homer1475's 80 gallon build

[homer1475]

A small update with some pics.......

I often wonder if I'm talking to myself in this thread as it seems no one even reads it besides reef, and soul(feels like the nano section all over again, not that that is a bad thing). If others are reading, no one comments? Meh either way, I like having a build thread if even for my own reference. Like how I looked back over my biocube thread the other day and had not even come close to realizing how much my coral had grown after seeing how small they were when I purchased them.

Everything is now in this tank with the exception of 2 fish and a cleaner shrimp(neon dottyback, and flame angel my 2 largest fish). After pulling all the rock out of the biocube to catch my clowns, those 2 are super skiddish now(pretty sure I scared the bejesus out of them).The biocube only has 2 smaller rocks the rock flower nems are attached to, and one larger piece for the remaining fish to hide behind.

New tank is doing good so far, diatoms have started to die down, no real algae as of yet that I can see. Reefcleaners order came in, some of the snails had some hair algae on their shells so I had to scrub that off. Pods added to the fuge, chaeto added, and a simple reptile light bracket for the fuge(I wanted something besides the run of the mill clamp lamp, but also didn't want to spend more the 20$ on a light fixture).

All my coral seems to like the new tank and lights(some have even colored up better then under the aurora puck from rapidLED), fish are super happy they have a ton more room to swim around, and I finally found the right CFL bulb for the chaeto in my fuge. I thought I needed a par 38 spotlight bulb(pretty sure I read that somewhere, where else would I come up with par38?). When I noticed the chaeto dying I did some more reading and figured out I have the wrong light for it. So I ended up with a 6500k CFL bulb. It was super hard to find since it seems everything is going to LED's and their all cool white in the 2700K range, and CFL's are being phased out. I went to 2 home depots, and 3 different Lowes before I finally found this mythical bulb(it was a nice day for a drive ), So I bought the remaining 3 packages they had left. I did notice everyone had "daylight" bulbs that were in the 5k range, wonder if they would have worked too?

Other then that, everything, including myself, is happy as of now.



I lied, I don't have pics, sorry!!

Thought I took a bunch the other day, but apparently I didn't. As soon as my lights come on today, I'll snap some pics of how I arranged all the coral. Which won't be for a few hours since its only 6am and my lights don't start ramping up till 8.

PS.
Bought my very first chalice coral!

They had very small hollywood stunner chalice frags for 12$. After reading how they are one of the more easier and hardier chalices and seeing as it was only 12$(plus my 40% off super duper friendly repeat customer discount), I bought it. Seems to be doing great so far, but it's only been in the tank for 3 days.

[Coralmassa]

Watch out for that stunner- mine is the size of a silver dollar and can send out sweeper almost five in early long. They are so potent they caused a discosoma to detach to escape the area, and caused both my torch and hammer tentacles to stay shriveled before I looked at night to see what was causing all the trouble. Also mine vbleaches out if it's anywhere but in show or shade. I'm also suspicious that it's stings killed my small mandarin dragonet, as I found his body upside down in a crevice within range, this is a fish I had for years and was thriving.

[homer1475]

Did my first 10%(10% of 70 is 7g, but I'll do 10G)WC today and did not compensate for the returns draining down. Emptied out 10G, filled the sump back up to the level it was at when I shut the pump off, and was about 3 gallons short when I turned the pump back on.

I thought it was odd I had about 3G leftover in my mixing barrel. Unfortunately my dumba** dumped the extra down the drain before seeing if the sump was full. So I'm currently mixing up another 5 gallons.

Couple shots I took yesterday after putting all the livestock in.

Sad day for the nano....


Cleaner shrimp with eggs.


FTS.

[Rotorocious]

great build. I'm in the middle of my cycle now on my 90, then going through the same process of swapping my biocube items over. Probably will go the same route with rocks/coral then adding fish slowly.

Did you sell the hood or the entire biocube?

[homer1475]

Ended up someone in a local club was going to just buy the hood, but decided he wanted the entire tank.

I was a little worried on how I added the fish a little fast, but everything seems to be doing well.

I added a small warpaint goby the day after my cycle ended and I did a 90% WC, 2 days later I did the citron goby, 2 days later I did both my clowns. Then on the eighth day I did the flame angel, dottyback, and cleaner shrimp. I'm thinking that my very high redose of ammonia created enough bacteria to be able to handle the bioload so fast.

[Devaji108]

looking great bud!
sad day for the cube but happy day for the new caretaker...

[homer1475]

Thanks Devaji108!

Everything is looking good so far. No ammonia issues, diatoms have pretty much gone away, and all parameters are in check. Even have corraline staring to grow in various places! My only issue seems to be my chaeto. It seems as its just dying? I have big patches in it that are turning grey? Never used a macro algae before so not sure if that is whats happening. Its fully submerged in the fuge and I light it with a simple clamp lamp and 6500k CFL bulb. I'm at a loss on this one, maybe the tank is too new for any nutrients? I do have some small patches of algae popping up in the display, so I would assume there are plenty of nutrients for it. Nitrites do measure at 4ppm and Po4 is at .02 ppm.

Next post will be very picture heavy. Hey we all love pics!

[homer1475]

My acans still in the sandbed, they seem very happy there.



Hollywood stunner Chalice I picked up the last time I was at the LFS. My first chalice!



Close up of my favorite Acan.



Rock flower nem made the move very well. Ice on the foot made him drop right off the rock he was on.



Xenia and GSP isolated to the back corner way away from any rock work. Only because the wife demanded they had to make the transfer(even against my hardest pleading to let them die).

[homer1475]

Green Goni. I hadn't realized how much it grew until I moved it. Its nearly tripled in size!



Close up



Right side of tank.



Front



Left Side



FTS



I now know how a real skimmer works, and how bad the smell is from the skimmate. I never got thick black skimmate like this out of the AL115.



And 2 of my chaeto, you can see how it's turning grey in areas.

[soulpatch]

You have a power head in the refugium part? It will aid the chateao not grey it like that

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[Devaji108]

looking good bud.

[ReefWreak]

Some fine skimmate you have there. I know the AL 115 couldn't pull that in its wildest dreams, but that's the difference between a the best nano skimmer and a good real skimmer. That being said, there's a lot worse for a nano then the AL 115, so I'm not complaining. It's not big-tank-equipment-envy I swear!

Looking good man, can't wait to see it grow in and really start to mature. 6 months and you'll be rocking

[Gravis]

Hey Homer! Just wanted to say that I'm still hanging in here! thanks for the regular updates! It's a joy to read! I know how it feels to keep posting with nobody posting back. Il start commenting more often so you know we are here.

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[homer1475]

Thanks guys!

I know people are reading, I can see the view count.

It just gets discouraging sometimes when I keep posting and no one answers you.

I think in here, builds get lost sometimes, unlike the nano section where we are all setting things up basically the same and we all comment on each others builds.

Now onto the build....

My chaeto. Do you really think its turning grey because of no movement? There is obviously some flow being the middle section of the sump, but even something like a cheap korralia nano would be way to strong for such a small area. Suggestions?

[soulpatch]

I'm going to put my rw4 in my sump and aim it down for movement

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[zoobie88]

Looking good.

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[ReefWreak]

I'd chalk the gray area up to unhappy chaeto, dunno if it would be happier in more flow, or more lighting? I think the ccfl spiral bulbs really may not be enough to grow chaeto well.

You could do one of the lighting of America floodlights from home Depot (I think that's what they're called, and what I used to have over my sump in 120) or just do an eBay 10w led floodlight like I have now. I was surprised how well it grew chaeto.

I just don't think the standard ccfl tubes will grow it well.

[homer1475]

Well I've bought 3 different bulbs now. According to everyone in the lighting section, the 6500k CFL bulb is the one everyone uses to grow chaeto? LOL I drove to 4 different lowes looking for this specific bulb, and now you tell me its the wrong one.


Have a link to the 10w LED? The CFL does put out quite a bit of heat, which is making the inside of my stand quite moist in the morning.

[soulpatch]

The cfl bulb is used by many of us with no issues in growing the cheato. I do think you need to spin it some in the refugium portion. You are pounding only one area with constant light whereas the chateo likes to rotate and hit every side.

[homer1475]

I have noticed in the last couple days the grey is slowly turning green, and it does move around in the fuge, so I don't think flow was the issue, but rather the high PAR spotlight I originally used. I think it actually burnt the chaeto.

I am going to buy some new PH's and return pump when I sell the biocube, so I'll add a rw4 to my shopping list and add it in there. I have read that its better for it to tumble also.

I like the idea of a DC pump for the simple fact I can turn it down to a crawl when I feed the tank(I normally turn it off when feeding), but I hate when the pump turns back on and fills my display with microbubbles(blowing out the air before the water starts).

I do like the Vectra, but can't justify the price, and I wouldn't be able to control it via the apex for the feed mode(although it seems any DC pump isn't apex compatible). So I was looking at the jebao dct4000. Should be plenty of power for normal operation, and is cheap enough to be worth a try. Who knows, if i like the DC pump, maybe I'll eventually buy a Vectra.

[soulpatch]

there are apex compatable DC pumps. I think the blueline or such. Marine Depot and BRS sell a few that you would be able to link to Apex.

The DC pumps are pretty nice. I have a DCT-8000 on my skimmer... If I were you I would go larger and dial it back if needed and get the 8000.

All of my feedings sink though as I dont use flakes and when I do use pellets I use sinking kind and will even soak them slightly before they hit the tank. I am not sold on lowering the return pump as I want my fish to battle the current for the food. Sure I might lose a small amount into the sump but I have a refugium so I am not too worried about it. ( I do not run socks daily at this point and only put them on for water change days when I blow all of the rocks and such.)

[homer1475]

The 4000 pushes 1056 GPH at 10 feet of head. That's even way more then I need. Even at ten times the turnover through the sump(80x10), I only need a little over 800GPH. I think with the 4000 I won't have it anywhere near 60%(I'm shooting for more like 5x the turnover). I may not be able to throttle back the 8000 enough. Plus I don't have large reef fish like you do.

[soulpatch]

I dont agree with their ratings honestly. I have the DCT-8000 on a skimmer as it replaced a mag 9.5. The mag is rated at 950 GPH max and the DCT 8000 is running 2 notches from full speed to have the same results.

If you can live without slowing down for feeding I would look into the Fluval SP line. Dead silent and a beast of a pump.

[homer1475]

Nice pumps! The only problem, I would need the SP4 which at 7.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches high, is to big for my sump.

[DylansGolden]

How's the sound levels on the skimmer and return pump? I'm looking to order a SCA 66 or 90 here shortly.