Frank's 120ish SPS dominant tank

[Fenzinna]

Hey Guys. Long time lurker. I upgraded from a 60 cube to a 5ft 120ish gallon tank recently. I started my build thread in my Local Club forum here and I've decided to move it here now that things have been good. I bought the tank from a local guy here in South Florida.

Tank: 52"x18"x26" Euro Braced Glass tank.

Sicce 3.0 Return.

Siphon return with emergency drain. Return comes from behind the tank.

Skimmer: SRO 1000Int

1 RW-15 and 1 PP-15 on opposite ends.

Lighting: LedZeal Malibu S300 with 3 t5 retro x54w.
Coral Plus - LED - Coral Plus - Blue Plus

Fish:
2 Black Onyx Clowns w/ RBTA
1 Solaris Wrasse
1 Lubbocks Wrasse
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Midas Blenny
1 Purple Fire Fish
2 Bengai Cardinals
1 Female SpotBreast Angelfish

Bio-Filtration:
~130lbs of mixed live rock. This was started with half Dry and half live rock cycled together.
2 Liter Siporax
GAC in media sock
Biodigest Bi-Monthly

Dosing:
Kalk in ATO
4 Caps of Fuel Bi-weekly.

Feeding:
2 Cubes of Frozen Sp. Mysis Daily. One cube morning/night

I have not been doing water changes.

SG: 1.025
NO3: 4-8ppm
Phos: .04-.08
Alk: 7.3-7.7dkh
Mag: 1350ish.


Here's a link to the original build:


The tank has been setup running since 3.23.16. I cycled my liverock in February and started with 40lbs of dry Special grade sand.

Also, I'm a crappy photographer.

 

[Fenzinna]

 

[Fenzinna]

 

[Fenzinna]

Here's a bad FTS from a month ago.
Other photos are from today.

 

[Fenzinna]

I retested my nitrates after feeding this evening. Registered between 0-4ppm. I was too lazy to run a low test after. Either way. Significant drop in nutrients. I also tested my po4. It read between .04-.08. But honestly, I've never been able to read this thing below .04. None of the colors ever match and it's a guessing game. At least with the nitrate test it's a shade of pink. But the po4 on this red sea kit has three different colors of white before changing to green.

I need a new p04 test kit. :mad:

I'm still searching for my Randalli Anthias. I have three different stores looking for them now. Ecoreef, Exotic Aquatic, and Fish collection. I think my only real shot at obtaining them is Ecoreef because of my relationship with them. Exotic Aquatic had one when I visited but I didn't receive a call even though my name was on their list. But that may be because I'm looking for 5. Fish collection has had quite a few anthias swing through since I started asking a month ago. All were eating well and looked in great health. Just couldn't pull the trigger on this one.

Logic tells me that most are afraid to bring them in. I'm really trying to avoid ordering from LA on this one since I can't be home for the shipment and my wife would have to handle the drop.

I am thinking about doing two sets of Anthias. But I'm getting ahead of myself now. I may need to just stick to wrasses since they're around more abundantly. I really want to swing a few riskier Angels but I keep thinking about how much of a pain pulling my Blenny and crab were earlier in the build.

edit: forgot to mention I extended my t5 lighting an additional 30 minutes per day.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking great!!

 

[LakeCityReefs]

Can't wait to see those frags grow out. Already a good looking setup and will look even more amazing once it fills in.

 

[Fenzinna]

Looking great!!

Can't wait to see those frags grow out. Already a good looking setup and will look even more amazing once it fills in.

Thanks guys. I can't wait either.

In the meantime, my research for fish may end up including a few leopard wrasse. I'm not sure about it yet, though. Always loved the look. Not sure I'm up for the challenge yet.

 

[rovster]

You're more than s few inches short of 5ft....why did your tank seem longer than mine?!?!?

 

[Fenzinna]

You're more than s few inches short of 5ft....why did your tank seem longer than mine?!?!?

Maybe it's 63 inches. Lol.

 

[Fenzinna]

Question:

I run my alk around 7.5-7.7dkh. Should I raise it over 8?

 

[d2mini]

Tanks looks good! Great PE on those SPS.

You are ok at your current Alk but 8 is fine too. I'm shooting for 8 myself.
Lower ALK is good for lower nutrient systems.
Also, being a little higher at 8 will give you a little more wiggle room if it accidentally drops a bit.

 

[john.m.cole3]

if you have coral growth and good colors, I don't see a reason to change a thing. Especially if you are running ULNS you want your alk right where you have it. Any higher could burn the tips of those acros.

 

[Fenzinna]

I'll be leaving my alk where it is. I only thought to run it higher because I'm not ULNS.

I increased my T5 lighting an additional 30 minute per day. Call me crazy but the corals are responding to it. 2/3s of the sps threw out a bigger base or buds over the last 2 days.


Also, a trio of replendents popped up on Divers Den. I pulled the trigger and they'll be here tomorrow morning. Resplendents and Randalls are basically the same just from different regions. I couldn't find any other fish that I wanted, so I harassed Rovv until I just purchased an ORA Joe the Coral to get my free shipping. Tonight, I'll set up my QT and mix some fresh salt in preparation for them tomorrow.

I'm excited about this.

 

[Fenzinna]

Fish came in this morning. I set up my QT for them to arrive and my wife handled the temp acclimation and added them to it.

All arrived alive. I have no photos as of yet other than black bags. I'm ready to clock out and go home. haha.

 

[Fenzinna]

Well, this didn't go as planned.

Wife acclimated the fish. Wen I came home, two females were dead and male was breathing heavy. This morning the male was dead.

So, I'm zero for three on anthias.

 

[Fenzinna]

I saw barletts today at exotic aquatic. There were two. Not bad. Eating well. Ended up passing on them.

I used my credit with LA to order 5 more resplendents. Let's try this one more time. I'll be home for their arrival.

 

[Fenzinna]

So, it's been awhile. Not much to report. I've changed all my bulbs and I'm running AB Special x2 and one B Plus. I'm sure how I feel about the color. I'd like a little more crisp white. Growth has been steady but I still feel like I need more light.

I upped my T5s to a total of 8hours a day now. I think I'm starting to get into territory that means I should replace my lights. They're running from 1-9p now. LEDs are on from 10:30-10:30. 100% for about 10 hours.

My Cyano is a little bad and I've moved my power heads around some to increase circulation. I know that I'm feeding a lot but I'm not getting an increase in nutrients, in fact, the opposite is happening. I'm sure some of my nutrients are getting sucked up by the cyano but even then cyano is growing in areas that I would consider high flow. So I believe I'm just experience some new tank syndrome.

I had a very bad run at Anthias. I'm going to give it one more shot. I believe my issues are related to my QT methods and not do to the health of the fish -- which makes me feel pretty crappy. I've done a lot more research on QT methods and I feel like I'm more prepared now but after this next order, if it doesn't work, I'll be ordering easier fish to keep and try the anthias further down the road.

 

[Fenzinna]

Mini Update:
I ended up finding the Tierra Anthias that I wanted through Reef Addiction. I'd highly recommend them to anyone. Nice store. Helpful and friendly staff. Lance and Chris are who I dealt with. They ordered the fish from the west coast, probably Quality marine. They ended up having one loss and one with a bladder issue. I wasn't required to purchase them.

I ended up with Four Tierras. One male and three females. I lost one female on the first night but she wasn't looking good from introduction into my QT. I, also, picked up a Leopard wrasse female there.

I have all four fish in QT now for 6 days. All are eating well. Sunday, I ran my first dose of PraziPro. 3/4 tsp in about 15 gallons. Everyone handled it well and ate like pigs through the treatment. I'm going to QT for 21 days unless an issue comes up. I thought about doing TTM.

One thing that I did run into was that my Instant Ocean was mixing up with .5-1ppm of ammonia. I didn't notice this until this round and upon research I found this to be normal. I'm not doing 5gallon water changes on my display every other day and using the water from the Display in my QT. Hopefully, someone else reads this and learns from my rookie mistake as I probably lost fish prior based on this.

My QT is being fed about 5-6 times per day with only small amounts of frozen mysis, cyclo, and brine. The fish go crazy over all of them. The anthias really create a frenzy. As I only feed enough to be eaten in about 10-15 seconds to avoid excess. Yesterday, my Leopard mel. female became more aggressive in her feeding and is now actively CHASING particles around the tank.


On to the display...
I've had a major outbreak of cyano. It's hideous. I'm not doing anything major to combat it. I decided to just let it run its course. However, the 5 gallon water changes seem to be helping it to subside. It could also be a coincidence. Nitrates are about 0ppm and I picked up a Hanna low phos checker and it read .0415 on Wednesday.

Nothing else to report here. I haven't taken photos because of the cyano.