★★★ Project " GENESIS (II) 2020 " ★ [ Re-Engineered / REBOOT ] ★ SPS 110G ★★★

[WallyB]

The Ugly Stage on Rocks has arrived and keeps getting uglier daily. Hoping it doesn't get too ugly and passes in a reasonable time. I assume adding snails and sand-sifting critters is a bit too early. I'm not sure. Best to keep hands out and let the tank ride a few weeks.

NO3 has nicely dropped to 30 mg/l and P04 is down to 0.20 ppm.

Last Photo (above) was Dec 28th.

The Tank & Rocks have now aged 2 full months. Nitrates Holding at 25 mg/l, Phosphate a bit up at 0.35 ppm.

Cyano showing up more as expected....however I do see Spots of Purple Coraline showing up on all the rocks.

No sign of any pests coming back

 

[WallyB]

4 Months (After Restart)

- I decided to lower lighting intensity and white led level to keep the Cyano in check. No harm since I have no corals needing light.

It's working. Now I will try and increase lighting slowly and see what happens.

What nice to see is my Phosphates are nicely at stable 0.08 ppm (with minimal GFO refreshed monthly)

Unfortunately my Nitrates are high 100 ppm. This I will address later before adding coral in a few months with a Large Water change.

I am doing daily 0.75 Gallon Water changes on this 130 G system automatically by Water Changer.

Chaeto Algae Scrubber is active and harvested every month. Chaeto growth has slowed down.

No Two Part Dosing and Alk=8.0 dKH (stable), Calcium=450 (stable) which make sense since no coral consumption.

 

[WallyB]

HERE WE GO ( FIRST "Sacrifice" SPS )

I'm starting the SPS Coral stage to get a head start and test the system/parameter....

I was going to wait till after Summer to start adding corals, however things are aging well and I spent last few months working out various system kinks. I got water parameters close to perfect I could get this... after a couple of 30% water changes with Fauna Marin premium salt.

SALINITY=1.026 (On Target)
ALK = 8.5 dKH (On Target)
CALC = 425 ppm (On Target)
Mag = 1280 ppm (On Target)
PO4= 0.12 ppm (Close to Target 0.01 ppm)
NO3= 20 ppm (Off Target 2-5 ppm)

My SPS sacrifice/test corals are 6 Frags for around $250 Total. Good variety. Different lighting needs. Nothing high end or ultra senstive/expensive to cry over should things not work out at this point.

1x Tri Color Valida
1x Pink Cadillac
1x Bonsai Acro


1x Rainbow Loom
1x Pac Man Acro
1x Sunset Milli

Nothing to brag about but it's a good start. Finally something to look at again (more than just boring rocks).

Wish me luck....

 

[WallyB]

NEW (Summer) AUTOMATION

Some new DIY automation has been design/developed to keep things stable during the busy summer months. Often in the past summer my lack of attention caused problems.


This is the 3 Tank Automatic Frozen Food Feeder.

This newer version is much simpler than my original design. Feeds all 3 tanks either directly or through sump return pump. I can now feed the Sunburst Anthias Fish every few hours, while the other two tanks are fed 3 times daily.

Also for my 90 G Kitchen Tank a Single Tank Water Changer. The SPS tank and the Frag Tank already have a Auto Water Changer and now all 3 tanks will get Water changes daily. Each reservoirs give me about 2 months of capacity.

 

[WallyB]

Quick update.

Still Struggling with Ugly stage (rocks).

No algae, but Cyano is stubborn even though I've put in a lot of powerheads for flow. Cyano is slowly fading, so that is promising. I have treated the tank a few times with Fauna Marin Rebiotic. Maybe it's helping.

The good news is Frags are surviving and a few are encrusting. Not much PE at this point.

The Turbinaria's I added are from original conlony that I cut up. I'm glad a kept a couple of pieces since the Yellow Turbinaria is quite nice.

I am itching to get a few more frags which will help me not notice the ugly rock scape as much.

 

[WallyB]

That last photo was just too awful. Here is a better photo, AFTER using a powerhead to blow off the Cyano.

What give me hope is I see hints of Coraline starting on rocks.