Indytraveler's 90 gallon Reef!

[Indytraveler83]

Found my Sally Lightfoot crab going to town on my gsp this morning, and of course couldn't catch him. Good thing he's heading to the sump in the new build.

 

[Indytraveler83]

And so it begins! It just arrived, but there's some mismatched plumbing issues, so the guy from the lfs is getting some supplies. So glad I got them to do the plumbing, i'd be lost right now.

 

[Indytraveler83]

I'm going without glass tops, but will take no chances on carpet surfing wrasse. Installing screen netting on the canopy:

 

[Indytraveler83]

Used sump installed, getting ready to put in gravel now! Glad the plumbing issue got sorted fast. That's the type of stuff that would have me throwing things if I were trying to figure it out.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Sand and dry rock in. Now comes the hard parts- moving live rock and water.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Everyone is in the 10 gal qt as the old tank comes down. Not happy about it at all...

 

[Indytraveler83]

The water is a little cloudy from the new gravel and things stirred up, but the reef tank is ready to settle in for the night:

 

[Indytraveler83]

Woke up this morning to all my fish out of hiding and happy. Noone died overnight, and the nems have already opened back up, as has my ultra acan. I think my acro frags are completely burned out from the move, but I only had two and this really is an lps build anyways, so I don't know how they would have faired long term.

And for those interested, the old reef tank now houses my mbuna cichlids:

 

[Indytraveler83]

Here's a picture with the whites on, so you guys can see the new aquascape!

The gsp is out and happy, and my struggling wall hammer is already looking better than it has in months. My peppermint shrimp are starting to come out of hiding, now that the predatory Sally Lightfoot crab is banished to the sump.

Another interesting note, I've been able to rig up my CPR backpack skimmer on the side of the sump. I plan on putting it on a timer once I know the nasties are pulled out from the move. It's sort of loud by itself, but if I run it a few hours a day while I'm not home it won't be an issue.

That's all for now, I hope you all enjoy following the setup of this system. I'm going to leave it be for a little while, and hopefully I don't have too much of a cycle or mini cycle to deal with.

I think my first livestock additions will be starting a nice mushroom garden as well as restocking on shrimp.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Home sick today, which has me thinking more than anything:

1) I need some sound isolation from the pump on the sump. I'm super impressed with the power of the thing, but you can feel vibration through the stand. I've heard of those silicone pot holders being effective in isolating vibration if the pump is placed on it. Any other ideas?

2) I was hoping to house my qt in the stand so that I could keep it running and qt this system a little better. However the sump takes up the whole thing. Back to the drawing board there. I need a better solution than it being in the garage, but it's the only place I have room.

 

[NanoSteam]

Wow that CPR Backpack skimmer really takes me back...
Build is coming along great, I may have missed it, what are you using for lighting?

 

[Indytraveler83]

Yeah, the Backpak is my favorite piece of recycled equipment. We will see how things go, but the older version of my system didn't need much skimming (ran it with the cup out most of the time), so I figure the older, undersized skimmer will be okay if this one runs the same.

Lighting is a pair of Viparspectra black box lights hung from inside the canopy at 25% blue, 3% white (whites go off around 6 pm).

 

[Indytraveler83]

They are closer to the water than I'd like, but I'm trying to compensate by running them low. Part of the deal with this upgrade was having concealed equipment and less light bleed, so this is the best I can figure out.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Little setback today:

I noticed a very small leak on the gasket leading from the sump to the return pump (external). When I tightened it, I think I crushed the seal a little, and the leak got worse. Had to drain the sump and reseat the seal (coated things in Teflon tape while I had it apart).

Then... After putting the gasket back together, I decided to fill the sump with water to test it. Water went everywhere. I'm standing there like an idiot trying to figure out what went wrong.

As I look around, I realize the return pump is sitting disconnected off to the side. I put the gasket back together and forgot to reconnect the pump.. Doh!

So... Now it's all back together and running, and I've got a washer full of wet towels.

Playing with the sump a little more, I realized a lot of the noise was coming from the spillway leading from the middle to the final return chamber. Two little notches are cut out and water pours from them with quite a bit of force.

I cut a about halfway through in a foam filter block lengthwise and set it over the two notches, so now the water runs through it before hitting the return chamber. It reduced the impact of the water and the sound.

I placed an order for a few of those silicone pot holders, as well as some cheap sound deadening material. I'm going to play with it and see how quiet I can get this thing.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Only part of my system I'm currently not ok with is the return pump. I thought sumps were supposed to be quiet, but it's definitely not. I'll have to talk to my lfs about it. It moves water, but sounds like a small generator under the tank.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Few updates:

1) the lfs is going to replace the return pump on Monday. He feels liable for the pump not doing well and will try swapping it out. Very happy on that.

2) Got an impulse purchase of a green BTA and put it in the system. Of course it immediately walked into a hiding spot and now I can't see it. Hopefully it acclimates and then walks back into the light.

3) Decided on a bit of a group fish buy. Bought a male lyretail anthias with three females. Also FINALLY found a gold Midas blenny. All of these guys are sitting in my 10 gallon QT. They got a reef rally bath, but aside from that I'll likely just observe them for a while. I really hate treating with copper and I usually have good luck with this lfs.

As far as the main system, I had to work to pull salinity down just a bit. With all the different saltwater mixed in there, I lost track and it settled out around 1.075. I've been slowly pushing it down to 1.065 or so.

My wall hammer hasn't been this happy in months. It's fully extended today and looking as good as I've ever seen it. I was fighting slow recession with it in my old system, so hopefully this is a good omen for the new display.

 

[Indytraveler83]

So good and bad today:

The bad: I lost everything in QT this weekend. Appears to have been velvet that knocked the entire system out. I'm very unhappy with that lfs and they are still debating whether they want to take any responsibility for it. But that's a story played out on my other threads.

The good: going Thursday to pick up a replacement return pump from the good lfs.

My lps is surging to life in the new system. The receding hammer is recovering with astounding speed, and two acan frags that my Sally Lightfoot crab nearly killed are showing meaningful recovery. Even one of the acros that I thought was dead is starting to show color again. Every single piece of coral looks significantly better. Even my ultra acan that was already thriving is taking on new growth. The heads on it are huge!

My odd secret... I'm using water out of my mbuna cichlid tank (insane nitrate levels) to top off my reef. As a system that suffers from low nutrients, the coral is drinking the nitrate up, and I'm able to sustain levels around 5-10, which wasn't possible before.

All the fish seem to be thriving as well, with both the dartfish and wrasse showing off more natural behavior, rather than just aimlessly swimming around.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Couple of updates today:

The lfs that sold me the fish that didn't make it through QT has agreed to replace them. I had to hurry up and setup QT again, as these fish come Friday.

The lfs that setup my system got me a new return pump today. It's a submersible ecoplus 655 ( I know, off brand) but this thing is SSSSOOOO much quieter. I can only lightly hear it when the cabinet is open, and cant hear it at all when the cabinet is closed.

My fish are all a bit freaked out, did a 10 gallon water change (so I could fill QT) and combined with messing with the replacement pump had too many things happening at once. Hopefully they'll be happy again by morning!

 

[Indytraveler83]

Fish issues with new stock is driving me crazy. I guess nothing healthy is coming in right now. Thankfully everything is stable in the display. Despite my fish issues, I started a zoa garden and got a beautiful lime green Monti frag!

 

[Indytraveler83]

A bit inspired by a few other threads here, so I figured I'd start documenting the contents of my system, starting with coral:

Let's start with my longest tenured resident, this GSP colony. I bought it right after my first tank cycled in April about the size of a frag plug. It would look even Fuller, but a rock flowers has taken up residence (hopefully temporary) right in the middle of the colony.

Next is my Ultra Acan (the only "named" coral I own). Got it in June 2019 as one head with a few heads sprouting. Now it's 7 heads and growing fast. Appears to be overflowing off the plug onto the rock finally:

And then comes my wall hammer colony. When I got it, it was a bright purple, but only did fair in the old system. A heater failure started a rapid decline and when I put it in this tank, it had receded off the skeleton about 1/4 the way and was just brown and not extending. Thankfully it has responded well in the new system and is back to its original fullness (maybe a bit better) and the flesh has almost entirely recovered the skeleton: