Stemick's 120

Stemick · Nov 14, 2015

I'm on my 3rd transfer on my tank transfer QT for the two new tangs. They both are looking good. They seem to be eating to which is good the yellow tang that I bought two months ago didn't eat and starve and died. These guys look fat and happy.

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

It been some time since I have updated this. I will make a couple posting to catch everything up and have made a couple changes to the system, but more progression then changes. Even though I have not update I have taking picture lots of pictures. (Just finding them all and put them in order). I will try and post lots of pictures because who doesn't like pictures.

My last update was on doing The Tank Transfer QT Method on a Tomini and Yellow Tang. They did make it into the display healthy and both are still fat and happy. Both have not shown any signs of illness. My currant live stock includes the Tomini Tang, Yellow Tang, Blue Hippo Tang, Pair of Misbar Black Clown fish,Young Female Green Mandarin Dragonet, Yellow Two Spot Candy Hog Fish.

I did have a male Green Mandarin Dragonet that I originally add to the tank when I first set. I had received him from my brother inlaw that had him for a couple years. He was REALLY fat and happy so I decided to add the female at about six months of keep the male healthy. They both were healthy and no aggression towards each other and about a month and half of haven them both I notice the male was getting skinny so I stepped up add stocking more pods to the tank then usual. The female stayed fat and the male continued to like skinnier. I caught him and add him to my refugium which had more pods then he could dream of. He started to fatten up and will I was gone on vacation he decided that he would leave the refugium chamber and check out the skimmer chamber. Well the skimmer and fish don't go to well with each other.

I'm on the fence on what I want to add next to the mix. I thinking a group of Anthias not sure on which ones though. When I add them I want to add like 4 or 5 at once. I figure if I do that the other fish will less likely to show aggression because of a bigger group of new fish and they will be more likely to school up and play along with each other.

Thats my fish live stock up date, more update info to come.

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

I have taken out the 24" Reefstar LED light and add Two 16" Evergrow/Reefbreeder Nova A6. It gives me a little more coverage and color spectrum then the Reefstar. I'm not getting the deeper color as I was with the Reefstar. I don't know what the Reefstar had as for exact spectrum but it was a bunch of close 1watt white and blues and had channel for blues and channel for whites. Each channel you could control when to come on and when to turn off, no intensity % change.

I traded some stuff to a cousin for the Nova A6 which he bought a couple years ago. The Casing was starting to rust in some spots and all the royal blues and been burned. The blues still turned on but the bulbs was black and I'm sure did not put out much light. I stripped the lights down to the casing and sandblasted the casing and put a couple good coats of rust inhabiting black paint. I ordered new royal blues 445NM and soldered the new ones in place of the old burnt ones. The Nova A6 I Know has 3w LEDs in it. Not sure on what the spectrum of each color is but has green, red, UV, royal blue(Now 445nm RB) , white and I think warm white. The local store that my cousin bought them from did there own costum layout. It has 2 channel one with the most of the blues and then the other with everything else plus a couple blues. You can choose to program them by the hour or half hour. Each hour or half hour you can set each channels %intensity.

Like I said before I'm not getting that deep color like I was getting before when I had the Reefstar up. My SPS is fainter in color. I have turned the light intensity down some which has help a little bit but not like I had before. I still get a ton of growth. I'm sure the color is just not from the lights a couple parameter swing I had could be part of it.

More update to come.

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

The reef octopus 110 NWB with the HY-1000 pump and DIY neck extension is still working magic. I stop using filter socks because it kept making my skimmer go crazy. Now that I don't us them I have not had an issue with my skimmer. For dosing I use a bubble magus dosing pump that I use to dose ALK(Baking soda) Calcium(ME Coral Calcium) and Vinegar. I also have a Two Little fishy reactor that I use for carbon75% to 25% GFO mix. I have two canisters hooked in series but I find it easy to just mix and put in one canister. I change the mixer out once a month.

I dose 35ml of vinegar a day with the Bubble Magus Doser, cap full of ME Amino daily just before lights out for 6 days a week and the 7th day dose a cap full of Seacheam Reef Zooplankton. I feed three 2"x 1" strips of local market bought Nori a Day and hand feed New Life Spectrum Pellets a day. My clowns are the only ones that don't eat the nori so the get plenty of pellets and everything but the yellow tang eats pellets. The mandron is on it's on program and only it live pods thought about taking it out and QT it to try and get it to eat frozen. I might wait till I get another Male and do them both together.

I started out with cheato in the refugium but it kept dying so I switch to Mexican Caulerpa. The Caulerpa does not grow crazy but at a good pace. I use a 12" Finnex Plant+ light over the refugium. I have it programmed to turn on for 14 hours at night. In my over flow in the display I have a mangrove that is about "19 long and 1/2" thick. It probably does not help much but it looks cool.

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

For electronics, equipment, and pumps I have two 200 watt heaters that I run of my Neptune Apex. Using a Jebao DCT 8000 for return pump. I have not measure the amount it pushes up to the four nozzles in the display but it don't seem like much. I wanted and originally planed to plumb in two DCT 8000 in and split the nozzles to two per pump. I never got that far It work this long with just one so for. I'm still thinking of adding another pump. I might go with the Vectra. I use two Jebao RW-8 for a wave makers. Took me a little bit of moving them and adjusting them around to find a flow I liked. Water top off I use a Tunze Osmolator 3155 and a 10 gallon red plastic bin for an ATO reservoir ( the red bin in the pic to the left). I hooked up a float switch to the ATO reservoir to have the apex turn the power off to the outlet that the Tunze is plugged into. My Ro/Di system is a 75 GPD 4 stage BRS that I have add two more stages onto to make 6 stage ( 1 Sediment, 2 carbon, 1 Ro 75GPD, and 2 DI). The water is at Zero PPM after it leaves the RO membrane before it even gets to the Di.

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

Now that most of the behind the scene work is out of the way time to show off what everything works so hard to create. The more bluer picture is of a couple months back and the brighter whiter one is of it two weeks ago. No coral addition mostly growth. I have some picture of the growth stages of some of the coral. Sometime you don't really realize how much stuff has grown in till you start comparing pictures. I wish I would have taken picture of all the corals when I very first put them in. I don't really know where i'm going to put them when I first get them so I don't take a picture thinking I will when I get it places where I want it. Then I get it placed and still don't get a picture of it and next thing I know I'm kicking my self cause it already 3" instead of the original 1".

tj w · Oct 18, 2016

Looking good, nice job.

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

Thanks @tj w , In the little over a year I have had this tank set up it has come a long way. It progressed a lot more then my 52g I had before this in the 3 years I had altogether. Be over double in size I thought it would be a lot more work but it has turned out to be less work and not as finicky. I hope to someday upgrade this to a 6' x 24" x 24" to 30" tall instead of the 4' x 24" x 24" the wall it sits on has bout 3.5' to 4' of dead/ odd space that would allow for the tank to blend into the room better if it was longer.

Darth George · Oct 18, 2016

Stemick said:
I finish staining and sealing the stand and hood. Let it cure for a couple of days. I broke down my brother in laws tank. Took all the coral off the rock and temporally put it in my 52g which is still set up at my old house. My parents are renting it so they're baby sitting it till I get everything moved. They love it.

Now everything is out of the garage and set up in the house. Put down 40 lbs of sand and 40lbs of aragonite. I have not stacked any rock yet just kinda laid it in. I'm just letting it cycle out. Hopefully it won't cycle to much.

The rock that's in it now is rock from my brother in laws tank and rock that I have been cycling out for a couple month in a separate 20g tank. I used almost all the water from both tank. I did a 10g water change on my 52 g and add it to the tank. So about 70g of established salt water and topped off with new salt water.

I hung the 32" reef star over it to give it some light cycle. Once it seem cycled and safe I will broke down my 52g and add the rock and coral to the tank and bring over the rest of the equipment. That's everything up to now. I will Try to post as I make progress.

Looks good!

Darth George · Oct 18, 2016

Stemick said:
Now that most of the behind the scene work is out of the way time to show off what everything works so hard to create. The more bluer picture is of a couple months back and the brighter whiter one is of it two weeks ago. No coral addition mostly growth. I have some picture of the growth stages of some of the coral. Sometime you don't really realize how much stuff has grown in till you start comparing pictures. I wish I would have taken picture of all the corals when I very first put them in. I don't really know where i'm going to put them when I first get them so I don't take a picture thinking I will when I get it places where I want it. Then I get it placed and still don't get a picture of it and next thing I know I'm kicking my self cause it already 3" instead of the original 1".

Nice!

Stemick · Oct 18, 2016

The first color that progress photos is the red planet. It has grown really well for me and is tabling out nicely. The polyp has always been pretty decent and kept it red polyp color. I would like to have the green base. I think it still looks very nice as it is now. It sets higher in the tank more towards the back so it harder to get a picture of the top.

Darth George · Oct 18, 2016

Stemick said:
The first color that progress photos is the red planet. It has grown really well for me and is tabling out nicely. The polyp has always been pretty decent and kept it red polyp color. I would like to have the green base. I think it still looks very nice as it is now. It sets higher in the tank more towards the back so it harder to get a picture of the top.

Great colors!