90 Gal SPS Tank Start Over - A Learning Experience

[scumbag_gli]

Oh man...another tank thread right? Well I figured it would be fun to start. I have come a LONG way over the last year or two (been in the hobby for 8+ years, but got serious over the last year).

So it all started with my 30 gallon of softies and clownfish. A little over a year ago, I had a friend convince me to start looking at upgrading and going SPS. I fell I love and went in that direction. Built the stand, picked up the gear and started it up.

Had ALOT of ups and downs over the last year. One ich break out, a rock wall causing horrible algae issues, and a temperature spike of 90 degrees. Somehow I didn't lose anything from the algae or temp spike, not sure how, but it was a miracle. Anyways, I'll post progression on the next post, and where it stands now! Don't judge the horrible looks from before - I've learned a lot hahaha. Anyways, tank specs below

Tank - 90 gallons (3x2x2)
Sump - 30 gallons
Skimmer - Eshopps 150
Lighting - ATI 6 bulb (blue plus, coral plus, blue plus, purple plus, blue plus, blue plus)
Water movement - MP40, 2 x Hydor 425 (soon to be removed, had in there when I had a rock wall)
Return pump - Syncra Silent 1.5
Reactor - 2 part BRS (running carbon & GFO)

Dosing - B-Ionic Calc, Alk & Mag
Salt - Red Sea coral pro salt
Water changes - 18 gallons once a week
Other weekly maintenance - blow off rocks once a week, vacuum bare bottom, scrape glass

Current Fish - yellow tang, melanarus wrasse, fire fish, one spot fox face, saddle back puffer, 2 spot hogfish/wrasse
Next Fsh - naked clown, Wisconsin ice clown, purple fire fish, possible anthias (used to have barlets and loved them)

Inverts - 5 nas. Snails, 5 large Mexican snails, 10 hermits, 2 cleaner shrimps, 1 linckia star fish

Planning on some more frags soon, then letting it grow out for awhile. Only thing I'll be adding constantly, is more chalices on the bare bottom.

 

[scumbag_gli]

The start up!

Then here came the algae issues...

 

[scumbag_gli]

Last site of the awful rock wall

 

[scumbag_gli]

Rearranged the rocks, added the reactor. This was post-ich break out. All new fish, many new inverts and sand removal.

 

[scumbag_gli]

90 Gal SPS Tank Start Over - A Learning Experience

I don't have any recent pictures of the last 3 weeks. But I will post them tomorrow. ATI fixture is now installed & a lot more drags added

PS - I changed from an mp10 to an mp40 somewhere in the process as well as upgrading my return pump and other circulation (listed above).

 

[Dmantz1]

sg - your tank looks good

 

[scumbag_gli]

sg - your tank looks good

Thanks! Still has a long way to go, but it's getting there. The ati unit made the world of a difference, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

 

[scumbag_gli]

An updated picture with the ATI unit up

 

[Harse Designs]

nice foot print, also your chevron is gorgeous just curious with such a small tank why you didnt go with glass

 

[scumbag_gli]

So another small little update, my Alk (10.9) has been sky-high lately and I've been more the less "waiting it out". All other levels are on point, but the raised alk is causing some STN on my nice frags (red dragon, red planet, SSC, pink lemonade, and myagi). The weird part is, with this Alk swing, some of my pieces that haven't been coloring up are finally looking good while others are suffering. But I snapped a few iPhone pics regardless.

Cali tort seems to be doing okay

Stylo that seems to never be effected by anything LOL

Lime in the sky finally coloring up.

 

[scumbag_gli]

nice foot print, also your chevron is gorgeous just curious with such a small tank why you didnt go with glass

Unfortunately I lost ALL of my fish from the first post. Now I only have my yellow tang, two wrasses, fox face, fire fish, and puffer. He was my favorite fish, and he actually survived the the ich plague the longest!

I mean I guess I don't consider 90 that small, but this was a custom built tank for a friend. I only paid $75 for the tank, $50 for the sump. I couldn't pass it up.

 

[scumbag_gli]

So my Alk is slowllllly dropping, about 0.1-0.2 a day. Stopped dosing and everything seems stable! Hopefully the STN'ing subsides. FTS for you guys.

 

[scumbag_gli]

Got these beauties coming in next week, so excited. Alk is still slowly decreasing so I'm hoping by the time these frags arrive I'll be in good shape - if not they'll go in the 20L frag tank.

 

[DaveRaz]

Nice set up. i woukd let the Kh drop naturally and keep it around 8.2 or a little lower maybe as you have removed the sand. I have a 90 as well with no sand and have zero po4 and around 5 Ppm no3. I started running the carbon reactor only two weeks per month and it has helped my colors. I also started feeding a bit more to keep no3 detectable. Maybe this tips will help you but every tank is different.

One recommendation is have for you is to get more clean up crew. I have tons of snails or 3 or 4 different varieties. You new tank will go through a few issues still yet. I didn't have enough ccc and it showed. By adding many more snails it helped me rid the gha while also helping to improve the health of my tank.

Keepyour thread going. Good stuff.

 

[scumbag_gli]

Nice set up. i woukd let the Kh drop naturally and keep it around 8.2 or a little lower maybe as you have removed the sand. I have a 90 as well with no sand and have zero po4 and around 5 Ppm no3. I started running the carbon reactor only two weeks per month and it has helped my colors. I also started feeding a bit more to keep no3 detectable. Maybe this tips will help you but every tank is different.



One recommendation is have for you is to get more clean up crew. I have tons of snails or 3 or 4 different varieties. You new tank will go through a few issues still yet. I didn't have enough ccc and it showed. By adding many more snails it helped me rid the gha while also helping to improve the health of my tank.



Keepyour thread going. Good stuff.

Yeah the carbon has helped a lot, but my darn return pump is acting up so I need to send it out for warranty.

I'm actually considering all more CUC soon, but I'll have to get rid of my puffer - he literally will kill everything lol.

 

[scumbag_gli]

As I was about to turn the lights off for the night, I noticed something. I've had this millie for about 40 days with no polyp extension. And what do you know! Maybe the Alk coming down is finally making it happy!

 

[scumbag_gli]

Another little update...added a few of the new corals, within hours the polyps started to show and color up a bit. Going to see how they do the next 48 hours. Alk seems to be BETTER but still not great.

 

[scumbag_gli]

Haven't updated in awhile, and unfortunately not for good reasons. Recently went out of town and all hell broke loose on the tank. Alk spiked back up, five light died and killed all of my chaeto, light timers malfunctioned and were either stuck on (or off) hard to tell at this point...ended up losing ALOT of stuff. I'm at the point now where I'm trying to even justify continuing with SPS. For now, I'm going to just let the tank settle and see what I can save.

Bought a frag rack, fragged anything that had the slightest bit of life left in it. Weirdest part? My millies are doing amazing, haha. Anyways, hopefully over the next week or two things mellow out and get back on track since I'm home.

 

[scumbag_gli]

Well some stuff is starting to look a little bit better, I guess. I'll say this - nothing has gotten worse. Params are coming back to normal, did a giant water change which seemed to help a lot. Scrubbed the walls and blew off the rocks. Polyp extension is back on some, colors are still kinda iffy, but only time will tell. Will post pics later!

 

[scumbag_gli]

Well finally snagged some photos on my potato (iPhone) lol. Things are finally looking better! Color has a long way to go on some pieces, but I grabbed a few pics of the stuff that had decent polyp extension or were looking better (in general).

And a few unintentional photo bombing fish...these guys are NOT camera shy lol