Reefahholic’s Rimless 105/G Restart

[Reefahholic]

Hello,

As most already know…I took a huge gamble and nuked my tank with Ivermectin.

This will be the restart of that system. I wanted to start a new thread to document some things for future reference.

Just a few details about the system again:

Tank: Planet Aquarium Rimless 105/G (48x24x20)

Sump: Advanced Acrylics- 32x18x15 White and Diamond Blue. White back and base. Rounded corners with polished edge’s.

Return: Reef Octopus VarioS-2 DC pump
Backup Return: Jebao MDP 2500

Skimmer: Deltec 600i

Controller: Hydros

Flow: AI Nero 5’s and Jebao MLW 30’s

Battery Backup: EcoFlow River 2 Pro

Doser: GHL 2.1 SA

CaRx: Geo Reef 618 with 618 second chamber

CaRx Feed Pump: FX-STP WiFi Continuous-Duty Peristaltic Pump.

CO2 regulator: Aquarium Plants CarbonDoser Electronic CO2 regulator (old model)

Lighting: 3X Ecotech Radion XR15 G5 Pro’s.
- 2x Reefbright 15” Metal Halide Pendant Reflectors (Mogul base) Running 250W 14K Ushio’s and 20K Radium’s. Currently I’ve been preferring the fuller 14K spectrum more. Hate the look, but they grow the corals faster.

Ballasts: 250w ReefBright Microprocessor controlled Electronic Ballasts

Rock: Marshall Islands & Fiji rock primarily (Love Pukani). Seeded with 10lbs Australian LR.

So here’s a few pics of the restart. Tank was cleaned and bleached. Also given acid bath. CaRx dumped and received same treatment. Rock also bleached and given acid bath.

Probably won’t keep this ^ scape above even though it resembles a natural reef, and the fish love it. My last NSA was very open, but the fish did not have many places to hide or sleep. This is basically a Bommie style scape, but I don’t like that it will not get flow throughout the scape or under it. My wife loves it, and doesn’t want to touch it anymore. She says, “Just leave it alone like that I like it.” “The fish love it.” Not sure my OCD will let me do it. There’s plenty of holes to mount and peg the Acro’s, but if anything I will make some DIY additional shelf’s off the front and back sides for more mounting options if I don’t rescape it completely.


Feels good to have all the Ivermectin out of this system. Been a while since the tank was this clean. Tank is responding as it should. “Ugly Phase” coming soon usually about 2-4 months in (never let it fool you!).

CUC will be ordered later on when the algae starts.

More light will be added later. For now I’ll keep it lower, but full spectrum for the LR.

Current parameters:
NH3: 0 (Dr. Tim’s One and Only added)
KH: 8.5
Ca: 450
Mg: 1320 (corrected to 1350)
P: 0.35 (rocks providing- thankfully
Not binding like Marco rock)
N: 0.9 (auto dose increased)

Will update soon. I plan to send a Aquabiomics Microbiome test on the Australian LR in the morning since I could not send the second post test on my crashing system as I had to remove all the corals and setup an emergency 40/B at last minute. I don’t think the results would have been very accurate, because a lot of things were changed towards the end. So we will see if Jason’s imported Aussie rock has a decent amount of life/bacteria still alive on it.

Pic below for reference (not mine, I’ll receive only 10lbs in the morning). It’s basically some small cluster pieces and some rubble that I’ll seed the tank with. I’ll lay it on top of the scape and all around the existing dry rock bases.

@Reefering1 you wanted a tag

 

[lakai]

What happened to your tank ? I remember I started my tank around the same time in 2018-2019 specifically because you were the only other person that also had one of the new deltec skimmers but you kept having problems with yours? Anyways I restarted my tank a few months ago as well. What are you going to do different this time?

 

[Solo McReefer]

May I ask,

Any idea of how many pounds that is?

And who did you buy yours through?

 

[Reefahholic]

What happened to your tank ? I remember I started my tank around the same time in 2018-2019 specifically because you were the only other person that also had one of the new deltec skimmers but you kept having problems with yours? Anyways I restarted my tank a few months ago as well. What are you going to do different this time?

I nuked it with Ivermectin treatment.

Tank was started on 01/04/2022 and Shut down on 08/25/2024. So it was up about 2 yrs and 8 mo.

No problems with my Deltec. It has been flawless and silent. Love that skimmer!

I had a lot of issues with the dry Marco rock in that system. This time I made sure to avoid Marco rock and use Marshall Islands and Fiji rock (Pukani is awesome).

The tank is already responding much better than in 2022. My tank was binding phosphate back then for one full year.

This new start is leaching a little phosphate (which I love) at about 0.3 ppm. That will keep Dino’s at bay and give me a really nice start compared to 2022. So I’m hoping for much faster progress and growth in this system.

Good luck with your restart as well. How is it going so far? You should be approaching the ugly phase here at 2-4 months in.

 

[Shawnd08]

Good luck with the restart. Hope all goes well.

 

[Reefahholic]

May I ask,

Any idea of how many pounds that is?

And who did you buy yours through?

Looks like about 30-40 lbs. Maybe more.

I bought through Jason Giannas. He imports from Australia. Started in 2018 I believe. Based in New York. He’s got about 4 other companies ordering through him. So be careful because they’re middle men. You can see the rock is the same. You’d want to get directly from him IMO. He’s the only exporter of that rock that I know of.

Here’s his FB:

Jason Giannas

Jason Giannas is on Facebook. Join Facebook to connect with Jason Giannas and others you may know. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.

www.facebook.com

Website:

Pristine Marine Aquariums

Australian Live Rock For Saltwater Aquariums. Aquarium cleaning in Mineola, New York, aquarium installation, aquarium design, aquarium maintenance, onsite and remote saltwater fish and coral care. Providing aquarium service for customers, maintaining the equipment and the health of the fish and...

pristinemarineaquariums.com

 

[Solo McReefer]

 

[Reefahholic]

Ouch, box was really wet. Here’s about 10lbs. One rock was still wrapped under there that I didn’t see.

 

[Reefering1]

What's in the syringe?

 

[Reefahholic]

What's in the syringe?

Sending a Aquabiomic’s Microbiome sample on this Live Rock. That was 60mL of water in the syringe that was from the rock and paper towels in the bottom of the box. I also swabbed the rocks everywhere all in the cracks and crevices and externally. Hopefully will give me an idea of how much beneficial bacteria and biome was on that rock in about 4 weeks or so when the results are back.

 

[Reefahholic]

Here is what 10lbs of KP Aquatics rocks looks like that I ordered before this Aussie rock. KP has much more life, sponge, critters, etc. Better packing job too.

 

[Solo McReefer]

What's in the syringe?

AquaBiomics, control

Samples taken
Before introduced to other bacteria and organism

 

[Reefahholic]

AquaBiomics, control

Samples taken
Before introduced to other bacteria and organism

I just want to see how much bacteria and microbiome is actually on that rock imported from Australia. He takes it out of the water a lot for pictures and videos, but he’s got a 300/G Vat where the rock is kept which gets 5-6 large shipments a year.

So even if a lot the bacteria is dying off through shipment, or removing it from water promoting on social media, the rock still goes back into that Vat which theoretically should repopulate the rock because it’s loaded with beneficial bacteria and biome since it’s constantly being replenished with new rock (5-6 shipments yearly- 20-30K in rock).

I’m just curious how the results will come out, and couldn’t help myself to send a sample out.

I also want to send one out for the KP Aquatics LR. That rock is fresh with life as it’s literally crawling out of the rock and in the bottom of the box when you open it. I have no doubt KP rock is adding a lot of beneficial bacteria, microorganism's, coralline, sponges, etc. It does come with more macro’s, some bubble algae, and Spionid worms. The other drawback of KP is that it’s the same exact rock that Marco uses. Basically Marco rock that’s in the keys for 1-1.5 years for the Starter rock and 2+ years for the Premium. Other than that, it’s healthy looking rock full of life. He is not far from the Bahamas! Plus I like that he’s more on the Atlantic side vs the Gulf side. TBS is more inland (5 hrs - 335 miles), and on the Gulf side. IMO, the quality isn’t as good and more pests.

 

[Reefahholic]

We’ll see how long it takes to result. Got it in the mail this afternoon, Last one took a while. I logged the last sample on 07/26 and it resulted on 08/22. Almost 4 week turnaround.

 

[Reefahholic]

Better look.

 

[kartrsu]

Curious the see how the aquabiomics samples read out. Also, I thought you crashed the tank using ivermectin to kill spionids, so are you worried that using live rock will reintroduce it back?

 

[Solo McReefer]

Better look.

That looks like plaster in the video

Am I wrong?

 

[Solo McReefer]

Curious the see how the aquabiomics samples read out. Also, I thought you crashed the tank using ivermectin to kill spionids, so are you worried that using live rock will reintroduce it back?

They can come in on almost anything

I have tried dry rock before, utter fail. Never again

If one can't take that risk[worms on real rock], a different hobby is probably a better deal for one

 

[Reefahholic]

Curious the see how the aquabiomics samples read out. Also, I thought you crashed the tank using ivermectin to kill spionids, so are you worried that using live rock will reintroduce it back?

Me too. Interested to see the results.

Not too worried about reintroducing them as I’ll be able to remove all the corals this time. Nothing will be left to encrust to the rock/scape. I’ll pull any frag or colony for a dip. Obviously, we’d all like to avoid pests and I don’t want the Spionid worms in there, but in this hobby if you really want a thriving system you need to add some good quality LR in the tank or it takes years to really get established well. In the previous tank, I was able to avoid Vermetid snails by being super anal. That was amazing, but I realized the Spionid worms made it in which turned out to be worse, and really crushed all my hard work. There’s always something that will make it in, and the amount of effort it takes to try and avoid every pest is just too much. It’s very stressful and almost takes the fun out of the hobby if you’re constantly working and stressing to keep everything out. Not to mention you’ll be setting yourself up for a very “sterile” environment which was how my last system started. That led to Dino’s that persisted for months. Probably a full year. So I’m done with that. This time I’m embracing LR again, and focusing on biodiversity. If you’re not adding some amount of LR, you’ll be waiting quite a long time for a system to become established well unless you’re adding a ton of frag plugs, snails, or something that has life. If utilizing all dry rock the system really gets “stuck in stupid”, because the amount of life is so minimal. You have to add some beneficial life so that microorganisms and bacteria can populate. Yes, you can get the beneficial bacteria from frag plugs, coral tissue itself, snails, etc., but I don’t add plugs and I debase every SPS frag to reduce the risk of adding eggs or some other undesirable pest that are commonly hanging out on plugs, under the plug, or near the base of the coral. Adding good quality LR is much much faster and helps the system thrive and get off to a good start. You just have to embrace it, and work though the issues and pests that arise.

 

[Reefahholic]

That looks like plaster in the video

Am I wrong?

Definitely does, but isn’t. If it is, those Aussie guys are very good at branch rock replication.