180 gallon tank build

[magdelan]

Lost and Found

Lost and Found

Now if I could only find the cleaner shrimp I added yesterday. Do they typically hide for a few days after adding them? I currently have a tomato clown that stays put in it's frogspawn, a yellow tang and a regal tang. I am confident that it should still be alive, all of my rock was cycled and I do not anticipate any sort of cycle.

Should I be patient and wait it out?

 

[Baggerhog]

Looks really good Mike, keep us posted and I am glad your setup is going well. I just hope my 500 reef, 800 gallon total volume goes as smooth as yours. I cant decide if I want to do a build thread or not. I am so challenged with time I would not want to leave people hanging while I am in limbo. What do you think? I know you have had some great advice from this thread. Keep up the great looking reef and keep the pics coming.

Andrew

 

[RyanEG]

Mike did you bond the arch in any way or is it just well stacked?

 

[Ellery]

Nice setup Mike!

 

[magdelan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12547446#post12547446 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RyanEG
Mike did you bond the arch in any way or is it just well stacked?

Everything fits together like a puzzle. The arch is together in the same way you intertwine your fingers together. Ironically, those two branches were the first two branches I ever bought. I had them in my 10g.



I found my cleaner shrimp. He set up shop behind a rock that must have a little cave in it. Every now and then I can see a tentacle. I'm just happy to know that he is ok!!!


Ellery, Thank you!!!!

 

[dan10342]

Imagine if you put another kind of arch in the forground area. to give the tank more depth. kind of like a branchy island like the sketch below.

 

[magdelan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12551927#post12551927 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jjjo
Imagine if you put another kind of arch in the forground area. to give the tank more depth. kind of like a branchy island like the sketch below.

I like the idea, however my rock stack is pretty much in the middle of the tank and does not allow much room for another stack up front.

My cleaner shrimp made friends with me tonight!!! It really made my day.

Also, I am washing my filter bag for the first time. I have it in the wash right now with an oz. of bleach on the HOT cycle. Will this do the trick???

 

[Henry Colf]

Yeah it should ,just rinse it real good with plain water before you use it. I usually soak mine in a bucket with bleach (unsented)for about two days and then I wash it twice in the washer with just water to get a real good rinse.

 

[magdelan]

Thanks Henry. Next time I will run it through twice. I don't think that it got as clean as it could have. In any event, it's getting the job done.

Even though my tank isn't going through a "cycle", it is still getting the brown algae bloom. What is it that causes this? Are there phosphates in the unrinsed sand?

BFF's

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

every new aquarium goes through various types of cycles as it balances out. (Even established aquariums need to compensate for anything added to them.) It looks like you're experiencing a bloom in diatoms. This should pass. Snails and certain types of fishes eat diatoms. Silicates are the main fuel for diatoms.

 

[magdelan]

Ahhh... The dreaded silicates. Thanks -G. I planned on this happening. I was just wondering what causes it.

I just tested my Parameters again.

Alk- 8.8 kh
Ca- 400
P04-zero
N03-zero
PH-8.3

I added two more cups of Ca to raise the Calcium and lower the Alk. Other than that, it's looking good!

 

[tmz]

Yeah, I just set up a new 65 with a small amount of new sand. Everything else was from another tank. Diatoms are there. Probalby,silicates from the new sand maybe even the new glass.

 

[magdelan]

I've got to be honest, the tank isn't looking as bad as I thought it might. I figured by now, everything would be covered in algae, but it's not! I have the returns and streams stratigically pointed and am getting minimal diatom growth.

The corals and fish are still doing well. My cleaner shrimp has become VERY friendly and jumps on our hand any chance he gets.

My wife got the SuperKiss tonight...

Also, I got a nice green pocilopora from TRS taday. I layed it down sideways on the rock and glued it in place.

 

[Henry Colf]

yeah, they are very cool mine eats right out of my hand.

 

[magdelan]

The Pocilopora was not fully extended today. Can I assume that it needs to acclimate for a couple days before its "out and about"?

 

[SkiFletch]

Could be the case. The tank being so new, I'm sure you're on top of your chemistry, so just keep your fingers crossed I guess

 

[magdelan]

High Alkalinity in Reef Crystals?

High Alkalinity in Reef Crystals?

Has anyone experienced HIGH alkalinity in their Reef Crystals salt mix? When I started up my system, I mixed two buckets of Reef Crystals. After the system was up and running for a few days, I did some basic water tests. My Alk was around 14 KH and my Calcium was between 350 and 400. I added one galon of the calcium part of Randy's two part solution and now have the alk at 7 KH and the Ca at 450. I will continue dosing 60ml of each part everyday.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

I have experienced the same thing. I ALWAYS test my freshly mixed saltwater as a result.

 

[magdelan]

My interest in whether or not others have experienced this aswell leads to another question; why doesn't Reef Crystal's correct this?

 

[Kent E]

This is off topic some, but salt can go several different directions

There are;
-easy ways to make it
-nice looking ways to make it
-precise ways to make it
-and cheap ways to make it

It seems that every salt maker comes up with their own mixture of those 4 choices. Reef Crystals chose their particular make up. To switch it could significantly increase the cost, time, or complexity which affects their particular niche.