Bills Reborn 120 gal Mixed Reef Tank

[Billldg]

Well, this isn't the update people like to post, but after dealing with dinos and cyano outbreak my tank crashed. I did a deep cleaning of my tank to try and get rid of as much algae as I could. My sand bed had started to turn into cement, probably due to precipitation as I was told, so I broke up my sand bed. I don't know if the dinos toxic die off or something else caused it, but right after I broke up the sand bed my coral frags retracted, which isn't uncommon due to anything being released in the water column. Well, my frags never came back out and started to recede quickly. Shortly after that my frags started to melt down. Long story short, I ended up loosing well over a thousand dollars, probably closer to two thousand, worth of frags that were really starting to take off and grow. To say this affected me greatly would be an understatement to say the least. Not only did I loose a ton of money, I lost what was turning into my pride and enjoy. I was starting to go into a dark place, but thanks to @Flippers4pups, I started to look at what happened, and hopefully, will never let it happen again. Tank crashes are a part of reefing life I'm sure, it is always a possibility, but I will do everything I can to never let it happen again. I have a good idea why I got dinos, low nitrates and phosphates. When I say low I mean 0 ppm low. I tried to add phosphates to tank to raise and it didn't work. I started to feed heavily and that started to help, but it was a little to late. So this weekend I pretty much tore down my tank and partially rebuilt it. I drained all the water and removed all the sand. Getting the fish out was a pain in the neck, ended up taking out most of my rock to get them out. I replaced all the sand and did a 100 percent water change. Hopefully, due to the rock and coraline algae already growing on the back, it won't take me as long to get the tank ready for the next chapter. I was already starting to change my tank over to a mixed reef with more flow, led/t5 hybrid, and the DOS. I changed the rock up a little, not to much, to allow me to put in more sps. The tank will now be a sps dominate tank. I guess I am gluten for punishment, LOL!!! Again, thanks fellow reefers for keeping my spirits up thru this rough time, and a special thanks go's out to @Flippers4pups again, THANKS!!!

Oh, and I am also setting up my fuge and will start to use chaeto also.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Well, this isn't the update people like to post, but after dealing with dinos and cyano outbreak my tank crashed. I did a deep cleaning of my tank to try and get rid of as much algae as I could. My sand bed had started to turn into cement, probably due to precipitation as I was told, so I broke up my sand bed. I don't know if the dinos toxic die off or something else caused it, but right after I broke up the sand bed my coral frags retracted, which isn't uncommon due to anything being released in the water column. Well, my frags never came back out and started to recede quickly. Shortly after that my frags started to melt down. Long story short, I ended up loosing well over a thousand dollars, probably closer to two thousand, worth of frags that were really starting to take off and grow. To say this affected me greatly would be an understatement to say the least. Not only did I loose a ton of money, I lost what was turning into my pride and enjoy. I was starting to go into a dark place, but thanks to @Flippers4pups, I started to look at what happened, and hopefully, will never let it happen again. Tank crashes are a part of reefing life I'm sure, it is always a possibility, but I will do everything I can to never let it happen again. I have a good idea why I got dinos, low nitrates and phosphates. When I say low I mean 0 ppm low. I tried to add phosphates to tank to raise and it didn't work. I started to feed heavily and that started to help, but it was a little to late. So this weekend I pretty much torn down my tank and partially rebuilt it. I drained all the water and removed all the sane. Getting the fish out was a pain in the neck, ended up taking out most of my rock to get them out. I replaced all the sand and did a 100 percent water change. Hopefully, due to the rock and coraline algae already growing on the back, it won't take me as long to get the tank ready for the next chapter. I was already starting to change my tank over to a mixed reef with more flow, led/t5 hybrid, and the DOS. I changed the rock up a little, not to much, to allow me to put in more sps. The tank will now be a sps dominate tank. I guess I am gluten for punishment, LOL!!! Again, thanks fellow reefers for keeping my spirit up thru this rought time, and a special thanks go's out oto @Flippers4pups again, THANKS!!!

Oh, and I am also setting up my fuge and will start to use chaeto also.

Thank you for the kind words! You and your tank are on the rebound! Hang in there!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Well, this isn't the update people like to post, but after dealing with dinos and cyano outbreak my tank crashed. I did a deep cleaning of my tank to try and get rid of as much algae as I could. My sand bed had started to turn into cement, probably due to precipitation as I was told, so I broke up my sand bed. I don't know if the dinos toxic die off or something else caused it, but right after I broke up the sand bed my coral frags retracted, which isn't uncommon due to anything being released in the water column. Well, my frags never came back out and started to recede quickly. Shortly after that my frags started to melt down. Long story short, I ended up loosing well over a thousand dollars, probably closer to two thousand, worth of frags that were really starting to take off and grow. To say this affected me greatly would be an understatement to say the least. Not only did I loose a ton of money, I lost what was turning into my pride and enjoy. I was starting to go into a dark place, but thanks to @Flippers4pups, I started to look at what happened, and hopefully, will never let it happen again. Tank crashes are a part of reefing life I'm sure, it is always a possibility, but I will do everything I can to never let it happen again. I have a good idea why I got dinos, low nitrates and phosphates. When I say low I mean 0 ppm low. I tried to add phosphates to tank to raise and it didn't work. I started to feed heavily and that started to help, but it was a little to late. So this weekend I pretty much torn down my tank and partially rebuilt it. I drained all the water and removed all the sand. Getting the fish out was a pain in the neck, ended up taking out most of my rock to get them out. I replaced all the sand and did a 100 percent water change. Hopefully, due to the rock and coraline algae already growing on the back, it won't take me as long to get the tank ready for the next chapter. I was already starting to change my tank over to a mixed reef with more flow, led/t5 hybrid, and the DOS. I changed the rock up a little, not to much, to allow me to put in more sps. The tank will now be a sps dominate tank. I guess I am gluten for punishment, LOL!!! Again, thanks fellow reefers for keeping my spirits up thru this rough time, and a special thanks go's out to @Flippers4pups again, THANKS!!!

Oh, and I am also setting up my fuge and will start to use chaeto also.

You made something so negative feel so positive. Thanks for sharing this @Billldg and good luck.

 

[Dimmy007]

Sorry this happen to you. Glad you are not getting discouraged and going to continue on. You said you had an idea why this happened. What do you think was the main cause/s? I switched over from filter socks to a fuge system about 1 month ago. That has helped me tremendously. My 110 gallon is about 9 months old. So close to were you were at. I am just starting to add some frags in now. Just like trying to diagnose myself on webmd I feel like I am freaking out about my tank possibly crashing if I am moving to fast or missing something. I did battle GHA for about 4 months which was a pain but the fuge was a big help to that.

 

[Billldg]

Sorry this happen to you. Glad you are not getting discouraged and going to continue on. You said you had an idea why this happened. What do you think was the main cause/s? I switched over from filter socks to a fuge system about 1 month ago. That has helped me tremendously. My 110 gallon is about 9 months old. So close to were you were at. I am just starting to add some frags in now. Just like trying to diagnose myself on webmd I feel like I am freaking out about my tank possibly crashing if I am moving to fast or missing something. I did battle GHA for about 4 months which was a pain but the fuge was a big help to that.

0 nitrates and 0 phosphates, oddly, my tank wasn't dirty enough I guess, the fuge may help because it introduces good algae into the system out competing the bad. Don't freak out, you sound like you are on a good track with your tank. Just monitor your nitrates and phosphates and make sure they don't stay at 0 ppm.

 

[count krunk]

could you explain your sandbed a bit more? did you have elevated levels? lack of cleaning crew moving it around? no sand fishes/shrimp that move it around?

but i am also thinking that mixing it up after it got to that stage released some not so good things. possibly sulfur.

super bummer about the crash, but i am glad none of your fish died

 

[Billldg]

could you explain your sandbed a bit more? did you have elevated levels? lack of cleaning crew moving it around? no sand fishes/shrimp that move it around?

but i am also thinking that mixing it up after it got to that stage released some not so good things. possibly sulfur.

super bummer about the crash, but i am glad none of your fish died

The only elevated level I had was my ph which ran about 8.5, that was due to me using Kalk for dosing, the higher ph caused the calcium to precipitate causing the sand to turn into concrete. The bigger problem was the dinos possibly releasing toxins as I was battling them and killing them. I really don't know if the sand bed caused the crash or the dino's, but I wasn't going to take any chances as we all invest alot of time in these tanks, so I replaced the sand as a precaution to move forward. I have a good CUC, but they can in only turn so much sand, I have trochus snails, cerrith snails, and nassarious snails.

 

[count krunk]

Hmm, 8.5 doesn't really seem close to dangerously high.

But yes, I think replacing the sand at that point was a good idea.

Get some sand stirrers in there once it matures a bit.

 

[Billldg]

I learned something very interesting today. I had my DOS setup to dose 36.5 mil of Alk and was barely able to keep my Alk at 7.8 DKH. After I replaced my sand this past weekend I lowered it to dose 12 mil as I do have a few frags still holding on and I also had a bunch of baby trochus snails that r growing like weeds. I tested my Alk today expecting it to be low and I was surprised that it came back at a 8.9 DKH on a Hanna checker. I have been trying to get my Alk to 9 DKH for a while. @Flippers4pups was right and this proves it, my high 8.5 PH was causing my Alk to precipitate into the sand causing it to bond and form concrete. Interesting to say the least.

 

[count krunk]

that is wild! .1 higher and bam. How were you able to keep your ph so high anyway? What is your plan to maintain it lower?

 

[NY_Caveman]

I learned something very interesting today. I had my DOS setup to dose 36.5 mil of Alk and was barely able to keep my Alk at 7.8 DKH. After I replaced my sand this past weekend I lowered it to dose 12 mil as I do have a few frags still holding on and I also had a bunch of baby trochus snails that r growing like weeds. I tested my Alk today expecting it to be low and I was surprised that it came back at a 8.9 DKH on a Hanna checker. I have been trying to get my Alk to 9 DKH for a while. @Flippers4pups was right and this proves it, my high 8.5 PH was causing my Alk to precipitate into the sand causing it to bond and form concrete. Interesting to say the least.

Love this!
@yungreefer2410
@Flippers4pups

 

[Billldg]

that is wild! .1 higher and bam. How were you able to keep your ph so high anyway? What is your plan to maintain it lower?

My ph stayed between 8.5 and 8.6 due to me using kalk in my ato, since I switched to 2-part my ph stays between 7.9 and 8.1 according to the apex.
View attachment 941008
The sudden drop was when I did the water change, but this is what my ph looks like now.

 

[Billldg]

Double post

 

[Billldg]

All the ph logs are after I switched from kalk to 2-part

 

[Billldg]

Last weekend, when I rebuilt the tank was my official tank reborn day, this is where I am at today. After I rebuilt the tank and put the aquascape back it didn't look the same, close but no cigar. So I added a piece on the right pillar to raise it, which also gives me more room for SPS. It also gives me a little overhang that I wanted for the cove pillar. I also ordered my fuge light, a Kessil H80 and bracket and some pods and clean chaeto from @AlgaeBarn, the fuge with chaeto will be new. I ordered pods because it seems like all my pods died when the tank went belly up, either way my wrasses will love the treats. The picture down below is what it looks like now, a lot cleaner as their r barely any frags in it. It looks like all my coraline algae ended up dying, but hopefully their r coraline algae spores in the tank and it will bounce back when its ready. Here's to the road back.

 

[Billldg]

Today I installed my Kessil H80 fuge light and added a small amount of chaeto, lets see how it does. I added only a small amount, roughly a tennis ball size amount because right now the tank doesn't have much of a load, that way the chaeto can grow with the tank and not remove all the nitrates and phosphates to quickly. Tank is going thru the new tank uglies again, wish it didn't but knew it could happen. I haven't put any fish back yet, waiting a couple of weeks, I may put back the chromis and clownfish, but I will hold off on the purple tang, that way I can introduce all 3 tangs at one time.

 

[Billldg]

I come home today to find my Blue Flasher wrasse missing, it has been in QT and was about to come out and go into the DT, I look around and find it on the floor, I have no clue how it got out, I have an egg crate as the top, the only realistic place for it to get out would be the cut out around the HOB filter, either way its dead, I ordered another one and it will be here along with my Crescent Fairy wrasse. I hate to have the fish go thru QT only to die right after.

Today I will be putting back the 6 fish I pulled out of the DT when I rebuilt it.

 

[Billldg]

Checked parameters and they seem to be doing better, now I need to keep them there.

Alk 8.4
Cal 410
Ph 8
Nitrates 20 ppm
Phosphates .03

I want to raise the phosphates to at least .08, but will see what the tank does when I add more fish which r in the observation phase, gonna let the tank ride for a couple more weeks before adding 4 more fish. I would also like to see the ph at 8.1 to 8.2, but I'm not going to chase numbers. Ph may rise as I increase 2 part dosing. A few of the frags that survived are showing signs of recovery, starting to extend polyps and opening up a little more.

 

[count krunk]

i agree, don't worry too much about chasing that ph of 8.1-8.2 when you are holding around 8 already.

Fish are known to jump out thru the gap in the egg crate, which is why mesh/screen tops are recommended.

 

[Billldg]

I got this bad boy delivered today, of course it comes from @FishyBusinessAq , that's were I get ALL my fish from.

Crescent fairy wrasse, and yes, it really is that bright, its only been in the QT for 6 hours and it already looks awesome. The fins are actually a blue florescent in the right light. Gonna be an awesome addition to the DT.