My 180g peninsula build

[Daniel Strickland]

Well it's been a couple days since a update so here we go..

Been a rough couple days, first off I did a WC Saturday morning and forgot to turn off my heaters. Jumped the temp in my tank to 83 before I caught my mistake. Got a 2nd temp probe ordered to fix that problem in the future.. Then had a power outage due to the ice storm that moved through the Midwest..lost power for almost 24 hrs.. I have not gotten any backup system into place yet and my generator was not accessible until this morning. Ran to Walmart and grabbed a couple battery powered air pumps and air stones. And cranked up the fireplace.. seemed to get me through the night. Then got power from the generator going about 9 this morning. Just ran heaters and pumps. But got my temps back up and circulation again.

No visible issues with my clowns or inverts at this time but keeping a close eye on them to be sure..
growing pains I guess...

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

I was wondering how you faired with the weather, we didn't get much in ice just snow appx 4 inch but it was gone before 12 lol

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Yeah got pretty nasty here..
my place.

My In Laws place

My Parents place

My Mother-In-Law is still out of power and they are telling her it may be weeks before they can get power to her place.

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Oh wow, my service advisor has a house in guymon and it ripped the power lines off the house and pulled the power box off too, they are weeks out of power also. In Dalhart it was 4-5 in of snow then sleet then rain then heat then back to sleet then back to snow all yesterday lol

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Glad you guys got off so easy. Lots of times over the years the really bad weather hits down your way and kinda peters out before it gets to us.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

So I am kinda wondering.

Tomorrow my tank has been running for three weeks. I know it is still super immature. But my cycle has been complete for over a week.
Daily testing still show little or no ammonia, no nitrites, and high nitrates. Water looks amazing. I run carbon/gfo reactor for 24 hrs after a WC. ATS has been running since day one. (Still no algea growth at all) had a diatom bloom last week but it has since cleared up.

So far I have lost 1 nitrite (sp) snail. But other than that my livestock looks great. Clowns are active. I feed frozen every other night. And the snails come out of the substrate and feed. The hermits seem content to scour the rocks and did a really good job of letting me know about the dead snail, I removed the body.

Skimmer which runs about 18 hrs a day puts lots of gunk on the inside wall of the cup but not much in the cup. But seems to me to me to be working well.

Am I missing something? Has the bad stuff not hit yet?? From the reading I have done I should be dealing with cyano, bubble algae, from most cycling threads my cycle should not be complete yet. Is this what's going on?? I don't wanna wish bad stuff upon myself at all but I'm kinda waiting on the hammer to fall if you know what I mean.

On a side note my wife had really gotten into this fish tank and started to participate which is awesome. Here is her contribution

 

[bubbaque]

You will probably still get some cyano and hair algae. If it does, don't panic and do drastic changes, just ride it out.

 

[bubbaque]

Also your skimmer isn't pulling much because you don't have much right now to skim.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Also your skimmer isn't pulling much because you don't have much right now to skim.

That's about what I expected as far as the skimmer goes. Thanks.

You will probably still get some cyano and hair algae. If it does, don't panic and do drastic changes, just ride it out.

Ever the pessimist I guess I was just expecting to see the problems come along sooner.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Just went back through this build thread and noticed I neglected to mention a few small upgrades.

First I copied @Terry4505 and plumbed my returns to the end of my tank. Was during my diatom bloom noticed that I had lots of floaters not ever making it back to the overflow box to make it to my filters so I did this

Thanks for the advise.

Then on the advise of @Nicolas_Brown I ordered a DIY screen kit from BRS. Now I am Wrasse ready!!

Thanks guys. And everyone else that has helped me with this build.

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Looking great! Now hurry up and wait haha I'm sure your fine to start adding corals and fish just take it slow

 

[bubbaque]

I like your tank and constant updates! Gives me something to read.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Looking great! Now hurry up and wait haha I'm sure your fine to start adding corals and fish just take it slow

Yeah looking forward to our trip to OKC this weekend. Gonna pick up a couple new tank mates for the clowns. Wife really wants a long spine urchin, and a couple more peppermint shrimp. Those guys are pretty entertaining.

Will probably look at a couple corals as well but I might wait till I can make a trip to Amarillo before I get that as well have not decided yet.

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Yeah looking forward to our trip to OKC this weekend. Gonna pick up a couple new tank mates for the clowns. Wife really wants a long spine urchin, and a couple more peppermint shrimp. Those guys are pretty entertaining.

Will probably look at a couple corals as well but I might wait till I can make a trip to Amarillo before I get that as well have not decided yet.

Had many long spines, very cool urchin but the sting hurts lol

 

[Ortho281]

Yeah got pretty nasty here..
my place.

My In Laws place

My Parents place

My Mother-In-Law is still out of power and they are telling her it may be weeks before they can get power to her place.

Wow! Sorry to here this. Hope everyone is ok. Stay safe!

 

[Ortho281]

Just went back through this build thread and noticed I neglected to mention a few small upgrades.

First I copied @Terry4505 and plumbed my returns to the end of my tank. Was during my diatom bloom noticed that I had lots of floaters not ever making it back to the overflow box to make it to my filters so I did this

Thanks for the advise.

Then on the advise of @Nicolas_Brown I ordered a DIY screen kit from BRS. Now I am Wrasse ready!!

Thanks guys. And everyone else that has helped me with this build.

Nice job with the screens and plumbing the returns!

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Wow! Sorry to here this. Hope everyone is ok. Stay safe!

Everyone is fine. Just a little hiccup that whet to enjoy in this part of the country..

Nice job with the screens and plumbing the returns!

Thanks!!

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Back from the city..

Took water samples to 2 different Reef shops got a Semi decent results..

No3 <5
NH3 0
PO4 .05
Cal is still low at 360
Alk is a little low at 7dhk

Got home to another nice Diaotom algae bloom

Moved a little more flow to she sand and it is clearing up...

This guy is helping to...

Got a couple Bennji Cardinals in the QT tank to be added next..

In addition picked up a couple more Peppermint Shrimp, love these guys. So cool. They just scurry all over as opposed to that darn Brittle Starfish that never comes out of hiding..

Last but not least the guy cut me a deal on a couple small zoas.. figured I would give them a shot and see what happens. First one is a little tore up. Had a big piece of flesh falling off when I bought it, and it came on off in the bag on the way home..

I went ahead and dropped it in and it found a nice little crevice on the floor where it wedged itself into and opened up today.. no pics of it cause it's to had to get a angle..
The pic is of the original piece minus the big missing chunk, opened up and looks ok..

And the other one..

Shimp keeps going to this one and picking at it. Closes him up every time..

Just stuck the plug down in a crevice for now to see what happens to them..

Also got in my first bag of copapods from algae barn and dosed them into the tank...

Mixed up my BRS 2 part tonight, tomorrow I will start slowly trying to raise my Alk and Cal...

 

[Nicolas_Brown]

Moving along nicely, your reef journey is underway! Now the real fun starts

 

[haanstang]

Nice build. Following along, I'm in the beginning stages of my 210 peninsula build right now. I'll start a build thread when I'm farther alone. Your thread and @Terry4505 have been great reading