850 gallon 14 foot reef. FINALLY settling down

[14 foot reef]

850 gallon 14 foot reef. FINALLY settling down

 

[ScottB]

Glad to hear. Give us a little context?
a) Dead rock or live start?
b) Date of start?
c) Settled from what? What was up? How did you subdue that?

Photos of your pain please?

Happy it looks like things are in good shape now!

 

[14 foot reef]

Glad to hear. Give us a little context?
a) Dead rock or live start?
b) Date of start?
c) Settled from what? What was up? How did you subdue that?

Photos of your pain please?

Happy it looks like things are in good shape now!

a) Dead rock or live start?

Caribsea Life Rock, Caribsea crushed coral special grade substrate - all sterile, nothing live

b) Date of start?

January 28th 2018 Restart - tank was originally set up and running for 14 years prior to this complete teardown, empty, bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse and restart.

c) Settled from what? What was up? How did you subdue that?

Settled from a 2 -3year battle of Dinos, green hair algae Cyno, & Diatoms - The complete ugly stage for over 2 years. Finally kicked it with 4 doses of Fluconazole and vibrant. Lost plenty of corals throughout the roller coaster ride from hell.
If I knew then what I know now, I would never have tried a sterile from start no live rock cycle. I would advise everyone to start with as much seeded live rock as one can possibly afford, in the long run, it will be twice as cheap and 10 times less the headache.

2019 - 1 year after restart

Today

 

[djf91]

Looks good and like it’s finally mature! Congrats! Could you get some close ups?

I’m 6 months in on my 500 gal. Going through the ugly phase right now with tons of GHA and cyano. Started with 300 pounds of old, dry likely phosphate bound rock and 100 lbs. of live. Hoping to wait it out with GFO and lanthunum chloride dosing.

What lights are you running?

 

[ScottB]

Very helpful. Quite the contrast before/after.

Yeah, the whole sterile start phenomenon is pretty painful to watch over and over again. One of the few disservices BRS promoted in this hobby IMO.

Yes, live rock is expensive, but it is also expensive to be repeatedly losing corals for a year or two. While all your parameters can be "perfect", the biome remains a hot mess for such a long time without microbial diversity.

Sit back and enjoy!

 

[14 foot reef]

Looks good and like it’s finally mature! Congrats! Could you get some close ups?

I’m 6 months in on my 500 gal. Going through the ugly phase right now with tons of GHA and cyano. Started with 300 pounds of old, dry likely phosphate bound rock and 100 lbs. of live. Hoping to wait it out with GFO and lanthunum chloride dosing.

What lights are you running?

Will get some closeups in a bit

 

[SaracensRugby]

Where does everyone suggest getting live rock from? It's a toss up getting it from a LFS with pests, or from another hobbyist that being said.

 

[RC Reefer 5184]

Is that a bandit angelfish? How friendly are they and reef safe in your experience? By the way tank is looking great.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Nice, your tangs are Massive!!!

 

[Biff0rz]

I went through this exact same pain... Never again. I feel you.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I am about to turn the lights on and have all dry rock in my tank but hoping the seeding LR in the sump and few pieces throughout display will help.

I did not add any bottle bacteria since Its old LR, I feel i should use DR tims but probably dont need it. I am going to stay on top the algae with tangs, turbos snails, turf scrubber, etc. I can wait 6 month for corals to thrive but anything longer I may lose some interest lol

 

[Jekyl]

Where does everyone suggest getting live rock from? It's a toss up getting it from a LFS with pests, or from another hobbyist that being said.

Gulfliverock.com

 

[ScottB]

Where does everyone suggest getting live rock from? It's a toss up getting it from a LFS with pests, or from another hobbyist that being said.

gulfliverock is good. Tampa Bay saltwater and KP Aquatics are also good.

 

[JGT]

KP Aquatics is top notch.

 

[Biff0rz]

I am about to turn the lights on and have all dry rock in my tank but hoping the seeding LR in the sump and few pieces throughout display will help.

I did not add any bottle bacteria since Its old LR, I feel i should use DR tims but probably dont need it. I am going to stay on top the algae with tangs, turbos snails, turf scrubber, etc. I can wait 6 month for corals to thrive but anything longer I may lose some interest lol

You're likely to get dinos, and none of those things will remedy it. Got a large UV?

 

[Ashish Patel]

You're likely to get dinos, and none of those things will remedy it. Got a large UV?

I got dinos in my last build but they didnt last long since I had a UV and had enough info out there to identify them and take action. My major concern is not to add any aiptasia to this system, then not to add any coral eating pest.

 

[mcc21]

a) Dead rock or live start?

Caribsea Life Rock, Caribsea crushed coral special grade substrate - all sterile, nothing live

b) Date of start?

January 28th 2018 Restart - tank was originally set up and running for 14 years prior to this complete teardown, empty, bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse and restart.

c) Settled from what? What was up? How did you subdue that?

Settled from a 2 -3year battle of Dinos, green hair algae Cyno, & Diatoms - The complete ugly stage for over 2 years. Finally kicked it with 4 doses of Fluconazole and vibrant. Lost plenty of corals throughout the roller coaster ride from hell.
If I knew then what I know now, I would never have tried a sterile from start no live rock cycle. I would advise everyone to start with as much seeded live rock as one can possibly afford, in the long run, it will be twice as cheap and 10 times less the headache.

2019 - 1 year after restart

Today

which chemical did you use to battle the gha?

I plan on using live sand and couple pieces of liverock with dry rock. do you think i still need to add all the other fancy 'live bacteria' / ammonium cycle start?
thanks

 

[14 foot reef]

which chemical did you use to battle the gha?

I plan on using live sand and couple pieces of liverock with dry rock. do you think i still need to add all the other fancy 'live bacteria' / ammonium cycle start?
thanks

which chemical did you use to battle the gha? .... Fluconazole ..... Bulk from Pet mountain

I plan on using live sand and couple pieces of liverock with dry rock. do you think i still need to add all the other fancy 'live bacteria' / ammonium cycle start?

You may get enough ammonia from the live rock but I would still think about adding ammonia to start cycle, with the live rock and live sand I don't think you'll need bottled bacteria to help on cycle. Patience, this is a 4-5 week process,

 

[mcc21]

how much ammonia and which brand do you recommend?
usually the instructions are ammonia + bacteria addition... example like the brightwell set.

 

[14 foot reef]

how much ammonia and which brand do you recommend?
usually the instructions are ammonia + bacteria addition... example like the brightwell set.

You for sure can follow the Brightwell plan.