Geezer's Reasonable Reef Build

[reefgeezer]

The new Angel is making himself right at home. He's already out and swimming with the Tangs and starting to pick at food. So far he's eaten Mysis, Brine, and an Angelfish Blend. He's not a pig yet but hopefully that will come. The Wrasse acts like he's been there forever. The Tangs have even given up on the bullying thing. Neither look a bit stressed. Their mouths are closed, respiration is pretty slow, and their gill plates barely move.

Not great shots but here's a couple of pictures.

[reefgeezer]

So I raised nitrate to 2.5 to 5 ppm last week. I added two bigger fish & went from feeding 1 cube of frozen food to three. Nitrate reading today... 0! Phosphate test shows 0 also.

The skimmer is cup fills every three days or so with thick greenish-black liquid. It's obviously working well, maybe too well, but I'm hesitant to shut it off.

I suppose dosing nitrate & phosphate is more controllable than over feeding, reducing filtration, & etc. I'll wait a while to see if the new bioload kicks nutrients up. I'll give it another week & check again.

[lpsouth1978]

How is the Melanarus doing? I would worry that it would be VERY stressed in a bare bottom system. They require a DSB to bury themselves in at night and when scared.

[reefgeezer]

Originally Posted by lpsouth1978

How is the Melanarus doing? I would worry that it would be VERY stressed in a bare bottom system. They require a DSB to bury themselves in at night and when scared.

He's fine. He came out of a bare bottom tank. I've kept many Wrasses, including a Melanarus over the years in bare bottom tanks. I sold my last one a year ago when I broke down my old 75. It was bare bottom. There are wrasses that don't do as well though. Leopard Wrasses come to mind.

[reefgeezer]

So the bioload hasn't changed. The tank has though. I've gotten rid of the fuzzy brown Cyano. To get rid of it, I manually removed every little bit I could, did some big water changes back to back, left the lights off for a few days, stopped carbon dosing, stopped adding nitrates, and increased GFO for a while.

After the lights came on and I reduced GFO to almost nothing. Some hair algae started growing and a couple little spots of Red Cyano popped up, but the clean-up crew and the Tangs have kept it under control. Since then I've left the tank alone except for water changes. The brown fuzzy Cyano hasn't returned.

The tank doesn't test for nitrate or phosphate but I know it's there because of the hair algae. I still haven't added any more corals but the few I have are growing well. SPS color is still an issue but I suspect I need more light.

I've added a 44 Gallon Brute beside the tank to hold salt water with a dedicated pump and hose. That has increased my water change frequency and volume, and let me match the water chemistry prior to the changes. I'm getting about 15% a week... well an average of 15% a week... I'm still lazy. More often 30 gallons every two weeks, sometimes 15 gallons a week... every once in a while 40 gallons after 3 weeks!

So, along with the water changes and wiping the glass every few days, the tank now runs with just a skimmer and about 60-70 lbs of rock. I'm hoping the tank is entering the mature stage.

[reefgeezer]

Oops... I forgot. I used one conservative round of Chemi-Kleen per the box directions just before starting the water changes. The results were very positive after just 48 hours with most of the Cyano disappearing. The remaining disappeared quickly after a couple of big water changes and a few days of lights out. With the changes in management of the tank, it has not returned.