Grigor's 75g Soft Coral Dominate Tank Build (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter David Grigor
- Start date
cubetankguy
its hip to be square
I borrowed SWE Par Meter and did some rough estimates.
Not what I hoped but could be worse. Will likely add more at some point. I'll just roll with what I have and see how things go. May tweak depending on how corals adjust.
These are just rough placement and both sides are same LED config so I didn't really spend a lot of time playing around.
At 100% on all 3 channels.
Upper zone 120
Upper middle about 100
Lower middle about 70
Bottom 45
Overall though I like the color. I don't care for heavy blue tanks so mostly white looking a bit of purple look. The 4.5K LEDs really help bring out the yellow Fiji leather as opposed to the cool whites in the Radions so I'm happy with that. The U/V brings out more of the green than just blue LED do.
I had to leave my white channel on for an additional 2 hours as my fiji it started to green out with only 7 hrs of daylight leds on daily... finally back to the true yellow color after 3-4 months with 9.5 hrs of daylights daily...
OP
OP
Remind me, this is the photon that has both 6-8K and 4.5K whites ? I'll for sure keep an eye out for green shift. The main purpose of this whole thing was to keep the yellow figi really yellow. If everything else does well that's just a bonus.
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cubetankguy
its hip to be square
yes I have a reefbreeders led.. basic unit... dimable not controllable.. for the first 5 months or so I ran it really blue... 65-70% power on the blues channel and 35-40% on the whites.. I now run it at 70% blue 85% whites... blues on for 12.5 hrs, daylights for 9.5hrs...
OP
OP
Update but no pics.
On Saturday I noticed some fine bubbles coming from a powerhead cord ( like ozone ) which means electricity was leaking. Most corals were pretty angry. Looks like the cord got scraped on the overflow teeth and exposed some wire. Things were fine on Friday so I'm sure it rubbed when adding corals or something that night.
Xenia was especially angry and didn't look like would make it so I just swapped it out with some others from my frag tank.
Added a number of corals: Large Nepthia from James neighbor, traded for some rhodactis mushrooms from Ted, moved some misc. zoanthids from the frag tank to help fill in the gaps.
Mounted most all the larger leathers ( they are on pegs so can still remove to frag if/when necessary ). Mushrooms can't really do much about and will just let grow on rockwork.
Been meaning to snap a picture but the leathers don't seem to co-operate. When one is fully out and open the others are closed/shedding and vice-versa.
This also leads me to think that just not enough flow. I may have to reposition the powerheads in more visable area to get better flow. I was hoping for aethetics of hiding behind but seems that leathers aren't getting enough flow and stuff is accumulating on the crowns cuasing them to want to shed often.
Never could catch the other Bangaii, just too much activity in and around the fish trap from the other much larger fish that it just doesn't want to go in. Likely will catch the one in the 75g and put it back so they can pal around again. I'll find some other fish to replace with, thinking I might move the pair of clowns instead as they are an easy catch with the trap.
Still need to get the LEDs wired to the Apex module so dimming is automated still just manually using the dials.
On Saturday I noticed some fine bubbles coming from a powerhead cord ( like ozone ) which means electricity was leaking. Most corals were pretty angry. Looks like the cord got scraped on the overflow teeth and exposed some wire. Things were fine on Friday so I'm sure it rubbed when adding corals or something that night.
Xenia was especially angry and didn't look like would make it so I just swapped it out with some others from my frag tank.
Added a number of corals: Large Nepthia from James neighbor, traded for some rhodactis mushrooms from Ted, moved some misc. zoanthids from the frag tank to help fill in the gaps.
Mounted most all the larger leathers ( they are on pegs so can still remove to frag if/when necessary ). Mushrooms can't really do much about and will just let grow on rockwork.
Been meaning to snap a picture but the leathers don't seem to co-operate. When one is fully out and open the others are closed/shedding and vice-versa.
This also leads me to think that just not enough flow. I may have to reposition the powerheads in more visable area to get better flow. I was hoping for aethetics of hiding behind but seems that leathers aren't getting enough flow and stuff is accumulating on the crowns cuasing them to want to shed often.
Never could catch the other Bangaii, just too much activity in and around the fish trap from the other much larger fish that it just doesn't want to go in. Likely will catch the one in the 75g and put it back so they can pal around again. I'll find some other fish to replace with, thinking I might move the pair of clowns instead as they are an easy catch with the trap.
Still need to get the LEDs wired to the Apex module so dimming is automated still just manually using the dials.
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cubetankguy
its hip to be square
dave on my cube 30x30 I had 2 modded tunze 6045s.... and I thought things appeared to be off and my leathers shedding for a long time... within the past month I added 2 korrila 1050s... I have an immense amout of flow rolling through the tank... all softies are expanding more and have yet to close for shedding... I take from this that while softy tanks don't require as much flow, they love love love it.. and if I decide when I move this tank I may plumb it for a closed loop and run sps type flow
I have a small trap that nothing bigger than a clown can get into. I can bring it Saturday to SWE party if you want to give it a try. I will have it along, you can decide.
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Thanks for the offer but big or small, it's going to generate a crowd and scare away the bangaii is what I'm thinking will happen. Clowns go into my larger trap all the time so they will be easy to catch if I swap out fish.
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I moved the powerheads from the back up to the front corners. Will see how it goes this way but I'm thinking the exact same thing, not enough flow to keep the film from forming and then it has to shedd it off. I've got plenty of MJ modded pumps that I can certainly try but thinking that's too much since just 2 of those power my whole 180g tank.
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Xenia metled. All mushrooms are definitely irritated, mouths are extended and shriveled. I did 75% water change this morning and no real change. Moved most of the mushrooms back to the frag system and look a lot better even just a few hours later.
I'm hoping its all the brown slime and larger leathers shedding that's causing the issues. Fish are all fine. I added lots of cermic media from the main show tank just in case it biological but pretty sure that is fine since fish are not showing any signs.
On Friday I went to A1 arcylics and they had lots of good sized scrap available. I picked up enough to make a custom sump + built in ATS and a larger fish trap for $30. So Sunday during football, I'm going to get busy and try to get something put together. I only have enough ballast / Leds to make a single sided ATS for now but will build it for double and oversize the enclosure so I can make bigger if necessary later on. Initially planning for a 8"X6" but sized to go a max of 12" X 8" if necessary.
I'm hoping its all the brown slime and larger leathers shedding that's causing the issues. Fish are all fine. I added lots of cermic media from the main show tank just in case it biological but pretty sure that is fine since fish are not showing any signs.
On Friday I went to A1 arcylics and they had lots of good sized scrap available. I picked up enough to make a custom sump + built in ATS and a larger fish trap for $30. So Sunday during football, I'm going to get busy and try to get something put together. I only have enough ballast / Leds to make a single sided ATS for now but will build it for double and oversize the enclosure so I can make bigger if necessary later on. Initially planning for a 8"X6" but sized to go a max of 12" X 8" if necessary.
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OP
OP
Even after large water change, mushrooms looked terrible. So I broke down and added MJ modded powerheads. Was trying to avoid becuase of the size and eyesore they create.
Lots of flow now, the same amount as the 180g show now. Everything looked way better in just 12 hours so likely wasn't a water quality issue and just like Clint said sofities enjoy high flow too.
Added a lawnmower blenny from Saturday Halloween Part @ SWE. This morning he was hanging out and eating from the Nori clip so that's really good news.
I'll get some pics up later this week. Hopefully leathers will reopen by then.
Seems like the urgency to get ATS online is less now. New Goal is to have new ATS/sump build & online in 2 weeks.
Lots of flow now, the same amount as the 180g show now. Everything looked way better in just 12 hours so likely wasn't a water quality issue and just like Clint said sofities enjoy high flow too.
Added a lawnmower blenny from Saturday Halloween Part @ SWE. This morning he was hanging out and eating from the Nori clip so that's really good news.
I'll get some pics up later this week. Hopefully leathers will reopen by then.
Seems like the urgency to get ATS online is less now. New Goal is to have new ATS/sump build & online in 2 weeks.
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OP
OP
Updated Progress Pics.
Tank is doing well and stabilized. Just a little bit of brown film on the substrate. No major algae issues. Leathers and mushrooms have been opening up pretty well. No more shedding issues.
Only 2 LPS in the tank a frogspawn and trumpet. Once I get a few more corals to fill it up,I plan to remove them.
I have several corals on hold for the frag swap. After the swap should be pretty full and ready to just grow out.
Camera doesn't get very good color shots. Way more blue than in person.
4 weeks:
Full Shot:
Left Side:
Corals in the Picture include:
1. Green Polyped Toadstool that was originally purchased from Keith at Ocean Devotion back when it was on Cty 42 in Savage. I've had several variations and this one has the brightest color, better than the Tyree.
2. Brown/Red finger leather from David/OYAM123 as a FIF back at the Julian Sprung/Junbo speaker event about 6-8 years ago
3. Can't really see in the pick behind the Fiji Leather is a frag of some bright red w/ blue eye zoanthids ( one of my favorites ). The colony came from SWE about 18 months ago.
4. Red and metalic orange mushroom right next to the Yellow Fiji Leather ) came from Adam G.
5. Yellow Fiji Leather purchased from SWE and is wild caught.
6. Tubbs Blue zoanthids frag. The colony in my 180g show tank has over 300 polyps now came from SWE a couple of years ago.
7. To the left of the frogspawn is some bright orange w/ green center clove polyps purchase from Beef's Reef (one of our sponsors ) at a frag swap.
8. Green w/ pink tip Frogspawn came from one of our long time members Graham who has been out of the hobby since 2005.
9. Blue Mushrooms from Mr. Bill.
10. Tangerine Orange Yuma Mushrooms from Brian at our sponser 1stopcorals.
11. Rainbow mushrooms from RaysReef another sponsor.
12. Gorgonian frag, can't remember for sure but I think from Mr. Bill.
13. Green Nepthia in the back from Jame's neighbor. Known in the club as the Dwigth Hummel coral.
14. Fairy Dust palys from member cbwaters at a recent frag swap. Looked way better under T5s, just so-so under LEDs.
Fish in the picture, 1 of 2 Kupang Damsels and can barely see the Yellow tang who has been shy every since moved to the 75g.
Center:
Corals in the Center picture include:
15. Colt coral I got from Lorlie when she got out of the hobby at least 6+ years ago.
16. Green Finger Leathers purchase from Jake original owner of Discovery back when he was in his parents basement.
17. Yellow polyps behind the Green Finger that can't be seen in the pic.
18. Two toned orange zoanthids, my favorite orange zoanthids I like them way better than the ones typically referred to as Bam-Bams.
19. Mini-maxi carpet anemone from Noah.
20. Gorgonian from James/Lowersmybp.
21. Behind the Gorgoninan barely visable in the pic is some mushrooms that I got recently from Ted/Muskyman.
Fish in the picture: African Exquisite Wrasse from Jay at Discovery Aquatics, Lawnmower blenny from SWE.
Right Side:
Pic Includes:
22. Pinkish Trumpets from Adam G. Big fish kept knocking off chunks in the 180g show tank so I stuck one in here for now.
23. Some Orange and Green Ricordia from SWE around Christmas time last year.
24. Pinkish soft coral from Adam G.
25. Two stalks of Green Singularia one of the brighter green leathers I've ever had came from Robin ( can't remember her handle ) about 8 years ago.
26. Nuclear green Palys from Jeff/Brinkdog ( I still owe him money for them ).
27. About 8 flourescent orange mushrooms ( similiar if not the same as ones sold as Ironmans ) from Adam G right behind the Nuclear green but can't see in the pic becuase they are kinda recessed in the rock.
28. Another yellow toadstool from SWE that was a tradein from a customer. I've fragged it a good 10-12 times by now.
29. Some green w/ blue polyps I forget what they are called, similiar to green start polyps that came from SWE in the last couple of months.
30. Some orange mushroom on the sandbed from Keith when he was the owner OceanDevotion in Shakopee. A couple of different shades on orange on the rock, a couple are lighter in color with green dots ( one of my favorites ).
31. Whammin' Watermellons from Ben Nichols.
32. 8 Fuzzy mushrooms I got from Carl/Flounder.
33. 1 Red w/ blue dots mushroom that you can't really see from Adam G next to the fuzzy mushrooms.
Fish in picture, another Kupang damsel. There is also a green chromis hiding there somewhere as well.
Tank is doing well and stabilized. Just a little bit of brown film on the substrate. No major algae issues. Leathers and mushrooms have been opening up pretty well. No more shedding issues.
Only 2 LPS in the tank a frogspawn and trumpet. Once I get a few more corals to fill it up,I plan to remove them.
I have several corals on hold for the frag swap. After the swap should be pretty full and ready to just grow out.
Camera doesn't get very good color shots. Way more blue than in person.
4 weeks:
Full Shot:
Left Side:
Corals in the Picture include:
1. Green Polyped Toadstool that was originally purchased from Keith at Ocean Devotion back when it was on Cty 42 in Savage. I've had several variations and this one has the brightest color, better than the Tyree.
2. Brown/Red finger leather from David/OYAM123 as a FIF back at the Julian Sprung/Junbo speaker event about 6-8 years ago
3. Can't really see in the pick behind the Fiji Leather is a frag of some bright red w/ blue eye zoanthids ( one of my favorites ). The colony came from SWE about 18 months ago.
4. Red and metalic orange mushroom right next to the Yellow Fiji Leather ) came from Adam G.
5. Yellow Fiji Leather purchased from SWE and is wild caught.
6. Tubbs Blue zoanthids frag. The colony in my 180g show tank has over 300 polyps now came from SWE a couple of years ago.
7. To the left of the frogspawn is some bright orange w/ green center clove polyps purchase from Beef's Reef (one of our sponsors ) at a frag swap.
8. Green w/ pink tip Frogspawn came from one of our long time members Graham who has been out of the hobby since 2005.
9. Blue Mushrooms from Mr. Bill.
10. Tangerine Orange Yuma Mushrooms from Brian at our sponser 1stopcorals.
11. Rainbow mushrooms from RaysReef another sponsor.
12. Gorgonian frag, can't remember for sure but I think from Mr. Bill.
13. Green Nepthia in the back from Jame's neighbor. Known in the club as the Dwigth Hummel coral.
14. Fairy Dust palys from member cbwaters at a recent frag swap. Looked way better under T5s, just so-so under LEDs.
Fish in the picture, 1 of 2 Kupang Damsels and can barely see the Yellow tang who has been shy every since moved to the 75g.
Center:
Corals in the Center picture include:
15. Colt coral I got from Lorlie when she got out of the hobby at least 6+ years ago.
16. Green Finger Leathers purchase from Jake original owner of Discovery back when he was in his parents basement.
17. Yellow polyps behind the Green Finger that can't be seen in the pic.
18. Two toned orange zoanthids, my favorite orange zoanthids I like them way better than the ones typically referred to as Bam-Bams.
19. Mini-maxi carpet anemone from Noah.
20. Gorgonian from James/Lowersmybp.
21. Behind the Gorgoninan barely visable in the pic is some mushrooms that I got recently from Ted/Muskyman.
Fish in the picture: African Exquisite Wrasse from Jay at Discovery Aquatics, Lawnmower blenny from SWE.
Right Side:
Pic Includes:
22. Pinkish Trumpets from Adam G. Big fish kept knocking off chunks in the 180g show tank so I stuck one in here for now.
23. Some Orange and Green Ricordia from SWE around Christmas time last year.
24. Pinkish soft coral from Adam G.
25. Two stalks of Green Singularia one of the brighter green leathers I've ever had came from Robin ( can't remember her handle ) about 8 years ago.
26. Nuclear green Palys from Jeff/Brinkdog ( I still owe him money for them ).
27. About 8 flourescent orange mushrooms ( similiar if not the same as ones sold as Ironmans ) from Adam G right behind the Nuclear green but can't see in the pic becuase they are kinda recessed in the rock.
28. Another yellow toadstool from SWE that was a tradein from a customer. I've fragged it a good 10-12 times by now.
29. Some green w/ blue polyps I forget what they are called, similiar to green start polyps that came from SWE in the last couple of months.
30. Some orange mushroom on the sandbed from Keith when he was the owner OceanDevotion in Shakopee. A couple of different shades on orange on the rock, a couple are lighter in color with green dots ( one of my favorites ).
31. Whammin' Watermellons from Ben Nichols.
32. 8 Fuzzy mushrooms I got from Carl/Flounder.
33. 1 Red w/ blue dots mushroom that you can't really see from Adam G next to the fuzzy mushrooms.
Fish in picture, another Kupang damsel. There is also a green chromis hiding there somewhere as well.
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Supgirlspike
Senior Member
What a Gorgeous tank!! Everything looks just amazing and I really love the open feeling of your aqua scaping.
cubetankguy
its hip to be square
beautiful tank david
OP
OP
I ordered one of Brian's Tie Dye Mushrooms for the swap. That's the one I want to really take off ( wishful thinking ).
OP
OP
The African Exquisite Wrasse has gone AWOL since Sunday. No carcass found in or around the tank. Secretly hoping will just magically re-appear but it has never hid for days before.
A few mushrooms are detaching from the rock, I don't think its a stress thing more just flow causing them to detach.
Other than that, tank looks excellent all other corals look great, just a matter of letting things grow out and fill in.
Extremely happy with how it's doing.
A few mushrooms are detaching from the rock, I don't think its a stress thing more just flow causing them to detach.
Other than that, tank looks excellent all other corals look great, just a matter of letting things grow out and fill in.
Extremely happy with how it's doing.
OP
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Post Frag Swap Pics.
View media item 6622
New Coral added:
3 Sponges from BeefReef ( I assume they are florida, I didn't ask )
2 new gorgonian from Mr. Bill.
Cabbage leather from Mr. Bill,
Elephant Ear mushroom from Mr. Bill,
Tie dye mushroom from 1stopcorals,
Purple vase sponge frag from Steve/Data Loss.
Coral Removed:
The frogspawn was removed to make room for the red sponge.
Notes;
Always want to try new different things to keep this hobby interesting. I've been hooked on goniopora in the main show tank and having some success. So for this tank I'm going to see how I can do with some sponges. I'm planning to dose KZ Sponge power ( I've used in the past and was pleased but that was only with hitchhiker sponges never tried sponge colonies before ), along with some spirlina or other filter feeder type dry foods. Also removed the filter sock as most of the leather sheading is done and stable plus don't want to trap what might be used by sponges.
I'm going to delay the ATS for this system as it would compete for dissolved organics with the sponges. If sponges start to shrink I may add the ATS anyway so I can feed more.
The one reddish looks alot like an SPS. The long orange tree one is the one I'm most concerned about being able to keep it from starving. A purple vase style one has been doing well in others tanks here locally so I'm not too worries about that one.
So the tank is officially LPS/SPS free. 100% soft coral tank.
Pic of the Light orange, lettuce looking sponge:
View media item 6624
Pic showing the red sps like sponge and the nice gorgonian from Mr. Bill behind it:
View media item 6623
View media item 6622
New Coral added:
3 Sponges from BeefReef ( I assume they are florida, I didn't ask )
2 new gorgonian from Mr. Bill.
Cabbage leather from Mr. Bill,
Elephant Ear mushroom from Mr. Bill,
Tie dye mushroom from 1stopcorals,
Purple vase sponge frag from Steve/Data Loss.
Coral Removed:
The frogspawn was removed to make room for the red sponge.
Notes;
Always want to try new different things to keep this hobby interesting. I've been hooked on goniopora in the main show tank and having some success. So for this tank I'm going to see how I can do with some sponges. I'm planning to dose KZ Sponge power ( I've used in the past and was pleased but that was only with hitchhiker sponges never tried sponge colonies before ), along with some spirlina or other filter feeder type dry foods. Also removed the filter sock as most of the leather sheading is done and stable plus don't want to trap what might be used by sponges.
I'm going to delay the ATS for this system as it would compete for dissolved organics with the sponges. If sponges start to shrink I may add the ATS anyway so I can feed more.
The one reddish looks alot like an SPS. The long orange tree one is the one I'm most concerned about being able to keep it from starving. A purple vase style one has been doing well in others tanks here locally so I'm not too worries about that one.
So the tank is officially LPS/SPS free. 100% soft coral tank.
Pic of the Light orange, lettuce looking sponge:
View media item 6624
Pic showing the red sps like sponge and the nice gorgonian from Mr. Bill behind it:
View media item 6623
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