The "She Said Yes!" 120 Gallon Build

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Man I'm tired of chasing phosphate. I run kinda high normally (0.2-0.3). I feed a lot (for the Anthias), and some of the food is powdered coral food. I expect kinda high phos so I use GFO in a reactor to try to keep it from getting too crazy high. But when I swap out for fresh GFO my phosphate dumps to like 0.04 - even with the reactor on a very low flow. Then it slowly climbs back to my normal levels until it's time to swap GFO again. Super aggravating

I think I either need to modify my feeding, or.... I'm not sure! No real sense in constantly adjusting my refugium light cycle, or adding the skimmer that's been sitting in its unopened box in the attic. My nitrate is spot on where I want it.

I'm leaning toward adjusting my food. Right now I use a mixture of Avast's Reef Jerky, TDO ChromaBoost pellets, Hikari Seaweed Extreme pellets, and some freeze dried calanus from BRS. I feed 4x a day (because of the anthias). Maybe I need to back off on the Reef Jerky in the mix.

Also...

Another TSA order will be heading my way next week!

The rock flower anemone and clove polyps are for a special little project.... I'm pushing my luck with my wife and setting up a 5 gallon pico mangrove tank next to my main display! I've got some rock soaking in my sump for the 5 gal and some sand on the way. I'll be limiting what I put in it for obvious reasons. Probably just the two mentioned above, and maybe some shrooms if I can get some for cheap. Plus some hermits, snails, and probably some sexy shrimp for the anemones!

I'll be plugging it in-line with my auto water change so it will get all the "old" saltwater from my display before it goes on to the drain. It will basically be getting 1.5g (38% or so!) water changes every single day lol. I just need to figure out an ATO solution for it and it will be pretty low maintenance and have a great shot at stable parameters - which is normally the downfall of picos!

I'll start a dedicated build thread for it soon.

Excited to see the pico take shape. I have been kicking around the idea of a WB20 cube on my nightstand in my bedroom with a mangrove start in it!

That bubblegum digi is FIRE!!!

 

[dangles]

Sorry to hear about your phosphate man, is there a reason for no skimmer? If you have it already, no harm in see what happens after running it a few weeks! Could try feeding same schedule with skimmer running vs no skimmer and reduced feeding?

Which GFO are you using? I personally had quite a bit better luck with the high capacity GFO from BRS.

O Man that's an exciting pico idea, can't wait to see it come to life!
Nice haul, beautiful corals #fillerup!!!!

Early on I was having trouble keeping my nutrients up because of the fleece roller and refugium. But also I really wanted to keep the system as simple as possible. I don’t like the idea of another (big) piece of equipment to maintain. I may be forced to put it in but I’m worried I’ll fix the phos problem and end up with no nitrates!

I’m using the standard BRS GFO. Won’t the high capacity make my swings even worse?

 

[dangles]

Excited to see the pico take shape. I have been kicking around the idea of a WB20 cube on my nightstand in my bedroom with a mangrove start in it!

That bubblegum digi is FIRE!!!

Nano Build - 5 Gallon with Mangroves?! Pushing My Luck Build

I was in Florida last week and brought back some red mangrove propagules. My main tank isn't really suited for mangroves, and I didn't want to throw them in pots and put them outside with my first mangrove, so what the heck, let's do a pico build! :) I don't have much space for another...

www.reef2reef.com

There’s a guy here with a big colony of forest fire digi (can’t remember his handle). He also has an IG profile where he’s always posting videos. Super cool. The bubble gum is very similar to the forest fire.

 

[ralquist]

Early on I was having trouble keeping my nutrients up because of the fleece roller and refugium. But also I really wanted to keep the system as simple as possible. I don’t like the idea of another (big) piece of equipment to maintain. I may be forced to put it in but I’m worried I’ll fix the phos problem and end up with no nitrates!

I’m using the standard BRS GFO. Won’t the high capacity make my swings even worse?

I get wanting to keep thing simple, they are a pain. One plus side of adding a skimmer you would possibly be able to feed more to help!

I’m not really sure it would make it worse, didn’t seem to zap the numbers quite as fast as the standard. Could all be in my head and I’m using in a media bag/overflow so not a reactor.

 

[dangles]

The 5 gallon pico mangrove tank is nearly complete!

I ran the tubing and programmed the remaining DOS head to transfer water from my main display, to the little tank, then out to the house drain. This little fella is getting a 3 gal wc every. single. day.

I didn’t realize I was going that much actually. I thought I had reduced it to 1.5 gal but oh well. I’ll fix that later.

I have a rock flower anemone and some clove polyps coming from TSA next week, and I’ll put the mangroves in probably tomorrow.

 

[dangles]

8 month update!

I’m so glad I went with the TBS live sand. I just really love the “rocky” sand look!

My Duncans and candy canes are all doing well. So is the TSA Mission Mars pectinia (if you remember, that one started to recede on one side soon after I got it).

I had a tuxedo urchin die unexpectedly other day His absence is evidenced by the algae I’m seeing on some of the rocks. You can see his shell near the base of the candy cane’s rock above.

My zoas are doing pretty good for the most part. Also pictured here are the purple stylo, the bubblegum digi, the klepto lepto, and the spitfire leptastrea.

I’m starting to see the coralline take off in a lot of areas of the tank which is fun

The slimeball (m. spongodes) is just chillin. I haven’t noticed any growth at all. At least not obvious growth. Same for the TNT anacropora (a. forbesi) below the super bushy seriatapora. No idea why the few I have are SO INSANELY bushy. I haven’t seen them like that before.

My plating montis are starting to grow out. Can’t wait for those! The Bali Green Slimer was looking extra happy today too!

At the top of that first photo you’ll see my Oregon blue tort (a. tortuosa), and my Manila Spy montipora (m. carinata). The tort doesn’t look sad, it just isn’t growing yet. The Manila Spy doesn’t look happy. I’ve noticed algae starting to grow on it

You know what else is happy? My shrooms The baby is growing nicely, nestled there right next to mama.

I still can’t figure out why my torch isn’t happy. I just moved it to slightly lower light area a few days ago.

This is what’s left of my second goni. It was doing fine for a few months, then just retracted and stopped coming out. I tried moving it to a few different flow areas. I just moved it to higher PAR area as a last ditch effort thinking maybe it just want getting the light it wanted.

This is my other goni that’s doing just ok. In front of that is my branching cyphastrea that finally settled in a couple months ago.




I am starting to think I may have to resort to adding the skimmer I’ve been trying to avoid. If I add that, I can get rid of the GFO reactor and hopefully avoid the PO4 swings I’ve been getting when I swap it out. I’m not sure when I’ll pull the trigger though. I’m dragging my feet lol

The pico mangrove is shaping up! The propagules are starting to sprout roots, and the RFA is nice and comfy. I added one of the zoa frags in there as well.

 

[dangles]

So I decided to ditch the GFO reactor. Instead of fighting the swings every time I refreshed the GFO, I decided I would cut back on my feedings and see if that does the trick for me.

Carbon only for me now:

I went from four 2-minute feedings per day with my Plank down to four 90-seconds feedings. That should do a decent amount for me I would think!

I also added some crushed coral (Two Little Fishes ReBorn) to a couple of spots my pumps were pushing sand around. I need to add some more around the rest of the tank so it doesn’t stand out quite so much. But it’s cool seeing all the coralline growing on it!

A few coral updates:

My pectinia is doing really well. Lots of growth. Maybe 50% larger than when I got it? It’s going to have some pretty blues, purples and greens when it gets bigger!

I decided where to put the JF Spitfire leptastrea. I wanted to have an encruster with contrast around my duncans and candy canes. That should be fun when it fills in!

I removed the rubble that my Ricordea Yuma was on from the 3d-printed containment cage. It was a pain! I hope it didn’t damage it too much in the process. But the baby is now more easily viewable.

My Bali Green Slimer isn’t growing a ton, but it frequently has some really nice polyp extension!

I still need to find spots for my zoas…

In this photo you can see more of the coralline that’s starting to explode all over. You can also see where I decided to put my purple stylo (back left).

If you look closely you may also see my Molly Miller blenny camping out on the rocks

My torch is still very unhappy. I’m pretty sure it’s the nutrient swings. Same with the pink Goni right in front of the purple stylo. It’s been retracted for months now

A few of the SPS I have still aren’t happy with my nutrient swings either. Can’t blame them. This Manila Spy montipora has decided to start hosting some algae

I’m not sure I’ll be able to salvage this one but we’ll see.

Hopefully getting rid of the GFO reactor will help me get my phosphate stabilized.

 

[dangles]

I did it! Zoa garden

Sadly I noticed a few tiny bubbles of bubble algae when I was mounting them. I picked off what I could and they all got a 4 minute H2O2 bath

I imagine they’ll be closed up for a few days while they recover. I’ve dipped them like this in the past without issues so I assume this will be the same.

 

[dangles]

On vacation for the week. No people, no dogs. My pH is going through the roof!

 

[dangles]

Just a couple of brief updates. My mystery hammer is starting to “come out of its shell” and extend its polyps some… FINALLY (after almost 6 months!)




And the purple goni is happy in its new spot. I’ve noticed lately that the tips of its polyps have some blue on them which is kinda cool.





My Ricordea yuma had another baby too! #2 for this one. You can see the first baby on the left, and the second baby is the smaller neon green spot between the two of them. Kinda hard to see because it’s wedged between the two rocks.

My phosphates seem to have leveled out after I removed the GFO reactor (although maybe still a bit too early to tell). They’re still a little high at 0.11 but I adjusted the feedings slightly again today to try to bring that down below 0.1. we’ll see how that does.

 

[DonTavo27]

Nice Build, you sure seem to have put in a lot of work. Have you considered All For Reef for keeping your parameters stable?
It’s seems to be less work, better results, and added trace elements.

 

[dangles]

Nice Build, you sure seem to have put in a lot of work. Have you considered All For Reef for keeping your parameters stable?
It’s seems to be less work, better results, and added trace elements.

Thanks!

Yeah I considered it early on but chose kalk instead for the cost and pH boost it provides. It’s also very simple (like AFR). The only real problem I’ve been having is phosphate stability and I don’t believe AFR does anything for phosphate. Part of my issue I’m sure is related to the Avast Reef Jerky in the food I’m feeding, plus my insistence on not using a skimmer. I think/hope once I get the food figured out (both the amount of feeding and WHAT I’m feeding) I’ll be alright

 

[DonTavo27]

Thanks!

Yeah I considered it early on but chose kalk instead for the cost and pH boost it provides. It’s also very simple (like AFR). The only real problem I’ve been having is phosphate stability and I don’t believe AFR does anything for phosphate. Part of my issue I’m sure is related to the Avast Reef Jerky in the food I’m feeding, plus my insistence on not using a skimmer. I think/hope once I get the food figured out (both the amount of feeding and WHAT I’m feeding) I’ll be alright

LRS makes clean food, their Reef Frenzy in particular is a good choice.
#Cronies can maybe chime in on this reef.
It looks like to me, maybe your to focused on chasing numbers, and are possibly not letting the reef tank mature. @fishguy242 what are your thoughts?

 

[fishguy242]

What is the problem ? .1 .15 phos seems to work for me, but I run a "dirty" tank No3 40-80 ,no water changes,
but run oversize skimmer 24/7 .
how can we help you ?

 

[dangles]

I’m pretty certain I have the issue sorted. For a while I was getting wild phosphate swings - 0.05 to 0.35 week-to-week. My numbers would plummet when I switched out GFO, and I had a couple of episodes where my fleece roller quit working and was letting ALL unfiltered water through. Both those issues are resolved now.

I check my NO3/PO4 once a week, and only make a change to something if I have a couple of readings in a row heading the wrong direction. Even the changes I do make are small ones, and usually only one at a time. I’m not looking to nail a number. I don’t mind fluctuation within a reasonable range.

I think the wild swings are behind me. Hopefully the handful of corals I have that aren’t happy will start to perk up

 

[dangles]

LRS makes clean food, their Reef Frenzy in particular is a good choice.
#Cronies can maybe chime in on this reef.
It looks like to me, maybe your to focused on chasing numbers, and are possibly not letting the reef tank mature. @fishguy242 what are your thoughts?

I’ll check out LRS.

Who is Cronies?

 

[dangles]

Ah I see Reef Frenzy is frozen. I need pellet/dehydrated/flake for my Avast autofeeder. My schedule doesn’t allow for manual feedings regularly enough unfortunately.

 

[DonTavo27]

Ah I see Reef Frenzy is frozen. I need pellet/dehydrated/flake for my Avast autofeeder. My schedule doesn’t allow for manual feedings regularly enough unfortunately.

I’m on the same boat as far as schedule, but find feeding frozen once in a while improves the over health of the coral.

 

[dangles]

I’m on the same boat as far as schedule, but find feeding frozen once in a while improves the over health of the coral.

I could swing it a few times a week probably

 

[DonTavo27]

I could swing it a few times a week probably

Once per week should be enough