mdavis735 . I have been waiting for my LFS to come through for me but it wasn't happening. This is a beautiful speciman and I hope my clowns, when they find it, are as happy as I am to have her.
Now the hard part - letting things grow out and not buying any more frags for a while.
.
From FarmerTy
1. FarmerTy Purple Eflo
2. Oregon Tort
3. Palmer's Blue Millie
4. Aqua SD Rainbow Millie
5. Green Slimer
6. Blue Bonnet
From Gig 'em:
1. UC Bali Shortcake
2. Unnamed. It's a really nice reddish-pink and green hyacinthus. The colony was awesome.
3. Red Planet
4. Blue Tenuis
5. Reefwise Blue Iris
6. Sarmentosa
Last but not least - I finally was able to get my hands on a Sherman RBT from @mdavis735 . I have been waiting for my LFS to come through for me but it wasn't happening. This is a beautiful speciman and I hope my clowns, when they find it, are as happy as I am to have her.
Now the hard part - letting things grow out and not buying any more frags for a while.
.
OP
OP
My daughter wanted a Mystery Wrasse and I've been looking for a decent deal. Saltwaterfish.com, as much as I don't care for the vendor, finally had one in and for only $85 with free shipping and I still had a credit with them from a DOA when I first tried them. The fish came in healthy. The 10 Narcissus snails I also ordered however, came in as 6 snails and 4 hermits. . . it was funny when the "snails" scampered off on legs after dropping them in the tank - until I remembered I paid for shipped snails, not crabs!
Anyway - my daughter has named our newest addition "VooDoo" because he reminds her of Mardis Gras:
Anyway - my daughter has named our newest addition "VooDoo" because he reminds her of Mardis Gras:
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