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Added a bunch of corals over the weekend. Have the tank in a good place. Have maybe one or two frags of sensitive ish SPS. But the rest are all easy softies or LPS. Hadn't really had anything swinging to much before so am curious to see how I hold up this week. Since I have a zillion softies in there now and no fish I am probably going to run the fuge lights every other night or so. Having a nice variety of some of the same softies should help me dial in my lights a little better. All the fish in the QT tank seem fine. They were a little lethargic this morning but am hoping that was from the light coming on and they will eat later if not Ill try dropping the cu a little bit. Intend to upload a ton of pictures later.

Also as an added interesting point. I didnt do a water change after draining the tank. I have now checked the copper in my display with 3 different test kits and it is indeed around .03ppm. This is still fascinating to me because I have found a few studies where death in certain inverts was quite high at that concentration. Maybe I have super hardy individuals or maybe chelated copper really isnt that bad at that dose. It doesn't really mean much since .03 isn't a dosage for any medication but its quite interesting that I am having no adverse effects after weeks now. Randy Holmes Farley has measured cu in his tank and its runs at around .018 and he has no adverse effects. I intend to keep an eye on it while I am fallow and see what happens.

June 30th Well I realized truly how impossible it can be to catch fish in a stocked reef tank. Which only confirmed if its wet I am QTing it. I am not totally drinking the QT Kool aid for everything not just fish. I ended up draining my tank except for a few inches and taking all the rocks and corals out and putting in Brute bins/cans. Surprisingly only took me maybe 20 minutes to break it totally down. Catching fish is super easy when there is no water lol. My mystery wrasse lodged itself into a rock and was definitely stuck. It was beating itself up bad trying to get out. I left the rock in QT for a few days before breaking it open. He decided after being free and doing good for a few days surfing the cement was a more adventurous life and somehow made it out past the lid. Shame it died that way but lasted a few years as an adult for me at least. I was dosing about .1-.15 mg/l of cupramine to get to the .5 recommended mark. I have fed once daily and smaller amount so as to not have to much ammonia. I have an ammonia alert badge as the test kits will not work with copper. It doesnt show anything so I guess the filter sponge and a couple Pond Matrix rocks are doing the job. Either way Ill try to do a water change every 3-5 days. Now I am stocking my display with corals and inverts because it doesnt really matter if they bring ich into my display for a week or so.

June 23rd. The day I learned literally anything wet will sit in a QT for like 2 months before going in my display. Woke up today and noticed my hippo tang had white spots on its body. Sure enough 6 hours later white spots on my powder blues fins. That would make it 11 days in my tank before it showed up. And 25 days of total observation between QT and my display. I added some sea urchins starfish and snails yesterday from LA. I have no clue if it snuck past ReefEscapes QT or if the ich was in the free swimming stage or attached to one of the CuC. Either way it sucks and Im super mad. Also as an added double whammy. There was a miscommunication at ReefEscape and I was under the impression the water I added didnt have copper. And a test there said 0. Well I went back today and they were super helpful and tested my water with a lower range checker and sure enough it was .03ppm cu.... So I put some polyfilter and cuprisorb in the sump and started doing a water change. Interesting enough alot of studies have a super high mortality rate at about .033 ppm cu and none of my inverts seem to be doing bad at all. Maybe Hannah checker error? Who knows but June 23 was by far the worse day of the years of keeping tanks. So I fortunately picked up a 40b to use for this purpose. (I know I literally had a QT and didn't use it.. facepalm). I have it filled with SW not from the display and have Cupramine and a Seachem test kit on the way tomorrow. So now begins the adventure of catching the fish and keeping the tank fallow for a long while.

Current Equipment/ Params that Ive actually tested Waterbox 230.6 platinum pro 168g display 40 some gallon sump 4 ai hydras working towards the BRS AB+ probably like 75% towards that 2 mp 40s running like 35% now on reef crest Simplicity 1600 return pump 2 eheim 200w heaters 100w cobalt heater (community heater water changes, qt etc. just leave it in there because why not) Chaetomax refugium light Filter socks one of the mesh ones and ome of the felt ones dont know micron sizes off hand Tunze ato *searching for a skimmer Params Salinity 1.025 Ca 420 Mg 1300 Alk 8.4 Temp 78 Nitrates were 10ppm going to try to keep it around 5 Phosphates got pretty high pre chaeto/diatom bloom they were at .10ppm Checked couple days later after cleaning it up and adding chaeto was around .04 which I am fine with All the bad stuff params were 0

June 20th update (Week 3-4) Long story short ReefEscape didnt run copper in the past few rounds of fish they got and they had changed probably all the water in the system at least once. So the copper scare in my tank was avoided. Numerous tests came out to 0 with some super low range checkers. I was babysitting my parameters all week. Mostly just salinity and alk at the same time to make sure I was topping off right. My alk suprisingly hasnt reallt changed. Its went from 9 - 8.4 dkh in a 3 week span. I know to check at the same time every day as well. I also have hardly any hard corals. All the other levels look normal and have stayed quite stable which is good. My nitrates and phosphates spiked a little which I expected while the bacteria and everything catches up. I added a refugium light and some chaeto to the sump to start growing and cleaned the filter socks which I have realized I have to do more often and eventually will just keep 1 probably. New fish additions all good so far. My pbt decided after 8 days of peace he was going to live up to the reputation of pbts and started chasing my hippo. No tail slapping or nipping just chasing. I let it happen for a few hours then taped a mirror to the side of the tank. Within minutes the pbt had a new arch nemesis. I let him fight the new invincible foe for 2 days and removed it. Knock on wood its been 24 hours with no issues between them. Added a nice orange setosa colony (adventurous I know but everything has been stable so curious to see how it goes) and some green slimer. If I can keep those and my existing corals happy for a few weeks Ill start to fill in the tank some more. Still need to move the heater to the sump lol.

Yeah they put it in one of the bigger bags of course lol same as the small tangs. But I am not sure really how much was in there I agree that even probably a gallon is a stretch. I think poor maintenance syndrome is definitely up there as a leading cause lol. I was planning on doing an ICP test before I really start loading up this tank with corals. Just so I knew what to look out for.

madweazl is right actually the more I look at it it does look like it could be a sponge. I tend to let things be if they are happy but thats just me.

This is a tale/unfortunate experiment I am living in of why you should never put water you haven't tested into your system. At the same time this is also an interesting experiment on the tolerance of heavy metals by reef inhabitants. For the record every time I ever got any livestock from anyone I always for years would just scoop some of my water into the bag, temp and salinity acclimate quickly, grab the net or gloves and plop and drop discarding the unknown water. Yesterday I did the single most stupid thing I have ever done in this hobby without even thinking about it. Anyone reading this whether experienced or not should just remember this simple thing we really should never do unless after thorough testing. This is from my build thread. The fish I had were from Reefescape, I love that they QT for a few weeks and try to get fish from safer collection method using sources. Well I got the notification that my fish completed QT and off I went on my lunch break. Well dumb me totally zoning out checks salinity and temp they were super close so I just dump the royal Gramma in bag water and all. Immediately upon doing so I remembered the fish was still being held in the QT tanks that ran copper in it (Facepalm). So I immediately call them to find out what they are using because even though I was running GAC I wanted to know what I was dealing with. Turns out they run about 2.5 ppm of chelated copper (not sure exact product). So I stupidly added however much was in a bag with a royal gramma to my system. Now I was thinking logically and realized okay. I added maybe a gallon or so or however much is in a bag? All that to a system empty that is 240 gallons with my rock and 1 inch sandbed maybe like 175 gallons of water or so. So basically any way I logically did the math it came out to about .02 mg/l or less. Now its been about 20 hours and if anything was supposed to have adverse effects it sure isn't showing it. I have cuprisorb and polyfilter on the way and planned to do a water change anyways. So yes always, always, always, avoid using anyone elses water but your own unless you have tested it and even then I have never owned any test kits for heavy metal I rely on my ro/di tds meter which isnt involved in this scenario. This would have most likely caused all sorts of issues in my previous 45g. I got lucky for now and hope my system stays healthy. On a side note I have believed for a while "old tank syndrome" and alot of unexplained coral/invert deaths are due to the accumulation of heavy metals in a reef. I had a similar die off of more sensitive corals myself in my previous system that I had for years that I couldn't figure out and now am leaning even more to something like this. I will now be looking to acquire some additional test kits for various heavy metals as they do slowly accumulate from things being added to the tank.

This is just a guess. I am not a super coral expert. Corals tend to slime for a bunch of reasons. The only times I have seen my LPS slime has been disease or exposure to bright lights/air which I guess is how corals protect themselves from the sun/elements on the reef. So now I just ask myself is the coral healthy? If its disease it would go downhill quickly most of the time i.e. brown jelly. So whats the coral been acting like? If its healthy I would just let it be if it were me.

June 13th Picked up a few hardy ish colonies and first batch of new fish and intend to give the system a few weeks to see how it starts to stabilize before adding anything else. Added a Kelly Psammacora colony, an elegance coral, some trumpets and a duncan colony. Then added a small hippo tang about 3-4 inches a powder blue closer to 3 inches and a royal gramma. The hippo and powder blue have only tried to "show up" their reflections on the glass but swim together throughout the tank. Then I did the single most stupid thing I have ever done in this hobby. I will make this a general post as well because it shows how bad it can be. The fish I had were from Reefescape, I love that they QT for a few weeks and try to get fish from safer collection method using sources. Well I got the notification that my fish cleared QT and off I went on my lunch break. Well dumb me totally zoning out checks salinity and temp they were super close so I just dump the royal gramma in bag water and all. Immediately upon doing so I remembered the fish was still being held in the tanks that ran copper in it (Facepalm). So I immediately call them to find out what they are using because even though I was running GAC I wanted to know what I was dealing with. Turns out they run about 2.5 ppm of chelated copper. So I stupidly added however much was in a bag with a royal gramma to my system. Now I was thinking logically and realized okay. I added maybe a gallon or so or however much is in a bag? To a system empty that is 240 with my rock and 1 inch sandbed maybe like 175 or so. So basically any way I logically did the math it came out to about .02 mg/l or less. Now its been about 20 hours and if anything was supposed to have adverse effects it sure isn't showing it. I have cuprisorb and polyfilter on the way and planned to do a water change anyways. So yes always, always, always, avoid using anyone elses water but yours. I am lucky for now I have such a large system volume.

June 10th Livestock/Tank Update I knew from numerous moves even if you use all established LR from other setups you might not get the full Nitrogen cycle but you can still get the "uglies" phase of diatoms, GHA etc. I have some diatoms on the sand and have rechecked for ammonia its still none which is good. Nitrates are 2. Entirely possible the diatoms just munching on some silicates or something. My bioload is like nothing compared to the water volume/rock but still. I am planning on slowly adding some fish/hardier established coral colonies over the following weeks. That way I can start to tell better the needs of the tank. For the tank itself I had posted a stock list a while back but that will change as far as fish go so I won't even bother. As for corals I like softies/zoas/mushrooms and some LPS. I will eventually have some SPS in a few months but it will only be the hardier easy stuff like I have some of. This week I am adding an elegance colony and this weekend will probably be the first round of fish. I plan on doing the fish in groups of 3-5 depending on the size over a couple month span. Trying to average a group every 2-3 weeks minimum to not shock the system. I have a like 3-4 inch hippo on hold, a smaller like 2 inch Powder Blue and a Royal Gramma on hold with Reefescape. The PBT was getting chased by an Anthias and a Potters Angel so I am hopeful its not an a** but went with one smaller than the hippo to be safer. I don't really want alot of tangs. I only really like Hippos and the lady likes the Powder Blue alot. I know theres a chance that needs some extra effort on my part but I think it should be fine. In a few weeks if that all goes well I intend to do some lyretail anthias and a couple coris wrasse. Still experimenting with 1 heater and haven't cleaned the glass fully lol.

June 7th. I turned the AI Hydras down a good bit. I was following the BRS AB+ settings and didnt want to fry anything. These lights are crazy how high powered they can be. All the fish are exploring and fine. My clownfish no longer host the large utter chaos colony(praise the sun) and the Hawkfish has resumed the ways of the Hawkfish. All of the corals surprisingly adjusted quite quickly. The LPS all poofed up and were happy at first light. The Leather and Kenya tree went through the usual shed/sulk BS for a while but have since opened up. Mushrooms and Zoas all seem happy and Xenia, well I can't kill that if I tried. So the Full equipment setup as of now is Waterbox 230.6 with sump/plumbing/18g Ato Simplicity 1600 dc return pump. 2 mp 40s on opposite sides running maybe 30% now. 4 Ai Hydra 26s on the AB+ 2 eheim 200w Heaters I have some pond matrix I have had for years in my previous tanks in the sump for extra bacteria. Tunze ATO Still to do Setup refugium chamber/buy light for Chaeto Acquire skimmer

June 6th Breakdown/Livestock move of 45 gallon I had a 45 gallon setup with 6 fish and a good bit of corals from Wamas members along with some inverts. I deliberately didn't stuff that tank because I knew I would have to move it with a year. Straight forward stuff there really sort of. I took out some water and filled some buckets/tupperware containers. Then took out the corals. Then the rocks without corals. Then the rocks with corals. Well when there was nothing left but a few frags of the victims of my stupidity, the sand and my fish/inverts that didn't already end up in a bucket I realized something was wrong. I only saw 4 fish... There were the clownfish. Being clownfish. The hawkfish was chilling probably mad he couldn't try to carpet surf with water that low and the sapphire damsel. No sign of the Mystery Wrasse or Starry Blenny. I snatched up the other 4 quickly and put them in their own buckets and began running my hands through the sand. Found nothing. So I left some water in there and a heater and powerhead and figured if they weren't in the rock Id go back. Was only about a half hour move for me. Much of the livestock I have moved to many times before. I made sure my salinity matched before I even picked up anything so acclimation would be super fast. Well I just dumped some red solo cup amounts of water in for 10 minutes or so to all the vessels and began plop and drop of the rocks first. Sure enough first rock as soon as its over the tank I here a ploop ploop. Theres the Mystery Wrasse and Starry Blenny. Put everything else in there turned the lights way down. The Flame Hawkfish was rough. No idea why. Was on his side rapid breathing for a while when everything else seemed alright. I knew it wasn't ammonia or anything I had checked way to many times ready to battle with Prime. Had to just be the stress/oxygen level maybe. So I took one of the battery bubbler pumps and placed it near him so hopefully it would help. After about an hour he was upright and chilling. And after a few he had moved around in a small area so I removed the pump. Next day totally fine. I haven't had a lot of fish die in my care but thats the first time one looked like that and didn't die.

June 5th Rock Scape I had about 50 pounds or so of LR in my 45 some of it Id had for years. However, I wanted more and went around to some Wamas members and got a nice variety of about 100 pounds more. I am not artistic at all so other peoples tanks were my inspirations. I knew I wanted slightly less rock and more open swimming room. And because I love mushroom corals and need to cover a portion of the the bottom with them lol. I went with LR from other Reefers because I like the biodiversity it can add. I never had brittle stars until now for instance and now have some feather dusters as well. Below is what I went with at the beginning I have better pics on the way. I need to finish cleaning the glass still it is gross but its the gist of it. I will raise the left side up a little so its slightly more even but I wanted to have 3 or so archs and about 2 separate formations. Ignore the heaters I was experimenting with if 1 could heat the whole tank from different areas or not. (Sump, overflow or display).

June 2019 Tank Leveling Fail/leak test After checking the tank with a 6 ft level all was good but I knew it would smush the carpet/padding down to the concrete when full. This is where I probably shouldve listened to my gut and done it differently. I had a few 44g brute trash cans with saltwater ready to go already and figured well lets just leak test/check the level with that. So I started filling it. Let it sit for a few hours with about 6 inches of water and still level. So got out a nice tube for a gravel vac and put in the sand. Placed a dinner plate on the sand and continued filling. Well once it got to the top I let it settle overnight. The next morning after looking at the tank for about 2 seconds I realized it wasn't level from front right to left corner or anywhere close from back panel to front panel. June 3rd Leveling I am relatively handy so I knew I had to drain it and shim the tank stand. But didn't want to miss anything. Surprisingly there isn't much on the internet about this topic compared to others. I suppose the combination of smushed carpet/full tank caused the whole setup to sink a little more than I thought. Maybe I was dumb and the stand being slightly off (1/16) empty was drastically amplified when full. Either way it wasnt level. Was about a quarter inch off from back to front and an 1/8 off from side to side. The 1/8 didnt really sketch me out but the quarter inch did. So I posted on here for any last minute fragos and went to Home Depot. Bought a bunch of composite shims and a pry bar. Drained the tank to about 6 inchs of water plus sand and tried my luck. I was by some miracle able to stack the shims 3 high and while lifting the stand slightly hammer them in. I ended up doing it in 8+ locations of 3 high and a few locations on the side of 1 or 2 to balance a little more evenly. In the end I got it completely level from front to back and probably about 1/16 inch from side to side. No longer uneven to the naked eye. June 4th Plumbing etc The Waterbox comes with a plumbing kit so its reef ready. Took about 10 minutes for 2 people to connect them from the sump to the overflow. Upon filling the tank up a teensy bit more I got the Niagara Falls of leaks raining down into the sump. Turns out its a bit important to put the gaskets where they belong lol as seen below. After doing that no issues at all. I have a Simplicity 1600 gph return pump. I had to go through some trial and error with the barbed fittings and hose clamps but it all works. The overflow is fairly quiet I would say. Comparable to almost every other large tank not really better or worse.

I wanted to do this thread because over the years so much of what I have learned is from seeing other people's setups and why they did things the way they have. Hopefully this can be of benefit to someone else. April/May 2019 Tank Planning/Background I have kept smaller salwater reefs for while now after keeping freshwater before. I didn't want to have to move a big tank ever so just kept nanos. Now with a house I pulled the trigger and worked with Epleeds to get a great deal on a Waterbox 230.6 pro edition(comes with 4 hydra 26s). Its a 72x26x24 display with a 40 some odd gallon sump. Waterbox was supposed to ship the tank on May 24th a Friday and have it arrive by freight on Tuesday the 28th after Memorial day. Well they had some issues and Erik did a great job of getting them to right the ship and I received it I believe May 31st. Delivery/Moving The crate looked like the forklift broke through. It broke the crate all the way to the glass from the outside. I thought for sure I was doomed. Somehow not a scratch or anything on the tank just the styrofoam and shrink wrap. It was well packed as seen below with the sump inside. I had reached out to Origami about renting the suction cups others have used to move large tanks. I was planning on bribing a few friends with beer and getting it down to the basement. Well the tank being delayed caused me to have to replan so I hired movers. Thats a post of comedy in and of itself watching two guys try to lift it off the pallet by themselves after refusing the suction cups lol. (Tank weighs like 450 lbs). Without the suction cups there is no way we would have gotten it down a staircase with a landing and turn. Took 4 people and an appliance dolly about 20 minutes. Stand Building. The stand directions were slightly off but nothing my lady and I couldn't figure out. Probably took us about 2 hours to put it together minus the doors. Placed the sump and the ato container in the cabinet and it was time to check the level of the stand with the tank on it. This is where the next post will pick up.

I made it work those crowbars are incredible. I was careful not to destroy my stand lol. But was able to leave probably 20% of the water and the rock. I originally wanted to make it "better" but my ocd kicked in and now somehow its like perfect all around. But I have a feeling itll settle a little bit once its full but thats no where near as bad as it was. Now I am debating if I need to put more than like 8 spots across the front and start of the sides.

Filled up my new 180 and realized its a not 100% level after settling on the carpet. Left to right is off by about 1/8th of an inch and doesnt really bother me. But the back to front is off by about 1/4 inch. Anyways I am in the process of draining it down and leaving the sand plus enough water to cover it and use as a leveling reference. I have composite shims and a crowbar to try to give myself some space maybe to put the shims? But not really sure if I am going to need some type of floor jack or something or just need to get a bunch of people together to lift this thing again? I am able to slide the shims under the stand but ill need to double stack them across the front to make up for that 1/4 inch and have no idea the best way to go about this without lifting the tank off as well. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello Wamas, I am upgrading from a 45g to a 6 ft 180g (Waterbox 230.6) in a couple weeks and would like any input on my stock list. I have done a ton of research and am familiar with the husbandry for all the fish listed and been at this for years but this is the first time I can have a good bit of fish in a large tank. This group is full of people with awesome knowledge . Any thoughts/opinions are welcome just want to make sure I am not missing anything or about to overload my tank. Will be a mixed reef but large majority soft corals, some easier sps, few lps and a few nems. I have a few inverts I have picked up from Wamas members over the years just some strawberry crabs, couple hermits, snails, urchins but no shrimp will probably remain that way. About 140#s of live rock from Wamas members in the display with another 20 in the sump plus alot of pond matrix I have had for years. Will have a fuge and a skimmer. Existing fish 2 ocellaris clowns Flame hawkfish Mystery wrasse Starry blenny Sapphire damsel New additions(plan on introducing in 2 or 3 waves) Hippo tang 4x lyretail anthias 1 male 3 females(alot of different experiences I have read on this) Yellow coris wrasse Royal gramma 2 bangaii cardinals Ornate leopard wrasse Marine betta Quoyi parrotfish Potential adds Regal angelfish (I have read besides the Genicanthus these guys seem to be fairly coral safe as far as angels go but would love if anyone had experience with them) Another clown pair (mine are your typical goofballs and live on a zoa colony and arent really aggressive) I plan to put them in the new tank by the colony so they live on it again at one end. I have read mixed things about 2 pairs in a 6ft tank but think I could get away with them on opposite ends. Any input is welcome. Thanks Wamas!

I would lean towards glass. Im not super picky about dimensions but want something with a 6' footprint still.

I am curious if anyone has any experiences/recommendations for a custom aquarium builder. I will be in the market for a 150-180g tank in the next couple months. Does anyone know of anybody good closer ish to the Nova area? Thanks

Hi all. I am going to set up a tank at my place of work. Lucky me I have an excuse for another tank. I am very aware of the various dos/donts of these buggers. For the life of me online I cant find any consensus on their lifespans most people seem to say its short in captivity. Has anyone kept frogfish successfully/unsuccessfully or have any additional input to keeping them long term. Thanks.

As an update to this. Dipped the torch in CoralRX. All the flatworms I could see are off of it. Its rebounding surprisingly well. Nothing new is showing negative signs. My blasto that began to lose flesh appears to not have lost anymore in the past couple days. I am going to resist dipping it in the hopes it comes back. I am going to do another couple 15% water changes this week and hope for the best. Hopefully it was just the lighting and the corals shock response.

I shouldve added I feel safer* because usually I get to see the tank it comes out of. I prefer to add things I can see before hand to reduce some risk since I dont QT currently. But you were spot on about them being euphyllia flatworms. I have never heard of or seen them before. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk