Wayne's 125g build

waynel · Jul 10, 2020

It's been about three weeks, and my tank completed cycling about 1 week ago. I received the rest of my cleanup crew yesterday (125 blue leg hermit crabs, ~60 astrea snails, 3 brittle stars, 3 peppermint shrimp, 6 cucumbers), and added some cheato to my sump. There was a delay in getting the cleanup crew due to weather, so I'm starting to get an excess of some green hair algea, and some read long haired algea (don't know the proper names). I'll try to remember to post up some pics tonight, but hoping the snails and crabs get to work on it.

waynel · Jul 10, 2020

Here’s some pics of the algae and other things. Algae or not, it’s exciting to watch everything progress.

najer · Jul 19, 2020

As soon as I saw your candyfloss algae pics I had to come and have a look, looking great.

Following.

waynel · Jul 19, 2020

najer said:
As soon as I saw your candyfloss algae pics I had to come and have a look, looking great.
Following.

Thank you

sp1187 · Jul 19, 2020

waynel said:
Will this work for the sump? I can't find anything on C&R Aquatics to see how they intended the layout of this sump.

Overflows in the far right. Return to the tank only. Not sure about the skimmer. Not running one personally.

Lol. Nvm.
Thought this was a new build.
I need more coffee.

waynel · Jul 19, 2020

sp1187 said:
Overflows in the far right. Return to the tank only. Not sure about the skimmer. Not running one personally.

Lol. Nvm.
Thought this was a new build.
I need more coffee.

Lol - No problem.

waynel · Jul 23, 2020

Short clip of my tank last night just before pulling some of the longer algae out. Expecting 2nd shipment of live rock this morning from tbs.

and a short video of my blenny:

waynel · Jul 24, 2020

Here's some update pictures after I added the second shipment of live rock. I now have approximately 225-250 lbs of live rock (had to put some in the sump, just too much rock in the display for me).

waynel · Jul 25, 2020

Can anyone help me ID these hitchhiker corals:

Is this a birds nest (the one toward the left at the top)?

It glows slightly green, my picture doesn't show it well, here it with my blue lights turned up:

And is the orange toward the center a sponge:

And what is the clear, shiny stuff in this picture:

najer · Jul 25, 2020

Google pavona for pic one, very nice sponge and not a clue about the blob.

waynel · Jul 28, 2020

I added a second ground probe (one each in sump and dt now) for safety. Also wired in my third 165w viparspectra light, so I now have three of those across my tank, controlled by my reef-pi (8 hrs of light, currently with a max of 15% white and 60% blue) about 8-10 inches from the surface of the water (best I can do with mounting them inside the hood). I also have the Current USA dual orbit marine leds strips also running about 8 hrs per day with the red/white/green turned down and all blue at night for "moon lights" up until about midnight, then all lights out.

I'll try to get an updated picture this evening.

Still to do: move one of my temp probes to the display tank (currently getting the room temp and sump). I'm also googling looking to see if anyone has found a way to control the current usa equipment from reef-pi - I'd love to have everything controlled from there. Also need to wire in a second float switch for my ATO for safety.

I'm not sure I'm feeding enough. I have a quite a bit of clean up crew, and my display tank is looking pretty clean at the present. I've moved about 6 snails and a few crabs to the sump because the sides were getting covered in gha in the sump. I have some live rock and chaeto in the sump, running the sump light (a LED grow light) about 6hrs a day currently. I have 4 cucumbers in the DT (came as part of the cuc), and they have been on the glass and rock more than the sand the last week. Maybe I need to feed more? I'm currently feeding once or twice per day, a few pinches of reef flakes, one dissolved cube of mysis, and about 1 tbl spoon of phytoplankton. I turn off the wave pumps and turn the return down to 30% while feeding for about ten minutes. My clean up crew consists of the 4 cucumbers, at least 3 brittle stars (i've seen quite a few baby stars as well), about 100 blue leg hermits, 60 astrea snails, 6 turbo snails, 2 emerald crabs, some other hitch hikers, 3 peppermint shrimp (although I can only find one at the present). I also have two clowns, one blue damsel, and one algae blenny that I'm supplement feeding nori 2 or 3 times a week.

waynel · Aug 3, 2020

Latest water parameters:
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
KH: 10
Calcium: 200
Phosphate: .25

waynel · Aug 20, 2020

Added a mandarin and royal gramma. Here's some new pictures, some of the hitchhikers are growing!

The mandarin:

waynel · Aug 25, 2020

A few more pictures. My most recent additions are a yellow tang and an anthias, and some zoanthids and one I'm not sure the name of (a type of plate coral, I think). My wife has been trying to catch some of the gorilla crabs while I'm away for work. I'm adding kalk to get my calcium up.