Luucky's 100 Gallon SPS build

[Luucky13]

Got the first inhabitants in the tank!

2 X Darwin Clowns (female is a misbar)
1 X Chalk Bass
6 X Trochus Snails
4 X Nassarius Snails
2 X Scarlet Hermits
1 X Red Banded pistol shrimp

Hopefully I can find a watchman goby at some point for the pistol shrimp. During this COVID stuff it's getting tough to find anything.

As far as the cycle goes, because I used 80% live rock, I'm not seeing much of a cycle. I got a little bit of Diatoms for a week, and now a tiny bit of hair algae, but the snails and hermits have taken care of that quickly.

 

[Murica]

Got the first inhabitants in the tank!

2 X Darwin Clowns (female is a misbar)
1 X Chalk Bass
6 X Trochus Snails
4 X Nassarius Snails
2 X Scarlet Hermits
1 X Red Banded pistol shrimp

Hopefully I can find a watchman goby at some point for the pistol shrimp. During this COVID stuff it's getting tough to find anything.

As far as the cycle goes, because I used 80% live rock, I'm not seeing much of a cycle. I got a little bit of Diatoms for a week, and now a tiny bit of hair algae, but the snails and hermits have taken care of that quickly.

awesome! great to see some life in there

 

[Luucky13]

Not much to update. Ready for corals, but have been lazy lately. I added 4 LED strips for some color. 3 X all Blue, and 1 X 50/50 added to the ATI T5 fixture. Custom made a bracket out of 1.5" Aluminum stock. Adds a little bit of shimmer to the T5's. Can't wait to get some corals in here.

Also got a little dosing cabinet from Wayfair. Looks like it will work just fine! Got the Kamoer X4 doser and 4 dosing vessels with the level sensors inside.

 

[Luucky13]

And the view from my makeshift COVID office on the dining table

 

[Luucky13]

Wow.... Been way too long without a post. Life has totally got away from me! Well... Although the tank is fully matured and things are growing awesome, I'll post from where I left off!

So this is the next picture, with some reworked rockwork (Added a bit more). And the next couple of inhabitants.

1 x Yellow Tang
1 x Blue Tang
Green Plating Monti (Purple Rim)
1 head of Frog Spawn

 

[Luucky13]

Final rockwork in place. Temporary powerheads in place.

 

[Luucky13]

Added the Aquamaxx T-2 Calcium reactor, 10# Cylinder and an American Marine regulator and needle valve and a Milwalkee PH Controller to deal with the basic elements.

 

[Luucky13]

Then spruced up the Red Sea Color program containers with some labels.

 

[Luucky13]

Next was upgrading the Chinese supplemental LED's with better Chinese supplemental LED's!

2 x 48" Orphek OR3-120 Blue Plus bars.

Also finally got the Orphek photo lenses and 2 x Maxspect Jump 2K powerheads

Here is the controller board now:

 

[Luucky13]

Fast Forward to January 2021... More corals start appearing.

Green Slimer
WWC YellowTips
Red Dragon
Birds of Paradise
Purple Bonsai Acro
Tri Color Acro
Tri Color Valida
Forest Fire Digi
Green Digi
ORA Pearlberry
Green Torch Coral
Purple Torch Coral
Purple Hornet Zoas
Armor of God Zoas

Also added a Melanurus Wrasse and a Diamond Goby

 

[Luucky13]

At this point, I started having nutrient issues (Lack there of). Things started looking lighter colored than they should have, so I started dosing Brightwell Neo Nitro to raise my Nitrates.

I also got an ICP water test done and noticed very high levels of Aluminum in the system. After doing some research and after finding no other source for the metals, I tracked it down to the Marine Pure balls that I have in the sump. I clearly have way too many in there as my Nitrates are zero, and found out that they can leach Aluminum into your tank.

After removing 90% of the balls in the sump, only leaving a few that I couldn't get where the drain pipes come in, things started to improve. I changed 20 gallons of water weekly, continued the Nitrate dosing and colors drastically improved.

 

[Luucky13]

Fast forward to March 2021:

Additions:

RR Pink Cadillac
JF Fox Flame
JF Frankies Kryptonite
Bubble Gum Digi
RR Red Diablo
Tyree Blue Matrix
Red Planet
Green Dragon
Scripps Acropora
Highlighter Green Plating Monti
Neon Green Candy Cane
Vendetta Paly's
Eagle Eye Zoas
Pink Krak Zoas
Orange Oxide Zoas
JF Tiger Zoas

Top down during a water change:

 

[Luucky13]

Another fast forward to how the tank looks today!

Blues only

Full spectrum daylight at midday

 

[Luucky13]

More shots:

 

[Luucky13]

 

[Luucky13]

Progression picture:

 

[Ryan Avery]

tank looks really awesome man

 

[Luucky13]

Ran out of Coral real-estate... So I had to add another 40Lbs of rock I had curing for a while.

Coral pics to come

 

[Nigel35]

Absolutely stunning tank, well done. Following.