Annyeong's 280g SPS Reef Build

[pisanoal]

Well i guess it's about time for an update. Some good news and some bad.

I lost my Naso Tang in QT that was quickly becoming my favorite fish due to her awesome outgoing personality. This fish almost never hid, and on the last transfer was trying to eat some stirred up food pieces as i was catching her. Unfortunately, the heater failed and stuck on. I should have noticed because she seemed very subdued the next morning after the transfer. I found her dead that afternoon. I was scratching my head as to what could have happened to such a healthy fish so fast. When i went to move the sailfin, which thankfully was still doing ok, i checked temps between the two tanks and found the first to be at 87 degrees, the heater stuck on. It likely got warmer than that during the day. The QT system is in my garage where temps fluctuate a decent amount with outdoor temps. Its insulated so stays temperate enough, but a few degrees could have made the difference here.

Anyways, that behind me, the sailfin made it to the display and is looking comfy. The only fish that didnt appreciate her presence is my one-
eyed genicanthus angel. She stares her down with her good eye from time to time. It's pretty comical actually.

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[pisanoal]

The tank is looking decent. My bryopsis-like algae is steadily subsiding, amd the exposed rock left behing is staying remarkably clean. This concerns me that the nutrients in my water column are too low and I'm worried my sps will suffer if they stay too long like that. I havent checked no3 and po4 in a couple weeks, since i put the new skimmer on actually, so that is about due.

I do have quite a bit of cyano on the sandbed again, so I'm hoping to add a bit more flow and see if I can take care of it that way.

I also saw a Hawaiian Naso Tang on divers den for a really good price, so I picked her up and she is in QT. Much more shy then the last one, but she is eating and getting more comfortable. I really like the patterning on the Central Pacific vs Indonesian variety. I have a bad pic (of course you wouldn't expect anything else on this thread!) of her in QT, and a few tank shots.

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[pisanoal]

Quick update. Not a whole lot to report. I finally fixed my issues with CaRX co2 feed, so my alk is slowly climbing. I tested last night and I was at 7.0. I'm going to target 7.5 and stop there.

My sailfin is doing a wonderful job on my algae and there are only a few big patches left along with the sheet along the back wall. At least it's beimg removed from the rocks which is really all I care about for now.

My cyano is still present and unchanged. I plan on trying some DIY coral snow to see if i can keep my vermetids from spreading onto the new rocks, and to try and clear my water up. I always have some particulate floating around.

I finally programmed my lights for the new system. I run the 6 t5s for 6 hours, and the leds for about 12. I have some very dim lighting for an additional few hours in the morning and evening just for viewing.

Here's a couple FTS to show algae progress. This is under my dim morning lighting which tends to wash out some colors on the corals.

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[pisanoal]

Been a while on the update front. The tank has been doing pretty well. Since the last update I have added the Naso Tang and the Clown Tang back to the DT. The clown seems to be doing great so far with just some minor chasing of the Naso.

On a largely positive note, the tangs have done their job and decimated the algae. There is still some on the back on the back wall that the clowns are trying to protect as their home, but that is slowly getting chipped away at as well. The coraline growth on the new rocks is starting to pick up, which means the rocks dont look so new anymore.

Im still struggling with slightly pale and or brownish color on a lot of corals. I made a mistake in my last post with test levels on my phosphate. It was actually .003 (2ppb Hannah ulr).

I tested again yesterday and I was at...
SG 1.027
Alk 7.9. Been raising this. I'm going to stop around here
No3 5
PO4 .05 (17ppb)

I liked these results a lot better so hopefully I can keep them stable.

Ive got a few more fish in QT, a trio of blue dartfish, and an orange spot blenny. Ive been reading reefmutt's very informative thread (only on page 54) and loved seeing his. Its a cool fish.

Also added a few new frags, an orange passion, what i think might be a pikachu that has coloring up to do, and an unknown looks purple with green polyps, similar to bonsai, but i think it still has to color up. Looks more reddish then purple. Pics to come in next post.

 

[pisanoal]

Still some cyano... But seems to be getting better.

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[ClownNut]

if you can put a glass or acrylic between the water and the t5. otherwise, you reflectors will get water spots over time, and that will cause your lighting output to drop.

 

[pisanoal]

if you can put a glass or acrylic between the water and the t5. otherwise, you reflectors will get water spots over time, and that will cause your lighting output to drop.

Its actually not that bad. I don't have a lot of salt spray. I clean the bulbs and reflectors every couple of months. I used this setup for a couple years on my 125, but they where higher with more surface agitation. I am planning on doing something like what you recommended though since they are closer to the water.

Thanks for the recommendation

 

[pisanoal]

So a couple of weeks back I sent a water sample in to ATI as a baseline. Results came back today so I figured id post a screenshot of the summary. Everything looks really good for the most part. Looks like I'll be dosing Iodide for sure, but not sure if I should go after the rest and what I should use. I thought about maybe AF Micro E, but it doesn't have everything I need. I may just go with the ATI elements, but hopefully ill get some feedback from you all.

 

[Piper27]

Corals look like they are happy! I have been using a old jug of Kent tech iodine I believe it's called. It's supposed to be time released and have both kinds you need. I haven't tested to see if it's working yet. Figured I would use it since it's here.

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[pisanoal]

Thanks for the recommendation!

I'll look into that for Iodide dosing.

Acros for the most part seem pretty happy/healthy. Colors on a lot are still pretty pale or brown. We will see what trace dosing and keeping my nutrients around 5 and .05 does.

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[markalot]

Hi,

enjoyed the thread, especially the part where you killed the algae with tangs! Looking forward to seeing this grow in. I have a 150 (tall 125), it's as big as I could fit in the house without tearing out a door. I long for a 180 but this will have to do. I'm jealous of the extra depth!

 

[pisanoal]

Hi,

enjoyed the thread, especially the part where you killed the algae with tangs! Looking forward to seeing this grow in. I have a 150 (tall 125), it's as big as I could fit in the house without tearing out a door. I long for a 180 but this will have to do. I'm jealous of the extra depth!

Thanks for reading and posting, Mark! It means a lot to me to have you on the thread. Your tank is one of the ones i look at and think "Hopefully, someday mine will look like that..." I do have to admit, i was a little sad when you took your giant slimer colony out, that thing was super cool. I get why you did it and its more just jealousy that i wish I had SOMETHING grow like that:eek2:

The tangs and the algae was really satisfying, big thanks again to Ed. Otherwise I would have dumped a bunch of unnecessary chemicals in. As it stands now, i have NO visible algae longer then a couple millimeters, amd im getting ready to add a trio of yellows out of QT.

Hopefully i get to post somw exciting growth progress here shortly, but growth has been painfully slow. My own slimer just took off, and a few others are growing very slow, but the rest are stagnant.

I'm continually slowly raising nutrients, amd a couple days ago my nitrates were at 10 but phos was only .02. We will see. A lot of my trace elements were non-detects on the ATI test so hopefully some trace dosing will get things moving.

 

[pisanoal]

So its been a while! Haven't felt much desire to update my thread, bit things have been cruising along steadily. I have made quite a few changes to the tank recently including adding a few of the newer jebao pumps to alternate flow patterns (ow-50's? The biggest ones), removing all of my tunzes and going with an over the top closed loop (main motivation was to quiet the tank down), added acrylic covers over the tank to keep salt spray off the lights as someone recomended, added a few new fish, and changed the aquascape!

In the mean time my corals have been doing great! The tank always has some cyano which is mildly annoying, but since the corals are happy, I don't care right now.

I have been trying to add a group of cardinals but i keep failing. I have had several mass die offs in quarantine where most if 8 or so cardinals will not make it past a couple days, the rest usually die in the next few. I'm changing vendors and trying one more time. So far I've tried thread fins and yellow striped, I definitely want some that will shoal.

On the closed loop, i tried using 2 scwd's on a jebao dcp-20000, but those things were LOUD. My tank for the most part is very very quiet, so maybe others have better luck with these not adding system noise, but they were intolerable for me. Plus they killed the flow the way i had them installed (lots of 90s). So now i just have a simple header in the back with 6 3/4" locline nozzles, and maybe I'll add some eductors later. So now, all tunzes are out of the tank, ibhavr 2 powerheads in the tank, one is behond rock work, so display is much cleaner, and much quieter. The tunzes werent very loud but they did have a noticeable deep hum. Now, when just the closed loop is on, the tank is almost entirely silent. A very slight trickle noise every so often and a very very slight hum from the sump in the garage. If we are doing anything at all besides sitting in complete silence, the tank is inaudible. The jeboas do have a high pitched whine, but the end result will be to shut those off during the evening hours when we are home and would be watching tv or hanging out in that room (6-11 pm).

The aquascape... I got a great deal on some dry rock from a tank breakdown, and decided to rescape. I was never really happy with my scape as it didnt emphasize the size of the tank. So i went taller with more open space and LOVE it now. The fish seem to really like it too as there are two distinct zones in the tank that seems to better curb aggression.

Here are some pre-aquascape photos.

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[pisanoal]

Now for the new aquascape pics!

I typically foam the structures together and then epoxy/sand coat the black foam so it blends in, but that limits the structure design somewhat. It can make then look blocky in order to get them stable. So this time i utilized some fiberglass rods to make it taller and more open. While also making it stronger and more modular.

This is the happiest I have been with any aquascape in any tank I have had to date. It was a lot of work, but completely worth it.

A lot of aquascapes will look great when they fill in with coral, and thats what i kept telling myself with the old one, but the new looks great now, and will look even better filled in then tge old would have. Now to get back to focusing on coral growth! And cleaning up my mess from these projects...

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[reefmutt]

Neat new scape!
Looks great!

 

[pisanoal]

Neat new scape!
Looks great!

Thanks! I am really really enjoying it.


So I made my first coral purchase in a while, and unfortunately FedEx in my area sucks, they never deliver early. By the time I got the corals, the water was 62 degrees. I was really excited for them but unfortunately most of the pieces I was excited about are losing tissue.

Some of the coral look stressed but ok. My two favorites a BC Wild Red, and a WWC Heartbreaker aren't going to make it. Among the other casualties are a BC Spainbow and Atlanta Aquariums Chameleon Stag. The vendor seems like he is going to be pretty cool and send some replacements even though he only has a DOA policy, and technically they were still alive.


I have also been trying to add a shoal of threadfin cardinals or yellowstripe cardinals but I can't get them through quarantine. I've tried 3 times and lost 8 the first and second time. This time I have lost 4 already. The threadfins were hard to get to eat, but the yellows come in eating like pigs. The really odd part is they look absolutely fine, then an hour or two later, ill go by them and one will be dead. Any thoughts here? I'v tried two different reputable sources now with similar results, no outward signs of disease when they die. Are they just poor shippers?

 

[Big E]

Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear about the losses. Those threadfin cardinals are bad shippers. It also seems even if they make it past the first month they aren't very long lived.

I've had friends buy them and were lucky if they lasted a year.

 

[pisanoal]

Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear about the losses. Those threadfin cardinals are bad shippers. It also seems even if they make it past the first month they aren't very long lived.

I've had friends buy them and were lucky if they lasted a year.

Good info on the longevity. The shipping issue is why i switched to the yellowlined. There isn't a whole lot of info out there about them, but I was hoping they were aa bit hardier. They definitely take to eating a lot easier, pretty much eat pellets right away.

Anyone have any thoughts on a shoal of damsels? Thinking 6 talbots or rollands. They are supposed to be "peaceful".

Current stock list is:
2 yellow tangs
Sailfin Tang
Clown Tang
Pair of percula clowns
Blue throat trigger (male)
Swallowtail Angel
7 or 8 dartfish (blue gudgeon and zebra striped, they mostly stay hidden until feeding)
Planning on a pair of leopard wrasses and maybe a female blue throat.

I really want a group if smaller interactive fish that hangs out in the open. I haven't had much luck with anthias so I'm done with them, although I feed the tank a lot more then I used to.

After that I'm pretty much done with adding fish as i think that will be a good density.