Sps tank upgrade help and advice needed

[leicobra]

Hey, my name is Lee. I am in the process of upgrading my nano to a 80gallon sps only tank. So far stand is being build & working on insulting the garage.

Tank is made by ADA 40" long 22" high.
Lighting will be 6 bulb ATI fixture plus two kessil a150 deep ocean blue.
Filtration will relying on BM curve 5 in a 20 long sump. Planing to add
3 liters seachem matrix. Growing algae in one of the chamber. Phosban reactor 150
2 WP 40s by jebao
60 -65 lbs dry Rock & thin layer of sand just for the rocks to sit on.
Herbie style overflow with 2 x 1" drain and 1/2" return powered by mag drive
Digital aquatics reef keeper elite.
2 part dosing with BRS dosers

Due to a new born son, this build was delay until. Good thing is I have most my equipments ready.:spin1:
Picture is My Nuvo 38 with a 10 gallon sump. Please let me know what you thoughts. Any input helps me a lot as this is my first time setting up and somewhat larger system. Thank you.

 

[crawlerman]

Sounds like a good setup, plenty of light and flow. I don't really know anything about the skimmer. depending on what lights you are using now, you may need to acclimate the corals to that much light.

 

[leicobra]

Sounds like a good setup, plenty of light and flow. I don't really know anything about the skimmer. depending on what lights you are using now, you may need to acclimate the corals to that much light.

Yes, I will have to when time comes.

 

[leicobra]

Worked on a few things today. Cut the acrylic sheet for my sump.
Question: what do you all use to hold the baffles while gluing?

 

[leicobra]

Here is the overflow box.

 

[leicobra]

Almost mess up on one of the baffle, It's off by a 0.25" supposed to be 11 5/8.
I used thicker plastic this time. Still need to find a way to hold them in place while applying glue. My last sump build was a pain.

 

[leicobra]

This is the frame of the stand, need add some 2x4 on the legs. Sorry about the mess in the background.

 

[crawlerman]

I just used the silicon to hold them in place. Used a piece of wood for a spacer to hold them off of the bottom. Just have to put one baffle in at a time if you want the silicon bead to look neat.

 

[leicobra]

It's been busy at work this week. Updates, got the tank drilled & sump baffles are cut just waiting to put it together. I also ordered 20lb pukani live rock. I think it will be here on Monday. Since I will be using mostly dry rocks, I thought I will have to seed them. Will post pic this weekend.

 

[leicobra]

Got a chance to work on today. Tank is cycling with live rock and sand.

 

[leicobra]

First time using prodibio products, should I be turning off the skimmer for a few hours after adding it?

 

[Scorpius]

You should sprinkle time into your new aquarium. Don't rush things.

 

[leicobra]

You should sprinkle time into your new aquarium. Don't rush things.

Yep, I am planing on a month cycling process. Will not add anything after the green algae stage ( turning White ) making sure to have a good water quality.

 

[leicobra]

Questions: what's the best way to transfer the live sand I have from my current tank to the new system? Add all the live sand from old tank at once or just the top layer? Just wondering while the tank is cycling.

 

[Wazzel]

Questions: what's the best way to transfer the live sand I have from my current tank to the new system? Add all the live sand from old tank at once or just the top layer? Just wondering while the tank is cycling.

Don't.

Transferring an existing sand bed from one tank to another is almost always problematic. Best course of action would be a fresh sand bed in the new tank seeded with a cup or two of top layer sand from the old tank.

 

[Ryan Peters]

That's what I did on my upgrade, not worth the hassle of reusing the sandbed.

 

[leicobra]

Thanks guys, I think that's what I will do. Take a cup or two only from the surface area.
This is the tank today 5 days into the cycling process. Water got a lot clearer and Brown algae covered my sand bad. Rocks are turning brown as well. Dead shrimp is disappearing fast .Live bacteria feed every day till next week. I am also dosing very small amount of vodka every 2 days. Currently the tank is Led by a ocean revive LED light. Whites only for 24 hour a day. Skimmer will be on by this weekend.

 

[leicobra]

Another week went by, tested ammonia & NO2 at 0. ( salifert ) NO3 at 25. Still need to wait for NO3 to drop more.
My algae in the tank are very happy right now. In the main time, trying to decide what clean up crew I want. Always had nano sized tanks, dont known what is a good number to start with?
Snails, hermits, starfish, cleaner shrimps my be? Please let me know what you all think.

 

[leicobra]

Another week went by, tested ammonia & NO2 at 0. ( salifert ) NO3 at 25. Still need to wait for NO3 to drop more.

My algae in the tank are very happy right now. In the main time, trying to decide what clean up crew I want. Always had nano sized tanks, dont known what is a good number to start with?

Snails, hermits, starfish, cleaner shrimps my be? Please let me know what you all think.

I transferred the coral and live stock into their new home yesterday. So far parameter are looking good.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[leicobra]

My 2 part dosing kit along with the BRS dosers arrived on Friday. I think I was little confused with the amount difference I need to dose in my tank? between soda ash & calcium chloride. My consumption is low since I only have frags. However, shouldn't I be dosing the same amount of each solution? 12ml of Alk and 60ml calcium solution to bring parameters from 7.7 dkh to 8 and 440 ppm to 450?? BTW, this is the result from their calculator. Is this correct or I am doing it wrong? This is my first time using brs brand. I have always used B bionic.