Seattle 75, Scratch that, 120 Gallon Build

[rbarr110]

First thing I would do is do find a friend or lfs and do the nitrate tests again with a different test kit to make sure yours is accurate.

I have done the test with a RedSea Nitrate and Nitrite kit. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-nitrate-nitrite-test-kit.html

I also got the Redsea Nitrate Pro kit to test as well. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-nitrate-pro-no3-test-kit.html

Original kit was at 12, new kit was at 16. The 16 reading was done 1 day after a water change. But I will take a sample in as well.

 

[mfinn]

16 ain't bad at all for a new tank.
When you said high numbers, I was thinking 30-40. lol

 

[rbarr110]

16 ain't bad at all for a new tank.
When you said high numbers, I was thinking 30-40. lol

That being said, I thought 16 to be too high (after a water change, guessing it was over 20) and the sudden appearance of film algae all over got me a bit worried that it may get out of control. Suggestions on what route I should go, or am I being overly paranoid?

 

[mfinn]

That being said, I thought 16 to be too high (after a water change, guessing it was over 20) and the sudden appearance of film algae all over got me a bit worried that it may get out of control. Suggestions on what route I should go, or am I being overly paranoid?

I'd get a cleanup crew to take care of the algae.
I also use a refugium and a large skimmer.

Seems everything is taking it's normal course.

 

[rbarr110]

Refugium has marine pure block, chaeto ball, night cycled Kessil H80 fuge light.
Skimmer before refugium is an Aquamaxx FC-180 (rated for 250 light bio load or 130 gallon heavy bio load). My system volume is about 150 gallon, and I would consider a super light bio load at the moment.

My cleanup crew at the moment consists of 3 smallis red-leg hermits, one large blue leg hermit, 2 emerald crabs and there were a 10 cerith snails (but i know some have died as I see a couple empty shells on the sand).
I need to add some nassarius snails for the film algae. Any other recommendations for clean up crew?

 

[mfinn]

I like astrea snails. They can be a pain, but I still like em.
Anything more than just a film layer of algae, then I would go with mexican turbos.

 

[rbarr110]

Went to Barrier Reef in Renton and picked up 20 astrea snails, a new cheap soft coral (not sure what it is, kind of looks like GSP but all white and growing vertical, Xenia maybe), and a scopus tang to help eat the algae. The tang is a bit shy and likes to hide in the shadows (blurry cell phone pics).

 

[rbarr110]

So I have to say that the astrea snails are like little Roomba's vacumming every inch of the tank. My overflow boxes prior to getting the snails were nearly completely covered with algae. As of today, the overflows look cleaner than before I put water in the tank. About 2 weeks ago I also added two new corals. A clove purple and green clove polyp (supposedly from jason fox's collection) and a neon green/yellow candy cane, no pics yet.

And I happened to see one small bulb of bubble algae on the side of the xenia i got a little while back. Time to pull the xenia from the tank to do a little bubble algae surgery.

 

[rbarr110]

So little to update again. Still being lazy and haven't finished the woodworking I want to do. I lost one of my blue-green chromies after I did a 60 gallon water change. Not sure if the water change had anything to do with it, but 2 days after the water change, I came home from work to find the runt of the chromies partially tore up and caught in my WAV power head. I don't know if he died and floated/got sucked into the power head or if the power head killed it.

Anyway....I am still battling high nitrate. I feed minimally, have a very low stock tank still, but nitrate through the roof. Before the big water change I was at 16ppm, now at 8ppm...but I think it is still too high. I am getting a lot of brown organic growth on the rocks and forming quickly on the sand after I vacuumed the sand with the water change. The chaeoto in the sump has hardly grown in the 2+ months it has been in the sump (kessil H80 light for the sump), but getting a lot of hair algae in the sump.

Thinking of dosing the RedSea No3-PO4x nitrate reducer. Any thoughts?

 

[rbarr110]

Little happening on my end here. Still being lazy with some of the last of the wood working still needing to be taken care of. I have finally got my nitrate under control was running in the 12-16 ppm range….but now have been around 1-2 ppm.

What is odd, after I got the nitrate under control, I had a massive algae outbreak and diatoms on the sand. At the same time, I also had (what I believe to be) a cyano outbreak (red, hairy, and slimy). I went ahead and used chemi-clean and about two-thirds of the red/hairy stuff went away, but still a fair amount on my rocks.

As of now, I am just waiting and watching the algae and cyano to see what happens next and if it spreads again. I have read a lot of stuff that states new tanks go through these outbreaks and a lot of the issues fade away….

Tank has had livestock, crabs, snails, fish, and some corals now for about 3 months. Currently working on a permanent lighting support.

 

[rbarr110]

After being 100% sure I wanted to put a hood on my tank, I have completely rethought the need for one based upon how often it seems like I have to access the tank. I think a hood would be in the way and will stick with an open top. So here was the temporary light setup that I was too embarrassed to show...but now that I am getting the new light support setup I will show what I did.

 

[rbarr110]

I made my own bracket to hang teh lights. I eventually want to add a 3rd light, but at the Radion prices, 2 is adequate for now. I made my own brackets using acrylic and various stainless hardware to hang from the cheap wood frame. I was going to buy the Ecotech RMS hardware, but my LFS guy said he had one and he felt like it sagged too much and had felt the bracket system had a hard time supporting the weight of the lights. Also, after pricing it out it the RMS system would have been close to $250. I will post up what I am putting together now in a few days for 1/3 that price.....

 

[mfinn]

The RMS does sag on my 72" long tank. I used a piece of 3/4" x 3/4" steel angle iron to help.
Check out a product called eztube.
I made a frame to hang my xr30's before I got the RMS.

 

[rbarr110]

The new light mount is done. I purchased pre-cut lengths on Ebay. http://www.ebaystores.com/8020incgaragesale
(1) 1"x2"x 4 ft for $24
(2) 1"x2"x 1 ft for $2.50 ea.
(2) 1"x1"x 2ft for $5 ea.
(8) 1x1 brackets $4.72 ea - In hind sight I could have got cheaper knock-off silver ones for $1 each and saved $30
(25) 1/4-20 bolts with washer ( I already had these from other projects) but would have been about $25
Shippig $25ish
Total $126 - but could have been about $90 with cheaper brackets

 

[rbarr110]

Assembled and installed. Just had to drill a few 1/4" holes for the stainless carriage bolt holding up my DIY light brackets. As constructed the lights are exactly 9" off the water surface.

 

[rbarr110]

Frustration with the dang tank. All three of my Blue-Green Chromies have wasted away (started looking thin) and died. What is odd, they seemed to be eating fine. One died a while ago, but it was the runt of the three and thought it maybe wasn't healthy when I got him.

I have been having a ton of brown algae on the sand (dino's?) and been sand vacuuming a lot. My LFS suggested a diamond goby, and he died after 5 days. First day was super active, then stayed in hiding. Checked on him in the AM saw him peak his head out from under the rocks, then when I got home from work later that day he was "sleeping upside down". I think my tang kept him spooked from coming out of the rocks, every time he would start to pop his head out the tang would spook him.

Then over the weekend one of my Cobalt 200W Neotherms exploded in my tank, loud pop and puff of smoke. Pulled it out and it had a long split along the side.

 

[mfinn]

Not sure if I brought this up before, but you should figure a way to setup a quarantine tank for any and all new fish.
It doesn't have to be much.
A 20 gallon tank ( petco $1 a gallon sale), heater, sponge filter/air pump, powerhead ( optional ) back filter a few big pvc fittings.
Set it up for new fish, then take it down when not using if space is a issue.
I keep a new sponge filter going in the sump of my display tank all the time so if I do fall for that impulse buy I can setup the quarantine tank fairly fast.

Bummer about the fish and the heater.
Hope you have a carbon filter/reactor.

 

[rbarr110]

So I have a candy cane coral, that when I bought it had 4 heads, one of which was just starting to split. I believe I got it near the end of July. Since then it had been doing really well and all 4 heads split or are in the middle of splitting, essentially 8 heads now. Within the last 48 hours 4 heads (2 of the original branches) are dieing/receding. The only parameter that is kind or lower than normal is alkalinity. I believe I am at about 5.3 dkh (94 ppm) down from normal of about 6.5 dkh. I have been handling my parameters with water changes as my tank is so low stock, parameters are not depleting very fast. Any ideas what may be causing this.

Heads on the left and back left, receding. Last night right after feeding:

About 3 weeks ago:

 

[rbarr110]

So haven't updated in a long time, so I though I should post something. I am still working on my tank photography skills.... Took them in the evening with the lights dimming, will get more photos later in the light.

 

[rbarr110]