The journey of BOBS never ending SPS build

[bobssecrtsn]

Thanks everyone for your feedbacks! I may end up switching to acropower, I am dosing the below minimal and working my way up!
:deadhorse1:

Heres a better shot of the tank, I started cutting some acro's off some rocks, its alot harder then it really looks, Especially freaking out about all the dust getting onto the acro's What a PITA!



Oh and T5 Dimmmable 6bulbs. I am getting some different types of bulbs over the weekend!:rollface:

I do miss the shimmer, Whats an even more bummer is, the corals look faded and pale :sad1:

 

[markalot]

Looks pretty good to me. I have to have some LED with the T5 to give me a little shimmer.

 

[mizzoumed02]

Looks good. May just take them some time to adjust to the new lights.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Looks pretty good to me. I have to have some LED with the T5 to give me a little shimmer.

Looks good. May just take them some time to adjust to the new lights.

Thank you, the corals are adjusting nicely, I underestimated 6bulbs, I had the fixture at 5" from the waterline and after a few days I noticed some of my acros started to stn from the base and have no P.E. Couldnt figure out what it was until I raised the fixture, now i am at 10" from the waterline and now they're healing nicely!


In for a update ...

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Update 1/11/16

First and foremost, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years to everyone, I hope things went smoothly for whomever went on vacation!


Christmas/New year's vacation

Christmas was coming and I was going to be away for 1.5 weeks, My wife knew I was going to freak out every minute when I was gone, so she told me to get everything I needed ready,

1. 30gallon ATO container
2. 3 webcams
3. automated feeder

The day before we were about to leave, I check my webcams, BAM! no lights? Must be power failure on the fixture, turn them off for a few minutes and back on. NO GO! Tell the wife we have code RED and have to go home ASAP! Get to the house and find out the ATI fixture is stuck in test mode:facepalm:, I come to find out that the display module went bad, searched around for anyone that carries it and come to find out, ReefGeek warehouse that shut down has reopened to a distributor, they happily told me to drive to LA, Pay cash and Its mine. Took the entire next day to drive from San Diego to LA back to San Diego repair the unit, :lolspin: lets just say my wife was not happy!

After the trip I come home and find everything is happy, fish are alive, and corals are ****ed, there can be 1 or 2 reasons.

1. no suppliments for 1.5 weeks
2. I was burning up my corals

I figure it must've been both, Water was stripped of nutrients, and only feeding the tank 3 times a day with flakes/ shutting the skimmer off for 6 hours was not enough!:headwally:

INHABITANTS
2 fish for a total of 100 gallon tank was not enough for me, I want the water to be filthy, The wife wanted a "blue tang" I tell her my tank isn't big enough, She laughs and spits out "you just upgraded and now your saying its not big enough?:hammer:"
She screams at the top of her lungs, I WANT MY FISH! well lets just say I had to get one, looks like a bigger tank is in order....:twitch:

My yellow tang did not like dory very much, Kept attacking and would not share the tank at all, Told my friend to keep my tang until I upgrade and we agree'd He would if I cut him a frag of each of my corals. So off the yellow tang is now gone.

• Flasherwrasse
• 2 leopard wrasse's
• Dory
• 1 clown fish

For now this shall be it until I find some Yellow Coris wrasse's. Possibly a school of anthias/blue chromis.



equipment
IGOTCORALS was a reef shop in my area that was closing down, I decided to stop by and see what was left. I spent a total of 50$

1. 2 seaside aquatic reactors
2. 1 BIG flipper mag algae scraper
3. LED refugium light
4. 2 goniporias
5. corner frag rack and 20 plugs
6. DD magnifying glass/scope/and some odds and ends

after getting home I got to work/ cleaned up the reactors and added the matrix I had in my sump. now all I have to do is shake the reactor and its done! Flipper mag is so much thinner and stronger then my old glass cleaner, I think I got a really good deal on this!

These are from the DD magnifying glass and photographed on my Iphone 5



suppliments
I am taking Sahin's advice and now I'm dosing 6 different things,

1. reef roids/frozen foods
2. pohls extra
3. B Balance
4. Coral Virtalizer
5. Salifert Amino's

Not all at once but divided throughout the week. I want to try to dose these items with a doser, but some needs to be fridged, and some shaken which I wish i had a mini fridge..

Husbandry
With all the nutrients in the tank, I will try to do a 5 gallon waterchange every other day, or at least every Tuesday and Thursday's. with Filter sock changed every Tuesdays and Fridays.


In the end, I hope I will notice deeper colour's in corals and a healthier system overall. Also I've started to add sand to the tank, Every waterchange there will be about acouple scoops into the tank! hopefully I will have it filled by the end of the month. P/S no photo's till next week!


Cheer's

 

[reefmutt]

Great update!
Looking good!!
And if you can keep the wife happy by adding fish, you are lucky, lucky!!!
The only way my wife would be happy about my tank would be if it were gone..
And probably me with it.. kidding about the last part..

I think..

 

[cFloor]

You sure got a good deal on equipment! Your tank is looking really nice, I love the layout. I just started using matrix in my sump and I'm considering investing in a reactor for it, but am still undecided. What are your thoughts?

 

[sahin]

The tank is setup nicely and neatly too. :beer: With regards to the feeding, take it easy to begin; the system is still very young and too much food may cause problems; so take caution, but dont stop feeding.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Here's a few close up of my SPS, I honestly cant tell if they are pale, or if they are brown, if I'm feeding to much or to little, A little background of what happened the past month.

1. I went on vacation and I only fed the tank flakes for 2 fishes in a 90gallon tank.
2. On 1/5/16 I dosed a full bottle of salifert flatworm exit that did not kill any at all, snails seemed to freeze for a week or more due to that much dosage.
3.I'm over dosing on suppliments, ATM 2ml B-balance, 4ml pohls extra, 10ml a week of Salifert AA, 4 drops of C.V, and 1-2 feedings of a mixture of frozen.
4. every day at least 10hours of no skimming
5. added sand, rinsed and rinsed till cloudiness was gone before adding to tank
6. insufficient lighting? 6bulb ati dimmable at 100%, front to back. blue, blue, coral, purple, blue, blue. 7" from water surface. from fixture to sandbed is 23" from fixture to top of rocks is 19"
I get a haze on my glass probably 2-4 days after cleaning, But I do see an improvement from my SCC. its actually coloring up. all other corals to me just seem blurry and not vibrant at all



This is the only one that has actually improved that I can tell.


Pink lemonade is just...


greens are just brownish? blue tips are still there.


this milli hasnt done much at all

 

[bobssecrtsn]

The tank is setup nicely and neatly too. :beer: With regards to the feeding, take it easy to begin; the system is still very young and too much food may cause problems; so take caution, but dont stop feeding.

Thank you Sahin, I am dosing under the recommended amount, See post above.

You sure got a good deal on equipment! Your tank is looking really nice, I love the layout. I just started using matrix in my sump and I'm considering investing in a reactor for it, but am still undecided. What are your thoughts?

So far i like the reactor setup, all i need to do is shake it and hopefully all the bacteria gets removed. I have alot more space in my sump now

Great update!
Looking good!!
And if you can keep the wife happy by adding fish, you are lucky, lucky!!!
The only way my wife would be happy about my tank would be if it were gone..
And probably me with it.. kidding about the last part..

I think..

hopefully she wont be mad after i tell her i spent 1700$ on another light fixture.... :sad2:

 

[markalot]

Looks very good, nice and clean with healthy corals.

The 6 bulb fixture is bright, my 60" puts > 200 PAR on the sandbed of my deep tank when hung a foot above dirty glass lids. It's amazing what good reflectors and proper cooling will do.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Looks very good, nice and clean with healthy corals.

The 6 bulb fixture is bright, my 60" puts > 200 PAR on the sandbed of my deep tank when hung a foot above dirty glass lids. It's amazing what good reflectors and proper cooling will do.

Thank you Mark, The tank as been getting better after adding a few more fishes, and feeding more food, and leaving the tank as is and not fiddling with everything trying to make it "better"


As for the lights, I raised it to 7" and everything seems to be doing fine, I do have a goniporia on the sandbed doing great, the only softy coral I have in the tank so it must like where the light is!

I really miss the shimmer, and so does the wife, I talked her into the ati hybrid but the only thing that I dislike is there isn't any controlability through the apex,
So I'm having Dave at NANOBOX make me a hybrid setup, 6bulb and 6 v3 array's. this should be plenty of light and ill be able to hang the fixture 10-12 inches high.


I am starting to QT newly aquired sps corals, hopefully they will be fine in there for 4 weeks. I have my radion's over them, Ato setup, and replenishing 64 oz of newly made saltwater daily

 

[markalot]

Thank you Mark, The tank as been getting better after adding a few more fishes, and feeding more food, and leaving the tank as is and not fiddling with everything trying to make it "better"


As for the lights, I raised it to 7" and everything seems to be doing fine, I do have a goniporia on the sandbed doing great, the only softy coral I have in the tank so it must like where the light is!

I really miss the shimmer, and so does the wife, I talked her into the ati hybrid but the only thing that I dislike is there isn't any controlability through the apex,
So I'm having Dave at NANOBOX make me a hybrid setup, 6bulb and 6 v3 array's. this should be plenty of light and ill be able to hang the fixture 10-12 inches high.


I am starting to QT newly aquired sps corals, hopefully they will be fine in there for 4 weeks. I have my radion's over them, Ato setup, and replenishing 64 oz of newly made saltwater daily

I could not tolerate the lack of shimmer so I mounted BuildMyLED strip lights in front and behind. Unfortunately using too much white LED to add shimmer seems to hurt some acro coloration. Regardless I'm not a fan of led pucks down the middle, that's the wrong place to have such a direct light source IMO.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

A quick Update, 2/8/16



I dosed Salifert amino acid, B balance, Pohls Extra, And Coral Virtilizer,I was dosing under the recommended amount and then Stopped all doses due to this algae showing up.

Its on the glass, Overflow box, and some on the rocks. No new corals introduced in a few months.

The tank has been setup for 3 months from a 42G tranfer. I used all new acid bathed dried rocks. no green hair algae or none in the past till this algae showed up

no nitrates or phosphate test kits, glass usually gets a film within 1-2 days
I feed less then a cube of frozen a day.

Can this be Dino's? or an early start of dino's? no bubbles on the tip of the algae at all. Can this be Cyano?



Its like this if i do not clean the glass for 5-10 days


All corals been coloring up nicely, with an addition of 2 clams, 5 chromis

 

[Acromaniac]

Thats exactly what I have, if you stop the flow in the tank it looks like rust right?

I'm pretty sure its free floating Dino's but have not yet got confirmation.

Been battling it for months now, just make sure it doesnt stay on the corals, it killed one of mine so far. I've done blackouts a few times now doing 72 hours at a time completely wrapped the tank so no light whatsoever, it goes away for a few days but comes back. I've done UV and also Peroxide dosing to no avail. My corals are too light now from doing blackouts too many times that I have stopped doing anything to battle it at the moment. The only thing I am trying now is no water changes but it's been 3 weeks and no improvement. If you work it out let me know.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Update 2/12/16

I tried reducing the Dino's by cutting back time, Blasting rocks with flow, etc. They just keep coming back, Maybe its because of a new tank, I don't know.


Last night while I was siphoning debris I turned off the return valve to the tank, I was suppose to shut off the valve to the reactors! As I was siphoning out I smelt a smell of a skunk, Didnt think much of it so I kept siphoning, Looked down and all i can see was water draining out of my sump, :sad2:

My skimmer overflowed and dumped about 2-3 weeks worth of dark nasty skimmate back to the water, Needless to say I had to do a WC, and let the skimmate run its course to try and skim it all back.

Now that I did a WC my Dino's are coming back. I really hated myself that I had to do that waterchange, But the water smelt like a dead zebra on fire :deadhorse1:

Corals seemed effected to the polluted water, Must've risen my p04-n03 up.
I feel like I'm at square one of all of this mess.

I bought a coral viewer, pictures are a ton better then what it was!
Note: reduced brightness and sharpen imaged only, No color was enhanced.

This millie has gotten red coralites now, Originated from Steve Garret Acropolis


This cant be a SCC. but colouration begs to differ


Pink Lemonade


Real SCC


Remember that red millie I had a few months back? Changed in colour real fast.


Blue tip tenius


One of my maximas clams next to a tort

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Another


Another SCC



And my very old tank, a few years back


Thats it folks, Dino's will be taking over. And my corals will no longer look like these :rolleye1:

 

[markalot]

Sorry Bob, but the corals look great after the skimmate dump. Does you skimmer really hold 3 weeks worth, I have to dump mine weekly.

 

[idisc]

Man that is to bad!!! I enjoyed reading this entire thread!!!! I hope all works out for you!!

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Sorry Bob, but the corals look great after the skimmate dump. Does you skimmer really hold 3 weeks worth, I have to dump mine weekly.

The photos I took was about a 14hours after the skimmate dump. Its been a few days and none of the corals has browned out at all, As a matter of fact, The Dino's has Slowed down quite a bit:idea:

Man that is to bad!!! I enjoyed reading this entire thread!!!! I hope all works out for you!!

Thank you I hope it does too!