PapaWhisky's 100.3 Waterbox Build

[PapaWhisky]

It was a great weekend for the tank! I procured some awesome frags from a wonderful member of the local reef club. It was a mutually beneficial meeting as her tanks were overcrowded, and mine was bare so it worked out well. I was able to get a beautiful frag of a two colored hammer (one of my all time favs), two nice rocks covered in zoas (Thundercat and Fire & Ice), a red monti, a beautiful Poclliopora colony, some huge Cinnamon Grandis, and some Superman Rhodactis. Also picked up a pair of onxy clownfish which are now in the jail... I mean the quarantine tank

Sorry, no pics of the zoas because they are still mad. Took these pics using a filter - I think I prefer my dedicated photo light settings better. And the clowns have been dubbed "Hank" and "Dean".

 

[nickkohrn]

That hammer looks beautiful!

 

[PapaWhisky]

I just realized it's been two weeks since posting on the build. Had a slight scare with the tank. After 3 days my new hammers closed up and wouldn't come out, along with my Duncan. I suspected, having seen something similar in my previous tanks, that my trace minerals, esp iodine, must be low. I hadn't been dosing with the Triton solutions much as there has not been any significant update with the small amount of corals I have at the moment. Then I remembered all the gunk I had taken out of the tank during the "battle of the slime". Anyway, I dosed for two days and also added some supplemental Iodine. 3 days later everyone was out and happy again.

New tank additions: Green BTA, a sally lightfoot crab, 3 blue leg hermits, and an emerald crab.

Also noticed an explosion of pods in the tank. Along with the typical pods, there was a profusion of non-motile white specs on the glass. Put one under the scope and added some dye. Anyone know what this guy is?

 

[Ruben's Reef]

!!! Looking great !!! I like the rock work.

 

[PapaWhisky]

Well, I knew it was too good to last. Finally got my first algae explosion. I've been trying to get my P & N levels up above zero by feeding a little more heavily and also bought some reef-roids for spot feeding. That seemed to backfire, as I still am at zero but now have a nice batch of algae growing everywhere. Backing off now until things equilibrate again. Looks like a have the whole spectrum; green, brown, and red algaes. But all the corals have perked up, so not altogether a bad thing. Guess it's time to add some more snails again.

 

[nickkohrn]

I’m going through the same thing. I can’t feed enough to get nitrates and phosphates above zero. I ordered some products to start dosing because I noticed that the heavy feeding was causing ammonia spikes. I had to do a three-day blackout to fight back dinoflagellates.

Have you thought about dosing nitrates and phosphates?

 

[PapaWhisky]

I’m going through the same thing. I can’t feed enough to get nitrates and phosphates above zero. I ordered some products to start sowing because I noticed that the heavy feeding was causing ammonia spikes. I had to do a three-day blackout to fight back dinoflagellates.

Have you thought about dosing nitrates and phosphates?

Yes, I tried that too, but it only seemed to aggravate the algae bloom. Will try again after the tank settles down.

 

[Adashek1994]

Any updates ?

 

[PapaWhisky]

I apologize! It's been forever since my last update. Between work, family, and being sick as a dog for most of December, I just have not been able to update. Well, it's 2019 and I will try to be better!

A lot has happened since my last post. Obtained a few more corals (an Elegance, a Tooth, a few Acans). I've updated my sump with an ATO (love love love!) and a Kessel H160. Moved my two Clowns (Hank and Dean) from the QT into the DT. Love them - always on the move and full of personality.

And now for what you really want - Pictures! All except the second pic are taken with my "Photo" light program.

 

[Serum153]

Any updates @PapaWhisky? I just ordered my 100.3+. I also went with 2 mp40qwd and thinking I hsould have just went with one..my return pump is the Ecotech vectra s2

 

[Cmooreinor]

Any updates @PapaWhisky? I just ordered my 100.3+. I also went with 2 mp40qwd and thinking I hsould have just went with one..my return pump is the Ecotech vectra s2

Two mp40s are good. I have two on my 100.3! It's a great tank. Love it!

 

[Serum153]

Two mp40s are good. I have two on my 100.3! It's a great tank. Love it!

Ok nice...Back wall or sides?

 

[PapaWhisky]

Wow! So..... it's been almost two years since I've done an update. (I am so embarrassed). But there has been a good reason for this. For the past two years my employer has been going to move me to another state. Any month now. For two years. So I've basically been keeping the tank in a very low nutrient state to minimize growth to make it easier to tear down and transport everything. But it looks like that is not going to happen, so I've started ramping up nutrients, supplements, feeding etc.

I'm still doing the Triton method, which I love. So little maintenance needed. Once a month I cull the algae in the sump. I fill up the TO tank every few days, and the tank basically takes care of itself besides daily feeding.

Some corals have come and gone. My two clowns died within a week of each other a few months ago, but the other fish have been super healthy. My Sally Lightfoot crab just keeps growing!

Equipment has been stable, no problems there. I've added a AI Nero 3 which I love, and plan to add another to replace the generic one (on left).

I'll post some better pictures soon.

 

[PapaWhisky]

Thanks to winter storm Uri we were out of power for over 72 hours and the house got down to 48F. The tank is completely dead. They only thing I've managed to save thus far are some extremely hardy brown palys and maybe my two elegance corals. And my lightfoot Sally crab. Trying to decide if I'm going to rebuild from scratch or cut my loses and convert the tank into a FW planted...