MrX's 120G Build

[MrX]

looking great! The yellow tang is beautiful, looks perfect. My tangs eat nori like crazy. You can get the unseasoned seaweed from asian market for very cheap. I got mine from Goden Gate market in Quincy, it was something like 500 sheets for $10.

Wow, I will have to find an Asian market closer to me. I think I paid $4 or so for 10 sheets. I cut it up into strips about 1.5"x3" and put one on the clip each time I feed.

 

[MrX]

A little earlier tonight I was just crouched in front of the DT with the lights turned off in the room. The only lighting was from the moonlights on my leds. I was admiring the colors of the corals and just looking around. I started to wonder where the Yellow Tang was. A second later it came around the corner, swam by me, and darted behind the clamshell ledge to the back of the tank.

As I watched it stopped and the cleaner shrimp jumped out of his cave (under the old clamshell ledge) and onto the back of the Yellow Tang. It proceeded to climb around the Tang: back, sides, head, mouth, eyes. Now, I know this is what cleaner shrimp are supposed to do, but it was so cool to watch!! If nothing else, I figured it would be some time before the YT and CS were comfortable enough with each other to have this happen.

The YT swam around the back of the tank and darted past me. I thought I saw something on its eye and was trying to get a better look. After a couple more passes it was like it knew I wanted to look closer at it. It stopped right in front of me and swam slowly back and forth for close to 20-30 seconds. I'm sure it was: a) couldn't really see me, b) wondering what the big bald shadow was looking at, or c) waiting for me to feed it some Tang-Crack!

Probably not very exciting to some of you that have been in this hobby for a while, but it made my night.

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

That is awesome. I really love when fish do what they do in nature. Something as simple and common as a clown hanging out in its nem is enough to make me stop and watch every single time. Same with the cleaner shrimp doing its job!

 

[FinsUp!]

Ha Tien market on Park Ave in Worcester sells nori

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[dz6t]

Freeze dry Cyclopeeze (sp?) is also like crack to fish.

 

[MrX]

Came home from the meeting today with a bunch of new stuff:

- 10g tank raffle prize. DaughterX is using it as a betta tank
- Corals: German Blue Montipora Digitata, Pink Birdsnest, John Coppolino's Prickly Blue Stag, 11 polyps of bright pink zoas w/yellow mouth, 2 polyps Rasta, Tricolor, Tyree toadstool, Tubbs Blue, and a mushroom. I'll try and get some pictures in a couple days once they settle in.
- Some chaeto for the sump
- Not to mention fish-goo!

All in all a good meeting.

 

[jeremy052274]

Sweet, that's quite a haul! I've got that same digi and like it a lot. Looking forward to seeing them in their new home!

 

[MrX]

Went down to put a stocking over the drains for the night to catch some of the bigger stuff floating around. Noticed the timer for my sump light had gone off (as it should have) and I just looked into the sump to see how the chaeto was doing. Next to the ball of green I saw something on the sandbed... at first I thought it was just some chaeto that had fallen off. Grabbed my flashlight and looked... nope, not chaeto. The biggest 'thing' was a 2-3" bristle-worm... gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about how many times I've had my hands in there. Also saw 2-3 smaller worms, or maybe just pods; they disappeared pretty quickly.

Time to start wearing the gloves more consistently!

 

[MrX]

Sunday I went to check out Aquatic Wildlife in Manchester, CT. Pretty nice store, lots of marine and freshwater supplies and live stock. While I was there I picked up two sand-sifter starfish.

3-4" sand-sifter:

2-3" sand-sifter:

Both were drip acclimated and went into the DT. The larger one dug right into the sand and was hidden within minutes. The smaller one crawled across the sand/glass from the back to the front and then disappeared.

Since Sunday I've seen the big one come out once the lights go off; and I could "see" his position in the sand. I hadn't really seen the small one.

This morning I found the small one partially against the front glass, pretty much melted. I got what I could of it out of the tank, took some pictures of the state of both (big one still looks perfect).

When I bought them the small one was 1/2 the size of the other, missing a leg, and a tip of another looked like it was coming off (can kinda see what I mean in the picture above). I should have refused that one to begin with; lesson learned.

I know I don't have a lot of 'life' in the sandbed yet so I've been making sure to put a little food on the sand figuring they would get that. Fingers crossed the remaining one continues to do ok.

 

[MrX]

Did a full set of tests on the DT, well, for what I have anyways:

pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Calcium: 440-460
Carbonate Hardness / Alkalinity: 8.2-9.0 / 2.96-3.18
Magnesium: 1410-1440

Should I be worried that the ALK is a little high? Salifert test kit says it should be between 7-8/2.5-2.9. What can I do to keep this in range? My bi-weekly water change of approximately 50 gallons is due this coming Sunday.

Any other suggestions for these parameters?

 

[MrX]

No updates for a while because I'm letting the system mellow a bit. Well, that, and my wallet needs a break.

I did go visit Dong (dz6t) again last Saturday and got some pointers on coral placement and such. Couldn't drive all the way up there and come home empty handed so I picked up a few new pieces:

- Rock with 30+ polyps of Watermelon zoas
- Yellow Canary Porites
- Larry Jackson
- Small piece of rubble with some pulsing xenia and a blue mushroom

Tonight I was checking out the tank with a magnifying glass and saw something that I thought might be a majano. Upon closer examination I found an aptasis on the bottom/back of the same rock and started to think the first thing I saw was a feather duster.

Here's the pics I posted in my 'Pest Id Please' thread:

I pulled the rock out, scraped off the aptasia, and then put some gel super glue over the spot where it was. After letting it cure for about 30 seconds I put the rock back into the tank. Hopefully the feather duster can still do its thang.

Any time now I should be able to pick up my Banggai Cardinals from Kiah. Then it's time to figure out what else I'd like to see in the DT. I'm thinking some Lyretail Anthais, Barnacle Blennies, and maybe some Purple Firefish.

ETA - No more sand-sifters in the tank. The larger one that looked perfectly healthy started to melt like a week or so after the first one did. I took it out and got rid of it before it could pollute my tank. Not sure if it was due to them being sick before I got them, my water conditions (everything is within range and everything else is doing well), or just the age/depth of the sand was lacking.

 

[MrX]

Did a water test on the DT tonight:

pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Calcium: 460
Carbonate Hardness / Alkalinity: 7.2dKH / 2.6meq/L
Magnesium: 1350-1380

This weekend we should be picking up our Banggai Cardinal pair from Michele (Kiah) at Oceanus the Inland Reef. Kids are all excited! The QT is topped off and ready for the new arrivals.

Debating on going a little longer than 2 weeks between water changes. So far I've been doing about 50-55 gallons every two weeks. Wondering if this is overkill; and lessening the amount of salt I'm going through would be beneficial to my wallet. Opinions?

Another question, how often do you all do full tests like this? Every water change?

 

[Duff485]

Reading through your build, it looks like you have about 200 gallons of actual water (aka the sump area isn't running full). That being said, you are doing about a 25% water change every two weeks which IMO is overkill.

Its all very subjective of course, like everything in this hobby. Things like how much bioload and how good your skimmer is will make an impact. I have a small tank with a moderate bioload and a good skimmer and I do about 10% every two weeks, sometimes even less.

I hadn't tested for ammonia, nitrite, our nitrate for about a year until just recently when my anemone spawned and clouded my tank. I would test the QT daily though if you have no filtration.

 

[beelezebubba]

i would agree, as long as your nitrates aren't climbing you could prolly cut your water changes in half (either by amount changed or frequency).

 

[MrX]

Thanks peeps. All my levels appear to be stable; I have a light bio-load at this point and my skimmer is doing a great job (when I realize I have to cleam the supply pump intakes!). Instead of doing my bi-weekly water change Sunday I think I'll wait another week and check the levels again.

Now if I could just get my temps to stay consistent... dropped from mid-78s to low 77s. I have three heaters total: 2x 250W and 1x 300W. I was only using two of them. One in the sump (300W), one in the frag tank (250W). My thinking was that keeping them in the basement would heat the water, if needed, that theoretically is cooler than upstairs. If I look at the Apex graph for the past 4 days the temp has ranged between 77.1 and 80.7. What do I have to do to keep the temp level?!?!

Right now I the DT is reading 77.6, I have the other 250W in there to bring the temp back up a bit.

 

[Matt W]

What is the acceptable temperature variance in systems of this volume. +/- 0.6 F seems pretty good to me.

 

[MrX]

What is the acceptable temperature variance in systems of this volume. +/- 0.6 F seems pretty good to me.

I've heard everything from 1 degree is too much of a swing to 2-3 degrees shouldn't be a big deal (as long as it's a slow swing). Not sure where the +/-0.6F you mention comes from, but I'd prefer not to have a 3-4 degree swing over a couple days; 1-2 of the over night.

 

[MrX]

Yesterday we picked up our new babies, two Banggai Cardinals from Michele (kiah) at Oceanus The Inland Reef. They were just born in February so they literally are babies. They are hanging out in the QT tank for a while longer before we introduce them to the DT.






Temperature update: The other night I had an epiphany. My controller was set up to only run the power heads for a total of 10 minutes every half hour overnight to provide a "quieter" environment for the residents to rest. This had the adverse effect of allowing the DT temperature to fall throughout the night. I've changed my outlet configurations so now the pumps run for 20 minutes every 30 minutes and the temp seems to have stabalized. I'll have to give it some time and make sure its working as expected.

 

[Matt W]

I've heard everything from 1 degree is too much of a swing to 2-3 degrees shouldn't be a big deal (as long as it's a slow swing). Not sure where the +/-0.6F you mention comes from, but I'd prefer not to have a 3-4 degree swing over a couple days; 1-2 of the over night.

Sorry should read "+/- 1.8 F"

 

[beelezebubba]

that's crazy that your powerheads create that much heat

is the temp stable in the sump where the heaters are?

the cardinals look great