I'm back and bigger than ever.

[Naiad]

After having to breakdown my reef due to family issues I am back in! I am two weeks into cycling my 220! As far as equipment goes it has a Eshopps Gen 3 R300 Refugium with a Bubble Magus Curve 7 Protein Skimmer. Three Aquatic life Halos to start with, I may add some additional lighting if needed. Flow is provided by 2 mp40s and the return pump, a mag 1800. The system will be monitored by an apex controller. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated :victory:<br />
Jen

 

[steve&mari]

Welcome back to getting wet can't wait to see pictures of the setup.

 

[twilliard]

Welcome back and can't wait to see this one

 

[Naiad]

Hopefully it works. There should be a pic of the tank right after the live rock was added.

 

[Naiad]

So I am planning on setting traps this week as this was uncured live rock. I will see what I catch then begin to stock the CUC. I will be doing a WC as well. Things are getting a bit green.

 

[Naiad]

 

[Naiad]

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Welcome back

~SF

 

[Cameron]

So I'm curious, what did you catch? What are your dimensions? Do you have any pictures of the entire set up?

 

[nawilson89]

@Naiad Welcome back! I plan on starting a new build soon too! Though I'll be wwwwaayyyyy smaller.

 

[Naiad]

Way past time for an update! I have been fighting a mantis which is now out so today I added more cuc including 40 hermits and 2 cleaner shrimp ( not really cuc but family doesn't need to know they are not needed). Will be adding more snails in the next week. I also picked up an orange leg hermit for the holiday spirit!

Going to get flack for this but I am adding two dragon faced pipefish and mandarins ( all eat frozen) this week. They will have the next few weeks to settle before I add any more fish.

 

[Naiad]

 

[Naiad]

So the pipefish did wonderful last night. I moved over the mandarins this morning. They are happy to have rocks to forage on again.

I will be starting a fresh batch of baby brine this afternoon to supplement their live food. I need to get a new target feeder for the black worms. My old one got stepped on during the chaos of moving all the fish stuff.

More pods are due to arrive Thursday. These four will continue to get their portion of the frozen food but at the moment they are more interested in being able to really hunt again. I will give the tank some phytoplankton and hope the pods stay strong.

Been debating on running the skimmer on a 12 hour schedule. Don't want to skim too much out with only 4 fish and attempting to keep pod population strong. The question is to run it during the day or night?

My family wants to get a new anemone for our clown but it concerns me with my smaller and slower fish. They have all been smart about avoiding the large LPS corals/ anemone pistol in the past and it is a large tank. Something else to research.

Sorry for rambling i am procrastinating. I must now go and study for an upcoming statistics exam. Or better known as beating my head against a wall.

 

[Naiad]

So I got the bb feeder set up and running. I just have to get the flow right so it will feed a small portion constantly all day and not dump everything at once. I am sure there is some fancy math to figure it out but I will just screw around until it seems right. I forgot to put the black worms back so they got all nasty, my bad. Will have to buy more. Debating on which fish to move over next. Should I move over some gobies or my leopard wrasse?

 

[Naiad]

Here is an updated shot. Algae is all but gone. Lost one of the pipe fish [emoji22]. Best guess was he was hurt worse than I originally thought in a rock accident earlier and never fully recovered. Everyone else is great. I still think there is one fireworm in there. My corals seem to have bites out of them [emoji35]. I will find him.. Going to try out the new lenses aquatic life sent today! Will post again after.

 

[Naiad]

Been a while for an update. I am taking this tank slow and steady. I picked up a media reactor over the holidays. First time using one... no laughs I know I am way behind times. I also changed out the lenses on my LED fixtures from 80 to 110 degrees for better coverage. My biggest hurdle was that I dropped the overflow cover down the overflow [emoji33] .

I plan on moving over my leopard wrasse today followed by my other original livestock in the coming weeks. I am a bit nervous as I had a pipefish die but the other fish seem perfect and I can't wait forever to stock this tank. I did purchase a few new fish that were on sale.... bad Jen. So next week we will welcome three new bangii cardinals and a trio of blue gudgeon.

My tester corals are all doing great now that the fire worms are gone! I will have to find some lower end sps to give them a try and see if I have anything that likes to munch them lurking... My R.A. garden is shaping up nicely. I ordered two higher end additions. I will be adding pictures later on today.

 

[Tanggirl12]

Try some Reef Bugs, they have really made my pod population explode.

 

[Tanggirl12]

 

[Naiad]

So wrasses went in today. I got behind schedule with wc yesterday [emoji44] . They both went straight into the sand bed. It has been over six months since they have been able to bury so let's hope they decide to come up again.

Ran out of salt while preparing qt for tomorrow's arrivals. Will have to make a run to lfs first thing. I don't have a proper coral qt yet so my fingers are crossed on the new frags I purchased. They are coming from a good source but it is still a bit of a gamble.

My ro filters need changed. They should also be here this week. But as the TDS rises so does my algae lvl. Coincidence?

 

[steve&mari]

Looking good always have some algae issues with new setup it gets better as you're aware already.