My plan of a 125 gallon build

[SimonSKL]

I know a lot of people worry about customer service, after sale support, and product warranty in buying products from China or oversea. I am going to show you it should not always be a concern if you do your research and buy from a company with a good record of after sale support.

In my post on 3/27/12 when I received my Eshine lights that one of the controllers has a defective "+" button. I emailed Eshine on that very day and was told almost immediately by return email that a replacement controller would be shipped to me at no cost. Also there was no need to ship back the "defective" one. Today, 4/2/12, 5 days after my request, DHL delivered a new controller and everything worked as expected. This level of after sale support is not always seen even among domestic companies.

The pro about all these is: I have an extra controller that still works despite a defective programming button.:bounce1:

 

[SimonSKL]

After two days of diatom covering every piece of rock and the sand, the rocks and sand look clean again this morning. The skimmer was working hard pulling tons of brownish gunk out of the tank. The water in the tank is quite cloudy at the moment probably from bacterial boom. I replaced the GAC in the reactor to see if the water will clear up later.

Ammonia has been zero the last couple days. This morning both ammonia and nitrite were at zero and nitrate at 5ppm.:bounce3: I believe the nitrogen cycle is complete. I am starting to phantom feed the tank with flakes to see if I can introduce another spike in ammonia. If no ammonia spike, I plan to get a fish or two within the next couple days.

I also seeded a piece of rock with green star polyps and palys in the tank yesterday and they started to open up nicely in the new tank.

The four red LEDs turn out to be much brighter than the Royal Blue that I replaced so I use a piece of black electrical tape to partially block their output. I also increase the blue intensity. It is nice to be able to vary the color and intensity with the controller.:mixed:

 

[Trademark]

I'm glad you are almost there, good work

 

[SimonSKL]

Water is completely clear this morning.:celeb1:

I was playing with the lights trying to reduce the intensity of the red LEDs. This picture is pretty close in showing the true color this morning. The whites are at 10% and blues/reds at 30%.

On the left side I used blue masking tape to cover the 4 red LEDs and on the right side I covered only 2 red LEDs. I think the blue masking tape reduces the red intensity by half if not more. Which side do you like?

I will introduce my first fish to the tank as soon as I can catch it in my 92 gallon tank. Some corals will be moved to the new tank within the next couple days.

Trademark, I am ready to order some clean up crew. Did you contact PA to see if we can get a better price for a small group buy?

 

[rsjakp]

i like the right side better. btw love this build and wish I had your skills.

congrats!

 

[SimonSKL]

White 10%, Blue/red 30%

White 40%, Blue/red 60%. Same camera settings.

rsjakp, thanks! I like the right side too. I think the red brings the rocks more "alive":thumbsup:.

 

[SimonSKL]

Finally live stock in the tank!

This test corals that I put in 3 days ago is doing real well.

Yesterday I bought 4 blue/green Chromis from LFS and they were going thru my methylene blue RODI water bath for 8 minutes

They look so little in the big tank.

The Chromis are all doing well this morning. All water parameters are good.

Today I moved my 4+ yr old Royal Blue Tang over from my 92 gallon tank. Poor thing just ran out of room to swim in the small tank.

She just loves the open water

 

[Trademark]

I'm glad you got him moved over. He will enjoy life a little better now.

 

[RichieT]

I'm sure that Tank is loving life right now. Looks good Simon. I owe you a ton of pictures. My frag tank looks amazing on that stand.

 

[SimonSKL]

Rich, glad you like the stand. I am anxious to see pictures of your frag tank on your new stand.

I had a mini-spike of ammonia Saturday morning so I did a 30 gallon water change and everything is back to normal. One of the Blue/Green Chromis died Saturday night. I think that fish was sick to begin with as it was hiding behind the rocks from day one. I have also started to move some of the corals to the new tank 2-3 pieces at a time.

Things are going well in the new tank. Busy weekend with friends and family visiting. Here is a picture of my precious grand-daughter in front her of most favorite fish - Dory.

 

[SimonSKL]

What's wrong with my coral? It is excreting some brown and stringy substance.

 

[RichieT]

From what I've read that is the zooxanthellae being ejected and dying off from too much light or a reaction to the new light. Looks light you already have it on the bottom, might try placing under an overhang.

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

Cool build!

 

[SimonSKL]

From what I've read that is the zooxanthellae being ejected and dying off from too much light or a reaction to the new light. Looks light you already have it on the bottom, might try placing under an overhang.

Does it ever regain or regenerate the zooxanthellae it rejected? It only happened to one polyp. Will that polyp lose its color? The colony has been placed under an overhang in the dimmest part of the tank so I am surprised to see this happened. May be I need to dim the light further.

 

[SimonSKL]

Crazy_Beaver, Thanks for the compliment. I really enjoyed the build process of this tank. It is still a work in progress.

 

[RichieT]

The zooxanthellae definitely regenerates. If it's only one polyp then I'd just leave it be, give it time to adjust to the new environment. I've had zoas and acans do the same thing and they're still around. The zoas bleached a little, but came back to normal in a month or so.

 

[SimonSKL]

My 4yo Blue Tang has ick!:sad2: it probably got it from the Blue Chromis that I bought from LFS. Obviously the freshwater and methylene blue dip didn't get rid of ick from the new fish. Any suggestion on what I need to do? Is this a medical emergency that I need to pull the fish out into a QT tank to treat?

 

[DrewPalmer04]

Get him out! Itch has a life cycle involving tHe sand bed.

 

[RichieT]

There are tons of sites out there dedicated to this. When I get home I'll find you the right link.

I've recently been dealing with this issue myself.

As Drew was saying there is a life cycle involving the sand and rocks in your tank.

A quick fix to get the fish on the right track is to start mixing his food with a concentrated garlic solution. This should help his immune system fight off the parasite. However this does not rid your fish or your tank of the Ich. If you really want to eradicate the parasite from your system you need to get all of the fish into a quarantine tank and either treat with Copper (mush harsher on the fish) or treat with hypo-salinity, 1.009-1.010 (my suggestion). This process has to be monitored very carefully because you need the salinity that low to disrupt the cell walls of the parasite. The fish can handle the lower salinity just fine. Actually allows them to pull oxygen into their systems much easier (long term it affects their kidneys). The hypo treatment needs to last approximately 4-6 weeks. Best to use a bare bottom tank and do frequent water changes to lower the overall concentration of the parasite in the water column. Quick note, do not mix hypo with copper.

That fixes the ich on your fish, but still leaves ich in your tank. Unfortunately there is no quick fix for that. People will tell you to elevate your temperatures to speed up the bugs life cycle. That is a common misconception carried over from freshwater Ich. The parasites are obviously different and marine ich can handle higher temps just fine. The life-cycle of the parasite is quite long and in all honesty, if you want to make sure your system is clean you need to leave it fallow for atleast 8 weeks. Since you don't have much coral in your tank you might be able to get away with running hypo in main tank as well. This will probably result in screwing up your live rock and you'll have a big cycle to deal with in the end. So you'd probably be waiting 8 weeks anyway before you could put anything in there.

Tangs are prone to ich and I would guess that if you don't fix the problem now at some point it would come back when the fish was stressed. That being said, a lot of people get away with ich by keeping their fish stress free and do the quick fix of garlic.

Let me know if you need any help/advice. Like I said I've been dealing with this myself. Make sure to dip your corals both ways to avoid contaminating your other tank. Coral can not get ich, but that doesn't mean the ich can't ride along in the live rock or frag plug. Better safe than sorry.

 

[logan 12]

I think you should chase the fish around the tank trying to net him. If that's not enough trauma. You should throw it in a small tank, creating more stress. Kinda dumb idea don't you think?

I had a pacific blue/regal tang, think it had ich 30 times or more. I just let him be, keep ur hands out of the tank. He's in a new environment that he needs to get used to.