Need some constructive criticism.

DancingShark · 04/07/2017, 07:58 PM

HI all.
This is my tank. I love sitting and looking at the tank for hours at night after work. It just relaxes me and I can see all the work I have done.
[IMG]

[/IMG]

It has been up since January 21. I had some red algea here and there it was because I was over feeding reef roids a bit. But it has cleared up now. The green algea have seem to clear up as well.

Everything was done by me from knowledge gathered online. Drilled a overflow. Two return pumps. Sump in the basement. Had stock florecent light. Then given PC lights, they did not cover the whole width of the tank that I'd why there is only green in the center
I recently got leds because wife wanted the neon she see's at the fish stores from the corals. I do 20percent water have every two weeks.
.

I plan on getting 2 clown fish, a purple tang, a fox face, hippo tang, kole and some fire and a sandshifting goby.
This is a 125g tank and all fish will be entering the tank a month or month from each other beacuse of quarantine.
I am really scared of ich and velvet.

I found this in a coral dip I did.
Can some one ID this thing.
[IMG]

[/IMG]

All I ask is from what you see here and what I have said. What advice can you guys give a newbie like me. Thanks in advance.

DancingShark · 07/03/2017, 10:36 PM

Hey guys. I did not get any response but here goes let me keep this short.
[IMG]

[/IMG]

This is what my tank looks like today. Still have a lot of work to do.
The leds do a good job of keeping the corals happy. Even the sps I purchased a month ago. Got a kole, yellow and blue tang. In QT yellow tried too kill the blue tang.

Seperated them into buckets and when dropped into the tank the blue tang hide in between rocks and the yellow and kole when at it. The yellow tang got a azzwoping. I really thought he was going to kill him. But the next day they were all swimming together like actually schooling. Anywhere the kole tang went they went. And that is how it's been ever since and with luck it will stay like that.

I bought about twenty pounds of pukani rock for the sump to help with filtration. Also set up a skimmer in the sump as well.
More corals and maybe rock in the dt to come. Money doesn't grow on reefs you know.

Sk8r · 07/04/2017, 08:31 AM

Lil ol' bristleworm, good guy.
Looks good. Rule is, however, about 1-2 lbs rock per gallon, depending on (desirable) porosity. You can create your own live rock over time: 'cure' dry limestone rock in a tub (see sticky) and add it to your tank piece by piece. Keep your fish load low. Corals ARE filters.
For that stony, too, you will be wanting to maintain kalk in your topoff: set your parameters where mine are (in sig) and add 2 tsp per gallon of ro/di in your topoff reservoir. Mrs Wages Pickling Lime (yes, the grocery store) is a good basic fairly cheap kalk. As long as your mg holds where mine is, your other numbers will stay where mine are, if you 'set' them that way by hand-dosing. HTH!

DancingShark · 07/05/2017, 06:30 AM

Thanks. I will be honest I don't test or dose for anything. I just do water changes and that's about it. I will go out and the kits i need to dose what i need to. I have been pushing that back for some reason.

I will rereadthe stickies and just prior to this I read your A very short explanation of alkalinity and ph thread.

I do get a flaky kind of crusty patches in the sand. Is there a way to prevent that from happening?

Thanks for time and help especially sharing all your knowledge.

Sk8r · 07/05/2017, 07:36 AM

RE your crusty patches, you may know more when you run the water tests. Did you use aragonite sand? That's good. If crushed coral, it can clump.

DancingShark · 07/05/2017, 08:40 PM

Also if I drop tons of rock in the sump will it work the same way as in the DT.

Bolivian Ram · 07/05/2017, 08:52 PM

Your tank is looking great. Neat and clean setup. If you like purple you could add a piece of cycled live rock with some coralline algae. Hopefully it will spread on the other rocks.

davehead86 · 07/06/2017, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DancingShark

Also if I drop tons of rock in the sump will it work the same way as in the DT.

Yes, I have minimal rockwork in my DT. I added a bunch of rubble to the sump to add more space for bacteria to grow.

thegrun · 07/06/2017, 06:19 PM

The Purple Tang and Kole Tang should be fine, but the Hippo Tang is not a good choice for your tank, it needs a much larger tank and will likely get very aggressive in a smaller tank like yours. I've not had great luck with Foxfaces, for me they seem to be overly aggressive and use their poisonous barbs on tank mates.

DancingShark · 07/06/2017, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sk8r

RE your crusty patches, you may know more when you run the water tests. Did you use aragonite sand? That's good. If crushed coral, it can clump.

Yes I used aragonite sand. Ill post water test when I get them maybe tomorrow. Been busy renovating the house.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bolivian Ram

Your tank is looking great. Neat and clean setup. If you like purple you could add a piece of cycled live rock with some coralline algae. Hopefully it will spread on the other rocks.

Thanks. I do have some caralline growing in patches. I think I got them from the turbo snails shell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by davehead86

Yes, I have minimal rockwork in my DT. I added a bunch of rubble to the sump to add more space for bacteria to grow.

Thanks, I have some rocks cooking In the basement right now I will go and grab More from by lfs. They sell pukani and Fiji for 3 bucks a pound. I think that's pretty cheap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegrun

The Purple Tang and Kole Tang should be fine, but the Hippo Tang is not a good choice for your tank, it needs a much larger tank and will likely get very aggressive in a smaller tank like yours. I've not had great luck with Foxfaces, for me they seem to be overly aggressive and use their poisonous barbs on tank mates.

My stock have changed. I have a kole, yellow and hippo tang. Kole is boss of the tank. He Is not aggressive but gets kind off annoyed because the yellow any Blue tang just follow him every where he goes.
Kind of like small children asking you questions ever where you go. Blue tang is the coward of the gang. Runs and hide at everything. Maybe things will change in the future hopefully not. Fingers crossed.

Again I'll post up parameters once I test for them.

DancingShark · 07/07/2017, 05:42 PM

Ok here it its.

Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
Phosphate 0? Tested it three different time. Using Salifert.
Calcium 470
Alkalinity 7.8
Magnesium 1560. All from red sea test kit.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ph 7.8-8.0 All from API sw test kit.

I think Ph is low I used to use baked baking soda for that in my hypo qt tank.
Let me know what I can do to fix any of this readings. Thanks.

DancingShark · 10/14/2017, 06:11 PM

Just a quick update. Here are some pictures of my corals all under led.
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DancingShark · 10/14/2017, 06:15 PM

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DancingShark · 10/14/2017, 06:20 PM

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DancingShark · 10/14/2017, 06:28 PM

all acans were one head when I bought them. Sps have encrusted and have been growing great. Oh how time have passed and all the knowledge gained has been wonderful.

Bulldog39 · 10/14/2017, 07:23 PM

Nice tank. Can't wait to get started next weekend. Hope my turns out so good in a year

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

Cancun · 10/14/2017, 08:55 PM

Hi! Nice tank....looks great....out of curiosity what is your current stock list now?

JTL · 10/15/2017, 07:18 AM

Assuming that you are still using the black box leds it just goes to show how nicely coral grows without the need for expensive lights. Very nice!

DancingShark · 10/15/2017, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bulldog39

Nice tank. Can't wait to get started next weekend. Hope my turns out so good in a year

I have learned to take things slowly. It's the hardest thing to do in a world like ours were everything is on demand. QT your fish, cuc, and corals. You will save yourself lots of heart aches and money. That's the best advice I could give you. Good luck.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cancun

Hi! Nice tank....looks great....out of curiosity what is your current stock list now?

1 fire goby
2 cardinals
1 hippo
1 kole
1 blue powder
1 yellow tang
2 clown fish
1 bicolor dottyback
1 ruby fairy wrasse
1 bta
I think that's it.
They will be transferred to a 300g tank maybe sometime in 2019.
Already have the tank in the garage just waiting for me to get a new house. It will hopefully be a in wall corner tank.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JTL

Assuming that you are still using the black box leds it just goes to show how nicely coral grows without the need for expensive lights. Very nice!

There is no question about it. It works for me. I don't argue with the naysayers. There is no point in living life bickering about pety things.
They are Sbreef light. I have the one with the built in timer. That is all I needed really.

My tank is pretty low tech compared to others. I don't even have a ato.
I'll see if I can post pictures off my sump.

Frogmanx82 · 10/19/2017, 12:40 PM

Would like to see a full tank shot.

tjm9331 · 10/20/2017, 01:09 PM

tank looks amazing, I hoping to upgrade my 75 to a 125 or bigger soon and I can only pray that I have the similar success as you've had.

Kremis · 10/20/2017, 04:16 PM

looking good. IME water changes are the most important thing. The way my tank runs is water changes will keep params in check for 2-3 months, then I need to dose for like a week to get everything back on track for WC's. THis system has worked great for me. Unless you are running a really SPS heavy tank you should be fine without dosing as long as you keep on top of your water changes.

monkeysee1 · 10/20/2017, 06:48 PM

Looks badass.

You're going minimalist? Good for you!!!!!
I LOVE Kole tangs!!! When my Scopas goes, THAT'S what I'm going to get to replace him.
Love your Acroporas. Wish I could grow those.
Get some PRODIBIO BIOCLEAN ampules to keep your bacterial load healthy. Rowa Phos in a reactor will definitely keep the cyano and other nuisance algae at bay.

DancingShark · 10/28/2017, 11:37 AM

Thanks guys. Yeah want too have open from for the fish to swim. I am the same way with my home. I like to keep things to a minimum.

[IMG]

[/IMG]
There you go.
Just took this shot.

I also installed a maxspect gyre xf 250. The thing is amazing. It replace for power head i had. Two hydro 2450 gen 3 and two 600gph pumps. At 100% the gyre effect blows sand all over the place. Great movement.

This is the sump in the basement.
[IMG]

[/IMG]
[IMG]

[/IMG]

And then there is some type of slime growing there.
[IMG]

[/IMG]
[IMG]

[/IMG]

Question is, is it normal to have a sump looking like this? Is there anyway to prevent the slime from forming. I have no great issue with it as long as it stays in the sump but I did not know if this is forming because of some other issue.

DancingShark · 10/28/2017, 11:43 AM

This is the gyre at 80%
Keeping the 2 hydor for night use

And sorry this has kind of turned into a build thread. If mods feel it's appropriate to move please do so.

04/07/2017, 07:58 PM	#1
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Need some constructive criticism. HI all. This is my tank. I love sitting and looking at the tank for hours at night after work. It just relaxes me and I can see all the work I have done. [IMG][/IMG] It has been up since January 21. I had some red algea here and there it was because I was over feeding reef roids a bit. But it has cleared up now. The green algea have seem to clear up as well. Everything was done by me from knowledge gathered online. Drilled a overflow. Two return pumps. Sump in the basement. Had stock florecent light. Then given PC lights, they did not cover the whole width of the tank that I'd why there is only green in the center I recently got leds because wife wanted the neon she see's at the fish stores from the corals. I do 20percent water have every two weeks. . I plan on getting 2 clown fish, a purple tang, a fox face, hippo tang, kole and some fire and a sandshifting goby. This is a 125g tank and all fish will be entering the tank a month or month from each other beacuse of quarantine. I am really scared of ich and velvet. I found this in a coral dip I did. Can some one ID this thing. [IMG][/IMG] All I ask is from what you see here and what I have said. What advice can you guys give a newbie like me. Thanks in advance.

07/03/2017, 10:36 PM	#2
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Hey guys. I did not get any response but here goes let me keep this short. [IMG][/IMG] This is what my tank looks like today. Still have a lot of work to do. The leds do a good job of keeping the corals happy. Even the sps I purchased a month ago. Got a kole, yellow and blue tang. In QT yellow tried too kill the blue tang. Seperated them into buckets and when dropped into the tank the blue tang hide in between rocks and the yellow and kole when at it. The yellow tang got a azzwoping. I really thought he was going to kill him. But the next day they were all swimming together like actually schooling. Anywhere the kole tang went they went. And that is how it's been ever since and with luck it will stay like that. I bought about twenty pounds of pukani rock for the sump to help with filtration. Also set up a skimmer in the sump as well. More corals and maybe rock in the dt to come. Money doesn't grow on reefs you know.

07/04/2017, 08:31 AM	#3
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	Lil ol' bristleworm, good guy. Looks good. Rule is, however, about 1-2 lbs rock per gallon, depending on (desirable) porosity. You can create your own live rock over time: 'cure' dry limestone rock in a tub (see sticky) and add it to your tank piece by piece. Keep your fish load low. Corals ARE filters. For that stony, too, you will be wanting to maintain kalk in your topoff: set your parameters where mine are (in sig) and add 2 tsp per gallon of ro/di in your topoff reservoir. Mrs Wages Pickling Lime (yes, the grocery store) is a good basic fairly cheap kalk. As long as your mg holds where mine is, your other numbers will stay where mine are, if you 'set' them that way by hand-dosing. HTH! __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

07/05/2017, 07:36 AM	#5
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	RE your crusty patches, you may know more when you run the water tests. Did you use aragonite sand? That's good. If crushed coral, it can clump. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

10/14/2017, 06:11 PM	#12
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Just a quick update. Here are some pictures of my corals all under led. [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

07/05/2017, 06:30 AM	#4
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Thanks. I will be honest I don't test or dose for anything. I just do water changes and that's about it. I will go out and the kits i need to dose what i need to. I have been pushing that back for some reason. I will rereadthe stickies and just prior to this I read your A very short explanation of alkalinity and ph thread. I do get a flaky kind of crusty patches in the sand. Is there a way to prevent that from happening? Thanks for time and help especially sharing all your knowledge.

07/05/2017, 08:40 PM	#6
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Also if I drop tons of rock in the sump will it work the same way as in the DT.

07/05/2017, 08:52 PM	#7
Bolivian Ram Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 128	Your tank is looking great. Neat and clean setup. If you like purple you could add a piece of cycled live rock with some coralline algae. Hopefully it will spread on the other rocks.

07/06/2017, 06:19 PM	#9
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	The Purple Tang and Kole Tang should be fine, but the Hippo Tang is not a good choice for your tank, it needs a much larger tank and will likely get very aggressive in a smaller tank like yours. I've not had great luck with Foxfaces, for me they seem to be overly aggressive and use their poisonous barbs on tank mates.

07/07/2017, 05:42 PM	#11
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Ok here it its. Salinity 1.026 Temp 78 Phosphate 0? Tested it three different time. Using Salifert. Calcium 470 Alkalinity 7.8 Magnesium 1560. All from red sea test kit. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Ph 7.8-8.0 All from API sw test kit. I think Ph is low I used to use baked baking soda for that in my hypo qt tank. Let me know what I can do to fix any of this readings. Thanks.

10/14/2017, 06:15 PM	#13
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	[IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

10/14/2017, 06:20 PM	#14
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	[IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

10/14/2017, 06:28 PM	#15
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	all acans were one head when I bought them. Sps have encrusted and have been growing great. Oh how time have passed and all the knowledge gained has been wonderful.

10/14/2017, 07:23 PM	#16
Bulldog39 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Georgia Posts: 234	Nice tank. Can't wait to get started next weekend. Hope my turns out so good in a year Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

10/14/2017, 08:55 PM	#17
Cancun Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Saint Louis Missouri Posts: 527	Hi! Nice tank....looks great....out of curiosity what is your current stock list now? __________________ Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL...I love wrasses....have leopards....several Coris....China Wrasse, Dejardini and purple tang... Current Tank Info: Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

10/15/2017, 07:18 AM	#18
JTL Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Venice Island, FL Posts: 2,532	Assuming that you are still using the black box leds it just goes to show how nicely coral grows without the need for expensive lights. Very nice! __________________ John 100 gallon DT and 50 gallon sump with refugium. Reefbreeders Photon V2+.

10/19/2017, 12:40 PM	#20
Frogmanx82 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Charlotte, NC Posts: 1,515	Would like to see a full tank shot. __________________ Exodus 8:2 Check my homepage for tank pics and details. Current Tank Info: 90 gallon, 2x maxspect R420R LED, 4 Ocellaris Clowns, Yellow Eye Kole Tang, Flame Angel, Foxface Rabbitfish, Banggai Cardinals, Azure Damsel, rock flower anemone, cleaner shrimp, serpent star

10/20/2017, 01:09 PM	#21
tjm9331 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 340	tank looks amazing, I hoping to upgrade my 75 to a 125 or bigger soon and I can only pray that I have the similar success as you've had.

10/20/2017, 04:16 PM	#22
Kremis Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Posts: 799	looking good. IME water changes are the most important thing. The way my tank runs is water changes will keep params in check for 2-3 months, then I need to dose for like a week to get everything back on track for WC's. THis system has worked great for me. Unless you are running a really SPS heavy tank you should be fine without dosing as long as you keep on top of your water changes.

10/20/2017, 06:48 PM	#23
monkeysee1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: MERRIMACK NH Posts: 423	Looks badass. You're going minimalist? Good for you!!!!! I LOVE Kole tangs!!! When my Scopas goes, THAT'S what I'm going to get to replace him. Love your Acroporas. Wish I could grow those. Get some PRODIBIO BIOCLEAN ampules to keep your bacterial load healthy. Rowa Phos in a reactor will definitely keep the cyano and other nuisance algae at bay. __________________ Your "fair share" is not in my wallet; it's in my fish tank!! Current tank info: 90 Gallon saltwater 10 fish with a few inverts; NO CORALS! Tried to go reef; didn't work out so hot; FOWLR's for me! Last edited by monkeysee1; 10/20/2017 at 07:03 PM.

10/28/2017, 11:37 AM	#24
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	Thanks guys. Yeah want too have open from for the fish to swim. I am the same way with my home. I like to keep things to a minimum. [IMG][/IMG] There you go. Just took this shot. I also installed a maxspect gyre xf 250. The thing is amazing. It replace for power head i had. Two hydro 2450 gen 3 and two 600gph pumps. At 100% the gyre effect blows sand all over the place. Great movement. This is the sump in the basement. [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] And then there is some type of slime growing there. [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] Question is, is it normal to have a sump looking like this? Is there anyway to prevent the slime from forming. I have no great issue with it as long as it stays in the sump but I did not know if this is forming because of some other issue.

10/28/2017, 11:43 AM	#25
DancingShark Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Posts: 126	This is the gyre at 80% Keeping the 2 hydor for night use And sorry this has kind of turned into a build thread. If mods feel it's appropriate to move please do so.