New Elos 120 build

[someguy]

The system was ordered sometime last fall, and I actually got it in November. There were a couple of issues, but those got sorted out quickly enough. Jesse, who runs ElosUSA, is very good about responding to questions and concerns, and I found the customer service to be very good.

The tank has had water in it for about 2 1/2 months now. I started with about 60 lbs of dead rock and one piece of live rock, in order to try to minimize pests. I have a shallow sand bed, made of a mixture of 1-2 mm sand and larger, coarser crushed coral.

Cycling took about 6 weeks, and was done by feeding the tank with fish food. I didn't test obsesively, but every couple of weeks I would check to make sure I was getting a good ammonia spike. After about 6 weeks, things had settled down, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate had all reached zero. I have never been able to detect any phosphates, but I had a pretty good crop of hair algea, so it was time to get some life into the tank.

I started with some scarlet hermits and trochus snails, and the algea started disappearing. Since then, I have added 2 very young ocellaris clowns, and one young yellow tang. All of the algea has disappeared, and everyone seems to be doing well. The fish are eating well, and the only loss I can see has been one hermit. I am not QTing, as Wendel will hold onto, and medicate, my fish for several weeks for me before I get them. This is much appreciated.

That is where I am now. I plan on taking this slow, and adding fish every 2-3 weeks, and corals and inverts in over the next few months.

[someguy]

Dry fitting the aquascape:



Filling with fresh water



Sand added:



Sump:



Water purification:

[someguy]

My "fish room" - currently consists of spare SW tank:



Controllers mounted on door of cabinet:



FTS with sump:



FTS:

[someguy]

Edge of tank. The workmanship of the Elos tanks is great. Smooth seams, beautifully bevelled edges:



Current inhabitants:

[hillegom]

Things look good. Nice and slow, as you are doing.
I would use that "spare" tank as a quarantine.

[ensquire]

Very nice setup.

[fishytime]

sweet lookin tank fursure

[staceyd72]

Hi Art,

Very ice setup, looking forward to seeing it grow out.

Any idea what's the difference between the Elos starphire glass and 'our' starphire glass? Also, the back pane is starphire?

[someguy]

Originally Posted by hillegom

Things look good. Nice and slow, as you are doing.
I would use that "spare" tank as a quarantine.

Thanks for the comments. The whole QT issue was a tough one for me. My instinct was to QT properly, but after talking with Wendel and having him essentially QT my fish, I figured it at least minimizes any potential issues. If the worst happens, I have an extra 55 gal tank hanging around empty that can quickly become a hospital tank, and I can make lots of SW very quickly.

I have a few other issues I'm currently working through as well:

1) lights - I really like the AI system. It is completely controllable with it's own controller, so I don't have to purchase a third party controller just for the lights. The problem right now is that there is a spotlighting effect, although in real life it is not as obvious as the photos make it out to be. Adding a third module will help, and eventually I'll get a better mounting system that will also allow me to raise them further off the water. I also have the option of buying differentl optics to help with the light spread. Everything I've read indicates that I should be able to grow anything with these lights, but I may get a PAR meter one of these days just to see what I'm getting.

2)Salt - the salt I'm using right now (I won't mention brands) is not giving me the parameters (Ca, Mg and Alk) that it is promising. I will likely go to a cheaper salt since I will be supplementing in either case. This likely explains why I'm getting no coraline algea growth at all.

3) Noise - The Elos system is supposed to be very quiet, but in reality, my system at least is relatively noisy. Mainly a low grade humming from the sump. To solve this, I will be moving the sump into my little fish room, which is a utility room just behind the tank. I had planned to do this eventually, mainly to make maintenance easier, but this noise issue has just accelerated the process.

Otherwise, I'm happy with the way things are progressing.

[someguy]

Update

I have added some new stuff now. There is now a young Kole tang who was bit shy at first, but is now looking really good. Unfortunately I can't get a good photo of him as I haven't figured out how to shoot fast moving fish yet.
I also got my first coral, a small frogspawn. I just got the one because I wanted to get comfortable with the acclimation, mounting, etc process before loading up on others pieces. I initially dialed down my lights and then increased them over a few days. My experience is limited, but he looks pretty happy to me. He is extending his polyps nicely, and in my mind seems to be a brighter colour than when I got him.



As far as acclimating inverts and corals, I am using a medical IV drip set and have found it very easy to set up and fine tune the drip rate. For those of you in the medical field I highly reccomend trying these. For anyone else, If you are interested, I would talk to your vet. They only cost a couple of dollars, so they should be able to sell them very cheap.