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Rebuilding the Shallow Reef Tank Pt.2


tanacharison

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tanacharison

Tank: Acrylic Creations 36 Gallon 30x20x14
Advanced Acrylics Sump 20x16x16 with 3 Filter Socks and Small Fudge with LR, culpra and red mangroves. ATO 5x16x16
Light: Nanobox ATI Retro with 4 V3 Leds. Hung with Kessil mounting arms, Fudge Light: Nanobox Beam
Flow: Maxpect Gyre XF-130 and Syncra 3.0 Return Pump
ATO: Tunze Nano ATO all water made with BRS 4 Stage RODI
Skimmer: Ice Cap K2-120
Reactor: Avast Marine Media Reactor, with Aquaforest Zeo mix, Bulk Reef Supply ROX Carbon
Control: Apex Controller, IceCap Controller and Battery Backup for Gyre
Heater: 2x Eheim Jager 125watt
Dosing: Aquamedic Evo 4 with BRS mix Alk, Mg, Cal
Water changes 7-10G weekly with Red Sea Salt (Blue Bucket)

Feeding:
Fish- Pemysis Shrimp, LRS Fish Frenzy, Saki- Hakari Marine Carnivore, Hikari Marine S, Pemysis 2mm Pellets(Some combo twice daily normally dry in morning)
Coral- Coral Frenzy 1mm, Poly Lab Reef Roids, Poly booster, Aqua forest Energy, Vitality, ( again some combo three times a week)


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Aug 1st, 2017  FTS

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December FTS

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tanacharison

Well I must say that I'm pleased with the new tank. I still have a long way to go with organizing all the cables but it will get done in time. I'm also researching hard new fish additions, adding sand really opened up my choices. So far I only broke off two corals during the move and I was able to remount them on frag plugs. I didn't like the acans on the sand without some distance so I mounted them on frag plugs. Just tested and perimeters are off a little. Ill do it again tomorrow to be sure. Alk 7.8 CA 455 Mg 1500

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  • 2 weeks later...
tanacharison

Well I think that the move has gone well so far. I only have a few SPS still showing signs of stress every thing else seems to be fine. The parameters got a little off and I'm unsure how for a while I was my Alk was between 8.4-9 now its 6.9. No new coral additions. I started dosing to fix but I'm surprised. CA 435 ALK 6.9 MG 1500.

 

I feel like my CUC is where I would like it. 10-12 Astrea snails, 10-15 Small Brittle Star, 10-20 Blue/Red leg hermit crabs, Peppermint shrimp, Emerald Crab, Bumble bee snail. I'm hoping the sand bed will stay clean. Fish stocking is still undecided I'm thinking blue spot watchman goby but I would also like a wrass that wont bother my longnose hawkfish.

 

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It took some time but I eventually got this stand built.

 

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FTS! July

 

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I thought this rasta was gone but he is still hanging in.

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tanacharison

We are two weeks from the move and I can see the effects of the dramatic change in the reef. The diatoms have hit the sand bed and lower walls of the tank as expected but I'm cleaning them every few days. A few of my sps are still unhappy and showing signs of stress. My LPS corals seem to be doing well and I felt the chalice and euphyllia corals would suffer just as much. Inverts seem much happier not having to slide around the bare bottom of the tank. I'm going to switch out the main pump today to a much smaller one than I currently have the one on my tank. No need for the back pressure I'm getting for my current one. If I could figure out my alk and cal usage. :unsure:

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  • 3 weeks later...
tanacharison

A little take update. I picked up a six line wrasse, RFA and two new acros. They seemed really faded so hopefully they will color up good. I haven't tested the tank in a while Nitrates .02 and Phosphates are 0 but I do have a little bit of algae in the sump. If all continues to go well I will be doing another big coral purchase soon.

 

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tanacharison

I ended up ordering some corals from salty critters last night. First online coral order so I'm a little nervous but the prices were great. New fish are eating well even while being chased around by the larger damsel.

 

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tanacharison

Looks great! Nice colors in there already.

 

Your Utters are enormous lol.

 

What type of Damsel is that?

Thanks! They are Ternate Damsels but I've seen them listed as lemon chromis. Yeah the utters size are shocking, even when they are blasted with the gyre.

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tanacharison

A new friend to enjoy the corals with..

 

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I'm afraid to know what they are plotting in the tank. This coral was not doing well so I moved it up and trimmed the dead tips. Ive moved the crab down twice already and every morning he is up there. The longnose is perching on him a good bit of the day. Weird relationship. :huh:

 

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A side shot of the tank after some cleaning.

 

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I'm happy to announce that the new tank is finally starting to settle down. Corals are looking great, colors are exactly how I want them and growth has seemed to be picking back up. I have not done a water change in almost 3 weeks. I have been changing the filter socks less. With that I'm actually very surprised with the results. When I started planning for my tank 3 years ago I did not want to short my filtration system. I always focused less on that and struggled with high nitrates, slightly discolored water and unwanted algae. As I decided on equipment I wanted to make sure that it will be able to keep up with the tank and even survive a upgrade. I will say I'm very pleased with the design and layout. The Icecap skimmer is well overpowered for the tank. Even as I feed heavy, dose additives and run bio pellets it keeps on pulling the tank clean. The skimmer is very sensitive down to a hair turn and I have it set to run dry with the small bubbles below the holder on the bottle neck. The skim is light or none for most of the day until after feeding time. If I had a larger bio load it would be much more consistent but it pulls the tank clean every day. I could put it on a timer and run it less but I've always felt it is good insurance on a 24 hour cycle if something goes wrong and the water gets polluted without knowledge. I have the bio pellets flow and amount right were I like to keep up with the current bio load. I will go as far as saying it's the best skimmer on the market for the cost and size recommendations. I think as the corals and fish grow the system will function great and I will just need to slowly increase the amount of pellets with the goal for my nitrates to stay under 0.05 currently I am at 0.02-0.03. The system has maintained ultra low nitrates and little or no phosphates resulting in maintaining a clean system. This can be good for some but not all corals. So for tank consistency I will continue slowing the amount of water changes and monitoring the levels of my elements more. The refugium still acts as a nutrient export but plays a very little role in this process currently. I was clipping the caulerpa every two weeks but growth has slowed down. I can see the growth of coralline algae in the sump and refugium area with a reduction in nuisance algae that is a bigger battle to win! The nano box beam is still working in wonders and certainly the best light for the refugium. Between coverage area, par, controllability and design its perfect. With my last light I would still see a slight drop in pH overnight but now it remains more consistent. The population of copepods and brittle stars has increased significantly. I will keep everyone updated with my experiences with the system.

 

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Went to the LFS to hang out for a while and picked up a new diamond watchman goby. I was very impressed to see all the new equipment and tanks. It seems like we are seeing a growth in the hobby around the pittsburgh area. Cleaned the gyre this morning and now we have lots of micro bubbles. :(

 

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I was afraid that they would hate each other but now as you see... best friends. If only the blenny liked the new goby.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well after a long adventure without them my nitrates are here. Hopefully the change has little effect on the corals. I already added additional biopellets last week so if my sump cleaning has no change I submit to another water change next week. Placed a order with reef cleaners to replenish my cuc and I almost bought some red mangroves but held back for now. The goby and blenny would not get along, I was afraid of a death so the goby went back to lfs. Maybe i'm at my limit. All other fish all look great and healthy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well the tank has not improved. It seems that I increased the bio-load to fast and now i'm suffering the wrath of nitrates. I increased the biopellets again but that process can't be rushed even with the help of micobac7. All coral feeding has stopped until its under control again. After doing 2 water changes a week apart if I'm going to slow the growth of the algae and recover any of the corals I need larger water changes. Coral pro salt will shoot my alk up much higher than I would like if I continue to use it so I will be searching out a red sea blue bucket today. On a positive fish are all healthy.

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  • 2 months later...

Legendary Corals order has arrived... A lot has changed. New aquascape and hopefully the flow is better around rocks. Changed around some plumbing and now running syncra 3.0 and tunze 6045 but I don't think I need it. Also upgrated my rodi to 150GPD and added a booster pump.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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