A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[troubadour11]

HiImSean: Yeah, the Foxface was one of my concerns. Especially if it was with a pygmy angel. I was a little worried about size. Either way, I've got a long while until I get to that decision. So I'm going to :reading: a bit more before I need to make a call. Any idea of an alternative to the Foxface other then a Yellow Tang?

Remember Troub, less time on BBQ and more on the electricals....Damn, now I'm hungry again

- First off. We swapped this outlet, which is behind the back right corner of the DT, out and installed a new GFCI outlet. Just in case we spill or end up having anything for the tank plugged in there. We currently have my wife's 5 gallon crab/shrimp/snail/fish freshwater tank there plugged in there anyway. -

- Disconnecting the old elbow union on the backyard lights circuit, installing a junction box, and drilling the hole for the run into the closet -

- The run into the closet finished up -

- Just through the wall and around the corner... -

- Around the corner and heading towards the outlet boxes -

- Finished up shot of the run from the corner -

- Finishing up the wiring of the GFCI outlet & 2 downstream outlets for a total of 6 new plugs. Also installed a light switch and new light socket for the closet. -

- All finished up with power! -

- Now I can work on starting to get the Reef Angel initially set up, get my heaters installed into the sump in the closet, set up the UV sterilizer, of course the lights, and I'm sure so much more. This will make everything so much easier to get a little more set up.

OooOOoo... we can set up a QT tank under the stand now too :fish1:

And a HUGE THANK YOU to my friend Chris for helping me with all this electrical stuff!!!!

 

[Bello]

Looks like you've got a lot done, Troub :thumbsup:

Good thing you've got a friend who can help you out. I'm quite useless with electricals, had to hire a professional

Good luck with the rest....

 

[biggles]

Everything is looking great Troub The good thing about setting all this stuff up is you only have to do it once if you take your time and do it right just as you are mate. :thumbsup:
If you're not confident with electrical work it's always best to use a qualified trady as it's just too dangerous with all the wet stuff we muck around with. I zapped myself the other day when i picked up the Dremel with a wet hand, was just a tickle but it only takes a moment to slip up.
None of your snails are starving, that snail pic shows heaps of food everywhere and it's only going to increase for a little while so don't worry about that issue.
Now i think we have our wires crossed on the skunk shrimp issue Troubster, i wasn't suggesting you get one i was telling you to get in the bloody car and go to the LFS and buy a disgustingly cheap cleaner shrimp and chuck him in the tank. Hope that clears up the misunderstanding for you mate
I have read lots of threads on here about keeping multiple shrimp in the same display and it seems to work fine although Potatohead is a tad psychotic so who knows. At $175- for a small blood shrimp trust me when i say i've done some bloody research mate. :reading:

 

[Bello]

At $175- for a small blood shrimp trust me when i say i've done some bloody research mate. :reading:

+1 :lol:

 

[boxorocks]

I think I would have gone with plastic conduit but all in all looks good.

 

[troubadour11]

Here are some updates of what I was up to this weekend.

- FTS update -

- Dropped a couple heaters into the center section of the sump -

- Some awesomely crappy cable management. I'll get back to cleaning this up once the lights and reef angel move along. For now, it's nice to just have use of the new outlets in the closet! -

- Finding some micro-life on the glass -

- Another one of those worm looking things up top -

- We did our first water change. We swapped out 15 gallons and used some of the water to set up a 10 gallon QT tank down below the stand. -

- And that piece of rock will not be staying in there. I just pulled it out of the sump and dropped it in here to get the bacteria seeded onto the new filter pad. In the future, I will just drop a new pad into the big sump to establish it. But since everything was currently unused, I just tossed this rock in for the time being.

- Some refugium shot updates -

-

- It looks like some coralline algae might be starting to spread. I think I see some purple dead center on that dry rock. -

And a few more pictures and info to come in a moment... We'll be right back after these messages...

 

[troubadour11]

And now, the continuation of the weekend saga...

- the last few Fuge shots -

-

So that is what the tank is looking like right now. Since we were doing a water change, we took that chance to do a little more testing.

Saturday night (pre-15 gallon water change)
Temp - 78/79
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 7.6
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 35
Ca - 320
Mg - 1080
KH - 5.6

Sunday morning
Temp - 78
Salinity - 1.026
PH - 7.8
NH3 - 0
No2 - 0
No3 - 30
Ca - 330
Mg - 1100
KH - 6.5

- Now just to double check our testing. When we were out and about on Sunday, I had a LFS test our water as well. Their readings were...
PH - 8.0
NH3 - o
No2 - 0
No3 - 0
KH - 9

So from all of that I've learned.
1.) that crappy expired kit needs to be replaced with a better ph/No2/No3 kit :deadhorse: LOL - go figure
2.) I'm still not sure how accurate we are at testing the Ca, Mg, Kh with the Red Sea kit.

I calculated kh at about 6.5 on Sunday morning. But the sample we had tested Sunday afternoon at the LFS said 9. So I'm still not sure what's up with these test. I'm pretty sure I'm hitting the end colors correctly. I would also expect to see a little higher Ca and Mg. I saw each on go up slightly after the water change. But I still expect to see those numbers higher for using Red Sea salt at this salinity. And I'm sure it's not a huge issue and is perfectly in range for the demand and life currently in my system. But since we're going so slow, I've got time to dabble and get better at this.

Any thoughts on the numbers I'm seeing and testing or all the photos so far?

... and the conclusion of this weekends story after this short break ... :wavehand:

 

[Bello]

Firstly, excellent checking and double checking....and damn! triple checking :thumbsup:, this attention to detail will certainly save you a lot of problems in the long run.

Honestly...I've used 2 different alk kits so far, ELOS and Salifert, they differ by 1 dkh. I don't really know how accurate my Ca & Mg kits are, but honestly, unless I see anything wrong, I don't check for Ca and Mg. Have tested for them ONCE the whole of last year. I do however, test for alk about 2-3 times each week. Basically, once you're dialed in, you're look for consistency and stability..and relying on reading your coral

It's difficult to say which kit is accurate and which isn't. It does seem that your expired NO3 kit is crap . I'd think that the LFS testing of alk at 9dkh, would be off. Since Red Sea salt, if you're still using that, usually measures in at 6.5 to 7 dkh. Feel like testing again? :lol:

Seems like a fair amount of diatoms in the tank, but they're most harmless algae of the lot. Turbo's will make short work of them, if you feel the need. The critters seem to thriving....and its really time to get some bigger action in the tank now ....Mushrooms, shrimp....let the countdown begin!!!.....BTW, lights done?

 

[Bello]

Oh one more thing I forgot about earlier....for the QT tank, you'll probably need the SeaChem Ammonia something....basically it constantly monitors the ammonia levels in your QT, so that the fish don't suffer....

I've just ordered it for the first time a couple days ago, and waiting on it.... will post results once I have it. But check it out....too lazy to find the exact name

 

[troubadour11]

... and we're back to wrap up the weekend reef drama ...

So since everything was looking good after the water change, and we were at LFS while out running errands to get the water tested, it was time to take a leap and see what happens :bounce1:

Here are the new additions to the reef

- Look at these 2 checking out the new reef that they have the run of for now -

- This one is a little blurry. They were hiding behind the rocks at the back of the tank -

-Just hanging out -

- We got them home, floated the bags for 30 minutes, and added a bit of water to the bags every 5 or 8 minutes while floating. Then released them.

- And it was time to look for some low light corals that could make it under the temp lighting setup.

- Orange Ricordea. I really like this one. It's a small little fella, but orange, with a little yellow/green in the nubs and a purple base. I took this picture right after I got everything settled in the tank. -

- Yellow/green Ricordea rock. It looks more green in my tank, but looked more neon yellow at the store. I'm sure it will look different under the better lighting I'm building soon. But it's got the 1 big one, and then 2 little babies. Again this picture was taken right after getting everything into the tank. -

- Then the last of the new additions... we picked up a Zoanthid frag to add to one of the island rocks. I should have taken a picture at the store, it's tough to get a good shot in our tank and the color looks like crap under these lights. But it's a 2 colored rock. Some bright orange and bright yellow. My wife's favorite and choice piece. Her birthday is soon, so these are some birthday additions :celeb3: -

- Here it is all closed up after going through the Revive dip with the mushrooms before getting placed.

... break to a new post for the last few photos and to see how they make it through the night...

 

[troubadour11]

And we're back now for a few shots of how everything looked this morning.

- Bad news first I suppose... We had one casualty :angryfire: over night apparently. I'm not sure what happened. They were both fine about 8-10 hours after acclimation before I went to sleep for the night.

- I even checked the salinity of the bag water before acclimating. It was 1.025. So I'm pretty sure the 25 or so minutes in the bag slowly adding some water was adequate acclimation. And we know the levels were all good since I had them verified at the store. So that kind of sucks... maybe the store has a guarantee. I'll have to call and ask. I do know they buy frags though for store credit. I checked on that while we were shopping for the low light corals.

- Here's the orange ricordea this morning. Still looking to be enjoying the spot.

- Here's the yellow/green ricordea rock. I think it's looking good, but I'm wondering if it's getting a bit to much flow.

The colors don't look as nice in this mornings shots. But that's just because I didn't spot light it with flashlights like last night. I just used the ambient light in the room. But the colors of both pieces look good and like they did last night and at the store. They might even be expanded a bit more then when at the store. The big yellow/green one kind of puckers it's mouth a lot. Doesn't leave it gaping open, but the mouth doesn't look as relaxed as the others. I'm not sure if that's a sign of anything or not... just watching for changes :bum: Learning by experience now!

And then to wrap it up, me trying to get a decent shot or two of the Zoanthids opened up.

-

So what do you think? Any thoughts or tips on anything? I think I probably need to learn how to remove them from the giant frag plugs they are on.

But for now... I've got them in the tank and will probably just wait and observe for a bit. All in all, an exciting weekend for 1st for us. And soon we will be able to get our first fish into QT for observation :beer:

 

[Bello]

I honestly dunno why the shrimp popped off.....If the other guy stays fine, then it could be something wrong with the shrimp in the first place or perhaps something else. Don't break your head over it, though.

Good choices on your first corals :thumbsup:...and glad to finally see some corals in your tank. You are now no longer "shrimpless"

The corals do look healthy and I'd think you'd really wanna finish up those lights soon, because they're gonna look awesome under the led blues :thumbsup:

 

[martinphillip03]

Are you sure the shrimp did not molt last night.

Marty

 

[troubadour11]

Are you sure the shrimp did not molt last night.

Marty

I suppose it could be possible. Being new to the salty side, I've never seen a cleaner shrimp molt. But I've had freshwater shrimps and crabs molt. I'm pretty sure it bit the dust.

It had all it's antenna whiskers and they were not rigid, flowing around in the current. The legs and body were flexible as well. I had to brush a nassarius snail off it when I first saw it. And a bristle worm was sticking out of a close rock headed in it's direction.

On the plus side, 1/2 of the shrimp team has been roaming around presenting on a back rock all day. So it looks like that one is doing fine.

I called the store. They have a 7 day guarantee on in store purchases as long as you have proof of the death and your receipt. So I guess I'll find out for sure later this evening when I run it in for a new one. Hopefully I don't make an embarrassing rookie mistake :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Well, it was confirmed dead.

BUT....

We're back to two! This replacement has been acclimated and is hiding out in the back crevices of the tank. Hoping everyone makes it through the night tonight :celeb2:

YAY :bounce1:

 

[Bello]

You're a lucky bastard

Out here, dies one hour later..... you're outta luck...

Now that you're officially a reef keeper, the pressure begins

 

[troubadour11]

You're a lucky bastard

Out here, dies one hour later..... you're outta luck...

Now that you're officially a reef keeper, the pressure begins

Definitely lucky! I thought I would be out the money as well. But fortunately for me this LFS sells A LOT in the online world shipping all over the US. So they have a 15 day guarantee for all live-stock for on-line orders and a 7 day guarantee for in-store pick ups.

Surprisingly enough it's for anything "living." Shrimps, corals, fish, snails! So that's a nice deal. Even though it's a 35 minute drive each way (without Los Angeles traffic).

They also said they are more then willing to buy frags (usually of anything) for in-store credit once the reef is far enough along. They prefer and encourage local reefers to bring frags in for them to distribute to help minimize environmental impact.

So I've got these stupid huge frag plugs in there right now. Any tips for removing the mushroom rocks or zoa frags off the plugs? Just take them out in a little dish of tank water and use an old screw driver or something to pop the rocks off the plug?

What about with Zoa's? They look a little more delicately attached. I also noticed a couple of the bases of the zoa polyps are a little loose on 1 side and look like the float around in the current. I slightly worry about them breaking off... should I grab some super glue gel and put a small dab on the base of the polyps to help hold them onto the plug? Then just try to cut the stem and base of the plug off so it's more of a disk that I can glue down?

And how worried should I be over bad hitchhikers and things on their bases? I soaked the shroom rocks and zoa's in a Revive bath for about 15 minutes, then rinsed them in some tank water before introducing them. Should I give them a second bath if I take them out to remove the plug and glue them down?

I feel I wasn't quite fully prepared to introduce the corals. But based off the recommendations here that this lighting could keep these choices alive. It was about impossible to tell my wife "no" for a birthday gift. LOL :headwally: And let's not kid ourselves... it probably would have been just as impossible to tell myself no anyway :headwalls:

And when handling these pieces, is there anything I should/shouldn't do? Avoid touching any tissue with my fingers at all cost, or if I brush them will it hurt them at all? You know... stuff like that. Just pretend I'm a noob' and I'm spraying a whole bunch of rapid fire machine gun questions at you about them :uzi:

Oh... and I'll save biggles the heartache and not even mention what these 2 cleaners ran me. I need to figure out a way to breed them plated in gold and sell them over there!!! :dance:

 

[s2nhle]

Wow, awesome scaping. Your ph are low, nitrate are high, kh, ca, and mag are low. You need to work on these.

 

[troubadour11]

Wow, awesome scaping. Your ph are low, nitrate are high, kh, ca, and mag are low. You need to work on these.

Hey s2nhle! Thanks for the complement on the scape! It was one of the things I was really excited to focus on and build in what will hopefully be a sweet designed base to the reef.

As for the levels.... I'm still working on figuring all that out. I do realize the Ca, Mg, and Kh levels seem low. I'm trying to learn and figure out how to control that.

It seems odd they are all so low without much at all in the tank. What could be using them all up so quickly? It doesn't seem like I should need to dose much yet with basically rock, sand, worms, snails, and the 2 newly added (2 days ago after testing) cleaner shrimp and 2 ricordeas and zoa frag.

But I assume another water change in the near future will help to bump those levels up. I only recently did my 1st water change. And it was only 15 gallons. So that was probably only a 5-8% change. I'm guessing I'll do another 20 gallons here soon after I see how the shrimp and other new additions adjust.

I'm still using the regular Red Sea Salt. So the mid-upper 6 dkh reading I got is probably more accurate then the stores reading of 9. I would also trust the 0-Nh3, 0-No2, and 0-No3 reading from having the stores check my levels more then my own test. The test strips I have are expired (by a long shot). They appear to register changes, but I don't think the actual numbers are all that accurate. I'll be picking up some new replacement tests in the near future. :deadhorse:

But any thoughts or ideas on helping me learn how to stabilize them are of course welcome. I won't be adding much at all now for a spell. I want to get my first fish into QT, so it can get through there. Then I'll use the time between now and when the QT process is done to work on learning to stabilize my levels at a more ideal position, get my lights built and installed, set up the reef angel, work on wiring, etc.

:beer:

 

[Mussin]

Nice looking 90...