Perry's 120 Gallon Reef

[mhucasey]

Fish Everywhere, I vouch for BFC. I have 16 fish in my 65 G. My coral colours, though not as vivid as those in Perry's and Andrew's tanks, improved significantly since increasing my fish population. Using Ed's (BigE) analogy, zero nitrates in a tank with 16 fish is better than zero nitrates with fewer fish.

Cheers

Yes, the old school idea of minimal fish in a reef tank is dead. My 120 gallon shallow reef alone has 27 fish and my color is fantastic.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Perry, I love this new look. Your tank is looking more natural with sand bed. If you intend to keep wrasses beware that they sometimes create sand storms.

 

[AugustWest]

I agree, tank looks better with the sand. Considering adding sand to my tank. What method did you use to get the sand in there?

 

[plyle02]

haha the CCC is getting stronger and stronger :bounce3::lolspin:

LOL....

Thanks Perry, I will definitely take you up on that. Will PM about a future weekend date to see what works for you. It will be awesome to see your tank and ask AF type questions.

Sounds good, most Sundays I am available, just let me know Cheers Kevin!

Thanks Jorge, the colors keep getting better, I am very low in nutrients now, have 11 fish, and am feeding like crazy, my fish are super fat I am still loading with more fish, and inverts, so hopefully the tank will liven up a bit, that is the idea anyway... The ponape is so underscored, I love the well due attention it is receiving, thank you for the kind words bud!


Man no doubt about. It super under-rated, but imo it looks so cool when colored right. How much light /flow is yours getting?

The coral is a bit lower in the tank, the flow is medium. I think it as most will adapt over time... Thanks Jorge!

Fish Everywhere, I vouch for BFC. I have 16 fish in my 65 G. My coral colours, though not as vivid as those in Perry's and Andrew's tanks, improved significantly since increasing my fish population. Using Ed's (BigE) analogy, zero nitrates in a tank with 16 fish is better than zero nitrates with fewer fish.

Cheers

My goals over the next several months, to increase bioload, more fish flare!

Yes, the old school idea of minimal fish in a reef tank is dead. My 120 gallon shallow reef alone has 27 fish and my color is fantastic.

I can vouch for this statement, I did not know you have 27 fish, Matt that is amazing to pull off, great stuff man!

Perry, I love this new look. Your tank is looking more natural with sand bed. If you intend to keep wrasses beware that they sometimes create sand storms.

Thanks Bulent, yeah only melanrus so far, the hogfish jumped into the overflow and will not let me net him out. I fear that is it's home for awhile until I can come up with a game plan, the overflow is half way filled with rubble and old dead skeletons of coral, so he darts down in there. Plenty of pods in there for him though... For the sandstorm reason alone, I am choosing inverts to turn the sand, my last diamond goby was a PITA with moving sand, while he kept the sand turned over, the mess at times was unbearable. Thanks again for the kind words! Cheers

I agree, tank looks better with the sand. Considering adding sand to my tank. What method did you use to get the sand in there?

Thanks for the kind words, as far as the sand went, I put a new filter sock on and added the sand all at once. The tank was cloudy, I also skimmed wet, within a few hours back to normal, just with sand

 

[biggles]

I have not yet taken my relaxed photo, sort of waiting for Biggles to forget about the club pics, then drop one on him mate Cheers Flo

No shoes Perry or i'll do my nut after the stress Matt put me through recently !

I love the colors you have on that sunset milli, gorgeous. Your spath looks like it will be a cherry pink branch with purple tips and red polyps. The sparkly yellow/gold highlights on the corallite edges is the feature i look out for most because it adds crazy pop to all the contrasting colors.
If you put those corallite highlight colors on your sunset milli with the peachy orange skin tissue you will get an idea of what my little peach spath colony beside the pink piece i moved recently looked like when i spotted it at Dave's. It was screaming 'buy me'....... so i did

I haven't seen anything like your stunner but it wouldn't stay at the shop if i did, very jealous :hammer:

 

[Myka]

Hey Perry! Sorry I haven't stopped in for awhile! My time has been running short! The tank is looking great - I love the new sand. I must say though, I think your corals have lightened since using AF, no? I wouldn't say this is good or bad, just a matter of preference. I think they look great regardless.

Thank You! I think it is important to have sand sifters, like cucumbers, sand sifting stars, tiger conchs, nassarius, ceriths, gobies, and any others I may have left out.

Consider adding a pistol shrimp (and shrimp goby if you want). Pistol shrimp are one of the best sand movers imo. In the wild they have a MASSIVE territory, and they spend all day and night, like ALL DAY AND NIGHT (do they even sleep???) moving sand. They are very good at digging out under the rocks and fluffing everything up. During weekly water changes I move all the sand back (I vacuum it) and the PO'd Pistol spends the next week making it all just right (which doesn't exist in a Pistol's world) in time for me to mess it all up again. The Tiger Pistols get pretty big - almost pushing 3", the Candy Stripes stay smaller. I've found them to be entirely reef safe. The worst they do is bury stuff on the sandbed which really is just a reason to not litter the sand with important things like CORALS! :hammer: One word of caution though - make sure your rock structures are stable without sand. Yours is obviously good because I'm assuming the structures were stable before you added the sand. Some people put the rocks on top of the sand (bad idea). Anyway, I have these hard workers in many of my client tanks, and them along with Tiger Tail Cukes are the best sandbed investment there is imo. I just thought - tigers of the sand!!! Tiger Pistol and Tiger Cuke! Oh my!

Just be cautious of that Hogfish though... they can be mean little buggers!

Agreed! I put a Candy Hogfish in my old 90-gallon that was full of fairly aggressive fish and the Hogfish ran the roost. I had a terror of a Flame Angelfish in that tank and the Hogfish was the only one that gave him a run for the money. The other jerks in the tank were the breeding pair of Tomato Clowns (she was about 4") and a big male Grey Head Wrasse (misidentified as a female Melanurus). There was really nothing friendly in that tank. :facepalm:

 

[plyle02]

No shoes Perry or i'll do my nut after the stress Matt put me through recently !

I love the colors you have on that sunset milli, gorgeous. Your spath looks like it will be a cherry pink branch with purple tips and red polyps. The sparkly yellow/gold highlights on the corallite edges is the feature i look out for most because it adds crazy pop to all the contrasting colors.
If you put those corallite highlight colors on your sunset milli with the peachy orange skin tissue you will get an idea of what my little peach spath colony beside the pink piece i moved recently looked like when i spotted it at Dave's. It was screaming 'buy me'....... so i did

I haven't seen anything like your stunner but it wouldn't stay at the shop if i did, very jealous :hammer:

Thanks Andrew! Yeah, we are true Floridians in this household, shoes only worn on occasion and to work, otherwise, we are usually barefoot or in flip flops, lol... So I could not imagine relaxing, and having shoes on, Matt is from Cali, they tend to be a bit different out west, lol... Man, o man, it is hot here in FL, yesterday 103 degrees, and that is with 90+% humidity, scorching mate! As far as the spath, it is young and has lots of growing to do before I get all stoked with it, but a gem in the making possibly. Thanks for the check in Andrew! Cheers

Hey Perry! Sorry I haven't stopped in for awhile! My time has been running short! The tank is looking great - I love the new sand. I must say though, I think your corals have lightened since using AF, no? I wouldn't say this is good or bad, just a matter of preference. I think they look great regardless.



Consider adding a pistol shrimp (and shrimp goby if you want). Pistol shrimp are one of the best sand movers imo. In the wild they have a MASSIVE territory, and they spend all day and night, like ALL DAY AND NIGHT (do they even sleep???) moving sand. They are very good at digging out under the rocks and fluffing everything up. During weekly water changes I move all the sand back (I vacuum it) and the PO'd Pistol spends the next week making it all just right (which doesn't exist in a Pistol's world) in time for me to mess it all up again. The Tiger Pistols get pretty big - almost pushing 3", the Candy Stripes stay smaller. I've found them to be entirely reef safe. The worst they do is bury stuff on the sandbed which really is just a reason to not litter the sand with important things like CORALS! :hammer: One word of caution though - make sure your rock structures are stable without sand. Yours is obviously good because I'm assuming the structures were stable before you added the sand. Some people put the rocks on top of the sand (bad idea). Anyway, I have these hard workers in many of my client tanks, and them along with Tiger Tail Cukes are the best sandbed investment there is imo. I just thought - tigers of the sand!!! Tiger Pistol and Tiger Cuke! Oh my!



Agreed! I put a Candy Hogfish in my old 90-gallon that was full of fairly aggressive fish and the Hogfish ran the roost. I had a terror of a Flame Angelfish in that tank and the Hogfish was the only one that gave him a run for the money. The other jerks in the tank were the breeding pair of Tomato Clowns (she was about 4") and a big male Grey Head Wrasse (misidentified as a female Melanurus). There was really nothing friendly in that tank. :facepalm:

Thanks Mindy, the hogfish jumped in the overflow compartment, and has been there about a week now. I have the overflow with old dead coral skeletons and rock rubble, halfway, so every time I go near the tank, he darts down in the rubble, so will remain there until I can come up with a game plan, lol... I will probably add a pistol and goby pair, this is most certainly a plan of mine. The corals are not as light as they were a few months back, hard to see in photos, but in person I promise you they pop Hope all is well, thanks for looking over the journal! Cheers

 

[markalot]

Just catching up. That Sour Twist is amazing!

You made the sand look good Perry, it does look more natural.

 

[plyle02]

Thanks Mark,
I moved some corals around today and made a new little coral rock, hopefully this makes the left side look more even and filling dead space. Here is a FTS for reference.
Thanks,

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[mhucasey]

Thanks Mark,
I moved some corals around today and made a new little coral rock, hopefully this makes the left side look more even and filling dead space. Here is a FTS for reference.
Thanks,

[/URL][/IMG]

Looks like Dragon Island!

 

[glaukos]

Great move perry it looks better,even if that was something hard to achieve in the first place
You're right about chasing numbers,sometimes the only thing we gain is more stress.

 

[plyle02]

[/URL][/IMG]

Looks like Dragon Island!

Yes, I thought the negative space would be benefited by a little coral rock, funny it does look like the dragon though, is it you or Andrew who have something like this? Anyway, just trying to get a more complete look, thanks for checking in Matt, still trying to get the notion of relaxing with shoes on, lol....

Great move perry it looks better,even if that was something hard to achieve in the first place
You're right about chasing numbers,sometimes the only thing we gain is more stress.

Hey Mike, thank you my friend! I have every Sunday off, Cindy works, and some weekends I have the kids, others not, either way, I usually test after a couple cups of coffee Funny thing is that on week 3 after media exchange, I begin to register PO4 on the Hanna handheld. I change medias monthly every month on the 3rd day. I find that the corals health is usually an indicator on the conditions in the tank, testing sort of validates that Cheers Buddy!

 

[Myka]

Thanks Andrew! Yeah, we are true Floridians in this household, shoes only worn on occasion and to work, otherwise, we are usually barefoot or in flip flops, lol... So I could not imagine relaxing, and having shoes on, Matt is from Cali, they tend to be a bit different out west, lol... Man, o man, it is hot here in FL, yesterday 103 degrees, and that is with 90+% humidity, scorching mate! As far as the spath, it is young and has lots of growing to do before I get all stoked with it, but a gem in the making possibly. Thanks for the check in Andrew! Cheers




Thanks Mindy, the hogfish jumped in the overflow compartment, and has been there about a week now. I have the overflow with old dead coral skeletons and rock rubble, halfway, so every time I go near the tank, he darts down in the rubble, so will remain there until I can come up with a game plan, lol... I will probably add a pistol and goby pair, this is most certainly a plan of mine. The corals are not as light as they were a few months back, hard to see in photos, but in person I promise you they pop Hope all is well, thanks for looking over the journal! Cheers

Ha! That's a good place for the Hogfish! Oh don't take it wrong - there can be plenty of pop with pastel corals! I never said there was a lack of pop - or pizzaz for that matter!


I'm totally diggin the new mini-rescape!

 

[biggles]

Hey Perry, have you used the component 123 thing or did you go straight to the supps you add to your regular alk and calcium. I have the 123 but at $90- a set i will end up using the other method i think. I think the whole equal dosing amounts per 100L thing across all products in the AF range is awesome for people like me who are prone to goofs........:thumbsup:

I'm not particularly confident with AF as i didn't read the salt bucket contents and brought home AF sea salt thinking because it was called sea salt it would be the lower kH salt. Reef salt sounded like high alk going off instinct alone so i left that one and went with my gut............ if you had to guess on the salt name alone Perry, which one would you have gone for....... REEEEEEEFFFFFFF SALT - it bloody screams high alk............:deadhorse1:

I'm not taking responsibility for the salt goof - that's AF's naming guys fault......

 

[plyle02]

Ha! That's a good place for the Hogfish! Oh don't take it wrong - there can be plenty of pop with pastel corals! I never said there was a lack of pop - or pizzaz for that matter!


I'm totally diggin the new mini-rescape!

LOL about hogfish, he actually seems happy, plenty of pods in there Thanks for the kind words, glad the scape looks appealing

 

[plyle02]

Hey Perry, have you used the component 123 thing or did you go straight to the supps you add to your regular alk and calcium. I have the 123 but at $90- a set i will end up using the other method i think. I think the whole equal dosing amounts per 100L thing across all products in the AF range is awesome for people like me who are prone to goofs........:thumbsup:

I'm not particularly confident with AF as i didn't read the salt bucket contents and brought home AF sea salt thinking because it was called sea salt it would be the lower kH salt. Reef salt sounded like high alk going off instinct alone so i left that one and went with my gut............ if you had to guess on the salt name alone Perry, which one would you have gone for....... REEEEEEEFFFFFFF SALT - it bloody screams high alk............:deadhorse1:

I'm not taking responsibility for the salt goof - that's AF's naming guys fault......

Anrdrew, I use the Component 123 pre-mix right now, but will likely switch to the DIY version as it will cost less. I use 230ml per day of all 3, so every 20 days or so, I am replacing the bottles. You may want to go the same route, given all them acros. Based on user feedback, the concentration of the main minerals is close to BRS alk, ca, and mag. LOL, Yeah Andrew, some labeling is confusing, I am giving feedback to AF concerning labeling The salt you want is AF Reef Salt, the Sea Salt is more for fish and softies, the Reef Salt mixes very close to the Probiotic, just a few differences, Matt and I actually spoke of Bromide, it is present in the Probiotic Reef Salt, as is bacteria and aminos, really designed to be used with Pro Bio S(bacteria) and NP Pro(carbon source to feed bacteria), in some cases, especially with the use of siporax or matrix, these enough are alone. I followed the Debora Stack method with the use of AF Zeo Mix, AF Carbon, and AF Phosphate Minus, all in one single fluidized reactor. This gives very low nutrient conditions, still test quite low, and feed my fish like a mad man. So, I could see how this would compliment a tank with a higher BFC. What are you using right now from an AF supplement standpoint? Cheers

 

[biggles]

Hey Perry, Dave told me the other way was cheaper but i dug my heels in to make it goof proof to use the main supplements. I dosed a days alk through the ato in 4 hours and dripped calcium over 24 hrs the first day because i assumed 1 would be alk ! You see what i mean Perry, i don't like the anti instinctual nature of the AF stuff. If you ask what are the big three we ALL answer alk, calcium and Mg. We do not say calcium, alk and Mg......... get this sorted Perry or i am going to start firing off emails to AF ! I know i can rely on you mate not to let me and all the others struggling with the AF minefield of nonsensical product naming down buddy :beer:

I'm using 150ml of the 123 - considering how many more acros i have compared to you my growth is terrible atm. This is why i will copy you and Matt if things don't change drastically once the sand is back in and the new sump is running the matrix more efficiently.
I have started adding build at 4 drops a night. I wanted to buy energy, vitality and the bacteria along with the fish v but all of those are the ones taking longer to get customs clearance :hammer:
Everything else is in stock anytime i want to try it. I was very surprised at how cheap everything is. The red sea blue costs about $125 normally and the AF non probiotic salts are only $90-. I think the probiotic is also cheaper.
Running the phos minus and carbon with matrix instead of zeo mix would prob work almost the same if i wanted to try that control method out. What do you think mate.
My BFC is terrible since the mass fish removal/loss over the last two months.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Wow your tank is awesome. I'm hoping I'll be able to have mine look half as good as your hopefully my cycle will start this weekend and go quickly.

 

[plyle02]

120 gallon tank, and the AF program is as follows:

Probiotic System:
*AF Probiotic Reef Salt- 10 gallons every other week
*Pro Bio S(bacteria source) - 4 drops in AM after skimmer in sump
*NP Pro(carbon source) - 4 drops in AM after skimmer in sump
*Siporax- 2 Liters in TLF reactor slow flow(non AF)
*Seachem Matrix - 4 Liters in sump passive(non AF)
*AF Zeo Mix- 2.5 cups in 1.5L Vertex Zeolite Reactor(Stacked changed every 4 weeks)
*AF Carbon- 1.5 cups in 1.5L Vertex Zeolite Reactor(Stacked changed every 4 weeks)
*AF Phosphate Minus- 1 cup in 1.5L Vertex Zeolite Reactor(Stacked changed every 4 weeks)
*Filter sock to keep sump clean, changed every 3 days

Minerals/ Trace
*AF Component 1- 230ml per day contains: Ca, Mg, Sr, Ba, Co, Mn, Cu, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cr

*AF Component 2- 230ml per day- contains: NaHCO3, F, I

*AF Component 3- 230ml per day- contains: mineral salts and K, Bo.

AF Foods and Supplements:
*AF Energy- 4 drops at night, after lights out
*AF Build- 4 drops at night, after lights out
*These are dosed together every other night*

*AF Vitality- 4 drops at night, after lights out
*AF Amino Mix- 4 drops at night, after lights out
*These are dosed together every other night alternating*

*AF Power Food- 3 times weekly 3 spoons mixed with tank water lights out at night
*AF Fish V- 2 drops every other day with frozen fish food, while thawing

*Please keep in mind this is my dosing routine, and you may find it differ slightly than the instructions, this is key, because the directions or suggested doses depends on your bioload, your tank's processing nutrients capabilities, and of course YOUR personal schedule.

 

[biggles]

Thanks heaps Perry - i was just about to pester you after seeing Matt post his..........:beer: