65 gallon log

Bandit13

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
Been a while since I’ve posted/active on the the forum, mostly cause I broke my phone. The old iPhone 4s I had to use couldn’t handle Tapatalk app.

Last June I had to move my old 40 gal reef tank to a new apartment and then ended up moving it again in November, it sucked! Things went south with excess nutrients/algae and coral decline. Moving that much certainly didn’t help things but I Mostly attributed it to my DIY sump and overflow setup. Not researching enough about pvc diameter and flow led me to not having enough turnover to properly feed my in sump skimmer while carbon dosing, leading to nutrient buildup.

With another move in February to Portsmouth NH I began planning my upgrade, a 65 gallon. I liked the footprint of my 40 but the height didn’t allow for the rockscape I wanted. A 75 gallon was to big/long but had the height, but the 65 gave me the best of both worlds, extra height with roughly the same 40g footprint.

Stand was built with 2x3 boards and 1/4 side paneling, 3/4 inch plywood for the doors and the hood. The back is open for good air flow and the two sides have hinges panels for easy access under the stand. Also allows for removal of sump for maintenance/cleaning.

Having time for my move to Portsmouth and move out, made it much easier and less chaotic. Come move in I setup the new 65 gal, and got everything running. then the next day I broke down my old 40g moved livestock and rock to new tank and it’s been pretty smooth since then.

Gear:
-65g deep blue
-eshopps eclipse overflow (800gph)
-jebao dcs-3000 return
-reef octopus 110int skimmer
-2x jebao rw-8 powerheads
-20gal long sump
-2x AI prime HD
-jebao 4 channel doser (alk/ca/mg/C)

Livestock:
-coral beauty
-candy hogfish 10/01/19
-lawnmower blenny
-Occe. clownfish
-orchid dottyback 09/19
-dersea clam 08/19
-rbta/gbta
-tiger tail cucumber
-purple pin cushion urchin
-Valentini puffer traded
-lantern basslet traded


Corals:
-Green/purple/neon monti
-green star polp
-finger leather
-sinularia leather
-blue cespitularia
-purple torch
-purple frogspawn
-frogspawn
-octospawn
-bubble coral 07/19
-Duncan
-blue mushroom
-orange zoa
-green paly
-blue & green candycane
-waving hand Xenia melted
-toadstool leather Traded
-galaxea Traded 08/19




Base frame:
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Test fit with canopy
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Trim work and siding
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Stained and plumbing
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Finished product
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Sump with light installed
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Side panels
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As for the future of the tank I am going to sell the hydra 26 HD and put in another prime HD. They have a different look/spectrum when linked, prime is more purple and 26 more blue. The 26 is to powerful for what I need as well. Can’t seem to make my monti caps happy under the 26. They have been severely bleached for months but some how holding on and growing.

Algae left over from the 40g has been decreasing with vinegar dosing which works much better with the more efficient sump/overflow. Having a bigger sump is awesome, extra rock and frag rack fit nicely.

dosing vinegar and traces has mostly replaced water changes. Have only done two 5 gallon changes since moving in February, and things have never been better, overall maintenance time is way lower too!

Also Planning on trading/selling big Xenia rock in the future and likely pick up bta once things have settled in more.

Will update with tank/livestock pics from dslr soon

Glad to be back!


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Update:

Been a few months but tank is back on track and things are on the upswing. So after trying the reduced water change method (about 20%/every other month) I’m back to 10gal every week.

My Xenia patch melted away after I rearranged some rock work! Oh well the stuff can get to crazy sometimes.

Reduced water change with vinegar dosing worked fine for a few months but then dosing alk/mag/ca became a nightmare as levels would shift very quickly. Maybe the trace elements got to depleted throwing things out of whack? Either way the weekly water changes made instant difference.

No dosing except for small amount of vinegar. Will start in the next few weeks and will try getting away with biweekly water changes.

Reduced bio load too, Valentino puffer and lantern basket had to go. Between the two pigs they would eat 5 whole krill every other day! Exchanged for a twin spot hogfish. Will only get one more smaller fish in the future, still undecided, clown,cardinal,royal gramma, who knows?

Added chaeto and lower vinegar dosing, chaeto growing well. Tank algae is reducing. Monti caps are coloring back up and corals are growing good again!




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Can see the patch’s beginning to color up, these montis are indestructible:
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Update 05/27/19

Been doing weekly ~8gallon water changes for the past 5-6 months. Tried biweekly 8gal changes and 4gal/week but both did not seem to work for the tank.

Corals have colored back up well, leathers, LPS growing well, monti cap has really come back. Got rose anemone that has split and green bubble men.

clown, candy hogfish, coral beauty, lawnmower blenny all grown well. Urchin went from quarter size to golf ball, and cucumber is 6in or so

Got to get the Doser running to keep levels in check between water changes and maybe can get away with biweekly changes then.

Fragged a few single heads and 2 multi head branches from Duncan colony

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Rose nem
05/11/19
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Rose nem soon after addition 11/15/19
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Monti in November 11/06/19
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Monti Current 05/27/19
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Things have been doing great! traded in some drags from my monti cap, Duncan and the gorgonian I had that my coral beauty was munching.

Used the store credit to get a new piece of rock that will be replacing the paly covered rocks on the right side of the tank. Not a big fan of the fast growing palys and looking for to replace with a softy with more movement/flow to it. Be a few weeks till I start rearranging that.

Still gotta start dosing, but have at least started testing. The only thing that gets low by the end of the week is alk, but is brought back to 8-9ish by water change.

Video from the other night, anemone was looking big and beefy haha



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Quick update:

The first split from my rose nem grew well and has split into three giving me 4 nems now.

Got my Duncan frags all glued and settled on some rock.

picked up a bubble coral after trading in some rock/chaeto.

Galaxeafrag is doing well too!

Got some rock curing in a bucket for redoing the right side of the tank.

Still no dosing but got bulk alk stock made up.

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Video before weekly water change a few random pics.

Main anemone is getting huge, disk is solid 6 inches and tentacles have some reach.

Anemone splits all seem to be healed up. Couple very small splits(golf ball) and one decent ( tennis ball) size





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Cooking some rock
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Gonna replace these paly rocks with the cooking rock
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Thanks! I like to keep bigger coral pieces instead of a bunch of smaller frags and colonies. Seems to make each coral stand out more.

I also stick mostly with faster growing corals and place frags throughout the tank to get the grown in look.

There was a CORAL magazine article I remember reading where they setup a tank using only a handful of easy, fast growing corals places throughout the tank. Results were awesome in there tank and that’s kinda the way I’m mimicking with coral selection


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Have started testing and figuring out dosing amounts.

Alk levels is being strictly tested and Ca/Mg are being tested but more Ball Park #s if anything.

Every prior time I’ve tested Alk ends up low and Ca/Mg fine.

08/04/19: right before water change

Alk: 5.5
Ca: ~400
Mg: ~1400


08/04/19: after water change

Alk: 7.8


08/05/19 : day after water change

Alk 7.0
Ca ~410
MG~1320-1300

I dosed 3/4 cup of baking soda Alk solution ( 1 1/8cup -> 1 gal water). Will test tomorrow to see Alk change.

Tank is dropping Alk by about .8 each day or so, calculated .75 with testing a few weeks ago.

Gotta eye on Ca/MG and test better some numbers don’t really make sense with Ca/Mg.

Aiming to get auto dosing rolling again soon.

Mushroom leaving little shrooms
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Sump chaeto has grown in thick
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Been testing and messing with dosing amounts for ALK throughout the week. The Monti caps seem to be liking the higher alk, noticed the growth edges seem "sharper" or thinner than normal. Likely due to more/faster growth. Gonna keep testing and keep looking at Ca and Mg to see how they maintain while dosing. Water change tomorrow and going to more frequent and smaller doses, still manual for now...

Tank consumption is around 0.8 alk per day (0.8dKH).
1/2 cup of alk supp ~ +1.6alk to tank

08/05/19
alk:7
Ca ~ 410
Mg~1520
+3/4 cup of ALK supp

08/06/19
alk: 9.1
Ca ~400
Mg~1560-1600?

08/09/19
alk: 6/2
+1/2 cup alk

08/10/19
alk: 7
cal 410
Mg 1500
+1/2 cup alk spp


Just the Blue Lights:
Green Bubble Tip
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Calibrate salinity tester? Some guys were getting high mag tests and his refractometer was off. Im kinda new to reefing but trouble shooting complex problems is my job. Always test tester as this is the common link to all bad readings. Easy check, once that is squared away and you no those readings are right then move forward. These tests are easy but with any chemistry your splitting hairs. Mix time,contaminates,portions of ingredients, there is alot of human error to mess you up even as seasoned reefer. I always try to confirm results with someone else as fail safe
 
Thanks for the idea, I’ll check the refractometer I use on some RO water tonight when I water change to check calibration.

Last winter got the 3-1 test kit fromRed Sea and the tests are much more precise on how to do them and results. Way easier to mess up!

Caught myself not using correct sample size on my MG test last night so that probably happened before haha!


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Also seems that the fluid sold to calibrate is off sometimes. precipitate in bottle over time maybe. Drives me nuts no two ppl agreed on a quality brand
 
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