Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by zachxlutz

Does your system have a "copepod reactor"? Mine does!



I haven't been running any GFO in this reactor, but it's been kept online with water slowly flowing through it and it's filled to the brim with copepods! It pulls from the manifold leaving the return and dumps back into the refugium... Really neat to see!

Oh man!!! That is so cool! I want one of those!!! It's so full. My pods never came back so well after dosing interceptor.. I'll have to add some new live rock to my system and try to replenish some microfauna..

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Oh man!!! That is so cool! I want one of those!!! It's so full. My pods never came back so well after dosing interceptor.. I'll have to add some new live rock to my system and try to replenish some microfauna..

I've been adding live phytoplankton daily. I also topped up with two of the 5280 pods packs from algae barn a few weeks back. I'm sure that has something to do with the proliferate amount of pods swimming around.

[reefmutt]

Nice. Can't really get that type of thing in Canada very readily..

[Michael Hoaster]

Z'up zach?

[zachxlutz]

FTS 01/21/2018:


Things are going great.
Fish are happy.
Coral are growing like wildfire.

Here's a few updates.

I just replaced the T5 bulbs after 12 months and wow... I can't believe how "dull" the old bulbs had gotten. I didn't do a formal PAR test but the fluorescence of the coral and overall look of the tank seems to be greatly improved by swapping out the bulbs for new ones. The old bulbs were definitely worn out, I'll be replacing on a 9 month schedule going forward.

Ostreopsis dinos are a thing of the past, but I still get a bit of the large cell amphidium on the sandbed. The watchman goby does a great job of keeping the sandbed clean on some days and on others not so much. It's strange. Some days it'll look like they're completely gone and some days they'll pop up around the perimeter of the live rock and coral and dust the open areas. I'm considering adding a big handful of Nassarius snails to help keep the sandbed turned over. As a matter of fact, I need to up the snail population of the tank for several things.

I'm dealing with a bit of a cyano outbreak. Rather than treat with chemical means, I'm just blowing it off the rocks and continuing with water changes and keeping the water chemistry as stable as possible. I'm hoping it will subside with time and stability. I've heard of cyano popping up when T5 bulbs have gone past their prime, so maybe with the new bulbs I'll catch a break.

The only thing I'm dosing currently is Alkalinity and Calcium at the rate of 85 ml a day, which equals a consumption rate of .85 dkh and 5.935 ppm. I'll dose up NO3 and PO4 as needed but that's only been once every 2 weeks or so. I'm considering starting back up a bit of live phyto dosing but I haven't made up my mind yet. Things are going good enough that I'm not sure I need to make any changes.

Feather caulerpa has taken over the refugium and completely starved out the chaeto and other macros I had in there. It's fine, the whole goal is nutrient consumption and it seems to work... I'm still having to dose nitrate and phosphate on occasion. I'd rather have to dose occasionally than worry about high nutrients causing problems.

I have a few upgrades planned for the near future. I scored a Neptune DOS unit for AWCs and a new Trigger Systems Triton44 sump from BRS during the Black Friday sales. I'm going to run the plumbing for the DOS auto water change setup from the mixing station in the garage, through the crawlspace and up behind the tank... Not looking forward to crawling around under my house. I'll hopefully be installing the new sump in the next few weeks. I'll have to change up the drain plumbing a bit... That's the step I'm looking forward to the least.

[zachxlutz]

[Michael Hoaster]

Great to see you back, Zach! From what I can tell, the tank looks great. The pics are HUMONGOUS! Some are twice as wide as my 27" screen. Glad to hear things are well!

[zachxlutz]

[zachxlutz]

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Great to see you back, Zach! From what I can tell, the tank looks great. The pics are HUMONGOUS! Some are twice as wide as my 27" screen. Glad to hear things are well!

Hey Michael! The tank has really been an autopilot and I've been enjoying it. The tank is looking great, despite a few minor annoyances. I've edited down the photos, should be a bit easier on the eyes now. Would you mind letting me know if they look better on your end?

I'll go check your thread, as well... How's the tank?

[Michael Hoaster]

Hey Zach! Yep, that's better. They fit on my screen now and look great!

They still might be too big for phones though. I usually try to keep my pics between 600-1000 pixels wide at 72 dpi. Whenever I post pics wider than about 800, I get complaints that the pics don't show up on phones.

My tank's a mess! I'm just about to break it down and reboot.

[BigDave]

Nice looking pictures. Showed up well on my screen too now.

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Hey Zach! Yep, that's better. They fit on my screen now and look great!

They still might be too big for phones though. I usually try to keep my pics between 600-1000 pixels wide at 72 dpi. Whenever I post pics wider than about 800, I get complaints that the pics don't show up on phones.

My tank's a mess! I'm just about to break it down and reboot.

Yikes. I'll check in over there.

Originally Posted by BigDave

Nice looking pictures. Showed up well on my screen too now.

Thanks. How's your tank doing?

[BigDave]

Not as well as yours. My GSP and some of my mushrooms are growing, but I haven't had the funds to add any other corals.

It's very weird... when my GSP is doing well, the Zoa's don't and vice versa.

My Engineering Goby is getting quite large. He's fun to watch. And I added a sand sifting starfish that's doing a great job of keeping the sand turned over.

My top off pump recently died, so I replaced it with an aqua lifter. It takes longer to top off when it comes on, but it's quieter.

For the most part, it's just been normal maintenance.

Oh. I did finally get a 'flipper' for cleaning the glass. I was getting corraline growing on it that I couldn't clean off with the mag-float. The flipper does an awesome job of scraping it off.

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by BigDave

Not as well as yours. My GSP and some of my mushrooms are growing, but I haven't had the funds to add any other corals.

It's very weird... when my GSP is doing well, the Zoa's don't and vice versa.

My Engineering Goby is getting quite large. He's fun to watch. And I added a sand sifting starfish that's doing a great job of keeping the sand turned over.

My top off pump recently died, so I replaced it with an aqua lifter. It takes longer to top off when it comes on, but it's quieter.

For the most part, it's just been normal maintenance.

Oh. I did finally get a 'flipper' for cleaning the glass. I was getting corraline growing on it that I couldn't clean off with the mag-float. The flipper does an awesome job of scraping it off.

It sounds like things are moving along... I just checked your thread.

Curious as to why some of your coral will do well and vice versa. Are your parameters staying stable?

I used an aqualifter for a long time as my ATO pump. I didn't mind the slow speed of it.

That flipper is a heck of a tool isn't it! I never have to clean the glass with anything but that one tool! I hate putting my hands in the water so it's just about the perfect tool. Once I learned the trick for flipping it effectively, it really became my favorite tank tool.

[BigDave]

I'll be honest. I don't test parameters as much as I should. And with the cold weather lately, I've been hit or misses on weekly water changes.

I find that if I'm dosing kalk, the zoas and mushrooms do really well, but the GSP seems to go into remission, but when I stopped dosing kalk for a month, the opposite is occurring.

Right now I'm trying to dose kalk again, but I've cut the dosing in half. I really need to finish my Kalk-stirrer design.

[drtrash]

Did you ever hook up trigger 44? Thinking of a new build 48x24x20 and was thinking of a 34" sump but worried it maybe too small even though math works out

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by BigDave

I'll be honest. I don't test parameters as much as I should. And with the cold weather lately, I've been hit or misses on weekly water changes.

I find that if I'm dosing kalk, the zoas and mushrooms do really well, but the GSP seems to go into remission, but when I stopped dosing kalk for a month, the opposite is occurring.

Right now I'm trying to dose kalk again, but I've cut the dosing in half. I really need to finish my Kalk-stirrer design.

I think a proper testing regiment is important. I test alk daily and calcium/nitrate/phosphate weekly. Mag once a month and that's about it. Keeping the alk/calcium dialed in REALLY accelerates growth in my opinion.

Originally Posted by drtrash

Did you ever hook up trigger 44? Thinking of a new build 48x24x20 and was thinking of a 34" sump but worried it maybe too small even though math works out

I haven't hooked up the new sump yet. It's sitting in my garage ready to be installed. I've been hesitating installing it because it's going to require some drain plumbing reworking and the thought of crawling around under my stand gluing PVC is already frustrating me. I'll get to it in the next few weekends. I think you could make that size sump work as long as you are careful about how much water is allowed to siphon back into the sump.

[drtrash]

Good luck with build, always a certain level of fear since most of us only do this once or twice so never sure how it turns out very stressful

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by drtrash

Good luck with build, always a certain level of fear since most of us only do this once or twice so never sure how it turns out very stressful

Thanks! No fear involved, just not looking forward to crawling around on my hands and knees trying to make the piping work with the area constraints I have. I'll be happy once I'm complete though... the new sump is beautiful and will suit my needs much better than the DIY sump I'm currently using.