Tortuga-57 Gallon Oceanic Illuminata Build

[OrthoVet05]

Hey guys! I thought I would post my first build thread here... currently got a 57 gal oceanic illuminata with an Eshoppes 1st gen 200 sump. This is my first hack at a reef system and I have to say that the fun has just begun. Plan to use Randy's 2 part dosing and to add in an ATO at some point. Also, have an older Reef Dynamic IS80 protein skimmer with a Jebao DCT 4000.

Main return pump- Jebao DCT 6000 running at 60%

Rock- ~80# Pukani dry rock (previous muranic acid bath with 1 week bleach bath)

Lighting- 1 Galaxyhydro 165 W BB

Water- RO/DI from Barracuda FX

Substrate- 60# of caribsea Indo-Pacific reef sand

Circulation- 2 hydro koralia 565s in DT

Salt- IO Reef Crystals (for start up and cycling)

Started cycle with Ammo dosing at 2 ppm plus a couple of frozen shrimp

Added in Dr. Tims and one bottle of Activate

API tests


Dry Set up and positioning

Hit an algae bloom around 30 days into the cycle. Ammonia has been 0-0.25 on API, currently nitrites are hanging around 1 ppm.

Current state- Also have had a couple patches of green algae pop up in the past couple of days.





Noticed a good biofilm form on the glass in 2 weeks. Definitely not the biggest fan of the disco light effects... but the BB will do for now.



Currently waiting like a youngin for Christmas day to come with a complete cycle...

 

[OrthoVet05]

Attached is my cycle parameters...

 

[OrthoVet05]

I took a brief hiatus from my tank thread finally getting back to updating. After introducing two Ocellaris clowns, after about 2 weeks, they got Ich! ugh... So QT for 78 days while treating with copper, checked copper levels and maintained appropriate concentrations while keeping DT fallow.

The DT (tortuga) has been holding up like a fortress though during the QT period. Thanks and special shout outs to @Jeeper and @Palyzoa for hooking up me with some frags, kenya tree and zoas respectively. You guys rock and it's people like you that really make this hobby fun to be in and keep it rewarding. I will definitely be paying you guys back in the future with whatever I can come up with. Did have some aiptasia, luckily only around 5-6, that I used Aiptasia-X on which seemed to do the trick.

Have had a few tank uglies: BHA, GHA, and some cyano. Have beefed up the CUC adding in an urchin and hermits as well as a few turbos and added a lawnmower blenny after performing a 48 h blackout period. It seemed like the blackout caused the GHA to lose the color, however, I think some cyano strain managed to outcompete and blew up in the tank. Increased the return pump flow and most recently did around a 25% WC. Shoutout to guys at the LFS for giving me some good advice for dealing with these bugs. Also, I had decreased by light by about 60% over the course of 2 weeks.

Attached are pics as of yesterday afternoon. Still in the early periods, waiting on the good coralline still but we are all holding up pretty strong over here. I am maintaining the drive to overcome these small obstacles to achieve an amazing tank eventually. I know it takes time.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome back!

 

[OrthoVet05]

Welcome back!

Thanks revhtree! It is amazing how much time goes by whilst waiting for diseases to run their course...

 

[OrthoVet05]

Update from this weekend. I rearranged my sump set up, moved the skimmer to the first chamber, and am starting a refugium in the second chamber with some Chaeto today. I got a ruby longfin fairy wrasse, named her Pixie of course haha (girlfriend and I compromised). She is a little rascal and has settled in nicely.

Had some old phosphate buffing pads that I moved.

Attached are pix of the newest addition, Pixie as well as Barnaby the sailfin blenny. Also the clownfish, Phil (common Osc) and Tina (more snowflake), have made their debute into the build thread. Unfortunately these pix are from about 2 months ago of the clowns, and you can see some Ich on Phil. I have since QT them and will add in updated pix tonight.

 

[OrthoVet05]

So update from amateur reef keeper. Our fairy wrasse managed to escape after about 2 days It was a total bummer for us as she was my gf fish, although we mutally agreed to get her. I was thinking in my head for about 2 days, yeah I know they are pretty good jumpers and I have an open top tank. Low and behold, I heard a noise one night and looked all over my tank and couldn't find her. I feel like my black lab found a little snack.

I ended up rearranging all of my rock work in my tank just to verify she hadn't gotten trapped somewhere and feel like my tank looks a little more aesthetically pleasing.

I also modified my sump and made a fuge finally! The chaeto I got seemed moderately filled with some decent hitch hikers, a moderate amount of pods, couple asterinas. I ended up buying a Feit LED grow light from Home Depot for about $10 as well as a small fixture to hang in the fuge. Debated on putting any substrate in as I know its up for debate, but I had some left over rock in my sump that I crushed up into 3-4 inch pieces for increased surface area. Hopefully this chaeto grows pretty well.

This is the updated sump (minus the rock I added in), also the DIY algae scrubber has had some good growth in in it finally!

New rock arrangement in Tortuga. Everything seems pretty happy so far.

Kenya tree has been growing like a weed.

 

[OrthoVet05]

I made it from Mi move in time to update by build thread...

I had a decent move from Mi at the end of June.. I lost a cleaner and peppermint shrimp in the midst of things (peppermint got smooshed by a rock as I was moving it) but Tortuga is back in business.

I finally have great coralline growth on my rock and pods galore, covering all of my rock. I just want to remind everyone that this hobby is a slow growing one. You definitely don’t see results overnight.

For those of you that are contemplating throwing your tank in the garbage or selling out after 8-10 months. I promise you, you are right around the corner from escaping new tank uglies etc.

I am around 9 months and finally all of the cyano has died off, GHA has disappeared.

I went to the LFS and picked up a fromia, chalice and three green chromis to add to Tortuga.

Also I ditched all of the sand I had during the move. Attached are updated pics.

I am currently finding ways to hook up my RO/DI to my shower head for apartment use.

 

[OrthoVet05]

Hello R2R!!!!

Sorry for the longgggg anticpated update for my build thread.... but definitely had to update after the Michigan coral expo and Swap.


I went through some epic times during this past fall after moving to MI. My tank has matured a bit as well as my coral keeping experiences. Figured how to fight the rearing head of ALK swings.

Currently am waiting for PAR meter to come in as I rented one.

I picked up a few more SPS frags at the swap. I have had two frags of purple monti in the system for 3 weeks now that have been doing well. Also picked up a frogspawn with the montis.

Today, I got a birdsnest, a couple zoas, a duncan, acros and a nice rainbow sunburst monti frag.

Have had stable parameters for the past month. Alk is 9-9.5, Ca 450, MG 1700, nitrates 20-40.

Also, added a lemon peel tang to the system a couple months ago.

Thanks to @Colorado Coral for the frags today!!!! Definitely good deals all around.

 

[Katrina71]

Glad to see your tank is doing well!

 

[OrthoVet05]

Glad to see your tank is doing well!

Thank you!!! It certainly has a learning curve and I am definitely still a nube to this whole thing.... wish me luck!

 

[Katrina71]

Thank you!!! It certainly has a learning curve and I am definitely still a nube to this whole thing.... wish me luck!

Absolutely!

 

[OrthoVet05]

Some frag shot action this morning... finally rented a Par meter and found out that I was getting from 700-200 par around various parts of the tank. I made a map and decreased the intensity to about 350 for the upper portion of the tank and about 80 for the sand bed.

I also made such a rookie mistake in keeping my blues on 24/7. Ugh [emoji58] amateur hour. Hopefully now my corals can ACTUALLY photosynthesize. With my blues only on I was getting about 180-250 par.

 

[OrthoVet05]

I am here to say that I have revived my R2R account and that Tortuga has somehow survived 2 moves, from Tennessee to Michigan to Louisiana... I really don't want to move anymore!! Everything is settling in since the move on June 20th...

 

[OrthoVet05]

Update from today!!!

hello all! Have met some good stability in my system.
Since the move from MI last June I got my RO/DI water set up producing a bunch of water at 1-2 TDS which from 400 TDS to 1-2 I feel is great.

Added in some new Fiji Sand about 40 pounds worth 1.5 mos ago.
We also Increased the live stock and bought a Hippo tang, flame angel, and a melanarus wrasse! !!
Parameters have been solid and have a new FTS.
I did notice a glop of purple/clear slime that I am not sure if it’s from the wrasse or eggs or something. Anyone have any ID?


Total livestock is at

1 Flame angel
1 Hippo tang
1 Lemon peel tang
1 melanarus wrasse
2 blue green chromis
2 clowns (osc)
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
1 sand sifting star
1 corkscrew anemone

GSP
Burner Zoas
Green button zoas
Kenya tree
Sponges
Pumping Xenia
3 turbo snails
10 blue leg hermits

I also built a screen for the top for about $20 bucks off of amazon. It took about 1.5 hours.

 

[OrthoVet05]

Update from today!!!

hello all! Have met some good stability in my system.
Since the move from MI last June I got my RO/DI water set up producing a bunch of water at 1-2 TDS which from 400 TDS to 1-2 I feel is great.

Added in some new Fiji Sand about 40 pounds worth 1.5 mos ago.
We also Increased the live stock and bought a Hippo tang, flame angel, and a melanarus wrasse! !!
Parameters have been solid and have a new FTS.
I did notice a glop of purple/clear slime that I am not sure if it’s from the wrasse or eggs or something. Anyone have any ID?


Total livestock is at

1 Flame angel
1 Hippo tang
1 Lemon peel tang
1 melanarus wrasse
2 blue green chromis
2 clowns (osc)
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
1 sand sifting star
1 corkscrew anemone

GSP
Burner Zoas
Green button zoas
Kenya tree
Sponges
Pumping Xenia
3 turbo snails
10 blue leg hermits

I also built a screen for the top for about $20 bucks off of amazon. It took about 1.5 hours.

Here is the purple blob

 

[vessxpress1]

That starfish is cool. The green monti cap has awesome color under that light.

 

[OrthoVet05]

That starfish is cool. The green monti cap has awesome color under that light.

Thanks alot man! That green challice I had actually didn't make it for some unbenounced reason after I went through the SPS failures of changing the ALK and Ca. I feel like I made too many additions from what it was used to and it killed it, along with a bunch of other frags throughout the past year I had acquired. I definitely should have been more patient and added one frag every 2-3 months or so.

Sort of starting over with introducing new livestock at this point.

 

[OrthoVet05]

FTS celebrating Spring Forward!!!!

 

[OrthoVet05]

Tank update.....

I am starting to get this propagation itch, especially with my softies, as how they spread so quickly. Fragged a bit of the xenia today and GSP with Kenya Tree. We will see what makes of it.

Anyone have experience fragging zoas/palys?