Nick's 75 Gallon Mixed Reef Journal

[nkd5024]

Hey everyone, I am finally getting around to starting this topic. I have been planning this tank upgrade for about 3 months and finally got it setup about 3 weeks ago.

All the live rock I used for the tank was either dry live rock from a previous tank or live rock from my 30 gallon reef that I'm upgrading from.
All the rock from the 30 gallon reef was boiled and cycled in a 55 gallon tank for around a month before adding to the tank.
I have around 50 pounds of rock in the tank right now but am waiting to add more to give the other rock more time to cycle.

I don't have a camera other than on my phone which I dropped in one of the tanks of live rock, so I can't even take pictures with that.

I have a nice amount of frags that I think everyone will enjoy seeing when I get my dads NIkon D70 over the weekend.
I went a little over board at the past two frag swaps and came home with around 25 frags each time,

As far as my setup, I have a 75 gallon reef ready aquarium with a single corner overflow.
Flow is provided by a Vortech MP40 currently running Nutrient Transport Mode.
Flow is also provided by the return pump, a mag drive 9.5 which pumps around 700 gph after the five feet of head.
I have a reef octopus protein skimmer that has finally broken in and started removing organics.
I also have two, two little fishes phosban reactor 150's, with one running carbon and the other running GFO.
Light is provided by two 250 watt metal halide pendants running 14K Phoenix bulbs.
I am planning to add either actinic T5's or PC's to add some blue; mainly for my pleasure.
I am using flex PVC for all the pumping which is A LOT nicer to work with than normal PVC.
I have a refugium in the center of my sump with Chaetomorpha and Caulerpa macroalgae.

I am using a 30 gallon as a quarantine tank for any coral entering my system. Not sure if I am going to quarantine fish or not though.
As I said I don't have a camera currently, but if you guys want a list of coral frags I have let me know and I'll post one!

I will post more as things happen,
Nick D.

 

[seffieuk]

So, whats happening, we are waiting.............

 

[nkd5024]

Alright, so as of now I still have half of my frags in quarantine.

I also added 7 zoanthid frag and a new acropora into quarantine!
I found an awesome new fish store 45 minutes away from my house.
They have a huge selection of fish, colony sized corals from the reef, and frags!
Not many fish stores around me sell frags and those who do don't sell nice sps ones.

If your interested I can post a list of the frags I have right now or you can wait until I get ahold of a camera so you can see all of them, its up to you guys.

I just noticed a new baby head on my duncan frag!
All the corals in my display are coloring up very nicely!

I am trying to figure out the best way to supplement my 250watt 14K metal halide lighting with actinic bulbs.
I have a 48" power compact fixture with 4 21" bulbs that I want to split into two different fixtures and use actinic bulbs.
I need to find something to make a new housing out of to put the other 2 bulbs into.

Do you guys think it would be worth it to buy T5's for actinic supplements or to make a DIY 3 watt Cree LED lighting supplement?
I don't want to tank to look really blue, I just want enough to make the colors of my corals POP!

What do you guys think?

Nick D.

 

[seffieuk]

We are interested, so list please

I have just bought two blue aquarays for the very same reason - well for my nems

 

[nkd5024]

haha alright I will give a list of the corals I have.
I will try to take a few pictures later tonight with my phone and see how they turn out, maybe I can make them alright with photoshop?

Soft Corals/ Zoanthids:
-Kenya Tree
-Blue Mushroom
-24K morph zoa
-joker paly
-green people eater paly
-red people eater paly
-lunar eclipse paly
-green milky way zoa
-fire/ice zoa
-radioactive green paly
-candy apple red paly
-tubbs blue zoa
-nightmare paly
-radioactive dragoneye zoa
-fruitloop zoa
-magician paly
-zombie eye zoa
-Armor of god paly
-watermelon zoa

LPS:
-Sky blue leptastea
-Green leptastrea (unknown species)
-green/puple leptastrea that looks like joker palys
-green/light blue center leptastrea
-Teal Green/Gold polyps leptastrea
-neon green caulastrea
-brownish pink with green centers caulastrea
-green and purple frogspawn
-green hammer coral
-green/red/orange lava chalice
-red/green war coral (favia)
-purple/red/green favia
-red with green dust on the center favia
-Blastomussa Merletti
-Red/pink and bright green blastomussa wellsi
-green and purple blastomussa wellsi
-duncans
-teal pagoda cup
-red/yellow art monk goniopora

SPS:
-green psammocora
-meteor shower cyphastrea
-purple people eater cyphastrea
-green purple rimmed montipora cap
-common green/purple montipora undata
-jedi mind trick montipora undata
-bali tri-color acropora
-ORA pearlberry acropora
-green/purple rimmed acropora efflo
-sunset montipora
-true superman montipora
-grinch montipora
-purple haze montipora
-rainbow montipora
-purple milka stylophora from belgium
-green birdsnest
-green pocillopora damicornis
-montipora setosa
-brown with mint green polyp stylocoeniella
-ORA chocolate chip montipora
-green with light blue polyps montipora cap

Fish:
1x Yellow Tailed Damselfish
1x Royal Gramma

I have about half of the frags in quarantine for another week.
I also need a few more fish, haha

I will try to post a few pictures tonight.
btw almost all of the corals I have a still frag sized

Nick D.

 

[nkd5024]

Update:

I just did some basic water tests and here are my results.

I am using crappy API test kits for everything except alk, ca, and mg which I have tropic marin test kits.
No3 = undetected
Po4 = undetected
Alk = 7dkh
Ca = 456ppm
mg = 1600ppm

So my alk is a little low which it seems to be the trend which I blame my salt for.
My calcium seems to be just fine.
Is my magnesium reading even possible?!?!
I know the basic of what magnesium does in a reef but can too much be bad?

What I know about magnesium is that it allows larger than normal quantities of calcium to be dissolved in the saltwater, so low magnesium causes calcium precipitation.
but I've never heard of anything bad occurring because of too high magnesium, maybe my test kit was inaccurate?
I need to pick up some alkalinity dosing stuff which will probably be by seachem since I have an unopened bottle of calcium dosing stuff from them.
Now I finally get to learn how to dose them in a balanced way, maybe i'll just buy a balanced formula or something.

What do you guys think?

I really need to get salifert or some quality testing equipment, I just have a hard time paying $20 for each salifert test when I could save the money and get an apex to test everything for me!

Nick

 

[-Nemo-]

I have heard of people using high magnesium levels, around 1600ppm like you have, to fight algae and it seems to be successfully done. This is done temporarily with no bad side effects, I'm not sure if long term would be a problem or not. Would have it double checked first.

 

[nkd5024]

I have done a bit of research on magnesium and it seems that high magnesium levels just allow higher calcium and alkalinity levels if you add too much supplements.
I am thinking it was test or human error and I will retest the magnesium tomorrow.

Nemo - where did you hear about this? This sounds interesting I'd like to check it out if you have a link?

I just did a water change on my quarantine tank and will do one on the display tomorrow morning.

I forgot to mention that I added some live mysis shrimp last night to my refugium. I can't wait for them to breed so I can dump some in the display to help clean!

Nick D.

 

[-Nemo-]

I am not sure exactly where I heard that originally, but I have ran across it multiple times. I'll PM you a link.

 

[nkd5024]

Nemo - Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

What are you using to dose calcium/alkalinity?
I am in the process of decided one what type of ca/alk regiment to use.

I was thinking about doing a two part regiment which seems to fit for my tank needs.
I like the two part over the singe part because if something happens and calcium and alkalinity get out of balance I can just add one and not the other to fix the issue.

I don't really like the idea of kalkwasser since my pH is already at 8.0 and I'd rather it be at 8.2 or so.
I like the fact that sodium bicarbonate raises pH as well as alkalinity so thats a plus to the two part dosing systems.

I do like calcium reactors and they seem quite efficient, although I don't like the risk of pH dips.
I also would rather not have to keep buying CO2 and the media which is pretty expensive.

What are all of your opinions on the subject?

Nick D.

 

[nkd5024]

So I just ordered the B-ionic 2 part calcium buffer system.
I also got the salifert calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, and pH test kits.
I only have the API ones and they are so bad I might as well throw them away!

I also picked up a bottle of refractometer calibration fluid, as I have been using RO water to calibrate it around once every 4 months or so.
I've heard most people find that their refractometer has been reading a lot higher than it should, upwards of 0.004 higher!!!

I need to get a decent nitrate and phosphate test kit as I think my levels of them are high but my API tests say its at 0ppm, HAHA
I don't think I let my live rock cycle long enough even though I gave it around 5 or 6 weeks.
I only put about half the live rock in the tank and figured I would give the other half of it another month or so to make sure its completely cycled first.

Nick D.

 

[nkd5024]

Well I ordered my stuff Monday morning and am still waiting.
My corals seem to be a little pissed this past week.
I just did a 15 gallon water change and the SG is at 1.025 according to my refractometer, although I need to calibrate it when I get my calibration fluid in the mail and we will see where its really at.

I am thinking about starting to dose vitamin C to take care of any No3 and Po4.
I don't think I would do it all the time, maybe just for 6 months or so until the tank is more settled.

LPS corals are growing though, so I don't know whats going on, I really need those test kits!!
My Duncan frag I got a month ago already grew from one head to three although the new two are still about half sized.

Nick D.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh I hate waiting for things to arrive

 

[nkd5024]

I agree it is terrible.

Everything finally came but apparently at 3 a.m. when I ordered everything I forgot to add the salifert Alk test to my shopping cart before placing the order!
So now I have to wait even longer for it, haha.

I have decided to try out Vitamin C dosing as Steph has for her tank.
I ordered the same product she has been using and I am hoping to achieve similar results.

I just remembered that I still have no pictures up on this journal so I will try and get some up this week sometime.

Nick D.

 

[seffieuk]

Look forward to the photos and info on yoyur vit c dosing

Seffie c