“I’ve made a huge mistake but no turning back” my 180g build has begun

[The Life Aquatic]

Aquascape looks great!

Thank you! I tried to blend the three types of rock so it was balanced.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have gone 100% KP Aquatics live rock.

I may add another 20lbs but I don't want to risk the die-off. I'm considering ordering 10lbs x 2 in separate weeks.

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Time for another update. My LFS extended their Cyber Week sale on frags so I loaded up on a bunch of $10 frags. I realize this isn’t the optimal time for coral however at $10/piece I’m willing to try it out.

Coralline is starting to grow (or recover?) on much of the rock. Almost all rock had brown algae last week that is now gone and either white/grey or coralline coming in.

I also had them run some ultra-low-range test kits. Nitrate is at 2ppm and phosphate .12.

A little bit of the uglies kicking in but I just added a significantly larger CUC. Lots more brown a few days ago that’s already clearing.

Oh and they had cyber week sales on fish and against some better judgment I added a small (2-3”) hippo and purple tang. These two are inseparable…they swim in unison and graze on the same rocks. Both eating like pigs. They came from the LFS’ display tank so while not “quarantined” I felt a bit more optimistic about their exposure.

In my earlier stint in the hobby I had a UV and I personally believe the benefits outweigh the cons, so that will be the “last” thing I add. Waiting on a 55W Lifegard that’s en route.

Will let everything settle a bit, do a small water change this weekend, and reevaluate around Christmas before adding anything else…unless the $10 frag sale keeps going in which case no promises!

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Alright one more post. Tank is 16 days running, but most of the rock is 1-2 months in my holding tank (and for the live rock, years cooking before that id imagine).

Made a few minor adjustments to rockscape to try and better accommodate flow x placement options.

Still running a subdued light schedule. LEDs top out around 50% and I’m doing 2 hours of the actinic T5 and 1 hour of my non actinic. I will likely leave LED where it is and gradually increase T5 duration and see what happens.

The brown algae mostly cleared. I did a 10g water change (so like, 7%) to help get some of the remaining debris and cleaned the glass.

Let’s see if I get a true ugly phase in addition to the brown that’s already cleared. I’m a big believer in live rock truly helping a tank startup. I also added the lifeguard UV as planned.

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Been 10 days since my last update so here’s another journal log.

LFS frag sale kept going. Added a few more $10-$20 frags but also some more expensive pieces I.e hammers and torches that were buy 2 get 1.

Haven’t added any more fish but I’m eying a few at a LFS that quarantines that I’ll add after the holidays.

No major updates, surprises, challenges. No major uglies (bet I just jinxed it) however only issue is a lot of the macro algae from the KP Live Rock is growing back and I’ll likely start pulling some or up the CUC to keep it in check. More so because I’m worried it’s zapping too much of my nutrients (Phosphate reading at .05…it was .07 a week ago and .12 2 weeks ago…Nitrate barely detectable).

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Alright, big update time. I said I would stock up after Christmas and it’s been a busy week.

Stocking wise, I wanted to get frags set up in all my intended grow out positions. I love watching the progress over time and wanted everything in place. This also gave me a excuse to try a few different shops:

1) Liveaquaria - FedEx was 36+ hours late on my shipment and I had some losses. I can’t blame LA here but not happy nonetheless.
2) Calikid Corals - picked some up in person at their NorCal location as well as had some auction wins shipped.
3) Tidal Gardens - really impressed with how well they shipped
4) High Tide Aquatics - picked up a few “frags” (they’re much more medium sized at frag prices, good deals) when I went to grab some fish.
5) SjReef - local shop that got me started with most of the best deals for the holidays I.e buy 2 get 1 on corals and a very generous selection of “cheap” frags.

Net net I don’t think I’ll order anything else via shipping. The quality, and value, of what I’m finding locally is just so much better and much lower odds of damage, losses, etc.

Speaking of fish, I am fully stocked for the time being. Current residents:
1) Hippo tang (2.5”)
2) Purple tang (2.5”)
3) Paired fancy Ocelaris clowns (2”)
4) Lubbock wrasse (3”)
5) Tomini tang (3”)
6) White tail bristletooth (the big boi of the tank at 6.5”)
7) Magnificant Foxface (4”)

I was very nervous putting the white tail and tomini together especially given the size difference but minimal squabbles so far.

Down the road I’d like to add a few more wrasses and maybe try a second pair of clowns. But I think that’s it.

Did a full parameter test before a 20% water change:
1) NO3 - this one is a bit tricky. API showed 0
haha but a Hanna checker showed 17 and Salifert showed what looked more like 5. Going to assume the truth is somewhere between Hanna and Salifert.
2) P03 - .02 … this one was as high as .07 when I first got up and running. I had a lot of macro in the DT from the live rock that I started pulling out (and tangs/fox are eating) so I’m hoping I can stabilize this closer to .05
3) Mag - 1350
4) Alk - 7.7
5) Calc - 450

I started a regimented dosing schedule and will keep testing weekly and adjust as needed. I’ve never been a big believer in overdoing water changes and it’s also not fun with this level of volume so I want to see if I can get to more of a 10% bi weekly rhythm.

No uglies but never say never. Had some bryopsis but I pulled what I could, upped my CUC and I think the foxface has been eating it. Minimal traces now. Coraline has been forming on rocks for weeks but now also appearing on glass. Pods are plentiful etc.

I did pull out a (I believe to be) parasitic isopod that luckily made his way into the overflow. Hopefully there aren’t more of these but I haven’t seen any.

These photos always look terrible. The camera does not like my tank lighting. I swear it looks better ha.

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Next week will be 3 months since getting it up and running (5 months since I started cycling rock) and a lot has unfolded since my last post back on 12/30.

I’ve been adding a steady amount of coral and fish, and everything was going great until nutrients hit bottom and yup, dinos kicked in.

I had quite a bit of macro algae flourishing on the live rock and I decided to manually pull as much as I could. Between that and the tangs/foxface, you couldn’t find a trace of it. Around the same time, nitrates stayed low (2ppm) but phosphates hit 0 and I noticed my coraline growth stopped and the uglies kicked in.

It took me a few weeks to realize they were dinos and not cyano. Since then I’ve been dosing nutrients, vacuuming sand every other night (through filter sock, into sump), and trying a cocktail of different bacteria and phyto, and raised temps all the way up to 84 for the past few days. I don’t want to jinx anything but each day it looks slightly better, although I can’t seem to kick them completely yet but my nutrients are in a better place and it seems with consistent routine they’ll go (10ppm Nitrate, .06ppm Phos) and in the past 48 hours I’m starting to see new algae growth, tangs grazing on rocks etc so I’m hopeful.

Luckily the tank is doing more or less fine overall. Good coral growth for the most part (most AP’s encrusting, most of my euphelia has split) fish are happy, a few minor setbacks like montipora eating nudis doing a number and a rough 24 hour power outage but fingers crossed I’m winning the war on dinos.

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Figured I owe everyone an update! Tank is officially at 6 months old and I’ve “beaten” the Dinos (don’t want to jinx it).

Current problems? A few flatworm on my torches but the wrasses seem to keep them in check. Will open a separate thread on that for advice.

I had a major rock collapse so I added about 30lbs more (hence the white rock) which also gave me a lot more room for coral.

I do think we tend to overreact about new tanks being too unstable. IMO some live rock and biodiversity through additions can get you going quickly. I don’t want to jinx anything but I’m feeling pretty good about the current state of affairs.

 

[Rjukan]

Figured I owe everyone an update! Tank is officially at 6 months old and I’ve “beaten” the Dinos (don’t want to jinx it).

Current problems? A few flatworm on my torches but the wrasses seem to keep them in check. Will open a separate thread on that for advice.

I had a major rock collapse so I added about 30lbs more (hence the white rock) which also gave me a lot more room for coral.

I do think we tend to overreact about new tanks being too unstable. IMO some live rock and biodiversity through additions can get you going quickly. I don’t want to jinx anything but I’m feeling pretty good about the current state of affairs.

Hi, your tank looks fantastic! Great job putting it together.

I need to say, this is probably the best way to go about setting up a new tank. The time you put into cooking the rock, and sourcing LR from different places really set you up for success. Imo tho, your tank has never been a "new tank" as far as stability is concerned. People who use dry rock are in a completely different place than you were when you started adding livestock.
Keep it up! That's a fantastic size tank, and I was really happy to see you get past the extra hole issue.

 

[ShoreReefer]

the tank is looking great so far, good luck with it! Have you done a par map with the lights? I have a 6’ 125 gallon and ran the AL 61” hybrid with 3xHydra26’s. I wasn’t getting very good par and I couldn’t get much growth until I switched them out for the Reefi Uno2.0’s and now I’m getting much better growth at much higher par.

 

[The Life Aquatic]

the tank is looking great so far, good luck with it! Have you done a par map with the lights? I have a 6’ 125 gallon and ran the AL 61” hybrid with 3xHydra26’s. I wasn’t getting very good par and I couldn’t get much growth until I switched them out for the Reefi Uno2.0’s and now I’m getting much better growth at much higher par.

I haven't tested PAR. It's something I want to do but so far haven't had issues so have put it off.

I am running 3 x Hydra 32s (vs. your 26s) so not sure how much more output that would account for but I don't have issues so far. With that said, most of my SPS is at the very top.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Your tank is doing amazing for such a short amount of time!

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Your tank is doing amazing for such a short amount of time!

Thank you! I actually made a mistake...that was only month 5. Later this month will be 6 months (but again, rock was cooking for a full 2 months before that).

I truly believe the key is lots of bio diversity and starting with as much natural goodness (true live rock, seeding with live sand, etc.) as possible.

I also think we "scare" people away too quickly by telling them how hard it is to start a tank these days. Most threads I see say not to add corals for 6 months...I had LPS in 1 week after start up and SPS in 2 weeks after start up and it's all still alive and thriving. It feels like the "dry rock" mentality has taken over.

I've had my fair share of other problems (dinos, flatworms) but nothing related to startup, moving too quickly, etc.

 

[The Life Aquatic]

Month 7 update time. Really happy with how everything is balancing out and stabilizing. Despite only doing 10% monthly water changes I’m at 10ppm Nitrate, .08ppm phosphate. I had one more snafu where I didn’t realize how high my phosphate got (I thought the Red Sea test would get even darker after 1.2ppm…I didn’t realize that was a max reading) and it got as high as 4ppm before I brought it down with GFO but for over 30 days now it’s stable at .08ppm.

My SPS is really taking off, which is great. I had an AEFW battle and was double dosing KW FWS alongside TM AEFW X. That combined with blasting the corals and some natural predators seems to have solved my problem but I’m very paranoid I’m jinxing myself. I’m going to continue dosing (single not double) for a while.

You can compare the pic here to my April pic. The montis mounted on the back wall are the easiest before/after to see how the SPS is taking off but the acro colonies on top show it too. Euphalia are also growing rapidly. The only thing not doing well are my acans…you can see them noticeably deflated in the latest pic. I don’t know if it was the phos drop, if they’re unhappy with something in my FW dosing, or what. My tangs are constantly dumping sand on them now (not sure why now) and started nipping around them so that probably isn’t helping either.

*EDIT* Oh yea, also added about 30lbs more live rock. Changed up the aquascape a bit...wanted more room for mounting.