ps2cho Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Thanks I am pretty happy with it. At first I felt like the left island was far too big, but when I got the T5's installed it wasn't quite as bad as gives me an opportunity to put lower light corals on the lower regions out of the heavy PAR. Got all the sump, plumbing and apex unit installed today. Took all day....but its done! Running a Bean Animal plumbing design for safety. Also did an 85% water change. With the introduction of the sump, I plan to give it another week before I start moving fish over from the 60G. Ammonia is definitley zero (compared test tubes with my main tank). Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 Well late last night I was trimming the excess branches off my birdsnest and figured why not throw it into the new tank and see what happens lol. If the birdsnest frag survives it's probably ready for the first fish! Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 17, 2015 Author Share Posted November 17, 2015 With the move of my stand to the other side of the room, running an ethernet cord was going to be difficult so I installed a Netgear WNCE2001 wireless adapter. Worked great for $22 on amazon (refurb but looks brand new). Was stupid easy since I already had the networking on the apex done hardwire first. I literally plugged the adapter into my laptop, ran the browser setup, entered my wifi login, then plugged it into the apex and worked without doing anything else. Logged right into the apex and worked like it did on ethernet. PS: birdsnest still alive since last night Getting fragged and no acclimation just dumped right in on the sandbed haha. Also ordered my clean up crew from ReefCleaners. I just picked the 10gal as I keep ordering smaller and I swear I get the same size. I don't have any diatoms yet or anything, but I expect they will show up soon, so by time I get the CUC which should be by the end of the week I won't be far off. There seems to still be plenty of stuff on the Pukani they can munch on. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 Diatoms! Came home to them today That is awesome. Diatoms at day 19! Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 This morning I managed to catch both clownfish with the net after about 15mins and transfer them over. The Royal Gramma is proving tough...I tried making a trap out of a bottle, but she wont fall for it. She hasn't eaten in about 36hrs so I am hoping I can try again later! I will be carefully monitoring the new tank for any signs of ammonia over the next week. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 Installed the Photon 24 today and lowered the T5's by about 1.5" as I think 11" was too high off the water line and when I installed the Photon24 they were above the LED which means one side wouldn't get coverage from the other bulb. Link to comment
PieMan2k Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Loving this tank build. Keep it up man! Link to comment
GtTap Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 How are you liking that light set up i pretty much have the same thing over my 75. i dont run the white LED though its just too yellow for me. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 I really like the lighting. Its very balanced. I run the Photon24 at 9" from the surface and it peaks at 40% on both the white and blue channels. I might bump it as time goes on, but for now its working. Everything so far is running smooth. Diatoms bloomed heavy a few days ago and I picked up 4 Turbo snails, about 10 hermits and a 10gal reefcleaners crew and they are working hard on the algae! Ammonia went up to about 0.25 with the two full sized clowns, but after 2 days it went back down to zero. This weekend I will get the 60G tank fully shut down and move the remaining corals and royal gramma over. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 12/3/15: Been up for 1 month and 2 days. I lost a few of the red planet corals I had fragged, but everything else seems to be hanging on. Tank stats: 1.026 77F 9.0 dkH 390 Ca 0.10 po4 10 nitrates Going to do a series of water changes and get the nitrates down to about 5ppm and leave it there for a while. Other than that, for only being one month old, I already have a TON of copepods that are all over the glass eating the algae. Since I started with dry rock, I assume they came from the live sand and maybe a few from the corals, but either way a great sign. I got a cheap iphone macro/wide lens from ebay for $5 so here's a quick photo just screwing around with it. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 12/10/15: The population of copepods and other critters seems to be exploding fast, I couldn't even wipe any face of the glass without murdering hundreds! Must be a great sign for just over a month. Algae seems to be picking up, although the snails and hermits are keeping a good hold on it. dkH dropped to 8.0 from 9.0 last week, so might need to dose a little to keep up with the corals. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 12/21/15: 1.025 7.7 dkH 375 Ca (bumping to 400 slowly) Undetectable NO3 Undetectable PO4 Everything is cruising... Algae is growing heavily in the refug and yesterday I removed it all from the walls, and sucked it out with the siphon. I assume all the NO3 and PO4 is being bound up by the algae. I ordered some new coral glue, and I will be finally mounting all of the transferred frags in the next week so there will be something to view. I haven't experienced any losses other than from the first few days with the pickiest SPS (in a BRAND new tank with nothing from the old tank coming over)....so I think all-in-all not a bad job! Will post pics once all the corals are glued in their new spots. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 23, 2015 Author Share Posted December 23, 2015 Got my glue in! Started placing some pieces and took a FTS. I think its time to start logging the tank with photos now...! December 22nd, 2015: Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 10g QT has been running for 3 weeks now and today I bought a 1" Juvenile Kole Tang Loved my old one until he mysteriously died in my old tank when I came home from a 3 day trip (Apex said no tank issues...so idk). He was my favorite by far. I'll post some photos later. Keeping the lights off to let him acclimate and I will try to feed tonight. The local store said they were feeding him Garlic soaked Spirulina Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Here he is! I moved my thermometer from the refugium and it was covered in brown algae...came back today and its gone. He ate it all! Good sign I would say! Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 12/30/15: 77F 1.025 8.4 dkH 410 Ca 0.00 NO3 0.04 PO4 So my nitrates seemed to have completely gone undetectable and its paling out my corals. I picked up some Stump Remover (KNO3) last night from Lowes for $7. I had a 350mL container, so I added 28 grams and for my 50gal total water volume, it should raise my NO3 by 0.25 per 1mL. Dosed it last night and this morning still zero nitrates. Dosed another 4mL's and will test after I get back from work and see if its detectable or not. Not sure if its getting eaten right away or not. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Well looks like I have a bad Salifert Mg kit...Keeps reading 2200ppm mg. Did it twice...It goes through 1.4mL of reagent before it turns blue LOL. Got a new Red Sea kit in and now it reads 1300ppm. Much better. Just checked my NO3 again, still zero. I dosed what should be 2ppm worth of KNO3. Will check in 1hrs time since there's no way it will be uptaken that fast, so hopefully I get a reading. Kole Tang also gobbled up my algae pellets soaked in Selcon and Garlic. Gonna make him very fat and healthy. No signs of any diseases yet, but I am keeping him in QT for a FULL 6 WEEKS. I've had my other fish for 2-3 years now and there's no way I am losing them to a disease from the LFS. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 Ohhhhh here we go! I got my 10mm Meike extension tube for my Sony A5000 camera. WHAT a difference in being able take Macro shots. Night and day difference for only $18!! This is with the regular stock 15-50mm lens. As you can see, some of the SPS are pretty pissed off..I am hoping its from the zero nitrates Link to comment
ps2cho Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 Guys check out what I just won!! Crazy price... http://www.ebay.com/itm/272087658503 Drool ! Now I finally have a frag tank Well what I plan to do, is use it as a general quarantine tank that runs 24/7 for both Fish and Corals, BUT if I see that a fish has any signs of disease, I will transfer it to a 10gal where I dose medications so there is no issues with corals. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 Here come the nasties...starting to get covered in a carpet of brown hair algae. I've ordered a top up of my clean up crew, but I think if I remember from my old tank I kept doing water changes and it just prolonged it. When I stopped trying to combat it by going crazy it sorted itself out. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 Rough last 45 days...Lost a bunch of corals...Been fighting the brown hair algae and brown carpet algae that has covered the tank. I QT'd a Kole Tang for 6 weeks and has been in the DT for about 1 week now and is munching on a ton of algae which is great. Some of the long stringy brown hair algae is starting to subside and coral deaths have seemed to slow down. I believe its just not a great time for corals to be battling against everything. I will also be moving house in about 3-5 weeks time so I have to move the tank hence not too concerned about corals right now. Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Stay positive! Load up on algae eaters after you move the tank, think about some filtration upgrades since you'll be redoing the plumbing and tank. A refugium could help if you don't already have one, they're good at competing with the nuisance algae. Link to comment
ps2cho Posted April 10, 2016 Author Share Posted April 10, 2016 Haven't updated in a while. Currently moving house and the tank will be moving in the next week as the flooring is completed where it will go. All the algae and nasties have subsided and all parameters are finally stable. Shame I'll be shaking everything up with the move, but I'm sure it won't be too big of a deal. I'm not changing anything. Removing all the water and rock, but leaving the sandbed intact. After I give it a few months again to stabilize at the new house I'll start adding some new corals since everything looks like it's beginning to grow now instead of just survive lol Link to comment
ps2cho Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Tank move was successful. No losses and its been a week now. The Royal Gramma has some faded patches on her, but might have been just stress and not eating great for the days leading up to the move. I will watch carefully. Heres a pic of the rock structure. I removed a lot of the rock as it was far too big before. I am much happier and a ton more space for corals soon! Link to comment
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