Moved away, but starting a new tank

[Miles]

I moved to Traverse City, MI a few months ago and am setting up a new system. I started a thread on Michigan Reefers (https://www.michiganreefers.com/threads/miles-moving-to-michigan-build.259891/#post-1640548) but have had very little interaction. So I figured I'd share updates here here too since I know know some of you guys and figure you'd actually be interested.

Please see the link to Michigan Reefers to get caught up.... feel free to comment below, and I'll start posting updates here.

[Gary]

You really did move! That is not local. Interesting door for the tank!
Best of Luck!

[Miles]

Yeah, I measured the window opening then ordered the largest RedSea Reefer that would fit through the opening. Didn't really figure there was a way I was going to get a 300+ lb tank down a staircase with a 90 deg turn to my basement safely.

[Miles]

Water, sand, and some rock is in? dosed MicrōBacter on the 7th to get the cycle started.

Started hooking up my Apex today and discovered that it?s not recognizing my COR20. I purchased it 3.5 years ago, so we shall see how easy Neptune Systems support team is going to be to work with.

Another issue I have discovered is that the glass on this tank is 3/4? which means I need a new magnet scraper, the magnets on my gyres aren?t strong enough, and even though they are rated for 3/4?, my Vortech wet sides spin.


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[Steve]

On your Vortechs, is it the while wet side or just the the cover over the blade?

[Miles]

On your Vortechs, is it the while wet side or just the the cover over the blade?

The whole wetside slowly rotates....

[Miles]

Here is a better pic
 


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[Miles]

had a support call with Neptune Systems today, gonna have to send the COR20 in for repair... .

[Miles]

Here's a diagram of what I'm think for my Apex


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[Miles]

got new wireless chips for my Vortechs so that they will work with Mobius. Install was super easy.

Also, figured out that the reason the Vortech wetside was spinning was because the magnet was swollen, so I placed an order with BRS for a new one.


I used the MicroBacter - Dry Rock Bacteria Starter Kit and cycled the tank. The cycle took 10 days. I have since moved in some liverock from the sump of the temporary tank and moved a couple corals over. Taking a trip this weekend, so I didn't want to move any fish, so that will probably happen early next week. I'll probably move my 3 Chromis over and see how it goes.

[Miles]

All of the live stock is transferred!






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[Steve]

Looks really nice, beautiful colony of trumpets. Every time I see a yellow and a purple tang together I get a little jealous. I tried it once and it was WW III. 

[Miles]

Looks really nice, beautiful colony of trumpets. Every time I see a yellow and a purple tang together I get a little jealous. I tried it once and it was WW III. 

They have been together for probably 4 or 5 years at this point. When I first added them I also had a Blue Tang, a Kohl Tang, a Sailfin, and a Foxface... I think there was enough distractions from all the other Tangs that they were more concerned with surviving than picking on each other. Never had an issue with them.

[Miles]

Its been a little while, I always have good intentions of writing an update, but can never seem to get around to it.

I recently subscribed to World Wide Coral's subscription box for 6 months. Basically, I wanted to get some new corals, but didn't know what I wanted, so I figured I couldn't really go wrong if I just had them send me some stuff. What I have received so far in the past two months is what you can see in that frag rack picture.

I entered a really ugly dark brown hair algae phase, I have been working hard at manually extracting it, and I added a tuxedo urchin hoping that it would help (but as of this morning it isn't looking too good, started dropping spines  ).

I ordered 2 more Vortech MP-40s today from BRS since they are 25% off for Black Friday, and I plan to get the Apex MXM module when it comes out soon (hopefully).  I also purchased enough RO Tubing to get my AWC set back up and running (have to run halfway across the basement to get to a drain and my mixing station). I did a 20% water change last week and decided that carrying that many buckets across the carpet was eventually going to end poorly.





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[Steve]

Hang in there on working through the uglies. I know a lot of people don't, but I love the blue leg hermits for algae control.

[JSellars]

Looks awesome! Love all the trumpets!


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[Miles]

Looks awesome! Love all the trumpets!


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Thanks! I have had that colony for about 10 years. At one point I had a crash that killed off most of my coral. In December of 2018, that colony only had 10 heads. There are probably over 200 now.

[Miles]

It's been a while since an update... im really bad at this... so I'm just dumping a bunch of pics from my phone and going to talk about them a little....

The first 4 pictures here are a look at my current problem... some real nasty looking brown hairlike sludgy algae. It's on the rock, it's on the sand, it's real gross. I took a look under the microscope, and it is definitely dinoflagellates combined with green hair algae. The algae looks brown because it is completely full of dinos.  If I take a little bit of algae and toss it on a slide, then remove the hair algae, you can visibly see the dinos on the slide with the naked eye.





This is my attempt to kill off the dinos, I purchased the Mutiny Ozone Reactor from Avast Marine on Black Friday. I've read several anecdotal posts where people have had success running ozone to kill them, so we shall see. (I'll provide some more info in another post).


In other news, my clowns laid eggs this past week, they have not hatched yet, but there are only about 10 left, so I'm gonna say they probably weren't that healthy. I got some new frags from World Wide Corals (should be getting some more in a few days). I added some cheato to my sump and a Neptune GRO light. And, I designed and 3D printed a mount for my Kamoer pump that I use to feed my Ca Reactor.







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[Miles]

Some more random pics....


I got my Utility room mixing station setup. The DOS is setup to do automatice water changes, it pumps water to and from the tank about 35ft away on the other side of the basement (two rooms away).



I picked up a couple more EcoTech Vortechs and have them all synced, now i just need to get eth Neptune MXM when it comes out so I can ditch Mobius.


This graph is a comparison of my pH and ORP readings. I have turned my lights off in an attempt to kill of the hair algae, which has caused my pH to drop and my ORP level to jump up which is preventing me from running my Ozone reactor.



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