The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread

**ACRONUTS** · 11-21-2011, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by philip_r5

I love that marco rock mortar it rocks.

Also, I wouldn't add the sock or carbon for a couple of weeks.

philip why would you not add either of those for a couple of weeks?

**Mostly Rock** · 11-23-2011, 11:21 AM

I assume it's to let the tank cycle more effectively... Carbon will pull out things you don't want in a month, but you do kind of want that stuph hangin' 'round now, and the filter sock will catch a lot of particles. If you don't change the filter sock, it'll still assist with the cycle, but it might clog up on you. The carbon will slow down the cycle by pulling out things that feed the bacteria, but you may want to use it to pull out contaminants that entered the rock, or the in-tank environment during your re-build. I still haven't found enough information to be comfortable with using carbon full time. The article in Coral Magazine indicated a correlation between lignite carbon and HLLE (http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/cont...king-gun-found) but I don't have any real information on Bituminous carbon (which BRS says is lower quality than Lignite) or the ROX 0.8 carbon and their cons. I appreciate what carbon does for the Marine tank, and I do use it for short periods of time to make the water clear, but I limit my use just in case.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-24-2011, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by Mostly Rock

I assume it's to let the tank cycle more effectively... Carbon will pull out things you don't want in a month, but you do kind of want that stuph hangin' 'round now, and the filter sock will catch a lot of particles. If you don't change the filter sock, it'll still assist with the cycle, but it might clog up on you. The carbon will slow down the cycle by pulling out things that feed the bacteria, but you may want to use it to pull out contaminants that entered the rock, or the in-tank environment during your re-build. I still haven't found enough information to be comfortable with using carbon full time. The article in Coral Magazine indicated a correlation between lignite carbon and HLLE (http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/cont...king-gun-found) but I don't have any real information on Bituminous carbon (which BRS says is lower quality than Lignite) or the ROX 0.8 carbon and their cons. I appreciate what carbon does for the Marine tank, and I do use it for short periods of time to make the water clear, but I limit my use just in case.

Thanks for the info! I will read that article and a few others then make the call on it.

**ACRONUTS** · 11-24-2011, 12:03 AM

Well by the time some of you guys read this it is already Thanksgiving. I certainly hope that everyone had a good day and got to spend it with their families and beloved reef tanks.

Here is my latest update:

I tried to plan in advance for as many things that I would need in order to do this rebuild. From the details of the star board to the bacteria in the bottle.
Time and effort were also on the list and so was Murphy's Law, lol! After waiting 48 hrs for the mortar to cure I started to add salt water.

One of the bridges was in the garage drying and curing so this pic does not show it but gives you a perspective of the depth of the aquascape.

It did take me a few days to fill the tank. You guys know mix salt, wait, test, and then add either more RO water or more salt. I only have a 35 gallon garbage bin and it took awhile. I had no other storage container but have started to think about one. Any of you guys have one or can recommend a company that sells them? It would make my life much easier.

I continued to work on the aquascape and really feel that I am happy with the following:

Voila tank is filled!

Left side

Right side

Middle

FTS with Actinics

Well looks like a few days more of just letting it run then I will start adding the green chromis' and a couple of other fish.

Till then Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!

**ACRONUTS** · 11-28-2011, 12:01 AM

Update: Week one of cycling the tank

The 180g went officially "LIVE" last week!

Week Two
I tested water and the results were as follows:
0.00 Ammonia
0.00 Nitrites
0.10 Nitrates
Ph 8.2

I decided to add my 8 green chromis' and my three springer damselfish from the holding tank.
Of course the springer damsels went swimming immediately into the cover of the crevises and holes inside the rocks.

The green chromis' basically hovered tightly together.

I am amazed! Why? Well it has been such a long time since I cycled a tank that I actually got nervous and wanted to wait another week to add the damsels!
Something else that shows how time has changed since the last time I cycled a tank is that there are numerous more types of damsels coming into the hobby like the Springer damsel. What a beautiful fish!

Well now that the fish are being added slowly to the display tank it was time to get the monster Reef Octopus skimmer running.
Here is a quick video:

Man this thing was running at full blast. At the widest opened setting the skimmer was still overflowing! Wondering wether I should keep it at the widest setting till it subsides.........?
Well that is it for now. Till next week when I add a couple more fish from the holding 55g tank.

**ACRONUTS** · 12-07-2011, 11:51 PM

Well week three update guys:

For starters the water has tested as follows:
Ph 8.0 a little less than where I would like to have it
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.15
Nitirate 0.10

Actinic lights come on at 6pm and off at 1am
Metal Halides come on from 10pm till 12 midnight.

I have started noticing that where the actinics light the reefscape, I started to get the infamous brown diatom algae. I feel that at this point things are coming along nicely. We are cycling as they say!

At the end of week two I added some of my seeded rock that has been in my holding tank. I have been also using Microbacter every other day since week one.
The green chromis and damsels are being fed every other day opposite the microbacter dosing. The fish seem to be happy full of color and eating well!

During week three I was testing daily to see if I could catch an ammonia spike but have not yet. Did see my Nitrites jump from 0.25 to 0.15 then 0.10 then back upto 0.15.
Something happening there.

At this point I know some heads are gonna turn but I am confident that I am ok. Since I will be adding some extra fish like, powder blue tang, blonde naso, foxface, etc. I have some fish that are more on the shy side. My swiss guard basslet and white possum wrasse and the pajama cardinals need to establish themselves so that they do not get bullied when the bigger guys come in.
So far 72 hrs and after a 1 and 1/2 hour acclimation the fish are all doing fine. The pajama cardinals are loving the caves, the swiss guard basslet comes out more than when I initially bought it 1 year ago!
The possum wrasse as always goes into complete hiding. Funny at around 8:30 or 9:00pm everyday he comes out over by the lower right side of the tank. Whats even weirder than that is he started doing it again in the tank even with a different aquascape!!!

Sorry about the pics. They were taken in a rush!

**ACRONUTS** · 12-21-2011, 12:52 AM

Latest update guys

Week five met up with a little fustration as the tank kept measuring Nitrites.
I kept adding microbacter as directed.
Finally week six I saw relief!
At this point I needed to desperately get my fish into the main display. Christmas is coming and I did not want the extra fish tank in the main living area.

One of my LFS stores was having a Christmas party/ HUGE sale on fish,corals and invertebrates.
Of course my wallet was ready.

I added a powder blue tang

A emperor juv anglefish

A mimic tang

A foxface rabbit fish

Well total fish for now are as follows:

1 purple tang
1 hippo tang
1 possum wrasse
1 swiss guard basslet
6 green chromis
3 springer damsels
1 powder blue tang
1 foxface
1 juv emperor anglefish
1 mimic tang

Well for now this is gonna do me for a bit I want the system to start ageing and start to get my water parameters really in order for the addition of corals.

I did add a coral banded shrimp and a cleaner shrimp but they are in hiding still and I can't get good shots. As soon as I do I will post.

Merry Christmas all!!!

**dolphinman213** · 12-21-2011, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by ACRONUTS

A few more things that were taken care of this weekend.
Here is a pic of the beginning of the drain. Funny how the fish don't wanna get caught!

Here is the 55g tank that the fish and some of my remaining corals will be housed for awhile.

Star board clean, cut and ready for install next week.

Tank finally empty. Corals and fish are all out. Look at the coralline algae growth on the back of the tank and over flow boxes.

Bleach went in last night and in less than 24 hours the coralline algae has turned mostly white. The anaptasia's were gone after I added just the tap water. The majano's were closed but look still alive until I added the bleach.
This evening I started to siphon any remaining sand and the majanos came off the glass very easily. I do suspect they were no dead.

Here is a fts. Wow it is surreal!

my question--if you put bleach in the tank, but you scraped the algae off the glass, but not the overflows and return nozzle, are you not worried that bleach residue settled on the algae left behind and what about the bleach residue on the seams of the tank?

**ACRONUTS** · 12-21-2011, 04:23 PM

I did dose and basically overdosed water conditioners that would get rid of any residue. I also added more chlorine remover once the rocks were added.
At this point I feel that I am ok and should not have any issues in that department.

**ACRONUTS** · 12-23-2011, 08:25 AM

Well guys thought I share this video of my tank that I shot with my new toy, the iPad2!
Great device!
Anyhow it starts off witht the coral banded shrimp that has decided for now to take refuge at the bottom of the tank inside one of the caves.

Of course the fish seem to be fine as they used to swim away when I came near the tank now they follow daddy cause they know who feeds them, lol!

Toward the end don't miss the swiss guard basslet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQIwhKVXLkQ

**ACRONUTS** · 02-03-2012, 10:08 PM

Well everybody it certainly has been a long time since I have posted.
The holidays were extremely busy and on top of that my sister had a major stroke.
She is in rehab right now and thank god she is doing much, much better. Her prognosis is really positive.

Due to not enough time I decided that I had to use my time wisely with my on going efforts. Going slow is definitely in the reef keeping hobby a good thing.
The tank is doing really great.
The water parameters are super good.
Ph 8.3
Sal 1.023
Alk 8
Ca 450
Mg 1350
Phos 0.05
No .08

Last week I took the plung and bought 2 monti's. A Tyree purple rim cap and a regular red cap monti. I love these as the grow with swirls and grow quickly and will fill the open water space nicely.

I unfortunatley lost my swiss guard basslet due to jumping out of tank. Can't understand why since I have no other wrasses that would bother it. But it found just the right spot!

As I stated time is really not on my side so I ordered from liveaquaria.com.
I purchased and due to arrive today another swiss guard basslet and a golden pygmy angelfish.
I have been waiting for my lfs stores to carry one of these beauties (golden pygmy ) but they just don't come in on a regular basis. The last time I saw one around my area was about 5 yrs ago.

I am truly excited!!!

My coral banded shrimp

My two monti caps

**Iggy** · 02-04-2012, 09:23 AM

I've been looking for a Golden Angel myself and that one is beautiful!

**philip_r5** · 02-04-2012, 10:02 AM

Your water parameters sound right on. The liveaquria order sounds awesome. Tell the new basselt to confront you before he decides to move out of the tank :p

Sorry to hear that. I have lost a mated clown, and a flame angel to jumping myself

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

**ACRONUTS** · 02-04-2012, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by Iggy

I've been looking for a Golden Angel myself and that one is beautiful!

Well get your self one from liveaquaria because the one that came in is in perfect condition! It was out and about all evening long and picking at the live rock.

**ACRONUTS** · 02-04-2012, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by philip_r5

Your water parameters sound right on. The liveaquria order sounds awesome. Tell the new basselt to confront you before he decides to move out of the tank :p

Sorry to hear that. I have lost a mated clown, and a flame angel to jumping myself

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I had that talk and I hope it listened, lol!!!

**Iggy** · 02-04-2012, 08:43 PM

Oh man, I wish... you found yours in the Diver's Den, right? Liveaquaria.com is showing "Out of Stock". Either way, congrats on your find glad to hear it's doing well and look forward to reading your updates. I know it's still early but has it stared nipping at anything other than liverock? Do you have a bunch of sponges in your tank?

**ACRONUTS** · 02-04-2012, 11:15 PM

Ok this weekend two fishes arrived from liveaquaria.com and I purchase a flame hawk from WWC.
Everyone is doing fine and acting like they are supposed too.

The Golden Angel is just as cute as can be from the moment I acclimated it to the intro to the tank it shows signs of fiestyness. Even the purple tang could not keep it from going to where it wanted to go.

Here it is in the holding cup right before it went into the tank.

No torn fins or signs of stress!

The swiss guard of course did its hiding thing but soon came out and about.

Don't look too closely or you'll see the scratches on the glass.