125g SPS dominant (Southern Salt Aquatics)

[R6REEFER]

Fellow reefers,

I decided I'd start a thread on my 6 month old 125g Aqueon reef build. I will fill out details shortly.

 

[dbl]

Love the aquascaping. Looking forward to more details.

 

[revhtree]

Looks good!

 

[R6REEFER]

Alright guys, it's not letting me edit so I'll take off with the details from here! Thanks for the compliments btw

The tank is six months old, I built the stand and did the plumbing, aquascape, custom canopy, pretty much everything was DIY except for the tank itsself. This tank was built to represent my small business as well as my passion and dedication to the hobby. With that being said, I decided not to cut any corners this time. The current equipment is as follows:

Lighting:
2x AI Hydra's
1x AI Hydra fiftytwo (middle fixture)
Lights ran horizontally 7" AWL with 2" breather holes drilled in canopy. All lights connected wirelessly via MyAi and director.

Flow:
1x Ecotech Vectra M1
2x Ecotech MP40QD'S
All connected wirelessly via reeflink and on custom schedules and flow patterns.

Filtration:
1x 49g custom sump built by Salty Fish Aquariums with drain lines on opposite ends of sump into fuge and skimmer chamber opposite eachother, and finally return in the middle.
1x Skimz Monzter Mini 143 DC skimmer
2x Phosban reactors, one running GFO and the other running carbon.
2x 7" rectangular filter socks and 2 media trays, one of which is occupied by filter floss.
1x custom DIY algae scrubber (built 04/08/16)

Miscellaneous:

Red Sea Coral Pro salt
Red Sea Reef Energy 2 part
Red Sea Coral Colors 4 part
2 part Cal & Alk additive
120lbs base/liverock
100lbs Ocean Direct sand (sifted by hand...)

My current parameters are as follows:

Temp - 79.5
Sal - 1.026
Ph - 8.0
Alk - 10.6 dkh
Cal - 430 ppm
Mag - 1390 ppm
No3 - 1 ppm (trying to raise!)
Po4 - 0.00 (trying to raise!)

I have a dosing program I've been dialing in with the Red Sea products. I dose the 2 part daily by hand. Everything is dosed by hand currently (saving for the GHL wireless doser).

The tank will be mixed SPS and LPS, primarily SPS as I have a hard time keeping my water nutrient rich. The system reached ULNS about 3 weeks ago and I'm struggling to bring up my No3 as some of my chalices have started showing signs of RTN. The parameters are finally on cruise control, this tank definitely put up a fight! I've already had multiple cyano battles as well as diatoms and GHA but that's all water under the bridge.

I will post livestock list on Wednesday as I am waiting on a rather large coral shipment due Wednesday morning )) I only have 3 fish at the moment, an orchid dottyback, gold flake clown, and an engineering goby.

If you have any questions please fire away!!

 

[TUSI]

Very nice setup

 

[Fin]

Everything is very neat! Should grow into a nice one! BTW, I believe that you can only edit posts if you are a R2R Supporter, or above.

 

[R6REEFER]

Thanks guys! Fin it's all good, so long as it's on the first page. Here are a couple pics of the algae scrubber I threw together. I wanted to run it off one of the reactor return lines but I couldn't work up enough pressure. It's ran by a Marineland MJ1200 which doubles as a mixer for my return section. I'm not running the reactors or the scrubber at the moment though, need them nitrates.

 

[ScottMyers123]

Tank looks great. Looking forward to your progress.

 

[R6REEFER]

Thanks Scott.

Update: As of last night I finally got my Po4 from 0.00 to 0.04 BUT my nitrates are still non existant! I've been feeding like crazy (both roids and frozen), dumped the skimmate into the tank, and turned off the skimmer. Plus I increased my dosage on the reef energy and coral colors programs up to 3/4th the recommended dosing. I was only using 1/4th up to this point. I need nitrates if anyone has any suggestions!

 

[R6REEFER]

So I had my coral shipment delayed a day and a half due to UPS being completely incompetent. For 2 days all I did was argue with supervisors and CSR's. I've never had to talk to people as rude as I did to them! Basically it boiled down to 1. They couldn't tell me weather my package was on a delivery truck or stuck in one of the trailers and 2. The employees refused to go sift through the packages in the loading trailers. Got lied to for a day and a half and I wound up taking 2 POLICE OFFICERS up to the facility mainly to keep me from losing my temper (I'm pretty hot headed). What do ya know, 30 mins after I show up with the officers the manager went out to the trailer and "found" my bright orange, live animal box.

The loot turned out to be in alot better shape than I thought. So far I've only lost 3 out of 26 and I'm keeping an eye on another. My GARF (which was the main piece I wanted, it's my favorite coral) was dead as a door nail right out the bag ×_× The rest are already extending and responding well to target feeding. NEVER again will I use UPS unless I'm forced. I ordered a frag tank the same day as the coral and the PRIORITY shipped tank was handed to me with a smile from the FedEx worker on the day my overnight UPS package was supposed to be there. Every time I've overnighted with FedEx it's been handed to me at 830 am sharp, never any problems. Anyhow, enough of that nonsense. Here are some pics of the loot!! My favorite would probably have to be the bleeding acan hillae. I also have to give a shout out to Will over at Aqua SD, he was super helpful and is sending me a replacement order of the SPS I lost at no charge. That's customer service!

Also a quick tip that is very accurate. If you're questioning weather a coral is DOA SMELL IN THE BAG, TAKE THE CORAL OUT, THEN SNIFF THE CORAL! SPS has a very distinct smell relative to LPS and trust me, you'll know it when they're dead! They smell absolutely rancid! Like low tide mixed with rotting flesh.

 

[R6REEFER]

This is the frag tank I scored brand new off ebay. He wanted 300 I got it for 260. 24x24x8 1/2" acrylic all in one with racks that hold 226 frags. All set for the upcoming swaps!!