Gig 'em @ NDstructible

I plan on drilling holes in the top later and installing vent fans that will turn on whenever the aquarium gets too warm, or maybe whenever the lights are on just to vent the extra heat and moisture out daily. I also need to attach a piece that my Apex automatic feeder can securely attach to since sitting on the edge of the tank will no longer be an option. Lights will be suspended on cables, with the exception of the T5's, which will be connected to the sides of the hood. I bought the Apex lunar module, so I'll also have to figure out where to fit them in the hood where they aren't being blocked by light fixtures, or blocking light fixtures.

Outside of hilarious South Park gifs, progress has been made on the tank build. The weather was nice yesterday and I've been working a lot of OT so I decided to take the day off and build the hood of the tank. Nearly took me all day since I had to tear all the cherry trim manually and take dozens of measurements and cuts, but it came out very well. I will be sanding, staining, and sealing it soon so hopefully I can get the hood on by the time I get back from my next field assignment. Here are a couple pictures I took during the build. The front of the hood that will be connected to stainless steel piano hinges for access to the tank. The "completed" hood before adding the hinges and sanding/staining

A small update: Nutrient levels continue to come down. I figured out that my automatic feeder had been completely missing the floating feeding ring, so a lot of food had been floating into the overflow and settling in the corners of the tank. The house smells pretty funky from all the excess nutrients in the tank, but oddly no algae growth, just some diatoms here and there. I adjusted the position of the floating feeding ring and nutrient levels in the tank have been coming down ever since. I did increase the feeding of the tank to 3 times a day with smaller amounts. The anthias look like they're losing weight after being released into the display tank. I imagine they are burning more calories in a larger tank and now have to compete for food with the other fish. I'm hoping the 3 small meals a day plus prepared foods whenever I'm home will be enough for them. Yesterday PO4 was at 0.03 ppm and NO3 was around 1.5 ppm. Alkalinity has been stable (praise Jesus) and Mg has started to slowly rise since I added Neomag to my calcium reactor. Overall things have been looking great and I plan on taking a day off work this week as my Spring Break opportunity to get back to working on the stand and hood.

I'm pretty sure it's when sand becomes anaerobic and acidic it melts the aragonite and the alk and calcium then fuse together when it is not exported out of the sand bed. I could be wrong

Finally got back from Nevada and California and to my pleasure I have found all my corals alive and gaining color and PE back! This is great because with my old tank I would come back and find health in decline and dead corals [emoji33]. The increase in water volume really leveled out fluctuations and has made things much more stable for the corals. Loving it! Nutrients have come down too, PO4 is down to 0.00 ppm and NO3 is down to about 4 ppm. Some algae growth, but not terrible. I did notice that the half of my tank with Ocean Revive LEDs had more algae than the half with the Orphek. Not sure if this is due to light intensity or spectral differences, but I found it interesting. I'll look forward to see which one grows corals the best. I did add a few SPS colonies and these little guys to the tank I did leave out the darker crab, he looked like trouble.

DC power at it's finest

Sitting here on the strip watching the Bellagio water show and wondering what kind of pumps they use. Whatever it is I'm sure it would provide great flow for the corals [emoji12]

Wuh? I just had to doublecheck on LinkedIn to make sure you were really listed as a scientist... [emoji12] So you're the one LinkedIn view I've had this year?

Ah, so that's what the "High-purity, magnesium-rich mineral" is they are talking about

I'm hoping to keep it above 1200, maybe 1350 as the highest level. But I know 1100 is too low. I did order some Neomag this morning to add to my calcium reactor. I haven't researched dolomite yet, but that might be something worth looking into for the future!

So an (somewhat) interesting observation I noticed last night. I tested everything I could to get a baseline of the tank parameters and I found my Mg to be at 1100 ppm. My Mg was pretty low like this in my 50 gallon before I spiked the Mg to kill off some pests. I find it curious that my Mg is low again, especially after all the new water I've added to the tank lately. My guess is the test kit I have runs on the lower end, so I may need to borrow someone's Mg test kit and run a comparison. That or the bucket of salt I just finished was deficient in Mg. Now that I've switched to a new salt source and have my CaRX running the levels will naturally increase, otherwise I'll probably set up a dosing regiment for Mg to keep those levels up.

gif of the fish schooling and being best of friends!

Nutrient levels in the tank are slowly coming down. I put my carbon and GFO online yesterday, but one 20 minutes off 10 minutes cycle through the Apex so I don't shock the tank by eliminating nutrients too quickly. Of course I made a change and then jumped on a plane for Nevada. When will I ever learn? [emoji849]

I have the very best of friends

In other news I added an Ocean Revive LED fixture to my tank last night. I can't fit another Orphek Atlantik over my tank because they are too long (and wayyyyyy too $$$$). The Ocean Revive is a lot cheaper and shorter so it'll hopefully fit well over the tank. I also have two 46" T5's that I will run with the LEDs and I'm hoping that the uniform light from the T5's will blend the different LED spectrum's together well without causing a huge aesthetic eyesore.

100 gallons?! What, do you have a water tanker that drives around for emergency tank house-calls? Not a bad idea really Oooooh, that would be nice. Maybe if I'm lucky I can find an efflo in LA when I'm cherry picking

10 gallons last night. Luckily the aquarium fairy left me a 5 gallon bucket or pre-made water for me so I just had to whip up 5 gallons of my own. I'll be testing today after work to see if it has come down at all. Unfortunately my efflo that survived the exodus did not survive this nutrient spike

So setting up the tank obviously stirred up a lot of nutrients when I transferred all the rock and sand. nitrates were at about 12 ppm earlier this week and about 6 ppm today. Phosphates interestingly have gone up over the past days from about 0.12 ppm to 0.21 ppm today. The tank water looks a little cloudy and the house has "that aquarium smell". I assume it's from the bacterial bloom going on from the available nutrients and all the fresh water and room to grow. Hopefully it'll settle out soon

Thanks Versace! If you're still breeding clowns, I may need to hit you up. I lost a few clowns while the fish were exiled in the fish room

Hear ya loud and clear there Farmer.

Here's the tank right now. Still need to add more lights and build a hood. It's a good start though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Luckily I was able to cut my work trip short and come home early. The tank looks great now that the detritus has settled! Of course I paid the price for leaving the tank alone after setting it up and had a loose hose fall out of the sump and empty the sump onto my dining room floor and surrounding areas [emoji37]. I guess I should have stayed up a little later that night and finished securing all my loose hoses so that wouldn't happen, another lesson learned in my extensive book of mistakes! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The build is looking good! Those worms are gnarly looking! I know there are several species of bristle worms, and those don't look like the typical orange ones we find in our tanks. I found one super long one similar to that in my QT tank the other night