My tank reboot log

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Added fish yesterday.

A second clownfish
Filament Fairy Wrasse (male)
1 male lyretail anthias
3 female lyretail anthias

Bought them from Salgado Aquatics in the Bronx, small but nice shop run by a husband and wife that go above and beyond for their customers.


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[Alfredo De La Fe]

ICP test came back and I have increased my Mg level and Iodine. Had LFS check NO3 and Phosphates which came back at 0 and Alk came back a little high at 10.


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[reefer woman]

Starting over - My "new" 80

Hey Guys:

I have been around since just about the beginning of MR. While on here I started out with a used 55 Gallon tank to upgrading to a 180 with all of the trimmings then I downgraded to a used 40 gallon breeder.

Long story short, for the past 5 months I have been mostly home bound because I tore my achilles tendon in my left foot and tore a different tendon in my right foot. Add to that my other health issues and I am going batty.

My 40 never thrived. Too many issues- I am using a 15 Gallon tank as a sump with no baffles, so a major PITA to keep the skimmer calibrated, etc.

Soooo... My buddy changed his mind on his tank so I took it off his hands. Hopefully on Thursday or Friday I will be getting a few of my friends together to move it to my place (16 blocks away) with about 50 gallons of water, the sand, etc.

This tank is an 80 gallon that is practically new with a new sump.

I will keep this thread open to post photos and updates.

Question- Anyone on the UWS have any empty 5 gallon water jugs they would be willing to loan me? I have enough to transport about 15 gallons of water in addition to the sand and live rock.

***EDIT: I will be using this thread as a "journal" of my 80. Hopefully it will document my successes and failures. This time around I am taking it really slow and doing it right. No more shortcuts. If I need to add something I will wait until I can afford the best solution instead of settling.

I have a question about skimmer and baffles. I have 36 bowfron with a small probably 5 gallon sump, not much room under bowfront but it has no baffles and I have someone coming to hook up the skimmer later in the week. What kind of problems did this cause you? I dont even know what calibrated means in terms of a skimmer. Know that when I change filter socks ect the skimmer is inmy way and wants to tilt over to one side alot. I am kind of afraid when its working all the dirty skimmate is going to pour out. I wonder If I should make a baffle? How would I do that? Haha. A newbie at this! Speking of sump. are you suppose to change water from there and are you supposed to vacum down there with each water change? I had sump flood once but I had moved the return down instead of sideways so maybe hats whybut when I turn pump bck on the sump fills to top first and goes past the waterline, afraid it going to knock over skimmer then as well. Sorry to highjack thread. Hope you having good luck with new tank

 

[reefer woman]

I have 2 fish, cleandr shrimp and about 6 corals and frags. Really need to add lots of fish after I aquascape! They get lot in the 80 right now.

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Man thats rushing it. Mine has been cycled for about a month and a half and I dont even run lights yet Much less corals. My tanks crashed (!0) gallon and I lost 10 corals but was to scared to move into this tank! I did not have one speck of algae in my !0 gallon and I went very slow with turning lights on and adding corals and I still had a crash Salinty dropped to 1018 though plus added 20 frags I won at once and right before that I traded my rock for some beautiful cave and arch with coraline so maybe that caused the recycle that started then too. Everything went nuts. I lost 2 beautiful colonies and the rest were expensive frags from unique corals Sick over it. I should have moved them but they were looking bad and might not have made it anyway. My softies are good but of course my 2 expensive softies arent One fell of plug and I vacumed it up not realizing it and the other is a tiny loose mushroom basically whats left are zoas and a 2 toadstools and a devils han. Ihad a big green mouth toch and a 0 head braching neon duncan that had such a rare and beautiful growth pattern! I guess the good part is I won mos t of them and Unique really hooked me up! I am looking for lights for my 36 gallon. Anyone with good lights for sale?

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

A long due update…

Added the Apex, also switched to ESV salt anf now using Tropic Marin Pro until I get more ESV.

My fish are all very healthy and I added a few more.

I now have:

Flame Angel
Hippo Tang
Anthias (1)
Bangai cardinals (2)
True percula clowns (2)
Yellow goby
Watchman goby

A bunch of frags, neon green toadstool, Fiji yellow leather, devils hand toadstool, clove polyps, all different kinds of mushrooms…

Today I added a 7 inch Blue Maxima clam, zoas and green birdsnest and some unidentified green SPS and a nice sized frag of purple pocilapora!

I will let things settle in and rescape a bit…

Alfred


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[Alfredo De La Fe]

Oh… I also ordered a Neptune doser AND I now have a reefing partner in my 12 year old daughter! She has caught the aquarium bug HARD. She bought her own 30 gallon rimless and has a 5 gallon planted betta tank.


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[Alfredo De La Fe]

Just ordered got in a Jebao DCP-4000 return pump to replace my failing Eheim. Why the Jebao? My daughter got one with her 30 and it is super QUIET and works great. I have not been this impressed with a budget piece of reefing equipment in a long time.


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[Alfredo De La Fe]

My return pump finally died and I replaced it with the Jebao. What a powerful little DC pump! I have it running at 60% and it is still more powerful than the Eheim was when it was working.

Next is installing the new Neptune DOS and the auto ATO off of my RODI.


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[Alfredo De La Fe]

The Jebao is so powerful that I had detritus floating around all night until it made its way over the overflow and into the filter sock! Knocked a few frags off the 2 part epoxy and upset my giant clam so much it didn’t open all day until I changed its position!

I am going to order a backup to this pump!

The Eheim’s impeller is definitely cracked which apparently was the source of micro bubbles. No more dinoflagellates today!


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[lake985]

I’ve been happy with my DCP-6500 return pump as well. It’s been running without issue for the last 5 years. I also bought a backup because they’re cheap enough and use it for water changes to pump water up from the basement.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Jebao gets an awful lot of hate, but the pump that came with my daughters used tank runs flawlessly and my new pump does as well. Quietest pump I have ever handled! Also about as powerful as one of my old Iwaki pumps!


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[Timbo]

I have a Jebao running for around 4+ years on a 120g with no issues and zero complaints along with two power heads that are equally impressive for the cost.

 

[Carloso]

A long overdue update...

On after many years having major health issues that would send me to the hospital I had major surgery on November 29th 2019. Within two weeks my blood pressure was so low they almost admitted me and took me off of all of my meds. So the surgery was s big success! I have also lost over 120lbs and can now walk a mile without stopping every 50 feet. Also have not had any horrible craps which caused me to tear tendons and I have energy like I used to before my condition got do bad.

Then this COVID19 nightmare turned my world upside down. Two fellow MR friends got me some awesome lights and I have restarted my reboot. I don’t think they realize how much it means to me. After the most horrific month of my life I had something to distract me. Honestly, I think it contributed greatly in me not falling apart from stress and depression. May sound silly, because I basically just have s tank full of rock and water at this point. But taking my time, cleaning things up and planning have been just what I needed.

I have coralline growing all over the place and I will be getting some frags soon. I plan to take it real slow and build my tank up to how my 180 was in its glory days. All small frags! I will be adding the equipment I need little by little.

Here is a photo with the new lights:

I have since tweaked the settings of the different colors and it looks much nicer now. I lost all but one coral and most of my fish after my Pharos lights were finally killed off in full when ConEd blew up their feed going into my building.


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