Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence

[zachxlutz]

UPDATE TIME!

• Loving the new Hannah Alkalinity tester. So easy. So fast. Very precise.
• Loving the random flow from the gyres. I'm running them on random with a max pulse of 80%. Not sure if the flow scales lineal or not, if they do, I'm getting alternating random flow in the tank anywhere from 3200 GPH to 6880 GPH. That's 26.7x to 57.3x turnover. Works for me!
• Not seeing any noticeable PO4 or NO3 in the tank using the new Red Sea test kits. I really like the rotating color chart for comparison, it makes reading the results very easy.
• Still working out how to mount the auto feeder from Eheim. It doesn't fit over the trim on the 120 and with the canopy... not sure what to do.
• Looks like I'm getting some growth with the corals, hard to tell but everything is looking great. I'll work on a FTS soon. I still need to get all the frags off of their plugs and mounted permanently. I'm waiting on a coral propagation kit from BRS to do that. Should have it Wednesday.

New Additions:

4x Bartlett's Anthias - currently hanging out in the QT tank. They'll eat anything. Frozen food and pellets. Looking healthy and fat! Can't wait to get these guys in the DT. They came from Atlanta Aquarium and I was told they had them for a couple of months so I'm hoping the QT process goes smoothly and I can get them in the tank ASAP. I'm not doing any prophylactic treatment, just observing for now.





Macroalgae coloration question:

The macros in the refugium experienced quite a bit of growth earlier on but have seemingly slowed down or stopped growing altogether. I attribute that to the lack of PO4/NO3 in the water? The red gracilaria has very little red in the new growth. I think I read somewhere that this could possibly be due to a lack of iron in the water?



Thanks for following along!

[Michael Hoaster]

Beautiful fish! Now we need a video from you, showing how those gyre pumps are working. It sounds like your macros have sucked up most of the nutrients in your water. You should prune them, so you export the nutrients. Otherwise they will dump them back into the water to fuel new growth. Observing your macros will be helpful in understanding your nutrient levels.

Your tank's coming along well!

[BigDave]

Coming from a planted aquarium... yes. red is usually a sign of the amount of iron in the water.

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Beautiful fish! Now we need a video from you, showing how those gyre pumps are working. It sounds like your macros have sucked up most of the nutrients in your water. You should prune them, so you export the nutrients. Otherwise they will dump them back into the water to fuel new growth. Observing your macros will be helpful in understanding your nutrient levels.

Your tank's coming along well!

Thanks, I'll work on pulling some of the macro out soon... I'd like to let it fill up the refugium some more. Maybe, I'll be a little heavy handed on the feeding and fatten these crazy clowns up some more. How would I know if the macros are dumping the nutrients back in the water? Stagnant growth?

Michael... Ask and you shall receive! I set up my iphone to capture the tank from slightly below to show off the surface turbulence and I think you'll be able to see the clownfish taking a ride on the waves as they crash through the tank. It's not hectic in there but it is random and pretty strong. I'll make another video sometime when I feed the tank. Maybe tomorrow.



Be sure to watch in 1080p.

Originally Posted by BigDave

Coming from a planted aquarium... yes. red is usually a sign of the amount of iron in the water.

Out of curiousity, I'm going to do a little bit of research on optimal levels of iron in the reef tank and then check out if my LFS has an iron test kit. Just for giggles I'd like to see if it's really an iron deficiency in my tank or if it's just a lack of nutrients in the water for the macros to uptake. I've been keeping up with water changes roughly every 2 weeks, so I do doubt that the iron levels could be that far off. We'll see.

[Michael Hoaster]

You'll know they are dumping nutrients back, when they shrink or die back, or break into smaller and smaller pieces.

Cool video! The clowns look like they are having fun. Strong current is good for the fish.

There are some good articles on the subject of iron and reef tanks. Feeding your fish more food, as well as increasing the bio load will help the plants.

[zachxlutz]

More to come later...

[Justin330]

Looking good

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Justin330

Looking good

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Thanks! I'll have a full update coming soon with everything that's been going on with the tank over the last few weeks.

[Justin330]

Can't wait to see it. Ill following this thread.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[zachxlutz]

The tank is now running an ATI Dimmable Sunpower 8x54w that I picked up from a member of our local reef club. I added a nice piece of 1x8 lumber drilled to the joists on the ceiling for a nice strong mounting point for the single hanging points on either side of the fixture. I still need to put a coat of paint or two on it to get it to match the ceiling and blend in.

I'm much happier with this cleaner more modern look. I'll be lowering the fixture over the course of the next few weeks and replacing the bulbs and seeing what combination I like. I'm already much happier with the appearances of the coral and the fish.

Speaking of fish, three of the Bartlett's Anthias made it through the QT process. One of the females succumbed to some sort of fin rot. The other three looked healthy and ate like pigs so at the end of the observation period we acclimated them to the main tank and set them free. They quickly took over one of the island areas as their own and have been swimming in and out of the rocks as well as swimming against the alternating gyre current in the tank. They're super fun to watch... I hope they do well together. They seem to be playing nice for now. One is clearly male, one is pseudo-male and the third appears to be fully female... as near as I can tell from google and reading about their markings and colorations.

The tank is doing well. I'm seeing constant cal/alk levels from the BRS 2 part dosing system running through the reefkeeper controller. I'm dosing 2ml of Red Sea Coral Colors ABCD daily and feeding fairly heavily a couple of times a week as well as normal feedings of mysis and pellets. I'm not seeing any nitrates and seeing slight levels of phosphates. Highest I saw was .08, swapped out the GFO and it's been dropping again. Trying to find a happy medium for bringing nutrient levels up a little without going overkill.

I'm currently researching what our next fish additions should be. I really like the bright and colorful reef safe wrasses I've seen around. I think I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for one.

[zachxlutz]

I guess I didn't post an update regarding the BRS 2 part dosing system I set up. Pretty simple but effective. Each dosing pump has a timer channel set up to turn it on for a set period of time every 30 minutes depending on how many ml of each ill be dosing. I'll snap some pictures and post the inside of cabinet and the dosing setup.

I'm also 90% of the way done with finishing the stand. I need to sand a few more edges and put a few coats of epoxy paint on it and then I think I'll finally be able to sit back and enjoy the tank. For a while. Maybe.

I do have a new sump design in mind...

[BigDave]

Originally Posted by zachxlutz

I guess I didn't post an update regarding the BRS 2 part dosing system I set up. Pretty simple but effective. Each dosing pump has a timer channel set up to turn it on for a set period of time every 30 minutes depending on how many ml of each ill be dosing. I'll snap some pictures and post the inside of cabinet and the dosing setup.

I'm also 90% of the way done with finishing the stand. I need to sand a few more edges and put a few coats of epoxy paint on it and then I think I'll finally be able to sit back and enjoy the tank. For a while. Maybe.

I do have a new sump design in mind...

Just remember to get some Honey-Do's out of the way first.

I'm pretty sure my wife is ready for me to be done with the tank. She made a comment over the weekend about it, "Taking another weekend".

She's making me a list of things to do for her once I finish getting paint on the sides of my stand.

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by BigDave

Just remember to get some Honey-Do's out of the way first.



I'm pretty sure my wife is ready for me to be done with the tank. She made a comment over the weekend about it, "Taking another weekend".



She's making me a list of things to do for her once I finish getting paint on the sides of my stand.

In the midst of all this reef tank hoopla we've been doing a boat load of work to the house too. It's constantly something around here. Door knobs, curtains, blinds, hanging art, etc, etc.

Fortunately, my gf enjoys the tank quite a bit and understands that all the time spent on it.

[zachxlutz]

A little info on the dosing set up: It's just two of the BRS dopers each hooked to an individual outlet on the reefkeeper. Each channel has a multi-timer set to start at a set time and dose for X amount of time and then pause for X amount of time and then repeat the whole cycle X times. It's fairly easy to set up after a little mathematical wizardry. The caps were drilled on the BRS 1 gallon jugs and a RO/DI type of fitting was installed with a piece of rigid tubing inside the jug and flexible leading to the doser. The dosing line holder is made from 3/4" pvc that I slotted and then drilled some holes in. It's simple, effective and cheap. I enjoy the DIY aspect of the hobby just as much as the husbandry.





I do need to tidy the lines up a little, i'm thinking some velcro cord management straps might do the trick. Always something on the list.

[zachxlutz]

Coral Surgery Day + New Frag Day + Water Testing and Dosing

Coral Surgery Day:





The tissue recession on the Mystic Sunset Montipora was continuing to get worse so I decided it was time to take some steps to help prevent it from spreading any further. I popped the coral off the rockwork relatively easy as the frag plug that it's encrusting over is very smooth on the bottom and didn't have much to adhere too. A little bit of newly encrusted coral was still attached to the live rock when I pulled it out, so we'll see how that little TEENY TINY frag does.

Pulled the frag out and went to work with the pliers and then set the coral in the Coral Rx dip with the powerhead.



A close-up of the epoxy and chunks of coral skeleton I was able to break off showed no signs of montipora eating nudibranchs or eggs. I didn't see any floating around in the dip water either. Fingers crossed we don't have those.



A close inspection of the piece I'm hoping to save showed no signs of nudis or eggs. I applied super glue gel to the edge of the coral I cut in order to hopefully stop the spread of whatever is causing the recession.

I put the coral back in the tank on the sand bed to be able to close observe over the next couple of days. In just a few hours the coral was back to it's normal self with great polyp extension and showing good color.



We'll see if the tissue recession rears it's ugly head again.

New Frag Day:

Picked up these two beauties at Atlanta Aquarium. Resting on the sand bed currently while they acclimate to the light. I'm hoping I can keep these as bright and fluorescent as they currently are.



Two new montiporas. Montipora setosa and Montipora spongodes. I really love the fluorescence of the red/orange Setosa. It doesn't come across in photos as much as it does in person.


Water Testing and Dosing:

I've been monitoring Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Iodine, Iron, Potassium, Phosphates, Nitrates fairly closely.

I've been dosing Coral Colors ABCD at 2 ml/daily.

My Iron levels will not register on the test kit, I've dosed up 30ml once and attempted to maintain some level of Iron with the 2 ml of Coral Color part B. I dosed 30ml again today and will test tomorrow to see how that is looking. Red Sea's Iron levels are a little scary to try and reach... 30ml is a lot of brown liquid. 30ml should be raising the Fe levels from 0 to 0.05. I wonder if the low iron levels in the water are what lead to the red gracilaria macro in the refugium withering away to nothing or if it was just outcompeted by the chaeto.

I've read up a bit on dosing these trace elements and I understand the skepticism in dosing. It's really hard to point to which aspect of our tank husbandry is causing whatever potential "gains" we think our tanks are seeing.

The other testable levels, Potassium and Iodine are a little higher than Red Sea's target numbers so I'm going to pull the dosing back to 1ml/daily. I'd rather underdose these trace elements than overdose.

Nitrates are continually coming up 0 on the Red Sea kit. I think the ever expanding ball of chaeto in the refugium has something to do with that.

Phosphates have been as high as .06, but are now hovering around .03 or .04.

I'd really like to get the nitrates a little more detectable in the water as I think the coral could use just a hint of nitrates.

[zachxlutz]

Random Photos aka "I Want A Macro Lens":
















12/04/2016 FTS:



I'm incredibly happy with the T5 lighting so far. I can't wait to get the tank acclimated, pop in the new bulbs and see how it will continue to do. The corals are looking great and healthy and the ones that have browned out are coloring up again!

The three anthias that made it from QT to the DT have been doing great. They appear to be playing nice enough with each other. There are some signs of aggression but none of it is leading to excessive hiding or injuries. I think the large amounts of caves in the rock work allow for enough space for all three to get along. We'll see... they're beautiful fish and watching them all swim in the open current together is mesmerising. The largest male out of the three loves to show off and pop all his fins out. The pseudo-male and the female just have to get out of his way when he comes barreling around the tank.

[Michael Hoaster]

Man your tank is coming along nicely! Is that a stylophora top-right? It almost looks like a tree sponge.

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Man your tank is coming along nicely! Is that a stylophora top-right? It almost looks like a tree sponge.

Thanks!

The red-ish/pink-ish branching frag on the top right rock structure is a Montipora digitata. It's got great polyp extension but the colors are a little pale, I think it's partly due to it being so high on the rock structure and still acclimating to the T5 lighting. It's showing great growth and is already encrusting over the superglue used to attach it. Good growth outweighs pale colors at this point in time, in my opinion.

I think the dull colors/pale colors on several of the frags is just due to the newness of the tank and as it matures I think things will begin to color up much nicer. I'll continue monitoring all my levels in the tank and provide as much of a stable environment as I can. 20% w/c tonight and I'll recheck all my levels to see where things are sitting after the change.

I forgot to add that I recently started using hw-Marinemix Reefer salt and I've been really happy with the quick mixing and clean water it creates. I'll do some quick cal and alk tests on it tonight before I add it to the tank.

[zachxlutz]

I did an approximate 17% water change last night and took some baseline measurements of the freshly mixed saltwater before I added it to the tank.

The hw-Marinemix Reefer salt mixed up to 8.4 dkH and 460 ppm at 35 ppt / 78º F.

These are very close to the parameters I try to keep in the tank. BRS has the salt mix listed as coming up to 9 dkH and 450 ppm. That works for me.

The montipora I did some cutting on shows no signs of bleaching around the part I removed, I'll continue to monitor before I glue it back on the rock.

[zachxlutz]

We just love watching the tank grow and mature!

[Michael Hoaster]

Cool pic!

Hey, I noticed some tiny hints of green in some of the previous pics, which is expected of course. Is your crew up for an algae battle? In my experience it is better to have a variety of herbivores in place BEFORE the green invaders come calling. That way they KEEP it at 'just the hint of green' level.

Just a thought. Keep up the good work!

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Cool pic!

Hey, I noticed some tiny hints of green in some of the previous pics, which is expected of course. Is your crew up for an algae battle? In my experience it is better to have a variety of herbivores in place BEFORE the green invaders come calling. That way they KEEP it at 'just the hint of green' level.

Just a thought. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for pointing that out... You noticed correctly.

GHA has started popping up in the last week or so. It first showed up on the gyres and has started taking off on the back wall. The live rock and sand bed has been fine.



I think the CUC in the tank is a little weak. I ordered from reefcleaners.org pretty quickly after setting up the tank. The pre-assembled crew I chose was for a 70 gallon tank as I didn't want to starve them with the tank being so new when I added them. I wonder if it's time to place a second order with them. I've read so many contradicting anecdotal pieces of advice on what size CUC to keep, I chose to start at the low end of the recommended number.

• 66 Dwarf Ceriths
• 21 Nassarius
• 17 Florida Ceriths
• 18 Small to Medium Nerites
• 18 Assorted Hermits

I'm also keen on getting a fish that likes to graze, specifically some sort of tang. Not strictly for cleaning up algae in the tank, but just to diversify the livestock in the tank even further. I'm trying to decide on when I should add a tang and what type of tang I'd like to keep. I'm not really interested in a yellow tang as they are so common place. I'd like something with more exciting color, patterns, etc.

My nitrates are continually reading 0, while the phosphates are controlled with the GFO at between .03 and .06. I'll do another test on those tonight to see if they have kicked up at all. With the algae and coral growth, I imagine I won't really see any nitrates as I'm sure nitrate is having a quick uptake and thusly staying out of the water column.

Michael, what do you think? Thanks.

[Michael Hoaster]

I did the same thing. I added a small crew at first, so they wouldn't starve. Looking at your list, I'd add ceriths. 21 nassarius is a lot! They only eat leftover food and dead stuff. I have four in my 180. I won't rehash my opinion of hermits.

If I remember correctly, you've got some macros in a refugium, to compete with the micros, right?

Tangs are awesome fish with tons of personality. Some, like the clown and purple, can be very aggressive. Blues (Dory) are one of my favorites. I have read that the scopas tang is the best algae eater. I had a juvenile atlantic blue tang for a while until he wiped out my macros. Starts out yellow and turns blue as it matures. Pick your favorites, then see which of those will play nice.

Also consider a lawnmower blenny, and the like. Fun personality and a serious algae consumer. There's also the 'nuclear option'-urchins. And the cheapskate option-mollies.

As far as I can tell, you've done everything right so far. I'm going to start asking YOU for advice!

[zachxlutz]

Notes here in red:

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

I did the same thing. I added a small crew at first, so they wouldn't starve. Looking at your list, I'd add ceriths. 21 nassarius is a lot! They only eat leftover food and dead stuff. I have four in my 180. I won't rehash my opinion of hermits. Snails/Hermits are an area I know I don't have enough experience or knowledge in. I went with what I assumed would be a good mix of clean up crew based on a little research. I went with the hermits only for some interesting action in the tank, I understand people's opinion of them though. I'll do a little more research and focus on learning a little more about the options. I've clearly got some algae to deal with, but I may be able to keep it in check fairly easily with just a few minutes of using a scrubber and a new filter sock.

If I remember correctly, you've got some macros in a refugium, to compete with the micros, right? Yes, Chaetomorpha. It's growing at a pretty decent rate. I wasn't able to keep the red Gracilaria alive. It lost all color so I pulled it out so it didn't dump the nutrients back into the water. Should I be pulling out excess chateo? It's by no means filled the refugium but it certainly has grown in the last couple of months. Haven't pulled any out since I put it in there.

Tangs are awesome fish with tons of personality. Some, like the clown and purple, can be very aggressive. Blues (Dory) are one of my favorites. I have read that the scopas tang is the best algae eater. I had a juvenile atlantic blue tang for a while until he wiped out my macros. Starts out yellow and turns blue as it matures. Pick your favorites, then see which of those will play nice. A tang is definitely on the list of fish to add regardless of their role in algae control. One of my concerns is getting a tang and bullying, so I think they're a good fit for one of the later additions to the tank. I suppose I need to get finding more fish I would like to keep!

Also consider a lawnmower blenny, and the like. Fun personality and a serious algae consumer. There's also the 'nuclear option'-urchins. And the cheapskate option-mollies. I've seen some nice looking blennies at the LFS I usually go to, I may see what my options are next time I'm in the shop. I should get the QT tank running, ASAP!

As far as I can tell, you've done everything right so far. I'm going to start asking YOU for advice! Doubt it! I'm just a having a lot of fun learning about the husbandry of a coral reef tank and taking in as much as I can.

[zachxlutz]

12/08/2016 Water Parameters:

Temp: Stable 78º
Ph: Stable at 8.1-8.2 (ATO with low concentrate kalkwasser solution - 2 tsp/5 gallons)
Sg: 1.026
Alk: 8.2 dKH (Hannah) - Thinking of slowly bringing this up.
Cal: 450 ppm (Salifert) - Same here.
Nitrate: 0.00 ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm (Red Sea)
Mg: 1460 (Red Sea)

Notes:
Still no nitrates showing up but we do have 0.04 ppm phosphates. I can run a more GFO in the reactor and swap it out more frequently to bring this down but I don't want to starve out the corals. I just find it odd that I'm only seeing phosphate and no nitrates. I'm a little bit concerned about the hair algae growing on the glass and the gyres. I'll keep watching things.

I think I might work on slowly bringing the alk up to 10 and the cal back up to 465. My dosing regimen has been going steady for a while and now the alk/cal levels are slightly dropping, so I'm going to up the dosing time by 5%. I'd like to try to keep the alk at 12 like the Red Sea program suggests but I think i'd like to see some appreciable levels of nitrates in the water so I don't burn my coral.