Zibba's Reefs -- ADA 90P & Envision 100g

[zibba]

speak with Jeremy over at PremAquatics. I was originally gonna go for the SRO 3000 INT but he said that the SRO 2000 INT would be more efficient for my tank size. so far, I'm very very happy with the SRO 2000 INT's performance. whatever you think will give yah the best flow, do it. sometimes, it'll be trial and error but I'm sure you'll get it situated in time.

Alright, will do. I've had good experiences with Premium Aquatics in the past. It's nice to have companies that are looking out for what's best for the aquarist -- good customer service can be hard to find.

re: flow...from my past experiences I definitely agree that it's trial and error. I've gone through several different pumps and wavemakers in the past, it's a fun part about this hobby!

 

[zibba]

Just a mini update. I added a few shrimp to start the cycle last night:

And, while I was at it, I figured I'd make something for myself:

I also picked up a few Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to help clean the acrylic:

Thanks to this thread and this thread for the tips! Tested it out on a small section near the back left panel -- worked like a charm.

Rocks for the Envision are scheduled to arrive on the 20th so it looks like I'll be aquascaping over Thanksgiving.

 

[zibba]

Well I thought I was going to be aquascaping over the Thanksgiving weekend but the rocks from the ReefRocks order came in early on Saturday morning, so I decided to get right to it. First off, I have to say that my experience with ReefRocks was awesome. I had an issue with getting the payment to go through online so the owner, Steve, called me and fixed the problem within just a few minutes. Then he asked if there was anything in particular structures I was trying to create so he could pick out the best rocks for it job. I sent him a bunch of pictures that I had pilfered from this site and other forums. There was a slight delay in the shipment going out, but it really wasn't an issue because I had so many other things to finish on the tank before rocks went in.

I ordered 50-lbs of rock and 80-lbs of sand -- his prices are amazing. I didn't actually weigh the rock that I got in, but I only ended up using about 2/3rds of it and the rest is in the sump/refugium. I'm really satisfied with the rock and sand. The rock is super easy to drill through with a masonry bit too. I swished these rocks in freshwater to get some of the stuff off and let them dry in the sun. I didn't rinse the sand and, IMO, it isn't necessary. There were some small shells in it, but otherwise a good consistency.

I had some other rock that I gave an acid bath to this past spring, so it's kind of a mix of that rock and the ReefRocks. Here's a shot of the Reefrocks:

My helper holding up the rock for a closer inspection:

Here's what I came up with. But I'm definitely open to comments and other thoughts. The tank is still cloudy, but it's slowly clearing up:

Right side:

Left side:

Here are some updated shots of the ADA with sand:

 

[MarvinsReef]

I like it! less is more to me. :wink:

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I love the rock work since it's simplistic.

 

[zibba]

I like it! less is more to me. :wink:

I love the rock work since it's simplistic.

Thanks Marvin & Krista! I want to have plenty of room for corals to grow out, but I'm not sure if I took it too far. I guess there's nothing stopping me from adding more rock in later. I think it's easier to add more rock in vs. taking it out.

 

[MarvinsReef]

Thanks Marvin & Krista! I want to have plenty of room for corals to grow out, but I'm not sure if I took it too far. I guess there's nothing stopping me from adding more rock in later. I think it's easier to add more rock in vs. taking it out.

I don't think you did. It'll fill up once you start putting corals in place. I would suggest imagining what mature corals will look like when placing corals. Following along...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zibba]

I don't think you did. It'll fill up once you start putting corals in place. I would suggest imagining what mature corals will look like when placing corals. Following along...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm imagining some larger stags on the back rocks and smaller tabling acros up front with a few select lps on the very front rocks and sides where there's less light and flow. That's the plan anyway! Things change. I'd like to keep the ADA more of a softy/lps tank but I like SPS so much that it's going to be hard to stay way.

 

[zibba]

I took advantage of Premium Aquatics great pre-Thanksgiving sale and got a few new toys:

Tunze Osmolator 3155

Set up was pretty straight forward, except the pump is really noisy. I've read that these can be a little loud at first so I'm hoping it quiets down over time. I need to redo my ATO top off container too. Right now I'm using a 20g High tank that was previously used as a sump. I'm going to swap that out for a new 29-gallon so that I have more volume. I'll take pictures of that set up once everything is done.

The level controllers are really accurate though and keeping my water levels perfectly in-line.

 

[zibba]

I had a Neptune Aquacontroller Jr. on my old 90-gallon tank and it was great. Customer service was really good too, so I decide to stick with them this go-round. I was going back and forth between the Apex vs. Apex Lite and decided on the Apex because I'd like to add a calcium reactor down the road and I'm going to be switching over to Tunze's in the Envision -- the Apex can do all of this without buying any new add-ons.

The pH probe is on backorder and Premium Aquatics said they should ship out this week. Took me a little bit to figure out how to program things, but it's starting to make sense. I haven't gotten it connected to the internet yet though because my router is in another room on the opposite side of the house. I've seen people recommending the Netgear wireless adaptor. If anyone has experience with this or can suggest another solution, that would be great!

I'm going to pick up some more sand and a few things for my QT tank this afternoon. I also need to pick up some Ammonia/nitrate test kits to see where I'm at in my cycle. I put in the shrimp 8-days ago, so it's probably close to time for a water change.

 

[zibba]

I was getting bare spots with just the 40lbs of ReefRocks sand so I picked up 40lbs of Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade sand this afternoon. There's going to be a lot of flow in this tank so I ended up going with this larger grain sand even thought I prefer the look of smaller grain sand. I ended up with about 30lbs to the display but things are really cloudy so I didn't take any pictures. Once it clears up I'll move it around a little by hand so that there's more in the back of the tank and less up front to help create an illusion that the tank is deeper. In hindsight, this sand probably should have been rinsed a few times. It's going to take awhile to clear up.


I also added about 10-15lbs of Fiji Pink sand to the refugium. This creates a 4-6" sand bed. This will be new for me since I've never really used a deep sandbed. If there's an issue, I can just siphon it out.


Here's the sand I used:

I also picked up a cheap test kit for ammonia and nitrite/nitrate so see where I'm at. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on these kits because I won't use them that often. But, like everything, you get what you pay for. Here's the test results:

Not precise at all, but at least I know that the cycle is just starting. I'm actually surprised that the nitrite and nitrate levels are still zero since I added the shrimp 8-days ago.




Finally, I picked up some stuff to get my QT ready:

It's going to be a simple set up, which includes a 50-breeder (essentially a tall 40-breeder) that I picked up last spring, an aquaclear, a heater, and a maxi-1200 with the "mod" for some added flow. No light for now -- just the ambient light and a few lamps from the room that I'll turn on when checking out the fish.

 

[zibba]

Picked up some live copepods yesterday and a little "Reefstew" to help start the pod population.


Not the best pictures because they were in a rounded container, but here are some pictures and a short video of these dudes cruising around:

 

[thereefroom]

Looks like its going to be awesome.

 

[zibba]

Looks like its going to be awesome.

Thanks! Slowly, but surely, things are coming together. The QT is ready to go so I'm likely going to pick up some fish in the next week so that they'll be ready to add to the main display once the cycle is complete. I haven't decided what the first fish will be. I'd like to do a school of Red Stoplight Cardinals (Fowleria flammea) or Green Chromis. I took a tour of the local fish stores yesterday and neither have these in stock. I haven't seen the cardinals in-stock online anywhere either, so I was leaning towards the Chromis. But I know that they typically pick each other off so I'm thinking about adding a school of these down the road instead to allow the corals to grow out so that there's more hiding places. I've thought about adding 5-8 Azure (Kupang) Damels too, however, I'm hesitant for the same reasons. There was a really nice melanarius wrasse at one of the stores and some nice looking flame angels.

 

[zibba]

Ammonia levels are staying about the same:

 

[MyReefLiving]

very nice dude.

 

[MarvinsReef]

Thanks! Slowly, but surely, things are coming together. The QT is ready to go so I'm likely going to pick up some fish in the next week so that they'll be ready to add to the main display once the cycle is complete. I haven't decided what the first fish will be. I'd like to do a school of Red Stoplight Cardinals (Fowleria flammea) or Green Chromis. I took a tour of the local fish stores yesterday and neither have these in stock. I haven't seen the cardinals in-stock online anywhere either, so I was leaning towards the Chromis. But I know that they typically pick each other off so I'm thinking about adding a school of these down the road instead to allow the corals to grow out so that there's more hiding places. I've thought about adding 5-8 Azure (Kupang) Damels too, however, I'm hesitant for the same reasons. There was a really nice melanarius wrasse at one of the stores and some nice looking flame angels.

I was in need of some blue fish and went for 5 Azure damsels. two of them paired off. one pair still lays eggs consistently. the 5 of them co existed okay with the occasional chasing around but nothing to really worry about. I really think that if you have a bigger fish that keeps the peace between them, they'll be alright. my peacekeeper is a female Lyretail. once the Azure's get the urge to chase each other, the Lyretail cuts them off right away. I took out the 5th wheel and kept the two pairs. I was thinking about the blue green Chromis too but have read the same about sooner or later just having a few left out of a bunch. I think the magic number is over 10 to start out with those. I went with the Azure since they have bright colors and were suppose to be pretty good with each other. my experience has been good so far. the only thing is I wished they moved much more like the chromis. they seem to hang out in a few spots and stay there unless it's feeding time. either way, good luck with your choice. the QT set up looks good and should provide ample space for any fish you'll put in both tanks. I wished I had the luxury of having a QT.

 

[zibba]

very nice dude.

Thanks! I checked out a few of your videos, nice tank yourself!

I was in need of some blue fish and went for 5 Azure damsels. two of them paired off. one pair still lays eggs consistently. the 5 of them co existed okay with the occasional chasing around but nothing to really worry about. I really think that if you have a bigger fish that keeps the peace between them, they'll be alright. my peacekeeper is a female Lyretail. once the Azure's get the urge to chase each other, the Lyretail cuts them off right away. I took out the 5th wheel and kept the two pairs. I was thinking about the blue green Chromis too but have read the same about sooner or later just having a few left out of a bunch. I think the magic number is over 10 to start out with those. I went with the Azure since they have bright colors and were suppose to be pretty good with each other. my experience has been good so far. the only thing is I wished they moved much more like the chromis. they seem to hang out in a few spots and stay there unless it's feeding time. either way, good luck with your choice. the QT set up looks good and should provide ample space for any fish you'll put in both tanks. I wished I had the luxury of having a QT.

Great info, thanks for the info on the Azures. Maybe I'll hold off on adding a the azures or chromis until I add a few bigger fish. I really like anthias, dwarf angels and wrasses too, so hopefully one of those fish will slide into the same peacekeeper role that your female Lyretail is fulfilling.

It's nice to have a little extra space to set up a qt. It's set up in a spare bedroom, which is also holding some extra RO/DI water and my salt storage bins until I get everything cleaned up and put away. Speaking of that, I forgot to shut off the RO/DI filter last night and woke up with at least 10-gallons on my floor. At least it's Spanish-tile and was easy to clean up...but I'm going to need to drain the QT and dry out behind/under the stand because water spilled back there too. Note to self, order float valves!

 

[MarvinsReef]

Great info, thanks for the info on the Azures. Maybe I'll hold off on adding a the azures or chromis until I add a few bigger fish. I really like anthias, dwarf angels and wrasses too, so hopefully one of those fish will slide into the same peacekeeper role that your female Lyretail is fulfilling.

It's nice to have a little extra space to set up a qt. It's set up in a spare bedroom, which is also holding some extra RO/DI water and my salt storage bins until I get everything cleaned up and put away. Speaking of that, I forgot to shut off the RO/DI filter last night and woke up with at least 10-gallons on my floor. At least it's Spanish-tile and was easy to clean up...but I'm going to need to drain the QT and dry out behind/under the stand because water spilled back there too. Note to self, order float valves!

oh, the joy of stocking a tank with fishes.

good luck with whatever you decide. keep us posted.

 

[zibba]

Things are starting to clear back up now that I've added the new layer of sand. Not much to look at except maybe a before/after comparison.

A local reefer gave me some used 250w halid bulbs that were collecting dust in his garage so I figured I'd throw them on during the cycle so I don't waste the life of the Radium. One of the bulbs looked like a brand new XM 15k, so I gave it a spin. Here's what it looked like with just the old ReefRocks sand and the 20k Radium (it was still pretty cloudy then too):

And, here's what it looks like now with the new, Caribsea Seafloor Special Grade sand over the ReefRocks sand and the XM 15k:

Even though nothing has changed with the ADA, here's a shot for good measure:

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the color on the Caribsea sand, but it will be much better at preventing sand storms. As you can see, the Envision doesn't have the MP40wes anymore...I sold it and will be replacing it with Tunze 6105s. I've only ordered one so far -- I want to buy the skimmer and light for the ADA before I buy the second -- but it's on back-order so I expect it will be another week or more. In the mean time, there are two Koralias and a MJ1200 with the mod in there for flow. Not pretty, but it works for the time being.