75 Gallon to 120 Gallon Upgrade

thewbell · Jan 25, 2017

Everything in the tank is doing great with the exception of the Velvet Damsel that I had to relocate to the sump. When I picked him up I knew all about the aggression issues but did not plan on him attacking coral as well. After seeing him nibble on a new favia I began the process of catching him and moving him out. I have to say that the Aqueon Fish trap worked great once I got the hang of it and it took 4 days for him to really go in to eat. I could have caught my clownfish on day 1 but the damsel was very skittish. He is now residing in the fuge until either another local reefer wants him or I make it to the LFS to drop him off.

I got my Kalk reactor up and running and am balancing it out right now. With the stirrer running constantly I was gaining about .25 dkH per day and it seems that with the stirrer off it has just about leveled off. My clam has already grown a good bit and you can see more new shell forming daily. The other corals are doing great as well and appear to be growing.

One modification I made mid last week was to change out my fuge bulb from a 5000k PAR38 from Lowes to a PAR38 Grow Light from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z04X0XU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I must say I am AMAZED at the difference! My chaeto was slowly growing but once I put the new bulb in the chaeto exploded and has doubled in size in a matter of days. I also noticed my pH now runs 8.1-8.25 instead of 7.9-8.15 so that was another great side benefit. To anyone debating on fuge lighting I highly recommend this bulb.

thewbell · Feb 28, 2017

Everything is still going pretty good with the tank except my BTA (I know its early to add one) decided he did not like the spot he was in for over a month decided to move to the back of the tank and retract. He has been hiding for almost 2 weeks. I keep thinking he is dead but he still extends some at night and has moved a little each day so I have not removed him. I also discovered last week that my salinity had crept up to over 1.030 when I was finally able to remember to get some calibration fluid for my refractometer. I brought the salinity back down to 1.026 over the course of a few days and the nem seemed to approve of the change but he is still not back. The only other issue I have had is my alk slowly increased to 12.3 (picked up around .5 dkH per day) before I caught it. I have been working on bringing my Kalk reactor back online and was right on the edge then evaporation picked up the last few weeks and caused me to overshoot. I have the reactor offline now to slowly bring it back down to around 9 and so far it is dropping about 1.2 dkH per day and everyone is staying happy.

I did pick up a few new fish as well to help fill out the tank. I got a Purple Tang, Coral Beauty and Flame Angel from NYAquatic and I must say I was very impressed. The tang was at least 3" and both the coral beauty and flame were very healthy and colorful. After a week in QT of fighting ammonia I decided to take the chance and introduce them to the main tank since they were all very active and eating great. However, when I put them in the main tank I had an unexpected reaction from my Potter's Angel. I know keeping multiple dwarf angels can be risky but based on what I have seen the Potters is the least aggressive so I figured with it in first I might have a shot if I add the flame and coral beauty at the same time but the Potters did not agree. As soon as the flame went in the Potters went on the attack and started chasing it around. After chasing it into the overflow then pecking at the overflow to get at the flame I decided to put the flame in a fish trap/acclimation box in the tank to see if I could manage the aggression. After 3 days of the flame in the box and the potters ignoring it I released the flame and it seemed like everything would be ok as the Potters was ignoring the flame for the most part and only giving a small chase if the flame got too close and not a full blown attack. At this point I decided that if the flame got trapped at the surface again or ended up the overflow I would rehome him or place him in another tank but before I had the chance he apparently got into the overflow and sucked down my siphon drain. I am mad at myself for letting that happen but lesson learned. Other than that the rest of the fish are doing great.

In other news, I did have one equipment failure. My return pump (DCS-12000) randomly restarted a few times since I started the tank but Thursday night last week it shut off around midnight (based on the amp readings from my EB8) and stayed off all night. Friday morning I spent about an hour fiddling with it to get it back on then as soon as the local fish stores opened I started looking for a new pump. I had been waiting on the Neptune COR but decided I could go with the RO Varios 8 or a Vectra and I was able to find a Vectra L1 in stock at Reef Coral so I picked it up. I went with the L1 as I have a 40B I am planning on feeding along with my 120 and I did not want to ever come up short on flow. After a bunch of research on the Vectra plumbing fittings and trying to figure out how I was going to connect it I remembered reading that my current Jabao pump also has British threads and they appeared to be the same size outlet so I decided to try the Jabao adapter on the Vectra and it fit perfect. So now my Vectra is plumbed using the barb adapter and collar from the DCS-1200 instead of multiple adapters.

thewbell · Mar 6, 2017

I had another buys several days with Fragniappe (local coral show) right in the middle. After several days of daily Alk monitoring without using Kalk I now have my alk down at 9.2 which is right around where I want it but on my way down I found that my pH was lower than I would like. I have been toying with the idea of a CO2 scrubber for a while so I decided to add the BRS unit. I started with a container of their media as well but when that is gone I will probably switch to one of the medical offerings that is much cheaper. The pH change after adding the reactor was immediate and since adding it I have gone from 7.8-8 all the way up to 8.1-8.2 and my alk consumption sped up.

I brought the calcium reactor online when my alk dropped to 9.7 and have been slowly bringing it up and my alk is still slowly dropping. I am now at a pretty fast drip on the effluent and a pH of 6.9 so I will see where the alk is this evening. The reactor has had no influence on pH yet so depending on how the CO2 media is to maintain I may ditch the kalk reactor all together.

Now for the exciting part.... I picked up 9 new frags at Fragniappe and they are doing great. I cannot remember what all of them are so if anyone recognizes anything please let me know.

3 Euphyllia
Rainbow Acan
Duncan
large SPS frag (laying on plug)
Montipora digita frag (I think. This is the one on the sand for now)
smooth pink SPS (don't remember the name but I think it started with an S)
Pink acro

I also picked up some new barrels for my SW mixing station. I decided against the IBC totes I was considering and went with 58 gallon food grade barrels instead and picked them up for $25 each. They are currently soaking in bleach and the gray container has no more odor but I am going to empty the black one tonight and add more bleach/water to do another round. I also picked up an Avast Barrel Tender so I don't have to remember to turn the RODI on and off. The unit is outside so I typically only check the RODI when I make saltwater so I either end up forgetting and leaving it on which eats my DI resin with my ATO pulling from it or I leave it off and have to wait to make enough water to make salt. I have not installed the Tender yet but my plan is to mount it inside a tupperware container on top of the black barrel to keep it dry and feed the RODI and power through small bulkheads and grommets in the side. Running the Mixing station outside has some unique challenges but overall it is worth the effort to keep any potential spills out of the house. (this picture is not where they are staying)