Cronic's 75g Reef (100% Biological Filtration)

[CronicReefer]

The cycle has started! Today I finished adding about 40lbs of live sand and dosed with 15mL of 10% ammonia solution to give the bacteria something to grow with. The tank has finally cleared up enough from the dust storm for a decent picture or two of the final aquascape. I would like to grow mostly SPS along the rock wall and shelves with some other corals mixed in between to add some movement. All that is left to do now is decide what types of fish I want to put in this tank with my clowns and dottyback. I was thinking maybe a coral beauty or a flame angel to start.

 

 

 

[PieMan2k]

Looks nice!

[drago55272]

Nice scape with lots of great locations for coral placement.

[CronicReefer]

Nice scape with lots of great locations for coral placement.

Hey thanks. I was trying to keep lots of swimming space for the fish but also allow SPS a lot of well lit areas.

[CronicReefer]

The lights are finally here! Not sure if I should switch out the bulbs for ATI or not but I like the color and it definitely seems more than bright enough. The cycle is about half way through I would say. I'm still seeing nitrites and nitrates are through the roof with just a small amount of ammonia from the initial dose. Hopefully in a week the tank will be ready for me to transfer my fish and some sand sifting critters to get the DSB stirred up some.

 

[CronicReefer]

Tested the ammonia this morning and we are finally at zero! I'm currently making enough water to do 90% or more water change and then I will be adding in my clownfish, some nassarius snails, and a couple corals. I will add my dottyback and lobster a few days after, mainly because I will have to remove all the rocks in my tank to get them, and I want to make sure things stay stable before I do that. I'm so excited to finally be able to start filling this new tank up with corals, good thing it's tax return season .

[Ephemeral]

Have nitrite and nitrate bottomed out as well?

[CronicReefer]

Have nitrite and nitrate bottomed out as well?

Nitrite are zero as well, and nitrates are through the roof which I would expect after the amount of ammonia I started with, hence the water change. I'm going to continue dosing 15mL/day of Microbacter7 for the next week and then cut back to 5ml/week after that.

[PieMan2k]

I would wait to move your livestock over until your nitrates are 0. Could kill your lovestock.

[CronicReefer]

I would wait to move your livestock over until your nitrates are 0. Could kill your lovestock.

It's currently somewhere between 20-50 on the Red Sea test, so it could be worse, but I'm going to do a 90% water change to bring the nitrates down to under 5 and just to provide a fresh environment.

[CronicReefer]

Added the first inhabitants to the tank today along with a bag of chemi-pure blue. Five babylonian snails and two nassarius vibex to get the sand bed stirred up. I've also started getting some diatom growth in the sand bed so hopefully that will die off once all the silicates are gone. Going to place an order with reefcleaners as well to get some other snails and some simple macroalgae for the refugium. I'll be starting to transfer things from my old tank over the next week or two as I'm starting school tomorrow and won't have much free time except for my days off from work.

[CronicReefer]

Picked up a few more members for the clean up crew from the LFS today. Got four banded trochus and a fighting conch. I also added some asterina starfish from my original tank and a ricordea florida to make sure there is nothing in the water I don't test for that might affect my corals. If everything is looking good over the next few days I'll start transferring over live rock from my original tank. Took some pictures today as well of the new inhabitants. My trochus immediately started spawning after I put them in the tank, was quite unusual but I'm glad to see they acclimated so easily.

 

 

 

 

[CronicReefer]

Moved over the warpaint scoly. I got this guy for $50 when it was about 2" across and now it is close to 4" across. Lots of meaty food helps these things recover very well. It has even started showing some specks of green which will make the 4th color on the scoly (orange, blue, white, green).

 

 

Added some more ricordea from the old tank and finally the conch isn't scared of me approaching the glass anymore so I could take a decent picture of him. He's doing his best to clean up the diatoms but I'm going to get a bunch more snails once my LFS has them in stock again.

 

 

[CronicReefer]

So I was finally able to convince my clownfish to jump in the net so they could move to their new home . Also added a rock that I have three ricordea attached to. New FTS and updates made to first page.

 

[CronicReefer]

The move continues! Did a water test around 4AM and nitrates were under 10 which was much less than I anticipated. Added my frogspawn, hammer coral, cherry blasto, and all of my SPS. I also took some pictures of my sump up and running in case anyone finds themselves interested in the new Eshopps sumps. I need to find some macro algae for the refugium chamber but I'm thinking I'm going to have to order it online. Will be adding to this post more pictures as the corals open up.

 

I use Morning Glory polyester fiber fill instead of the filter socks. Costs $20 for 5lb and lasts foooorever. There is approximately 15lbs of rock in the chamber.

 

Refugium filled with 10lbs of Miracle Mud and a 5lb rock. Aquamaxx CO-1 skimmer fits snugly inside the chamber and is quite a beast. I have it set to more of a wet skim as thats just my personal preference but it is very easy to adjust and I haven't had to mess with it since setting it up.

 

Backside of sump where return chamber with float valve is located. My return pump was literally 1/8" too wide so I did a little drilling and just placed it inside the skimmer chamber. Also running an 11oz bag of Chemi-pure Blue. Please excuse all the silt from the miracle mud.

 

Cherry Blasto, was originally one head and now is a total of 4.

 

Scoly was looking fat today . Mushroom rock too.

 

Hammer Coral, my first coral.

 

Frogspawn, bought with 1 head is now 6 and appears to be growing more.

 

My chalice, throws out some crazy long tentacles so he stays by himself.

 

Babylonian Snails on the hunt.

[CronicReefer]

Short little video of the tank from yesterday. The sand bed is producing massive amounts of bubbles from either the diatoms or denitrification I'm not really sure but everything is doing great .

 

[drago55272]

Everything is looking good you have lots of space what are your stocking plans in fish and corals.

[CronicReefer]

Everything is looking good you have lots of space what are your stocking plans in fish and corals.

For corals mainly SPS and a few rare chalices. For fish I'm thinking some sort of juvi tang, possibly a group of schooling fish, or just various small colorful fish.

[CronicReefer]

Went to the LFS to pick up some Calcion but came home with a new fish . They had baby tomini tangs no bigger than my female clown and I just couldn't stop myself from buying one. I bought seaweed to clip to the glass but for now it seems to enjoy picking the rocks. Wednesday I will be transferring over the rest of my livestock from the old tank. For now pictures of the new baby.

 

[CronicReefer]

My tang and clowns love hanging out together . Currently the tang is only eating Herbivore Frenzy, any suggestions to get him to consume the seaweed sheets is appreciated.

 

 

2:00PM update: Just finished transferring over the rest of the livestock from the old tank. The lobster and dottyback were much easier to catch than I expected and the lobster already found the burrow I made for him (it's underneath the rock the ricordea is attached to). I decided I'm not going to put any of my zoas from my old tank into my new one, not really sure if I want to keep them in this tank or not. Tang was a little freaked out since he was sleeping in the lobster's burrow but seems to be okay now.

[CronicReefer]

Lost my dottyback yesterday to unknown causes. He had been hiding for a day which is very unusual. Saw his body laying in the sand but before I could pull him out my lobster snatched him up . My tang developed a mild case of what may be whitespot about 4 days ago but I am not really sure as he does not seem affected by it and neither of my clowns have developed it either. Everything else in the tank is doing well and I'm seeing lots of new growth in a couple of my corals. I'm also starting to get a lot of algae growth on the rocks so I'm thinking of maybe getting a blenny to replace my dottyback as long as whatever illness my tang has doesn't spread to my clowns. In the meantime I'll probably grab a few extra snails to mow it down and I also need to get a ULR phosphate test to make sure those aren't elevated.

[vlangel]

Your new tank looks nice! I hope your tang is alright.

[CronicReefer]

Your new tank looks nice! I hope your tang is alright.

Thanks . The tang seems to have lymphocystis not whitespot which is great news as everything I've read on that says they will recover and it's a virus that generally only kills immune weakened fish. I just need to start adding some corals to fill out all the empty rockwork.

[PieMan2k]

So what are you going to do with your zoas from the old tank?

[vlangel]

Thanks . The tang seems to have lymphocystis not whitespot which is great news as everything I've read on that says they will recover and it's a virus that generally only kills immune weakened fish. I just need to start adding some corals to fill out all the empty rockwork.

Yes, you are completely correct about lumphocystis. It rarely kills and usually runs its course with no harm done. I worked for a lfs 12 years but I did not see tangs afflicted with it often, it was more common with angels so just make sure of your diagnosis.