DIY Concrete Aquarium 5,000 gallon - Anderson Family Reef

[dca22anderson]

Is that the tank the tang was living in?!?

He was in a 120 gallon or so but the guy sold it so he was holding it in that tank till someone came and picked him up. Thank heavens! He's a beast!! He will love the big tank!!

 

[twentyleagues]

He was in a 120 gallon or so but the guy sold it so he was holding it in that tank till someone came and picked him up. Thank heavens! He's a beast!! He will love the big tank!!

Wow poor guy.

 

[dca22anderson]

July reef update and walk around…

 

[djf91]

Looking really good, buddy. Any improvement on the nitrate and phosphate front?

I finally had success in bringing my nitrates down from 50 to 10 over the course of a month with the Reef Blue print Remedi8. This is in my 500 gal display. I think it’s some sort of bacteria or probiotic. Mixed with my coral snow. Could just be that my refugium is finally catching up but also might have been this stuff.

 

[dca22anderson]

Looking really good, buddy. Any improvement on the nitrate and phosphate front?

I finally had success in bringing my nitrates down from 50 to 10 over the course of a month with the Reef Blue print Remedi8. This is in my 500 gal display. I think it’s some sort of bacteria or probiotic. Mixed with my coral snow. Could just be that my refugium is finally catching up but also might have been this stuff.

Thanks! Not yet but I have a plan!

I acquired a skimmer that is double the size of my current one! So it’s 8’ tall but has a 24” body. I have some work to do on it but it should help!

From this:

To this:

Here are my last test results:

7/28/24 2:19pm

Ca 575
Alk 9.6
Mg 1470
Salt 1.0256
Po4 2
Nitrate 60
Temp 77
Ph 8.03
Kalk reactor 13 ml/min
CaRx 50ml/min

Thanks for the recommendation... I'll look into that...

 

[McPuff]

Thanks! Not yet but I have a plan!

I acquired a skimmer that is double the size of my current one! So it’s 8’ tall but has a 24” body. I have some work to do on it but it should help!

From this:

To this:

Here are my last test results:

7/28/24 2:19pm

Ca 575
Alk 9.6
Mg 1470
Salt 1.0256
Po4 2
Nitrate 60
Temp 77
Ph 8.03
Kalk reactor 13 ml/min
CaRx 50ml/min

Thanks for the recommendation... I'll look into that...

Why didn't you go with the large one?

 

[GBRsouth]

Why didn't you go with the large one?

Don't talk about her like that!

 

[wjm6449]

Front and side evening blue view… fish are getting quite large and corals are filling in…

Uh. My god. The size of those unicorn tangs are almost terrifying.

 

[dca22anderson]

Why didn't you go with the large one?

I tried... and tried again... LOL

Uh. My god. The size of those unicorn tangs are almost terrifying.

They are getting HUGE... actually really really large!!

 

[dca22anderson]

Golden dwarf moray eel sighting tonight!

 

[dca22anderson]

I removed the holding tanks… cut the upright supports and un bolted the ledger from the wall. I will remove the top section leaving a platform 66”x36” (future tank spot). I’m thinking a 5.5’x3’x2’ (about a 250 gal) tank for the big angels.

I caught all the fish in the sumps except the big angels and one coral beauty and added them to the main display with the lights out.

Sump dwellers:
Blueface
Queen
Maculosis
Emperator
West African
Annularus
Coral beauty
Sixline

Into the show:
Achilles
Mata
Dussumieri
Blue eyed kole
Flame hawk
Blue spine unicorn
White margin unicorn
3 pajama cardinals
3 blue damsels
2 CB baby yellow tangs
Gold rim
4 clownfish
Giant purple tang

This is all in preparation to swap in the new (to me) big skimmer:

The only way I can fit the new big skimmer in the skimmer pit is to lay it down and carry it across where the holding tanks were, around back of the sump and over to its spot.

Think it will be worth it since I should double my skimmer capacity with the 8’x24” body skimmer!!

Tons of work but I need to drop my nitrates and phosphates and this will help.

 

[Daveobrien]

Think it will be worth it since I should double my skimmer capacity with the 8’x24” body MRC skimmer!!

Tons of work but I need to drop my nitrates and phosphates and this will help.

What are your NO3 and PO4 levels running?

 

[dca22anderson]

What are your NO3 and PO4 levels running?

7/28/24 2:19pm

Ca 575
Alk 9.6
Mg 1470
Salt 1.0256
Po4 2
Nitrate 55
Temp 77
Ph 8.03
Kalk reactor 13 ml/min
CaRx 50ml/min

 

[dca22anderson]

Top level and tanks removed… I’ll skin it with another 3/4” sheet of plywood in preparation for the future tank. Now I can lift the skimmer to the back of the tank.

 

[Daveobrien]

7/28/24 2:19pm

Po4 2
Nitrate 55

I managed to get my PO4 up to ~3 and NO3 up to ~100 range two years ago. Tank ran great, BUT, felt there was no real wiggle room for the numbers to go up. I took a slower approach, with the goal of just getting the numbers to trend downwards at all. Too over a year, but I'm back to tank biology able to fully consume and now having the dose to hold NO3 in the 5-10 range, and PO4 around 0.05.

I like your strategies and really enjoy seeing the changes in action. Well done.

 

[dca22anderson]

I managed to get my PO4 up to ~3 and NO3 up to ~100 range two years ago. Tank ran great, BUT, felt there was no real wiggle room for the numbers to go up. I took a slower approach, with the goal of just getting the numbers to trend downwards at all. Too over a year, but I'm back to tank biology able to fully consume and now having the dose to hold NO3 in the 5-10 range, and PO4 around 0.05.

I like your strategies and really enjoy seeing the changes in action. Well done.

Thanks for sharing!

I'm getting closer on the skimmer which should help. I like the tank biology approach for sure... I have some cyano that I usually hit with chemiclean but this time I am trying to keep up the micro bio life so I'm just muscling through it...

I had my nest turn off while I was out of town for a week and it's been hot out here. Tank jumped up 2 degrees in a few days from a constant 77 since I started it (2 years). Between that and my heavy feedings with the giant tangs (feel like I have to otherwise they start fighting) it's been hard to keep the sensitive SPS...

I'm going to get the skimmer in and then focus on trying to get those Po4 & N03's to come down slowly.

Thanks for chiming in! Reef on Dave!

 

[dca22anderson]

Fish video mid day… the reintroduced purple took some hits but it’s tapering off… Mata tang is still in hiding (yellowfin surgeon chasing him) all others are doing well.

 

[dca22anderson]

 

[dca22anderson]

 

[dca22anderson]