Reef or not to reef

[ylreefer]

Great build thread...really enjoying it. I love your cabinet idea. I’ve run out of space under my DT and an ATO is in my future.

Thank you Ray much appreciated [emoji4]. This cabinet could be built much simpler if you liked. I just had to ensure mine would support the weight of the 18" cube tank that's going on it shortly. Hope it's given you some ideas that you can use [emoji106]

 

[ylreefer]

Hi guys and girls, welcome back lol. OK so thought I'd put this up since the point of this thread is to try and help new reefers with their cycle.

So it's been up for 1month and a few days now, I have 2 ammonia badges in the tank for comparison and I've tested the ammonia with a salifert test kit.

The tank was started with Mb7 and Dr tim's ammonium chloride. When I dosed this Dr tims I was lazy. I didn't want to count 440 drops. (4 per gallon) so I asked our friend Google how many drops are in 1ml. 20 it said. So I dosed 22ml. Ammonia went off the badge to I guess 2ppm as expected.

Over the next 3 weeks that came down now I have another 2 of these badges in other tanks and can see clearly that the sensor is yellow and matches the safe zone. However in this tank it seems either my eyes are bad or they look to be in between yellow and light green. So Id say still about 0.4ppm.

The salifert however shows zero ammonia. I've seen a few people with this similar issue and the general information going out is do a big water change. Now I've decided not to go that route as I believe the cycle will complete by itself given time, thus resulting in a stronger biological base. To add to this I have seen threads regarding the salifert test not working with Dr tim's ammonia, this is my reason for re dosing the tank as I trust the badges more at this point. I'll grab a redsea ammonia test on Wed.

What I have done today is dosed ammonia again to 0.02ppm to see if it can manage to get it down to safe. If this happens I'll do a water change and consider the tank cycled.

I would post a photo of the badge but it's very hard to see the colour on the phone. It looks completely yellow lol.

Current readings are
NH3/4 0.02
No2 0.00
NO3 50ppm

So the point of this post is, if you ask me, a water change isn't necessary during a cycle regardless of the level of ammonia. If you've over dosed a little I'd let it ride out, which it will. If you've grossly overdosed and the level is not moving for weeks then maybe I'd do a water change of say 50%.

So the moral of the story is. Don't overdose. [emoji16].

 

[ylreefer]

Hi guys and girls, welcome back lol. OK so thought I'd put this up since the point of this thread is to try and help new reefers with their cycle.

So it's been up for 1month and a few days now, I have 2 ammonia badges in the tank for comparison and I've tested the ammonia with a salifert test kit.

The tank was started with Mb7 and Dr tim's ammonium chloride. When I dosed this Dr tims I was lazy. I didn't want to count 440 drops. (4 per gallon) so I asked our friend Google how many drops are in 1ml. 20 it said. So I dosed 22ml. Ammonia went off the badge to I guess 2ppm as expected.

Over the next 3 weeks that came down now I have another 2 of these badges in other tanks and can see clearly that the sensor is yellow and matches the safe zone. However in this tank it seems either my eyes are bad or they look to be in between yellow and light green. So Id say still about 0.4ppm.

The salifert however shows zero ammonia. I've seen a few people with this similar issue and the general information going out is do a big water change. Now I've decided not to go that route as I believe the cycle will complete by itself given time, thus resulting in a stronger biological base. To add to this I have seen threads regarding the salifert test not working with Dr tim's ammonia, this is my reason for re dosing the tank as I trust the badges more at this point. I'll grab a redsea ammonia test on Wed.

What I have done today is dosed ammonia again to 0.02ppm to see if it can manage to get it down to safe. If this happens I'll do a water change and consider the tank cycled.

I would post a photo of the badge but it's very hard to see the colour on the phone. It looks completely yellow lol.

Current readings are
NH3/4 0.02
No2 0.00
NO3 50ppm

So the point of this post is, if you ask me, a water change isn't necessary during a cycle regardless of the level of ammonia. If you've over dosed a little I'd let it ride out, which it will. If you've grossly overdosed and the level is not moving for weeks then maybe I'd do a water change of say 50%.

So the moral of the story is. Don't overdose. [emoji16].

 

[ylreefer]

Hi guys and girls, welcome back lol. OK so thought I'd put this up since the point of this thread is to try and help new reefers with their cycle.

So it's been up for 1month and a few days now, I have 2 ammonia badges in the tank for comparison and I've tested the ammonia with a salifert test kit.

The tank was started with Mb7 and Dr tim's ammonium chloride. When I dosed this Dr tims I was lazy. I didn't want to count 440 drops. (4 per gallon) so I asked our friend Google how many drops are in 1ml. 20 it said. So I dosed 22ml. Ammonia went off the badge to I guess 2ppm as expected.

Over the next 3 weeks that came down now I have another 2 of these badges in other tanks and can see clearly that the sensor is yellow and matches the safe zone. However in this tank it seems either my eyes are bad or they look to be in between yellow and light green. So Id say still about 0.4ppm.

The salifert however shows zero ammonia. I've seen a few people with this similar issue and the general information going out is do a big water change. Now I've decided not to go that route as I believe the cycle will complete by itself given time, thus resulting in a stronger biological base. To add to this I have seen threads regarding the salifert test not working with Dr tim's ammonia, this is my reason for re dosing the tank as I trust the badges more at this point. I'll grab a redsea ammonia test on Wed.

What I have done today is dosed ammonia again to 0.02ppm to see if it can manage to get it down to safe. If this happens I'll do a water change and consider the tank cycled.

I would post a photo of the badge but it's very hard to see the colour on the phone. It looks completely yellow lol.

Current readings are
NH3/4 0.02
No2 0.00
NO3 50ppm

So the point of this post is, if you ask me, a water change isn't necessary during a cycle regardless of the level of ammonia. If you've over dosed a little I'd let it ride out, which it will. If you've grossly overdosed and the level is not moving for weeks then maybe I'd do a water change of say 50%.

So the moral of the story is. Don't overdose. [emoji16].

 

[ylreefer]

Hi guys and girls, welcome back lol. OK so thought I'd put this up since the point of this thread is to try and help new reefers with their cycle.

So it's been up for 1month and a few days now, I have 2 ammonia badges in the tank for comparison and I've tested the ammonia with a salifert test kit.

The tank was started with Mb7 and Dr tim's ammonium chloride. When I dosed this Dr tims I was lazy. I didn't want to count 440 drops. (4 per gallon) so I asked our friend Google how many drops are in 1ml. 20 it said. So I dosed 22ml. Ammonia went off the badge to I guess 2ppm as expected.

Over the next 3 weeks that came down now I have another 2 of these badges in other tanks and can see clearly that the sensor is yellow and matches the safe zone. However in this tank it seems either my eyes are bad or they look to be in between yellow and light green. So Id say still about 0.4ppm.

The salifert however shows zero ammonia. I've seen a few people with this similar issue and the general information going out is do a big water change. Now I've decided not to go that route as I believe the cycle will complete by itself given time, thus resulting in a stronger biological base. To add to this I have seen threads regarding the salifert test not working with Dr tim's ammonia, this is my reason for re dosing the tank as I trust the badges more at this point. I'll grab a redsea ammonia test on Wed.

What I have done today is dosed ammonia again to 0.02ppm to see if it can manage to get it down to safe. If this happens I'll do a water change and consider the tank cycled.

I would post a photo of the badge but it's very hard to see the colour on the phone. It looks completely yellow lol.

Current readings are
NH3/4 0.02
No2 0.00
NO3 50ppm

So the point of this post is, if you ask me, a water change isn't necessary during a cycle regardless of the level of ammonia. If you've over dosed a little I'd let it ride out, which it will. If you've grossly overdosed and the level is not moving for weeks then maybe I'd do a water change of say 50%.

So the moral of the story is. Don't overdose. [emoji16].

 

[ylreefer]

OK so this isn't really am update about the 110g, or I suppose it is actually [emoji23].

I'm not going to talk to much about the importance of quarentining fish, Im sure you all know by now that I'm an avid believer in QT. And we all know we should have it so to keep it simple this is just a post to show what I've done for my 110g QT system. Pictures say a thousand words so here goes lol.

Not much to see and that's the point really. Qt doesn't have to be hard or complicated. If fact a plastic storage container with a heater and a Hob or air driven sponge filter is all you need.

If you decide to go with a tank FYI the lid on this QT is Polycarbonate. Don't use Arcrylic as a cover, it's way cheaper but it warps over water so you'll find yourself having to flip the lid every week or so. Polycarbonate doesn't. [emoji846].

 

[ylreefer]

Hey everyone, so a different kind of update here that may clear up some questions I've seen a few posts about and clear up some confusion. Bare with me it's long lol.

So since setting up the 110 I've not been able to get an ammonia reading on my salifert test kit, however the ammonia alert badge always showed ammonia. I trusted the badge and this was reinforced when I found some info online stating that the salifert kit didn't work with Dr tim's ammonium chloride. So I let the tank run. The ammonia alert badge is currently showing 0.05ppm ammonia.

Today I decided to email Dr tim's to ask which test kit would work well with their product. To my surprise they said salifert. Umm. OK. So a few emails back and forth prompted me to run a few tests to be sure each product did what it says it does.

Test 1: ammonia alert badge from a tank showing yellow (safe) I.e no ammonia present was put into the subject tank. Within 10 min it was, reading light green (0.05ppm) suggesting ammonia was present.

Test 2: Dr tim's ammonium chloride x 4 drops in 1 gallon of RODI water and tested with the salifert kit. I got a reading of 1.5ppm orange. (no pic sorry) confirming there was in fact ammonia in the Dr tim's and its working.

Test 3: the subject 110g tank. (pic 1) although the colours seem to be a cloudy lemonade colour in salt water I'd have to say the reading is zero.

Test 4: water from a tank known to be free of ammonia. As you can see the colour is almost a match to that of the 110g subject tank, suggesting that no ammonia is present in the subject tank.

Test 5: 4x drops of Dr tim's ammonium chloride added to 1 gallon of subject tank water resulting in a positive reading of approx 1.5ppm ammonia. Proving that the salifert test can read ammonia in salt water at higher levels.

The conclusion of these tests shows that as the salifert card reads anything below 0.15 cannot be read from the salifert tkits.

This is all clear to see however there seems to be a few mainly new reefers out there who get sonfused about having a reading on 1 device and a zero reading on a test kit.

Hopefully this may help any newbies who are about to cycle their tanks or any seasoned reefers who were unsure which test just work with Dr tim's ammonium chloride.

OK that's all for now guys. Happy reefing

 

[ylreefer]

It's all I've [emoji16].

Yep finally it's all done. The nano live stock was all moved over to the 110g on Friday and sat night. Everyone is happy and doing well, the anthias were very happy to start exploring their new home immidiatly even though it was all done in the dark lol.

The wrasse has finally got his new long awaited permanent home so he's over the moon.

Damsel is out of qt and in with them and the dotty back has been confined to solitary in the fuge for being an a**. I'll decided if I'm going to add him later or donate him to a friend.

But most importantly NO MORE 5 TANKS lol. the wife has a living room instead of an aquarium. Which means I get some peace to. So, all in all the 4am bedtime was well worth it [emoji23].

I've yet to breakdown the nano which I'll be doing tomorrow and I've yet to move the Doser over, not in a major rush as I'm still collecting data daily on the testing of the 110 to see what needs to be dosed.

Well I guess that's it for now then. Updates as and when so catch you all later. I'll leave you with a few pics and a fts.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks awesome! Love the Trachyphyllia.

 

[ylreefer]

Looks awesome! Love the Trachyphyllia.

Thanx caveman. . He's actually want doing so well. Started to reced on the back side got stung by the hammer [emoji85]. Since the dip he's doing OK. No longer receding and now has lots of space. Hopefully it'll make a full recovery

 

[ylreefer]

OK so for thoes of you unaware we have a "FISH STREET" here in hong Kong. Every other shop Is an aquarium of some sort, as well as the ones on the upper floors that you can't get to without going into a residential block.

Anyways I try to stay away from there unless I need something as it usually ends up with me coming home with a much lighter wallet then I went out with lol.

Got a call from an old friend yesterday inviting me out for lunch. And guess where lunch was. Yep. 2 min away from fish St. [emoji85].

Soooooo..... Muggings here for some reason thought it would make sense to just go "check out" what they had [emoji38] OK we all know where this is going so let me just post the pics [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

I think I was well restrained [emoji28]

 

[ylreefer]

OK so a very long overdue update on the 110. Apologies for thoes who have been following, it's been a very productive 6 months, unfortunately not in the way of updates. My bad.

So some ups and down as expected with a reef tank, its been a little over 7 months now since the change over from nano, which was wayyyyy easier to manage by the way lol. No but seriously I wouldn't go back, it's definitely worth it. Which brings me to the reason for this post in fact.

I've run out of real estate for corals, my convincing the wife of the need for a bigger tank was in vain so it looks like I'm planning a rescape in a couple of months when work allows.

Originally the idea was to leave plenty of room for fish, but as it has progressed myself and another chap started a WhatsApp group of 3 local reefers and that group has since grown to almost 20 of us . (some of which are on R2R). now this group do regular meet ups and coral swaps, frag swaps, tank tours and so on. So with the help of this my tank has actually become full lol.

Unfortunately I have lost a few corals along the way, 1 to BJD which was a goniapora, another got stung by a torch and left us, a lobo and a I'm sure there was one other that all didn't do so great when I was away for two weeks. I hadn't set up the Doser and my alk dropped to 6. my xenia melted away but funny enough the Sps are doing very well. One of my return pumps power blocks failed, (yes while I was away to) . But apart from that no real big issues with the system.

With Christmas and Chinese New year upon us there isn't much left to do except sit back, relax and enjoy the tank before I rip it all out and rescape it again so best I give you a look see at how it turns out before I do that. Its been a trip, but I'd do it all over again. To anyone contemplating getting into reefing, the struggles are well worth the reward, as long as you go slow, and let's be fair, if 7 months is called slow I'd say the results can be well worth the 7 months. The secret to a successful reef tank is Slow right from the beginning. If you remember it was almost a 2 month cycle for this tank, although I could have rushed it after 4 to 5 weeks, I didn't and the rexukts have paid off. This tank is so efficient I'm currently feeding 2 to 3 cubes of frozen a day, reef roids about once a week and reef energy A/B once a week, sometimes twice. As well as some pellets for the fish a few times a week. Remember SLOW SLOW SLOW

Well that's about it I guess guys and girls. I'll leave you with a few close ups of some of the old corals and a few of the new ones as well as a FTS.

Happy reefing all and merry Christmas to you.

 

[samnaz]

Tank is looking fabulous! I was actually just wondering about your builds the other day, thanks for the update

 

[ylreefer]

Tank is looking fabulous! I was actually just wondering about your builds the other day, thanks for the update

Hey. Good to hear from you. Yea sorry I been kinda lazy since they app has been discontinued. Things were so easy then lol.

How's your one going. All good I hope.

Merry Christmas to to you by the way

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi guys/girls. Not normally one to post but ive almost got to the end of my build now and I thought it might give some other DIY'ers some ideas. I've also been out of this hobby for over 20 years now and oh my how technology has changed so any suggestions would be most welcome.
I know it looks a complicated mess but I promises it's simple really. First chamber on the back left is the drain down. From there over the first baffle and into 2x 4" filter socks or media cups, under the second baffle into the skimmer section which also houses the bio pellet reactor, over the 3rd adjustable baffle into the return section. The small tank in the top right corner will be the fuge.
Project on hold due to a 2 month out of country trip coming up but as soon as I get things going I'll post some updates.
This is where I am for now though so just wanted to share. P,s this was originally planned as a reef tank. However at the wife's request its now going to be fish only. (not for long though [emoji6]. Secondary nano project already started .

Beautiful, thanks for sharing

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi guys and girls, welcome back lol. OK so thought I'd put this up since the point of this thread is to try and help new reefers with their cycle.

So it's been up for 1month and a few days now, I have 2 ammonia badges in the tank for comparison and I've tested the ammonia with a salifert test kit.

The tank was started with Mb7 and Dr tim's ammonium chloride. When I dosed this Dr tims I was lazy. I didn't want to count 440 drops. (4 per gallon) so I asked our friend Google how many drops are in 1ml. 20 it said. So I dosed 22ml. Ammonia went off the badge to I guess 2ppm as expected.

Over the next 3 weeks that came down now I have another 2 of these badges in other tanks and can see clearly that the sensor is yellow and matches the safe zone. However in this tank it seems either my eyes are bad or they look to be in between yellow and light green. So Id say still about 0.4ppm.

The salifert however shows zero ammonia. I've seen a few people with this similar issue and the general information going out is do a big water change. Now I've decided not to go that route as I believe the cycle will complete by itself given time, thus resulting in a stronger biological base. To add to this I have seen threads regarding the salifert test not working with Dr tim's ammonia, this is my reason for re dosing the tank as I trust the badges more at this point. I'll grab a redsea ammonia test on Wed.

What I have done today is dosed ammonia again to 0.02ppm to see if it can manage to get it down to safe. If this happens I'll do a water change and consider the tank cycled.

I would post a photo of the badge but it's very hard to see the colour on the phone. It looks completely yellow lol.

Current readings are
NH3/4 0.02
No2 0.00
NO3 50ppm

So the point of this post is, if you ask me, a water change isn't necessary during a cycle regardless of the level of ammonia. If you've over dosed a little I'd let it ride out, which it will. If you've grossly overdosed and the level is not moving for weeks then maybe I'd do a water change of say 50%.

So the moral of the story is. Don't overdose. [emoji16].

Don't forget , shine a light behind the badge to get a true reading of the ammonia badge

 

[ylreefer]

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL

So I got round to the rescape a little sooner than I expected. Mainly due to my juvenile emporor angel taking a liking to a few corals. Umm. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off lol. Let that be an experience for anyone who is contemplating any fish for their reef which might not be reef safe. If your not prepared to rip the tank apart id say don't risk it.

Now then, onto business. So as you can see from the photos in reverse order, it was about 5 hours of work all in.

Step 1, turn off skimmer, pumps and all. fill sump from tank to max capacity.
Step 2, fill holding buckets for fish, 2 in my case.
Step 3, fill holding boxes for corals big enough to keep them from touching each other.
Step 4, fill holding buckets or boxes for rocks and a few other buckets. Save 60% of your old water if possible.
Step 6, remove all corals to holding.
Step 7, remove all rock structures. Taking care to ensure no fish come with them.
Step 8, romove all fish and inverts to holding.

Holding buckets had heaters and airstones for fish and heaters and small pumps for corals.

Step 9, clean tank with remaining water then drain.
Step 10, wipe dry the tank to ensure no tiny bits of sand or rock left to sit under new rock structures. (You don't want to crack the base.)

Step 11, coffee break, hell yeah.

Step 12, refit rock structures as desired.
Step 13, swith on return pump to push up the water in order to get the sump. To its usual running level.
Step 14, refill as much old water as your not using for holding stock so you can start placing coral. Add NSW if this isn't enough to cover the rocks at least to get you started.
Step 15, as you add corals, (I would avoid glue anything just yet,) put the holding water back in the tank from the coral boxes.
Step 16, once all coral and holding water is in, top off with NSW to fill level. Now you might want to view the coral placement and adjust or glue as needed.
Step 17, switch on system to get the temp regulated, once this is complete add the fish.

Best not to add the water back that you used to hold the fish as it will have some ammonia by the time you finish if you had a number of fish in 1 bucket.

And that my friends is about that. Hopefully this post is of some use to anyone thinking of doing a rescape. It's not as tough as it sounds and the effort is well worth it, especially if you have a coral munching fish .

Side note, each person will have his way to undertake this task and this was just the way I did it. The key is not to rush, plan things out before you start and take it slow, you should be able to acomplish what you are looking for without any real issues or loss of life.

OK time out. Need to steam the Xmas pudding.

Cheers everyone have a great new year.