Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence

[jvb89]

zachxlutz;1102150 wrote:

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The tank is now running an ATI Dimmable Sunpower 8x54w that I picked up from the forums here on ARC. I added a nice piece of 1x8 lumber drilled to the joists on the ceiling for a nice strong mounting point for the single hanging points on either side of the fixture. I still need to put a coat of paint or two on it to get it to match the ceiling and blend in.

I'm much happier with this cleaner more modern look. I'll be lowering the fixture over the course of the next few weeks and replacing the bulbs and seeing what combination I like. I'm already much happier with the appearances of the coral and the fish.

Speaking of fish, three of the Bartlett's Anthias made it through the QT process. One of the females succumbed to some sort of fin rot. The other three looked healthy and ate like pigs so at the end of the observation period we acclimated them to the main tank and set them free. They quickly took over one of the island areas as their own and have been swimming in and out of the rocks as well as swimming against the alternating gyre current in the tank. They're super fun to watch... I hope they do well together. They seem to be playing nice for now. One is clearly male, one is pseudo-male and the third appears to be fully female... as near as I can tell from google and reading about their markings and colorations.

The tank is doing well. I'm seeing constant cal/alk levels from the BRS 2 part dosing system running through the reefkeeper controller. I'm dosing 2ml of Red Sea Coral Colors ABCD daily and feeding fairly heavily a couple of times a week as well as normal feedings of mysis and pellets. I'm not seeing any nitrates and seeing slight levels of phosphates. Highest I saw was .08, swapped out the GFO and it's been dropping again. Trying to find a happy medium for bringing nutrient levels up a little without going overkill.

I'm currently researching what our next fish additions should be. I really like the bright and colorful reef safe wrasses I've seen around. I think I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for one.

You will love this light fixture! If you ever feel the need for led "pop" you could put a reef Brite strip on it.

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[zachxlutz]

<span style="font-size: 14px">Coral Surgery Day + New Frag Day + Water Testing and Dosing</span>

Coral Surgery Day:

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The tissue recession on the Mystic Sunset Montipora was continuing to get worse so I decided it was time to take some steps to help prevent it from spreading any further. I popped the coral off the rockwork relatively easy as the frag plug that it's encrusting over is very smooth on the bottom and didn't have much to adhere too. A little bit of newly encrusted coral was still attached to the live rock when I pulled it out, so we'll see how that little TEENY TINY frag does.

Pulled the frag out and went to work with the pliers and then set the coral in the Coral Rx dip with the powerhead.

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A close-up of the epoxy and chunks of coral skeleton I was able to break off showed no signs of montipora eating nudibranchs or eggs. I didn't see any floating around in the dip water either. Fingers crossed we don't have those.

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A close inspection of the piece I'm hoping to save showed no signs of nudis or eggs. I applied super glue gel to the edge of the coral I cut in order to hopefully stop the spread of whatever is causing the recession.

I put the coral back in the tank on the sand bed to be able to close observe over the next couple of days. In just a few hours the coral was back to it's normal self with great polyp extension and showing good color.

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We'll see if the tissue recession rears it's ugly head again.

New Frag Day:

Picked up these two beauties at Atlanta Aquarium. Resting on the sand bed currently while they acclimate to the light. I'm hoping I can keep these as bright and fluorescent as they currently are.

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Two new montiporas. Montipora setosa and Montipora spongodes. I really love the fluorescence of the red/orange Setosa. It doesn't come across in photos as much as it does in person.


Water Testing and Dosing:

I've been monitoring Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Iodine, Iron, Potassium, Phosphates, Nitrates fairly closely.

I've been dosing Coral Colors ABCD at 2 ml/daily.

My Iron levels will not register on the test kit, I've dosed up 30ml once and attempted to maintain some level of Iron with the 2 ml of Coral Color part B. I dosed 30ml again today and will test tomorrow to see how that is looking. Red Sea's Iron levels are a little scary to try and reach... 30ml is a lot of brown liquid. 30ml should be raising the Fe levels from 0 to 0.05. I wonder if the low iron levels in the water are what lead to the red gracilaria macro in the refugium withering away to nothing or if it was just outcompeted by the chaeto.

I've read up a bit on dosing these trace elements and I understand the skepticism in dosing. It's really hard to point to which aspect of our tank husbandry is causing whatever potential "gains" we think our tanks are seeing.

The other testable levels, Potassium and Iodine are a little higher than Red Sea's target numbers so I'm going to pull the dosing back to 1ml/daily. I'd rather underdose these trace elements than overdose.

Nitrates are continually coming up 0 on the Red Sea kit. I think the ever expanding ball of chaeto in the refugium has something to do with that.

Phosphates have been as high as .06, but are now hovering around .03 or .04.

I'd really like to get the nitrates a little more detectable in the water as I think the coral could use just a hint of nitrates.

Random Photos aka "I Want A Macro Lens":

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12/04/2016 FTS:

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I'm incredibly happy with the T5 lighting so far. I can't wait to get the tank acclimated, pop in the new bulbs and see how it will continue to do. The corals are looking great and healthy and the ones that have browned out are coloring up again!

The three anthias that made it from QT to the DT have been doing great. They appear to be playing nice enough with each other. There are some signs of aggression but none of it is leading to excessive hiding or injuries. I think the large amounts of caves in the rock work allow for enough space for all three to get along. We'll see... they're beautiful fish and watching them all swim in the open current together is mesmerising. The largest male out of the three loves to show off and pop all his fins out. The pseudo-male and the female just have to get out of his way when he comes barreling around the tank.

 

[jvb89]

Looking good Zach!

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[zachxlutz]

Jvb89;1102395 wrote: Looking good Zach!

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Thanks! I'm really enjoying it. It's finally progressing to a point where I'm happy with it.

 

[jvb89]

T5's are much easier to dial in then Led's for me. Too much tweaking ability for me.

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[zachxlutz]

Jvb89;1102399 wrote: T5's are much easier to dial in then Led's for me. Too much tweaking ability for me.

I don't have any experience with LEDs so I can't comment on that but I will say that the T5 lighting looks great and was very easy to program. I'm still on the fence about running the bulbs dimmed to create a sunrise/sunset cycle as I hear it lowers the life of the bulbs.

Notes:

I did an approximate 17% water change last night and took some baseline measurements of the freshly mixed saltwater before I added it to the tank.

The hw-Marinemix Reefer salt mixed up to 8.4 dkH and 460 ppm at 35 ppt / 78º F.

These are very close to the parameters I try to keep in the tank. BRS has the salt mix listed as coming up to 9 dkH and 450 ppm. That works for me.

The montipora I did some cutting on shows no signs of bleaching around the part I removed, I'll continue to monitor before I glue it back on the rock.

 

[zachxlutz]

We just love watching the tank grow and mature!

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[zachxlutz]

12/08/2016 Water Parameters:

Temp: Stable 78º
Ph: Stable at 8.1-8.2 (ATO with low concentrate kalkwasser solution - 2 tsp/5 gallons)
Sg: 1.026
Alk: 8.2 dKH (Hannah) - Thinking of slowly bringing this up.
Cal: 450 ppm (Salifert) - Same here.
Nitrate: 0.00 ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm (Red Sea)
Mg: 1460 (Red Sea)

Notes:
Still no nitrates showing up but we do have 0.04 ppm phosphates. I can run a more GFO in the reactor and swap it out more frequently to bring this down but I don't want to starve out the corals. I just find it odd that I'm only seeing phosphate and no nitrates. I'm a little bit concerned about the hair algae growing on the glass and the gyres. I'll keep watching things.

I think I might work on slowly bringing the alk up to 10 and the cal back up to 465. My dosing regimen has been going steady for a while and now the alk/cal levels are slightly dropping, so I'm going to up the dosing time by 5%. I'd like to try to keep the alk at 12 like the Red Sea program suggests but I think i'd like to see some appreciable levels of nitrates in the water so I don't burn my coral.

 

[xilez]

It's not uncommon to have PO4 but no nitrates. You could dose nitrate and hold it steady around 5ppm, a lot of people swear by having a little nitrate to help with SPS growth. You could always add more fish!

If you have a protein skimmer, you could try running it every other couple of days.

Tanks looking good!

 

[zachxlutz]

Yikes! I can't believe I've let my threads go this long without updating!

Let's see... what have we done since last update.

<ul>
<li>12/16/2016: Began dosing KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) to keep the NO3 levels around 5. Constantly fiddling with dosage amounts to keep levels where I want them.</li>
<li>12/19/2016: Magnificent Foxface Rabbitfish added to QT - Transferred to tank on 01/11/2017. Made it through QT fine, preventative treatment with PraziPro for 7 days. Such a beautiful addition to the tank.

Here's Mr. Magnificent in QT:

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I don't have a great shot of him in the tank yet. Time to bust out the DSLR.</li>
<li>12/22/2016: Began dosing Vibrant @ 15ml 1x week. Found a thread on reef(2)reef and read through it in it's entirety and decided to give it a shot. It has tremendously helped with any nuisance algae, it literally just melts away. My skimmer pulls out the nastiest brownest sludge ever now! Really can't recommend this product enough. Glass rarely requires cleaning. I haven't seen any ill effects. I've dosed 6 times over the last 6 weeks now.</li>
<li>General Notes: Corals have been growing like wildfire. Coloration and fluorescence still leaves a lot to be desired but i'm hoping that with time, consistent water quality, levels and a little luck they'll all continue growing and coloring up nicely. Fish seem fat and happy, eating frozen foods and dry foods.</li>
</ul>

01/27/2017 iPhone FTS:

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Typical Water Parameters:
<ul>
<li>Temperature: 78° F</li>
<li>Specific Gravity: 1.026</li>
<li>Ph: 8.1 - 8.3 slight swing between AM/PM</li>
<li>Alkalinity: 8.3 dKH</li>
<li>Calcium: 430 ppm</li>
<li>Magnesium: 1400 ppm</li>
<li>Nitrate: 1-5 ppm Shooting for 5, tank depletes rapidly. Dosing KNO3 often.</li>
<li>Phosphate: .02 - .03 ppm. Haven't changed out any GFO since 11/28/2016. Seems to be holding fairly steadily.</li>
</ul>

Coming soon:

MORE CORAL!
MORE FISH!

 

[mattgee87]

The T5's seem to be working great on your tank! 8 bulbs was just too much for my 75 gallon! On a side note where did you get the Vibrant for dosing?

 

[joseayes]

Went on read your thread and man... great work, positioning the tank in a right place,and making sure it will be level and stable for the long haul, following schedules on testing, quarantine equipped, and choosing the right light to your success it's good way to go!
I'm surprised I'm a neighbor and have never met lol! Wish one day!
I was looking at the macros and oh man!, that led bulb it's really designed for it! And actually want it to ask where you could find the mounting arm?
Thanks!

 

[zachxlutz]

mattgee87;1106492 wrote: The T5's seem to be working great on your tank! 8 bulbs was just too much for my 75 gallon! On a side note where did you get the Vibrant for dosing?

Thanks man... They're working out great. Just swapped in some new bulbs, too.

The Vibrant comes from https://www.uwcmn.com/product-line">Underwater Creations.</a>

[IMG]http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vibrant-liquid-aquarium-cleaner-discussion-thread.271428/">Here's the thread on Reef2Reef</a>, which at this point I think I've read in it's entirety. Lots of good results, a couple of drawbacks including the possibility of cyano rearing it's ugly head due to the changes in nitrate/phosphate ratios in the tank. Very few people have some correlation between snail death, coral death, etc, but those seem coincidental to me. Lots of good evidence and some hints as to how the product functions. I really couldn't be happier with how it's helped my tank avoid the uglies.

 

[zachxlutz]

joseayes;1106505 wrote: Went on read your thread and man... great work, positioning the tank in a right place,and making sure it will be level and stable for the long haul, following schedules on testing, quarantine equipped, and choosing the right light to your success it's good way to go!
I'm surprised I'm a neighbor and have never met lol! Wish one day!
I was looking at the macros and oh man!, that led bulb it's really designed for it! And actually want it to ask where you could find the mounting arm?
Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words! The tank still has a long ways to go but I'm happy with how it's progressing.

The mounting arm came from

 

[bcavalli]

Great job Zach it's looking really good.

 

[zachxlutz]

Bcavalli;1106513 wrote: Great job Zach it's looking really good.

Thanks. It's getting there. Still trying to get the color and vibrancy I want out of the corals... I'm not sure I'll ever be happy on that front! Maybe I should go to Atlanta Aquarium today and see what's for sale...

 

[zachxlutz]

I took some random video of the tank yesterday and edited it up to a quick little tank tour. I planned on putting the names of all the fish and coral in with the video but realized rather quickly I'd rather put that effort into a video of higher quality. Hope you enjoy!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=youtube]

Be sure to watch in 1080p!

 

[zachxlutz]

Picked up two new frags today from Atlanta Aquarium. Had my eyes on a few more but I really need to hold off and see how these hold color. I think I've gotten a few of the pale/brown ones looking better, let's see how these ones hold up.

For nuisance pest control I clipped the acro off the frag plug and did a CoralRx dip for 5 minutes, rinsed for 5 minutes, Bayer dip for 15 minutes and then finally two more consecutive 5 minute rinses.

Orange Plate Fungia:

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Tyree Blue Matrix Acropora:

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I went ahead and glued the acropora in place, high on the rock work, as I think I've done more harm than good by trying to acclimate these higher light demand corals to my lighting. These coral are coming from a highly lit system and I think I'm better off going ahead and getting the sps corals up higher on the rockwork from the get go.

Fingers crossed we keep color!

 

[xilez]

Hope it pulls through! That's a pretty heavy dipping procedure, might be a little harsh on nicer Acros. 10mins in bayer is all thats needed (especially since you are chopping of the flags plugs)

 

[zachxlutz]

xilez;1107141 wrote: Hope it pulls through! That's a pretty heavy dipping procedure, might be a little harsh on nicer Acros. 10mins in bayer is all thats needed (especially since you are chopping of the flags plugs)

Thanks. Both the Acro and the Fungia are showing great polyp extension already. The Fungia caught some Mysis and ate this morning. I don't think the 15 minute Bayer dip is too aggressive... The dosing strength and duration I used seems fairly consistent with the protocol that I see very successful reefers using. That being said, I would rather implement a fairly strict and aggressive dipping protocol and potentially lose one new coral as opposed to bringing something into to the tank that could wipe out the existing coral. If I had the space I would be running a QT for my coral as well as my fish. What's the saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.