Albertan22's 120g Reef

[Albertan22]

Well I've had no luck so far catching that mantis with my bottle trap. I think I may need to redesign or just plain move it to another location in the tank. It's hard to get it to sit still without turning off my powerheads.

I also solved the humidity problem in the canopy. I just pulled it ahead about an inch so there is a small air space at the front, it stays pretty dry now. It may not be a long term solution if I ever get any jumping fish though. Which brings me to a more fun topic... Fish!

It occured to me that I need to start thinking about a stocking list. The tank is much to young right now for fish, but I've had a QT tank cycling in the basement for a few weeks that I'm hoping may be ready by next weekend.

I'm not exactly sure what I want, so I was hoping to get a few sugestions.

So far I'm thinking of an ocellaris clown pair, some kind of fairy or flasher wrasse, a mandarin (will not be adding until next summer) and a tang or two. I was thinking of going with a powder blue or powder brown for my tang, but I've since learned that they're very aggressive, especially in smaller tanks. I also really like purple tangs, but they can be pretty aggressive too... Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Dez]

The build looks good so far. I feel your pain with the mantis and having to hunt him down. I remember spending an entire superbowl Sunday 6 years ago hunting down a mantis in my fully stocked 120 gallon tank. Better get it now before you have any livestock.

For humidity in the canopy, I would suggest DC muffin fans (DC because you can then control the speed with a voltage adapter so you can keep the tank super quiet. I don't like AC fans cause I find most to be loud).

As for stocking list - if you are patient, then look for people shutting their tanks down. I have gotten quite a few nice specimens from shutdowns (the fish seem healthier and are more acclimated to aquarium life than a typical store bought fish. You never know if a store bought is cyanide caught or not). I like yellow tangs, a flasher, solerensis, or myster wrasse is nice, royal gramma maybe, and it depends what kind of corals/inverts you'll have in your tank I always like pygmy angels - either a flame, potter's or coral beauty (I am still on the hunt for one that won't nip at sps/clams).

Hope this helps, enjoying your tank journal so far.

Desmond

[Albertan22]

Well it's Day 14 of the cycle and time for an update. We've noticed an erruption of life in the tank as of late, lots of feather dusters and/or tube worms all over the rock. The sand seems filled with little worm trails and whatnot. We also noticed some type of pods racing around the glass of the DT for the first time last night. I can't seem to get a decent picture of any of these things, so no photo updates for now.

I'm also experiencing a diatom bloom right now. It's on all the rock that I bought partially cured, but not on any of the cured stuff and not much on the sand. There's also a bunch in the sump, and surprisingly even in the bottom part of my skimmer! I'm not too concerned about it right now as I understand it's just part of the cycle. I've been running phosban in a reactor and carbon passively in the sump, hopefully it goes away soon.

Speaking of the cycle, I seem to have experienced my ammonia spike. It was about 1.0 ppm on Sunday, and is now down to 0.25 ppm. Funny thing is, I also had a nitrite spike, but now it's not measureable anymore even though I'm still reading ammonia. I'm wondering if it's because some of the rock may still be curring? At this rate though, my DT will be cycled before my QT, which has been up and running a week longer. This is annoying because I would really like to get some fish into QT so I can have some fish in the DT by November! Alas patience is what this hobby is all about...

[Albertan22]

Thanks for checking out my build and the advice Dez

I'm still trying to get that mantis out. Though I haven't been pursuing him that agressivly. I think it's time to step up my efforts though as I'll probably be ready to add some snails and cleanup crew to the tank in the comming weeks. I've been using mysis as bait and I swear that some have been eaten every morning after I set the trap. I think I need a bigger bottle as the neck of the small bottle I used isn't that far off the bottom when I cut it and flipped it around to build the trap.

[NuraNori]

I like your set up as well. Like the rock too.

I have an almost identical sump/fuge. Do you find you get bursts of micro bubbles? I'm trying to figure out if it's because I don't have the bubble wall on the fuge side or b/c air builds up in the elbows in the return line...or who knows...

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by Albertan22

It occured to me that I need to start thinking about a stocking list. The tank is much to young right now for fish, but I've had a QT tank cycling in the basement for a few weeks that I'm hoping may be ready by next weekend.

I'm not exactly sure what I want, so I was hoping to get a few sugestions.

So far I'm thinking of an ocellaris clown pair, some kind of fairy or flasher wrasse, a mandarin (will not be adding until next summer) and a tang or two. I was thinking of going with a powder blue or powder brown for my tang, but I've since learned that they're very aggressive, especially in smaller tanks. I also really like purple tangs, but they can be pretty aggressive too... Any thoughts or suggestions?

The clownfish would be a good fish to get, as would the fairy or flasher wrasse's. If you are thinking about getting more than one type of fairy wrasse, it is typically better to add them at the same time to avoid fighting. Also, make sure you have a completely covered tank if you are looking at getting wrasse's.
As for tangs, with only a 4 foot tank(same as mine), you are more limited in what you can get. You're limited to mainly the following 3 groups: Zebrasoma(but not sailfin), Ctenochaetus, and Acanthurus(only the smaller ones). There are some really nice ones of the 3 groups, like the yellow tang, lemonpeel mimic tang, kole tang, and chocolate tang. You would probably only want to get 2, maximum 3 tangs total, and I wouldn't recommend getting 2 from the same group, such as a purple tang and a yellow tang. I have read that a lot of people have issues with aggressive purple tangs as well, just so you are aware.

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by NuraNori

I like your set up as well. Like the rock too.

I have an almost identical sump/fuge. Do you find you get bursts of micro bubbles? I'm trying to figure out if it's because I don't have the bubble wall on the fuge side or b/c air builds up in the elbows in the return line...or who knows...

I was having a problem where I would get a burst of violent bubbles on the fuge side while at the same time the level would drop in the overflow and the durso would make a sucking sound. I read on the durso website that this was likely due to the outlet being too far underwater, so I cut the pipe so that it was right at the water level. This didn't solve my problem so I decided to try drilling the air hole in my durso one size bigger. This solved my problem, but then my outlet kept making a lot of noise, so I put a 45 degree elbow on it so the outlet was just below the surface. This solved my noise problem.

I still get a lot of bubbles, but not large bursts that make noise. The bubbles don't make it to my pump either, which is nice. I think it's because I don't have a ton of flow moving my sump (about 550 gph).

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by ponokareefer

The clownfish would be a good fish to get, as would the fairy or flasher wrasse's. If you are thinking about getting more than one type of fairy wrasse, it is typically better to add them at the same time to avoid fighting. Also, make sure you have a completely covered tank if you are looking at getting wrasse's.
As for tangs, with only a 4 foot tank(same as mine), you are more limited in what you can get. You're limited to mainly the following 3 groups: Zebrasoma(but not sailfin), Ctenochaetus, and Acanthurus(only the smaller ones). There are some really nice ones of the 3 groups, like the yellow tang, lemonpeel mimic tang, kole tang, and chocolate tang. You would probably only want to get 2, maximum 3 tangs total, and I wouldn't recommend getting 2 from the same group, such as a purple tang and a yellow tang. I have read that a lot of people have issues with aggressive purple tangs as well, just so you are aware.

I'm thinking that the clowns will be the first in, after that I'm not sure what I'll get. Tangwise I've been thinking that I may go with a kole tang, and possibly a yellow tang if I decide that I have room after that.

Thanks for looking guys!

[Leah]

New pictures yet???

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by Leah

New pictures yet???

Not much has changed, but this thread is due for some more eye candy

Another hitchhiker. He's a filter feeder, some kind of muscle or barnacle I suspect, but I haven't gotten around to IDing him, any ideas?


My non-mantis catching bottle trap


A couple of pics of some of the nooks and cranies in my rockwork





Sump running with the reactor on it:



And the skimmer at work... It was pulling out a lot earlier in the cycle, but has slowed down now. I'm not surprised as there isn't much bioload in the tank.



I really like the way this tank looks even with the lights off!



And my basement QT:



The ammonia patch in my QT seems to be yellow this morning so maybe I can get some fish this weekend. I'm gonna do some water testing later this morning (after some house cleaning, blah!) and maybe I can get some clowns into QT today or tomorrow. I'm also planning on picking up some cheato for the refugium and a cup of sand from one of Blue Worlds tanks this weekend to seed a bit more life into my tank