Scott’s Infinia Frag 125.4 build Shallow Reef

[skey44]

Tiger conch is amazing. A great addition and constantly grazing. Added a torch marketed as NY knicks. Got a spin test at the LFS and results are very different than my Hanna checkers. Most concerning was alk of 9.7 which is higher than I’m reading. Very nice of LFS to send Hanna control dKH solution home for me to borrow and I checked within range so I’ll not worry about it and just trust the Hanna. They did give me the comment that they don’t check any of their systems with the spin test so there ya go. I was just hoping for something to compare to and confirm against.
They did check my salinity with their digital refractometer and it was spot on compared to where I want to be at. Anywho. Here’s my numbers from today. Won’t include the spin test results here as I don’t think it provides much useful information as it seems to be overall inaccurate.

Salinity: 35ppt
Ca: 440ppm
Alk: 7.9 dKH
Phosphate: 0.07ppm
Nitrate: 1.3 ppm

 

[skey44]

I’m at a pretty good baseline. Now to just see how much is used to hopefully start dosing AFR in the next couple of weeks.
Salinity: 34 ppt
Ca: 440 ppm
KH: 7.3 dKH
Mg: 1290 ppm

 

[skey44]

Adding about a teaspoon of dry sodium bicarbonate a day has been keeping my KH stable.
Added another torch yesterday as I can’t help myself and my family seems to like them the best so far too. It was very shriveled after its dip but tentacles were out this am when I left for work. It’s got a dragon soul look to it though I don’t know how they’re officially named. The LFS had two with different names that looked identical to me… doesn’t really matter I like it.
Starting to plan my light upgrade and right now have flipped to wanting two gen6 xr 30 blues mounted on rms mounts parallel to the length of the tank. I know it’s a lot of power for a shallow mixed reef tank, but I like the idea of not having to have them cranked up and getting very full coverage from only two panels. I have considered 3 or 4 xr 15 but I personally like the simplicity of just two fixtures and two rms mounts. Probably pull the trigger on light upgrade next time ecotech has a discount.

This was my little euphyllia garden prior to adding my new torch last night. The torch and hammer so far are looking great.

 

[skey44]

And just like that… I made an offer on a nice looking used ap9x on FB marketplace and it was accepted. So I’m gonna have an ap9x in the middle and leave the two 160’s for the outer edges. I think it should work out well and reduce shadowing. Provide full coverage for a mixed sps/lps reef.
Save a lot of money over my dream setup of 2 xr-30’s.

 

[skey44]

Playing with the light placement, preparing to pickup the ap9x tomorrow and will center mount. Think this might really work out great with the spot lights on the edges and the stronger fill light in the middle.

 

[skey44]

I’ve already lowered it to reduce spill.

 

[skey44]

 

[skey44]

Tank is looking good, but my numbers are a bit off.
Ca: 430
Mg: 1260
Alk: 7.5
Nitrates: 0.1
Phosphates: 0.13

Tanks been running about a month so I’m gonna go ahead and replace my gfo as rock is probably still leaching and I’m heavy feeding. But darn I thought my nitrates would stay somewhat in ratio with phosphates (50-100:1 goal ratio). Seeing some green and brown algae wise. Just gonna keep on trucking. Do the maintenance and recheck next week. No direct coral feeds this coming week due to phosphate level. Not too worried about numbers bc the tank looks great, corals are happy. As I add more corals (especially more pricy harder to keep types) I’d like to get these numbers a little more dialed in. Also might get something to bump the mag as my 10g WC don’t seem to be keeping up. Also as far as nitrates go I’m not dosing anything right now except BRS calcium and bicarbonate. No carbon dosing, trace, bacteria or anything else. Wonder why my numbers are out of ratio…?

 

[2ndtimereefer81]

Following along. I got the same tank last week but not setting up for another few months until the basement is done. I believe I crossed paths with you at Reef Gurus in Greenville a few weeks back. I was in asking about the Frag 125.4 they had and they were telling me how you had just got it weeks prior. Small world to run across your build here. Look forward to the build.

 

[skey44]

Following along. I got the same tank last week but not setting up for another few months until the basement is done. I believe I crossed paths with you at Reef Gurus in Greenville a few weeks back. I was in asking about the Frag 125.4 they had and they were telling me how you had just got it weeks prior. Small world to run across your build here. Look forward to the build.

Awesome, were you in your BMW gear? I think I remember you talking about the basement and tank!
I definitely have been spending too much time and money up there lately. Hopefully run into you again up there sometime. You’ll love the tank, especially if you plan to focus on coral frag grow out and smaller fish. I’m pretty happy with my equipment so far. I’m using this as a place to document my tank, mostly for myself, but also a good bonus if someone else can learn from it too!

 

[2ndtimereefer81]

Awesome, were you in your BMW gear? I think I remember you talking about the basement and tank!
I definitely have been spending too much time and money up there lately. Hopefully run into you again up there sometime. You’ll love the tank, especially if you plan to focus on coral frag grow out and smaller fish. I’m pretty happy with my equipment so far. I’m using this as a place to document my tank, mostly for myself, but also a good bonus if someone else can learn from it too!

Yep that was me. Yeah been there done that with the expensive larger fish that I can never keep alive for long. Definitely want to focus more on corals this time around.

 

[G&B Reefing]

Hi! Cool tank!! I have been looking at one of these but had read some reviews about the stands having lateral stability issues (aka moves side to side). Have you noticed anything like that on your tank?!

 

[stewy14]

ITS A LAGOOOOONNN

 

[skey44]

Hi! Cool tank!! I have been looking at one of these but had read some reviews about the stands having lateral stability issues (aka moves side to side). Have you noticed anything like that on your tank?!

Thank you, I’m really liking it and enjoying it! I got to see the stand setup with tank on it in the shop before purchase. I don’t find the stand to be worrisome, but they do offer a stabilizing kit to people who ask for it.

 

[skey44]

Seeing some growth in my corals, itching to add more. Have a decent little algae dust and hair algae on two of my frags. Plan to take the frags out today to manually remove algae.

With the growth I had low Ca and Mg but with some dosing and a WC my parameters are really good right now.

Added a Cleaner shrimp and a purple stylo frag. They both look great. Trying to get my Nitrates up a bit (reagent and Neonitro should be in today). I plan to start adding some Acropora and goniopora once there’s a little more nutrient stability.

Ca- 440
Mg-1300
Alk- 7.5
Salinity- 35ppt
Phosphates- 0.04 ppm
Nitrate- out of Hanna reagent. API says 0 which I believe

I did notice with the correction of my major minerals almost an overnight difference in my coral colors. Especially in my torches, fwiw.

Firefish will be added to display Friday (full month of copper with no white spots after first appearance). Will definitely have a tang or two in this next QT round as I’m starting to have a need for grazing in the tank. Leaning towards white tail or tomini and small purple tang, scopas or Yellow Tang. Hopefully can get them in QT together as I’d like to have a zebrasoma and bristle tooth in this tank and think it’s best to introduce together

 

[skey44]

Dosed the 5ml of neonitro tonight which should give me 0.5ppm nitrate tomorrow. I will remeasure tomorrow and add again until I get to 3ppm then try and maintain 3-5 as long as my phosphates remain low. I also fed heavily tonight. I see some evidence of possible bleaching in one of my hammers so I turned the lighting intensity and duration down a bit. Hopefully this combined with the nitrate dosing will help prevent further bleaching.
Also had an adventure in frag removal to do some manual algae cleaning. Picked some algae off two of my frags. My acan had some hair and bubble algae on it so I went to town on it in a Tupperware, added glue right up to the flesh of the coral after algae removal. Then thoroughly rinsed it in tank water in another Tupperware. Will see if this works to keep bubble algae at bay.
Then I decided to check my blastomussa frag I couldn’t see the base of. It was quite the adventure! Moved a couple of rocks and had issues getting everything back into place. Of course this frag had nothing on it. Hopefully no harm to the coral as it is one of my favorites and was doing very well. SMH
Nothing too bad seems to have happened. Just some folly and worry while trying to remove some algae before it gets out of hand.

 

[skey44]

Had an adventure last night. Worked on the tank from 7 when I put my daughter down, until midnight.

Moved the firefish from QT to main display. Added some flaps onto the light cutouts to try and tighten up jump gaps. This was a mess, trying to wait for super glue to dry. Ultimately I should have probably sprayed alcohol on it to cure it faster and done it before I moved the firefish… I did a 70 percent WC on QT tank and added activated carbon to clear the copper. Tap water soaking all decorations overnight and gonna call it good. Looking to add some new fish for QT over the weekend

I did buy 2 new corals and three more trochus snails. I couldn’t help myself! The corals opened right up after an aggressive dip and electric tooth brush to the bases. They are looking great. Got a red blasto with green centers (megaman?), and an Aussie yellow thick branching hammer. There was a torch I wanted too so I did practice some self control! My SO really likes the Euphyllia, and I do too. I also am excited to try Acropora and goniopora once I get my nutrients a bit more regulated.

After 5ml of neonitro my nitrates were 0 24hrs later. So I doubled dose to 10 ml will check them again tonight. I’m not sure this is following the directions but it makes sense to me. Continuing to heavy feed as well tank got almost a full frozen cube spread throughout the day.

Also my LFS is ordering a polyp lab iPhone filter so I can take better pics of my tank soon

Potential fish for next QT cycle based on what my LFS has in stock and on the way:
Tomini Tang
Scopas tang
African Midas Benny
Carpenter’s wrasse
Royal gramma
Sapphire damsels

Will only pick 3-4 as my QT is only 29g.

Looking to automate dosing and feeding in the near future. Going away for 3 nights mid September for a wedding and will definitely want to have an auto feeder in place before then. I think I can dose my alk a little high before I leave and get away with bolus dosing for a little bit longer.

Just sharing my thoughts here. Hopefully I can get some pics worth posting once I get this filter.

 

[skey44]

That royal gramma is a looker, but check out the Midas side eyeing the world. What a cool fish. Tiny tomini back there ready to fight. Excited to get these fish in QT and get them conditioned for the display. Corals looking great today.

 

[skey44]

It’s nitrate :30 haha
I’m gonna bet nitrate 0.0 and dKH 7.8
I lost on nitrates happily 1.4
I’m kinda on my dKH use. 7.8
Will add a teaspoon of dry sodium bicarbonate tonight. Added 10ml of neonitro and will recheck tomorrow. Gotta make some saltwater for WC Sunday. Loving the work and the results so far. Hope I hit some nutrient stability so I can start adding Tropic Marin AFR as I’m almost through my first gallon of sodium bicarbonate (I add it dry in solution so far). Love seeing the KH fall as it means my corals are happy and growing

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Corals looking good and happy today. My girls like the hammer the best… maybe I should have done euphyllia specific! I really like the other lps too. There’s a blastomussa I already have my eye on at LFS
Water test day:
Salinity 35ppt
Ca 400
Kh 7.1
Nitrate 0.3ppm (yay)
Phosphate 0.04 ppm

Quarantine is holding at 2.34 ppm copper. Fire fish looking good, no spots. Exquisite fire fish fins growing back. They’ll be due to go to display in early September.

I’m planning to start with Tropic Marin All for Reef in the coming weeks. What’s the best single dosing pump for AFR? Not thinking I’ll ever add anything else if it works as advertised!

Tropic Marin recommends a starting dose of 5 ml of AFR per 26 gal. And then increase 2.5 ml per 26 gal, per week, until you are maintaining your dKH at your desired level.