ZeeSparrow's 75G LPS tank build

[ZeeSparrow]

Final tally of the power outage losses was the clam, 2 cardinal fish and 6 coral: torch, plate, pavona, blasto, Idaho grape monti cap and birdsnest. Survivors are numerous snails, an urchin, 2 crabs, 3 shrimp, 4 fish, 11 coral: 2 clowns, firefish, lawnmower blenny, unnamed monti cap (an SPS survived-woot!), 3 acans, 2 candy canes, 2 hammers, frogspawn, duncan and galaxea. I still do not have a generator (but we're looking!!).

I'm not entirely sure if the high mag took care of my bryopsis or not. There isn't as much of it as there was... so I guess that's a success. After two months of Kent Tech M treatment, I have finally resigned myself to the fact that I need to be aggressive about removing it manually. I've also decided that tweezers are horribly painful to use for this task. So I ordered a variety of hemostats, including a 24" set. If nothing else, at least I'll have a good tool for pulling out what I can on a regular basis.

Also of note, half of the frogspawn is seriously mad. I removed it from its happy place on a rock that was completely overrun with algae (now banished to the dark sump) and have since knocked it around twice trying to reestablish a good location. It's going to be sitting in the sand, in the middle of the tank, in the WAY (hehehe) until it decides whether it is going to turn around or not. I'm keeping a close eye on it and will frag it quickly if it shows any sign of BJD (brown jelly disease). So far it has not, so crossing fingers on that one. Here's a horribly blurry picture where you can see one half extended a bit and the other absolutely not:

For my birthday last week, I bought myself some new coral. Some was purchased ON My birthday and is now acclimating to the light. Due to the power outage losses and algae issues I have not been all that interested in taking pictures, but I had to document the new additions. So please ignore the ugly (and the blur!) and find what beauty you can in these pics.

First up, birdsnest. I was going to get a green to replace what I had, along with a pink. But then I saw this. It may be difficult to see but there are FOUR different varieties in this piece. The LFS was trying to graft them. They've been together for 10 days now.

I have no idea what these are, other than SPS (acro and stylo??).

Then yesterday, I spent a bit of time going through the available acans from Austin Aqua Farms. I ordered two. Then today after contacting them I ordered 4 more, and an orange frogspawn. :wildone: They should be here tomorrow so I'll try to get some pics of them in the next day or two. :dance:

 

[ZeeSparrow]

We are expecting another windstorm tomorrow, with potential tree and power lines down. I'm going to pick up a generator (found a store that not only has them in stock but will hold it for me until tomorrow afternoon). Insurance............

 

[Swope2bc]

Looking amazing!! So glad you didn't lose it all!

 

[army446909]

Any updates. Just binged your whole thread. Very nice tank Zee!!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Any updates. Just binged your whole thread. Very nice tank Zee!!

Wow, the whole thread? And your first post here... Thanks!!

As is often the case, I had an update post ready and somehow toasted it. Let's see.... most everything seems to be doing well.

I still have bryopsis everywhere, but it's not as bad as other pictures I've seen (nor as bad as it was before my Kent Tech M treatment a few months ago). I did get the hemostats to help with manual removal but haven't really spent a lot of time doing so yet. I blame the holidays and my inherent laziness. Water changes haven't made any dent in lowering the mag levels since October, as it is still above 1750. I'm going to do two or three larger WC on the order of 25G to bring that back down to a "reasonable" level (under 1500), refresh GFO, skim wet, remove what I can manually and see how things look at that point.

I also have some lovely red turf, and a few spots of GHA. Not sure if I can remove any red turf manually but again, will see what happens over the next few weeks. I'm hoping that I can get it to at least stop growing with these efforts. If necessary, I'll order some kalk as I've read that a paste of that can be helpful against both bryopsis and red turf.

After adding the corals last month, parameters fell a little as I wasn't dosing since the power outage. Hadn't needed to. We are now back to ~5ml per day which I know isn't much at all, but seems to be sufficient for now to keep things stable.

No new additions since the acans and orange frogspawn. I didn't want to add anything more to my schedule with the holidays. Our youngest has been here for a couple weeks and I wanted to spend what time I could with him. :fun2: I'll probably pick up a fish or two and start TTM some time after he leaves.

The first two pictures are from this morning, the others are from the 14th of last month.

The frogspawn is slowly bouncing back, though it may be a little difficult to tell as it is still closed up for the night. This is also an excellent representation of the worst of my bryopsis.

This next picture highlights the orange hammer in the upper left that I've had for a while, the orange frogspawn in the sand, a small patch of red turf and more of my friendly bryopsis. The euphyllia has much better extension during the day. I'll try to remember to get pictures at a better time of day next time.

Here's another picture of the orange hammer from last month. Actually, my blenny was posing. :lolspin:

Another picture from last month of the new acans and my fallen candy cane. There's one more new acan off to the right that you can't see here. I wish my pictures looked halfway as vibrant as those of the vendor. Oh well.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

I thought it might be fun to highlight progression pictures. The tank was set up and cycle completed in May 2015.

June 8, 2015 First corals of candy cane, frogspawn and hammer, moved up on the rocks after acclimation.

August 14, 2015 Firefish, blenny and more corals. And more algae! Cleaner shrimp and urchin added a few days after this pic.

September 7, 2015 Just finished a 3-day lights out period. Peppermint shrimp added for a small aiptasia outbreak (took care of it nicely).

October 12, 2015 Even more coral and clowns who appear to be quite adept at hiding for FTS pics. This is one week after initial Kent Tech M treatment.

November 15, 2015 Yet more coral, clam and cardinals added. Power outage on the 17th took out the clam, cardinals and more.

December 15, 2015 Acans and orange frogspawn only new additions. Tank is recovering from power outage.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Finished the first 25G WC, changed GFO and pulled some of the bryopsis out. Not near enough of a dent in it. Ugh. Maybe my expectations are too high. Lol I think I'll order more Tech M and some kalk to add to my Arsenal.

I had a little excitement during maintenance today. Apparently the heater I use in the brute for NSW no longer works. I did not check the temp before I used it. Only after putting some into the sump did I realize the issue because the Apex low temp alarm sounded. ( startled me to be honest )

I started up the return pump and heaters to circulate and heat the water back up to temp. I neglected to hook up the GFO reactor before doing so. Luckily the input hose was aimed into the sump or I would have had a huge issue!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Curious, I tested my tank's magnesium level this afternoon, getting a result of 1800 ppm. A few days ago, the result was 1700.

Wait - what? I just did a 25 gallon water change with IO salt, which I've always seen reported as having a LOW level of magnesium. I hadn't tested this particular box/bag so I did that next. The result was 1860 ppm on the new saltwater. This was mixed yesterday afternoon so it has been mixing in my brute can for almost 24 hours, using RODI water (recently changed DI resin). No wonder my magnesium level hasn't been going down!! FWIW, the salt shows Alk of 10.5 dKH. I did not test calcium.

This bag of IO is practically gone, but it's only the first one from this box. I'll open another bag, turn upside down a number of times to try to make sure it's mixed up well within the bag itself before opening, as I always do, and mix up a fresh bucket for testing. I ordered another box of IO last week and will do the same with a bag of that when it arrives. Hopefully this bag was just an anomaly.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

I mixed up 5 gallons of IO using the second bag from the box. I verified my refractometer was calibrated to 35% (1.026). Test results:

Salinity: 1.026 (35%)
Alk: 13.1 dKH
Ca: 620
Mg: 2160

:hmm4: I'm taking a sample of this water to the LFS tomorrow to have them test.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

WOW Zee, what a roller coaster ride. I'm glad your tank is quickly recovering and saved most of your tankmates. With a few of you lately getting power outages has me thinking I better get a generator for the just in case.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

WOW Zee, what a roller coaster ride. I'm glad your tank is quickly recovering and saved most of your tankmates. With a few of you lately getting power outages has me thinking I better get a generator for the just in case.

Thanks Dkuhlmann. It's definitely one of those things that you will appreciate if you need it... and they're really not that expensive, when you consider what you could lose. I think of it as insurance for my tank!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Did another WC yesterday, pulled more bryopsis and covered spots in kalk paste. This is going to be a long ordeal, I think. Hanna phosphate test yesterday showed .04, though Salifert still appears to be undetectable. I'll test again tonight for confirmation before changing out GFO. It's been in for two weeks.

Got a couple good pictures but no new FTS.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Looking good again Zee. Power outage sucks for sure. My friend at my LFS had it happen to his beautiful personal tank and he lost almost everything. Hang in there.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

Glad to see your tank is recovering.

 

[Isaacs55]

Jeez sorry for the up and downs. Hopefully everything starts to gon on the rise again!

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Thanks guys. Coral and fish are all doing well now. Seeing some growth on just about everything, which is Fantastic!! I'm hoping to get a couple fish into QT now that the holidays are over. Maybe by the time the tank has been up a year, I'll have it fully stocked!

 

[Swope2bc]

Sup Zee!! How are things coming along?? I'm anxious to get home and see how 5 weeks of a tank sitter have treated my tanks... Hopefully all is well...

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Hey Swope! Hope you're enjoying your vacation, and everything is well when you get home.

Life has been happening lately, so my tank.... well, let's just say the bryopsis is really happy. I'm hoping I can get back at it soon.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

As I mentioned in my last post, life happened and I've been unable to do much of anything for the tank until today. I did continue to feed and dose as needed, so the fish and coral are doing well. My nemesis has also thrived. Full embarrassing photograph disclosure below.

Before pictures of each side of the tank.

One at a time, I removed three rocks from the right side of the tank and scrubbed them in a bucket of water. I then used a smaller container of water to apply kalk paste, though I admit this was more of a direct application of dry kalk using a wet toothbrush to make into a paste, as well as pour Kent Tech M straight onto the rock. After letting the rock sit in this concoction for a few minutes, I applied more elbow grease with a toothbrush, then rinsed in another bucket before returning to the tank.

There's still quite a bit of visible bryopsis on the 'treated' rocks, which is somewhat disheartening, though I kind of expected that. I mixed up more kalk paste and applied that in tank with the pumps off for another 20 minutes.

Here's a few photos while the pumps were still off:

Of course, tank pictures are not complete without my blenny. I think he's peeved at me for disturbing his home.

I'm hoping that I will be able to continue this process with the rest of the rocks over the next week or two. I'm mixing water now and plan to do a 5 gallon water change every couple days, cleaning a rock or two each time until I get through them all. I've also ordered another gallon of Kent Tech M and once I get my Mg below 1500 I plan to use that again to hopefully eradicate it. I know that it's not the Mg but rather some sort of contaminant (copper perhaps) that is actually potentially killing the bryopsis, but I don't want to start this treatment while my Mg is still high. I've also ordered AlgaeFix Marine as some report this to be effective too, though not near as many as the Kent product. I'll try to take pictures as I go along to document this mess.

 

[champion6sigma]

Good luck with the tank...was going through the pics then saw the hair pictures. that looks like a lot of work. Tagging along..