My 180g peninsula build

[dougdog]

Awesome build Daniel. I wouldn't worry more about Nitrates and Phosphates unless they get out of control (NO3>15-20ppm - PO4 >0.08) if you want to keep coral. I know this is a very debatable subject because there is a lot of people that say you want to keep those values close to 0ppm as possible. But coral growth and coloration is much better (at least in my experience) with a NO3 between 5-10ppm and PO4 between 0.02-0.06ppm so your values are perfect IMO. I agree your Calcium is a bit low and maybe you Alk need a little boost. Just don't change your Alk too quick as it drastically affects the coral with rapid changes (just as salinity do) especially on SPS. As you stock your tank more a more with coral you need to be on top of those values and maybe you are going to get to a point where you need to dose those elements. Remember to check your Mag also. It plays a crucial role on your Cal&Alk balance, it's not necessary to test it as often but I used to check it every week before I finally had a balance in my Cal&Alk. Also I have very good experience with amino acids (currently using Fuel by Aquavitro) as I see crazy polyp extension since I started dosing every 3 days. And lastly, I'm not going to be very specific here because it's a bit more complicating and you need to be confortable, but if you want the best color and growth on your system look around on how to dose Potassium, Iron and Iodine

 

[tj w]

Nice job! Look forward to watching it mature.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Awesome build Daniel. I wouldn't worry more about Nitrates and Phosphates unless they get out of control (NO3>15-20ppm - PO4 >0.08) if you want to keep coral. I know this is a very debatable subject because there is a lot of people that say you want to keep those values close to 0ppm as possible. But coral growth and coloration is much better (at least in my experience) with a NO3 between 5-10ppm and PO4 between 0.02-0.06ppm so your values are perfect IMO. I agree your Calcium is a bit low and maybe you Alk need a little boost. Just don't change your Alk too quick as it drastically affects the coral with rapid changes (just as salinity do) especially on SPS. As you stock your tank more a more with coral you need to be on top of those values and maybe you are going to get to a point where you need to dose those elements. Remember to check your Mag also. It plays a crucial role on your Cal&Alk balance, it's not necessary to test it as often but I used to check it every week before I finally had a balance in my Cal&Alk. Also I have very good experience with amino acids (currently using Fuel by Aquavitro) as I see crazy polyp extension since I started dosing every 3 days. And lastly, I'm not going to be very specific here because it's a bit more complicating and you need to be confortable, but if you want the best color and growth on your system look around on how to dose Potassium, Iron and Iodine

Thanks for all the great advise... as far as my No3 and PO4 for the most part I am doing nothing special. Last nights testing showed undetectable levels of all including ammonia... I am just running my skimmer.. also running my ATS but it has yet to start growing any algae at all (which I am told is completely normal). But I also have only two small clowns in the tank so far, and only feed every other night. Starting with dry rock and sand I suspect is keeping the PO4 levels down.

Started dosing alk to my ATO water at 10ml to 1 gal.. hoping to see this bring my alk levels up some. I am planning on picking up a magnesium test kit this weekend then I will have a idea how far off I am with those values.. my thoughts are to get the majors alk, cal, mag, all steady and consistent before I dive into the others. Am I wrong with that line of thinking??

thanks again for responding!!

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Wow, been i while since I updated this thread..

Tested all levels tonight

1.025 salinity
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate >5
Alk 8.05
Calcium 360
Phosphate 0
Mag 1290
Ph 8.3

Still trying to get my mag and cal to come up a little, but I am not that far off so I am dosing only a little at a time.. Don't see any reason to get in a hurry.

Diatoms are still coming and going

Had a foul up with lighting, turned up the white light so the wife could take some pictures and didn't get them set back right.. After a couple days noticed my Zoas were not opening up like they had been, knowing all my parameters were in good shape I started looking at other possibilities and found the lights were off spectrum... But got them set back to 1400k tonight so we will see if that was the problem..

Added a bottle of copapods, but I added them straight to the DT since I don't have a fuge.. OOPS!! Clowns went nuts on them. Swam their tails off, ate them so fast! It was actually fun to watch but made for a pretty expensive feeding...

ATS has started greening up some, and the skimmer is starting to produce some nice skimate... Running the skimmer 21 hrs a day.. shut it down from 7 to 10 so we don't have to listen to it when we are watching TV.. . Thinking about adding some sound dampening mats or something to the inside of the door panels on the side facing the living area.. It's not really horrible loud just a little annoying if you are trying to listen real close to something...

Picked up 4 Banggai Cardinals and put them in QT unfortunately 1 died in just a couple days.. He never would eat and wasn't ever as active as the others so I am thinking he had a problem from the get go.. Others are still looking good and all eating..

Also finally got around to really cleaning up my mess from the build and setup stage.. bought some shelving for my QT tank and a small dorm room fridge for my fish food and maybe a couple bud lights!! Got that all set up with my testing kits organized and dosing stuff nice and accessible.. will post some pics later..

I have been doing 30g water changes every week since the first week, thinking about backing that off to every two weeks.. Is that a bad idea? Should I stay with every week for a while yet?

That's all for now.. thanks for reading.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Well after being so happy about how thing were going last night, got up this morning and the urchin was dead.. what in the world?? Laying at the edge of the glass with most of his spines broken off and the cross and shrimp were eating on him... The fish shop assured me these were hardy and would do fine in my tank.. he has been all over the tank for three weeks, and except for droppong a spine every now and then has seemed fine....

 

[haanstang]

Do you think he had enough algae to eat? That would be my first guess I could be wrong but I thought it's recommended for older or mature tanks

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Do you think he had enough algae to eat? That would be my first guess I could be wrong but I thought it's recommended for older or mature tanks

I'm afraid that's what happened. Guy at the LFS told me as long as I had the diatoms he had plenty to eat. And for a while he stayed on the sand and seemed to do fine. But then he spent all his time on the glass and rock, and I started to get growth in my ATS so I was thinking he was chasing the algae in the DT. But now I'm not so sure.

 

[in2aqua]

following along

 

[Daniel Strickland]

So tested all my parameters tonight, been slacking a little...

Salinity .25
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Alk 6.98 dkh
Mag 1440
Cal 400
Phos 0

Dosed soda ash in my ato water to get the alk up a little tonight.

Fish seem to be doing good
2 clowns
2 yellow tangs
2 Banggai cardinals
1 Flame Angel

Inverts
6 Mexican Turbos
4 Nassarus snails
1 long spine urchin
5 Hermit crabs
And a Brittle Star we never see..

Corals, and here is my question
1 Favia. Doing the best I think seems to be growing a little
1 Galexea that is alive but not growing or nothing same as when I put it in the tank a month ago
3 zoanthids which open sometimes and sometimes don't. Seem to open in the mornings when the lights come on but are half closed up by noon..

I have stopped doing water changes, only run my carbon/GFO reactor one day a week, ATS is growing a tiny bit of green algae and I have a little green/brown looking algae on the rocks in the DT..

Diatoms seem to be clearing up, and have still not seen any cyano.

I feed pretty heavy every other night..

I think my corals are starving for nutrients, which is why I'm not seeing growth. What would you guys suggest is my next move?? Or do I just need to wait longer??

 

[Terry4505]

If the zooanthids are closing up during the day, it could be too much light. You're Alk is low (as you know), which can affect coral growth.

Maybe try an amino acid supplement like Red Sea Reef Energy. That is what I use to try to keep my nutrient up.

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Where is an update! How's this thing doing?

 

[john.m.cole3]

A little phos and NO3 would do those zoas some good

 

[haanstang]

Update please

 

[Amps Reef Life]

Awesome Build! I will be following along! I'm currently working on a peninsula style tank build into my wall.

 

[Thoax]

Awesome build, Following

 

[cracker]

just took a quick tour of this thread. I like the "big" skimmer You have .

 

[Doclight]

Watching.. Doing a 180g peninsula build also

 

[john.m.cole3]

Any progress photos, Daniel?

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Hey guys, sorry it’s been so long since the last update..

Well, lots has happened ove the last several months. Bought some fish lost some fish.. fought ick, algae, diatoms, power outages, floods, and a bad experience with a LFS owner.. Overall tho we are still super happy with our saltwater reef tank.. anytime someone visits the first thing they want to do is see the tank!!

We have been on a self imposed hold since about July.. at the time we were up to 13 fish in the tank and got ick. Had been doing QT but I admit we had been getting lax about it, just hold them in QT for 2 or 3 weeks before moving them to the DT.. Lost a pair of Kole Tangs that I really liked, a pair of Anthenias, one of my original clowns and two bengi cardinals.. Dosed the tank with a ick medication and it seemed to work but we haven’t added any fish since then... Will be getting something soon tho..

Right now my stock list is
2 yellow Tangs
1 Regal Tang
2 clown fish (1 is one of my original fish the other is a rescue from a guy shutting down a lost tank)
1 engineer goby (that I hate)
1 dwarf angel
2 clams that my wife picked out
And a large CUC

We have a rose bubble tip nem that was awesome till he split about a month ago, both are still alive now but neither looks good..

Large and growing zoa colony’s
A nice growing GSP colony
Candy cane coral
Favia
Montipora
And several other corals I can’t remember the names of..

We love our tank and enjoy I still enjoy the minimum amount of maintenance that it requires..
Parameters hold steady with 1 20% WC every other month or so.. clean the skimmer and algae scrubber every week.. I do not like the automatic feature of the theiling roller mat but I just unplugged it and manually advance the roll every week when I clean the skimmer..

Love, Love, Love the Hydra 52’s control them from my iPad and have tried several different lighting schedules..

Did have 1 mishap with my skimmer.. still not real sure what happened. Just started blowing water out the top.. flooded the bottoms of the stand, the floor around the tank and was running into the basement before we caught it. I pulled the skimmer cleaned it and ran it in the sink for about a week, never happened again.. (Momma was NOT happy!!)

I’m sure there is much more, but this is already very long, thanks for the interest, and thanks for all the help I’ve gotten from the people on this site!!

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Oh, forgot to mention.

In the second pic you can see a Kondy Anenome and a beautiful orange and white designer clown fish my wife picked out..

Well the Kondy ate the clown, then died about a week later.. I was so mad...

Really liked both of them.