The "She Said Yes!" 120 Gallon Build

[dangles]

@08TRDOFFROAD Yes!

Doing a bunch of maintenance yesterday and today. I’ll post an update today or tomorrow.

Short story… nutrients through the roof corals suffering, but all my fish are still alive! I count that a success lol

 

[dangles]

So I pretty much have everything back on track. Here's what went down...

Salinity

The first time my neighbor stopped by he got a low salinity reading of 31 ppt. I had him double check, and walked him through calibrating the hygrometer. The real reading was more like 33-34. I had him add a LITTLE bit of salt and didn't have any more issues. The low reading was likely due to a mismatch in the old/new side of my auto water changer.

NO3/PO4

The next time my neighbor stopped by, he got HIGH nutrient readings. My NO3 had been low before, but my phos was through the roof!

Right before I left, I switched to a different brand of filter fleece that NEARLY fit my roller. Key word: NEARLY lol. I would not normally have done this right before leaving, but it was a LONGER roll, and was guaranteed to last the duration of my trip. The ClariSea brand roll wasn't quite lasting 3 weeks and I didn't want to have my tank-sitter mess with chaining a filter roll (very noble of me)! The replacement (longer) roll was 0.1" narrower than the ClariSea roll, and more porous - which was fine because my nitrates had been too low anyway. HOWEVER, it was JUST BARELY wide enough to cover the plastic plates with the holes that lead to the sump chamber. At some point very soon after I left, the water pushed the fleece slightly off-center, creating a new path of least-resistance right into the sump. That's why the initial nutrient readings my neighbor got were so high! I didn't realize this of course until I got home. My nitrates got up to 12 - which is fine, but my phosphate got as high as 0.96

Once I got home and figured that out, I got it sorted by re-centering the roll in the mount. I will have to some up with a spacer or something that keeps the roll in the right spot.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a huge buildup of algae. I attribute that to my CUC and refugium, as well as remotely shutting off the lights once I found out about the high nutrient readings.

A few of my corals are NOT happy as a result of the high PO4 and parameter swings. My seriatopra are pale and retracted. One of the tiny frags started to bleach. My branching cyphastrea is continuing its downward spiral toward death (although that started before my trip). My gonis are doing OK, but not great. My frogspawn looks unaffected, but he doesn't seem to have grown any, and still doesn't extend much. My candy canes are fine, as is the micro lord and ricordea yuma.

Fish

They're all still alive! My Molly Miller blenny has nearly doubled in size while I was gone. My Buan goby got bigger too, as did the anthias and Pajama cardinal. Everybody else is doing just fine. This was my biggest concern given the deaths I had before I left. Still waiting on the AquaBiomics pest-test results. They should be done in the next few days but obviously given how much time has now passed, I'm less worried about the REALLY nasty pests.

When I got home, aside from resolving the fleece roller issue, I installed the GFO/Carbon reactor I ordered while I was away. I also did a sump-clean, disassembled and cleaned the fleece roller, and scrubbed the sump down. All that with a 40% water change.

No pics yet (I was too busy with post-trip house stuff and tank cleaning!), but I'll take some tomorrow and post here again.

 

[ralquist]

Man that sounds like a stressful deal but glad you were able to get it turned back around! Looking forward to some pic! Those darn branching cyphastrea give me the most trouble, really grind my gears. Out of all the stuff going on it still has to be nice being away for a while to come back and appreciate the growth you don't get to notice as much seeing it day to day! Glad ya made it back safe and hope you had a fantastic trip!

 

[dangles]

A 1-minute sump overview and photo dump!

You can see my seriatapora are NOT happy with the conditions over the last few weeks. Hopefully they'll bounce back soon.

 

[lubeck]

Nice! Super clean looking.

 

[dangles]

Nice! Super clean looking.

Thank you! I tried REALLY hard... and spent a LOT of money lol

I really need to load up on some more corals!

 

[dangles]

Oh. And my pincushion urchin has gotten probably 5x bigger

 

[ralquist]

Thank you! I tried REALLY hard... and spent a LOT of money lol

I really need to load up on some more corals!

What is your planned next corals?!

 

[dangles]

What is your planned next corals?!

I was just perusing TSA’s Easter sale yesterday! I didn’t pull the trigger on anything just yet but I’m thinking I’ll get some anacropora, a Bali green slimer, some favia, a Duncan, a blasto, a branching monti, maybe a platygyra.

Lots of options!

My lfs owes me a yellow tang and a scopas tang. They just got them in a couple weeks ago while I was out of the country. I’ll pick them up sometime in the next week or two as well

 

[nuxx]

Everything's looking super good

 

[ralquist]

I was just perusing TSA’s Easter sale yesterday! I didn’t pull the trigger on anything just yet but I’m thinking I’ll get some anacropora, a Bali green slimer, some favia, a Duncan, a blasto, a branching monti, maybe a platygyra.

Lots of options!

My lfs owes me a yellow tang and a scopas tang. They just got them in a couple weeks ago while I was out of the country. I’ll pick them up sometime in the next week or two as well

Real nice, I've been dipping my toes into some sticks. I thought LPS was expensive.....shoot! Seems like there are some really good deals going on! I did look a bit yesterday, thankfully I'm practicing my restraint or just $$ poor cause the SBB sale took me for everything!

Dang that's awesome and will be exciting to see them in that beautiful tank! I'm ready for a full tank shot please!!! haha

 

[dangles]

Real nice, I've been dipping my toes into some sticks. I thought LPS was expensive.....shoot! Seems like there are some really good deals going on! I did look a bit yesterday, thankfully I'm practicing my restraint or just $$ poor cause the SBB sale took me for everything!

Dang that's awesome and will be exciting to see them in that beautiful tank! I'm ready for a full tank shot please!!! haha

I'm sad to say the coral stocking process will be a slow one. I'm about out of the money I got for selling all my old equipment!

 

[ralquist]

Slow is always better, save you from buying the same coral 3-4 times! But if I'm reading this right, what your saying is you need new larger tank. Then sell this current one to get some folding money for coral? I get it

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

I was just perusing TSA’s Easter sale yesterday! I didn’t pull the trigger on anything just yet but I’m thinking I’ll get some anacropora, a Bali green slimer, some favia, a Duncan, a blasto, a branching monti, maybe a platygyra.

Lots of options!

My lfs owes me a yellow tang and a scopas tang. They just got them in a couple weeks ago while I was out of the country. I’ll pick them up sometime in the next week or two as well

I scoped out their sale too...Zoanthids.com did a pretty good sale/live stream this weekend also that had me pretty tempted!

 

[dangles]

I scoped out their sale too...Zoanthids.com did a pretty good sale/live stream this weekend also that had me pretty tempted!

Hot take...... I'm pretty "meh" on zoas personally. I'll probably eventually do a small 2-3 variety zoa garden but it's not a high priority for me

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Hot take...... I'm pretty "meh" on zoas personally. I'll probably eventually do a small 2-3 variety zoa garden but it's not a high priority for me

What is this blasphemy??? lol...jk I love me some zoas!!!

 

[dangles]

Gracilaria > chaeto

 

[dangles]

Clean bill of health!

 

[ralquist]

Clean bill of health!

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Gracilaria > chaeto

You must be happy with it....I need to figure out what I am putting in my fuge. Have never had great luck with chaeto....