A Reef in the Desert - 120 Gallon Build

[Hentz]

My LFS broke down a tank and the guy had a bunch of ZEOvit bottles that were 3/4+ full. So I acquired some blue bottles that I'll very likely use for coloration and what not at a conservative rate.

Got a few more top down pics today along with an FTS during a water change. Really hard to get a really high quality picture with the T5 bulbs blasting above my viewer. I can hardly see my phone screen when taking these, but its the best I can do at the moment!

 

[Ucantwin]

Looks as if things are coming along nicely so far!

 

[reefmutt]

Nice collection of 'starter' corals!
looking good!

 

[Hentz]

Ended up buying a Fuijifilm XP120 tonight at BestBuy. Figured since we're going on our honeymoon tomorrow with snorkeling included, a water proof camera would be fun. So of course, what does any reefer do? Tests it out on their tank! Sketchy to put the camera in water, I eagerly did so. I need to work on my skills a little bit, but a much more "accurate" shot than what I was able to get above with my iPhone 6+. Might not be the most crisp camera, but definitely am able to get a better colored shot, naturally.

 

[reefmutt]

Cool! You should be able to get perfect shots with that camera. Just need to get the focus right.
Enjoy the honeymoon!

 

[Hentz]

Honeymoon was freaking awesome! First stop was Catalina Island in California. They had snorkeling and of course we signed up for it. Prior to that, we kayaked around the boats and what not which was pretty cool. Got to play with the camera bit which was great out of water and not so much underneath us... However when we went snorkeling, it turned out pretty high quality. Much better than we both anticipated. The wife was pretty panicky when she realized there were easily 150+ fish swimming around us. I was simply like a kid in a candy store, mesmerized by the beautiful Bass and Garibaldi and the ONE Wrasse I got to see.

Home now and still playing with my camera. I'm a little under the weather as I feel I'm still on the boat and get randomly dizzy... But the tank for some reason was helping me. So I got some pics last night, trying various things to get the best quality.

Here's one to start, the Pearlberry of course. Seems to be the easiest for my to capture. Tried it with a flash which surprisingly helped the quality. Though had to edit the white balance a little bit in Adobe Lightroom to be able to get the accurate color.

Here is the Pink Lemonade I have. I also found that if I record a video at 1080p 60FPS, it really gets nice close-ups of the corals. Using this method, I just took a screen shot of the video. May have reduced quality some, but not too much.

And the other I got a nice shot of, the Area 51 from Dynasty Corals. This was an unnamed piece until a fellow reefer and I picked it up at a local Swap. Dynasty Corals later made a post for people to come up with names, in which Area 51 won.

 

[Hentz]

Some more close up pictures:

Walt Disney Acropora - Hoping this colors up soon.

Unknown Acropora - Went from brown/green to this in 2 weeks. Quickly becoming vibrant.

Unknown Acropora #2 - Bought it brown, developed some pretty colors in my Reefer 170. Now back to brown but turning green. Seems to be preparing to start showing its true colors.

Pink/Green Millepora - Bought this browned out as well. Remained a Brown/Pink+Green in my Reefer 170 before completely Browning out again. Now sprouting out branches, getting lighter in color and hopefully going Pink/Green.

Pink Lemonade Acropora Frag - I bought this at the same time as my other Pink Lemonade in above posts. Not sure how I didn't realize I had already bought one..

Mike Paletta's Purple Tip Acropora - My Dad's is doing amazing with the green base instead of my brown, but hopefully it is going in that direction!

Green Slimer Acropora - A complete classic that I absolutely wanted in my tank.

Gobstopper Palythoa - The one coral in my tank that is not an Acropora species. Traded a 40 breeder tank for a few polyps. Little did I know it would explode in growth!

 

[Bulldog88]

Great looking tank! What is your bulb combo?

 

[Kayvon]

Tagging along. This setup is very similar to the one I am planning.

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Hentz, looking great!
Frags looks nice and happy.
Looking forward to seeing a high res vid.

 

[Hentz]

Great looking tank! What is your bulb combo?

Thanks! Bulb combo is 3x Blue + / 2x Coral + / 1x Aquablue Special.
Not what I originally chose, it came with the light fixture when I bought it used. Though I really enjoy the more "natural" look when all bulbs are on.

Tagging along. This setup is very similar to the one I am planning.

Thank you, looking forward to your setup!

Hey Hentz, looking great!
Frags looks nice and happy.
Looking forward to seeing a high res vid.

Thanks man!

 

[Hentz]

Just a quick shot I snapped tonight.
I did a 10 gallon water change earlier today.
I also moved my Gyre 130 from the back right corner in a vertical position to above the MP40 on the right in a horizontal position as high as it will go. This is creating much mroe surface agitation as prior. Not sure if that helped my pH or what, but it went from averaging 8.1 to 8.3 and is now 8.1 at night. Nothing crazy though I do notice better polyp extension with higher pH.

 

[reefmutt]

With my co2 blasting into my ca reactor, reverse daylight fuge and kalk, my ph is constantly at 8.1. I'm perfectly happy with that...
Looks good in there, nice and clean and corraline looks to be growing as well.

 

[Hentz]

With my co2 blasting into my ca reactor, reverse daylight fuge and kalk, my ph is constantly at 8.1. I'm perfectly happy with that...
Looks good in there, nice and clean and corraline looks to be growing as well.

Ohh yeah, I can definitely see how that will easily keep your pH stable! My downstairs is a bit small. So I definitely see a difference when my wife and 4 dogs are in there opposed to just me. Though still too hot here in Vegas to open windows and allow fresh air rolling through the house. Soon though!

Coraline seems to slowly be growing on the live rocks. It's the Coraline it had on originally, very mature looking. I'm okay with it not growing too much and my Acropora out competing it though. Looks great for a little while, but quickly takes over! Lol.

I also need to get my doser up. Noticing some great growth on my corals and I think daily 2-Part will be required soon.

 

[Hentz]

Got some pics of some Acropora! Everything is doing so well still. Had to lower the photoperiod of my Chaeto Reactor as it was taking up too many nutrients and corals paled out a little. Biggest notice was my Strawberry Shortcake which came back within a week with very vibrant colors. I've never been able to keep one for long, but this fella is looking very healthy... Knock on wood!!!!

Here are some close-ups. Trying to get better by stabilizing the camera for macro shots. Kind of hard for a point and shoot!

Strawberry Shortcake Acropora

Unknown Acropora

RR Aussie Gold Acropora - I swear its this coral... Can someone please help clarify?!

Random Acropora

Pink Lemonade Acropora - Finally coming back with some Yellow!

Paletta's Tri-Color Acropora

Green Slimer Acropora

Becker Tort Acropora - Again, I think it is a Becker.. Please correct me if I am wrong!

ATL Joleen Acropora

 

[Usernam Invalid]

Some nice healthy looking sticks you got there

 

[reefmutt]

Looks like things are on the verge of really exploding!
Looking really good!

 

[Hentz]

Thanks guys!

@reefmutt, you must have jinxed my Coraline or perhaps saw some I was completely unaware of! My tank is exploding in Coraline algae. First started with my MP40's (from what I saw), then my overflow/back wall. Today I noticed nice clumps of it growing on the rocks lol.

Tank is doing good, been busy with other stuff. Trying to remind myself to feed the fish everyday and monitor Alkalinity at its best lol.
I'm not being lazy, but trying to not do any water changes and seeing how my corals react as I was doing 10% weekly.. Nothing insane, just enough to clean the sand.

 

[Wrangy]

The tank is coming along really well Hentz!! It's going to look stupid in a couple of months time

 

[codydemmel4]

looks really good!

Where are you keeping your params now and are you still dosing coral snow? If so, why are you doing that?

I had some local reefers say they love it for the water clarity the next day after dosing and their skimmer and filter socks seem to pull more once they started dosing