240g Tank Restoration

[Hellsangelbx]

Looking good keep up the great work

[Tcook]

What's your fish list for that tank?

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[PaulieReef]

Originally Posted by Tcook

What's your fish list for that tank?

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Nothing crazy as of right now, going to kind of go with the flow. Never had a tank this big so plenty of options.

Right now I know I want a unique clown pair, yellow tang, bristletooth tang, lawn mower blenny, marandarin, cleaner shrimp, goby.

[PaulieReef]

Cant insert the video here it seems, but below is a video to the tank after the hurricane and the second video is the two new additives, since they survived the hurricane, why not name them Marco and Laura

Tank


Marco and Laura


Once again, lights are only on for the video

[PaulieReef]

So just to keep things updated, no pics as we are currently nothing worth showing.

However, I setup the APEX a lot better, added some leak detection and added the breakout box with a float switch for the skimmate collection cup for the protein skimmer.

[PaulieReef]

We officially cycled boys! Now time for a big water change and let the fun begin.



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[PaulieReef]

So ph: 7.97, dkH: 6.8, alk: 410, mag: 1400. Do I 2 part dose to raise alk and calc which should raise ph? Or do I raise ph another way and hope it raises dkH and calc

Salinity is 1.025


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[PaulieReef]

Tang continues to be a little bully. So we put a mirror up. Hopefully this solves the aggression.

[PaulieReef]

Tank coming along, mirror trick did the job with the tang, all fish are fat. Will be adding more fish soon.

[ausndani]

Sweet setup and i love Dr tims its magic sauce for tanks

[PaulieReef]

Originally Posted by ausndani

Sweet setup and i love Dr tims its magic sauce for tanks

I actually had issues with dr time and switched to another product that worked wonders, Turbo Start.

I will say though I got Dr Tims from a crap LFS and I got Turbo Start from a way better LFS that had it refrigerated and looked not out dated.

[Axel33]

Nice rockwork. Wanna see some corals now.

[neo1738]

Great tank and rock work. Love to see an update too.

[PaulieReef]

Alright, been awhile since an update, where do I even begin.



So tank is slowly coming together, got some test coral to see what the tank could handle. The test coral was a mix of Zoas, orange tip torch, 2x bird nest sps, 2x hammers. Everything was going great but eventually the sps both died. The rest of the coral were doing great. I tested all my parameters and everything was in line with being good, undetectable phosphates (not low range), ammonia zero, nitrate low, ammonia and nitrite both zero. Alk 8.5, Calc 450, Mag 1450, Salinity 1.026, temp 78-79 every once and awhile jumps to 80.

I do have algae, which might be hiding a phosphate problem.

Ever since the sps died, I started dosing vodka daily (around 2.5 ml a day currently) and slowly increasing it until the extra algae dies off. Also dosing flatworm stop daily just because. I know its stupid, but have heard good t hings about it bringing out color in corals so figured I would try it.

Started adding Kalk to my ATO and stopped dosing two part for now. This seems to have helped with my lower Ph, originally around 7.75 now around 7.95) and has help me keep a more stable Alk and Calc.



Also got some additional fish. I have gotten another cleaner shrimp, 2x conches and 1x male Anthias, 4x female Anthias.



After all that, I got phosphates under control and decided to do a big haul of coral for round 2.



Corals below:

Mammoth Candy Cane (died)

Hollywood Stunner Chalice

JF Burning Banana

Tyree Aequituberculata

Rising Sun Chalice

CC Cloudberry Chalice

Rainbow Acan

JF Jack-O-Latern

TSA Merlot Merletti

Space Invader Chalice






So far things are looking pretty good, corals have extended polyps but we shall see.



FINALLY, I had a tang overhaul too. This happened yesterday. Tank went from just having a yellow tang, to Yellow Tang, Powder Brown Tang, Hippo Tang and a Sailfin Tang. Had a lights out last night and they are doing well.



Pictures to come of all the fish, corals in tank and how the tank looks today. Waiting to find some pieces to the tripod so I can breakout the DSLR and take some good macro shots of the tank.

Thanks for listening to my TedTalk, more updates to come.

[aikenreefkeeper]

Nice build.

Following along.

[PaulieReef]

Currently having a severe ich outbreak. All tangs are effected and my hippo tang is covered from head to toe.

In my older builds I tried hydrogen peroxide treatment to help kill the ich.

Starting 60ml of hydrogen peroxide when lights go out and before lights go on in the morning.

This is also good because hydrogen peroxide is also suppose to help get rid of cyano bacteria and additional nuisance algae.

Finally started my phyto and pod cultures today. Very excited to start dosing live food and supplementing pods.

Once established plan on starting rotifers too.






More updates to come.

[PaulieReef]

As of about ten minutes ago, we have a UV Sterilizer installed!

Most fish are doing well, but the hippo tang is in trouble. All the tanks have a few spots 2-10, but the hippo tang is 50-100. Have them UV sterilizer running at low flor per recommendation of the manufacturer.

Had a heater malfunction in my premix that I was going to use to do a water change. Came home 50g of water near boiling.

So no water change right now. Ordering a new heater.

Plan is to keep the fish well fed and let the UV run for the next couple days/weeks to lower the ich population to allow for the tangs to get a better immunity to fight them.

Also have multiple cultures setup now. Currently have 2x phyto, tiger, rotifers, tisbee and cyclops pods going.

I stated dosing daily rotifers and phyto at night and seeded the tank with tisbee, tiger and cyclops.

More updates to come over the next couple days/weeks with the ich and cyano/algae situation.

[Thadcastle54]

Just read through this whole thread. Amazing progress. It’s nice to see each step of the process play out. I converted my 65 to a 180 at the start of the pandemic back in March and I should have logged my progress and took more pics. I honestly didn’t think of it. Congratulations on your hard work. What’s going on with the ich now? How are the fish doing? Do you have an idea what the cause was? Good luck with everything!

[PaulieReef]

Originally Posted by Thadcastle54

Just read through this whole thread. Amazing progress. It’s nice to see each step of the process play out. I converted my 65 to a 180 at the start of the pandemic back in March and I should have logged my progress and took more pics. I honestly didn’t think of it. Congratulations on your hard work. What’s going on with the ich now? How are the fish doing? Do you have an idea what the cause was? Good luck with everything!

Looks like it might be velvet. Fish are surviving for now. Got the uv running and hoping for the best.


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[aikenreefkeeper]

Really nice build. I am following along.

[PaulieReef]

So quick little update, lost an Anthia to either ich/velvet or bullying. Had some, what looked like, discoloration on its side, so not sure what killed it. I am noticing other fish getting ich/velvet (looking more like velvet as there are many spots/dusting) now instead of just the tangs. Been hydrogen peroxide dosing 60ml every 12 hours, doesn't seem to be doing anything, and running my 40 watt UV on low flow setting. I think the infestation is too big for the UV to keep up. Ordered some PolyLab Medic as a last ditch effort.

Also got mysis shrimp to help keep the fish eating, I noticed a few lost some appetite. Been using garlic to help entice them to eat. Have Selcon rush delivered, hoping to get it early next week. Setting up for a big water change, just to get some fresh water in there (50g), sadly I had water ready and my heater exploded came back to the 50g drum boiling.

Oddly all the coral look great, the hydrogen peroxide seemed to have fixed my algae issues and the cyano in the display went nearly away.

More updates later this week.

[PaulieReef]

Velvet has claimed 2 Anthias, one male and one female. The tangs all seem to recovering great.

Switched my dosing of the peroxide to go directly into the display tank and leave all power heads off (return pumps on) for about 1-2 hours.

The population seems to have greatly reduced since starting this.

I upped my dosage from 60ml every 12 hours to 90ml.

Sadly medic got lost in the mail and waiting for another package.

Selcon comes today which I am hoping will help the remaining anthias going to coat some mysis shrimp in them and hope to get the anthias to eat some.

[PaulieReef]

Christmas went well.



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[reef-newbie-11305]

nice.... yes i'd say Christmas went very well. Any new pictures of the tank?

[PaulieReef]

Originally Posted by reef-newbie-11305

nice.... yes i'd say Christmas went very well. Any new pictures of the tank?

Currently fighting a serious cyano outbreak. Will post some in a week or so.

Little update.
Cleaned up the sump a little and build. A shelf In the middle to hold the dos, trident and hold the algae scrubber!




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