Chris's 125 gallon aquarium

[okiestranger]

Hello all... I have decided to do a thread to show and discuss the build of my 125 gallon future reef aquarium and since this is my first salt water adventure i figured i would start a thread to show my progress I started this tank on Aug 10th waited for my ammonia nitrites and nitrates to drop to 0 then added a blue damsel (azul) waited two weeks all looked good added two tomato clowns almost a month went by everything looking wonderful then i noticed the tomato clown had white spots learned it was ich soon one tomato had died and i got some advice to remove the remaining two fish. I tried for two days many diffrent ways to catch these 1'' fish in this 6' tank and in the two days the two progressivly got worse with ich. At this time I had 150 lbs base rock ant 20 lbs live rock i dicided to remove all to try to save the fish. the other tomato passed two days after being put in the treatment tank. But azul the damsel is doing better starting to eat again.I am taking this as a good sign. now my tank has been running since aug10th but all my rocks are piled in a mass in the middle of the tank tomarrow i will move them where i want them and post more pictures . I have only been on this site a few days and by just reading old threads i have learned just how many mistakes i have made and i hope buy doing this all of yall can maybe stop me from making a few more. Thanks to everyone who has answered my questions and for the support i have recieved here already.Here is a run down of my equipment, 125 gallon glass aquarium, filstar xP3 canister filter 350 gph, 2 stealth pro 75 watt heaters, seaclone 150 protein skimmer,two 1300gph wave makers,wet/dry filter with bio balls two 36'' coralife 10,000k39w/actinic39w ho lighting. any questions or comments please ask..

[okiestranger]

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Glad you started a build thread Chris! Sorry to hear about your losses. There's so much usefull information on Reefland that it can sometimes be mind boggling! If you haven't already, you might want to check out the plethera of sticky's on the health, care and disease forum. tons of good, proven facts and treatment proceedures there. I made the habit of reading (and trying to remember) all of them so that if I encounter any issues, I won't be in a scramble to find the information I need. You got 8 weeks without fish in your display tank ahead of you so that might just barely be enough time to get through all of Lee's sticky's .
Mistakes happen but the good news is that it sounds like you're the type that learns from them. I'm fairly new to the hobby myself and found most of the information I needed through the help of this forum and its knowledgable members.
I look forward to watching your progress.
Here's some things I noticed that may give you problems (keep in mind I'm still a freshman to the hobby myself)...
Canister filters and bio balls can cause water quality issues by trapping waste and food.
a lot of people ditch the bio balls (myself included). The bio balls are meant to house bacteria but you have your live rock to do that so they're really not needed. Most who use canister filters only use them to run carbon (no filter media).
Your lighting is not adequate enough to support coral if your 2 fixtures only have 2 bulbs each ( correct me if im wrong here).
Like I said, I dont know much so feel free to me if im off base here.

[okiestranger]

Thank you FoMoCo for you encouragement and advice. I do intend to remove bio balls and filter media in the future only wanted to run it now till all my rock is good and seeded not sure how long that takes or if it has already. I ordered 150 lbs limestock rock for baserock and I'm not sure yet if that was a good idea or not. I have 120 lbs live sand and about 20 lbs live rock to help seed it. Also my plans in the future are to buy two more light setups like I already have and hang them above the aquarium and remove the glass top and have it open do you think a 4 bulb setup would be ok? Again thank you for your advice and encouragement.

Edit sorry I ment to say an 8 bulb setup...

[okiestranger]

Ok another question on a 125 gallon reef what should I have in terms of clean up crew as of now I have 3 blue legged hermits one turbo snail two conehead snails. I need some opinions thanks

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

I would remove the media before the bacteria colonize. Otherwise you would have to remove small amounts over a period of time and let the rest of the system "catch up". Do run carbon regularly though. I don't know much about using limestone base rock. Maybe someone else will chime in with that information.
What are the dimensions of your tank? I think you should be around 3 to 5 watts per gallon as a general rule but I guess it just depends. My 75 is 48x18x20 but has a built in filtration system in the back that accually takes up about 3-4 inches of width so my display is 48x15x20 (LxWxH) . I use a 48" 4 bulb t5 unit and it seams to be going well. I plan on getting a regular 75 gallon and ditching the all-in-one. When I do, I will likely get another 4 bulb setup which would give me 8x39 watts.
Definately do some reading about lighting.
As far as the CUC, the number of snails depends on the species. I hear turbos are great but I didn't get any because I was afraid they would bulldoze my rockwork. I only have astraes, ceriths and nassarius. Also got a couple of fighting conchs for the fun of it. My snail count is near 200 with about half being astraes. Wish I didn't get so many astraes though. They don't have the ability to right themselves if they flip over. Everyday I have to save at least one. I'm guessing you should be over the 200 mark unless they are all turbos but I could be wrong.
Sorry I'm not much help because of my lack of knowledge and experience. Other members should definately be of more help.
P.S. be careful about adding any crabs. Some say they are ok but I say they are the devil's handywork.
I had an emerald crab for a while and then one day, it caught one of my cleaner shrimps molting and ate it. The wife loved the crab but I got rid of it.

[okiestranger]

Thanks FoMoCo Wow that many I thought maybe 20 or 30 but 200 wow its cool I like the 6 I have its a shame about the emeraled crab they look cool and since I have to wait 8 weeks then I thought I would use this time to aquaculture and establish a good clean up crew and fine tune my water quality skills. Also it will give me time to read up on years of post and threads. Also on the topic of the bio balls they have been in the aquarium before I had all the rock so I am sure its to late to just pull them out. Man after reading the little of the threads and post on this site I wish I would have waited I thought I was well read before I started man was I wrong. Because I had to remove all the rock to catch the fish by the time I was done my tank was so cloudy and I didn't want to leave my rocks out to long that I just piled then in the tank now I need to reset them and cave it all in. Honestly I don't know where to start basically I'm back to square one. The wife is getting frustrated because I have a rock tank thats cost me thousands. But I'm not done yet I think I will get better soon what do you think about me adding a few corals in the next 8 weeks maybe I should add the corals before the fish because I will never add a fish straight to the display tank again lesson learned . Ok well I'm off to bed up for work at 3 am

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

IMO, I wouldn't add corals until the tank has had some time to mature. Corals demand excellent lighting and water quality. I would use the fallow time to practice keeping calcium, alkalinity and magnesium in balance as well as making sure ammonia and nitrites stay at 0. Nitrates should be as low as possible. I think under 10ppm is okay but under 5ppm is better. I definitely understand the wife's frustrations. Patience is the deciding factor on weather you will have long term success or a train wreck. Take it slow, do more research than you could possibly handle and it will all come together. I would get the water quality and equipment sorted out first and in the meantime you could start researching livestock for you 'wish list'. Hope this helps.
P.S. If you haven't already read the stickies on the FOWLR and Health/ Care/ Disease boards, you should check them out. LOTS of good reads there.

[jaybroreef]

Hey!and good luck..those first tanks can be a doozy.. Ive had a tank cycle in 3 weeks, and one took almost 2 months, just keep up your testing! Get rid of those stinky bio-balls as soon as possible, see if you can afford at LEAST 100lb. of good cured rock, set everything up and get it running, including your skimmer. Are you using R.O. water? If you dont I promise you will have a nitemare on your hands...after all of this you should cycle in a few weeks, you could throw a little piece of shrimp in there to get the bacteria going nicely! I truly hope this turnsout well for you, its loads of fun...GOOD LUCK

[jaybroreef]

Also. on the ich problem, I have had ich kill many fish, but now I always include an U.V. sterelizer, there is a problem with that though, as the u.v. can kill some good organisms as well....read up on it!!!!!!!

[okiestranger]

Hey jay Thx for the advice I have done some reading up on UV and been tossing around the idea the main problem was I didn't quarantine my fish lesson learned my tank is cycled and water quality is perfect for what I do test need to start phosphate testing but surprisingly I have never had a bad algae problems right after my cycle I added a blue damsel and then got a brown algae bloom but started doing top offs and weekly water changes with only R/O water and that has disappeared still some small spots and a very light case of red slim algae also retreating also jay I would like to thank you and look forward to any advice or if I am doing something wrong don't be shy YELL at me lol





James I want to thank you as well you have help me tons I feel better about this whole reef tank idea got pretty frustrated after the ich case and a few thousand dollars later but I enjoy everything about this hobbies the water test the water changes the cycling to me was exciting seeing the growth of the bacteria not by eye but by the test the only thing is the two dead fish had me second guessing this whole hobby but now I know reading up on all the aspects and the mistakes others have made that time rewards and hast punishes I will learn from my past mistakes and the mistakes of others think you very much

[jaybroreef]

Hey again! So glad everything is going the way it should...... That brown diatm growth is actually a good sign! Just clean it off the glass, and in due time it will runits course! Im sure you already know allof this, the best way I got slime under control was to point a powerhead where it is growing, siphon off all you can, water changes, and watch nitrates, and phosphates,good luck, my friend!!!! Its gonna be gorgeous!!

[vyouravi]

It may look like a rock tank, but if you added live rock and live sand, there is a lot more going on that you aren't seeing. Pretty soon you will start to notice copepods running around, you will see bristleworms forming everywhere, and a whole bunch of other stuff. you may not have a bunch of fancy fish or corals with names that you can't pronounce, but your tank will soon be teeming with life Don't run into it - take your time. A tank should be very mature before you consider adding corals and some fish like mandarins.
What did you mean by limestock rock... did you mean limestone? If so, I don't think that is a very good choice because it just does not have a lot of surface area. It doesn't have a lot of holes for all the micro fauna to hide in and colonize. I made my own rock with portland cement and rocksalt. It does take a while to cure, but it is a good base for the expensive live rock that you buy.

[okiestranger]

I'm back

Hello everyone I know its been a while since my last post. A few things have happened and a few decisions as well have been made. first off i think my tank has started a new cycle not sure if this is possible or not but i have had a small ammonia spike 0.25 also i had my nitrates jump up to 10ppm 20 gallon water change put it at 5ppm another 20 gallon water change now im sitting undetectable. Going to be keeping my eye on this and ill update when i can. I have come to the dicision that i will wait before i add anything to my tank untill after the first and then only if i feel comfortable that my water quality is perfect in this time all i will focus on is water quality.I am slowly removing the bio balls out of my wet dry filter as per the advice i have recieved on this web site. i have posted a few pics sorry about the haze i had just done a water change and sturred it up pretty good also the are purple and lime green spots popping up on all my rocks and glass and equipment think it might be coralline algea not sure if the green is the same. Also i have noticed small little white bugs and worms is this copepods???????????

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Hey Chris. Glad you're still pluggin along. The little white bugs are most likely pods. Try searching for pics to compare to be sure. I can't really tell about the purple and greens from the pics though. My rocks started to have patches of grayish purple and splotches of light green after a while too. Nothing close to lime green though. If it is coralline algae, then your water parameters are on the right track. I see more and more purple on my rock everyday. It's funny how even the little changes we see in our tanks are still interesting. I don't think there has been a day I haven't smeared my nose on the glass since I started this whole thing.

[okiestranger]

Thanks for the kind words. I am pretty sure it is coralline I have a very special tool I use to clean my rocks about once a week (99 cent tooth brush) and any algae growth easily comes off this is more encrusted. I am very sure of the purple kind of sure on the lime green. Also I wanted to ask you a question what supplements do you add to your make up water if any? I am referring to supplements to keep alkalinity, calcium or any other trace elements in correct parameters. Since I am waiting till next year and wanting to use this time to learn to keep water quality perfect I thought I would ask what products you use since your tank is progressing beautifully.


I know exactly what you mean buy excited about little changes. Seen some baby small snails yesterday I have never seen before hitchhickers from the liverock or live sand I'm sure. I get all excited call the old lady over and smash her nose on the glass to. Funny thing is she's from Mexico and doesn't speak English to well and my Spanish is limited to a few easy words so to try to explain to her what I'm looking at is a challenge I usually lose. She has decided I am insane spending thousands of dollars on a tank full of water and rocks to watch purple dots grow and spend hours every day keeping extreme amounts of electricity and extreme amounts of water running. But I will say only the small time I have messed with saltwater I am hooked.

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

I don't add much aside from doing weekly water changes. If I end up skipping a week, I at least dose essential elements just because leaving the water alone for 2 weeks makes me nervous. I'm not sure if its right or wrong but I do it to make me feel better. As a general rule, nothing should be added to the water that can't be measured. I check ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, alkalinity, phosphate, and Ph at least twice a week. The only change I usually see is in the calcuim. Although rarely, I dose calcium hydroxide ( Mrs. Wage's pickling lime) with my makeup water. As long as I do the water change weekly, my parameters never seem to get out of whack. That might change as I add more and more corals though.

[okiestranger]

Thanks James. I have never checked alkalinity or calcium or phosphates. Tomorrow I'm going to take a trip to see if I can't find some good tests the only test I have accessto are API test and Im not a big fan of the tests I have made by them. Also I am thinking about building a refugium since I am slowly removing my bio balls (have an idea thats where my mysterious nitrates are coming from) maybe grow some macro algea. Also I want a better protein skimmer. Any advise an a good brand?

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

I would try to find the test kits that have droppers opposed to the strips. They cost more but are more accurate. My kit is the liquid dropper kind from API. The nitrate color chart is difficult to differentiate between 5 and 10 pom but everything else is easy enough to read.
I don't know much about recommended Skimmers because I use the one made specifically for my tank. Hopefully others can make recommendations .
A refugium is definitely the way to go IMO.

[okiestranger]

I know what you mean about that nitrate test I probably use the same test kit I also don't like the ph test for the same reason. I had a ph probe but even after calibration it became unreliable. Oh well ill see what kind I can find I seen an API test that was a reef tank test but it only had calcium and phosphate the other two were nitrates and ammonia which I have already. Yeah I want to try to incorporate my existing sump into the refugium set up maybe link the two with an 1" header?