Cali Kid Corals

70 Gal Keith Grandt tank

Salinity at 1.025, sand added, and rockwork setup!
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The downside of using previously used rock (I assume the culprit); NH3, ~.25ppm, NO3 ~2ppm (not worried about that), PO4, 0.25ppm. The upside, I was finally able to get a consistent, positive result using my Hanna PO4 tester, so I know it works :eek:. The water also smells a little, and I had to clean some pretty foul goo out of the skimmer cup. Threw a nylon bag of carbon in the sump, and am now running GFO in a small reactor. Am planning on testing these params for the next few days before bringing Ca, Mg and Alk up to what I'd like. So far, my only "starter" is whatever was in the live sand, that I imagine is being fed by what's leaching off the rock. Looks like moving over fish and coral will need to wait a little longer...
 
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What? No pics of the sump running? :(

Tank looks good. Love your scape.

If the return pump is making noise, try a silicone hot pad/pot holder under the pump and anywhere the return tubing touches the stand. Works wonders!!

If you didn't age the rock first, let it stew in the tank for a while. I'd not bother with GFO yet. You could do a 100% water change before you add life.
 
Agree with @aqua-nut

Why try and reduce phosphates if you have nitrates? And no livestock yet. Save your gfo for later when u need it.

You can do a water change later to tackle nitrates/phosphates after the tank is done cycling.

Also in my opinion theres no real point in leaving lights on during Tank Cycling. Might just fuel algae growth.
 
Nice the tank is looking SICK:D Now I can't wait to see the livestock in there!
Thanks! You and me both! But alas, it may still take some time.:(

@aqua-nut, Thanks! Here's a pic of the sump area up and running from today -
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The pump behind the skimmer is a temporary ATO pump, until the replacement from BRS arrives, which was mounted on the back wall. The doser is on the ceiling, that's what all the tubing hanging down is. I ended up swapping out the ehiem pump for a lower flow, DC Jebao and it's much quieter. All of the electrical is on the outside left of the stand (may still move some of that)

@Enderturtle & @aqua-nut, thanks to both of you for the suggestion about waiting for GFO, I ended up taking it out the next day. But mostly because I started testing other water with my Hanna checker, and everything gave around the same reading. My original tank, some of my RO DI... So, again, I'm not really sure about what's up with the meter, maybe a weird lot of reagent? Regardless, putting it aside for now. But what I did do, perhaps a bit prematurely, was drop in some "tester" zoas, which very quickly opened up and looked great. After a few days, I added a few more, and to my eye they look pretty nice. I even dropped in an extra piece of birdsnest; I just moved it under the light this afternoon so I can't tell yet how it's responding. And then I tested the water...
Ca - 410
Alk - 3.7/10.4
Mg - 1500
NO3 - 25
Ammonia - not detected

I guess I should have expected the high nitrate value, but it doesn't seem to bother the zoas. Ironic in a way, I could almost never even get a positive nitrate reading in my 25 gal. One thing that I do find annoying is, there's a noticeable cloudiness in the water, the pics below exaggerate it a little, but I'd like to now what it is. I just put in a new filter sock in hopes that will help, but I'm not sure that it will. With the lights on, I'm starting to get the round of ugly brown algae. Hopefully it won't last too long, and I'll be doing decent size water change in the next couple of days to help keep things in check.

Here's a quick ugly shot of some zoas and the cloudiness in the water:
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In hindsight, I really should have soaked the rock, even in tap water, before dropping it in the tank. I have a funny feeling I'll run into a few more of those realizations as things progress... But I'm still happy with how it's coming along, despite my issues.
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Looks awesome! I hope you get it all cycled and maturing soon, I'd love to give you some coral for it. Maybe the Acan colony from the grow out will do better in this tank once it's up and running?
 
Thanks guys! @wpeterson, I've basically lost track of the times you've helped me out, but I would so love to stop by your place to pick up some pieces of a couple of those colonies that are doing so well in your tank!

I've got a couple of turbo snails slowly making a dent in the brown algae, and am getting water together for a ~30% water change (really the largest I can do with my containers) this weekend. Still a couple of other setup chores I need to work on - right now, I'm wanting to make some changes to how I have the light hung, but I'll detail that w/ pics this weekend.
 
Finally time for an update! I've moved pretty much everything I want to keep from my old tank to this one, and after going through an ugly round of what I assume was dino (brown, stringy stuff on everything, eventually cleared up), it's starting to feel like it's settling in.
Tank.jpg

Right now, there are only 3 clowns, a bicolor blenny and a fire shrimp in there plus a few snails and hermits. For corals, to me it's already looking a bit filled in - and I have not yet added anything that did not come from my 25 gal... Still not sure how I was able to get the big birdsnest colony on the left out of the old talk with out destroying it - got really lucky.

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My little valida turned a nice shade of brown when I moved it over. But its starting to encrust and slowly get some color back. Not much polyp extension, but seems to be ok.

Tank-3.jpg

Green slimer from @HiFidelity bounced back from the move pretty quickly.

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My favorite zoa colony is recovering. Almost lost it to a case of what I think were "zoa pox" - at least that's what the internet tells me. One day, they seemed to not be opening much, which happens sometimes, but they were covered with white bumps. The next day, the closed polyps were looking kind of shriveled, that's when I panicked and drove around to three LFS's untilI I found some BiFuran+ (same drugs as Furan 2) and ran a three day dip treatment. Will probably follow up with another dip or two this week.

The other bad - and I'm sorry @jonmos75 - my beautiful RBTA did not like being moved. Originally, it was very happy on a large piece of rock, that has a bunch of nuisance algae I'd like to avoid directly introducing to my new tank, so I gently worked at getting it to let go of the rock. After a couple of days, I was finally able to get it off, uninjured. Moved it to a "perfect" (haha) location in the new tank, it stuck, I fed it a little and the next morning it had moved a few inches. No problem! The morning after that, I had to leave for a couple of days for work, and it was gone. After I returned, I found a few bits of it in my filter sock - it made it through my intake siphon even though there is a screen over it. But, one of the pieces had a not-dead color to it and was attached to the PVC, so I gently took it off, and put it in a deli cup with a small piece of rock and covered it with some plastic netting. After a week or so, it stopped moving around it the cup, found a crevice in the rock, and is starting to look like an anemone again - just a very small one. Would post a pic, but it's in a tricky spot to photograph.

I think I almost have my Ca-Mg-Alk levels set, they've been way easier to dial in in the larger tank, and I want to add some more fish and corals. I'm thinking of some of the small lyre tail anthias that Neptune usually has, and/or a kole or tomini tang. The anthias adults don't look too big for my tank, but would welcome any feedback from people who keep them. Figuring I will use my 25 gal which is still running as a QT/observation tank.

And the halides... Ugh, they seem to work well, but they're big, and hot, and use a lot of electricity. The Kessil AP700 sure does look good, but I love the spread of the lights I have now. Decisions, decisions...
 
That looks awesome! You must be so pleased.
2 ID questions - what is at the top center, looks like a blue monti growing straight upward?
What is on the top right and looks purple against the black background - some kind of Euphyllia?
 
what is at the top center, looks like a blue monti?
Yeah, I suppose that may look a little odd with no explanation ;) That's a piece of green monti (looks blue under that part of the light) from my original tank that grew into the glass. I thought it would be completely stuck, but it wasn't at all, it had just grown flush and perfectly flat against the surface. So, I glued a piece of it to the overflow box as kind of an experiment. If you're looking for an "easy" sps for your classroom tank, I can't imagine anything growing much easier than this one does - I have quite a few pieces if you want any, just let me know.

What is on the top right - some kind of Euphyllia?
Yep! That's a decent size piece of purple tipped hammer coral that I picked up at the most recent frag swap. If I recall correcty, it came from @Coral reefer .
 
Yeah, I suppose that may look a little odd with no explanation ;) That's a piece of green monti (looks blue under that part of the light) from my original tank that grew into the glass. I thought it would be completely stuck, but it wasn't at all, it had just grown flush and perfectly flat against the surface. So, I glued a piece of it to the overflow box as kind of an experiment.

I thought that was what you were doing. I actually saw a really cool picture on I think RC where someone did this with a red monti and it started plating outwards! I definitely makes a cool effect. Also congrats on adding more corals to the new tank!
 
Been meaning to post an update for a while... Appreciate the encouragement, I'll take some pics this weekend!

I've run into some problems (wonky Ca & Alk levels, did a bad job switching lights, bryopsis) which are now mostly under control. It's really easy to not want to take pics when things aren't looking good, even though it's good to have them for future reference.
 
Spent most of yesterday working on getting the tank put together, and that's in addition to several hours during evenings over the course of the last 2 weeks. Did not imagine it would take so long, and it's still not ready yet... But that's OK, all part of the fun, right?

After consideration, decided on a location for it. Next to the couch, which gets a nice side view so will need to 'scape based on two viewing angles. Mounted the halides, which took some work.
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Painted the inside of the cabinet. I liked @jonmos75 's idea of a liner on the bottom, but the internal angles of the stand would have made it really tricky to get a nice watertight seal. Then, yesterday - the plumbing. I've never plumbed a reef tank before. In my head, it was horribly complicated, and stayed that way as I measured, cut, swore, glued, got a bit of a buzz from the glue, and finally got it all in place. Now that it's there, it doesn't look complicated at all. I just hope it doesn't leak. I really hope it doesn't leak.
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Now I think I'm ready to leak test. All I should need to do is drop my pump in place and add water!


really dumb question from a noob...I understand one pipe for overflow and one for return. why are there two on the overflow side? Are you running two overflows, a herbie? thanks
the thought of plumbing my tank is scary and keeping me from getting started.
 
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