56 gallon column build (last chance)

[Nebthet]

Glad to hear things are coming along.. I hear you on the cyano issues.. I get it every summer in my tank. It is a pain in the but.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Glad to hear things are coming along.. I hear you on the cyano issues.. I get it every summer in my tank. It is a pain in the but.

Thanks, appreciate all the support along the way. Yeah I am going to try to do a larger water change this weekend, vacuum the sand and try some chemi clean from a local reefer to reduce the cyno the best I can. Should be getting some new frags tomorrow and will post pics when I can.

[Nebthet]

Did you get those new frags in? pics? How is the cyano bloom coming along?

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Did you get those new frags in? pics? How is the cyano bloom coming along?

I am still struggling with a cyno bloom and did get some new frags (kenya tree, GSP, war favia, orange monti cap) and will post some pics when I can. My son was born on Thursday and we just got home from the hospital today so we are all trying to rest a bit. Will have pics of both soon........

[reeftanknewbie]

So I and the family are adjusting well to our new little frag....The tank is doing ok but I had a major cave in on the aquascaping and am planning to redo it this time with epoxy....Here are some well overdo pics for you all.

, , , ,

[reeftanknewbie]

So it's been a whole week now since the wife and I and our new frag have been home from the hospital. We all are doing well and the tank is coming along through it's cyno bloom. I continue weekly water changes and remove as much of the stuff as I can each time...not fond of dosing chemicals.....

[Nerd1717]

Originally Posted by reeftanknewbie

So it's been a whole week now since the wife and I and our new frag have been home from the hospital. We all are doing well and the tank is coming along through it's cyno bloom. I continue weekly water changes and remove as much of the stuff as I can each time...not fond of dosing chemicals.....

Haha!

Congrats!

[Greenmaster]

Congratulations I got 2 of my own... only they are both girls.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nerd1717

Haha!

Congrats!

Thanks....

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by reeftanknewbie

Thanks....

Originally Posted by Greenmaster

Congratulations I got 2 of my own... only they are both girls.

Thanks...your girls are very cute...have been following your build thread...nice tank....

[reeftanknewbie]

So I am continuing to have issues with my frags falling off of the rocks and rocks falling down. Thought my aquascape was secure, and it was, but now am having issues. Thinking about buying some epoxy but not sure what to get. I am not a fan of the pet brands stuff and prefer to use the same stuff without the fish logo on it that makes it cost much more then without. Does anyone know what type of marine epoxy I could use to secure my aquascaping?

[reeftanknewbie]

Finally got the cyno under control. Got admittedly discuraged and decided to reduce my maintenance on the tank. In doing so, the cyno melted away. Will be doing a water change today as I have added a frogspawn, orange zoas, orange ricordia and green polyps to the tank yesterday. WILL HAVE PICS WHEN I RETURN FROM TRAINING NEXT WEEK so please be patient with me.

[Nebthet]

Glad to hear you have the cyano under control. You are not the first person to learn that lessening tank maintenance at times actually reduces cyano because the good bacteria has enough time to populate and starve it out. You will get hard cores though that will come on down on you for it, but as long as your parameters are good and your corals and fish are happy, that is all that matters.

Can I make a recommendation for a next set of corals after this to add. Some Acan Lords. I got some last month and completely fell in love with them. They are a low to medium light coral and they grow quickly when fed. They come in an array of colors and patterns and are not too bad on cost when you buy them as frags.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Glad to hear you have the cyano under control. You are not the first person to learn that lessening tank maintenance at times actually reduces cyano because the good bacteria has enough time to populate and starve it out. You will get hard cores though that will come on down on you for it, but as long as your parameters are good and your corals and fish are happy, that is all that matters.

Can I make a recommendation for a next set of corals after this to add. Some Acan Lords. I got some last month and completely fell in love with them. They are a low to medium light coral and they grow quickly when fed. They come in an array of colors and patterns and are not too bad on cost when you buy them as frags.

As always, thanks for your efforts in following this thread and posting your extremely helpful feedback (keep it coming please). Summer has been slow for me with all of the new family responsibilities but I soon should develop a routine for them. I love the idea of adding Acans but steered away out of fear of their care. If they like low lighting, I have plenty of real estate in my sand bed but must keep space for a plate coral. sounds like I should be ready to try some soon when some money comes my way. I have to go back and look at some of the other corals you recommended to me as well. Have been obtaining corals on the barter system or from the kindness of local reefers who are helping me establish my tank.

[Nebthet]

Actual I find acan lords to be extremely easy to keep. With your lighting you can place them on your rockwork without any problems. I feed mine only once a week at first when I get them, after they have had a few days in my system and once I can see they are growing I have cut back their feeding to once every couple of weeks. They will take small pellets but I feed mine mysis shrimp.

You don't even have to feed them if you don't want to. Most people do indirect feedings when they add stuff like coral snow, reef roids or like me, coral accel to the tank. It is just the more you feed them the quicker they grow.

I think you will have great success with them. I know I am getting three more different colored frags in this week for my tank.

So if you get some for your tank, definately buy three to six head frags, and try not to spend any more than $40 for them unless they are the more crazier colors out there. Oh.. and keep with the acan lords because you can put a bunch of them together and as they grow they can touch each other. The echinatas cannot touch any of your other corals.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Actual I find acan lords to be extremely easy to keep. With your lighting you can place them on your rockwork without any problems. I feed mine only once a week at first when I get them, after they have had a few days in my system and once I can see they are growing I have cut back their feeding to once every couple of weeks. They will take small pellets but I feed mine mysis shrimp.

You don't even have to feed them if you don't want to. Most people do indirect feedings when they add stuff like coral snow, reef roids or like me, coral accel to the tank. It is just the more you feed them the quicker they grow.

I think you will have great success with them. I know I am getting three more different colored frags in this week for my tank.

So if you get some for your tank, definately buy three to six head frags, and try not to spend any more than $40 for them unless they are the more crazier colors out there. Oh.. and keep with the acan lords because you can put a bunch of them together and as they grow they can touch each other. The echinatas cannot touch any of your other corals.

Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I looked into them and they are filled with amazing colors. I have a couple of good LFS in my area along with clubs and will try to find a few frags to start. Will post some pics when I get them.

As far as the tank goes, I am considering making a few changes to my aquascaping. I think I am going to epoxy the rocks together as my turbos are like bulls in a china shop. I still have to mount the t5 lighting over the tank which I am hoping to do this or next weekend. I still have to put my bigger skimmer together but so far the mesh mod on my prizm is working great. I made a real crappy frag rack out of a drug rep info stand my the clinic I work in. Had my first near flood this morning as one of my turbos got into my overflow tube. I managed to prevent the flood as the sound of my return pump laboring woke me up. I am planning today to make a mesh guard to prevent future incidences.

[Nebthet]

Well it is a good thing that you were home to handle the near flood. It is always a good idea to have mesh guards over any overflow. Those turbo snails are known to be bulldozers, and will knock stuff over rather than go around it.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Well it is a good thing that you were home to handle the near flood. It is always a good idea to have mesh guards over any overflow. Those turbo snails are known to be bulldozers, and will knock stuff over rather than go around it.

Agreed,
I have made myself a mesh guard and will post some pics once I get some time later this week. Still am waiting on hanging my T5 lighting (just lazy I guess). Baby boy is getting big and is already 6 weeks old this week.

[reeftanknewbie]

Here are some new corals I added this week. Some are only on vacation while a friend of mines tank cycles. Thinking of adding a GFO/carbon reactor to the tank but have not decided on which one or ones. I like the dual reactor from BRS but have heard from some folks that it is better to run single units due to the different flows required for GFO and Carbon. would love to hear from others what they are using and their results before I buy. Here are some pics that are long overdue. The clowns are a mated pair tank raised from a great new LFS. My candycane frag is growing a 3rd head. Added a cabbage coral and devils hand to the tank. The very large pc of cabbage and kenya trees are the ones on vacation.
,,,,,,

[reeftanknewbie]

Did another water change today and tested my water. Here is my water parameters.
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
phosphate 0
alk 8
cal 400
temp 79
salinity 1.025
ph 8.2
Tank seems to be doing very well. I added another fish today for my wife (yellow tang....her favorite) along with some new corals. I already forgot most of their names already but I know there is some xenia, radioactive dragon eyes zoas, forgot the others, and a piece of green birds nest I believe. I am going to be adding a GFO/carbon reactor soon and get my other in sump skimmer going. Tell me what you think about the tank so far. And here is a pic of my son growing faster then any frag I have seen.

[Greenmaster]

Ya those things tend to grow fast... but be careful I hear they can be unsafe for reefs for like the first 10 years... You may want to closely supervise the "interactions" and intervene if necessary.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Greenmaster

Ya those things tend to grow fast... but be careful I hear they can be unsafe for reefs for like the first 10 years... You may want to closely supervise the "interactions" and intervene if necessary.

I think your right and will keep my eyes open.

[Nebthet]

Because your tank is mostly a softy tank, I would suggest to run the GFO more so than the carbon. I have heard of some people having issues being able to keep xenia and other softies with carbon in there tank, but others like me have no problem, but I use an old AC70 and not an actual reactor.
The tank is coming along nicely.

[reeftanknewbie]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Because your tank is mostly a softy tank, I would suggest to run the GFO more so than the carbon. I have heard of some people having issues being able to keep xenia and other softies with carbon in there tank, but others like me have no problem, but I use an old AC70 and not an actual reactor.
The tank is coming along nicely.

As always thanks. I never heard to stay away from carbon when having softies. The softies in here are just on vacation until a friend of mine's tank has cycled although I might keep a piece of one. The xenia, GSP, small kenya tree and maybe a piece of the cabbage coral will be all that I keep for softies. I am planning mostly zoas and ricordias with some sps and lps along the way. Have ordered a few acan lords from my LFS and am waiting for them to arrive.

[Nebthet]

I had never heard about it myself until this past week and it all seemed to be the one thing in common. I am not sure how much worth there is in it, but just keep an eye on the corals when you put carbon in the tank and see how they do.