Jeff's 150 Build - The Salt Box

[CastAway]

Yes! As far as livestock goes, I like small, and colorful. My favorite fishes are the Midas blenny, Purple Tang, Flame Wrasse, Ranfordi goby and Sunrise Dottyback. My favorite inverts are the Fire Shrimp and Blue Knuckle hermits. My favorite corals are bright and pastel SPS and all Euphyllia.

As showcase species/pieces, I hope it’s the flame wrasse and perhaps a large Stylophora and Seriatopora colony.

I don’t really care for softies, especially mushrooms. (I do love bright Ricordea Yuma’s, Dendronephthya and Nephthyigorgia though)

I do have a stocking list, but it’s a long work in progress. In a month or so, after the tank has initially cycled, I’ll start with a CUC – small Cerith, hermits, Mithrax, and/or whatever seems fitting given the state of things and alga growth at that time. I’m not a big damsel fan, or clown fish fan for that matter, so I’ve been thinking my first fish may be the sapphire damsel. I hear they have a very practical side in that they’ll eat flatworms, and I find them beautiful.

I’m continually researching, and once I have my stocking plan in better shape I hope to publish it herein for help with stocking sequence and compatibilities. My current concerns are with the depth of my sand bed and the idea of wrasses in general, and, the fact that I have no cover as yet. A cover on a rimless just seems counter intuitive to me, and I have not quite come to terms with the idea. I’ve been contemplating a polished acrylic frame with a grove whereby I can mount some clear mesh. Again, I just find them so ugly.

I am sincerely amazed at your generosity in the offer of frags – blown away really. This hobby and hobbyists continually awe me. I would pay shipping and moreover. I’m honored. I sincerely hope to return at least as much generosity as I receive in this endeavor, and cannot wait until I can ship you some treasures. Thanks Todd. I’ll definitely be back in touch on that.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Cool, just let me know bud. Like your intended list so far, huge fan of Tangs and Wrasses myself and just went a little Wrasse crazy lately adding a gorgeous pair of Solar Wrasses, juvenile Yellow Coris and male Melanurus Wrasse. Need to thin the shoal a bit now as have 24-25 fish in my lil 125g Yikes! Looking to re-home my Blochii Tang and Flame Angel that has decided to add LPS to its diet. As for Corals to ship you I have several colorful Seriatopora, Pocillopora, Stylophora species a Rose Milli and couple of other Acros that most have been in my systems for 5 or more years and were in friends systems for at least that before. We had a local infamous Reefkeeper out here named Bob Moore that passed a few years back, he was notorious for his generosity in 'Paying it Forward' and an early inspiration to me. When visiting his home and Reeftank you had to be careful what you said aloud in praise or before you knew it Bob's hand was in his tank breaking a branch off the Acro you were just admiring and saying "here put this in your tank and give it a go" We locally have even  named a beautiful green based with light Blue growth tips Acro in his honor and one of my favorites for above reasons.

Cheers, Todd

 

[CastAway]

Next? ATO! I lost almost a gallon in just over 12 hours. the two gallon per day estimate seems spot on. Need Ammonia and Nitrite tests as well, so I can know what's up. Debated it, but got the skimmer running right off the bat too. Broke it in, and am running it very dry, pulling what appears to be dust off my sand and/or rock - brown, gritty. At least it's humming along. Debated buying some starter culture, but think I may just do the shrimp route instead. Total systems volume turned out to be almost exactly 200 gallons, I was expecting a little more and attribute the difference to displacement by sand and rock.

 

[CastAway]

Day three. Ammonia on the rise! Flipping excited! No discernible NO2 yet. Need a good testing journal/spreadsheet, if anyone has a link. :xd:

 

[CastAway]

Okay, so here's a stupid question; should the skimmer be running during the initial cycle? Could I be slowing things down? Day five, ammonia just now to 1.0ppm and nitrite at .25ppm. Not in a hurry, but just curios...

 

[daytripp01]

Yes let it run so it can break in also !

 

[CastAway]

Just seems like I might be pulling out what I'm relying on to do the cycling "work", things that could be otherwise decaying in the tank and driving the cycle. Heck, same with the filter bags for that matter. Thanks daytripp.

 

[Genesis Corals]

I would keep it off until your ammonia hits zero. After that I would turn it on to get rid of as much excess phosphate and nitrate as possible.

 

[CastAway]

Thanks Genesis! (love your photo's and tank thread btw - totally amazing!)

 

[CastAway]

NH3 and NO2 still climbing. :bigsmile: Smells much better (in my opinion and not my wife's) now that the skimmer is off. So more stupid questions; at what point can I seed some coralline and/or algae? Should I start to see spontaneous algae, or even diatoms, without seeding? I expected to, but with dry rock and RODI water, am second guessing myself now. I've only been testing NH3 and NO2, and think I'll test for NO3 and PO4 starting tonight. I was not going to even bother with other parameters until after my NH3 and PO4 drop off and I have done my first water change. Is this reasonable?

 

[cmaxwell39]

During the cycle I only test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I worry about phosphate and other parameters once the cycle is complete and there is a need to worry about them. That is my personal opinion and others may do things differently.

Congratulations on your patience, research and execution of a well thought out plan. Many would have rushed to finish the project, but you persevered and have done every detail with excellence. This will serve you well as you go forward.

As far as your stocking list, do not try any wrasses without some sort of a cover. With wrasses, it is not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when they will jump. There are also many wrasses that don't require a sand bed to sleep in. The flame wrasse, as with all members of the genus Cirrhilabrus, sleep in the rock work. Just make sure to research the requirements of the fish that you want and you will be fine.

 

[CastAway]

....you persevered and have done every detail with excellence....

Wow. Thanks man! Very glad to know that about the Flame Wrasse. Ammonia dropping now it seems, much quicker than I anticipated. Nitrites at 5.0 ppm! Nitrate at 1.75ppm.

 

[cmaxwell39]

You're on your way.

None of the fairy or flasher wrasses (genus Cirrhilabrus and Paracheilinus) sleep in the sand. Instead they spin a mucus cocoon and sleep in the rockwork. There are a lot of great fish in these two genus, but be careful, they can become quite addictive.

Keep the updates coming.

 

[CastAway]

I ended up making my own testing log in Excel, from scratch. Still working on a few features, like an acceptable range band in my graphing, but, it is serving a purpose already. :wink:

 

[CastAway]

Ammonia still trending down. Nitrite flat at 5ppm (that seems to be as high as the API test will register). Nitrates rising. Diatoms starting. Nice. I love this. Won a NextReef MR1 at a local frag swap over the weekend, that will surely help me battle the phosphates from my Pukani, once I start addressing it. I tested PO4 a couple days ago, for giggles, 0.5ppm.

 

[CastAway]

Hmmm. Day 14. Ammonia at 0ppm. Nitrites coming down I think. The API test seems a little too blunt.

 

[CastAway]

The acrylic lid on my overflow weir has slowly warped since the system got wet. I think I can fix it with a brace on the inside, but was surprised how the moisture seems to have affected it.

 

[CastAway]

Day before yesterday, the foam in my protein skimmer broke and it started running wet. In twenty days, it's never run wet like this. There are only two things that I've done. I switched out one of two filter socks with a new one, right out of the package, and, I placed a piece of coarse foam in my overflow weir to reduce noise. I figured that if it were either one of those things however, the skimmer would have returned to normal by now. Any ideas or suggestions? Is there any way to change the surface tension back, and make my skimmer run dryer? Can't figure this out...

 

[CastAway]

Skimmer still running very wet. No collection of skimmate whatsoever. Ugh. Finally got a second power supply....

 

[daytripp01]

I found where I live in Illinois high-pressure systems and low-pressure weather systems affect protein skimmer's in the wintertime massively. It has to do The amount humidity in the air. So give it a few days and everything should level out back to normal.