BlazinJacks 120g (re)build!

[Haulin Oates]

Ok, I so I'm gonna tear the old one down and start over... Extremely slowly. If you want an explanation, go to my bio pellet journal. Suffice to say I'm unhappy with the way things are going and the ungodly amounts of money I've spent on snake oils, dead coral, and useless equipment. Not to mention the 5 mysterious fish deaths in 2 months... So step one: pull the plug!! J/k!! No really step 1 is to get the bio cube ready and cram 120g worth of coral into a 28g space... View attachment 7893
View attachment 7894

Question? I'm going to use all new water in the cube, then once it's heated I'll begin the transfer. I should have about 15lbs of live rock coming over that have coral attached... Should I expect a cycle?

 

[Bajamike]

You know I have room if you want to store stuff in my sump

 

[jahmic]

If possible, move the rock in then wait a few days. You may or may not get a small short cycle, but if you're able to wait it out it'll be less stressful on your livestock.

If that's not an option you should be fine doing it all at once...but if I could afford 3 days to watch for a small nitrite spike I would err on the side of caution.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Thanks mike! I might! I'll let you know!
I think I'll use some old water to keep from cycling.

 

[daverf]

Hey Blazinjack, we threw our build threads up at about the same time. I was going to offer that we race each other to the finish line, then I saw the words "very slowly" in your OP. Haha. I could use that approach right now as I haven't slept much...anyway...good luck and I look forward to following. I don't have the cajones for corals so I look forward to what you'll do.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Thanks man!! Yeah I'm gonna fix a lot of beginner mistakes I made as well as make some user friendly mods so it takes less time out of my day to day work and I can sit and enjoy more. I figure at least 6 weeks, but that could turn into a lot more.

 

[MartinsReef]

Hope it all works out for you.

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[Haddonisreef]

This is one hobbie you don't rush! Think about it then rethink then think about planning then start planning!!!!

 

[Haulin Oates]

Bio cube is running... Gonna give it til the weekend and then test the water.
View attachment 7964

 

[coloagro]

You have missing fish? I would suspect that giant mushroom nem would be the killer....what do u think? You ever seen it bloated after missing a fish?

 

[Haulin Oates]

No, I've never seen it do anything really. I feed it a raw shrimp about once a week, and it takes FOREVER to grab one of those!! Also I tried to feed it a dead clown once, it didnt want it... Go figure?

 

[Haulin Oates]

Plus I've watched 4 of the fish die. They pretty much go crazy and start attacking everything while swimming awkwardly around and ramming things full speed for a few hours. Then they turn pale white and settle on the bottom and die. My thoughts after speaking to a few people is a parasitic infection. So once the 120 is empty of everything but fish It will become a QT tank that I can treat all fish at once while the live rock is all cooking in the stock tank.

 

[Cake_Boss]

A parasitic infection, huh? I kept having terrible luck with my fish dying initially too. Half would die overnight, it was crazy. A search of the internets turned up nothing specific, but parasites seems legit. Any idea as to which parasites?

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[Haulin Oates]

No, but most of my info came from Kris (djkms). I plan on picking his brain for a good QT procedure once the tank is empty of everything but fish, and I'm gonna medicate them all at once.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Ok, pretty much every coral I own is in the bio cube... So far everything looks happy...couldn't fit the anemones and there's a few zoas I need to cut off some big rocks, and my green toadstool is just too big to put in there... But I got some time to find a place for them.

 

[Haulin Oates]

View attachment 7986

 

[Haulin Oates]

Got some plumbing to get the stock tank running, and some muriatic acid to get the rock all cleaned up. BTW, tge muriatic is not with the chemicals at home depot, but with the garage floor coating stuff, in case anyone else needs to find it.
All my coral is looking pretty good in the cube, considering... I lost my red planet, but I was expecting a loss or 2. And I think I've decided to turn the cube into a clown, anemone, and clam tank and am gonna plumb it into the system somehow. Hopefully I'll get them to finally mate and get some eggs, cause I'd really like to try my hand at raising clown babies, and maybe move up to other fish as well!

 

[Haulin Oates]

Had a few more ideas floating around too... First I'm gonna take the sand outta the DT and make a faux sand bed in there. I'm going to build a "sand filter" somewhere in the garage part of the system where a low flow of water will be forced through a deep sand bed (I haven't figured out tge details of the sand filter yet though.)
second, I'm definitely going to do a mangrove area, probably in the stock tank, with several mangroves (hopefully a dozen or more to start)
Third, I think I'm gonna run an air line to the outside that my skimmers and air stones will grab air from so I can get fresh air no matter what time of year it is.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Not much to update on... Wife surprised me last weekend with a "we have to clean" because we are hosting 2 parties this weekend. She's hosting a jewelry party and a herbalife party on Saturday. So I've been a cleaning fool. BTW, if anyone wants to stop by on saturday and bring the significant other, you can come get some pretty cheap jewelry and learn about herbalife... And of course well talk reefing! PM if you wanna stop by and I'll give you the address!

 

[Haulin Oates]

Update finally!! After battling a nasty algae outbreak in the bio cube and watching coral after coral die... I decided I'd get the sump up and running closed loop and use it as an emergency frag tank...
So all my corals are out in the garage now and the rest of the rock is coming out of the DT tomorrow to get thrown in the sun!!