Rob.D's JBJ 20 rimless frag tank

Rob.D · Dec 31, 2015

I've decided to share my journey with rebuilding a tank after my 60 gallon crashed, I lost around 90% of my corals but of those corals I lost all of my acropora collection.

These are just a few samples of my corals

Rob.D · Dec 31, 2015

And this is how my tank looked on June 10th, 2015.

Rob.D · Jan 1, 2016

So, I had traded chriscrna an acro frag for his JBJ 20 frag tank and I shut down the 60. I figured I would just restart the 60 but work had me so busy I just had no time to devote to the tank and I got depressed every time I had to look at the sadness that was once a acropora utopia.
The same evening of the crash I filled the JBJ 20 with water and began it's cycle.
The corals that survived got placed into my wifes Nano cube, she was really proud of herself for having a tank that saved the day.....I guess I was kind of proud too but my ego took far to hard of a hit when the tank crashed.

The JBJ finished it's cycle on June 28th, 2015, I added what few corals had survived.

Rob.D · Jan 1, 2016

So with work at a crazy pace, taking the twins to baseball games, baseball practice, and general life issues the JBJ was totally neglected. I was working 10-12 hour days so my wife took over top off and water change duty. Unfortunately the tank beagn to go down hill and since the corals had never recovered from the crash in the summer, I just ignored the issue. After 2 months of loosing 1-2 corals a week I decided to give attention to the corals. My first task was to try to figgure out what was wrong with the tank, I started off with salinity, so I grabbed my go to refractometer (Red Sea), after I calibrated it I added two drops of tank water and to my surprise, the salinity of the tank was above the 1.30 mark. To say the least I was astonished that there were corals still alive in the tank! I immediately looked at the top off container and realized that it was full and the water change container was empty, I had neglectfully forgotten to label the containers and my wife had been topping off with pre-mixed saltwater.
After the discovery I began to replace about a cup of tank water with rodi water over the next few days until I got the display water down to 1.026.

Rob.D · Jan 1, 2016

I let the system settle in and the day of the club meeting on Dec. 12th, 2015, @KJ came by before the meeting and brought me some frags.
ORA Hawkins, Blue Stag, Spikes blue A. Tenuis, A. jacquelineae, and OG Mummy eye chalice. I was kind of loosing interest in the hobby from a lot of behind the scenes issues and because I didn't have a tank set-up that could support my love of the acropora species....I just don't see the reason to have tank without acropora.....it's just no fun

12/13/15
Water testing results:
Red Sea NO3: 0
Red Sea Calcium: 340 ppm
Red Sea Alk: 8.4

I did a 10 gallon water change with Tropic Marine salt and addded 2 tbsp of kalkwasser to 5 gallons rodi on my top off.
12/14/15
Added 2 unknown browned out acros frags, I've always been a sucker for $5 acro frags, you just never know what they will turn into....and I've nver been disapointed!
12/18/15
Water testing results:
Salifert Calcium: 400 ppm
Salifert Mag: 1050

12/27/15
Added A. Aculeus frag from Cee....I love this acro, it's a fuzzy crazy bright green!

12/31/15
Water Testing Results:
Red Sea Refractometer: 1.026 salinity (calibrated with aqua craft solution)
Red Sea PO4: .02ppm
Red Sea Alk: 10.6 I questioned this result but after three sequential tests that resulted in the same reading I'm going to accept that the Kalk in the ATO might be at too high of a solution (2 tbsp : 5 gallons rodi)
Red Sea Cal: 390ppm
Salifert Mag: 1080

I 'm going to change out 5 gallons tomorrow and test the tank after and test the new mixed water.

and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Rob.D · Jan 1, 2016

And just for post [HASHTAG]#5000[/HASHTAG] !

Trey B · Jan 1, 2016

Glad you are getting back at it.

Leggmantn2015 · Jan 1, 2016

Did you ever figure out the root cause of the 60 tank crash???? I'm curious.

CastAway · Jan 1, 2016

Dude. If you got out of this hobby, it would be a lot less fun for me and a lot of folks.

Rob.D · Jan 1, 2016

Trey B said:
Glad you are getting back at it.

Thanks Trey, because of the two tank crashes, I've gone back to my old ways of water testing and making sure my ATO is filled and a full batch of RODI water is on hand......

Leggmantn2015 said:
Did you ever figure out the root cause of the 60 tank crash???? I'm curious.

Yea, I had let planera flatworms (non-predatory type) and they got to plaque proportion, so to combat them I added a blue velvet nudibranch (Chelidonura varians) and over night either the nudibranch died causing a mass die-off of flatworms or the opposite, a mass die-off of flatworms caused the nudibranch to die. I had the nudibranch for about two months so it literally had a tank full of flatworms to feast on, it was about 2"-3"'s long when it died.

CastAway said:
Dude. If you got out of this hobby, it would be a lot less fun for me and a lot of folks.

Thanks for the sentiment Jeff. It'll take a lot more to get me completely out but I was close.

cee · Jan 1, 2016

Rob.D said:
Added A. Aculeus frag from Cee....I love this acro, it's a fuzzy crazy bright green!

The new growth branches are turning lavender. I love it as well. Surprised you didn't help yourself to a SSC, you were more than welcome to do so.

Dave

Rob.D · Jan 1, 2016

cee said:
The new growth branches are turning lavender. I love it as well. Surprised you didn't help yourself to a SSC, you were more than welcome to do so.

Dave

I felt greedy for taking the aculeus frag......I wish the jacket had fit, I lost my best winter jacket last week.........

Chriscrna · Jan 2, 2016

Ugh.....seeing that tank full of skeletons again is nauseating. At least the last dragon survives!

How about a pic of the JBJ with all the new frags?

Reefrookie220 · Jan 2, 2016

Nice photos!

KJ · Jan 2, 2016

Chriscrna said:
At least the last dragon survives!

In my tank

Rob.D · Jan 2, 2016

Chriscrna said:
Ugh.....seeing that tank full of skeletons again is nauseating. At least the last dragon survives!

How about a pic of the JBJ with all the new frags?

I'm going to take some pics tomorrow. Yea I get sad when I see those pics.