Taco's 65G LPS Fiesta

tacosricos · Feb 21, 2018

I added a par30 I had laying around to help illuminate the rock tower, which was too shady.

I cut a piece of aquamesh and squeezed it into the baffle. The sump is ready to be a fuge, I'm just waiting on chaeto.
https://flic.kr/p/23cqwhp

tacosricos · Feb 22, 2018

My meeting today was cancelled due to ice, so I've been messing with the tank today. My 3rd dosing head arrived in the mail and I also added a second par fixture to help light the rock tower. Pardon the fuzzy glass...

Corals are doing well.
https://flic.kr/p/23efDr2

tacosricos · Feb 28, 2018

Quick update:

I got rid of the huge chalice that was on the frag rack and did some re-arranging. The chaeto is growing happily in the fuge. I was going to splurge on one of those Icecap 1k gyre pumps, but those funds went towards a new metal halide bulb. I also impulse-purchased a fuzzy dwarf lionfish. I kind of regret limiting my future fish choices so much, but the lionfish is way cool. I'll try to get some pictures soon.

Right now I'm in a waiting period. I'm letting the chaeto grow to size and using up the last of my two-part before switching to the Core7 supplements. My refugium is 15-20% of the display volume, so I will be using the Triton method supplements (as opposed to "other methods") to give the chaeto a kick in the pants.

I'm hoping the larger refugium size will let me get away without a skimmer. Being that there are so few fish I'm not too worried, but I do plan to feed the corals often once the fuge is ready.

Janci · Feb 28, 2018

Did you, by any change, measure your light quantity with a PAR meter?
I am not sure how strong those spot lights are and coral seem to be happy, but even on the pictures the light seems intense.
Just asking... I am interested in peoples PAR results.

tacosricos · Mar 1, 2018

Janci said:
Did you, by any change, measure your light quantity with a PAR meter?
I am not sure how strong those spot lights are and coral seem to be happy, but even on the pictures the light seems intense.
Just asking... I am interested in peoples PAR results.

I have not checked the PAR, but I have been using these lights with these corals for years before this build. The tank receives 5 hours of leds and a 3 hour peak with the metal halide, so the photo-period is relatively short.

tacosricos · Mar 1, 2018

I think the pictures make it look brighter than it is in person.

tacosricos · Mar 2, 2018

Sal- 1.024
Alk- 7.28 (Hanna)
Cal- 424 (Hanna)
Mag- 1290 (Nyos)
P04- 0.01 (Hanna ULR)
N03- Less than 1 (Nyos)

I've been chasing my tail a bit getting the alk and calcium dialed in, but I'm close.
Since adding two softball-sized chunks of chaeto to the fuge, nutrient levels have virtually bottomed out. No3 was fairly low in this tank beforehand, <3ppm, but I was changing out GFO often to keep phosphates under 0.03. I have since turned off my reactor (GAC/GFO mix) because po4 levels were testing 0.

It's been two weeks since the last wc, and so far I'm liking the results. The tank is being fed more heavily than usual (mysis and live ghost shrimp), and nutrient levels are testing consistently low. I am still growing a bit of algae on the glass and a couple of small patches on the rocks, but I'm hoping that once the fuge has grown out a bit more it will outcompete algae in the display.

I bolstered the CUC a bit more to help me. The CUC consists of a handful of hermits and some snails of various species, and a couple of brittle stars.

Janci · Mar 2, 2018

Looking good

tacosricos · Mar 2, 2018

Here are some more iphone pics from today after the halide went out (just LED's):

You can see the algae that's grown on the lefthand side of the tank.
https://flic.kr/p/24LpcT3

This is the maroon clown that came with the tank. When I bought the system I had to go to the sellers house and break it down myself. It had a nice purple tang and this maroon clown in it. The purple tang went into my buddy's 300 gallon system and the maroon clown lived in the sump of my frag tank while I cleaned and got this tank ready.
https://flic.kr/p/24Q7GFH

This is the only other fish in the tank. I've had it for less than a week. It isn't trained on mysis yet so I've been using feeder shrimp.

tacosricos · Mar 2, 2018

Janci said:
Looking good

Thanks!

tacosricos · Mar 3, 2018

I caught the large brittle star robbing corals of mysis last night, so he's gotta go!

tacosricos · Mar 6, 2018

Everything is going well. I've got my dosing dialed in (finally!) and my parameters as of this morning are:

Sal-1.025
Alk- 7 dKH
Cal- 435
Po4- 0

The Lionfish still isn't eating frozen, so I've been sacrificing shrimp from my FW mangrove tank. It's super fun to watch the lionfish hunt them down and smash them. The whole point of the tank is being able to watch feeding behavior, and the lionfish fits right into that scheme. In case you haven't figured it out, I love corals that have an active feeding response, that will rip a chunk of mysis away from the tongs and then devour it. Nature is brutal!

Janci · Mar 6, 2018

tacosricos said:
Nature is brutal!

And I watching and waiting the video and hope to see brutal nature... the lionfish hunting some kind of super shrimp...
Nice fish though.

tacosricos · Mar 7, 2018

Janci said:
And I watching and waiting the video and hope to see brutal nature... the lionfish hunting some kind of super shrimp...
Nice fish though.

Haha, you're right, I need to get a video of that!

tacosricos · Mar 9, 2018

I made it more than 2 weeks without a water change. I did start growing some tufts of GHA that were removed during last night's 15% WC. I finally hung some curtains in my fish room/man cave, which should help keep ambient light to a minimum. I'll snap some photos when the lights come on.

tacosricos · Apr 8, 2018

Everything is going well with the build. My tank time has been limited by the fact that my mother-in-law is currently staying in the fish room, but this has also been a blessing in that it is allowing me to see how the tank performs with minimal attention.

Today's tests came back good, except for phosphate, which is right on the threshold:

Salinity- 1.024
Alk- 142 ppm (7.9 dKH)
Cal- 440 ppm
PO4- 0.03 (my target is < 0.03)

Ph hovers between 8.2 and 8.3 throughout the photocycle.

The last time I changed out the GAC/GFO mix was the 19th of March (20 days ago), so I can tell that the chaeto is picking up some of the workload. The refugium is now about 1/3rd full of chaeto.

I took delivery of my Triton core7 (other methods) supplements. I'm just waiting to use up this last batch of 2-part and I will be going Triton method (sans skimmer). I'll get an FTS here in the next day or two.

tacosricos · Apr 9, 2018

This is just the par LED's, before the halide comes on.

The tank is still very much a work in progress, but I'm satisfied with the direction it's headed.

I cleaned up the fuge for the first time since lighting it, it's getting pretty funky down there -you can see I'm growing lots of hair algae.