Susan's Grand Adventure--125 Reef Build

[P-Dub]

Progress!

 

[mike550]

Okay, here are some before and after pictures. I spent several hours doing clean up. Goal is to spend at least 15 min each day doing some more: soak a powerhead, pull more algae, etc. Tested after a water change

Nitrate Red....
alk 11.7 very happy as it has been more like 6. I'll test again in a couple days to be sure
mg 1320
ca 340. A bit low. All in all, not bad numbers.
ran out of phos test.

Ordered more pods, some macro algae and stuff from algae barn. Their refugium kit and some extra macro to help with nutrients. Also need to change my rodi filters. Have 1 so will do tomorrow. getting 2ppm so that doesn't help with algae

Also cleaned the 40 gal qt and half filled. Need to put the skimmer and pump back in and finish that one tomorrow. Used tank water, some live rock and a couple pieces not alive now. Dry.

going to lfs tomorrow. Need sand sifter and maybe some tangs to maybe attack algae. And more clean up crew. Have lots of pods coming. from person here on r2r as well.

Before cleanning today

After several hours

There you go! Small steps over time! Plus you’re way ahead because you know what you’re doing!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Progress is good! Keep up the good work!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Went out and bought some new stock. Don't remember all the coral names lol's. Hit 3 fs's. No QT as the red sea max e170 has a leaking bulkhead so have to fix that.

I added my tangs. Goal was to put in 3 yellows and 2 others. So I have 3 yellows, 1 kole, 1 convict. Fish store said a foxface would help with algae, so have one of those and a small goby. Also have a short spine tuxedo urchin.

Corals, I have a christmas rock with a big hairy mushroom on it, a long tentacle gonapora, 2 chalices I think? Not sure. A duncan (I had a 30 plus head!), and 2 zoas and a brown sps stick. Nice to see a bit of color in my tank now. Before it was green or whitish blue fish! Very blah

I'll do another water change this week, do my testing and deal with a bit of algae each day. And order a clean up crew. Pictures taken lights lowered for new stock

christmas rock with green mushroom, gonepora

I think 2 chalices

duncan

zoa

.
zoa

 

[Bronc]

Looks like you are on the road to recovery! Sorry for all of the challenges that life has thrown your way lately!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Okay, making progress.

• Parameters doing better except no3 and ph-04. Working on those. Alk at 10.1, Ca still needs up. It's 340. Ordered a refugium package from algae barn--pods, macro algaes and marine pure blocks and have added phosguard and the purigen blue pouch. Also Algone for the no3
• weeded more algae
• Got a few more clean up crew. Need a ton more. Not sure why I didn't order more!
• Moved the lepto off the sand (high flow) but still low, and lower flow. Favia seems happy there but I'd like it off the sand so will move up a bit in same area. Need to see what they like. Duncan happy with feedings. Not glued in but if it is happy there I will glue it in. Goniapora seems okay. need to research.
• Need to redo my light schedule and see why it's not working. doing manually right now.
• I redid my middle section. The leather was spread over 2 rocks and almost laying on sand as it was too heavy to stand. In trying to rework that area, it came off the one rock (stem grown onto it) and the bottom also came off so I reglued it--barely hanging on as it is so dang heavy. I put it on top of another rock and braced with other rock. My goal is to raise it higher in tank after it is a bit more settled on the rock. It will take two people to do. I hope I didn't kill it but I was not happy with where it was. It came out of my 66 gal and was so big, that was the only spot. Sort of ruined my "centerpiece rock" which is shoved to the back! The clowns host it and they were not happy with me... Mean suckers...

Almost ready to fill the qt tank (rs e170 40 gal aio). Had to seal up a couple leaks. Hoping it holds so I can do tomorrow. Have a garbage can with powerhead and heater of water change water I wanted to use to cycle faster.

Plan to do another water change on Friday and use that water as well with some live rock to get it cycled. Package from Algae barn included bottle bacteria. Will use that, and then dump rest into this tank.

New rock set up in center with big leather. Lights down low

goniapora. Need to see if this is too much flow. Gets back and forth flow

I think this is a favia. lots of feeding tentacles out so much like the spot

Happy duncan. Feeding some coral pellets and it likes

Lepto. Moved out of so much flow but still low light, though it does get some sunlight there. Might have to move

 

[mike550]

Okay, making progress.

• Parameters doing better except no3 and ph-04. Working on those. Alk at 10.1, Ca still needs up. It's 340. Ordered a refugium package from algae barn--pods, macro algaes and marine pure blocks and have added phosguard and the purigen blue pouch. Also Algone for the no3
• weeded more algae
• Got a few more clean up crew. Need a ton more. Not sure why I didn't order more!
• Moved the lepto off the sand (high flow) but still low, and lower flow. Favia seems happy there but I'd like it off the sand so will move up a bit in same area. Need to see what they like. Duncan happy with feedings. Not glued in but if it is happy there I will glue it in. Goniapora seems okay. need to research.
• Need to redo my light schedule and see why it's not working. doing manually right now.
• I redid my middle section. The leather was spread over 2 rocks and almost laying on sand as it was too heavy to stand. In trying to rework that area, it came off the one rock (stem grown onto it) and the bottom also came off so I reglued it--barely hanging on as it is so dang heavy. I put it on top of another rock and braced with other rock. My goal is to raise it higher in tank after it is a bit more settled on the rock. It will take two people to do. I hope I didn't kill it but I was not happy with where it was. It came out of my 66 gal and was so big, that was the only spot. Sort of ruined my "centerpiece rock" which is shoved to the back! The clowns host it and they were not happy with me... Mean suckers...

Almost ready to fill the qt tank (rs e170 40 gal aio). Had to seal up a couple leaks. Hoping it holds so I can do tomorrow. Have a garbage can with powerhead and heater of water change water I wanted to use to cycle faster.

Plan to do another water change on Friday and use that water as well with some live rock to get it cycled. Package from Algae barn included bottle bacteria. Will use that, and then dump rest into this tank.

New rock set up in center with big leather. Lights down low

goniapora. Need to see if this is too much flow. Gets back and forth flow

I think this is a favia. lots of feeding tentacles out so much like the spot

Happy duncan. Feeding some coral pellets and it likes

Lepto. Moved out of so much flow but still low light, though it does get some sunlight there. Might have to move

Wow! Looks like and sounds like you’re off to a great start! Thanks for sharing your progress!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Wow! Looks like and sounds like you’re off to a great start! Thanks for sharing your progress!

I noticed that when I had to stop coming here, I wasn't doing as well with the tank. Of course, that was life happening. My goal is to spend a bit of time here daily or at least every couple days. It helps!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Progress report: Had planned to go to lfs today to get 2 more yellow tangs to replace the 1 that poofed in my system. Except now my work hours were changed for today so can't go (wah). So next weekend I hope as I don't want the 2 yellows to fight the 2 new yellows (give me 6 tangs total).

Still working on numbers. Ca still 340, alk at 9 and mg 1200-1300. Po4 super high. It keeps getting higher! No3 high still. As soon as I get everything dialed in, I'll hook up my doser unit. Did a water change yesterday. Prob. 15-20 gal. Saved the water for the qt tank.

All new fish doing well. Only lost 1 the first night a week ago

Corals not so much. My lovely pc of goniopora not extending. Tried a couple places, it was worse, put back on floor. Favia and lepto I'm not seeing feeding tentacles out. zoas okay. Trying to get po4 and no3 down.

I realize in rebooting I'm going to lose corals until I get balanced again. Also looking at my lights of white and blue (current marine orbit ic pro). Have blue 100, red 10, green 5 and white 60. Maybe the new corals need more white? Maybe too much? I don't want to lose my new guys... Am even debating putting them in my QT tank which I hope to fill today with water change water from main display but afraid that will stress them even more.

(sigh)

Current fish load in 125 (140-150 gal with 35 gal sump but not sure how much rock for exact vol)
5 staghorn damsels
1 bl/grn chromis
3 clowns
1 barber shop goby w/pistol shrimp
1 flame hawk fish
1 new small goby-have to look up name
2 yellow tangs
1 convict tang
1 kole tang
1 yellow tail damsel
1 lawnmower blenny

Want to add back in the following
gold head sand sifter or other goby--larger to do sand bed
some anthias and or wrasses
bio colored blenny
royal gramma

hoping not too much for my system!

 

[Susan Edwards]

So I went back a few pages and it's rather sad to see pics of what I lost! Almost think I should just start a new build!! Ah well. Trying to get a list of current corals.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Current corals:
White Tipped leathers: Several. Not looking all that good. Hoping they recover fully
ricordias-2-3 patches growing and doing well. These came from my first tank and are survivors
gsp-
blue toadstool-huge
Rhodactus muchrooms-multiplying and spreading. Were on rock from old system
orange mushrooms from original tank. First corals I had. also survivors
2 types of big zoas.

New Corals
Lepto
Favia
Goniopora
2 new zoas

 

[Susan Edwards]

Update
I'm not sure why but my po4 is super high. First test done toward end of Jan it was 2.0. Then it jumped up to .5! I've added some gfo, and 2 bags of phosguard and it is now 4.1 The only thing I've added is some algone. The sump has purigen, purigen blue, carbon, phosguard, algone, live rock, marine pure blocks and bags of other bio beads/rocks. Also some macro algaes. I have no idea why is spiked. No new rock in tank. Even tried rinsing frozen food. No difference so not going to do that. From what I read it makes so little difference as to not be worth it. I use ketchup squeeze bottles to thaw enough food for a day or 2 and squirt it in

no3 still way high. It's red....
ca 320-340 upping doses to 2x's day
mg 1350
alk 8-10 Need to dose some each day now
po4 0.4

going to get my doser set up this week I hope but want to get tank up where I want it first so ca has to come up

Lost my little goby. He got caught in powerhead
Tangs all doing well

New corals not happy. Leaving them alone for now. working on po4 and no3.

Trying to figure out new lighting. Blues 100, whites 50, green 10, red 40

Going to get some more algae out today and tomorrow and blow sand bed and fight my mean jerks of clowns who will attack my hands... Have to use a net between them and me. Last time I scooped one up in the net to keep him away from me.

this weekend may visit some lfs in sacramento area.

My plans to order from LA is on hold. The QT tank (they have to have proof of death for their warranty which means they need to be kept separate for 14 days) is still leaking. It's a RS Max E170 and the leaks are from the bulkheads in the aio sump (to add a sump below) so we either have to rtv the inside on top of the bulk heads or take apart and replace seals. We tried to rtv the bottom where it was leaking.

 

[Susan Edwards]

So I just took the same test bottle, used some new tank water for the c-1 part, then retested the same bottle that said .41 earlier, and now it reads .25 what is going on!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Okay, so I'm an idiot. I realized I'd added 3 new rocks when I dealt with the huge toadstool that was laying on 2 rocks and taking up the entire middle. It didn't look good so I ended up righting it upright more, regluing it to 1 rock and raising it up. Because its so heavy, I couldn't get another rock under it without another pair of hands so braced it with another rock and have another there to put under after it grows onto it's base a bit more.

So that is where some of my high numbers is coming from. The rock was in my other tank and then put in a garbage can outside. It's lost all it's coraline algae and has bleached. So prob. nitrates and po4 from that! Although my nitrates are always high...

Po4 has come down to 2,7. added some marine pure elite and some fluval stuff for phos and nitrate as well. Sump full of stuff for Po4!

ca is up to 340-360
mg 1200-1350
alk 8-9

 

[Susan Edwards]

Here is my week update:

Holding off on corals until my numbers are more stable. Goni not extending still. Not sure if I should move it up higher. In lower 1/3. Have lights at bl 100, wh 45, red 45 gr 5 or 10. Not sure if I need more. Less white, more white ect.

Ordered some fish from LA. QT tank not ready--has to be worked on--built in bulkheads for adding a sump are leaking (AIO tank). So fish have to go into tank which means if they die, I won't get the 14 day warranty as I most likely won't have a body to photograph.

Ordered 2 firefish, diamond watchman, coral beauty (my dream fish-taking a chance), royal gramma. Need to move some palys off the sand onto a rock with the goby so they don't get buried. Hoping the goby will help with nitrate/debris removal.

Also have more clean up crew arriving tomorrow. Plan to do water change over weekend and work on removing more algae.

Haven't seen my urchin in a while. Hope it's still there somewhere. I am really enjoying the tangs and foxface.

Fish in system with new fish
2 yellow tangs
1 kole tang
1 convict tang
1 foxface
6 staghorn damsels
1 yellow tail damsel
1 blue-green chromis
1 barber shop goby with pistol shrimp
1 flame hawkfish
1 green mandarin
1 lawnmower blenny
New Fish
2 Royal Gramma
coral beauty
2 fire fish

 

[Susan Edwards]

Bummer, the diamond watchman was doa. The 2 royal grammas and 2 firefish (thought it was 1 or ea) and coral beauty all doing well.

My goni seems happier up at the top of the tank. Not fully extended but showing life at least. I also wiped the lights. Not sure if I should turn whites up to 50%. At 40 now. Blue 100. Green 7. Red 40

Tank looks better with more fish finally. Now to get rest settled for corals. Started vodka dosing and have rowphos if needed

Tank

 

[Susan Edwards]

Update: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Okay not as bad as that. But today started off UGLY! Got in an order of clean up crew, got them in, and did some more algae pulling. The middle light bracket was loose and the spacer behind for the screws to tighten fell into the tank. Way back. Tried to get. Lost it. Then the one on the right did the same thing. Now I had a light almost in the water! and no one else here to help me. Propped the light up, ran to the garage for some plastic scraps (hubby is a machinist). Managed to get the spacer for the right. Got it in and screws tightened. Middle took some fussing to do and those dang clowns kept attacking my hands as I'm trying to tighten the screws and hold the spacer in place. More bites on my hand...

The bad and a bit ugly: Then while I'm up there messing around, I see a flash of orange in my overflow! My missing clown, the one I thought had died, is in the overflow! Been there at least a couple months I bet. No clue how to get him out. Good as I now know where he is...

The good: Calcium levels up to 400. Everything else okay. Alk goes from 7-8 or 9. Need to get my doser set up.
The bad: No3 and Po4 still high
Algae still nasty but maybe a tad better

I'm thinking that the hanna powder is not good. readings from 2 to 3 or higher. I can test the same vial with the same tank water in another vial and 2 hours later it is lower. I'm frustrated as not even in a brand new tank have I had readings so high.

Fish: Lost the convict tang. Found him stuck to a power head. Others all doing well. Clowns nastier as ever...

The goni is recovering. I noticed that the top was showing tentacles but not the sides so I moved it up. Almost as high as it can go in my tank. And each day it got better. I've been turning my whites up each day or two. I'm up to 63 on whites and it's looking really nice. Some of the polyps are nice and long and feeding tentacles showing. Have flow that surges. Seems happy. Did adjust some of the heads so the duncan had more flow.

This shows I think that I am going to need better lights at some point. I don't want to lower the lights as then I can't get in and do work. I don't want to have them on the light stands right on the tank in case the cats jump up and the lights fall in. So I need better lights.

So we are limping along. Tomorrow after lights on I'll post my goni

 

[ReeferSteve]

Not trying to be rude when I say this but why do you continue to add livestock when your system isn’t stable? It also seems you still don’t have any method of QT and your stock list is getting quite crowded in my opinion.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Not trying to be rude when I say this but why do you continue to add livestock when your system isn’t stable? It also seems you still don’t have any method of QT and your stock list is getting quite crowded in my opinion.

I have had no trouble with fish. My fish have all been healthy and growing. Before adding the new fish, I hadn't added any in well over a year. My fish have been stable for the last year. I lost some after an incident with paint primer fumes a year ago that crashed my tanks. Have not lost any fish since then nor have I added any, though I have one mandarin I have not seen in a long time, so that fish may be gone. Tank was neglected for the last year due to life issues.

Out of 2 batches of recently added fish in the last month, one batch from lfs and one from an online order, I lost 2 fish from the lfs. The small goby was found on a powerhead. No idea if it died or got caught. The convict tang prob. died but could have gotten stuck. No idea. No one acted sick.

Right now I don't have a QT. I have an aio tank with leaking bulkheads so can't use it. I like @Paul B 's method and do believe QT just stresses fish out more. And I have never medicated without a reason. Don't believe in that either. I plan to QT from online orders for the warrenty period only because you have to have proof of death but there is no 14 day guarantee local, so I don't qt there. Yeah, it's a risk, yeah I've had mv, but honestly, I've lost more fish in QT than from just adding to my tank.

Where my tank is not stable is for corals, and I'm thinking that is a lot more to do with lights. The softies are coming back nicely--some never showed any signs of neglect and I've had since the beginning in another tank and moved over. The goni I think was a light issue and I've solved that.

I've started dosing vodka as I do feed heavy but all my tanks have always been high no 3. The high po4 I'm questioning as possible bad batch of powder. Won't know until I order more.

So tank is getting more stable for corals. I may try to remove some of the staghorn damsels to trade in as there are more fish I want--to replace those I lost to the crash. The staghorns were sent by error from online and I was stuck with those. Not fish I wanted.

I'll be doing a large water change here as soon as I can. Have some deadlines coming up so life again!