N00bZ 150g Tank Build (1 Viewer)

[MurseJB]

I've been wanting to post some kind of build thread, and after visiting a handful of fellow reefers and seeing their tanks in person, inspiration has led me to do so. Its going to be a retrospective build thread though... bc I'm a procrastinating lazy mofo. I set the tank up back in June 2021. Up until this point I had been keeping nanos, AIOs, and a reefer 170, and had the itch to upgrade after the freeze. Luckily, I was able to pick up this tank second hand. Dimensions are 48" x 28" x 30" w/ dual overflows. The stand just needed some TLC and spar urethane on the hinges. Water tested the tank and the ghetto plumbing job, then drained it, and then stacked dry rock I had marinating in a container since March 2021. The lights were added a month later along with some of the smaller fish and turbo start. At this time I added a biobrick from my old tank.

 

[MurseJB]

End of July 2021 I added some fish and surviving coral frags from my old tank as I wanted to break that tank down. Come August 2021, like any reefing addict, I had to tinker some more... added more fish...added more rock... lights...flow.... controller... and a 11g refugium/mangrove tank LOL. Just plumb it into the sump right? Dont't mind the eyesore of a firstimer's plumbing job..

 

[MurseJB]

September 2021, right before Reef Currents, I wanted to upgrade the lights some more... and add some automation w/ a trident

 

[MurseJB]

Then Reef Currents 2021 happened, and in a weak moment, I decided to deviate from my "plan" of not rushing in LOL... Had to ramp up my Kalk rx and Co2 scrubber so I could keep up with my "deviation".

 

[MurseJB]

The next two months were very challenging... enduring unstable tank parameters wasn't so bad. Battling ich sucked... However, unknowing parents trying to freshen up the bathroom with aerosols did a number on the coral, and then equipment malfunction bc of bad planning/maintenance dropped the tank salinity killing the aerosol survivors. So much for the "deviation...." time to get back on the original "plan?" The tank became fowler and was basically neglected over the holidays. By March 2022, It was time for spring cleaning and I got the stomach to clear out coral skeletons, some uglies, and then upgraded the mangrove tank's light.

 

[MurseJB]

End of March 2022 finally got around to configuring the DOS to do AWC daily, using a second hand acrylic container as the source for new saltwater and pumping old tank water into the kitchen drain. In the mean time, started collecting various frags to restock the tank. Mangrove tank got the LPS and clam treatment. Had to start using 3 part Ballin Method in addition to the Kalk rx to keep up with demand of the tank.

 

[MurseJB]

End of May 2022, The tinkering bug hit again and upgraded the 11g fiji cube to a 32g fiji lagoon, which gave me more room for instant gratification LPS corals, more macro algae, and mangrove space.

 

[MurseJB]

By mid June 2022, I got tired of refilling dosing containers every 3 days.... so like any other addict, I went for more automation and added a Calcium Rx and Hydros..

 

[soymilk]

where current pics

 

[MurseJB]

With the tank jam packed again, just endured the hot Houston summer and the cold winter spell and dialed in dosing, nutrient control and general reefing husbandry. As well battled aptasia with an army of peppermint shrimps and a file fish in the display tank, along with berghia and a small file fish in the mangrove tank. It all worked, except I had to rehome the small file fish from the mangrove tank... he loved clams and loved eating the mouths of flesh LPS. Sadly the clams didn't survive, the scolies did and regrew their mouths.

September 2022


November 2022


January 2023

 

[MurseJB]

Noob self put corals way too close... so let the trimming and cleaning commence. As well I changed up powerhead placement..

February 2023

 

[MurseJB]

I'm starting to like the Mangrove tank more...

 

[MurseJB]

Some other reefers inspired me to get better pics of the acros.. so this month, I've been messing with a top down viewer and some iphone camera lens attachments.









With swapping the gyres to the sides of the tank, its now going to make cleaning the right side glass a little easier for a cool view..

 

[soymilk]

hey bro, you can't just be coming up in here and making me feel bad about my tank like that. All jokes aside, thanks for sharing with us.

Can you speak a little bit about your system as far as dosing regime, feeding regime, what are you doing for trace elements? and the ultimate reefing question. calc rx or 2 part?

 

[MurseJB]

hey bro, you can't just be coming up in here and making me feel bad about my tank like that. All jokes aside, thanks for sharing with us.

No way man, I wish I had your sexy tank. Seeing everyone's gucci 6ft or more, starfire glass aquariums has got me planning an upgrade already... and like an addict, I'm collecting and hording stuff. Instead of being a lazy SOB, the new build, while being constructed, will hopefully get posted concurrently.

 

[MurseJB]

I got a decent stocking list for the tank so I feed fairly heavy.

150g Tank Fish List:

2 PJ Cardinals​

Midas Blenny​

Falco Hawkfish​

File Fish​

Springeri Damsel​

Flame Angel​

Goldflake hybrid​

Foxface​

Powder Brown Tang​

Gem Tang​

Naso Tang​

Tomini Tang​

​

33g Tank Fish List:

Pair of Yasha Gobies​

Red Mandarin​

Radiant Wrasse​

Fish Feeding Regime:

2x day, the Ehiem autofeeder dumps a mixture of 8 different pellets into the 150g Tank​

Frozen Food 1-2 times per week​

Nori 1-2 times per week​

33g tank gets 2-3 feedings of reef nutrition foods (ROE, Pac Pods, Arcti Pods) and frozen food when I feed frozen to the 150g​

 

[soymilk]

My 6ft tank is inspired by the reefs next to the discharge of a sewage processing plant. Fish and algae only. Having the starfire glass is really nice to view all the algae. With the vortechs, the motion of the algae moves back and forth just like in the ocean.

 

[MurseJB]

The tank's dosing regime is similar to what other local reefers have had success with. Lots of long discussions, and endless YouTube videos helped solidify how the tank is dosed:

Kalk reactor doses kalkwasser during lights out (helps elevate pH at night)
Tropic Marin's Ballin method along with BRS pharma for more Alk/Calc and trace elements is dosed 24 hrs
VarioS CR140 5.5" DC Calcium Reactor w/ seachem's media, runs during lights on (helps negate some of the pH depression)
Easy Sps coral food via dosing pump
KZ Flatworm Stop via dosing pump
KZ coral booster by hand every other day
AWC changes 2.5 gallons of water a day (small source of trace alk,calc, mag?)


The tank early on, ran solely on Kalkwasser until I got close to daily evaporation levels. I then added the BRS pharma w/ Ballin method. This did very very well for me and I would have stayed with this if it were possible for me to hide ultra large dosing containers. I have 1.5 L containers and at one point I was refilling them every 3 days.... which got really annoying. Hence why I added the calcium Rx, which made it possible to refill containers weekly instead. I don't have the apex autocorrect values from the trident. All my additives are on separately controlled wifi/bluetooth capable dosing pumps, so I'll adjust them accordingly to trends from the trident. Also with the different sources of dosing, if one goes down, there is at least some back up and I can increase the other while I work to get the malfunctioning gear back online.

The easy sps and KZ products were recommended to me by many local reefers with amazing acropora success, and seems to have also solved polyp extension during the day (my own observational experience anyway).

With all this dosing, of course testing is required right? As mentioned before, I auto test with the apex trident. I follow the trends more than just worrying about the numbers this thing spits out. As long as the numbers are in range and trends look good, I just let things ride. During the summer, I started to use these Marsh sponsored ICP tests, and have been sending them every 2-3 months just to see tank status/trends.

Lastly, I'll do a 15 gallon water change monthly just to get detritus. Although, my goal this year is to increase this to 15-30 gallons 2 times each month.

 

[soymilk]

you gonna try that new two lil fishes reborn?

 

[MurseJB]

you gonna try that new two lil fishes reborn?

I dunno. I have another container of the seachem media, I'll probably just finish that off before deciding to try another calcium rx media. My reactor is still 3/4's full too lol.