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Bill's long wait for a tank

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Ocelaris

So it's been close to 15 years since my last reef tank which didn't end well, so I've learned and been planning this tank for a bit. I picked up a 112 gallon (60" long x 18"deep x 24"tall) from a guy on craig's list and been working my way through it. I haven't documented it very well, but I'll start off on this picture and try to add more as I go. First critter is Austin, 3 months old, and he's going to get to know fish very well!

I have a back room where water is made and changed out, and a cabinet behind the tank for the electronics. I picked up some more dead/live rock and cycled it for a month, as well as kept the rock and sand that was in the tank. I've got another few weeks of cycling to get the decaying material out of the Pukani rock.

I'll get some more pictures up shortly, but I'm in way northern New Jerey and Austin doesn't leave a lot of time for driving south, so you may see me at the next one further north. (I attended my first one with Craig Bingman a few months back before Austin arrived).

Glad to be here, and looking forward to catching up when I get some free time! Bill
 

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njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
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Good luck @Ocelaris I have two kids (6 and 4) and you are correct that they don't leave much time for traveling. My kids love my tank so I am sure Austin will love yours.
 
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Ocelaris

myrjon said:
things have changed in 15 years.... still you know the basics. good luck bill.
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Thanks, here are more shots of the tank before work.

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Ocelaris

Tank came with a few button polyps, and 4 little green star polyps. I'm wondering if I should take care of the green star polyps before they spread?

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Mark_C

Mark_C

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Grats on the new build. As per GSP I've cleared them from my tank 1/2 dozen times and I've still got them. I'd say get em while you can.
 
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Ocelaris

Mark_C said:
Grats on the new build. As per GSP I've cleared them from my tank 1/2 dozen times and I've still got them. I'd say get em while you can.
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Anyone want that rock? Nice button polyps! Hate to see it go, but that's the way it goes, long term planning first.

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Ocelaris

Thanks, I put that rock up for grabs on the for free forum, though I'll probably kalk paste them tonight. I'm taking it slowly and just want to not take any big missteps if I can avoid it.

Diatoms and a little green algae just started on some of the rock that was cylcing in another tank (had lights on it due to the Kenya tree and polyps), but it's going to be a while till the phosphates come down, those big pukani pieces have a ton of decaying material in them. I know people complain about the rock leaching, but I'm more of the opinion that it's all the dead sea creatures that were embedded in it.

The tank came with a carbon reactor (bio-pellet) so we'll see if that helps, but Nitrite and Amonia are zero (or were last week). The pH is a bit low, but all the other calc/magnesium/alk were fine, but now that I have all the rock in I can start dosing Kalk. Also came with 2 BRS 1.1mL dosing pumps, so once I get the float valves wired up to the Apex I can start ATO etc...

When we finished the basement I ran 2x 3/4" pvc between the rooms, 4x 18x2 wire, a 18x5 wire, a cat 5 and 6x 1/4" poly tubes to link them. Of course the Apex has that USB like connector, so I spliced the 18x5 wire and hooked a EB4 up to control the dosing pumps. So there's some programming to be done but the cycling can continue.
 
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Ocelaris

Angel730 said:
Wow your tank looks amazing. Can't wait to see future posting.

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Thanks, I realized unfortunately that the skimmer that came with it is an sc-301, and it should have been an sx-302, so I may be in the market for a new skimmer shortly. But the sump has so many partitions that I can only fit in a 11x12x23" skimmer, which limits it to skimz sm201 or a compact reef octopus.

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