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7K views 63 replies 11 participants last post by  elephen 
#1 ·
Well first off I'll tell about my system and the madness behind it...

Initially it was setup last September and was BB. Everything was great with it until I really started slacking over this last spring and summer. I didn't really do anything to it for quite sometime and it was just in sad shape.

As the colder winter months returned I was indoors more and finally paid attention what sad sore condition my tank was in.

Needless to say what I did next was probably one of the dumbest things I have ever done. I was very burnt out with the tank and just wanted it to do okay by itself without any help from me - yeah right. So I picked up some sand and put it in the tank hoping that would make it easier to get under control (yes dumbest thing I've ever done :freak:). From that point on plaguing algae on every surface within the tank, nitrates through the roof but on 3 seperate phosphate test kits it keep reading 0. I tried everything possible and out there and nothing got the nitrates low. I had lost ALL my SPS, hair algae out the butt, all the snails died and so fourth.

After battling with this crap for nearly 2 months I came up with the notion that I'd start over from scratch. Probably the smartest idea I had with this tank so far besides the initial decision to go BB.

The new tank is 110% BB. It took me right at a week to clean out the old tank and sump, good enough to feel comfortable with filling it back up with good fresh clean 0.00 TDS RO/DI water.

So I finally got it filled up and running this morning after a day and a half of filling it up. The water is a bit cloudy, you can still see through but a bit murkey. I put in the salt and got the salinity right at 1.024 and it was still a bit cloudy, cleared up a bit. Anyway I got my skimmer hooked up and running and its pulled some nice foam and gunk out of the water. My question is what in the heck is there to pull out? I mean I tested each batch of water I put into the tank and every single one read 0.00 on my digital TDS meter. The tank was also very clean, some residue left on the glass from the dried water I presume or possibly the vinegar/rodi solution I used to clean it with.

Anyway I'll post pictures of my progress and what not.

Picture of the tank pre-algae invasion, post-sand addition.


Empty tank with my new suspended lighting




Here is a picture of it with the cloudy water just tanken from my MacBook Pro.


A shot of the Bullet skimmer working to pull out some gunk.


Here are the specs on the tank:
120g AGA RR Tank 4x2x2
2 x Tunze 6100 Streams
1 x 7095 Multicontroller
1 x Pan World 150-PS (pressure rated) powering 2 eductors
Precision Marine Bullet-3 Skimmer powered by a Pan World 150-PS
250w 20k Radiums in Reef Optix I pendants powered by a SLS BlueWave 7 dual 250w HQI ballast
36" Super Atinic VHOs
Neptune ACIII Controller

I'll be using Randy's 2 part mix to keep Ca and Alk in check.
 
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#2 ·
I should be picking up the LR this next week. It'll be Fiji or Marshall, not real sure but it will be a very minimal amount. 40-50 lbs. I'd like 2 small little piles and TONS of open room. I love the look of the open Japanese BB-style tanks. Spanky's and Leonardy's tanks here also are very awesome and it is something I would like to emulate in my tank.
 
#3 ·
Elephen, this is very exciting! Nice to see your build thread from the very start! Keep pics and thoughts coming its nice to follow along. Don't know why your pulling stuff off with the skimmer, but probably residual off the tank and sump walls, weeel maybe-who knows, not me, maybe some of the big guys, but at least its nice to know the skimmers working :)
 
#5 ·
Yeah the skimmer rocks, out of all the skimmers that I have ever owned nothing comes close to what this makes.

Hopefully this week I can pickup some LR, I have to call my buddy and see when and what he can get in. I don't want much though, a couple of large porous chunks, 40-50lbs.
 
#10 ·
Very nice restart! I'm sure it will be beautiful. Try to get the largest pieces of LR. Then you can glue all your SPS direct on it.

Good Luck!

Leonardo
Hopefully I'll be able to find maybe 2 bigger 10-18lb peices that have real nice shapes to them and just use those.

From a biological/bacterial standpoint, will that small of a surface on the LR provide enough to keep the tank good?

I am going to use some of the Prodibio additives along with a few ZEO suppliments (Start2, Bak7 and once corals go into the tank, Spur2, AAHC and possibly Pohl's CV).
 
#12 ·


My MacBook Pro's camera doesn't take good pictures with the Radiums. I picked up 35 lbs (4 chunks) of Marshall Island rock last night. I'm going to leave it in the tank for a few weeks and do a bit of cleaning as the rock as a tad bit dirty.
 
#22 ·
looking great elephen ! i think you will really like the less is more approach.

I think you are correct. My rock has some built up crap and I pointed the penductors right on the rock to keep it suspended. My skimmer is doing a fantastic job but I'm thinking I need to up my return pump so I can process the tank volume a bit quicker then with a Mag 9.

Anyway I pointed the penductors down behind the rock so the flow was underneath the rock and man it blew any crap towards the corners and the front to allow me to siphon it out. Plus if I have to move around the rock, there are 4 peices... E A S Y :)
 
#27 ·
Get some GFO. It will pull the PO4 out of the rock and water. After a couple of weeks, after cycling, you can remove it.

After that:

There are different opinions about using GFO in a established tank ;) I use it in small quantities without problems.

Leonardo
I have a whole 1/2 liter tub of ROWA that somehow got sent to me - I never ordered it but merry xmas I guess???

Should I run it actively (in a Phosban reactor) or passivley (in a bag in the sump)
 
#28 ·
I tested my Phosphates just a second ago. According to my salifert kit it is 0.1-0.25, it is hard to tell since the blue looks almost identical to me.

I'm getting ready to test Nitrate and Nitrite to see how the initial cycle is coming along.
 
#30 ·
I guess that would be the medium range results where you place the vial on the white part of the color chart and compare looking down from the top. The medium range is 2-100mg/L.

Low range is for 0.2-10mg/L so obviously my Nitrates are 25ppm. This would be due to the dirty rock? The skimmer is rocking and removing lots and there is no detritius anywhere on the bottom of the tank or under the rocks. There is AMPLE room underneath each rock for lots of flow (I have the eductors pointed down to blow underneath the rock).
 
#36 ·
If you are "cooking" the rock in the tank, you are doing the same thing I did with my 120 about two years ago.

I bought cured live rock from the lfs, put it in the tank, hooked up the skimmer, pumps, temperature controller, etc. and kept the tank in the dark for about six weeks. I didn't really care about nitrate or nitrite or any of that stuff, because at the end of the six week period I did an 80% water change.

About the only thing I kept track of was whether stuff was sheading off the rock. As soon as there was nothing but little grains of sand on the bottom of the tank, I knew I was done.


Since you are only a little over a week into the process, you, probably, have about a month to go before you are done.
 
#37 ·
If you are "cooking" the rock in the tank, you are doing the same thing I did with my 120 about two years ago.

I bought cured live rock from the lfs, put it in the tank, hooked up the skimmer, pumps, temperature controller, etc. and kept the tank in the dark for about six weeks. I didn't really care about nitrate or nitrite or any of that stuff, because at the end of the six week period I did an 80% water change.

About the only thing I kept track of was whether stuff was sheading off the rock. As soon as there was nothing but little grains of sand on the bottom of the tank, I knew I was done.

Since you are only a little over a week into the process, you, probably, have about a month to go before you are done.
Pretty much what I am doing as far as letting it sit in the dark. The atinics come on only to light up my cube next to it that is temporarly holding my fish.

About how much longer do you think before I should begin to see some shedding? My skimmer is removing some good skimmate but hardly any at all accumulations on the bottom of the tank. I have a Pan World 150-PS running 2 eductors that blow underneath the rocks along with a Tunze 6100 Stream on Pulse, 100/0.

I go in there every few days and blow off the rock and not a whole lot comes off of them. These rocks were sitting in the dark with no light for about a year, just in some dirty water as the holding tank they were in only had 1 or 2 water changes that hole year.
 
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