Waterbox 130.4 tank build

[s_tempest]

And we are go!!!
Water: rodi, fritz redline, mixed to 1.026
Pumps: return pump is go, 2 gyre pumps on alternating schedule
Heater: 78F
Sand: 20# CaribSea Arag-alive, rinsed in tap water till clear(ish) + 20# Nature’s Ocean #2 Samoa pink rinsed in tap till clear(ish).

Checked chemistry:
pH 8.2
Alk 10 dkh
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

Added 100 drops Dr Tims NH4Cl . Will check ammonia in a few.
Folks - we are CYCLING!!!

 

[s_tempest]

 

[s_tempest]

Update on cycling (‘cause watching water boil was just a bit too exciting)

NH3 still at 2ppm, no surprise there.
I’m really happy with how quickly the tank water cleared from the initial cloudiness after adding the sand. Yes, I rinsed, but I had low expectations of my own diligence.
I’m running my skimmer during cycle (with gate valve fully open and dc pump at lowest setting). I read pros & cons either way, but I think it helped pull out some of the fines from the sand. It definitely smelled like damp rock for a day or so.

Some things I built into this build that I really like:
- I bought the Inkbird WiFi controller. I like how I can view/monitor/change the temperature from the app, and how I can see the Temperature History over time. For now it’s running an old Eheim Jäger 300w till I get a new heating element that will fit in the sump. I coated the temperature probe with GE silicone to seal it and put it in the sump. Cross fingers it will last - reviews online were mixed.
- I got a smart surge protector with 6 outlets. Each outlet can be programmed on a schedule (anticipated useful for the fuge light). Each can have its power monitored real-time thru the app and send alerts (so if a pump fails I’ll know b/c it’s drawing zero watts). Outlets can be grouped for easy on/off (thinking feed mode for pumps).
- I lumped all these apps (Inkbird, Smart outlets, AI lights plus my water change/chemistry app) all together in a single folder on my phone & Ipad. I never thought I was über techy (because I know folks that really are!) but these gadgets are making this fun!

Gratuitous still-empty tank photo ensues. I’m aiming for stable enough to be ready for FragToberfest.

 

[Blutspitze]

Wow; the scape is looking great under the lights and super excited to see cycling in progress! Hope it all goes well! The tech aspects are always a fun addition, as well; hoping that it'll help your maintenance processes.

 

[s_tempest]

Water test results from this morning: This looks promising!
To recap, I added 200 drops total of Dr Tim’s NH4Cl (100 only brought me up to 1-ish ppm on my test kit), evening of 8/2/19.
I also added a handful of marco rock rubble I had been keeping in the overflow of my nano tank for the past three weeks, thinking it would have a population of the necessary bacteria. I tossed that rubble in my sump in the intended fuge section.
Being impatient and not seeing that my rubble had a measurable effect after 2 1/2 days, I added an 8oz bottle of BioSpira late on 8/5/19. I measured NH3 every morning and today, these are the results: NH3 at or close to zero! Seeing this, I also measured nitrite and nitrate; the NO2 tells me that we’re not done yet.
My plan is to add more NH3 this evening (enough to get to ~100 ppm) to make sure that I can repeat the NH3 decrease. Then, a big water change to try to knock down that nitrate - i might wait a few days on that to see if the nitrite-oxidizing bacteria have grown enough to drop NO2 down.

 

[s_tempest]

Add to the reasons I needed this new build:
Things are getting cramped in my nano-reef tank!
I noticed that my little montipora was showing some bleaching on the side nearest one of my chalices. They were glued about 3 inches apart when small, but both have tripled in size and now are almost touching.

I figured that the chalice was acting aggressive, but had not seen direct evidence. Until this morning! Now, I caught a short video of the chalice with short (1/2") tentacles extended, just from the eyes that are close to the monti.
Pretty cool to see, but I need to get these guys separated!
Oh, and the odd bit of roaming hair algae in the background - that's my hermit crab. Almost nil algae in the tank, except for this patch on the shell.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Add to the reasons I needed this new build:
Things are getting cramped in my nano-reef tank!
I noticed that my little montipora was showing some bleaching on the side nearest one of my chalices. They were glued about 3 inches apart when small, but both have tripled in size and now are almost touching.

I figured that the chalice was acting aggressive, but had not seen direct evidence. Until this morning! Now, I caught a short video of the chalice with short (1/2") tentacles extended, just from the eyes that are close to the monti.
Pretty cool to see, but I need to get these guys separated!
Oh, and the odd bit of roaming hair algae in the background - that's my hermit crab. Almost nil algae in the tank, except for this patch on the shell.

Yikes.

Slow and steady wins the race. Just let this puppy go at whatever pace it decides to go. Do you have livestock planned? Or just transition from the nano?

 

[Michael Gray]

My concern would be algae growing in entire sump and skimmer itself from so close to the light. I dont know

 

[s_tempest]

Yikes.

Slow and steady wins the race. Just let this puppy go at whatever pace it decides to go. Do you have livestock planned? Or just transition from the nano?

If I wasn’t clear, this chalice & Monti are in my nano. There’s nothing in the new build yet.
My plan is to move the inhabitants of the nano to this larger tank, piece by piece, with better placement choices. And then to add in more corals over time. I’m not big on the ornamental inverts (fancy shrimp) but there’ll be the unobtrusive snail/crab/hermit crew. Fish? If past history is a guide, we’ll proceed by making marginally bad choices. I try to balance what I want, what’s good for the tank & corals, what my wife wants (very important but not often aligned) and what our LFSs have.

 

[s_tempest]

My concern would be algae growing in entire sump and skimmer itself from so close to the light. I dont know

Thanks for the pointer, something I’ll look out for.

 

[s_tempest]

Some updates on my tank:
1 - we are starting into the "brown uglies". About two days ago I noticed the first bit of brown diatoms on my bright white rock. Nothing unexpected; I know this will pass.
2 - the cycle took less time than I expected, but probably this has to do with me adding in rock from my other mature tank. Twice I confirmed that the tank's bacteria could lower 1-2 ppm NH3 down to zero over night. Nitrite is now also low (just the faintest pink on my Red Sea test kit, but as I am reading here on R2R, nitrite and its measurement is a touchy subject so we'll just leave that alone).
3 - I added my first fish! I had a single little clownfish in my nano tank, and moved it to this new tank yesterday. 24 hours on, it's doing fine, eating, swimming, acting normally fishy.

 

[RomoFL]

Very nice! We’re in similar stages! My diatoms are now on the rocks and sand bed - my tang and Foxface are picking at it so that’s good. Did you start a refugium yet?

 

[s_tempest]

Very nice! We’re in similar stages! My diatoms are now on the rocks and sand bed - my tang and Foxface are picking at it so that’s good. Did you start a refugium yet?

Congrats! Beautiful tank that you're building.
I don't have any pods or algae in the sump's refugium section yet - just some pieces of live rock transferred from my other tank. Maybe I'll pick up pods next trip to my LFS. Consensus view seems to be to wait on chaeto until I have nutrients that need exporting, and so far PO4 is zero in this new tank.

 

[RomoFL]

Yes that is good advice.. I only started because I have 4 fish in there now and a mess of pods. We’ll be getting more livestock this weekend hopefully. Good luck to you - I’ll be following your build!

 

[s_tempest]

Camouflaged algae clip.
I’m kinda proud of this hack. In anticipation of getting fish who might enjoy eating nori, I bought a plastic clip at a LFS. But my wife reasonably said that a plastic clip on a suction cup would detract from the clean look we’re trying for in the tank.
So I took some unused rock rubble and super-glue’d it to the clip. Only tricky part was making sure I had enough coverage to mostly hide the clip while not blocking the clip from opening & closing. Even if it doesn’t hold up for long, it’s easy to just reapply some superglue.

 

[Blutspitze]

Very cool! Love the solution with the algae clip, it looks great!

 

[s_tempest]

It’s about time for some updates - we (as in, the tank & I) have been busy!
Everything from the nano tank has been moved over to this tank. I left all the corals on the sand/at the bottom for 2 weeks and then glued everything on to the rock over the Labor Day the weekend. I also bought a few more frags.
Corals now include:
Hammer
Torch
Big 4” chalice (any idea what kind? I forget) and another smaller one
acan/micromussa
Acan echinata
gsp (excuse the plastic cable ties till it grabs to the rock)
Some favias/favites
Elegance (made it over a year with that one, so that’s good)
Some zoas
A Monti cap that broke into four pieces during the move ☹, but those four seem to show growth.
A clump of Xenia on its own rock b/c my wife really likes it.

Cuc: Trochus, astrea, tuxedo urchin, emerald crabs, red leg hermits, nassarius

And there are some fish. There’s the clown from the nano, and then some others. I wont detail all, but the most personable is a female rainbow wrasse we named Sally. She is always just front & center. “Hello!”

Water chemistry:
NH3 & NO2 - 0
NO3 - 10
PO4 - 0.03
pH - 8.0
Alk - 7.5
Ca - 400
Mg - 1500
Sal - 1.025
Nicely, these are my measurements with various kits this weekend, confirmed by kits at a v.good LFS n Monday.

 

[s_tempest]

 

[LadyMac]

I really love this scape. And those lights too!

 

[s_tempest]

I really love this scape. And those lights too!

Thank you.
Honestly, I wake up in the morning & rush home each day eager to look at my tank. They're just so fascinating & beautiful, aren’t they?