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Author Topic: Flyer's AGA 65g  (Read 1656 times)

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Offline UDflyer00

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Flyer's AGA 65g
« on: March 06, 2019, 14:03:51 »
Hello Everyone...

It's been a long time since I've been on the boards due to life, but I found a Columbus Facebook page that led me back here to the boards...  I've been a member since back when it was Westrn Ohio Reef Club...  And since it's been awhile I thought I'd post a story and some pictures of my current setup...

I've had a salt water tank of some sorts since early 2000's when we started with a 60g Hex.  It was a great tank to start with and lasted us awhile until one day it sprung a seam leak a few inches from the bottom in our living room...  Thankfully my wife was home for lunch and we able to save all the inhabitants, but the tank and much of our living room was ruined.. lol  So we were at a crossroad; sell it all off and be done or start over again.  Since we had invested so much in the rocks and such we decided to start fresh with a standard shape this time.  We were really limited space wise in our living room so we went with the AGA 65g, which was not your standard size.  It's only 36" wide so that was perfect.  We got it all back up and running and after a few months to a year i suffered a losing battle with some bad algae...  It was a battle that I threw in the towel on and basically the tank ran for another few months really just growing algae b/c I was at a loss until my neighbor setup his 1st salt water tank and it really revitalized my passion for how beautiful the tank could be.  So we decided it was time for a reboot...

Since there really wasn't anything living in the tank anymore besides the algae pulled the rock, drained the tank, and did the Muriatic acid wash on everything... And then let that dry and cleaned it back out with freshwater for another couple months. Then started the rebuild, new canopy, new led lights, new substrate, new saltwater, out with the old CPR sump and in with new 20g sump, old rocks with the addition of a few seed rocks to get it all kicked off.  So all filled back up we were up and running.  Let it cycle another 1-2 months with just the rock and lights.  And we finally added our first fish back in; a hawk, a cardinal, and something else i can't remember now it's been too long... lol  So there it was looking all great in the living room, but the problem that knocked me down started to rear it's head again and the algae was back...  I curbed it from time to time by leaving the lights off for a few days and that seemed to work for awhile, but eventually i let it beat me again... :(  And out went the lights...  I just didn't get it.  I was only running my lights for ~4 hours a day hoping that would curtail it, but it didn't seem to help; my skimmer didn't seem to really be pulling anything from the water even when the fish were in there, so i just didn't get why i was having such a struggle with algae...

So that brings us back to where we are today.  I talked to a lot of the people around the area at the different stores and I think the bottom line is that i needed to do less water changes more frequently.  I was basically doing a large 25ish gallon change every 4-5 weeks.  So sounded reasonable... So in December i started the new regiment.  I got the lights on a new schedule that allows us to now enjoy the tank as the lights are on longer.  Bought a new smaller 7 gallon trash can to do more frequent water changes with and did one final big change and we were off on the new routine.  The algae was still there , but i knew it would be awhile before the chemicals balanced themselves out inside the tank so i just bared with the schedule; 6-7 gallons every 7-10 days.  I also put a phosphate "pad" in my sump to help pull some of the phospates out; changed my feed pump of my Phosban reactor running GFO to feed water from the return chamber as I think it was gumming up with tank "stuff" that was in the sump and not yet filtered out which was causing the bottom filter of the phosban to gum up and not distribute the air properly.  I'm not sure if that helped, but over the the next month or so it started to look a little better.  I think i was ready for the next addidition, something to watch in the tank again.  So off we went to invest in a large cleanup crew that could hopefully take a bite out of the remaining algae.   And since I took my littlest daughter with me we couldn't resist can came home with a few "cheaper" fish in case the tank was still cycling again.  So we came home with tons of snails, some hermits, 3 damsels(which I really didn't want but they are good cycle fish), a fire fish, and a red cardinal.  Fast forward today and most of the algae on the rocks is gone, some still on the koralias, but not as bad, and still get that film on the glass that i knock out with the magnet and the snails every day or so.  The cardinal and fire fish are doing good.  The damsels "sorted" themselves out, which was a hard thing for my daughter, but unfortunately onr dominant one picked the fins off of one and the other just "disappeared"?? lol  But things are looking good.

I haven't put my skimmer back on quite yet.  The one store person said i should leave the skimmer off for a bit just to let the tank "build up" I guess?  I'm not sure, but that's what I've done.  I think with my next change I'll do a little more water to compensate for adding the skimmer back into the system and see how it does.

What's next for the tank?  Well I'm hoping to get some softies back in the tank here soon as well as a new flamehawk as that's my wifes favorite fish... But in due time.. Just trying to keep it looking nice and ahead of the algae curve...

Glad to be back on the boards and seeing some of the names i dealt with long ago still here as well!!

Mark
« Last Edit: March 06, 2019, 17:09:20 by UDflyer00 »
65 g AGA - Kettering

Offline UDflyer00

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Re: Flyers AGA 65g
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2019, 14:04:39 »
Stand, Tank, and Equipment...
« Last Edit: March 06, 2019, 14:16:30 by UDflyer00 »
65 g AGA - Kettering

Offline UDflyer00

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Re: Flyers AGA 65g
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2019, 14:07:50 »
Inhabitants & Corals...
« Last Edit: March 06, 2019, 14:21:54 by UDflyer00 »
65 g AGA - Kettering

Offline Steve

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2019, 14:54:12 »
Looking good. Love the excitement of a new tank and I am a fan of the caves and arches.

Offline UDflyer00

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2019, 15:50:35 »
Hey Steve,

Thanks a lot.  It was very depressing fighting that algae battle because i just didn't understand why I was having those issues.  Skimmer was beefy, i was doing water changes, etc..  Just didn't matter and i let the algae get the best of me.  So now really trying to keep up with the smaller more frequent changes hoping that it doesn't let the "baddness" build up.  Excited to get my skimmer running again here too...  I just feel dirty running without a skimmer.. :P  And I'd like to get a goby in there to work on the substrate... I have a bunch of nassarius snails in there, but the aren't getting the stuff on the top of the substrate.
65 g AGA - Kettering

Offline Steve

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2019, 16:19:19 »
I keep a couple cucumbers in my 180 for substrate and I like blue leg and other hermits as well.

Offline ReeferAnon

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2019, 17:43:05 »
Very noice!

Offline Steve

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2019, 00:35:55 »
Might consider a couple smaller conch for the sand bed, great workers.

Offline ghurlag

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2019, 19:39:17 »
Hey, Mark, you need to get Bobby back in the hobby too!  Glad to see you’re back (we met once at your house years ago).


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Offline UDflyer00

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2019, 15:23:36 »
Yeah i do remember you as well...  It's cool seeing the old names still tooling around in the hobby... Really hoping to keep the tank on track this time and keep the algae at bay... That is my biggest issue is that battle with the green stuff!!  Hopefully these more frequent water changes will help with that?  I thought that larger 28gal change once a month would've been good on the 65, but i do get that it might have been a setback to the ecosystem every time i did that nearly 30% total water change...  I hope this week/weekend i'd like to get the skimmer back in the system to help fight the "yuck" stuff even more.
65 g AGA - Kettering

Offline Agame43

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Re: Flyer's AGA 65g
« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2019, 22:27:43 »

  Looking good, Algae can be a beast! Dido what Steve said above - grab a few Conch snails, they will work your sand bed really well.

 

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