120g sps/lps build

[mojoreef]

Excellent Darth great to see you pick it back up again, this tank has great promise. What was up with the rock?? as in why did you say you could salvage??


Mojo

 

[Krish]

Rockwork looks good!! Make sure to keep us updated with pictures and your progress from here!

 

[Darthv247]

most of the rock was completely cover in grape calurpa and a bunch of hard to remove calurpa. was just easier to get rid of much of it and start over. i couldve just cured it or something i guess but it was mostly marco rocks anyways.

Thanks krish. it looks like a lot of rock but its actually only like 100 lbs or so. i made sure to leave tons of room in between the rocks for water to flow. worked out great.

 

[mojoreef]

So did the calurpa come in on the marco rocks or something else

Mojo

 

[Darthv247]

it must have sprouted out of the LR i got from a local place. didnt see any when i purchased it but eventually a few of the rocks got some growing on them. i tried for months to manually remove it including scrubbing the rocks with brush till none was visible but it kept coming back worse and worse.

 

[Darthv247]

tank pics1 005 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Heres more pics. i know i know its a pretty sloppy plumbing and wiring mess but gets the job done lol. still my first large scale reef build. always had nano's before so im learning everyday

 

[mojoreef]

Looks good, nothing wrong with that plumbing, I have seen and done alot worse, lol

Mojo

 

[Darthv247]

was able to save the sand which was nice i just mixxed it up real good during the water changes when the live rock was out of the tank. the huge population of fauna and worms was saved. tons of the 2 tenticle clear worms that build little shoots in between the LR and in the sand were spared in the process along with tons of sponges etc.

 

[Darthv247]

well the fish came much sooner than i anticipated :decision:. couldn't wait anyways lol. Here is a video of them really crappy video. 240p is all my phone will do i guess.

Big thanks to Vivid aquariums for the beautiful fish and inverts as always.

algae patrol ! - YouTube

also added some pictures of the fish to my photostream here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68520697@N06/6234649427/in/photostream/lightbox/

 

[Darthv247]

loving the new fish ! vivid aquariums has quality fish

 

[mojoreef]

Looks good buddy

Mojo

 

[Darthv247]

update

well all the fish are doing well and eating too much lol. the are like dogs begging at the glass whenever i come near the tank. Added a few videos and pictures of the fish on my photostream if your interested to see.

darthv247's Photostream

 

[Darthv247]

all the parameters have been staying in range and phosphate is 0.24 atm i will be adding more bio pellets to the reactor as well as installing another reactor for the carbon and removing the magnavore filter. was going to put a mag7 on the reactors and put about 450 or so flow into the .5 liter of bio pellets and the remaining 200 or so flow into the carbon reactor. will post new pics when i get it done. also the wave driver for my mp10 should be here this week and will add that to the back pane.

 

[mojoreef]

How long since this tank was set up Darth??

Mojo

 

[Darthv247]

well it was originally set up back in 2009 but never fully stocked or finished. so i recently overhauled the tank saving as much fauna as possible without leaving any detritus or algae etc from before. just started redoing the tank in august. have had the new rock in it a month and the fish just a few weeks. really want to try some sps. also want to add some acans, chalice and other lps. Im just afraid im going to mess it up lol so im practicing keeping the levels in range etc for now. Getting huge growth from the coraline algae it seems though and almost have the system finished to the best of my ability.

Is having no reverse light cycle fuge gonna hurt me a lot ? im having a ph swing from 7.80 at night to 8.25 or so mid day. im only able to keep my windows open certain times of the year and no real way to pull in fresh air either.

 

[Darthv247]

was hoping to figure out these biopellets better and use that for the phosphate reduction but i have some phosguard if needed.

 

[mojoreef]

Is having no reverse light cycle fuge gonna hurt me a lot ? im having a ph swing from 7.80 at night to 8.25 or so mid day. im only able to keep my windows open certain times of the year and no real way to pull in fresh air either.

No having the fuge on reverse lighting my keep your PH from dropping to low at night. Keeping the water well airated will also help, so make sure the surface of the water column in the tank isnt to still. Right now its all about keeping everything stable so no big swings in any parameters. Do that for a month or so and you should be good to start up some SPS.

was hoping to figure out these biopellets better and use that for the phosphate reduction but i have some phosguard if needed.

The pellets are pretty simple. Your supplying the carbon and the water is supplying the N and P. So for every 50 parts of carbon you give the bacteria they will reduce 10 parts N and 1 part P. But remember it has to be all three to make the ratio work, so if out run out of P then N will stop being reduced and thus the same for N. The reason you want to go slow is that you are making your tank a happy hunting ground for bacteria and bacteria also consume oxygen, so if you start at full dosage of pellets (carbon) your going to get a bloom and a bloom can suck the oxygen right out of your tank.

Oh and make sure they are just kind of tumbling in the reactor, you want them moving but you also want to encourage a bit of bacterial bio-film to form on them. This will also promote the faculative bacteria to switch from oxygen and thus start reducing nitrate.


things are looking good so far!!

Mojo

 

[Darthv247]

yeah thats what i mean i need to get the flow dialed in better on the pellets i think. atm i have much more movement around the outside of the reactor and slight clumping in the middle. i was hoping if i add some more flow when i up the biopellets it would work better. have a plan for 2 phosban reactor 550's one that i have now housing the biopellets and a second for carbon or w/e is needed.

I have about .25 liters of pellets now in there and was gonna go up to about half a liter. should i not go up to .5 right away ?

also do you think a PH swing like mine is too much ? i could revers the kalk cycle i guess. i dont have any top-off going at night in fear of something going wrong when im not around but not much to worry about i guess. i only leave enough water to fill the sump in the reservoir and the timer is pretty much foolproof.

 

[mojoreef]

If you see any clumping you should manually stir up the reactor, just make sure what comes out of it goes into the skimmer. On the amounts you have in their its hard to tell with out being their to see the progress. What I usually suggest to folks is to take what they tell you, you need for the size tank and the start with 1/3 of that and then up it 1/3 more every month or so until you hit the target. BUT in saying that you kind of need to based that on testing and on things you see happening in the tank. So if your tests are telling you that you still have a higher level of P and N then move up, and if you notice algae growth, say more on the glass or on the rocks.

I would go with the Kalk dosing all night and day, that is adding to the swing in ph. You swing is not to bad but the tighter you can make it the better. Another thing is if you are running algae in the refuge make sure you know the pellets are going to be direct competitors with it.

Mojo

 

[Darthv247]

no fuge at all. thats what i meant by is no fuge gonna hurt me a lot . figured if the pellets work the fuge wouldnt be needed. i have been shaking the reactor once in awhile to move the clumps.

thanks for the advice. I will have to keep experimenting with it and testing. will also change up the top off schedule and see if it helps. guess i didnt even think of it but your right its widening the swing in ph.