Eric's 90g AGA Build

[Eric Noa]

Water parameters:

Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphates: .02
Temp: 80 F
PH: 8.1
Cal: 420
Alk: 10 dkh
Mag: 1225

At the moment I do weekly or biweekly water changes and so far with doing that I maintain those levels, later on when I have more corals growing I'll have to incorporate dosing to the equation.

I say "bleaching" but I believe is STN because usually when the bleach is from the tip to the based right? Well mine were losing their flesh from the base up. They did good for about 3 weeks after that they went down hill really fast. I would check the tank at night and would notice a few frags with tha base gone and the next morning the frags were completely white so I couldn't even refrag them.

 

[buddy08]

Yup, thats RTN. Its usually caused from stress but again; it seems to be contagious and spread from one coral to the other. Your magnesium is a little low, bump it up to about 1300. Its ideal to keep it in the 1325-1375 range. This helps keep your alk and cal in balanced levels. I would also bump you calcium up a tad bit more to about 440, which will cause your alk to drop. I keep my tank around 450 cal, 9dkh alk and 1350ish with magnesium. I also believed overskimming was the issue at first with my sps that experienced RTN so I begin feeding them and adding amino acids. Cant really say it helped because thats when I began removing the infected corals. I now know that I am not overskimming because my water is full of filth for the corals to eat since my nitrates have risen from 0 to 25ish (after a few water changes).

I think the problem will be within your water though, something is causing your water to not be as stable as Sps require. Do you have an automatic top off system?

 

[Eric Noa]

Yes I do have an ATO. I thought of putting my skimmer on a timer and running it for 12 hours and see if that helped since my nitrates are at 0 and have been like that for a really long time but if the issue was that I was starving them then the pocillopora would have die also and that is doing fine, I know that pocilloporas are hardier but it has never shown any signs of being stressed.

 

[buddy08]

Well the ATO rules out salinity swings. Acros are so finicky; theres so many variables that could be the cause but one thing is for sure, RTN is directly related to stress. Best advice that I can offer at this point is to let your tank mature a bit more before adding more sps corals. Add a few lps here and there as well as a few more fish to help build up your little ecosystem. Watch your water levels closely (regularly testing for the essentials) and see how stable your levels stay. Once youre confident that your water is suitable (which is hard to judge as all corals are different (I.E. I have hard times with montiporas but my friends grow them like weeds but lack the ability to grow other stuff that does well in my system), you can then add some more acros. Look around your area for local hobbyist that can give you real good deals on some frags to help you get started (a lot of mine have given me free stuff just to free up room in their tanks so best of luck to you) and test those out to see how they cope before buying expensive ones in bulk.

edit: just noticed I didn't see any powerheads in your FTS photos; what are you using for water movement?

 

[Eric Noa]

Yea man I'm not ordering that many frags in a while tilt I'm positive they will survive lol. I'm just going to add some hardier corals for a while and some more fish and wait till the tank matures to add those beautiful sps.

At first I had two mp10's but I switch them to two jabeo wp25 because I wasn't getting enough flow from the two mp10's.

 

[buddy08]

Havent heard much about them other than they pack a decent punch for the price. I would imagine you have plenty of flow for the sps. In a 90gallon display I would aim for 4600+ GPH turnover for sps but not sure how much of that the jebaos will contribute plus your return pump. Just keep your corals out of direct flow as a direct current may be overkill for them. I think it may all boil down to your system being so new; thats pretty much the only thing that indicates the reasoning for your losses. Water parameters seem to be fine, flow seems adequate, and lighting is definitely not an issue but if I were you knowing how much money you have invested in this tank, I would test your light output for reassurance. Judging by you living in Florida, I am sure there are plenty of LFS and hobbyist in your area. Look into borrowing (or renting) someones PAR meter to see your lights intensity throughout the tank. That can help you in the future when purchasing different types of corals, acclimating them, and ultimately deciding where you want to place them based on lighting needs. IMO, 200-280 at the sand bed, 300-400 lower level, 400-550 mid level and 550+ in upper level is Plentttty of light. If youre to much higher than that, cut your lighting back until your corals are thriving in those conditions then gradually increase it over time. If youre to low then bump it up.

 

[Eric Noa]

These pumps put out a little bit over 2,100 GPH each and Im getting about 600 GPH from my return pump after it goes through my manifold and 90's in the plumbing. I haven't tested the lights with a PAR meter but I've searched online and other people with the same lights and tanks are getting the following at 100% intensity with 90% optics.

2200 at the water level about 7" below the light. On a 24" deep tank. 1/2 down is 750 and sandbed is around 450.

Not sure how accurate that is but I will get my hands on a par meter and do my own testing when I can.

 

[buddy08]

That sounds legit if theyre running those lights at full blast. Your lights have a lot of LEDs per unit with optics so they have potential to add a lot of light but its nice to know exactly where you stand so you can adjust accordingly. I personally wouldnt run mine that intense until I had a well established tank that could withstand that lighting but again the corals would definitely have to be acclimated to that and IMO,it would be over time (years worth of changes)

As for flow, youre good to go if they're pumping 2100gph each especially if you have them adjusting speeds.

 

[Eric Noa]

Yea I don't plan on running them at full intensity for a long time. Once I get some PAR readings I'll post them here but idk how long that will take I gotta find someone local that has one that wants to lend it to me or rent it.

The pumps move a lot of water and I have them on else mode which is like a random mode and it switches from low to high and also does small waves on that setting. It has a few settings for just waves but I haven't tried those yet. Mostly everybody that has these pumps prefer the "Else" mode.

 

[Eric Noa]

I added these two little guys to see how they do. Green birdsnest (right) and a puertorican ricordea (left).

 

[Eric Noa]

So I keep making changes under my stand... I guess I won't stop till Im satisfied lol

This is just an idea I haven't actually put it together yet except for the sump/fuge, that is already put in place. I thought of adding two additional 10g tanks next to my sump. One would be used as a ATO tank and the other as a holding tank for saltwater for water changes. I have about 120 gallon of water counting the DT and sump/fuge so 10 gallons would be about 10% water change but I'll be doing it weekly so it would be about 40% a month which I think is good. Also its something I won't be putting off because to do the water change I would just have to switch a pump on and open and close a few ball valves and its done.

The wall behind tank is the master bathroom so Im going to installed the RO/DI unit under the sink and run two lines to my stand. One to fill the ATO tank and the other one to fill the saltwater tank. It would included a couple float switches connected to my Apex as a fail safe as well as a few flow valves.

I drilled my sump in the skimmer and return section and installed two bulkheads and connected both sections together with a ball valve in the middle, that line is connected to a mag 7 which will drain the sump (skimmer and return section) and then I just have to open and close some ball valves and the same pump will fill the skimmer and return section with new saltwater so I think that would work pretty good. I wish I could have a bigger tank to do a bigger water change but thats all I fit in there and I feel this way it will make water changes a lot easier, at least for me it will.

If you guys see any issues with the design or have any ways of improving it feel free to tell me.







This is the current sump/fuge. The two 10 gallon tank will go where the blue tank is. Also the 10 gallon tank on top will not be supported by the tank at the bottom it will have its own little stand but it'll look just like in the design, I just didn't incorporate the stand in the design.

 

[buddy08]

Sounds like it will work, what will you do with the water you remove as you do water changes?

 

[Eric Noa]

For now I'm thinking of just putting it in a bucket and throwing it out but I might just add a drain line to the sink in the bathroom behing the tank making things a lot easier

 

[buddy08]

Sounds possible, just have to make sure you drain exactly 10 gallons everytime otherwise you may drain to much or little effecting you salinity during your water changes.

 

[kylemack87]

For the first time you could
1) Drain into 10G tank.
2) Make mark on tank or sump depending were your draining out.
3) Hook like to sink.
4) Easy water change.

 

[Eric Noa]

For the first time you could
1) Drain into 10G tank.
2) Make mark on tank or sump depending were your draining out.
3) Hook like to sink.
4) Easy water change.

Yep that's exactly what I thought of doing to make sure I was draining only 10 gallons.

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

have you hooked up the water change station yet? wondering how its working

 

[Sakura2282]

That sump/fuge looks great. Good job!

 

[Eric Noa]

Added this guy on Saturday and so far he's looking great. I'm a fan of anemones and saw this carpet at the lfs and the conditions he was in (tank size, light) and had to save him.

He turned out to be bigger than what I expected so will have to move some rocks around to give him more room.

 

[Sakura2282]

Added this guy on Saturday and so far he's looking great. I'm a fan of anemones and saw this carpet at the lfs and the conditions he was in (tank size, light) and had to save him.

He turned out to be bigger than what I expected so will have to move some rocks around to give him more room.

It's beautiful! :)