Coming Along Nicely

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Here are a few of the build I have in progress now this is my first ever it all came in a 50 gal short but just wasn't big enough for me so got a 75 instead. Here is the 50 tall
It just didn;t look right with all the extra space available so I found a 75 that was clean and in good shape but she had cut out the center support so got a great deal on it since not safe for holding water so Bent a 1 1/4 X 3/16 piece of stainless powder-coated black to replace support works great I hand built the cabinet,

 

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Here is the 75 with its first two inhabitants a pair of juvenile Damsels

 

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Here we have no animals yet just finished its cycle

 

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Ready to start it up and get the cycle going

 

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Woke up to this in the middle of the night sure didn't expect that lol

 

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Much better now and everyone seems very happy, they follow me around pretty cool. I'll post more on equipment tomorrow thank ya'll for looking any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Aqua Man]

Much better now and everyone seems very happy, they follow me around pretty cool. I'll post more on equipment tomorrow thank ya'll for looking any advice greatly appreciated

Looks good! Have you checked for back flow? Your sump looks full, so if you loose power the sump may overflow!!

 

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Looks good! Have you checked for back flow? Your sump looks full, so if you loose power the sump may overflow!!

Thank you there surely is a lot to learn.
Yes actually this morning not specifically for that reason though, swapped out my 600 GPH return for an 800 my anti siphon hole on return is plenty high enough and the LifeReef overflow works great water level in sump only rises about 1/2 "

 

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Here are a few more pictures
Clearing up a lot now but still pretty ugly



This is the brace that I had made at work each end has thin rubber pads for grip but that wasn't necessary it isn't moving with all that water in there




Just did a 3 day blackout because the Dinos were getting pretty bad so all that's on the rocks now (for the time being anyway) is the hair algae and the Magnificent loves that stuff.




Everybody seems to be happy



Built themselves a nice little nest, we were concerned that the Mafia crew would kill the regular Ocellaris because the person that gave us everything said whenever they tried to add any orange Clowns they would force them to hide and not let them eat and would attack them if they came out my theory on that is that they were trying to add Percula because the older black ones took to the little ones as soon as they were in and they are always together now.



Someone here said this looks like some kind of Blastomussa they were almost dead when we got everything didn't even realize something was living on it for about thirty days then started seeing little orange spots.





We have a LifeReef pre-filter/overflow that works great have had the power off several times now and it restarts everytime we are using a Fluval 800gph return pump with 3/4 in lines I don't think it's really 800gph tho. Our sump is what used to be an Eshops 15 gal wet dry that is completely wet now and holds a filter sock and a Coralife skimmer I don't know what size it is but it measures height wise to be a 125 but it uses the diffuser box of a 65 so not sure if somebody just mixed parts or what but it seems to work great once dialed in our ATO is a Tunze that is just awesome our heaters (2 in sump) are generic Chineese 350 watt controlled with an Inkbird and we have 2 small (35 watt) Green killing machines not really sure if they do any good or not but they came with everything so after about a month I decided to give em a try.
We are using Tropic Marin Pro Reef for our salt and Brightwells Code A and Code B for our calcium and alkalinity balance and using API tests for the moment, first Hanna Checker on the way be here Thursday excited about that we use the Milwaukee salinity meter which seems to work pretty good but does need to be calibrated often.


Thanks for looking any advice is very much appreciated

 

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Still doesn't look anything like the reefs I see here but I'm working on it
The sand bed has cleared up a lot


My two Conchs playing nice together



Zoa spreading nicely again


Happy Magnificent


Got my first Hanna today

Calcium Checker will be here Monday

Adding this DIY Co2 scrubber later today have to organize and straighten up underneath it's a mess

 

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Here's a few new pics

Baby Peppermint hitching a ride


I used outdoor plant hangers for the lights


Starting to look pretty good I think


Blasto is growing pretty strong



so is the Zoa and Mushroom


Had a new Paly addition pop up, the one on the right it's a different color really pretty pastel turquoise during daylight

 

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Found something new in the tank this morning when I was cleaning I noticed a little mound in the sand up along the glass didn't think much about it since my sand bed constantly changes but then noticed it had a bunch of little white tentacle looking things coming out of it no idea what it is

 

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Up to 4 of those mounds now one of my Conchs is making them I'm pretty sure shes laying eggs.

Also saw a thousand little tiny almost microscopic white things on my glass when I went to clean it not sure what they are too small to get a picture but they crawl pretty fast on the glass was thinking some kind of pod but nothing has been added so trying to decide if I want to clean the glass and wipe them off or wait and see if they grow.

Having a time with my nitrates and phosphates nitrates have been steady at 30-35 for the last couple weeks and phosphate is .25-.40 using HANNA's for both everything else is stable not sure whats going on just keep an eye on it and try and get some microalgae I suppose, everything in tank seems happy Blasto is growing and getting more color to it, Palys and Zoas are spreading and look healthy and water is clear.

 

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Big day for me today, sump swap out day.
I know for most it wouldn't be all that big off a deal but this is the first major thing I've done since we got the tank up and running (only 4 months). The reason for the swap is that I built a bigger sump with three compartments instead of two, I got some Ulva to help in nutrient export which is working very well however I figured out in the first week that it just wasn't going to work out so good with only two compartments because it is growing in, on and around everything so here we go.

 

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Well got it all swapped out took about 9 hrs but pretty happy with it now

 

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Just a little update,
Had an issue with my Phosphate rising got all the way up to .89 and couldn't figure it out finally narrowed it down to not rinsing my food Got some Phosphat-E and got it down .05 over about 6 weeks has stayed pretty stable since rinsing. I had 5 Acan polyps bail not sure if it was because the high phosphate or because of lowering it seems to be doing better now Started seeing some Aptaisia popping up so got some Berghia they seem to be doing the trick but slowly I released them close to my Paly colony because the Aptasia were terrorizing the crap out of em and they had quit growing all clear around them now and Palys are very thankful. The new sump is working out awesome Ulva grows great have to remove about a quart a week.