Rock-n-Reef’s IM 112 Gallon Lagoon style build (or rather the 2020 Corona build!)

[rock-n-reef]

Okay, I haven't posted an update in a while. 2 months to be exact. Tank has been doing well. As you can see from my last post in January, I ran into high phosphate issue. I believe it increased over the period of time. Couple of things likely attributed to it:

1) I pulled out the refugium in late November due to macro algae breaking down. Did not add any other export method when I removed it
2) Detritus collecting in the overflow chamber.

The interesting thing though, the corals did not show any issues. At this high levels, I would have thought the acros would brown out. But didn't really see any issues.

In order to bring it down, did few large water changes, and used Brightwell Phosphate-E as a Phosphate export method on the tank. I know there are a ton of horror story with using Phosphate-E and other Lanthanum Chloride additives, and reef keepers losing live stock, crashing tanks etc. I knew what I was getting into and went slow.

Right now the Phosphate is between 0.1 and 0.08. As I was bring down the phosphate, had to keep a close eye on the Alkalinity and keep that balanced. Here is my test results since January 13th.

Phosphate-E is now part of the routine. Dosing 1 ml per day. As the coral colonies get large, I'm sure they will consume more nutrients at which point I can dial this down.

Talking about corals, here are some recent pictures of the tank.

The frags are encrusting and starting to grow.. still long way to get to colony sizes.

 

[rock-n-reef]

Few more coral pics...

 

[Slombardi]

Corals have great color and PE, looks awesome!

 

[rock-n-reef]

Tank is at the 9 month mark now. it has been a slow and steady progress. Some of the frags have had good growth especially the tenius and starting to look like small colonies. There are others that have spread-out like pancakes on the rock and not ready to take off yet.

Parameters are steady and nutrients are under control now. I was dosing Vibrant on this tank previously and stopped dosing that 9 weeks ago. Similarly I used Phosphate-E (see my post above) to get my high po4 under control. Stopped dosing that on March 25th.

Parameters (May 2021):
Alk - 7.8 to 8 dKH
Ca - 400 - 430 ppm
Mg - Haven't tested that in a while
PO4 - 0.06 to 0.09 ppm
NO3 - 4.5 to 12.7 ppm

Added 2 juvenile Golden Rhomboids (end of April). No other changes to livestock.

 

[Zirky]

Your tank looks great. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Ptreef]

These build threads are awesome. Would love to see a spreadsheet on items/cost of anyone were willing to take the time and share.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

These build threads are awesome. Would love to see a spreadsheet on items/cost of anyone were willing to take the time and share.

I'm in the 8-12 thousand dollar range for equipment and plumbing.
I'm sure there's a bit more to this that I can't think of but here's a general idea. This doesn't include salt, rock or coral.Thanks for making me depressed lol.

 

[Zirky]

A spread sheet? I don’t know. I don’t wanna know. I’m pretty sure I passed $10 g’s a couple years ago. I could maybe part it all out for 3.

 

[rock-n-reef]

A spread sheet? I don’t know. I don’t wanna know. I’m pretty sure I passed $10 g’s a couple years ago. I could maybe part it all out for 3.

Exactly! I don't really want to know! that takes the fun out of the hobby! lol

 

[Ptreef]

I'm in the 8-12 thousand dollar range for equipment and plumbing.
I'm sure there's a bit more to this that I can't think of but here's a general idea. This doesn't include salt, rock or coral.Thanks for making me depressed lol.View attachment 162396

I'll show this to my wife so she stops complaining. Thanks

 

[PSU4ME]

I stopped counting at 20k because I’m all in so what does it matter now!

 

[this is me]

“It’s only $20” I’ve been saying that a lot to the wife.

 

[thrillreefer]

Just round frag prices down to the nearest $100... most are “free”!

 

[rock-n-reef]

ICP Test Results​

Recently I sent across samples from my two tanks as well as my salt mix for ICP.

Salt Mix --> https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/102725
Tank #1 (IM 112) --> https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/102716
Tank #2 (IM 200) --> https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/103355

Overall nothing surprising, but a few observations

• The salt mix (Red Sea blue bucket) seem to show high level of Barium. Not sure if this is from the salt or from my source water. Has anyone else noticed this on your ICP?
• Tank #1 is using All-for-Reef for dosing, and Tank #2 is using a calcium reactor with no other trace element additives. Since All-for-Reef already has trace elements, this mostly seems fine. The calcium reactor one seems to be struggling with almost no iodine and slightly low on Potassium. Probably time to add some trace elements.
• There is some level of Aluminum in both the tanks (though nothing in the salt mix). This is clearly coming from the marine pure blocks that I'm using. Haven't seen any major issues due to this. So going to leave these as is for now.

Both the tanks are in a good place in terms of coral growth and stability. These test results should help as a baseline. Would be good to come back in the Fall and compare against these to see how much the tanks got neglected in the summer!

 

[rock-n-reef]

 

[rock-n-reef]

Tank is officially at one year mark! It has been chugging along nicely. No major changes besides the lightning.

Updated the original Giesemann stellar fixture with XL extension plates so that I can run the radions front to back, and also switched to three Radion G5 Blues.

Added an additional MP40 to give some additional flow in the tank (total of three MP40s now).

Some FTS

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Nice tank for a photo contest.

 

[this is me]

Sweet one year progress!

 

[rock-n-reef]

Nice tank for a photo contest.

lol! I have a picture coming your way

Sweet one year progress!

Thank you buddy!

 

[Zirky]

Wow I love that tank