Spicy 56G

swayd · Sep 21, 2016

Well I'm back!
After having to sell my 180 overnight I took a short break from the hobby. Until, a good friend had to get rid of his 56 gallon column tank and I gladly adopted the aquarium.
I took it in and let it sit for about two weeks on my porch. After seeing it everyday, I decided to get to work! I cleaned it up, painted the back black, drilled 4 holes in it and added and overflow over a months time. Even at this point the tank still sat outside for another month before I even brought it inside again. Then, I went ahead and added some plumbing!

Fast forward 3 months, I now have a running tank! I am taking this build pretty slow and am almost to the point of adding fish and coral! The tank has been running for 2.5 months now and has fully cycled. I did lose two chromis, RIP, early on but that only helped the tank move through the cycle.

Now for the list of goods:

Tank:
Marineland 56g column 30"L x 18"D x 24"H
Marineland stand (I had to cut a portion of the shelf to fit the skimmer)
10g sump (no baffles)

Equipment:
Jebao DCT-8000 return pump (overkill)
Jebao RW-8 wavemaker
Ecotech MP-10 wavemaker
Jager 150w heater
SWC Extreme 160 cone skimmer

Livestock:
25lbs livesand
50lbs liverock
1x Trochus snail

I am at the point where I am waiting to order lights. I am leaning towards two Oceanrevive arctic-T247 lights for this reef as I have had tremendous success with these lights, but I am still open to other lights.

Pictures to follow as I do not have any on my phone!

jsker · Sep 21, 2016

Great to have you back. Go with what works best and your budget. I am a firm believer in the AI Hydra HD lights

revhtree · Sep 21, 2016

Welcome back!

swayd · Sep 21, 2016

jsker said:
Great to have you back. Go with what works best and your budget. I am a firm believer in the AI Hydra HD lights

Thanks, I love AIs but have not yet had any experience with them over my tanks. I have seen them in stores and other reefers tanks and they look stunning! I actually just recommended the Prime for my buddies nano he is setting up and he loves it so far.

swayd · Sep 21, 2016

revhtree said:
Welcome back!

Thank you, it is good to be back in the game

swayd · Sep 23, 2016

Here are some dull pics with no light. Tank seems a bit empty but in person it feels like too much rock. I have not yet aquascaped but I want to get that done this weekend!

Oh, as I sat drinking my coffee this morning I noticed PODS. Copepods everywhere!!!!!

swayd · Oct 3, 2016

So I added my light and waited a week to put a coral in and the acro I added did not do good. It was dead by morning. I believe it was my mistake and dipped it for too long in too strong of a solution. I also notice that my tanks temperature drops 4 degrees at night so I ordered another 250w heater to accompany my 75w jager and replace the 100w petsmart heater I was using. I will try some zoas or monti cap next to see how things go. My parameters are pretty stable the only parameter I'm worried about is my temperature swings at night and my nitrates as they are undetectable, but probably because I only have a trochus snail as an inhabitant lol.

jsker · Oct 3, 2016

Usually it is about 45 to 60 days before the system is established enough for adding corals. Arcos like it up high and good lighting. Check you nitrates 3 to 5 ppm and phosphates at a trace to .02ppm. Also feed the corals

I need reef nutrition products.

swayd · Oct 3, 2016

jsker said:
Usually it is about 45 to 60 days before the system is established enough for adding corals. Arcos like it up high and good lighting. Check you nitrates 3 to 5 ppm and phosphates at a trace to .02ppm. Also feed the corals I need reef nutrition products.

I've had the tank running for 78 days now with live rock and live sand. I think my mistake was dipping the acro (needle in haystack acro) in coral revive for too long. I added 2 capfuls to 2 cups of tank water and that was probably way too much coral revive.
I think I am going to just turn off the skimmer for a week or two to see if my nitrates start to rise, I should also get some fish lol.

Thanks!

jsker · Oct 3, 2016

Tank looks good

I just feed heavy, but the fish will help especially run Aquaforest.

swayd · Oct 3, 2016

jsker said:
Tank looks good

I just feed heavy, but the fish will help especially run Aquaforest.

Thanks!

I will look into that, I've never heard of it.

jsker · Oct 3, 2016

Aquaforest work with the principles of using the natural bacteria of the system. The NP Pro is a carbon dose and Pro Bio S is another bactria the brakes down the phosphate and nitrates for food for the corals. I still run GFO and bio pellets since I do feed so heavy

I like fat and happy fish

swayd · Oct 20, 2016

@jsker I have been reading through the Aquaforest system and the results they show are ridiculously insane! I was thinking of going that route but it seems quite expensive at the moment.

jsker · Oct 20, 2016

swayd said:
@jsker I have been reading through the Aquaforest system and the results they show are ridiculously insane! I was thinking of going that route but it seems quite expensive at the moment.

It all depends on the salt and product that one is using now. I have budgeted for $500.00 in chem cost this year for a 81 gal volume system. Since I now mix my own 1+2+3 I have cut that budget by another $175.00. Also it depends on the equipment you have now and going forward the equipment that you would be using for auto dosing. All I use in my system now is reef salt 1+2+3, Np pro and pro bio s. My results have been awesome.

swayd · Oct 20, 2016

Tank update time.

Added some fish finally. I went ahead and got my all time favorite, Leopard Wrasse, and he is eating frozen food. I also swooped up a brilliant Watchman Goby and they are both loving their new home!
And of course I added some more coral! I picked up a orange plating montipora and a spongodes montipora from a local reefer. I also picked up a frag of some type of maul zoa from Neptune Aquatics in San Jose. Now i'm itching to go back and grab more coral

swayd · Oct 25, 2016

So here are some crumby pictures I took of the coral about a week ago. The zoas are unnamed but look like some type of Maul. They are growing super quick and have already popped a new head out in less than a week.
The other is a piece of spongodes I broke off the main frag I have. I found some bubble algae on the rock it came with so I fragged it off and this little piece fell off, this is going to a buddy of mine.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 26, 2016

Looks like you're off to a good start!

swayd · Nov 4, 2016

mdbannister said:
Looks like you're off to a good start!

Thank you!

swayd · Nov 4, 2016

Got some new corals! Went back to neptunes and got some dragon sould favia, a frogspawn and a watermelon chalice! They all look amazing!

I also did this:
I made a big mistake!
I got a toby puffer hoping it would be one of the mellow ones that did not like coral. I WAS WRONG!
The little bugger did fine for a couple of days then he decided that my spongodes was quite tasty. No polyps on any hard coral now and as Im sitting there eating dinner he decides to take a chunk out of my watermelon chalice then the favia! That's when I decided to get rid of him! He is still in the tank but I am patiently/nervously waiting to get out of work to go and remove him and trade him for some chromis or something! I knew he could be dangerous to the coral but the wife definitely knows how to talk me into these types of things!

On an exciting note

I placed an order for three frag packs from Legendary Corals. Two packs for me and one pack for a buddy. I pick up this weekend, I am so excited