New 180 Reef Aquarium Set-up
- Thread starter cediss
- Start date
cediss
New member
So far, so good. Actually the only coral I lost was my A. formosa, which strangely died before I set up new tank. It died from RTN, probably because I had neglected water quality and have been feeding fish much more than previous years. Now with more than 50% new water and new skimmer, things seem to be doing great. Lighting is different so we'll see how that affects things. Haven't intalled my dawn/dusk actinics yet, so that's going to be a priority in the next week or two.
cediss
New member
Yes!!!! Damn thats sweet. Thats the color it was when I bought it. That is awesome! At least you can see what I said about its color under the right light. How far from the lights is it? Those are 400W 10K's right? I have a small frag still left, it it doesn't make it I may hit you up one day for a re-fragged peice. Damn that looks great. I forgot what it looked like when I bought it. Is that a recent picture?
cediss
New member
New additions and progress
New additions and progress
Everything is going well. It's been 2 weeks since setting up tank and no losses from transfered specimens. Added 12 very small green chromis last night and down to nine today! I new I'd lose about half, but thought that would be over next several months. Found three that went into overflow, of which 2 survived. Two of 12 are MIA.
Also bought this beautiful powder blue tang last night, and the yellow tang has only given him minimal grief thus far. Probably will not be able to add to many more fish, especially since PB will likely get aggressive.
New additions and progress
Everything is going well. It's been 2 weeks since setting up tank and no losses from transfered specimens. Added 12 very small green chromis last night and down to nine today! I new I'd lose about half, but thought that would be over next several months. Found three that went into overflow, of which 2 survived. Two of 12 are MIA.
Also bought this beautiful powder blue tang last night, and the yellow tang has only given him minimal grief thus far. Probably will not be able to add to many more fish, especially since PB will likely get aggressive.
cediss
New member
Outside sump 180 reef update
Outside sump 180 reef update
Tank has been up almost a year now. It has posed some challenges and of course mistakes.
The first mistake was not taking measurements to make sure that the Oceansmotions valve I purchased could be mounted in the canopy where I wanted it. For this reason as well as having concern as to whether I would have enough flow with the valve in-line, I elected not to use it. The fact is I have great flow, with sufficient variation in flow. But eventually I will add a wave making device to allow more variability in currents.
The next mistake was adding an aggressive fish without quarantining. The powder blue tang was just too aggressive and the stress he caused created a parasite outbreak which killed several fish including the PB tang. Things are now stable in regards to the fish.
The third and most embarasing mistake was making a large water change, adding phosphate remover and changing carbon all in the same week. This was a mistake that I know better not to make. This resulted in several colonies to bleach and ultimately die. What a loss, especially when money has gotten so tight with a new tank and new son arriving. Now it's so bare in my tank.
I did do one thing I should have done much sooner. Build my own calcium reactor from scratch. It is made solely from PVC and has made my alkalinity and kalcium much more stable. For years I used kalkwasser only with fair success. But now without any kalkwasser my Kh runs around 10-11 and calcium 400-430. Now I realize that with so low of coral livestock I may need to make more adjustments as the tank fills in. But I'm confident that the new calcium reactor will handle much more demand for these elements.
My concerns for temperature control never really came to be a reality. In the hottest days of summer, outside temp 100+ farenheit, I can keep my tank below 82 degrees with the cooling fans and staggering my lighting to come on later in the evenings. As for heating, I have a 300watt heater that manages to keep the tank above 76 degrees. So my summertime water temp ranges 78-82 and winter temp 76-78.
Hopefully now that the system is more stable, I can slowly repopulate this reef. Just can throw thousands of dollars in livestock in a month like some of you can afford to do. More like 30-40 each month on my budget.
I will post some pics to follow:
Outside sump 180 reef update
Tank has been up almost a year now. It has posed some challenges and of course mistakes.
The first mistake was not taking measurements to make sure that the Oceansmotions valve I purchased could be mounted in the canopy where I wanted it. For this reason as well as having concern as to whether I would have enough flow with the valve in-line, I elected not to use it. The fact is I have great flow, with sufficient variation in flow. But eventually I will add a wave making device to allow more variability in currents.
The next mistake was adding an aggressive fish without quarantining. The powder blue tang was just too aggressive and the stress he caused created a parasite outbreak which killed several fish including the PB tang. Things are now stable in regards to the fish.
The third and most embarasing mistake was making a large water change, adding phosphate remover and changing carbon all in the same week. This was a mistake that I know better not to make. This resulted in several colonies to bleach and ultimately die. What a loss, especially when money has gotten so tight with a new tank and new son arriving. Now it's so bare in my tank.
I did do one thing I should have done much sooner. Build my own calcium reactor from scratch. It is made solely from PVC and has made my alkalinity and kalcium much more stable. For years I used kalkwasser only with fair success. But now without any kalkwasser my Kh runs around 10-11 and calcium 400-430. Now I realize that with so low of coral livestock I may need to make more adjustments as the tank fills in. But I'm confident that the new calcium reactor will handle much more demand for these elements.
My concerns for temperature control never really came to be a reality. In the hottest days of summer, outside temp 100+ farenheit, I can keep my tank below 82 degrees with the cooling fans and staggering my lighting to come on later in the evenings. As for heating, I have a 300watt heater that manages to keep the tank above 76 degrees. So my summertime water temp ranges 78-82 and winter temp 76-78.
Hopefully now that the system is more stable, I can slowly repopulate this reef. Just can throw thousands of dollars in livestock in a month like some of you can afford to do. More like 30-40 each month on my budget.
I will post some pics to follow:
cediss
New member
project update.
project update.
Sad update. Lost most SPS I had. Not sure but I think I used too much carbon and Phosban whcih led to severe bleaching tissue recession event. So I'm starting from scratch. Didn't loose any fish this time. Fish seem stable. Most of my LPS survived as did the RBTA. Here's a picture taken this past week!
Seems as though the equipement being outside was a good idea. The homemade Calcium reactor works well. I now wish I had kept the oceanmotions 4 way. I have great flow, but that device would have made it awesome. I may eventually look for a couple 1" sea swirls.
project update.
Sad update. Lost most SPS I had. Not sure but I think I used too much carbon and Phosban whcih led to severe bleaching tissue recession event. So I'm starting from scratch. Didn't loose any fish this time. Fish seem stable. Most of my LPS survived as did the RBTA. Here's a picture taken this past week!
Seems as though the equipement being outside was a good idea. The homemade Calcium reactor works well. I now wish I had kept the oceanmotions 4 way. I have great flow, but that device would have made it awesome. I may eventually look for a couple 1" sea swirls.
Huachinango
New member
How do yo deal with the equipment when it rains outside? Any more pics on you equipment outside?
cediss
New member
Well. It is against the East side of my house and most of our rain comes from the West and at that angle. My eaves partially block most of the rain. But I have been covering the equipement with plastic. I plan to built a cover at some point. But before I do that I want to put a refugium over the equipement. Not much more to show of equipement. Unless you want to see my top off and mixing trash cans.
chrismhaase
Active member
sorry to tag on so late, but I have seen you guys mention your acros bleach when you add carbon. Is this true or just a sad coinscience? I had a hydraphornia bleach on the bottom half of a frag after I did a water change and had added some carbon. Is this the reason???
cediss
New member
It may be the case. The carbon itself does no harm. However, if your water is not perfectly clear, and you add a bunch of carbon, you can clear the water quickly. Meaning you can look from one end of the tank to the other without any yellow tinge against a white background like a piece of paper.. This can allow enough additional light to the corals that they respond by bleaching. It has also been postulated that too much trace elements are remove with too much carbon. But most don't accept this theory, unless you never change water and don't add elements.
In your case adding carbon and changing water could create this scenario. It depends on what your usual husbandry practices are. If for example you don't change your water but once every 6-8 weeks, then decide to do a 30% water change, this could cause the above stress. If you combined this with adding carbon for the first time in a long while then it is even more possible. Essentially this was what happened to me. I had been to busy, then when I had some time I decided I was gonna improve the water clarity so I could improve my SPS color. Too much improvement over too short a period of time.
In summary, it could have been in part due to the carbon. But any stress could do it. Also consider too much salinity change (if not properly mixed to match your tank salinity), too much temp change (frequent culprit of bleaching), and even parasitic pests can cause bleaching. Just keep all this in mind when doing maintenance. Make small changes at a time and be consistant. Remember that these corals are used to relatively constant conditions, and even in the wild, big changes can kill corals. If the hydnophora only partially bleached it should be able to make a come back without much difficulty. Just be patient, it usually takes weeks to months.
In your case adding carbon and changing water could create this scenario. It depends on what your usual husbandry practices are. If for example you don't change your water but once every 6-8 weeks, then decide to do a 30% water change, this could cause the above stress. If you combined this with adding carbon for the first time in a long while then it is even more possible. Essentially this was what happened to me. I had been to busy, then when I had some time I decided I was gonna improve the water clarity so I could improve my SPS color. Too much improvement over too short a period of time.
In summary, it could have been in part due to the carbon. But any stress could do it. Also consider too much salinity change (if not properly mixed to match your tank salinity), too much temp change (frequent culprit of bleaching), and even parasitic pests can cause bleaching. Just keep all this in mind when doing maintenance. Make small changes at a time and be consistant. Remember that these corals are used to relatively constant conditions, and even in the wild, big changes can kill corals. If the hydnophora only partially bleached it should be able to make a come back without much difficulty. Just be patient, it usually takes weeks to months.
cediss
New member
Decided to add a chiller! My buddy upgraded his chiller and offered me his older chiller. So as added insurance against the heat, for the first time in all my years of reefkeeping I am using a chiller. I have a RBTA that I don't want to press my luck on with 82+ degree water. So the chiller comes on at 79.5 and off at 79. So far it works well. I'll update the plumbing pics soon!
