Need some constructive criticism.

[DancingShark]

HI all.
This is my tank. I love sitting and looking at the tank for hours at night after work. It just relaxes me and I can see all the work I have done.

[/URL][/IMG]

It has been up since January 21. I had some red algea here and there it was because I was over feeding reef roids a bit. But it has cleared up now. The green algea have seem to clear up as well.

Everything was done by me from knowledge gathered online. Drilled a overflow. Two return pumps. Sump in the basement. Had stock florecent light. Then given PC lights, they did not cover the whole width of the tank that I'd why there is only green in the center
I recently got leds because wife wanted the neon she see's at the fish stores from the corals. I do 20percent water have every two weeks.
.

I plan on getting 2 clown fish, a purple tang, a fox face, hippo tang, kole and some fire and a sandshifting goby.
This is a 125g tank and all fish will be entering the tank a month or month from each other beacuse of quarantine.
I am really scared of ich and velvet.

I found this in a coral dip I did.
Can some one ID this thing.

[/URL][/IMG]

All I ask is from what you see here and what I have said. What advice can you guys give a newbie like me. Thanks in advance.

 

[DancingShark]

Hey guys. I did not get any response but here goes let me keep this short.

[/URL][/IMG]

This is what my tank looks like today. Still have a lot of work to do.
The leds do a good job of keeping the corals happy. Even the sps I purchased a month ago. Got a kole, yellow and blue tang. In QT yellow tried too kill the blue tang.

Seperated them into buckets and when dropped into the tank the blue tang hide in between rocks and the yellow and kole when at it. The yellow tang got a azzwoping. I really thought he was going to kill him. But the next day they were all swimming together like actually schooling. Anywhere the kole tang went they went. And that is how it's been ever since and with luck it will stay like that.

I bought about twenty pounds of pukani rock for the sump to help with filtration. Also set up a skimmer in the sump as well.
More corals and maybe rock in the dt to come. Money doesn't grow on reefs you know.

 

[Sk8r]

Lil ol' bristleworm, good guy.
Looks good. Rule is, however, about 1-2 lbs rock per gallon, depending on (desirable) porosity. You can create your own live rock over time: 'cure' dry limestone rock in a tub (see sticky) and add it to your tank piece by piece. Keep your fish load low. Corals ARE filters.
For that stony, too, you will be wanting to maintain kalk in your topoff: set your parameters where mine are (in sig) and add 2 tsp per gallon of ro/di in your topoff reservoir. Mrs Wages Pickling Lime (yes, the grocery store) is a good basic fairly cheap kalk. As long as your mg holds where mine is, your other numbers will stay where mine are, if you 'set' them that way by hand-dosing. HTH!

 

[DancingShark]

Thanks. I will be honest I don't test or dose for anything. I just do water changes and that's about it. I will go out and the kits i need to dose what i need to. I have been pushing that back for some reason.

I will rereadthe stickies and just prior to this I read your A very short explanation of alkalinity and ph thread.

I do get a flaky kind of crusty patches in the sand. Is there a way to prevent that from happening?

Thanks for time and help especially sharing all your knowledge.

 

[Sk8r]

RE your crusty patches, you may know more when you run the water tests. Did you use aragonite sand? That's good. If crushed coral, it can clump.

 

[DancingShark]

Also if I drop tons of rock in the sump will it work the same way as in the DT.

 

[Bolivian Ram]

Your tank is looking great. Neat and clean setup. If you like purple you could add a piece of cycled live rock with some coralline algae. Hopefully it will spread on the other rocks.

 

[davehead86]

Also if I drop tons of rock in the sump will it work the same way as in the DT.

Yes, I have minimal rockwork in my DT. I added a bunch of rubble to the sump to add more space for bacteria to grow.

 

[thegrun]

The Purple Tang and Kole Tang should be fine, but the Hippo Tang is not a good choice for your tank, it needs a much larger tank and will likely get very aggressive in a smaller tank like yours. I've not had great luck with Foxfaces, for me they seem to be overly aggressive and use their poisonous barbs on tank mates.

 

[DancingShark]

RE your crusty patches, you may know more when you run the water tests. Did you use aragonite sand? That's good. If crushed coral, it can clump.

Yes I used aragonite sand. Ill post water test when I get them maybe tomorrow. Been busy renovating the house.

Your tank is looking great. Neat and clean setup. If you like purple you could add a piece of cycled live rock with some coralline algae. Hopefully it will spread on the other rocks.

Thanks. I do have some caralline growing in patches. I think I got them from the turbo snails shell.

Yes, I have minimal rockwork in my DT. I added a bunch of rubble to the sump to add more space for bacteria to grow.

Thanks, I have some rocks cooking In the basement right now I will go and grab More from by lfs. They sell pukani and Fiji for 3 bucks a pound. I think that's pretty cheap.

The Purple Tang and Kole Tang should be fine, but the Hippo Tang is not a good choice for your tank, it needs a much larger tank and will likely get very aggressive in a smaller tank like yours. I've not had great luck with Foxfaces, for me they seem to be overly aggressive and use their poisonous barbs on tank mates.

My stock have changed. I have a kole, yellow and hippo tang. Kole is boss of the tank. He Is not aggressive but gets kind off annoyed because the yellow any Blue tang just follow him every where he goes.
Kind of like small children asking you questions ever where you go. Blue tang is the coward of the gang. Runs and hide at everything. Maybe things will change in the future hopefully not. Fingers crossed.


Again I'll post up parameters once I test for them.

 

[DancingShark]

Ok here it its.

Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
Phosphate 0? Tested it three different time. Using Salifert.
Calcium 470
Alkalinity 7.8
Magnesium 1560. All from red sea test kit.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ph 7.8-8.0 All from API sw test kit.

I think Ph is low I used to use baked baking soda for that in my hypo qt tank.
Let me know what I can do to fix any of this readings. Thanks.

 

[DancingShark]

Just a quick update. Here are some pictures of my corals all under led.

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[DancingShark]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[DancingShark]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[DancingShark]

all acans were one head when I bought them. Sps have encrusted and have been growing great. Oh how time have passed and all the knowledge gained has been wonderful.

 

[Bulldog39]

Nice tank. Can't wait to get started next weekend. Hope my turns out so good in a year

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[Cancun]

Hi! Nice tank....looks great....out of curiosity what is your current stock list now?

 

[JTL]

Assuming that you are still using the black box leds it just goes to show how nicely coral grows without the need for expensive lights. Very nice!

 

[DancingShark]

Nice tank. Can't wait to get started next weekend. Hope my turns out so good in a year

I have learned to take things slowly. It's the hardest thing to do in a world like ours were everything is on demand. QT your fish, cuc, and corals. You will save yourself lots of heart aches and money. That's the best advice I could give you. Good luck.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

Hi! Nice tank....looks great....out of curiosity what is your current stock list now?

1 fire goby
2 cardinals
1 hippo
1 kole
1 blue powder
1 yellow tang
2 clown fish
1 bicolor dottyback
1 ruby fairy wrasse
1 bta
I think that's it.
They will be transferred to a 300g tank maybe sometime in 2019.
Already have the tank in the garage just waiting for me to get a new house. It will hopefully be a in wall corner tank.

Assuming that you are still using the black box leds it just goes to show how nicely coral grows without the need for expensive lights. Very nice!

There is no question about it. It works for me. I don't argue with the naysayers. There is no point in living life bickering about pety things.
They are Sbreef light. I have the one with the built in timer. That is all I needed really.

My tank is pretty low tech compared to others. I don't even have a ato.
I'll see if I can post pictures off my sump.

 

[Frogmanx82]

Would like to see a full tank shot.