Cheryl's 165 Gallon upgrade

[CherylMcKay]

So, the tank has been salty for a week, I am trying to be patience. I had a bacteria bloom the first few days as the rock was just dried out not washed or anything. Now I am at the golden brown algae stage, and still getting the water flow balanced. The skimmer is running and now have a Sedra KSP-20000 running. I have decided that the 75 gallon ( I am holding the fish, coral and rock in) will become my sump. I will put one/two baffles in it, 1to keep the skimmer at the proper depth and the other to keep the live rock from moving all over the bottom...really simple.

My husband keeps reminding me that we want to take this slow and steady. I have added about 20 lbs of live rock and a few snails. I found a really small one a about day 4, maybe a 1/2 cm long crawling on the glass.

I know I need the cycle to finish, and the I can add more of the live rock I have in the 75 gallon. Should I then wait again? I don't want to remove some of the rock as I have 2 engineer gobies that hide behind/under it. I also want to transfer all the fish at once, as I have rad that there will be less aggression that way...

What is a reasonable time frame to aim for, 1 month, 2 ? I figure if I have a end date, I can count down and help control the urge to put everything in this tank so I can admire them all together.

Aquarium home-150G parameters are:
Temperature: 78.7
Salinity: 1.027
Ammonia, NH4: 0.1
Nitrate, NO3: 0.1
Nitrite, NO2: 0
pH: 8.4
Alkalinity, KH: 5.5
Calcium, Ca: 500
Phosphate, PO4: 118 ppb
Magnesium, Mg: 1,600
Ammonia Nitrogen, NH3: 0.1

[CherylMcKay]

So It has been just shy of a year since I posted on this tank. Amazing how easy it is to let life get in the way of your hobbies and relaxation. Unfortunately my tank has suffered for it. I have decide (yet again) to make sure I get a much time doing what I like as I do, doing what I have to.

With out further ado:
FTS-20140322:


I am fighting hair algae again. Fighting this stuff is crappy!!! It is slowly choking out some of my favorites and this is my record of before and hopefully after. I am also talking to my husband about getting LED's as we pay a 300 dollar power bill every month and with a 6x54Watt fixture that doesn't even light the whole tank... we could be saving and I could be getting more light.

Corals:

My poor Candy Cane coral... Don't want to scrub on it with a toothbrush, so I suck off what I can every week.

Some seem to be thriving though? This is low to the rocks and seems to be holding it's own:

Blue Ridge ... (forgot the rest of the name and I couldn't find a picture to match):

Here is a FTS of my sump... Not a lot in it but I am looking at either a Phosphate reactor or Bio-pellets... haven't decide which will give me the best gain, long term. (Although with my reading... I am leaning towards the bio-pellets as keeping the bacteria up in the tank, makes more sense then trying to just remove phosphates):

It has not also been 6 months with my Apex and while I am liking it, I have a hard time trusting the Salinity probe as my refractometer reads, a couple of points higher (35 on Apex is about 37 on my refractometer) and my refactometer is easier to calibrate:

[SteveCGY]

Maybe try add a long spined sea urchin. I had bad hair algea like that and he cleaned it spotless in only a couple days.