Hello Fellow Reefers,
Im a bit too late for the building thread as it is already running and I didn't take photos when doing it (too excited
). I started the hobby recently, few months ago, with a 20 gallon nano tank that had 1 yellow tail damsel, 2 clowns, and a sand sifting goby. I found it too small to house any other fish and also the maintenance of the tank starting taking a lot of time. I decided to upgrade to reefer 525 (110 gal) as this will give me more room to add fish and I can run reactors and other equipments to reduce the maintenance needed.
I ordered it and it took few weeks and it was ready. I setup the tank, got 100 pounds live rocks from fiji, and I let it cycle. After cycling, I was amazed of the amount of hitchhikers that came along the rocks, some of the hitchhikers include RBT Anemone, several species of crabs, bristle worms, brittle stars, copepods, etc.. I was so happy they survived the 40 hour journey and 2+ weeks of high ammonia levels.
The main components Im running for tank are:
2 x gyre 230
biopellets for nitrate
iron oxide reactor for phosphate.
Dosing pump which dose triton core7
The rest of the equipments are the typical, filter socks, skimmer, some biomedia (including marine pure) for added bio filtration, ATO system, etc..
After the tank cycled (with the aid of live bacteria in bottle and live rocks) algae started blooming and hitchhikers started appearing. I started stocking the aquarium with fish and I added my previous fish in the nano tank. I also started adding corals slowly.
All was looking great and was happy by the way it was looking out, until I added a flasher wrasse. It was a velvet carrier and disaster starting happening ever since. Within few days half the tank was infected. I started adding "reef safe medication" and I though it worked but it was just the parasite running through its cycle. I lost most of my fish, only few survived, and learned the hard way that only limited amount of medication actually work and they are never reef safe.
Here is a video of the tank prior to the outbreak, it was still relatively new with corals only from the nano tank.
Here are few pics after the outbreak and some of the surviving fish
Since I ripped the reef tank to catch the remaining fish, I decided to QT the corals in separate tank and restart the reef tank. I removed all the equipments and LR and sand and basically everything in the tank and let them dry for a week. In Dubai it reached well above 110 probably even 120, so I decided that drying will be enough to eliminate the parasites without the need of bleach or acid.
I repeated the whole cycle and got it cycle. This time I changed my QT style after I read about TTM, so now I QT using paraguard or acriflavine bath (sometimes I dose it too during TTM few hours prior to transfer) then TTM then 2 weeks observation.
Here is the tank during the cycling process
So far my tank is FOWLR tank waiting to finish QT the corals so I can add them back.
The fish list so far is PBT, Yellow Tang, Spotbreast angelfish, Six line wrasse, fire fish, and sand sifting goby. Im currently traveling, but when I come back, I should add few more fish, mainly smaller fish like clowns, chromis, cardinal, and a wrasse or two more. I will keep the thread updated with the new modification to the tank (especially after I come back I think I need to perform a lot of maintenance on it) and also the new fish and coral and the adjustment needed for them. Ill also add the setup, the equipements i use and some other misc items.
Hopefully things workout for the best
And as always,
Happy and Safe Reefing
Im a bit too late for the building thread as it is already running and I didn't take photos when doing it (too excited
). I started the hobby recently, few months ago, with a 20 gallon nano tank that had 1 yellow tail damsel, 2 clowns, and a sand sifting goby. I found it too small to house any other fish and also the maintenance of the tank starting taking a lot of time. I decided to upgrade to reefer 525 (110 gal) as this will give me more room to add fish and I can run reactors and other equipments to reduce the maintenance needed. I ordered it and it took few weeks and it was ready. I setup the tank, got 100 pounds live rocks from fiji, and I let it cycle. After cycling, I was amazed of the amount of hitchhikers that came along the rocks, some of the hitchhikers include RBT Anemone, several species of crabs, bristle worms, brittle stars, copepods, etc.. I was so happy they survived the 40 hour journey and 2+ weeks of high ammonia levels.
The main components Im running for tank are:
2 x gyre 230
biopellets for nitrate
iron oxide reactor for phosphate.
Dosing pump which dose triton core7
The rest of the equipments are the typical, filter socks, skimmer, some biomedia (including marine pure) for added bio filtration, ATO system, etc..
After the tank cycled (with the aid of live bacteria in bottle and live rocks) algae started blooming and hitchhikers started appearing. I started stocking the aquarium with fish and I added my previous fish in the nano tank. I also started adding corals slowly.
All was looking great and was happy by the way it was looking out, until I added a flasher wrasse. It was a velvet carrier and disaster starting happening ever since. Within few days half the tank was infected. I started adding "reef safe medication" and I though it worked but it was just the parasite running through its cycle. I lost most of my fish, only few survived, and learned the hard way that only limited amount of medication actually work and they are never reef safe.
Here is a video of the tank prior to the outbreak, it was still relatively new with corals only from the nano tank.
Here are few pics after the outbreak and some of the surviving fish
Since I ripped the reef tank to catch the remaining fish, I decided to QT the corals in separate tank and restart the reef tank. I removed all the equipments and LR and sand and basically everything in the tank and let them dry for a week. In Dubai it reached well above 110 probably even 120, so I decided that drying will be enough to eliminate the parasites without the need of bleach or acid.
I repeated the whole cycle and got it cycle. This time I changed my QT style after I read about TTM, so now I QT using paraguard or acriflavine bath (sometimes I dose it too during TTM few hours prior to transfer) then TTM then 2 weeks observation.
Here is the tank during the cycling process
So far my tank is FOWLR tank waiting to finish QT the corals so I can add them back.
The fish list so far is PBT, Yellow Tang, Spotbreast angelfish, Six line wrasse, fire fish, and sand sifting goby. Im currently traveling, but when I come back, I should add few more fish, mainly smaller fish like clowns, chromis, cardinal, and a wrasse or two more. I will keep the thread updated with the new modification to the tank (especially after I come back I think I need to perform a lot of maintenance on it) and also the new fish and coral and the adjustment needed for them. Ill also add the setup, the equipements i use and some other misc items.
Hopefully things workout for the best
And as always,
Happy and Safe Reefing
