Carey's Final Reef Upgrade- 180g

[MarinaClown]

how often does it need to be replaced? sorry carey just seen you were on this topic and figured it was a good chance to get the info

I just bought Phosguard today. I used it before and it brought my phosphates down to almost zero in 5 days. LFS said one media bag of phosguard can be used for up to 3 months. I intend to replenish it very 4 weeks. Phosguard is reasonably cheap so I don't mind the cost of replenishment.

 

[carey]

Went to order the reactor at marinedepot and wouldnt you know it, out of stock for 4-6 weeks! I think I am gonna go with a new type of reactor now this one:

Hydra Aquatics BioPellet Reactor w/ 600 Grams of Brightwell Aquatics Katalyst Bioreactive Filtration Media

The reviewers swear by it and it looks like it would avoid the clogging that upflow reactors have.

One more day til fishies!!!! Got one shipment confirmation already!

 

[Gregcoyote]

I used a $65 LifeGard fluidized sand filter from MarineDepot and used pellets rather than sand, worked great.

 

[redsea]

Went to order the reactor at marinedepot and wouldnt you know it, out of stock for 4-6 weeks! I think I am gonna go with a new type of reactor now this one:

Hydra Aquatics BioPellet Reactor w/ 600 Grams of Brightwell Aquatics Katalyst Bioreactive Filtration Media

The reviewers swear by it and it looks like it would avoid the clogging that upflow reactors have.

One more day til fishies!!!! Got one shipment confirmation already!

Yay for the fish on their way! Nothing beats the excitement of getting new friends! Don't forget the pictures, of course.

 

[Grizz]

Finely getting up to speed on this thread. Bio-pellets Use half of the recommended pellets to start, plumb the output tube into your skimmer intake You want to skim as much of the discharge as you can It can take 6-8 weeks before you see any effect.

 

[carey]

Thanks Grizz.....

I was debating using a smaller amount for startup but if thats what I should do i will.

The reactor I went with has a little knob where I can add pellets without having to disassemble the whole unit. One of the reasons I went with this particular reactor.

So for today, we chopped up a huge paly rock to get the corals separated from the aipastia and the palys are now in the new tank. ALso saved a mushroom and a 3 inch patch of gsp. I still want to move the huge gsp rock over but there is one stinking aipastia right in the middle of it of course. lol And its porous rock so I'm guessing it will retract before I can totally kill it. Not quite sure how to proceed.

 

[Grizz]

Use around half of the amount that it says to use when starting i didnt and had some nasty blooms tank looked like it was full of skim milk

 

[carey]

Ok, so I did a good amount of stuff tonight, the new fish will be here by 10:30 am est so I need to be ready as there wont be time n the morning and acclimating 11 fish at once is gonna be fun. lol

I got two of the rocks covered in palys over to the 180g, 1 hairy mushroom rock and a smaller green purple mushroom rock over. Also got the gsp moved in as well. And since there was so much going on we, my husband actually rescaped the tank. I knew the first scape couldnt be 'the one" so we improved on the last one, I hope anayways. Got a bunch of caves and overhangs, nothing too tall though, kinda was limited. Also found two large rocks int he 125g that had no aipastia, they were under the other rocks I took out so I moved them over to the 90g.
The 125g is officially moved of coral and rock and just have the fish to go in a couple weeks. The scape in there is god awful though, its in such disarray, poor fish must be like what the heck? lol
I am waiting for the tank to clear and then i have to glue some corals in place, I want to move king crab over very soon and he will tear that tank up with all the frags and corals being unsecured.
I think thats it for now. Fish tomorrow, leds friday and also a large order from marine depot with the biopellet reactor. OOOO forgot to tell anyone really, but I won a contest from marine depot and they are also sending for delivery friday a anti algae kit with a whole bunch of stuff including a new ARI master kit and a bunch of other stuff. Very excited to have won something.
2AM and back to the tank for me! My work is never done......

 

[carey]

4:30 am update: Still working on the tank and coral migration. I removed every coral that can be saved from the biocube, which was surprisingly more than i thought. There are 3 I believe cannot be saved, all polyps with aipastia between all of them. No way to zap them or I kill the coral. I also went ahead and dipped all the corals too, just in case. Wanna start fresh so I figured it was worth the time.
Now comes the sucky part, I have to mount as many as I can with what little putty I have. I ordered some coral glue today but it wont be here til friday and I really wanted to get the corals all squared away before adding all those fish. I also miscounted I think, I looked at the invoice and I got 12 not 11 coming. Forgot the midas blenny. lol

Buckets are emptied and ready for UPS in a few hours. Looks like this is an all nighter. Oh well, at least its fun. I soo love doing fishie stuff.

 

[huma-huma]

12 fish?!?!

 

[carey]

Yep, 12 fish. I think i added that many once before and it was a mess over here,buckets and water everywhere. lol
I am getting:
Mated pair of filefish
copperband
midas blenny
blue spotted rabbitfish
7 blue/green chromis

So it's 10 to 7 in the morning and I managed to get 37 corals moved and placed in the tank. Havent epoxied any onto the rocks just yet, getting kinda tired lol. Also did a complete run thru of tests on the water and there is just maybe almost 5 nitrates.
So the tank is ready to go, and my fish should be here in about 2 hours if not sooner I hope. Gonna have to take a nap at some point, I am pooped!

 

[Grizz]

Pooped? Your insane

 

[carey]

It's such a rush, my tank will be officially started and stocked to some degree in just a couple hours.

Thats enough to keep me going for now, hopefully I make it through acclimation awake. lol I plan on an hour for each fish but maybe longer for the copperband.

Oh, question..... how do I transfer the rabbit fish he has those venomous spine thingees, I;m guessing a net isnt the way to go in case he gets caught up in it.

 

[Grizz]

Use a bowl hold a plate over it, drain off as much water as you can. I dont even have a net.

 

[carey]

Hmm that may work. I was gonna put him in a 5g bucket for acclimation as he is kinda big I believe and cause of those tines on his back.

 

[mr_X]

I've always used a net for all of my fish.

 

[carey]

Even the ones with those spikes? Dont they get caught up?

 

[mr_X]

I suppose they could, but I guess I got lucky. When you get a fish from the LFS, do you actually pour their water in your tank? How do you totally remove the fish from the LFS water before adding it to the tank?

 

[carey]

I slowly add my water to their water while the fish is in a painters bucket. After awhile its mostly my water. If I think I want a longer acclimation I will empty some of that water and start again. I then net the fish out and add it.

 

[mr_X]

Many of them run copper on a regular basis, and none of them as far as I have ever seen QT fish before selling them. Imagine the LFS's system to be like a poorly run hospital....every disease known and unknown is there for the choosing!