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One thing I don’t do on these builds is take my time… The tank was delivered on March 19th and had 2 WAMAS members help me move it. This tank was much lighter than the last! I wasted no time cleaning it up and getting the RODI going. I replaced my pre-filters in hopes of providing the cleanest water I could. It took 3 and a half days to fill it. once it was filled, I ran some carbon and GFO in a reactor for about 12 hours to soak up anything left in the water or from the tank it’s self. After that, I added salt, let it mix over night then added the rock which has been cooking for about 3 weeks or so, along with some live sand. after I started noticing some pods and life running around the tank, all from the rock, I added a big piece of rock from my 38g. This will add more life, and has some corals stuck to it which will be a good indicator. It’s a rock I’ve had for about 10 years so full of coraline, sponges, brittle stars pods etc. it also has some Zoas and blue pavona(?) on it that will be my test corals. placement is not final, the center will be mostly open. I will add a little more rock, mostly lower stuff to keep LPS and Zoas off the sand bed Next week I should have my first batch of fish coming from ORA and helpfully my lights will get delivered.

The tank has shipped!! Woohoo Anyone nice enough to, and have the time during a week day to move this bad boy with me? guessing 1 strong and able human and myself could handle it but 2 or 3 would be nice. Not sure on delivery date yet. No stairs - I have dollys and an elevator. Also, its only 300 lbs, not 650lbs like my last tank, hahaha

So I reached out to Waterbox on why my tank had not shipping after 3 weeks even tho it said it was in stock. They said they were out of the white cabinet, so I could pick another color or they would give me 10% off the larger size. So, after careful consideration and discussion with my wife, I opted for the larger tank. Don't twist my arm, Waterbox! So, it will be larger, but not as deep as the old 170g. The dimensions are 60.5"x25.3"x22.6" vs the 59x19.5x21" of the 4' version. I had already ordered the newer Tunze turbella 9075 and Tunze 9410 DC skimmer... with the added volume and length of the tank, I think these should both be okay still. the Tunze 9075 is a LOT smaller than the 9105 which I had before so while a little weaker, it is a LOT smaller. So I may just need another powerhead. Hopefully it can manage 5' instead of 4'. I also have an old MP40 that I can use. The skimmer is rated for up to 317 gallons, so should be fine with a lighter bioload. I don't cram a lot of fish in my tanks and like to run my skimmer dry. I plan on a lot less rock in the tank, so hopefully that will make flow easier. Last thing is I really want to try to keep all fish tank bred: Yellow Tang Hippo Tang Convict (once Biota has them for sale as long as they are not crazy expensive like the potter's angel) skunk clowns damsels sand sifting gobys royal gramma mandarin

If you do sand, a Links goby from biota does an amazing job keeping the sand clean. They stay on the smaller size and sift all day long. I’ll be getting another soon

End up being similar or cheaper to light a big tank compared to radions since they can cover more space but yeah, they’re pricy. Should last forever tho since they use 5w LEDs but only drive them to 1.5W max, which keeps heat down too

Just got off the phone with ATI, turns out the Stratons were on clearance because they're updating the LED arrangement in the ATI Straton Pros to have less UV, Violet and Red and replacing those with more blue and royal blue which is awesome because the original did have a bit too much in those diodes. Excited to try the newest version out (I guess technically the third generation?)

Here's my current tank, where probably everything or at least most of what's in here will move over to the new tank. I need to start cooking some rock but probably only going to add a little more rock... haven't decided. I may just keep one of two of the rocks here and totally remake the scape, but still figuring that out. Some may stay in this tank as I move it over to where my desk is. I think this one will end up being a hybrid display with lots of frag racks.

Well, with some of the uncertainty in the area at the moment, the housing market is practically dead so we were not able to sell our condo... and the reason we wanted to sell just changed so we've decided to stay put until our daughter is ready for grade school. With that, I ordered a bigger tank without delay! we are probably only staying for another 2 years, so I didn't want to go as big as my last 170g tank, and want to keep this low key since I will need to move it in a couple years. So I ordered a Waterbox 80g peninsula tank 135g Infina 6025 peninsula tank. I originally wanted the 80g 4' tank just to keep it easier to move when we do decide to sell... but after checking why my tank had not shipped in 3 weeks, they said the stand was out of stock and offered me 10% off the larger size. Also, I hate the look of black backgrounds and overflow boxes in the middle of the tank, so the peninsula seemed like the best option for a pre-fab tank. WOOHOO! not sure how longs these take to deliver, but guessing 2-4 weeks? Also, after having the gen 1 ATI stratons for 4 years before, I couldn't do anything else. I have radions on my 40g and am not a fan of them. Now that I am going up to the larger tank that has 25" of depth, I changed my light order to 2 of the medium sized stratons. I remember the edges of my Red Sear Reefer 450 (5 foot tank)being a tad dim on the edges with 2 stratons, but the newer model supposedly has more spread and I don't plan on packing the edges. It wasn't bad so not worried. I was able to grow everything on the front and back of the 170g which was 30" so 2 over 60" should be fine. As far equipment, looking to keep this simple. 2 MP40s, heaters on a InkBird, return pump, UV, skimmer and dosing All-4-Reef on a versa doser. Manual testing, no controllers other than the InkBird. Stocking wise, I will keep my current corals for the most part - LPS and Leathers, but may want to get a few easier SPS in there for fun. I am going to keep the 38g FijiCube running as my frag tank/overstock tank. Always fun to to have a tank to mess around in.

I have a Nyos fish trap you can borrow. the one that uses magnet to stick the the glass and then you pull the dry side mag and makes the trap float to the top. Its the larger version so it may not work if you have a small tank. I have found a good trap for smaller fish is a mason jar, or any glass jar - take a ziplock bag, cut the corner of the bag a little larger than the fish, push a corner into the bag, rubber band, stick some mysis in there an wait. They can get in the jar but will be impossible to get out. It really helps if you starve them a few days. This helped for a wrasse that was too fast for the floating trap. Damsels are a little more skittish than wrasse so could take a few days. I have an example on this vid (which is time stamped to the right part. )

Looks like a cabbage leather coral (if soft) or turbinaria (if it has a hard skeleton)

I think the 2 best non-fish hair algae eaters are mexican turbo snails and tuxedo urchins. hermits will work but you need a TON of them. I am not a fan of using chemicals and had great success with Mexican Turbos.

I’ve used distilled water in a pinch. I remember Randy Holmes Farley saying people who used to worry that it had copper isn’t an issue in modern processes

I keep a return pump, extra power head and run 2 heaters so I guess one acts as a backup. I don’t have a lot of space so I don’t want to store a bunch of stuff, so just enough to key things going until I can run to a store to buy a replacement

That anemone is awesome! One day I would love to set up a clown and species specific anemone tank. Throw a big blue carpet and a red carpet together and a handful of wild-type ocellaris clowns.

Only big boy lights that I know of that don't have fans are ATI stratons, Phillips coral care and neptune sky (i think?) almost every other non-strip light will have fans. I am super happy with my ATI stratons, so if you're not worried about cost, they would be a good option. The new gen 2s are expensive, but they have one that is longer now and a single light would blanket your tank and would be tank upgrade friendly.

I would imagine the UV will not kill all waterborne bacteria as it doesn’t kill all the water at once but it may skew the results of what’s happening locally at the coral tissue/water barrier. Probably more effective to do the swab in this case vs water sample. Maybe the UV slows the spread as it can be weeks to months before I see the next coral have issues. I listened to Palleta on ReefBum talk about this and how Vibrio was killed off then another, more aggressive strain filled the empty path. Not sure what to go with at this point, maybe just a Hail Mary and see if something works. Or do nothing and hope for the best.

I have not, but wouldn’t running UV 24/7 kind of screw with the bacteria in water concentrations? Only thing I’m worried about with those are the price of running a couple tests and the lag time between ordering, sending back and waiting for results. I may try a bath for 3 colonies that have some issues now since I think I can remove those from the rock. Not all of my colonies are removable tho unfortunately.

Following

It's been a while since updating, and a lot has happened in the last several months. Things were going well, had Vic from World Wide Corals come and showcase my tank, along with a couple others here. @jhOU, @YHSublime and @PupChow were also visited during WWC's trip and more recently, Graham has his tank showcased while Vic and Lou were on their way to visit Jason Fox I believe. Anyways, that was a fun experience, and a week or two after that, I started noticing some STNing on select acropora. I know a couple people on here tune into my videos I put up on youtube, where I go into more detail, but long story short... I have had one after another acropora start a slow decline from the base up. Initially I found a cracked heater with a little water inside, which I figured was the culprit since my alk, calcium, pH, nitrates and phosphates have been stable as a rock for months. Coincidently I ran an ICP test which I got for free and turns out no major metals detected. My tank turned one years old, so here's a vid I made going over my tank over the year for those that may like a longer format forum. I plan on another update soon. Several months pass and still no smoking gun. I can't see any visible coral pests, which leads me to believe its an infectious bacterial infection. I even changed my RO membrane and filters just in case some chloramines were getting thru. I am changing from changing my membrane every 2-3 years to every year. and my pre filteres fromm every six months to every 3 months, even tho I only make about 150 gallons a month. When I cut healthy parts of the coral and dip in iodine, they cut frags have actually done well for the most part and are incrusting. Some colonies will have slow recession of the base from the edge inward while the whole colony still has healthy, visible growth tips. Alk consumption has not been affected. Coloration is largely unaffected. Most acros are still very colorful. So I think without intervention, I would loose most of my acropora. No other corals are affected. LPS, other non-acropora species and zoas are growing like mad as usual. Even about half of my acros are completely fine and growing super fast. My plan going forward is I am going to try an oxolinic acid treatment, which is an antibiotic like cipro, but a little more narrow scope, so shouldn't affect the biofilter too much and its not used in humans (most commonly used in Koi farming). Many stick heads said it stopped their STN and didn't have much in the way of side effects. I figure its worth a shot since I think I will continue to loose corals without doing anything!

I've found the cal solutions will drift over time, maybe from evaporating water?

Good post to raise awareness! I am done with refractometer calibration solution. When new, they are correct at 35 ppt, but over time they must evaporate water because they always go up. I had some corals doing poorly and wasn't sure why. Someone gave me some calibration solution with a refractometer they were getting rid of (nice to have backups) and I was like hey, this is 2 ppt too low... then i got to thinking, and got a third one brand new... it was 2 ppt low as well. I was frustrated with a pretty big difference in the 3 and bought the TM hydrometer and turns out my main calibration solution was 37 ppt instead of 35 ppt. I continued to use the new, correct fluid to spot check every week but thankfully if my refractometer comes back wonky, I compare the solution to my TM hydrometer. Sure enough, the third bottle drifted. conveniently enough, I run my tank at 77F so no temp compensations needed. Now I will calibrate my refractometer to my hydrometer every couple weeks. If my DT or my fresh mixed saltwater come back weird (they're usually consistent) I will spot check.

I had this happen to a nero 3. notorious for cracking on the inner motor. I think the plastic is so thin to keep it in a small size form factor. I had a few corals decline over the last few months and I am wondering if it was the cause. I think it was cracked for months as I heard it clicking but never bothered to look at the inner magnet around... I think Tunze seems to be the best at longevity but no plastic covered magnet will last forever. Check the magnet mount AND the pump motor area!!

I have a captive bred one and the only thing he aggressively flashes is me, which I am cool with. It was very cryptic when it was small but comes out more and more as it has grown. Slower eater at first and now eats readily out of the water column, but still not a huge eater since it doesn't actively swim a lot. I don't have shrimp, but doesn't bother snails or hermits, doesn't bother fish and is super cool. I always stop to watch when it comes out. Usually just pokes his head out of the cave all day. EDIT: I've also read mandarins have a toxic and bad tasting slime coat so many fish spit them out if they try to eat them.

To me, anything euphyllia with more than 5-6 polyps is a colony and any acro maybe 3 -4 inches or more depending on type (like stags would be a little bigger or a table a little smaller since they are more rounded)... if you ask vendors, anything over and inch or more than 3 branches is a colony

You’re showing your age in the hobby with wet web media. I remember when I first started, I would submit questions to WWM and was excited when I would get answers from Bob Fenner. His short answers always required follow up questions, lol. Better than the randos from reef central. i think the best thing for newbies is reference the Berlin method: skimmer, live rock and water changes. At least until they learn the basics.