jlanger's Reef Build: Episode II - The 120gal Strikes Back (1 Viewer)

[jlanger]

This is slightly embarrassing.
I recently needed to submit a number of photos of my 120gal reef and my Foursquare Aquatics Algae Turf Scrubber for an upcoming article about ATS filtration. When I looked into my library of photos, I realized that once I started documenting all of my algae harvests from September 2020 that I had posted 306 photos of the algae. During that same time frame, I posted only 152 photos of the reef tank, the reef fish and corals. Once I get caught up with open projects, I've promised myself to spend a considerable amount of time taking more photos of the fish and corals.

Since my last post about fish and coral in July, I did add a new fish to the reef. With the thick forest of M. digitata corals, I thought a Flame Hawkfish would do well skirting its way through the branches finding the best perches to snag its food.

 

[jlanger]

It's been a while...
Although, not much of anything has happened to my system in the last six months worth speaking about.

The montipora corals continue to overgrow their space. I have removed buckets of plating and branching montipora over the last few months. The flowerpot corals seem to be doing well after a few coral baths and in-tank treatments. The Tubastraea corals are getting fatter and fatter; the dendro has added two polyps recently. And all of the fish are still being fish; up front when they want food and hiding in the back when the camera comes out.
Regardless, here's a FTS from this week.



Not shown in the photo are sixteen goniopora frags that will eventually get planted back onto the Goni Garden; center and right shelves.
Also not shown, the Harlequin Tuskfish, the Lamarck's Angelfish pair, the Flame Hawkfish and the Percula Clownfish (inside the large goniopora). The Melanurus Wrasse is peeking around the dendro.

Even though I have not really added any new corals or fish over the past year, I have been very busy with my reef system.
I have been documenting the performance of my algae scrubber in greater detail. I have kept track of all of the algae harvest weights and taken photos of the screens for almost three years, but last summer I started tracking food input to the system, tested various photoperiods, recorded nutrient levels along with my minor/trace element dosing. At Christmas time, I cooked my algae screen (the feed pump didn't restart) so I took the opportunity to see how my system would react to not having a viable algae culture filtering the water. I started testing nitrate and phosphate daily (along with alkalinity) to see how quickly the nutrient levels would rise and how long it would take the scrubber to recover and begin pulling out the nitrate and phosphate. (Only a couple of weeks.) The more interesting data that I am tracking is how the photoperiod affects algae growth and nutrient reduction; it's very apparent that light may be the most critical variable in running an algae scrubber. I have maintained the daily testing and will keep it up for another few months so that I have a year's worth of data to present in an article/post.

See you in another six months???

 

[spsick]

Tank looks really good Jason! Great example of staying the course and measured restraint!

 

[Chris Goetz]

Gorgeous!!!

How big is your Tusk? That’s my all time favorite fish by far. I had a 6-7” Australian Tusk for a few years and would like to get another someday.

 

[jlanger]

Gorgeous!!!

How big is your Tusk? That’s my all time favorite fish by far. I had a 6-7” Australian Tusk for a few years and would like to get another someday.

The tusk is over five inches long.
It's a gorgeous and well-mannered fish but it is extremely timid and easily spooked; which causes most of the other fish to run and hide when it does.

 

[Fishfoo]

Looks great Jason. Those sun corals are awesome. And I love the fish selection; great variety!

 

[jlanger]

Looks great Jason. Those sun corals are awesome. And I love the fish selection; great variety!

Here's a photo of the Sun Coral Patch at night when I turned the lights back on. They're fluffy!

 

[jlanger]

After two long years of battling a bacterial pathogen that was affecting my flowerpot corals, I have finally planted the remaining corals back onto the reef. I was getting tired of having frag racks in the display with the corals placed close to one another and up against the back glass. I wanted to give the corals more room and flow. I seriously hope that these bacterial issues are behind me and I can watch these corals grow into a flowing Goni Garden again.
These last few weeks have been the first time that I've really done anything to the animals in the system. It was fun to get my hands wet again.

Here's the newly planted gardens on the right island.
In addition to planting all of the goniopora frags, I moved a couple of the micro-gonis to give them more room as well.
I also mounted the remaining loose sun coral frags onto the reef to clear up the substrate.



So here's a newest FTS with the overgrown Digitata Forest and the Gardens.
I managed to get all eight of the fish to appear in this photo.



Speaking of fish photos...
The female Lamarck's Angelfish has gotten better about swimming around while I hold a camera; the male not-so-much.



The two tangs and the copperband are not shy with a camera at all.
All three of these fish show you just how well I feed my system.





And I don't really show much attention to my Melanurus Wrasse so I took a sneaky photo of it trying to hide out in my flowerpot corals.

 

[jlanger]

I mentioned above that I've just recently spent time "inside" my reef system. I said that because for the last year, I have been working with my algae turf scrubber by running different experiments and collecting a lot of interesting data.
For the last year (and one week), I have documented exactly how much food I have added to my system daily. Since last Christmas, I have tested the nitrate, phosphate and alkalinity of my system's water. I have run various photoperiods on the scrubber to test the effect of lighting photoperiods on algae growth and nutrient management. And as I have for the last three years, I have documented every algae harvest with harvest weights and photographs. Algae doesn't have to be gross and slimy. Algae can be fun.

 

[jlanger]

Nothing really new to update from the last time but I thought I should pop in and say that I'm still around; somewhat.
I did tear out another batch of montipora corals to open up some space on the left end, but it doesn't look like I did anything.
And I added a small foxface a while back; no reason other than I like them when they're small.

A quick video from this weekend.

 

[Jake]

After two long years of battling a bacterial pathogen that was affecting my flowerpot corals, I have finally planted the remaining corals back onto the reef. I was getting tired of having frag racks in the display with the corals placed close to one another and up against the back glass. I wanted to give the corals more room and flow. I seriously hope that these bacterial issues are behind me and I can watch these corals grow into a flowing Goni Garden again.
These last few weeks have been the first time that I've really done anything to the animals in the system. It was fun to get my hands wet again.

Here's the newly planted gardens on the right island.
In addition to planting all of the goniopora frags, I moved a couple of the micro-gonis to give them more room as well.
I also mounted the remaining loose sun coral frags onto the reef to clear up the substrate.

View attachment 62742

So here's a newest FTS with the overgrown Digitata Forest and the Gardens.
I managed to get all eight of the fish to appear in this photo.

View attachment 62743

Speaking of fish photos...
The female Lamarck's Angelfish has gotten better about swimming around while I hold a camera; the male not-so-much.

View attachment 62744

The two tangs and the copperband are not shy with a camera at all.
All three of these fish show you just how well I feed my system.

View attachment 62745

View attachment 62746

And I don't really show much attention to my Melanurus Wrasse so I took a sneaky photo of it trying to hide out in my flowerpot corals.

View attachment 62747

How did you identify the bacterial issue and how were you able to overcome it. Great looking tank by the way.

 

[jlanger]

How did you identify the bacterial issue and how were you able to overcome it. Great looking tank by the way.

The corals' tissue would peel off of the skeleton and in bad cases, there was the brown jelly-like mucus. I pulled and treated the corals with a Cipro dip and also treated the tank with a milder dose over a week or so. I've done that three times in the last year and every now-and-then, a coral or two will up and melt away again. So I'm not completely out of the woods yet but it isn't as prevalent as it was a couple off years ago.
I may have detailed my treatment plan in an earlier posts.

 

[Jake]

The corals' tissue would peel off of the skeleton and in bad cases, there was the brown jelly-like mucus. I pulled and treated the corals with a Cipro dip and also treated the tank with a milder dose over a week or so. I've done that three times in the last year and every now-and-then, a coral or two will up and melt away again. So I'm not completely out of the woods yet but it isn't as prevalent as it was a couple off years ago.
I may have detailed my treatment plan in an earlier posts.

Got it. Do you run UV? I’m working on my new build slowly and keep debating UV or not. Anyway I shouldn’t hijack your awesome tank thread with my questions. Your tank looks great

 

[jlanger]

Got it. Do you run UV? I’m working on my new build slowly and keep debating UV or not. Anyway I shouldn’t hijack your awesome tank thread with my questions. Your tank looks great

No UV.
Thanks!

 

[BlindSwordsman]

Nothing really new to update from the last time but I thought I should pop in and say that I'm still around; somewhat.
I did tear out another batch of montipora corals to open up some space on the left end, but it doesn't look like I did anything.
And I added a small foxface a while back; no reason other than I like them when they're small.

A quick video from this weekend.

I know you are still around because you came to my meeting . Thanks again for doing that. It was nice seeing you again after 12 years (or at least 11?). That's good because it probably shows that we are fighters and we have lasted this long through ups and downs . Or maybe we are just lucky, but there have been some of us hobbyists who didn't make it along the way, and here we still are. We survive!!! Yay!!! In any case, just want to say again: I didn't actually see your old monti cap tank with the school of anthias you had before (10+ years ago?) in person, but I saw the photos, and I thought that was very unique. I still remember that tank of yours, but this current tank is looking very successful as well. Truly! So, keep up the good work!

And good luck with the clam if you decide to get one. I have had a few clams in my tank before with my tuskfish and I don't think I have ever had trouble with that. I think I even had more issues with the tangs nipping on my clams, but not the tuskfish. And your tank makes me think 'maybe I should try a copperband butterfly' ... I think about that once in a while but I was afraid of it trying to chow down my LPS. ... Not like I don't have more fish than my tank can handle but already, but ...

 

[Jposch]

Goniopora are known to have alot of allopathic activity. I don't have many flavors, but I did have to move my red goniopora out from the LPS colony tank, as it was fine before, and then stopped opening and started to pale. Same shared water, but less immediate dilution.
Moved it back to the main tank with the sps, but shoved in a lower flow corner, and now it's back on the mend. Opening up and getting color back. I wonder if your issues are just the symptoms or coral warfare. I do run ozone on most of my tanks. But wonder if adding UV may help even more. Perhaps you could try light peroxide dosing to try to oxidize those terpenes.

 

[jlanger]

It's been a minute since I posted [again], but that's mostly due to the fact that my reef has been doing great.
Over the past two months, I have had to remove a lot of coral as the M. digitata had all grown up to the surface. A bunch of coral was taken in for trade and a bunch more was given away to local reefers or donated. Even with removing a lot of coral (and dead coral from underneath), my reef still looks like it's full. The montipora corals continue to grow at a fast pace. The goniopora corals have been healthy for the last handful of months so I've slowly added a few frags and then recently added a few large colonies to fill up the Goni Garden.
The fish are doing great. I did add a juvenile Desjardini Sailfin Tang back in September. The other tangs weren't too pleased but in time they've settled down. And as a bonus for me, the new tang has shown that I am not a threat and the other fish are now out in font of the reef more. Now that I'm up to eleven fish, my tank seems like it's overstocked.

Oh yeah, I'm still testing the nitrate and phosphate levels daily. 312 straight days and counting.

Here's a couple of photos for eye candy.

FTS; fish not included.



Introducing the new tang.

 

[jlanger]

2024 update.
There.
See ya next year?



Actually, nothing really noteworthy to add; reef wise.
I did complete my one year of testing nutrients (NO3/PO4) every day. That's something. I hope to compile the data and make a report sometime soon about my experiences with using an ATS and how it manages the nutrients in my reef system.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[spsick]

I think Jason deserves the 2023 award for patience and content with his reef!


Admirable work sir!

 

[Fishfoo]

Tank is looking amazing Jason! And I appreciate you uploading the video in 4k. Makes it that much better!

Any tricks/quirks you've learned with goni's throughout your time with them in this tank?