MammothReefer
Active member
Guardian of the Cans!
225g Display 500g+ build thread
- Thread starter MammothReefer
- Start date
MammothReefer
Active member
..Hi I'm a Fiji Devil.. I keep the anthias Schooling 
MammothReefer
Active member
Frag rock shelf.. Need to get the frag tank setup. .Efflo Frags, and a few corals showing sings of purple and blue in there tips (recovering from electricity!)
samson78945
New member
really nice tank!! im up in mammoth when i can which isnt that much lately(my buddy has a house) but eventually i would love to see this tank!! 
MammothReefer
Active member
Thank you, your more then welcome to stop by anytime you come to Mammoth.
MammothReefer
Active member
i'll shoot you a pm when they are encrusted..but..on a sad note.. I'm still finding votes in my tank... Getting around 30-40 volts.. .I've been going threw and checking my pumps and so far I can't find which pump it is..
MammothReefer
Active member
It's a RARE Snow-fish! ...This one is LE as it was seen doing it's ritual dance in mid april! (today) a VERY rare sight indeed..
dodgersfan25
New member
killer setup! your tank is simply amazing. cant wait to see more updates
MammothReefer
Active member
Thanks,
Quick update! Finally some progress in the world of PH since I installed the litermeter dosing kalk my life has become sooo much easier, just the ATO feature alone is great.. Not to mention my PH is FINALLY getting into the 8.0s at best before I was getting 7.90-7.93, and down to 7.7 @ nite. Now I'm bouncing between 8.0-7.9 I also turned my calc reactor on 24/7 while before it was only on with the lights.. but I found my Calc was dropping to 360-380.
Quick update! Finally some progress in the world of PH since I installed the litermeter dosing kalk my life has become sooo much easier, just the ATO feature alone is great.. Not to mention my PH is FINALLY getting into the 8.0s at best before I was getting 7.90-7.93, and down to 7.7 @ nite. Now I'm bouncing between 8.0-7.9 I also turned my calc reactor on 24/7 while before it was only on with the lights.. but I found my Calc was dropping to 360-380.
MammothReefer
Active member
New RO/DI unit came in today, after using the same USED (yes I got it used) Ro unit for 3+ years now w/no cartridge change I decide it was time for a new RO/DI unit.. I bought a Typhoon III from AirWaterService. I have to say it's a VERY nice unit. It came with a TDS meter, so I decided to check out my range and was rather surprised.
Tap Water 29-TDS
Old RO unit 14-TDS
New RO/DI 0-TDS
I really thought my TDS would be ALOT higher with the old unit/and tap..
Tap Water 29-TDS
Old RO unit 14-TDS
New RO/DI 0-TDS
I really thought my TDS would be ALOT higher with the old unit/and tap..
MammothReefer
Active member
Alright.. Wow it's been exactly 1 Year, I guess I should I do a 1 year re-cap.. I'll take some photos tonight and do an update.
MammothReefer
Active member
09/26/06
02/20/07 - 5months
09/06/07 -1 year
When I get a chance I'll take a variety of shots and tomorrow I'll do kinda a 1 year recap.
02/20/07 - 5months
09/06/07 -1 year
When I get a chance I'll take a variety of shots and tomorrow I'll do kinda a 1 year recap.
Last edited:
MammothReefer
Active member
Thanks Bax,
So it's been a year a now.. Figured I'd do a little recap on how things worked out, or didn't..
Just to start. I'll kinda go down my original plan, and see how the path differed.
My original Plan called for a high bioload, and heavy feeding.. Well this really never happened. I kinda started off with X number of fish, and just went down and never replaced them. Here is my orignal List, and I'll add comments to the state of said fish
1: Tang Blue Hippo (Doing Great)
1: Tang Orange Line (Doing Great, finally after 3 years shows some nice colours now and then)
2: Swallow Tail Angels (Doing fine, yet don't seem to be a pair female doesn't really tolerate the male)
1: Undecided Tang (Went with a Yellow Tang doing fine.)
12-20: Lyrtail Anthias (have about a dozen or so)
2: Clowns (occ) (breeding on a regular bais)
4-5: Misc Dams (probably around 3-4 or now, I picked up this tiny jewel damsel a while ago.. now it's a MONSTER.. looks great..but one evil fish.)
10: Black Bar Dams (3-4 in the tank)
1: Fiji Devil (...what a pita this fish has been not the fact that it harasses other fish it's one of the smaller ones now..but because it digs.. and digs.. and moves corals around ect ect..)
1: Sailfin Blenny (midnite) (I had this fish for years.. I believe it was just recently killed by the Jewel Damsel last week)
1: Short nosed Hawk (Doing fine)
1: African Prawn Goby (Doing fine)
2: Jawfish (Forever sump bound.. No matter how many times I catch it and put in the display, it goes right back to the sump.. sigh, 1 of them jumped out of the sump and turned to jerky)
5-10: Misc Barnicle Blennies (never purchased)
5-10: Misc "mini gobies" (never purchased)
1: Black Cap Basslet (this fish was doing well for a long time, one day I say it breathing heavy with no signs of illness and poof it died)
2-5: Other to be decided misc small odd ball fish. (never added)
2: wrasse yellow (I'm not sure what fish is doing it, but over time I've had 2 vanish, I have yet to replace them.)
As far as feeding goes, my plan was to feed heavy, skim hard, run ozone and water change weekly.. Well I just can never seem to bring myself to feed heavy on a regular basis so this experiment never really took place.
Equipment.
I originally planned on having a couple frag tanks, and a fugue, none of that really came to be. For a while I did have a frag tank setup but I ended up tearing it down, and have yet to put it back up. I'm thinking about relocating it into the garage next to the sump but I'm not sure I want to do that as it won't be insulated like my sump is and may cause my heating needs to raise up quite a bit, as far as fugue and second frag tank.. just never happened.
Ozone: A Year later.. So I finally after a year just hooked my ozone up again this past week. I originally tried setting it up with this TERRIBLE "ozone" reactor I had purchased. It was nothing but trouble, the reactor was a piece of junk, my whole house stunk of ozone at all times, and going in the room with it was an instant headache I quickly took it off and it sat on the shelf for a while, I later decided to try to set up the reactor again this time in the garage sump, but all the same problems from before arose and it was nothing but trouble.. So finally I this past week, I decided to start running it again but this time I set back up my g3 Skimmer and ran it threw the g3 acting as a second skimmer.. so far working great..
Skimmer: So somewhere down the road, my g3 took a tumble and cracked.. I replaced it with a Bubble Master. You know.. I really had high hopes for this skimmer. I gave it months and months on end thinking it was just me not used to the skimmer, but here I am probably around 6 months out of switching to the BM, and while it works.. it's been nothing but a pain in the rear. It's either under skimming, or overflowing. The set and forget mentality with this skimmer is not a possibility. Even the smallest of adjustments on this thing is enough to cause it to overflow it's massive skimmer cup in a matter of hours. In light of this, I find i have been under skimming with it, which really isn't how I like to do things, and one of the main reasons I decided to re-setup the ozone, and the second skimmer. Granted I don't have a 100% consistent sump level..but it's pretty close.
Kalk: So this tank is the first tank I ever started using Kalk on, what a delight that has been, SOLID PH, stable parameters, ease of use (just mix up 30 gallons or so at a time in a brutebin)..
Lights: I ended up going with 2x400 LA reflectors, and they have been great, 2 covered my entire tank, with the recent addition of 2x60" T5's I believe my lightings is pretty much where I want it to be, I can see adding 2 more 60" t5's down the road thou, future plans are to switch from 20k XM's to 10k bulbs (not sure on the brand)
AcJr: This unit has worked great, the only problem I have is in regards to my setup locations I really haven't used it to it's full potential, it's basically a really expensive ph meter, and heater controller which at this point is fine do to all the problems I had with my heaters. Hopefully this year I'll get the expansion module so I can run the lights, and pumps of it as well, and also I'd like to build a little box to hold the ph probe so I can use it to control my reactor
Heaters: Arg this had been a mess with my tank. If you read this and take any advice don't but finnex heaters they nuked my tank.. I wasted more money on replacing controllers, and heater elements then if I would have just bought something a bit better from the start.. (although at the time I thought they were pretty good quality heaters.. i was wrong). Before winter I'd like to swap out all my heaters to something better.
C02 Reactor: It took a while, but I finally got it all sorted out and working like a champ, recently replaced all the c02 lines as they started leaking with the use of a c02 regulator (to much pressure when it was closed). I have been thinking about 2 part solution, but my ph, calc and alk all seem good why mess with something that is working?
Litermeter: I bought a used litermeter off somebody, what a great piece of a equipment worked great w/trashbin full of kalk water set and forget..my type of equipment.. unfortunately i was adjusting something on it, and it fell into the sump.. *sigh* ..note to all of you liter meters aren't waterproof.. but on a good note I was told i can send it back and have it fixed pretty cheaply.. so hopefully i'll get around to sending it back soon.
Misc Phyto: I stopped feeding phyto for a while, and then I picked up some small clams so I started up again..and wow some people aren't a fan of phyto, but in my tank it was nite and day. The first day I feed I had this nasty film all over the tank, and was rather annoyed.. the next day I wake up and my tank was clearer that it had ever been, I plan on keep dosing phyto as long as I can, I really like all the misc sponges and stuff I see growing. Sadly though some of the clams were just to small and didn't make for various reasons.
Ground probe: After all the electrical problems I had, I finally added a ground probe so far, no more problems I'm planning on adding a second one to the sump.
A Years Recap Good things:
- Healthy fish (for most part)
- SPS Acros (almost all the sps I started with I still have and are doing fine)
- SPS Monti, Red, and Purple montis Doing great.
- Anenomes.. Doing great.. getting a bit to big, I'd like to remove 3 of them in the near future
- Leathers for the most part all of my leathers have been doing good, except for 1 problem
- Chalice (enchinos) I've had great succsess with these, dying ones colouring up nicely.
-Apastia: after a huge battle coming from my 90 I am proud to say I can proboly count the aptaisa in my tank on 1 hand.
-Clams: Doing great, (except for ones that I received that were to small)
-Green Acan: Finally afters 4 years of having it, it is finally showing growth.
-PH: After years of fighting with ph things finally seem to be coming together I am now getting swings of .05 max.
The Bad
- Green Montiporas.. I can't figure it out. They all just bleach and die, I've tried different locations, different frags from different people, shading them, high light, low light, high flow, low flow.. I can't figure it out.. Any green variety just poof dead.
- Acanthastrea.. sigh this one is a bummer for me, I love this corals yet I can no longer keep them. I used to have GREAT sucssess with this corals, except for 1 green one I have, all the acanthastreas in my tank either died, or are slowly dying. I'm not sure what to make of it, as with the monti caps I tried despersing my frags/colonies all over the tank in hopes to find that "sweet" spot.. but it was to no avail.
- Sunset Monti, a long time ago a friend of mine gave me a tiny piece of sunset monti, I put in my 90 gallon and it grew, I put into this system and it grew, then one day it fell over I put it back in it's same spot.. and it was never the same, it quickly "grey'd" out and all but died no PE, nothing.. in the shadow of hte main piece though there was still new growth, but over time it stopped growing. I recently recieved another tiny frag of one from another friend, now many months later..and the same result.. It looks like it's been out of water (turns grey) and just dies... I can't figure it out for the life of me.
-The leather war (this was my fault) At some point I decided to move one of my power my heads, and my green bubble coral.. well, I have this fair sized leather near where I put my power head, I thought nothing of it. Part of my leather was getting sucked into to the powerhead, but the rest seemed open and extended..so I thought nothing of it.. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD IDEA. Shortly after all the acropora in the surrounding area started to STN, it didn't take long for me to realize that the combination of the power head sucking in part of the leather, and the bubble coral stingy the stalk must be causing the leather to be spewing toxins to the surrounding area.. I've since moved the power head, and bubble coral and things to seem to be getting better.
-Growth: While some corals are showing obvious growth..it just seems So slowwwwwwww.. I look at these threads where people start off with the basic same system as me, and many of the same corals and within a few months they are getting the growth I am receiving in a year. I'm not really sure where to go from here. My parameters are good and stable, i have good water volume, change water weekly.. I guess when you fill a 200+ gallon with frags a year later you end up with slightly bigger frags heh.
-pests: Starfish..Millions and Millions of starfish in plague like per portions covering every inch of rock @ nite, both brittle and and unkown kind, for whatever reason when ever an acro is showing damage signs brittle stars appear to be all over it.. I'm not really to sure what to make of it, as from what I understand brittle don't eat corals.. I plan to get a few Harlequin shrimp to attempt to keep things in check. Crabs.. I recently found a massive rock crab living in one of the main pieces of LR in my tank.. I'd like to remove it but it's a tough bugger and when I tried to pull it out the entire rock structure started to come out with it.. (not good) Due to some of the problems I had before (a crab was eating all the polyps out of the corlas in the area around it's den) I'm going to try to figure something out.. if only it was on the same side as my super mantis.
- Missing clean up crew.. while I do like having a mantis (it's a very neat creature) I've come to notice I don't have a single SNAIL in all my tank! It's time for me to add another clean up crew.
- Diatoms.. I never had this problem with any other tanks.. but a year later my sand is STILL getting diatoms on it and turning brown.. I'm running rowa phos, 24/7, am diligent about water changes, my RO/DI is 0 TDS, i have 0 phosphates.. i'm just not sure what the deal is.
Where to go from here? I'd really like to re-distribute some of the corals in my tank glue them down in ways to give them more room from each other, switch to 10k bulbs hoping for better growth, I'd like to figure why I can't keep acans, and green caps, and encrusting montis (no it's not nudis), remove a few anemoes as the ones I have are getting rather large, by this time next year it could be problematic. I'd really like to see some significant growth in my SPS, filling in of the upper section of the tank.. I might try to pick up some fair size stags from tank tear downs ect. I'd also really like to get that frag tank back up and going again so I can really focus on any issues I'm having with species in a smaller easier accessible tank, I find it's really hard for me to mess with things in my tank that are in lower half due to the false hood.
And as always, I am open to all thoughts, suggestions, questions and or comments.
Thanks
-MF
So it's been a year a now.. Figured I'd do a little recap on how things worked out, or didn't..
Just to start. I'll kinda go down my original plan, and see how the path differed.
My original Plan called for a high bioload, and heavy feeding.. Well this really never happened. I kinda started off with X number of fish, and just went down and never replaced them. Here is my orignal List, and I'll add comments to the state of said fish
1: Tang Blue Hippo (Doing Great)
1: Tang Orange Line (Doing Great, finally after 3 years shows some nice colours now and then)
2: Swallow Tail Angels (Doing fine, yet don't seem to be a pair female doesn't really tolerate the male)
1: Undecided Tang (Went with a Yellow Tang doing fine.)
12-20: Lyrtail Anthias (have about a dozen or so)
2: Clowns (occ) (breeding on a regular bais)
4-5: Misc Dams (probably around 3-4 or now, I picked up this tiny jewel damsel a while ago.. now it's a MONSTER.. looks great..but one evil fish.)
10: Black Bar Dams (3-4 in the tank)
1: Fiji Devil (...what a pita this fish has been not the fact that it harasses other fish it's one of the smaller ones now..but because it digs.. and digs.. and moves corals around ect ect..)
1: Sailfin Blenny (midnite) (I had this fish for years.. I believe it was just recently killed by the Jewel Damsel last week)
1: Short nosed Hawk (Doing fine)
1: African Prawn Goby (Doing fine)
2: Jawfish (Forever sump bound.. No matter how many times I catch it and put in the display, it goes right back to the sump.. sigh, 1 of them jumped out of the sump and turned to jerky)
5-10: Misc Barnicle Blennies (never purchased)
5-10: Misc "mini gobies" (never purchased)
1: Black Cap Basslet (this fish was doing well for a long time, one day I say it breathing heavy with no signs of illness and poof it died)
2-5: Other to be decided misc small odd ball fish. (never added)
2: wrasse yellow (I'm not sure what fish is doing it, but over time I've had 2 vanish, I have yet to replace them.)
As far as feeding goes, my plan was to feed heavy, skim hard, run ozone and water change weekly.. Well I just can never seem to bring myself to feed heavy on a regular basis so this experiment never really took place.
Equipment.
I originally planned on having a couple frag tanks, and a fugue, none of that really came to be. For a while I did have a frag tank setup but I ended up tearing it down, and have yet to put it back up. I'm thinking about relocating it into the garage next to the sump but I'm not sure I want to do that as it won't be insulated like my sump is and may cause my heating needs to raise up quite a bit, as far as fugue and second frag tank.. just never happened.
Ozone: A Year later.. So I finally after a year just hooked my ozone up again this past week. I originally tried setting it up with this TERRIBLE "ozone" reactor I had purchased. It was nothing but trouble, the reactor was a piece of junk, my whole house stunk of ozone at all times, and going in the room with it was an instant headache I quickly took it off and it sat on the shelf for a while, I later decided to try to set up the reactor again this time in the garage sump, but all the same problems from before arose and it was nothing but trouble.. So finally I this past week, I decided to start running it again but this time I set back up my g3 Skimmer and ran it threw the g3 acting as a second skimmer.. so far working great..
Skimmer: So somewhere down the road, my g3 took a tumble and cracked.. I replaced it with a Bubble Master. You know.. I really had high hopes for this skimmer. I gave it months and months on end thinking it was just me not used to the skimmer, but here I am probably around 6 months out of switching to the BM, and while it works.. it's been nothing but a pain in the rear. It's either under skimming, or overflowing. The set and forget mentality with this skimmer is not a possibility. Even the smallest of adjustments on this thing is enough to cause it to overflow it's massive skimmer cup in a matter of hours. In light of this, I find i have been under skimming with it, which really isn't how I like to do things, and one of the main reasons I decided to re-setup the ozone, and the second skimmer. Granted I don't have a 100% consistent sump level..but it's pretty close.
Kalk: So this tank is the first tank I ever started using Kalk on, what a delight that has been, SOLID PH, stable parameters, ease of use (just mix up 30 gallons or so at a time in a brutebin)..
Lights: I ended up going with 2x400 LA reflectors, and they have been great, 2 covered my entire tank, with the recent addition of 2x60" T5's I believe my lightings is pretty much where I want it to be, I can see adding 2 more 60" t5's down the road thou, future plans are to switch from 20k XM's to 10k bulbs (not sure on the brand)
AcJr: This unit has worked great, the only problem I have is in regards to my setup locations I really haven't used it to it's full potential, it's basically a really expensive ph meter, and heater controller which at this point is fine do to all the problems I had with my heaters. Hopefully this year I'll get the expansion module so I can run the lights, and pumps of it as well, and also I'd like to build a little box to hold the ph probe so I can use it to control my reactor
Heaters: Arg this had been a mess with my tank. If you read this and take any advice don't but finnex heaters they nuked my tank.. I wasted more money on replacing controllers, and heater elements then if I would have just bought something a bit better from the start.. (although at the time I thought they were pretty good quality heaters.. i was wrong). Before winter I'd like to swap out all my heaters to something better.
C02 Reactor: It took a while, but I finally got it all sorted out and working like a champ, recently replaced all the c02 lines as they started leaking with the use of a c02 regulator (to much pressure when it was closed). I have been thinking about 2 part solution, but my ph, calc and alk all seem good why mess with something that is working?
Litermeter: I bought a used litermeter off somebody, what a great piece of a equipment worked great w/trashbin full of kalk water set and forget..my type of equipment.. unfortunately i was adjusting something on it, and it fell into the sump.. *sigh* ..note to all of you liter meters aren't waterproof.. but on a good note I was told i can send it back and have it fixed pretty cheaply.. so hopefully i'll get around to sending it back soon.
Misc Phyto: I stopped feeding phyto for a while, and then I picked up some small clams so I started up again..and wow some people aren't a fan of phyto, but in my tank it was nite and day. The first day I feed I had this nasty film all over the tank, and was rather annoyed.. the next day I wake up and my tank was clearer that it had ever been, I plan on keep dosing phyto as long as I can, I really like all the misc sponges and stuff I see growing. Sadly though some of the clams were just to small and didn't make for various reasons.
Ground probe: After all the electrical problems I had, I finally added a ground probe so far, no more problems I'm planning on adding a second one to the sump.
A Years Recap Good things:
- Healthy fish (for most part)
- SPS Acros (almost all the sps I started with I still have and are doing fine)
- SPS Monti, Red, and Purple montis Doing great.
- Anenomes.. Doing great.. getting a bit to big, I'd like to remove 3 of them in the near future
- Leathers for the most part all of my leathers have been doing good, except for 1 problem
- Chalice (enchinos) I've had great succsess with these, dying ones colouring up nicely.
-Apastia: after a huge battle coming from my 90 I am proud to say I can proboly count the aptaisa in my tank on 1 hand.
-Clams: Doing great, (except for ones that I received that were to small)
-Green Acan: Finally afters 4 years of having it, it is finally showing growth.
-PH: After years of fighting with ph things finally seem to be coming together I am now getting swings of .05 max.
The Bad
- Green Montiporas.. I can't figure it out. They all just bleach and die, I've tried different locations, different frags from different people, shading them, high light, low light, high flow, low flow.. I can't figure it out.. Any green variety just poof dead.
- Acanthastrea.. sigh this one is a bummer for me, I love this corals yet I can no longer keep them. I used to have GREAT sucssess with this corals, except for 1 green one I have, all the acanthastreas in my tank either died, or are slowly dying. I'm not sure what to make of it, as with the monti caps I tried despersing my frags/colonies all over the tank in hopes to find that "sweet" spot.. but it was to no avail.
- Sunset Monti, a long time ago a friend of mine gave me a tiny piece of sunset monti, I put in my 90 gallon and it grew, I put into this system and it grew, then one day it fell over I put it back in it's same spot.. and it was never the same, it quickly "grey'd" out and all but died no PE, nothing.. in the shadow of hte main piece though there was still new growth, but over time it stopped growing. I recently recieved another tiny frag of one from another friend, now many months later..and the same result.. It looks like it's been out of water (turns grey) and just dies... I can't figure it out for the life of me.
-The leather war (this was my fault) At some point I decided to move one of my power my heads, and my green bubble coral.. well, I have this fair sized leather near where I put my power head, I thought nothing of it. Part of my leather was getting sucked into to the powerhead, but the rest seemed open and extended..so I thought nothing of it.. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD IDEA. Shortly after all the acropora in the surrounding area started to STN, it didn't take long for me to realize that the combination of the power head sucking in part of the leather, and the bubble coral stingy the stalk must be causing the leather to be spewing toxins to the surrounding area.. I've since moved the power head, and bubble coral and things to seem to be getting better.
-Growth: While some corals are showing obvious growth..it just seems So slowwwwwwww.. I look at these threads where people start off with the basic same system as me, and many of the same corals and within a few months they are getting the growth I am receiving in a year. I'm not really sure where to go from here. My parameters are good and stable, i have good water volume, change water weekly.. I guess when you fill a 200+ gallon with frags a year later you end up with slightly bigger frags
heh.-pests: Starfish..Millions and Millions of starfish in plague like per portions covering every inch of rock @ nite, both brittle and and unkown kind, for whatever reason when ever an acro is showing damage signs brittle stars appear to be all over it.. I'm not really to sure what to make of it, as from what I understand brittle don't eat corals.. I plan to get a few Harlequin shrimp to attempt to keep things in check. Crabs.. I recently found a massive rock crab living in one of the main pieces of LR in my tank.. I'd like to remove it but it's a tough bugger and when I tried to pull it out the entire rock structure started to come out with it.. (not good) Due to some of the problems I had before (a crab was eating all the polyps out of the corlas in the area around it's den) I'm going to try to figure something out.. if only it was on the same side as my super mantis.
- Missing clean up crew.. while I do like having a mantis (it's a very neat creature) I've come to notice I don't have a single SNAIL in all my tank! It's time for me to add another clean up crew.
- Diatoms.. I never had this problem with any other tanks.. but a year later my sand is STILL getting diatoms on it and turning brown.. I'm running rowa phos, 24/7, am diligent about water changes, my RO/DI is 0 TDS, i have 0 phosphates.. i'm just not sure what the deal is.
Where to go from here? I'd really like to re-distribute some of the corals in my tank glue them down in ways to give them more room from each other, switch to 10k bulbs hoping for better growth, I'd like to figure why I can't keep acans, and green caps, and encrusting montis (no it's not nudis), remove a few anemoes as the ones I have are getting rather large, by this time next year it could be problematic. I'd really like to see some significant growth in my SPS, filling in of the upper section of the tank.. I might try to pick up some fair size stags from tank tear downs ect. I'd also really like to get that frag tank back up and going again so I can really focus on any issues I'm having with species in a smaller easier accessible tank, I find it's really hard for me to mess with things in my tank that are in lower half due to the false hood.
And as always, I am open to all thoughts, suggestions, questions and or comments.
Thanks
-MF
MammothReefer
Active member
Alright.. approaching on the 2 year mark.. here s a quick re-cap I need to update and take some photos..
So this year was a bit taxing.. I spent 70-80% with very limited to dismal, success, but things have really turned around as of late.. After a few set backs in Oct/Nov and a failed attempt to sell the system before the snow set.. I found myself going into "bare minimum" mode. ie, top off, feed, and replace c02.
I had pretty much lost all my SPS (except for a few ORA pieces, and some captive stags from friends tanks) due to the electrical issue, and a few other problems, still a very active lively tank (tons of anemones , clams, some softies, and a few lps).. I wasn't buying any new corals, nothing except for my softies, and anemones were growing although nothing really died either, everything pretty much stayed stagnant from around Oct - Feb, although I was constantly struggling with my parameters.. Then in February , I injured myself, and had to leave town from Feb-Late April as learned to walk again, I was fortunate to be able to leave the tank in the care of a fellow local reef Victoria (rc login) who is an amazing reefer, and was able to really help me get things back on par while i was out of commission, upon returning to town.. I found a renewed inspiration in my tank, but due to some calcium reactor issues (I had 2 bottles of c02 leak out...) I had lost the remaining ora pieces.. Determined to give the tank 1 last shot.. I decided to give my tank a slight overhaul (replaced bulbs, media, got back on a normal wc schedule,ect ect)
and finally came to the conclusion I needed to take a different route for parameter stability control, so I yanked the c02 reactor off the tank, and went back to the basics.. w/a 2 part system on dosers controlled by my AcJR... and well.. I haven't looked back.. within weeks, colours returned to my long since brown acros, signs of growth returned to the tank.. and I've found myself enthusiastic and re-inspired with the hobby. After 4 years of nitemare reef keeping due the troubles I had dealing with and maintaining a calcium reactor.. going back to 2 part was hands down the best thing I have I done in this hobby.. I only wish I had done this years ago when I first came across the whole 2part/dosing part system... It's really a shame..
So now that going into my second month of what I'd like to call a successful tank.. I'm still not out of the woods when it comes to cleaning up past issues/and mistakes.. but i am well on the way..
My parameters are stable and my goals are set..
Here is a list of what I need to do/or have recently done..
1) Nitrate & Phosphate reduction.. Due to 6 months + of no water changes, and over feeding.. I have accumulated very large amounts of nitrate and phosphates (off the test scale in nitrate, .1 in phos thanks to GFO.. I'm on my second week of Vodka dosing and my skimmer is finally starting to work properly.. I am currently not using ozone but am toying with the idea of turning it back on. I am also on a weekly water change schedule to attempt to get these levels back to optimal.. While the tank is showing HUGE signs of improvement I believe correcting this issue would make all the more difference.
2) I added 2 more tunzees and a control, not only to increase flow but to make it more tolerable throwout the tank by mixing it up.. having my 2 of the largest tunzes blasting at full power 100% of the timing was making it very difficult to place corals, either they were being stripped or not getting enough flow (sps) with the exception of the rare few who were luckily enough to get int the sweet spots..
3) Skimmer fix, for as long as I've had my BM250, it has never performed as I believe it should.. A simple fix goes a long way.. I weighed down the lid, and found that it seals the cup better with the body, which created a better seal ( i was leaking between the body and the cup when the cup was empty)
4) Removed all excess pumps from the water ect.. My tank is now down to 1 Return Pump, 2 Pumps for my Skimmers, 1 pump for Carbon GFO (which I'm going to remove see below) and 4 Tunzees.
5) Replaced finnex (Terrible terrible terrible) heaters with some better quality titaniums heaters..
6) Want to order a backup return pump.
7) Upgrade Lighting, replacing 20k's with 14k Bulbs, and am currently in the process of replacing my t5s, and adding 2 more t5s so my total lighting will be 4x80w T5s and 2x400w 14k SE's in luminarcs.
8) I turned the frag tank into a Non-photosynthetic coral tank, but I'm currently trying to sell my dendros & rhyzo as in an effort to cut down in nutrients I want to remove the act of having to manually feed these corals on a daily basis.
9) Fish removal/replacing).. Over time some of my fish have gotten very aggressive, and a few have developed coral picking/eating habits.. (see below for more detail)
10) Anemone removal.. This is my biggest problem. My anemones are multiplying like crazy I now am up to about 10 Roses anemones and some have started to wander. I'd like to remove all but 1.
------Down the road plans
Remove sand, rescape tank for BB lower my live rock height giving more room for tunzes to blow above corals not threw, finish stand, and hood
So here is my current fish list with updates on each fish
1: Tang Blue Hippo (Doing Great, very large)
1: Tang Orange Line (Doing Great, very large)
1: Soho Tang (Doing great, but is feuding with my evil jewel damsel)
2: Swallow Tail Angels (Very healthy, but my male turned into a female, and they feud.. I suspect some minor coral picking Plan on removing at least 1 if not both in the near future)
1: YellowTang (Large healthy doing great)
6-8: Lyrtail Anthias (down from around 15, 1 lyertail turned into a supermale, the others got picked off due to the power struggle (i believe, and one of my other fish becoming more aggressive)
2: Clowns (occ) (breeding on a regular bais)
4-5: Misc Dams (probably around 3-4 or now, I picked up this tiny jewel damsel** a while ago.. now it's a MONSTER.. looks great..but one evil fish. plan on removing all but the mellow tribals)
1 Jewel Damsel (NIGHT MARE FISH REMOVING TODAY!!! IT has grown as big as my tangs, it takes chunks of flesh off my SPS, and has attempted to eat some of my LPS ACANs, it is knocking over frags, and has killed several of my fish....but wow what a great looking damsel)
10: Black Bar Dams (3-4 in the tank)
1: Fiji Devil (...what a pita this fish has been not the fact that it harasses other fish it's one of the smaller ones now..but because it digs.. and digs.. and moves corals around ect ect.. same as before, but ended up pairing with one of my "misc" damsels, and they have eggs on a regular basis.. still it's a pita and I plan on removing them both.)
1: Short nosed Hawk (Doing fine)
1: African Prawn Goby (Doing fine)
2: Jawfish (jumped gone)
So once I remove all my aggressive and troublesome fish. my plan is to add.
Achilles tang
Some wrasses for pest control
2x Mandarins I used to have a breeding pair of mandarins, that I trained to eat frozen food in my old 50 gallon.. I've very much want to do the same again
More Black Bar Damsels, very mellow, very interesting fish.
More Anthia now that a super male has been chosen and grown (very cool looking). I've deiced I'd like to add more females.
More updates and photos to come soon.
So this year was a bit taxing.. I spent 70-80% with very limited to dismal, success, but things have really turned around as of late.. After a few set backs in Oct/Nov and a failed attempt to sell the system before the snow set.. I found myself going into "bare minimum" mode. ie, top off, feed, and replace c02.
I had pretty much lost all my SPS (except for a few ORA pieces, and some captive stags from friends tanks) due to the electrical issue, and a few other problems, still a very active lively tank (tons of anemones , clams, some softies, and a few lps).. I wasn't buying any new corals, nothing except for my softies, and anemones were growing although nothing really died either, everything pretty much stayed stagnant from around Oct - Feb, although I was constantly struggling with my parameters.. Then in February , I injured myself, and had to leave town from Feb-Late April as learned to walk again, I was fortunate to be able to leave the tank in the care of a fellow local reef Victoria (rc login) who is an amazing reefer, and was able to really help me get things back on par while i was out of commission, upon returning to town.. I found a renewed inspiration in my tank, but due to some calcium reactor issues (I had 2 bottles of c02 leak out...) I had lost the remaining ora pieces.. Determined to give the tank 1 last shot.. I decided to give my tank a slight overhaul (replaced bulbs, media, got back on a normal wc schedule,ect ect)
and finally came to the conclusion I needed to take a different route for parameter stability control, so I yanked the c02 reactor off the tank, and went back to the basics.. w/a 2 part system on dosers controlled by my AcJR... and well.. I haven't looked back.. within weeks, colours returned to my long since brown acros, signs of growth returned to the tank.. and I've found myself enthusiastic and re-inspired with the hobby. After 4 years of nitemare reef keeping due the troubles I had dealing with and maintaining a calcium reactor.. going back to 2 part was hands down the best thing I have I done in this hobby.. I only wish I had done this years ago when I first came across the whole 2part/dosing part system... It's really a shame..
So now that going into my second month of what I'd like to call a successful tank.. I'm still not out of the woods when it comes to cleaning up past issues/and mistakes.. but i am well on the way..
My parameters are stable and my goals are set..
Here is a list of what I need to do/or have recently done..
1) Nitrate & Phosphate reduction.. Due to 6 months + of no water changes, and over feeding.. I have accumulated very large amounts of nitrate and phosphates (off the test scale in nitrate, .1 in phos thanks to GFO.. I'm on my second week of Vodka dosing and my skimmer is finally starting to work properly.. I am currently not using ozone but am toying with the idea of turning it back on. I am also on a weekly water change schedule to attempt to get these levels back to optimal.. While the tank is showing HUGE signs of improvement I believe correcting this issue would make all the more difference.
2) I added 2 more tunzees and a control, not only to increase flow but to make it more tolerable throwout the tank by mixing it up.. having my 2 of the largest tunzes blasting at full power 100% of the timing was making it very difficult to place corals, either they were being stripped or not getting enough flow (sps) with the exception of the rare few who were luckily enough to get int the sweet spots..
3) Skimmer fix, for as long as I've had my BM250, it has never performed as I believe it should.. A simple fix goes a long way.. I weighed down the lid, and found that it seals the cup better with the body, which created a better seal ( i was leaking between the body and the cup when the cup was empty)
4) Removed all excess pumps from the water ect.. My tank is now down to 1 Return Pump, 2 Pumps for my Skimmers, 1 pump for Carbon GFO (which I'm going to remove see below) and 4 Tunzees.
5) Replaced finnex (Terrible terrible terrible) heaters with some better quality titaniums heaters..
6) Want to order a backup return pump.
7) Upgrade Lighting, replacing 20k's with 14k Bulbs, and am currently in the process of replacing my t5s, and adding 2 more t5s so my total lighting will be 4x80w T5s and 2x400w 14k SE's in luminarcs.
8) I turned the frag tank into a Non-photosynthetic coral tank, but I'm currently trying to sell my dendros & rhyzo as in an effort to cut down in nutrients I want to remove the act of having to manually feed these corals on a daily basis.
9) Fish removal/replacing).. Over time some of my fish have gotten very aggressive, and a few have developed coral picking/eating habits.. (see below for more detail)
10) Anemone removal.. This is my biggest problem. My anemones are multiplying like crazy I now am up to about 10 Roses anemones and some have started to wander. I'd like to remove all but 1.
------Down the road plans
Remove sand, rescape tank for BB lower my live rock height giving more room for tunzes to blow above corals not threw, finish stand, and hood
So here is my current fish list with updates on each fish
1: Tang Blue Hippo (Doing Great, very large)
1: Tang Orange Line (Doing Great, very large)
1: Soho Tang (Doing great, but is feuding with my evil jewel damsel)
2: Swallow Tail Angels (Very healthy, but my male turned into a female, and they feud.. I suspect some minor coral picking Plan on removing at least 1 if not both in the near future)
1: YellowTang (Large healthy doing great)
6-8: Lyrtail Anthias (down from around 15, 1 lyertail turned into a supermale, the others got picked off due to the power struggle (i believe, and one of my other fish becoming more aggressive)
2: Clowns (occ) (breeding on a regular bais)
4-5: Misc Dams (probably around 3-4 or now, I picked up this tiny jewel damsel** a while ago.. now it's a MONSTER.. looks great..but one evil fish. plan on removing all but the mellow tribals)
1 Jewel Damsel (NIGHT MARE FISH REMOVING TODAY!!! IT has grown as big as my tangs, it takes chunks of flesh off my SPS, and has attempted to eat some of my LPS ACANs, it is knocking over frags, and has killed several of my fish....but wow what a great looking damsel)
10: Black Bar Dams (3-4 in the tank)
1: Fiji Devil (...what a pita this fish has been not the fact that it harasses other fish it's one of the smaller ones now..but because it digs.. and digs.. and moves corals around ect ect.. same as before, but ended up pairing with one of my "misc" damsels, and they have eggs on a regular basis.. still it's a pita and I plan on removing them both.)
1: Short nosed Hawk (Doing fine)
1: African Prawn Goby (Doing fine)
2: Jawfish (jumped gone)
So once I remove all my aggressive and troublesome fish. my plan is to add.
Achilles tang
Some wrasses for pest control
2x Mandarins I used to have a breeding pair of mandarins, that I trained to eat frozen food in my old 50 gallon.. I've very much want to do the same again
More Black Bar Damsels, very mellow, very interesting fish.
More Anthia now that a super male has been chosen and grown (very cool looking). I've deiced I'd like to add more females.
More updates and photos to come soon.
Last edited:
MammothReefer
Active member
Update and photos!!
"1) Nitrate & Phosphate reduction.. Due to 6 months + of no water changes, and over feeding.. I have accumulated very large amounts of nitrate and phosphates (off the test scale in nitrate, .1 in phos thanks to GFO.. I'm on my second week of Vodka dosing and my skimmer is finally starting to work properly.. I am currently not using ozone but am toying with the idea of turning it back on. I am also on a weekly water change schedule to attempt to get these levels back to optimal.. While the tank is showing HUGE signs of improvement I believe correcting this issue would make all the more difference."
---Almost completed. Down to 20ppm Nitrate from 160++ (off the chart) Phosphates Undetectable!
2) I added 2 more tunzees and a control, not only to increase flow but to make it more tolerable throwout the tank by mixing it up.. having my "2 of the largest tunzes blasting at full power 100% of the timing was making it very difficult to place corals, either they were being stripped or not getting enough flow (sps) with the exception of the rare few who were luckily enough to get int the sweet spots.."
--working out great wish I would have done this before...much more chaotic flow!
"3) Skimmer fix, for as long as I've had my BM250, it has never performed as I believe it should.. A simple fix goes a long way.. I weighed down the lid, and found that it seals the cup better with the body, which created a better seal ( i was leaking between the body and the cup when the cup was empty)"
--Still up and running getting solid 3+ cups of wet skimate a week!
"4) Removed all excess pumps from the water ect.. My tank is now down to 1 Return Pump, 2 Pumps for my Skimmers, 1 pump for Carbon GFO (which I'm going to remove see below) and 4 Tunzees.
"
---Relocated Carbon into filter socks will add GFO later
"6) Want to order a backup return pump."
---still need to do return pump takes a bit to restart
"7) Upgrade Lighting, replacing 20k's with 14k Bulbs, and am currently in the process of replacing my t5s, and adding 2 more t5s so my total lighting will be 4x80w T5s and 2x400w 14k SE's in luminarcs."
----replaced t5 bulbs with ATI pro Coral, and ati blue++ Halides are now 20k Helios.
"8) I turned the frag tank into a Non-photosynthetic coral tank, but I'm currently trying to sell my dendros & rhyzo as in an effort to cut down in nutrients I want to remove the act of having to manually feed these corals on a daily basis."
---Frag tank is back into a frag tank! Sold off all but 1 of my non-p corals.
"9) Fish removal/replacing).. Over time some of my fish have gotten very aggressive, and a few have developed coral picking/eating habits.. (see below for more detail)"
no luck.. need to tear down to catch these guys..
"10) Anemone removal.. This is my biggest problem. My anemones are multiplying like crazy I now am up to about 10 Roses anemones and some have started to wander. I'd like to remove all but 1."
managed to only remove 1..haha got a few more to go..
well here are some updated photos from today
Start
5 Months
1 Year
1 Year 10 Months.
"1) Nitrate & Phosphate reduction.. Due to 6 months + of no water changes, and over feeding.. I have accumulated very large amounts of nitrate and phosphates (off the test scale in nitrate, .1 in phos thanks to GFO.. I'm on my second week of Vodka dosing and my skimmer is finally starting to work properly.. I am currently not using ozone but am toying with the idea of turning it back on. I am also on a weekly water change schedule to attempt to get these levels back to optimal.. While the tank is showing HUGE signs of improvement I believe correcting this issue would make all the more difference."
---Almost completed. Down to 20ppm Nitrate from 160++ (off the chart) Phosphates Undetectable!
2) I added 2 more tunzees and a control, not only to increase flow but to make it more tolerable throwout the tank by mixing it up.. having my "2 of the largest tunzes blasting at full power 100% of the timing was making it very difficult to place corals, either they were being stripped or not getting enough flow (sps) with the exception of the rare few who were luckily enough to get int the sweet spots.."
--working out great wish I would have done this before...much more chaotic flow!
"3) Skimmer fix, for as long as I've had my BM250, it has never performed as I believe it should.. A simple fix goes a long way.. I weighed down the lid, and found that it seals the cup better with the body, which created a better seal ( i was leaking between the body and the cup when the cup was empty)"
--Still up and running getting solid 3+ cups of wet skimate a week!
"4) Removed all excess pumps from the water ect.. My tank is now down to 1 Return Pump, 2 Pumps for my Skimmers, 1 pump for Carbon GFO (which I'm going to remove see below) and 4 Tunzees.
"
---Relocated Carbon into filter socks will add GFO later
"6) Want to order a backup return pump."
---still need to do return pump takes a bit to restart
"7) Upgrade Lighting, replacing 20k's with 14k Bulbs, and am currently in the process of replacing my t5s, and adding 2 more t5s so my total lighting will be 4x80w T5s and 2x400w 14k SE's in luminarcs."
----replaced t5 bulbs with ATI pro Coral, and ati blue++ Halides are now 20k Helios.
"8) I turned the frag tank into a Non-photosynthetic coral tank, but I'm currently trying to sell my dendros & rhyzo as in an effort to cut down in nutrients I want to remove the act of having to manually feed these corals on a daily basis."
---Frag tank is back into a frag tank! Sold off all but 1 of my non-p corals.
"9) Fish removal/replacing).. Over time some of my fish have gotten very aggressive, and a few have developed coral picking/eating habits.. (see below for more detail)"
no luck.. need to tear down to catch these guys..
"10) Anemone removal.. This is my biggest problem. My anemones are multiplying like crazy I now am up to about 10 Roses anemones and some have started to wander. I'd like to remove all but 1."
managed to only remove 1..haha got a few more to go..
well here are some updated photos from today
Start
5 Months
1 Year
1 Year 10 Months.
