37 gal column conversion to AIO with foam/rock wall

[Cubeman]

The tank is just finishing the awkward first algae bloom stage that has lasted about 5 days. The clean up crew of 3 hermits and a dozen large mixed snails are gaining the upper hand without me having to pull out the old toothbrush. I've had a self sustaining population of margarita snails for about 6 years and as soon as the algae started to grow they had a mass spawning event - pretty cool. I expect to start seeing small snails everywhere soon of which a few will grow to adulthood which has been the typical cycle for them in the past.

My first try with LED lighting is proving to be a learning experience. I originally had the unit maxing out at 60 percent for 4 hrs and tapering on/off for the other 4hrs on both ends of a 12 hr cycle. I took some ugly old frags from another tank that were sitting under a 250w MH and placed them around the tank in the bottom 6 inches or so. Within 2 days some had faded badly to the point of looking bleached. Within a week others that were no more than brown lumps showed remarkable colour change and growth. By trial and error I have found my areas of highest par (no meter for this poor boy), moved the corals accordingly, and ramped the lights down to 40 percent max for now. My plan is to ramp up 5% per week until I find the sweet spot. Overall I'm really pleased with the LED light and at this point in time couldn't imagine going back to MH or fluorescent bulbs.

A post isn't complete without pictures so here's a good thing from this week. I received a great box from whatcaneyedo:


No sooner had they been unpacked and I had to go to work for 8 hours. So I left strict instructions and a turkey baster with the better half and the corals had a 9 hour acclimation until I got home close to midnight.


The most fun was comparing the size of the bristle worms that were hidden under each piece of styrofoam. Must of ended up with about 50 of the buggers plus a few small stars.

I haven't got the hang of the shooting through the glass AND getting the right colours yet but here's a few of my better shots of some of my existing pieces and the corals that shipped in.



I think this is a green cactus coral that has encrusted but hasn't sent up its "leaves" yet.


Purple Pocillapora


Red monti (got a green and purple as well)


Green with purple tips acropora

[nrosdal]

It is starting to look really good in there. Nice additions. I have found in my own learning experience that the montis need very slow ramp up as i have bleached both that i added with all the other corals that seem to be loving the high light.

[monkE]

Really enjoyed reading through this thread Cubeman! Very well done on that rock wall, I was pretty impressed with the epoxy/sand and then taking it a step further by sand coating the powerhead wire. Very clever and well thought out.

Can't wait to see the coral grow out and see some fish get in there. Well done man, lots of ideas now for my next one!

[Cubeman]

Originally Posted by monkE

Really enjoyed reading through this thread Cubeman! Very well done on that rock wall, I was pretty impressed with the epoxy/sand and then taking it a step further by sand coating the powerhead wire. Very clever and well thought out.

Can't wait to see the coral grow out and see some fish get in there. Well done man, lots of ideas now for my next one!

Thanks Mike - I see you've made the rounds and filled your new build with frags too Be eating mac n cheese for a month!

[Cubeman]

More of a progress report than anything this week. The CUC has done its job and taken care of the algae on the rocks. I am still getting a generous green film on the glass that needs to be cleaned daily but this too shall pass.

One of my scarlet hermits crawled out of the water and sat on top of the rock wall until he dessicated. Literally within an inch of the waters edge and he chose to sit still and die. The intelligence of hermits went down a notch in my estimation with this event. Anyway I pulled him out of his shell and fed the cleaner shrimps with it. This may not have been a smart thing to do as now the larger shrimp is grabbing at the remaining living hermit thinking it would make a good meal. I'm guessing the shrimp will give up once he loses a leg.

Slowly getting a handle on how much Calcium and Alk to add to my two fresh water top offs so that the levels remain constant. The worst part about this dialing in stage is the time it takes to do multiple water tests each week as you track the changes you make in concentration against the results.

I have close to 20 sps frags in the tank now, 9 from my other systems and 11 that are new. I have another 7 being shipped in on Friday from Fragalot. Other than 2 encrusting monti's that bleached under the LED's and haven't regained their colour the rest are doing fantastic. Couldn't be happier with the colour and polyp extension.

The rock wall is no longer gleaming white and sterile but it has not gained any coralline to speak of yet. The live rocks however are purpling up nicely. The wall is however home to a magnificent number of organisms that come out under the moon lights.

I'll end with a FTS just so I can mark the progress of the tank. I should call this one "How to hide 20 frags in a 37 gallon tank"

[Cubeman]

Received some frags through overnight shipping today (thanks Thomas). I ordered 7 and received 2 extras so that was a pretty nice surprise.


One almost DOA was a purple hairy acropora that had fouled its water badly - man did it smell rank. I gave it a quick acclimation and dip and it shed about 80 percent of its flesh - into the shade with it and we'll see if it recovers at all. Also one montipora had this nasty little bugger with it and a second one dropped out during the dip.


Also upgraded the skimmer today from the Prizm Pro which was just too noisy to remain in the front room to the Tunze 9004. So far so good on its performance but it has only been running for a couple of hours - it is definitely almost silent though which was the main reason for the change.

[neven]

Looks great! I've done two rock walls, a 2.5 nano with carved styrofoam, and a 10 gallon nub reef tank. Used the foam method as you did for my reef tank, but i didn't use the epoxy sand stage unfortunately. In the end it was a mess of algae due to inexperience and imbalanced light so i ripped it out. look forward to seeing more FTS when its done

[Cubeman]

Originally Posted by nrosdal

It is starting to look really good in there. Nice additions. I have found in my own learning experience that the montis need very slow ramp up as i have bleached both that i added with all the other corals that seem to be loving the high light.

+1 on the monti's Nick - that has been my experience too