65 gallon log

Just got around to reading your build today. Looks great! The only thing that jumped out at me was your plan to put your heater in the return section. As it is the only chamber that can run dry I would consider moving it in cas you have an ato foul up or something. Just my 2c
 
Didnt quite think of that when planning the design! Fortunately I've put the heater in the second chamber with skimmer. That was only cause it didnt fit in the last chamber, Guess i lucked out haha!
 
Mostly just pics as of recent, no real major changes. Things have been growing and things have not been growing!
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Waiting for the top left of the tank to Fill in, thinking of letting the galaxea take over a bit. Bridsnest and red zoas are starting to grow back. Especially since the rights side is covered in nems, makes the left look bare!

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The mystery algae, Dinos or whatever it is has only really affected the two leathers, devils hand and sinularia. They are bleached, dont open and have thin alge/dinos or something that lightly covers them. I blow it off and returns soon after. The Chaeto in sump gets a bit growing on top so i turn it when i feed since it just sits/doesnt spin.

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theres small bits here and there in other parts, does bug the Green Star polyps too. No real other algae like turf/hair algae, just the algae that grows on the glass every few days. And Coraline and Chateo is growing of course.

Sounds like dinos after some reading since it returns quickly after being blow off. Also the lack of other algae growing in the tank suggests the nutrients are not very high in the tank. I tried lighter feedings just in case but seemed to negatively affect the corals and didn't help the issue maybe even worse.

I feed every night so increased the amount a bit, also adding a light feeding on middays if at home. Anemones are doing great, colors looking good. Expecting some to move as the grow, its getting crowded up there!

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Heres a quick vid i took Today. Its a little over exposed, gotta figure out the vid setting for my camera! Video shows off the flowy look alot better. Love that look and why im heavy on the LPS, nems and softies



Youtube link:
65 Gallon Mixed Reef
 
Starting to test now since things have been doing good. Dont know what i started at for levels after my water change but they have definitely gone down over the week.

I checked dkh and Ca,
dkh=5.0
ca=400

Looked over my old posts for the dosing info i gathered a while back.

So 1/2 cup of alk solution adds about 1.6dKh.

added a cup of alk solution into the sump and will test tomorrow morning.

On a side note upping my feeding seems to have had great effects, corals look fuller/healthy and the weird algae that was covering my leathers has reduced.
 
Starting to test now since things have been doing good. Dont know what i started at for levels after my water change but they have definitely gone down over the week.

I checked dkh and Ca,
dkh=5.0
ca=400

Looked over my old posts for the dosing info i gathered a while back.

So 1/2 cup of alk solution adds about 1.6dKh.

added a cup of alk solution into the sump and will test tomorrow morning.

On a side note upping my feeding seems to have had great effects, corals look fuller/healthy and the weird algae that was covering my leathers has reduced.
Did you add that solution all at once?
 
Did you add that solution all at once?

Pretty much, added it to the high flow tank drain chamber in the sump. Havent really noticed any detrimental effects when doing it. Corals don't close up and no cloudiness, but typically add smaller amounts of alk once i get dosing. Im sure more delicate corals wouldn't like the large parameter swing but the lps softies dont seem to care.

Measured it the day after adding alk and reading was 7.6. Still a little low but the calculated dose from months ago seems to check out.

Aiming to zero in the water parameters this coming week and get the doser going again.
 
Pretty much, added it to the high flow tank drain chamber in the sump. Havent really noticed any detrimental effects when doing it. Corals don't close up and no cloudiness, but typically add smaller amounts of alk once i get dosing. Im sure more delicate corals wouldn't like the large parameter swing but the lps softies dont seem to care.

Measured it the day after adding alk and reading was 7.6. Still a little low but the calculated dose from months ago seems to check out.

Aiming to zero in the water parameters this coming week and get the doser going again.
Ye suppose that’s true, sticks sure wouldn’t like that. I even noticed lps don’t seem to respond well sometimes when I would dose more than .5 to maybe 1dkh at a time back when I first started and didn’t pay much attention to the tank.
 
Day after water change

alk 7.2
ca 370

adding 1/2 cup alk and 2tsp of Ca


Based on prior and current testing

1/2 cup alk ~ +1.6dkh
1 tsp Ca ~ +50ca
 
03/19/20

alk ~ 8.4
ca ~ 365
mg ~ 1320


+alk 1/2 cup
+ca 1/4 cup


honestly cant remember if I tested/dosed yesterday, numbers seem to indicate i did haha! So I put a note pad in the stand to keep better track. Going to get some more test numbers over the next few days and then get the doser going on next water change (sun or mon). Aiming to keep alk more in the 8.8-9.4 range so i have a little buffer before getting to low.

Additional/more feedings are really helping, and dosing is as well. Got a few things to trade or sell, golf ball size anemone has gone on the back wall so its going. my Duncan frags are growing nice and can clear some of them out.

Be adding pics in a bit
 
Just been letting the tank do its thing for a while now. Just water changes, dosing, and feeding.
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Things been growing well, others have been having issues. Anemones and Kenya Trees have been growing especially well. Lots of splits, selling a few on ebay. Looking to start selling/shipping Kenya trees/duncan/palys. extra $$ im making is mostly just going back into the tank and shipping supplies, etc.
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Got another torch, and sixline wrasse, Both doing well. Chaeto started dying out in middle chamber so just scrapped it. Going to try mostly anemones in that sump area now. Added a power head to the sump and anemone, few frags.
 
Moved to a new apartment and tank took it well. Used the move as a time to tweak the aquascape, kept the same main rocks on right side while accenting with some branch rock, left side i added a little height. Added some cardinal fish, cleaner and peppermint shrimp that worked out great, really no bullying from other fish. Picked up a nickel sized tuxedo urchin, toadstool leather and emerald crab.

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Carndinal Fish
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Toadstool Leather
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Emerald Crab
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Also used the move to switch my sump tank out as baffles were failing, but once i got the new one up and running the baffles blew out anyway haha. So its now a bare 20g long, but gives me the most foot print to grow frags/ anemones so it worked out. Been fragging and letting things really grow/multiply and building up stock in the sump, especially kenya frags and anemone splits. Aiming find a good balance of selling pieces from the sump while keeping mother colonies growing down there.

Sump
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Devils hand really taking off
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Devils hand leather frag bottom right
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Anemone Splitting
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Just letting things continue to grow and letting things continue to balance out. Really dialing in my doser over the past few weeks, and clipping branches from my kenya tree for frags. Done adding stuff and will just fragging and filling in the rockwork
 
Moved to a new apartment and tank took it well. Used the move as a time to tweak the aquascape, kept the same main rocks on right side while accenting with some branch rock, left side i added a little height. Added some cardinal fish, cleaner and peppermint shrimp that worked out great, really no bullying from other fish. Picked up a nickel sized tuxedo urchin, toadstool leather and emerald crab.

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Carndinal Fish
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Toadstool Leather
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Emerald Crab
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Also used the move to switch my sump tank out as baffles were failing, but once i got the new one up and running the baffles blew out anyway haha. So its now a bare 20g long, but gives me the most foot print to grow frags/ anemones so it worked out. Been fragging and letting things really grow/multiply and building up stock in the sump, especially kenya frags and anemone splits. Aiming find a good balance of selling pieces from the sump while keeping mother colonies growing down there.

Sump
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Devils hand really taking offView attachment 157106

Devils hand leather frag bottom right
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Anemone SplittingView attachment 157100

Just letting things continue to grow and letting things continue to balance out. Really dialing in my doser over the past few weeks, and clipping branches from my kenya tree for frags. Done adding stuff and will just fragging and filling in the rockwork
Everything looks happy after the move!
 
Tanks been growing out well. Things have been filling in nice, especially the nems. The devils hand and colt coral i picked up a while ago have been getting big. Glued a bunch of kenya frags to the rock work and got a good colony going now, been clipping kenya branches and making lots of frags. The petco toadstool leather has also grown a lot. One of the cardinal fish "disappeared" when i was on vacation, he was the smaller odd ball out of the group.
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The sump has been looking great too! Started back up selling frags/anemones online now that the weathers warmed up, im running out of room too! Anemones and kenya frags are making me the most profit especially with how fast they grow and frag. Sold a few green/blue palys too, but they a slower grower and profits lower. Going to continue to sell off the rest of the palys and clear space for more kenya/anemones and occasional overflow frags from the tank.
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Figured out an easy way to attach kenya clippings to tiles, just lay it flat and just put a super glue arch over it.
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Started researching cheaper/small scale aquaponics/culture setups for a stand alone frag system. Looking to scale up the frag/ anemone selling since its been going well from the tank, good way to reinvest the profit. It will be good summer project, and with warmer weather coming i plan to slow down on selling/shipping due to the high temps shipping issues and let things grow out. This will give me a good broodstock to start up a frag tank in late summer/ fall and start up selling again with milder temps. Nothing fancy and more of a purely functional setup then a pretty setup haha! Still got to research a lot and stop in at some aquaponics stores to see sizes in person before i commit to anything.
 
Quicker Update:

Have been cleaning up space/ rearranging the sump to provide some more room for frags. Got a tree farm going! Also did a little rearranging of the coral on the right side of the tank, urchin knocked a bunch of stuff over so was a good time to do it.

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Growing out the frags
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Fresh Cuttings glued and attaching in the basket
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Added a purple torch from the main tank to the messy rack
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Purchased a sherman anemone from ebay about 2.5 weeks ago and he was in rough shape when i got him. Very bleached and small, was shipped with a rock that i assume beat the crap out of the anemone during transit. Been having a rough time dealing with the seller FRAG LABS based in Georgia. Would not recommend buying from them, still waiting for him to send me a healthy anemone as advertised but not holding my breath. On the bright side the sherman is still alive and taking food well so i have high hopes he will recover

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my big devils hand coral got a hole thats getting bigger, kinda of neat watching this coral grow. Not sure if the branch will drop or just seperating in that area. Either way this corals going to get fragged soon, starting to shade a lot of space.

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Also been researching frag tank/ tray setups. Think i will be going with a 24" x 24" x 8" aquaponic/hyroponic tray or reservoir with stand. Lighting will be one AI prime since the spread/intensity can be 24x24" and intesne enough for softies in the low light. Likely only grow in one tray to start and have a second sump tray for media/ rock and eventually skimmer, May even grow in sump tray too as things progess.
 
Got my Uline order in, upgrading my shipping supplies/ quality. Picked up 1000x 10x4" 3mill bags, an impulse sealer and bunch of the insulated shippers i use. Have been using ziploc quart size freezer bags to bag corals but there not the strongest or most professional looking.

Messed around with the impulse sealer to get feel for it before doing orders, made a water filled bag and an air pillow haha. Thing is pretty cool and makes a great seal while also allowing me to tear/pull of the tag end of the bag, the bags look pretty snazy when done haha

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Will an update on the shipping process
 
Had an anemone go out today, so took pics of the shipping/packaging process. This post on Reef to Reef was my reference for getting started with shipping. Very informative and most of my methods were derived from that. However Ive been using a pharmaceutical 48-hr insulated pouch for 6x6x6 inch box instead of the foam coolers. They are smaller and cheaper so its easier to keep more on hand than coolers.

- 6x6x6 box
- Insulated liner
- 48 Hour Heat Pack
-2 4x10 3mill bags

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I usually wait until anemone is right size and on a small rock or glass so its easy to take off. They come off better out of the water.
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Plop em into a tripour
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into the bag next, usally half full of water
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Use the sealer set at 5 seal and then double bag.
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Once sealed and passes leak check the nem goes into the liner and gets sealed up. I open the heater a few hours ahead of packing so its nice and warm, that goes in corner and then tape it up. Print and slap the Shipping label on.
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I started using UPS next day air for overnight with anemones, ebay gives me the biggest discount using UPS with shipping being anywhere from $30-45ish while Fed Ex is $50-75ish. With zoas/palys and kenya trees i can get by with fed ex 2-day or UPS 2-day air, depends on cost and other orders going out. Have had 2-day shipping delayed by a day or two and no issue with survival.
 
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