Bills Reborn 120 gal Mixed Reef Tank

[Rjukan]

Recently I have had to deal with Bryopsis. Started as a little, but quickly became and issue. I kept trying to pull it out and it would just come back quicker and in more places. So I finally took a chance and used Reef Flux. I have a total water volume of around 120 gals with the tank and sump minus the rock. I added 14 capsules, I opened them up and emptied them into a cup of RO/DI water and mixed. Then I put it in the return section of the sump. As the Bryopsis died off it raised my nitrates and phosphates as expected. I didn't run my skimmer for 3 days and no carbon reactor for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks all the Bryopsis was gone that I could see, hopefully it got it all and it will not come back. I did a 50 gal water change, they recommend at least a 30 percent change, so I did roughly a 40 percent change. I turned back on my carbon reactor. While I did the major water change I also did a deep cleaning of the sand bed and broke up the sand that was starting to turn to concrete from the precipitation problem I had. I also mounted all the frags from TSA and a few others, I had to make room for the frags I bought this weekend at the @CherryCorals Live sale. The live sale was probably the best live sale I have participated in, had high quality frags for everyone. I ended up buying a Vivid Confetti, a Walt Disney, a SC Orange Passion, a BC Aquaticman Table, and a CC Pink Highlighter. Pictures are down below of the AWESOME frags I got from Cherry Corals. I can't wait for these bad boys to grow out.

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BC Aquaticman Table

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CC Pink Highlighter

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SC Orange Passion

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Vivid Confetti

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Walt Disney

These corals look stunning! Great photography skills, what did you use to take them?

Great setup, I love the revamped control cabinet. I haven't made it through the whole thread yet, but what I've seen so far is well done. Looking forward to seeing those corals grow out!

 

[Billldg]

These corals look stunning! Great photography skills, what did you use to take them?

Great setup, I love the revamped control cabinet. I haven't made it through the whole thread yet, but what I've seen so far is well done. Looking forward to seeing those corals grow out!

Those were the pictures of the frags that Cherry Corals sold me, I wish I could take pictures like that, LOL!. Dealing with the bryopsis put a beaten on those frags along with others, I lost the Pink Highlighter, not sure if it was the Reef Flux that did it or the Very high nitrates that come with killing off the bryopsis.

 

[Rjukan]

Doh! I thought you were a photo pro lol.

Sorry to hear about the bryopsis issues, but did you said that's all taken care of now? I know I read that you said you're finally where you want to be parameter wise.

Any recent FTS?

 

[Billldg]

Doh! I thought you were a photo pro lol.

Sorry to hear about the bryopsis issues, but did you said that's all taken care of now? I know I read that you said you're finally where you want to be parameters

As of now yes, but I killed it before and it came back shortly after. This time around I up'd the dosage and left the skimmer off longer, but the side effect was that is beat up my sps frags more this time around and burnt a few tips. Its always something though, I have noticed that my sps PE wasn't as full as usual the past few days and then I found that a trochus snail had gotten stuck in one of my pumps killing both the snail and the pump, so I had to do a down and dirty install of my mp40 and mp10 pumps which totally changed the flow in my tank.

 

[Billldg]

Today I went ahead and mounted the MP controllers into my cabinet and finished all the wiring. I will install 2 in plugs when I get them to finish up the wiring, but it looks so much cleaner and now I can fully control everything thru my Apex. I also installed my battery back up for the Ecotech pumps, we really don't have many power outages here thankfully, but when we do it is usually for 3 to 4 hours, so a battery back up will work perfectly. I installed a power strip onto one of the Apex outlets and I will plug in the battery chargers and cabinet lights and such into it. Still waiting on purchasing a Gyre, then I will install it and the wifi module I already have to control it.

 

[Billldg]

I took a few photos of some fish today, definitely not a photo expert, LOL!!!

 

[Billldg]

Like I said yesterday, I had installed my battery back up for my Ecotech pumps. I let it charge overnight and checked it out today. I turned off power to my pumps to see if the battery back up operated and it did as advertised. It takes a big load off of me knowing that if a power outage or something happens that my tank will be fine as the battery will keep the pumps running for a good while. If its at all possible I recommend anyone to have a battery back up, you never know whaqt will happen.

 

[Billldg]

Tank is far enough along now, and my tank parameters r where I want them to be, so I will send out a Triton test to check now and see what direction I need to go.

 

[Billldg]

Super siked!!! I was able to snag a Trident, can't wait to hook it up and see what it shows.

 

[Billldg]

I finally hooked up the solenoid that @rkpetersen recommended to control my ph. I added a C02 scrubber to my skimmer a while back and wanted to control the PH, so I controlled my skimmer with the PH probe, problem was that it would only run half the day. So I added a solenoid t in between the line going from the muffler on the skimmer and the C02 reactor and use my apex to control the solenoid. The air will go thru the solenoid versus the reactor because it will take the path of least resistance. @rkpetersen must have been reading my mind because the reason it was recommended was because of the fact that I didn't want to constantly have to energize a solenoid for it to work, it will get hot and eventually burn out quickly. This solenoid has a limit switch in it and thus when it is fully closed it will turn power off to the solenoid. this is a down and dirty install as I will be rerouting the plumbing for it when I install my new Trident when it shows up.

 

[Billldg]

Sorry for the bad photo as I have yet to figure out how to take good photos with a phone, even with filters, but this was an impulse photo as I am happy to see what is the start of branches growing on my BC Secale.

 

[Billldg]

Got my Triton test results in and I am pleasantly surprised. I need to tweak a few things, but parameters are looking good.

 

[Billldg]

I installed my Trident today and I am loving it already. Kinda like a kid with a new toy, LOL!!! They do need to do something about the leaking reagent bottles though.

 

[Billldg]

It’s pretty interesting to watch the alk, cal, and mag swings throughout the day.

 

[Billldg]

10 months post tank crash and rebuild, tank still has a way to go, but its getting there. Finally have my parameters were I want them and they are stable. Frags are finally starting to show good growth and most of the SPS have grown off the frag plugs with a few starting new branches.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Looking great. What a relief when you see everything going back to normal.

 

[Billldg]

Looking great. What a relief when you see everything going back to normal.

Yea, it took a while, but now things are starting to take off and it feels great! To start seeing you sps frags starting to grow branches and fill in is a relief, lol!

 

[Billldg]

Just changed my programming on my Trident to allow it to control Dosing, curious to see what it does and how it reacts.

 

[Billldg]

I have been dealing with a little Cyano algae lately, so would let it run its course, but algae seems to be getting worse, so I took the plunge and started dosing Vibrant. I added 10 ml to a 120 gal total water volume system. Lets see how it works.

 

[Billldg]

So far I am liking the Trident controller dosing, my cal and mag really didn’t deviate much, but my Alk did which is why I turned it on, I am allowing it to control Alk and Cal. This is a picture of my Alk graph now, looking good so far.