Hans and his SCA150 adventure in the Dakotas.

[hhaase]

Still fighting the cyano, I've been taking a good amount out every week, and cut off the nitrate dosing a while ago. This is really annoying because when I'm dosing the nitrates my corals look fantastic but the cyano just comes on so strong.

This time around I hit the tank with a dose of chemiclean after pulling all the cyano out. So far it's looking promising, next day or so I'll be doing a few big water changes and then another dose.

 

[attiland]

Clam is lost, crabs are already picking at the remains. It was in much worse condition this morning, and I attempted an RO dip, but it was too far gone.

A few of these guys came out during the dip, look like some kind of bristleworm to me. So now I need to ID these and determine a course of action for the tank. Most likely just a benign bristleworm and I'm not going to worry too much. Sucks that the clam is gone and I need to monitor the tank to make sure nothing else odd is going on. But the last thing I want to do is over-react and cause greater issues by trying to randomly solve a problem that is not defined and may not even exist.

I know it is old now but it is everyday bristle worm.

Still fighting the cyano, I've been taking a good amount out every week, and cut off the nitrate dosing a while ago. This is really annoying because when I'm dosing the nitrates my corals look fantastic but the cyano just comes on so strong.

This time around I hit the tank with a dose of chemiclean after pulling all the cyano out. So far it's looking promising, next day or so I'll be doing a few big water changes and then another dose.

Have you tried chemiclean? Works just fine and I had no issues with it.

 

[reeftwincities]

Great tank build thread. Just wanted to comment that I'm in the Dakotas as well so nice to see a fellow reefer in the middle of nowhere! I just restarted a tank, but maybe trade some frags some time! Good luck!

 

[Dreamscapesaquatics]

Very nice build thread. I love the detail. Great looking tank so far.

 

[hhaase]

I know it is old now but it is everyday bristle worm.

Have you tried chemiclean? Works just fine and I had no issues with it.

Yes, I was able to sort out the bristleworm ID at the time. Got a bit bummed out about losing the clam. Still not sure what happened with it. No signs of pyramid snails or anything, I do wonder if the extremely low nitrates in the system played a part. No livestock losses since then at all.

Chemiclean so far is working great. I put the first dose in a few days ago, will be doing a heavy water change tomorrow, and another dose this weekend. Really did a great job cleaning up the cyano and other than a skimmer going nuts and the associated microbubbles, I'm not noticing any issues with the tank.

 

[hhaase]

Great tank build thread. Just wanted to comment that I'm in the Dakotas as well so nice to see a fellow reefer in the middle of nowhere! I just restarted a tank, but maybe trade some frags some time! Good luck!

Howdy neighbor. Once I get things big enough to frag, it's a deal.

-Hans

 

[hhaase]

Good news is the cyano appears to be completely gone. I'm undecided about a second dose of the chemiclean considering how much of a pain it is to get it back OUT of the system.

Of course that means the diatoms took the place of the cyano.

:::sigh:::

 

[hhaase]

Time to go shopping again. Local places don't seem to have much right now, or really odd hours and I just can't get to them to buy some livesetock.

Edit / Update: Just ordered a battlebox from Battle Corals. People seem to have been quite happy with them, and should just about fill out my coral selection in the tank with another 8 frags.

-Hans

 

[hhaase]

Time for a small photo dump, I haven't done any wide angle shots in a while because it looked terrible.
Here's a full tank shot, not TOO exciting from a wide angle. I realized today that most of my corals are just dense growers, they don't expand out too much, hence my order with Battlecorals today. That order will be here Wednesday, so expect a photo dump in the next week or so.

I'll get a fresh update on the Acro and Spongodes then too. They've both grown nicely as well. Not as fast as I'd like, but I'll take steady growth over receding.



Then a closeup of a couple pieces. First is my right side rock. From a wide angle it just looks soooooo dull. But my chalice is steadily growing, to the point it's fully engulfed the frag plug. The toadstool on the right has bulked out a fair amount too. There's a couple ricordia that I added in, which are doing healthy.

The hammer, I can't tell if it's growing or not. Always looks healthy and happy but I haven't seen any real evidence that it's any larger. I THINK it's bigger compared to original photos but there's a long way until it's grown out as much as I want.

You can barely see my hint of montipora on the right edge of the rock. It died back a bit when I was fighting the cyano, but it's up to about 23 polyps now, which is quite the gain from the 2-3 polyps I discovered a few months ago. I really want that little guy to succeed as a matter of stubborn-ness.



A couple of my older pieces here too. The favia may not show it, but it's grown considerably and has also completely engulfed the frag plug. The damicornis has gone through quite a growth spurt recently, and has started rapidly spreading into the rock work. Looks like it's about to sprout a new branch too. It hasn't really grown OUT much, but it's considerably plumped up from when it first arrived.

There's a 2nd favia peeking out in the back, and that guy has probably doubled in size. Originally 6 polyps and I estimate around 30 now.

 

[hhaase]

For a few comparisons, here's my arrival-day photos of the Damicornis, Favia, Toadstool, and Chalice.
These photos are a good confidence booster. Things may not be growing anywhere near as fast as I'd like, but they are growing, and they do look healthy. If a bit more pale than I'd like. I'm working on that.

 

[hhaase]

Battlebox has shipped and should be arriving tomorrow.

Water parameters are really looking good right now, everything in the range I want, even my nitrates and phosphates are right where I want them. (2.22 and 0.03)

I 3D printed a fresh frag rack to make sure I have the available space, so I think we're all set. Exciting times!

 

[hhaase]

Dripper is running now, my 8 piece (+1) battlebox is here. Some very nice pieces in there too. I asked for at least one plating monti, and otherwise just a good mix of colors and forms. Adam delivered in spades. I'm super happy with things so far..... will be nice to see them tomorrow under the lights.

1: Battleberry Monti
2: Pink Sanddollar Monti
3: Forest Fire Digi
4: Blue Crush Acro (Very pretty, probably my favorite)
5: Acroberry Acro
6: Joker 2.0 Acro (whoa, spendy frag and listed as sold out!)
7: Paletta Pink Tip Acro
8: ORA Bird of Paradise Seriatapora
9: Watermelon Stylo

 

[hhaase]

First photo batch of the new arrivals, I think I'm getting the hang of the macro stuff finally.
Here's the Pink Sandollar Monti, ORA Birds of Paradise, Acroberry, Paletta Pink Tip, and Blue Crush.

I'm super happy with the photo of the Birds of paradise.

 

[hhaase]

And the final 4 of this collection.

Watermelon Stylo, A very shy Forest Fire Digi, Battleberry Monti, and Joker 2.0 (Such a cute little thing!).

I do get a kick when I see micro brittle stars hitchhike into the tank, you can see one on the top-right of the battleberry. I also had a few in my first Favia as well.

 

[hhaase]

Ok, one last picture for today. A growth comparison on my first acro with just over six months of growth. From April 16th to October 28th. I don't know if this is considered fast, slow, or medium for growth rates, but I'm still super happy to see that I have such a healthy growing acro.

The growth form seems to be changing now too, and I'm seeing branches really starting to reach out now and spready apart. I can't wait to see it in another six months.

 

[X-37B]

Very nice build! I have a 120 with welded stand. I really like your doors and panels. 28 months since startup and I still have no doors, lol.
Will follow your build as I really like watching tanks grow from day one till present.

 

[hhaase]

New corals are all looking to be happy so far, most are still on the frag racks. I think that fills out my needs for SPS at the moment. I'll probably pick up just another couple of pieces before calling the corals in this tank "fully stocked". I really just want to add a nice frogspawn and fungia, and that'll be it. I'll slowly find spots for all the frags and then just let the tank grow. A couple more fish as the mood strikes me too.

I've got one more stage of budget lighting coming up in the near future as well. I'm more than happy with the PAR that the tank has, but I do have some pretty harsh shadowing in some areas that I'd like to cure. Eventually I do plan on doing a full set of 'latest and greatest' lights but not just yet. Maybe next summer.

I have to say that things are really starting to settle down into a nice smooth routine now. The maintenance routine I have is working pretty smooth, parameters are finally settling down to where I want them, and I really don't see anything dramatic that the tank needs for equipment.

So the next phase in the build is going to be just to organize the system and cleanup the installation. Things like wire management, straightening hoses, mounting things cleaner, maybe even selling off a few pieces of gear that I know I won't be needing.

 

[hhaase]

I decided to spring for Partner Member here. I get a lot of benefits from the forum, and it'll also let me do edits to my posts with no time limit. So going forward I'm going to have some summary posts sprinkled through the thread from time to time, and the #2 post in this thread is going to have links to those summary posts. So if you ever wonder what's up with my equipment or livestock, go to post #2 and click the appropriate link

I'll start that off with my next reply here in a moment, which is the current tank equipment.

 

[hhaase]

Current Equipment - Updated 4/2/2023

Display Tank Equipment:
Tank: SCA 150 Gallon drilled for Synergy Shadow Overflow
Stand: Custom made steel with stainless panels
Overflow: Modular Marine 16"
Wavemaker: Jebao SCP-150
Lights: 2x AI Blade 55" Grow
Feeder: Avast Marine 'Plank' auto feeder.

Sump and Sump Equipment:
Sump: Generic 40 gallon breeder tank with glass baffles
Return Pumps: 2x Jebao DCP-3500
Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 150-EXT Recirculating
Dosing Pumps: 1x Jebao DP-3 - 3 total dosing heads.
Controller: GHL Profilux 4 w/probes for temp, ph, redox. 2x Powerbars under the tank
Heaters: 2x ViaAqua 200w VA-200Q
Refugium Light: Kessil A360X Refugium.
Reactors: Bashea reactors used as needed.
AWC drain pump: QuietOne 1200.
Level Sensors: 2x Avast Marine level sensors.

Water Change / ATO System:
2x 35 Gallon saddle tanks with QuietOne 1200 pumps for water delivery and generic hygger mix pump.
5 Stage RO/DI with dual 75GPD membranes.
GHL Powerbar for ATO/Water change control.
Toms Aqualifter pump for ATO water.

 

[hhaase]

Care / Feeding / Dosing (Updated 11/8/2021)

Salt:
Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
15 gallon water change weekly.

Food:
Various BRS freeze dried foods, twice daily via Plank feeder.
One cube of frozen mysis when the mood strikes me.

Dosing:
2-part via Jebao dosing pumps.
Calcium: BRS calcium chloride
Alkalinity: Soda Ash (baked Arm & Hammer baking soda.
Hydrogen Peroxide: 13ml once daily

Normal Parameters, all tested weekly when I remember.
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.5f
PH: 8.1-8.3
Calcium: 440-460ppm
Alkalinity: 9dkh
Magnesium: 1300-1350
Phosphates: Target of 0.05ppm
Nitrates: Target of 5ppm
(we all know how fun it is to control Nitrate and Phosphate levels).

Carbon / GFO / Other media
I typically do not run any media reactors as normal process.
I do have three outlets plumbed into a return pump manifold if needed.

Refugium Stocking
Chaetomorpha

Removed Items
Removed 1L of TFL bio-pellets, due to too low nutrients in the system.