A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build

[Bello]

How's it going Troub? Hope you're all planned out for the weekend (for fishy stuff that is)

I like the last pic with the 2 shrimp, just got me thinking that I should toss my shrimp together, rather than keep 'em apart :thumbsup:...Astronauts eh? Neil and Buzz ?

Nice shot through the archway BTW, looks pretty neat!

Thanks for the conch vid, didn't know they moved like that. Always wanted to get one for my sandbed, but they're difficult to source out here... Trochus are easy to get though, but the damn things need to stop spawning!!

When you gonna get the lights up? You do need to make a serious coral run now, Christmas is approaching......... biggles has his tree, whaddya got? :lol:. Seriously though, softies will be fine under most lighting, so indulge me, please ...

Any pics of the zoa opened up now?

I forgot what brand of kits you're using...but in any case, with titration, you have to add liquid till the color change is PERMANENT, so you're thinking right :thumbsup:

Don't worry about ph for fish...too much....I remember keeping them at 7.0, lol...for years!....In any case, as long as you do sufficient WC's on the QT, it'll never drop that low.

Anyways Troub....I'm getting impatient, you can't live in Cali, and not have some killer corals!!!!...It's time to WASTE MONEY!!!!

 

[martinphillip03]

I like the names Neil and Buzz

Marty

 

[troubadour11]

Well, I wasn't up to much at all this weekend. My parents ended up coming in for a visit :bounce1: So a whole lot of sitting and watching/talking about the system. But not much doing :headwally: Hehehe. They hadn't seen it with water in it yet, so they were excited to check out where it was at and hear all about it.

We did get some shopping done and got me a turkey to smoke on Thursday for our Thanksgiving holiday over here though! YUM!!!! And so glad I get to spend it safe and sound with some family! :celeb3:

I checked the levels on my QT. All was looking good there. I did around a 3 gallon (give or take) water change on the QT tank and swapped in a carbon-less filter pad I had establishing in my sump. Then I started a treatment of Prazi-Pro. The Firefish has been looking clean, healthy, and happy for the last 3 weeks in Hyposalinity. It's been eating and seems like it's getting more and more yellow color back into it's white body as it eats and fattens up. So here is hoping these next couple weeks go smoothly as we get ready to transition it back up to tank levels to release it into the DT!

Bello, it's pretty cool having the 2 shrimp in there together. They hang out near each other quite a bit. The tend to chill on the tower on the left end of the tank the majority of the time. And I would say a good 70% of the time I'm around, they're hanging out near each other or underneath on opposite ends of the same ledge. I believe they are supposed to be hermaphroditic too. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that with the 2 together we might see them try to carry eggs at some point.

Glad you liked the archway shot :thumbsup: I thought it was pretty cool. The Zoas are a pain in the butt to get a good picture of. The camera lens doesn't ever want to cooperate with the amount of refraction from having to look at an angle to see around the rocks up front. I made a better attempt of grabbing some pics of them for you that I'll put down at the bottom.

I'm super glad you found the Conch video interesting. I thought it acclimated badly and was freaking out and going to roll over dead at first. But after observing them for a bit... that's just what they do. LOL And so far, I would give a HUGE endorsement to them. The 1 I put in the DT is constantly busy foraging around through the sandbed diatoms and sucking the algae off the glass just above the sand bed. And of course it buries itself a lot and digs through turning over the sand bed. I haven't seen the 2 in the refugium since I released them. They both burrowed into the 4 inch DSB and were gone. I occasionally see the tell-tale rings in the sand of where they wiggled up or down to bury themselves. But that's all I see of them for now. But I'm thinking they were a great addition to the system.

I'm using the Red Sea Reef Foundations kit for Ca, Mg, and Alk. I feel better about my tests last time. So I'll keep giving them a try until it runs out. I may have to give each brand of testing a try to see which I prefer and things. But good to know that I'm looking for the end points correctly at least.

No progress made on the lights again. That may be a good 4 day Thanksgiving Holiday weekend project this week. I so want to get them done. It's just getting the nerve to bust out the rest of the soldering and such...

All righty - Now for your Zoa pics. Remember, it's tough to get a good angle on them, and I am just using my phone camera for now. But on a positive side, I'm pretty sure that both colonies are spouting new polyps. So despite being super stretched out reaching for light, they seem to be doing ok!

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Unfortunately, not all of them were open when I grabbed the pictures. The frag on the left has a mix of the ringed blue/orange polyps and then there are some of the ringed blue/green. Then our new frag on the right looks just like the blue/orange on the left now :mad2: But they looked really different at the store. So we are hoping we didn't end up with 2 of the same kind. All well, they're still all cool ;-)

And of course, my current lighting does not do their color justice. I really need to remember to take pics at the store before bringing them home. But maybe one day soon I'll have my good lighting in place over them...

 

[jorda9095]

they look like they are stretching a little bit for light. also you dont really need a dremel you can get some coral snips and just snip the glue bond on the frag plug, you have to be careful with zoas as you probably know though.

 

[Bello]

Troub, your zoas are talking to you...They're chanting "Give us more light, give us more light!!!?

I forgot it was Thanksgiving week, lol, I'm international, so can't blame me. But I remember Thanksgiving in the States when I went to college. Bottomline, if you're an International student....its bloody lonely :lol:

Hopefully you get your lights up soon :thumbsup:

I haven't used Red Sea's Alk, Mg, Cal tests, so can't really comment, but I'd guess that they'd be pretty good.

Lol, the zoas look similar, but then again, you're in "Reef Frag Paradise", so you'll find tons more, I'm sure

I'm a bit swamped with tank work and messing around, but will be tagging along :thumbsup:

 

[troubadour11]

Well, we had a nice and long and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend over here. My parents ended up coming in for a visit. It was nice to share my smoked turkey with guests this year! MMmMMMMmmMMMmmMMmMMMmmm

However, I didn't nearly get as much play time on my tank as I was hoping!

But sometimes, I guess you just need to relax for a bit and spend some time looking at the tank rather then dabbling in it. Because it was a very relaxing weekend.

I did accomplish a few things. A couple water changes on the QT and treated with Prazi-Pro. The little Purple Firefish is still in there swimming around and eating. It's gotten a little more yellow color into it's body over the QT period. I've held the salinity at hypo salinity and I'm getting close to being ready to start bumping that up towards the DT levels this weekend. I can't wait until I can add a fish to the DT!!!

I do worry a little that it's all been irrelevant though. I saw it flashing against the glass tank bottom once or twice yesterday :worried: So I'm not sure what could be upsetting it to cause that. I guess I'm hoping it's the Prazi-Pro treatments. Because I've been religiously topping off the water daily (sometime twice daily) to maintain hypo.

I'll end it here with a few pics/vids I snagged while sitting around at least.

- I'll start with the sad sack award :angryfire: The orange Ric is slowly becoming a lost cause no matter what we do. -

- And here are the other Rics in their current state. Still tiny, but I think they're looking ok. -

- Here I zoomed in a bit and cropped it to try and capture where the big shroom moved it's foot from. It looks like there is a new baby ric starting where it's foot used to be.?.? -

- Here is where all the Rics are all hanging out these days. We have positioned them down on the foot of the rockwork in the bottom foreground of the left end of the tank. I expect this to be shadowed quite a bit once there is a reef up above -

- Zooming out a little further for placement -

- So far we are LOVING having a Tongan Fighting Conch in our DT! They are SO FUN to watch when they're out! Here it is cleaning up the sand bed around where it was buried during the day. Unfortunately, despite grazing almost all day everyday, it is barely making a dent in the rusty mess right now. -

- You can see how it buries in and reaches its "elephant trunk" out to clean off the sand in a circle around it's shell as it crawls 1/2 buried -

- And this Nassarius was just screaming to take a picture of it. He wouldn't get off the rock out of my view of the Zoas. So I obliged the little fella. -

Let me take a quick break and I'll pop up a video or two that I captured when looking at the conch and snails.

 

[troubadour11]

Here are the videos...

(feel free to mute the audio, it's just whatever the family happened to have on the TV in the background).

- First up is the Conch feeding in the sand bed. -
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KYOEvaGjXyA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

- And the Nassarius trying to block my view. -
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3-m7YPqgooI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Bello]

Hmm, Troub, that orange ric looks like its done for . IMO, it's honestly difficult to get them back when they appear bleached out like that. Good thing is that the green one seems happy enough, and thanks to its movement, propogating.

I had a similar unfortunate experience when I started out with rics. Doing well, and suddenly when nutrients in the tank dropped, they started bleaching, never to come back. FWIW I think R. Florida is easier to keep than R. Yuma. I just find them to be more tolerant.

I'd still get the lights and phos kits soon though. Have you checked ammonia levels in the QT? If I'm not mistaken, Prazi is for worms etc, but if the ammonia is high, the fish could still be stressed. Best to check.

My internet is slow at the office, so couldn't check out the vids yet. Will see 'em later.

Didn't your LFS have Black Friday coral sales ?

 

[troubadour11]

Yeah, I'm disappointed in the Orange Ric. We tried moving it to lower light for a week. I also tried to target feed it some. But it never really showed signs of improving. So my last ditch effort was to put it basically right next to the green ones which seem to be doing just fine.

And I was definitely surprised to see the green one sprout a new shroom where the foot moved from! I can keep babies alive for the green ric, but the one single orange guy just keeps fading away :angryfire:

Ironically for me, it seems like I'm (currently) better with the R.Yuma then R.Florida. I'm pretty positive that my green ones are R.Yuma and the orange was R.Florida. I'm definitely wondering if the orange was getting to little of light. I've read lots of accounts of R.Florida liking more intense lighting then R.Yuma.

When you say that they started to bleach when nutrients dropped. Are you referring to Ca, Alk, trace elements dropping?

I'm all over your next recommendation. Other then moving fish through QT, the lights are top priority right now. I managed to get all the wires tinned last weekend. So next time I sit down, it's just tapping the connections with the soldering gun to join the circuits. Then it's onto getting the drivers and Reef Angel organized. I added the Ultra Low Range Hanna Phosphourus Checker you recommended to my Xmas wish list. So I'm hoping that may show up under the tree this year. If not... it's one of the next planned purchases.

In the QT, you have a good thought there. I haven't checked the Ammonia levels in a week or so. All levels had been rolling along in the ideal areas. We are on our 2nd round of Prazi-Pro for worms/flukes. So I've done a few water changes within the last week. I did a 20-30% water change the day that I noticed the flashing. So you could be right there. The levels may have been up a bit before the water change. Or I stressed it during the water change. The Firefish is getting another 20-30% change tonight. Then I'm adding some carbon back into the filter and starting to slowly bump the salinity back up to get him free in the DT! :bounce1: And I haven't seen it stressed or flashing this week since I noticed it over the holiday weekend.

Oh, and I'm positive my LFS's had coral sales over the holiday. I managed to stay clear of all that. With 1 Ric hanging out on Davey Jones's doorstep, a bunch of Zoa's stretching for light, and what I think are Dinoflaglelletes popping up I thought it best to just focus on what I have. There's still plenty to be done before going hog wild on corals that I may not be able to keep alive yet. Very disappointing, but probably the right call for now. Christmas is right around the corner... if I book a good job to start out the new year, I might be splurging a bit then

 

[Bello]

How's the orange ric doing now? Still hanging in there?

It seems like its gonna be quite a bit of work getting the led's soldered AND interfaced with the Reef Angel. Think you'll be done before Christmas?

When I meant nutrients dropping, I was referring to NO3 and PO4 as such. However, in my case, it was really really low, just after a bacterial bloom when I overdosed a carbon source (which you don't have to worry about).

I'd doubt that you have Dino's. You haven't added much by way of external live rock etc, so I don't think that they're dinos. I could be wrong of course

Hopefully, you start splurging soon , if I were in your place, I'd have already spent 2k by now, lol.... Impulsive?....yep!!

 

[troubadour11]

Well, the orange ric is still "alive." I put that in "quotes" because I don't imagine it is going to pull through. I'll take some pics of my set up here this weekend. But no matter what we've tried, it just keeps shrinking away slowly. I tried less light for about 1.5 weeks. Then, being completely befuddled, I moved it right next to the yellow/blue shrooms that seem to be thriving just fine. Still, it continues to shrink.

(Knocking on wood) I've been able to keep the other shrooms and zoas happy enough. Granted the zoas would appreciate the new lights getting completed. But both them and the other rics seem to be ok. The ric split when it moved it's foot and the babies have gotten bigger. Plus I've been able to see some new heads sprouting at the base of the zoas. So it just seems like the orange/blue ric didn't adjust well to the system.

I've even taken to trying to give it some target feeding once or twice a week and haven't seen any positive results from that yet either.

And on an even more upsetting note... our Purple Firefish died !!!!:furious::furious::furious:!!!!

I'm not completely sure what happened there. But it was upsetting as we were more or less done with the QT period. It seemed to be healthy and doing well. I swapped out the filter pad to one with carbon in it (which had been in the DT sump establishing for a couple weeks) to help pull the Prazi-Pro out. Then did about a 30% water change a day or two later. I checked the NH3, No2, No3, PH before the change and everything was still zero'd out. I also re-checked the levels a couple days later when it died and everything was still reading appropriate.

So I'm guessing the only thing it could be contributed too is possibly raising the Specific Gravity to quickly.?.? We started that a few days after the new filter and water change and everything was looking good. The next morning, not so good...

We raised the SG up from 1.009 up to just under 1.011 over about 10 hours dripping it in while we relaxed and watched movies. By all observations from the time we started until we went to bed that night the Purple dude was doing just fine. The morning lead to a different realization. So a bit of a disappointing set back there. :angryfire:

So now this week we've emptied out the QT, rinsed it, let it dry completely for a few days, and then started it back up with Hypo-salinity water and a new filter pad that was established in the sump. Anyone want to convince us which fish to start with... again? I'm guessing we'll be looking to get the QT process started this weekend :headwalls:

 

[troubadour11]

So soldering takes lots of time. For me at least since it's my 1st time and I'm trying to be EXTRA careful. But I keep trying to move the lights forward. My original goal was to have them up on the tank before Christmas... so that's still the "plan." I also wanted 2 fish and my first SPS in by then. My hopes of completing all that are slowly fading though as the days tick bye :hmm4: I'm hoping this weekend I can finish getting the 2 fixtures wired. At least to the point that the circuits work and I just need to attach the drivers. Then I can pull out the Reef Angel and start planning the layout and how to tie those 2 pieces into the system. One day, all this stuff will make an awesome reef tank. I promise (I hope).

For now. It's back to the drawing board on getting our first fishy in. Meanwhile I can mess with trying to complete the LEDs. It'll be nice to just get all the bells and whistle I've been trying to build tied into one system done. At least to the point I can focus more on water quality and livestock.

And upon further investigation, I think you're right. I don't think it's Dino's now either. Me = newb and no experience with Cyano, dino's, or diatoms. I got angry when the firefish died, so I went to town on the DT. Scrubbed all the glass and typhooned the rocks with a baster. Everything on the DT rocks flew off with the baster blasts with ease. I'll be interested to see how it progresses from here. In my frustration about the death, I forgot to take before/after pics/vid.

It seems like my tank is progressing SUPER slow in comparison to most new established set ups. Probably since I went with dry rock and seeded the system. Which was to be expected. But after just over 3 months, it seems like we're barely into the diatom / algae stage I hear about of establishing the tank. I finally saw the first "green" stuff really starting to show up on rocks this past week.

To be honest, I'm feeling a giant splurge on the system coming between now and mid-Feb. 1st we will see what Santa thinks of our new pets and if he leaves anything to help out. If (I should say WHEN) those lights go up... my cash flow will dramatically go down I'm guessing :beer:

 

[biggles]

Been a very busy boy i see Troub sorry for not keeping up mate. How is the display atm and more importantly is anything getting you down about the way things are going because that's what we're all here for - to sort your sh*t out because it's time you got this reef crackalacking !
Had to get 2 bloody shrimp just to rub it in didn't ya Troub................ bastard

 

[troubadour11]

Been a very busy boy i see Troub sorry for not keeping up mate. How is the display atm and more importantly is anything getting you down about the way things are going because that's what we're all here for - to sort your sh*t out because it's time you got this reef crackalacking !
Had to get 2 bloody shrimp just to rub it in didn't ya Troub................ bastard

Hey Biggles, welcome back! Don't worry about not keeping up... I saw that you were just super busy feeding King Parrots instead of fish and corals. :spin2: I figured you saw the progress I was finally getting to and started to get scared I'd send a flubber invasion your way :uzi: Hehehe.

All in all, I think the display is doing ok. My 2 cleaner shrimp are still alive and kicking. I was a little down that we lost our purple firefish during the QT process. We were so close to getting our 1st fish in the display :angryfire:. So that had me down a bit. But you could say I have already filled the hole in my heart by replacing it and getting the process started again :strooper:

Really, I guess the most frustrating part of the tank right now is my extremely clean but rust colored sand bed and the nuisance cyano that I think I'm fighting.

My guess on solutions to the diatoms and cyano issue could be...
1.) wait it out some more with no water changes to reduce nutrients with extremely low feeding to keep the 2 shrimp and snails alive. Taking the time to let the cheato grow to a sizable amount that is more proportionate to the entire system. Currently I only have a large fist size loose wad of it in the refugium for about 200 gallons.

- If this is possible for the time, as long as my Ca, Mg, and Alk stay up for my 2 Zoas and Rics.​

2.) try running some bulk carbon and/or GFO to starve it out. The "easier" solution and probably quickest.?. But I was hoping in the long run to only use carbon to regulate chemical warfare in the mixed reef and let the DSB, additional live rock, and cheato in the refugium do it's thing.

Also, there is one other thing to consider on this issue. I'm pretty sure almost everything is going to change and get thrown out of whack in the next 2-4 weeks again. I've been pushing forward on the LED build some more lately. So I'm really hoping that I'll have the new high powered lights up over the tank soon. Also, as soon as we can get a healthy fish through QT, we'll be adding that to the bio-load soon as well. So that's why I've just been taking the "watch it and wait" approach for now. But I'm open to ideas of solutions if I'm going about it wrong.

- Here's a FTS of the DT from this past weekend. -

This FTS is from after I turkey baster typhoon'd the rocks. The front and center sand bed is usually completely rust colored. But I had disturbed it during the typhooning process. I was blasting the rocks because I've been getting (what I believe is cyano) forming bubbling clumps off the rock work. So I've taken to easily blasting it off once a week and constantly skimming pretty wet to try and pull some of it out. I pretty much run my skimmer at full power all the time. It hardly pulls anything out but barely colored water unless I stir things up.

- Here are some closer shots of my beautiful Bahama Rust Sand bed. -

- More yucky rust colored sand... but I just liked this picture for some reason.

So that ugliness is what I'm currently observing and taking my time with. I've come to understand the Diatoms (the rust colored sand, correct?) is fairly normal when establishing a new system and will come and go as the system equalizes. So I have not done any water changes in a month or so now. I've been trying to "wait it out" a little while I messed with other things. But I have not seen any improvement in the last few weeks. If anything, there is more rust color now.

I'm not sure yet if the cyano is disappearing or not since I've taken to blasting it with the turkey baster. I've got a few spots where it took hold after blasting it, but I don't see it re-grow as quickly as before now. My hope being with holding off water changes, the cheato will start to take off and out compete some of this nuisance stuff.

- Also... here's a video I shot this weekend. I just kind of scanned over the whole tank. But I was thinking seeing the rock work and growth in motion in a video might help a bit. -
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xXIFBcsHsQg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

- Left end of the tank where we moved the Rics to the bottom front rock. Hopefully isolated enough that they won't wander up the tower and start stinging other future corals. -

So there's the general "tank condition." I didn't grab any of the refugium this weekend. It's doing what it should... growing more rust colored sand and red rocks then the DT at least. I'll get some shots of that soon so you can see the mess in there.

Up next: a few species specific and fun shots...

 

[troubadour11]

- First off, we picked up a couple Orange Firefish. After careful observation of the Purple Firefish (RIP), we decided the we like the Orange variety better. I like their spikey dorsal fin look instead of the stubby short one on the purple kind. So here are these two little fishy friends -
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/l7G3-M2p0hA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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- These 2 just have to be in the background of any picture they can make. They must be related to Potatohead! -

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- A close up of the Rics that are doing well. You can see the new baby clearly now as it keeps getting slowly bigger. -

- And the unfortunately Orange/Blue Ric that is still ever so slowly shrinking. Waiting to see if it likes being next to the healthy yellow/green rics. -

And since I can't end on a sour note of the Orange Ric shrinking... here are some updates of the LED build. Pre-tinning the stars and wires made making the connections REALLY easy to get a solid attachment.

- Wires and pads all tinned up and ready to connect. -

- Close up of 4 LED's soldered into the circuit -

- Both fixtures wired except for the leads and splash guards installed.

I still have to test the lights. But that takes hooking up the drivers and wiring the drivers to a dimmer. So that will be a project for another day. I went through with a battery tester and touched the pads of each individual led and every one lit up on it's own. But when I touched the battery tester to the +/- at the end of the circuit, nothing lit. So either I don't have solid connections all the way around, or the 2 AA batteries are not enough to power 10-12 LEDs bright enough to see.

Now back to work for me for the rest of the day. But I'm REALLY looking forward to the short term future of my tank. I am pushing towards trying to have the LEDs and Reef Angel set up by the end of this year!

 

[Craigdillman]

Hey I've been quietly following this build from the start, mostly due to the fact I have the same lights and not a lot if us around,

Tank looks good man that to me looks like totally normal diatoms at this stage and it will All take it course, but on that note I would start to thing or start to run GFO and carbon now it's easier to get ahead of any algea problems from the beginning rather than trying to get rid of them after. Chances are the gfo will last a long time anyway due to low feeding and low bio load so I don't think it would hurt starting it now

Good job with the lights looking good, I have 3 heatsinks over my 125 all non soulderless tho but I love them

Just my 2cents keep up the good work and the patients and frustrations of QT it will pay inn the end

 

[Salty Dog24]

Things are looking real good for such a new tank. The ugly period for the sand bed sucks, but once you get through it, its great. May take several months to recede. After you blast your wrocks with the turkey baster, are you also siphoning your sand bed, but doing a light skim off the top to suck up the algae, and detritus?

 

[Bello]

Sorry for the delayed reply Troubster

Beautiful fish, they look great :thumbsup:...Hope they do well...But honestly, Troub, I wouldn't consider these being easy to keep, and are certainly quite a challenge... Hopefully, you pull it off

The fixtures look neat, and I can't wait to see you done with them, and over your tank. A couple AA batteries definitely aren't enough to light up entire strings, I can guarantee that. So you think you'll be done this weekend?

One small thing, the splash guard is great, but it'll probably require cleaning on occasion. Also, using a splash guard constricts air ventilation on the leds, so you'll have to ensure that they're not running too hot. Gut feeling, I think they'll be ok :thumbsup:. For additional info, I don't use a splashguard. It's too dusty hereabouts..

If you haven't got your phos test kit yet, I'd just toss in some GFO anyway. But honestly Troub, phos kit asap

I'm watching you :lol:

 

[troubadour11]

Hey I've been quietly following this build from the start, mostly due to the fact I have the same lights and not a lot if us around,
... ...
Good job with the lights looking good, I have 3 heatsinks over my 125 all non soulderless tho but I love them

Just my 2cents keep up the good work and the patients and frustrations of QT it will pay inn the end

- Hey there, thanks for chipping in with some kind words! You have the same lights... HmmmMMmMM... I may have to start picking your brain a bit as I finish up building them. It has all made sense so far, but there are a few things I still need to figure out. I've just been learning as I go. As of now, I would buy the solderless kind if I was "doing it over." But as long as they fire up and blind me when I hook them up the 1st time, I'll be happy I saved some money and did the work. That's a big IF they light up!

I need to do some :reading: on wiring the drivers. I thought I had seen somewhere that you're able to power 2 drivers off 1 power cord. I was thinking, if that's possible, it might be a good idea to bind the 2 drivers on each fixture to 1 power cord. That way it would save me 2 extra outlet spots and some cable management. Any thoughts if that is possible with the drivers?

Things are looking real good for such a new tank. The ugly period for the sand bed sucks, but once you get through it, its great. May take several months to recede. After you blast your wrocks with the turkey baster, are you also siphoning your sand bed, but doing a light skim off the top to suck up the algae, and detritus?

- Hey there Salty Dog. I'm glad to hear it's looking good for such a new tank! The ugly sand bed has been keeping me pretty dismal about the tank lately. But it's good to be re-affirmed that I'm more or less approaching in a good way and that it will probably pass with time.

I haven't been siphoning the sand bed much. Mostly just blasting the rocks with the baster and using a net to scoop out what floating stuff I can with heavy skimming. I might try a light siphon across the sand on my next water change. But as I mentioned, I had been postponing water changes right now trying to let the cyano starve. But next water change, I'll definitely try to give the sand bed a light once over. :thumbsup:

Sorry for the delayed reply Troubster

Beautiful fish, they look great :thumbsup:...Hope they do well...But honestly, Troub, I wouldn't consider these being easy to keep, and are certainly quite a challenge... Hopefully, you pull it off

The fixtures look neat, and I can't wait to see you done with them, and over your tank. A couple AA batteries definitely aren't enough to light up entire strings, I can guarantee that. So you think you'll be done this weekend?

One small thing, the splash guard is great, but it'll probably require cleaning on occasion. Also, using a splash guard constricts air ventilation on the leds, so you'll have to ensure that they're not running too hot. Gut feeling, I think they'll be ok. For additional info, I don't use a splashguard. It's too dusty hereabouts..

If you haven't got your phos test kit yet, I'd just toss in some GFO anyway. But honestly Troub, phos kit asap

I'm watching you :lol:

- Yup, we like the Firefish. Especially the Orange over the Purple. Both awesome fish, but it has been decided... Orange > Purple on our reef :fun2: And we know they aren't considered the hardiest of fish to start out with. But they're probably some of the more timid fish we are planning. So that's why we're starting with them. To be honest, I'm actually really excited to be trying 2 of them. I hope we pull it off to!

I don't know if I'll get the lights done and everything this coming weekend or not. It's definitely a goal. I think I'm off work for most of the Christmas week. So I'm holding out that I can get a good chunk of tank work done over the holiday. But I'm definitely going to make some more progress over the next weekend/week.

All good thoughts concerning the splash guards. I may or may not use them. They came in a package deal with my order. Remember, I am expecting to build an oak canopy lift to raise up my hood by about 6-10 inches. That way I'll have enough space between the lights and the water surface to stick my arms in there some. So I'll just have to see if they get any build up, or if I tend to splash in my tank when working, or what.

On the ventilation side. When I build the lift and mount the lights inside the hood. I'm thinking I'll use a hole saw and put a hole with a screen directly above each fixture. I have a 90 mm (I think that's the size) case fan that will be mounted blowing air down on the back of each heat sink. Whether I drill through the hood or not will depend on how much space I have between the back of the fans and the top/inside of the hood. I'll be leaving the rear of the hood completely open and probably building some screen tops to keep my jumpers where they belong.

It's only a week until Santa comes... if I was a good little reefer, maybe I'll be finding the Ultra Low Phosphorus checker you recommended under the tree for me. If I was bad, that's at the top of my list to pick up soon... basically the same story with carbon/gfo, I think. I want to follow all of the above recommendations and get those running very soon.

Thanks for all the feedback and thoughts everyone. It's always very much appreciated! I'm done with work for the night... so I'm getting out and heading home! :bounce3:

 

[biggles]

Hey Troub,

I love firefish of any color but i've always been worried about them jumping and i don't run screens - gotta be able to shove an arm in at any random moment lol. I hope to see your new guys in the display mate, sorry about the purple, it really sucks to lose fish doesn't it, i joke about just the money but i feel sh*tty as hell when i kill a fish, my anthias would still be alive if they were in the ocean
I stopped running carbon months back as i want the water to be 'richer' in micro particulates, more natural than the stripped crystal clear version many of us get carried away with to the detriment of the corals i think. You're running a DTSb for a reason mate, to use natural filtration techniques so don't bother with the carbon but it's good to have some on hand in case you spill something in the water etc. I just ordered 1000ml of rowacarbon myself just to have in the cupboard.
Make yourself siphon as much of that cyano out as possible next water change Troub, don't worry about a bit of the sand as you can wash it and return it later. Get some GFO running ASAP mate, it's great stuff and will help you fix things up. I'd suggest just half a cup in a bag in good flow in the sump or start with 1/4 cup if using a reactor. It's potent stuff once it kicks into gear and you can go from high phos to bottoming out in a matter of days not weeks so always start low. The lighting upgrade will see another algae bloom possibly until the whole system readjusts so get the GFO going for a few weeks prior to turning those LED's on so you have things under tighter control - just my opinion but i've made way more goofs than you can ever hope to Troubster so i speak with goof authority lol. :beer:
In my last 4x2x2 i had a 5" DSB and i went through the exact same cyano issue as you're seeing so it's nothing to stress about and will be a memory before you know it mate. Minimal feedings, i hand feed Potatohead reef roids, cyclop-eeze and his absolute wet his pants with excitement favorite food - mysis, something not quite right about that to me :crazy1:
You obviously have aussie stalker shrimp Troub, the collectors have to swat them away with a stick when acro collecting.......... considering i've made the ID i think i should name them for you. B1 and B2 - obvious really.



I do wonder at times just what the bananas and bears do on that bean bag after the director stops filming.............