310g Peninsula Build

[StevePhx]

All day Saturday was spent moving over all the livestock.

It was brutal and took all day but it is done.

Only one SPS frag bleached so out of 100 frags and colonies not too bad and all the fish are doing great.

I just have the Apex setup literally laying on the floor right now. This coming weekend will be all about wiring the lighting and control boards. I just wanted to get my ATK and Trident working.

 

[mattgsa]

So my sump finally arrived. It’s a gorgeous sump but in full honesty I could never recommend them because of the extreme delays and lack of communication. I don’t want to derail the build thread but didn’t want others to have to ensure the problems I did.

I had the same experience as you, and would probably never recommend them. Not only was it late, but also the wrong color. I have a feeling it will be the same thing with Aquarium Engineering. Bill W has told me several times in the last 3 months it will ship tomorrow, and still nothing. Now I don't even get responses on email.

One the other hand your tank is looking amazing. I wish my build was moving as fast as yours.

 

[Joe Glass Cages]

All day Saturday was spent moving over all the livestock.

It was brutal and took all day but it is done.

Only one SPS frag bleached so out of 100 frags and colonies not too bad and all the fish are doing great.

I just have the Apex setup literally laying on the floor right now. This coming weekend will be all about wiring the lighting and control boards. I just wanted to get my ATK and Trident working.

@StevePhx, most excellent work! looks amazing.

 

[guntercb]

Steve,

Wow! Incredible system. Great attention to detail and amazing components. Thanks for posting and sharing your build and knowledge.

I hope you post progress pictures as the system matures and grows. It looks amazing, but will get even better.

Great work.

Chris

 

[StevePhx]

Found some orange glasses from a frag show to take a picture.

Saturday and Sunday’s project

Get UV installed to deal with dinos. Dosed some nitrates already as well.

Get all the cords wrangled on the light rack and maybe get MH installed too. Par is running 200s on the sand bed and 500s 6” down so not urgent to add more light yet.

Get Pax Bellum installed, have some chaeto on the way already.

and finally start the control board and cord wrangling underneath. This will take a week to get everything everything installed. I have Apex to run CaRX and Trident right now.

 

[guntercb]

Glad it is progressing for you. I really like all the chromis. Looks amazing.

 

[MERKEY]

Looking great!

 

[StevePhx]

Spent the day getting my control board setup.

Didn’t want to block the view into the sump from the front so did a low board. You get all the small modules or MP40s on the board but the reality is I never touch them, they are just for show.

Long way to go still. Have to get Pax Bellum and UV installed this week, starting to fight dinos pretty bad. Been dosing nitrate daily but still undetectable

 

[StevePhx]

Pair of Majestic angels are doing great. They are only 3” so hoping they will pair up as they get older.

For now the tank is large enough they just ignore each other

 

[StevePhx]

And the back side of the setup.

My kamoer is out in use again as the Versa crapped out. Ecotech is sending me a couple a new parts to try and fix or I may get my third new Versa.

 

[StevePhx]

And here come the dinos. Starting three day blackout now.

Finished installing Pax Bellum today. Parts I need to finish UV arrive tomorrow and Dr. Tim’s Dino treatment arrives Friday.

If a blackout, UV and bacteria don’t knock them out I’m in trouble

Cord management still on the list but not going to do too much until everything is done.

 

[StevePhx]

UV is on and fully running.

It’s been the hardest week I’ve had in reefing this week and that stretches back to the 80s.

The move went well and all fish survived and all but one sps frag survived.

I started noticing dinos after the first 48 hours and after 72 hours it was starting to cover everything.

Lost several large colonies and tonight started to see a few smaller frags bleaching as well. The larger colonies are all fragged in several places so just a loss of time and beauty. I think the stress of the move, the stress of DinoX and just the dinos clinging onto them were too much

I hit the 24 hour mark on blackout and when I peaked the sand was clear but could still see dinos all over the rocks.

The UV and DinoX should knock everything else back. Phosphate is 0.05 and Nitrate is finally over 5.

I’ll use Dr Tim’s Dino treatment tomorrow and start building a healthy bacteria population.

My build thread will be open and honest about the good and bad of a reef tank. As long as 10 to 20 pages in I can post pictures of a thriving reef, it’s all just part of the journey.

 

[StevePhx]

Removed the cover from blackout and no dinos visible anywhere.

Going to stay blue lights only for 6 hours for another 3 days and keep dosing DinoX everyone other day.

I have Dr Tim’s Dino treatment ready to go as well to help build health bacterial population.

Skimmer cup is nasty black today, so feels like a good sign.

Lost at least one sps colony through the treatment so hopefully it worked.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Following!

 

[StevePhx]

Feeling really good that I beat back the dinos.

24 hours since black out and nothing visible.

I used DinoX and added a UV.

Lost one softball sized colony from POTO and a few others are just hanging in there

I can tell tank is starting to rebound as I had to turn on CO2 for calcium reactor today. The last two days the residual CO2 in my reactor were enough to maintain alkalinity.

Going to sit back and let everything settle in and start growing again and then I’ll add a few choice pieces from JF, BC, TSA and PC.

 

[StevePhx]

Current fish list:
15 green Chromis
6 Dispar Anthias
3 Bimaculatus Anthias
1 Yellow Tang
1 Purple Tang
1 Clown Tang
1 Flame Tomini Tang
1 Half black mimic tang
1 Clown Tang
1 Magnificent Fox Face
2 Majestic Angels
1 ocellaris clown
1 lawnmower blenny
2 banghai cardinals
2 Japanese swallow tail angels
2 royal grammas

 

[thefort15]

All day Saturday was spent moving over all the livestock.

It was brutal and took all day but it is done.

Only one SPS frag bleached so out of 100 frags and colonies not too bad and all the fish are doing great.

I just have the Apex setup literally laying on the floor right now. This coming weekend will be all about wiring the lighting and control boards. I just wanted to get my ATK and Trident working.

That's a ton of work. Excellent work!

 

[StevePhx]

Weekend update

Tank has started to settle in, already seeing coralline algae spots on the glass and have had to turn up the CaRx effluent rate.

Phosphate sitting around .05 and nitrate at 23 both according to Hanna.

Got the Dos plugged in today and will start adding Acropower.

Signed up for a WWC membership so excited to start adding some corals into the tank.

In the end I lost all my large colonies that were softball sized or larger. Fortunately I had frags in the tank that all made it, the bigger colonies just really struggled with all the change.

On a side note added two Wav pumps. Never used these before. If I could I would ditch all my Mp40s for these things. Easy to program, no WXM, no sync issues and no power blocks.

 

[Gablami]

Feeling really good that I beat back the dinos.

24 hours since black out and nothing visible.

I used DinoX and added a UV.

Lost one softball sized colony from POTO and a few others are just hanging in there

I can tell tank is starting to rebound as I had to turn on CO2 for calcium reactor today. The last two days the residual CO2 in my reactor were enough to maintain alkalinity.

Going to sit back and let everything settle in and start growing again and then I’ll add a few choice pieces from JF, BC, TSA and PC.

So it sounds like you best dinos with blackout, UV and dinoX. Did you end up not using Dr. Tim’s Dino treatment?

I’m curious, how did the chaeto do during this treatment?

thinking about doing a blackout myself and orderomg dinoX. I already have UV.

 

[StevePhx]

So it sounds like you best dinos with blackout, UV and dinoX. Did you end up not using Dr. Tim’s Dino treatment?

I’m curious, how did the chaeto do during this treatment?

thinking about doing a blackout myself and orderomg dinoX. I already have UV.

I started using Dr Tim’s to get a balance of the right bacteria in the tank after I beat them back.

I also added Algae Barns phyto at pretty high levels to bring the tank into balance.

As suspected I started getting hair algae right after I beat back dinos but the tangs and snails beat it back pretty fast.

Chaeto died as soon as I started dosing for Dinos. Running Brightwell Purit now so I can add chaeto back in and allow everything to happen naturally.

I’ve also added a kalk reactor to the tank to help with low ph.