Greg's 75g Rebuild Round 2
 

This is a second rebuild for me, but this time it's not because of hardware.
Summer of 2018 I decided I wanted to change up my corals and hence I needed to change all my LR to remove the corals I didn't like.
I bought some man-made LR from J&L back then and stuck it in a tub with powerheads and a heater. My plan back then was to change 1/2 my structures, and do the other half sometime later. Then I sat on that new rock for months.
It then took me until late winter/early spring of 2019 to buy more LR - enough to change out the whole DT and start a complete teardown/rebuild.

It took me from March this year until June to commit to a teardown. I put a spare DT next to the main one and transferred all livestock to the spare.
I then completely cleansed my main DT and prepped it to start over.
During this time, the new LR was sitting in a rubbermaid being dosed with liquid ammonia. I cycled it enough that it was able to process 20mls of pure ammonia in a 12hr period. That is enough to handle more than my 115g system could ever produce.

In mid-July, after transferring the corals I wanted to keep to my re-started DT, I sold my old LR and corals. Then with the empty spare DT full of fish, I ran a course of API General Cure, just 'cause a couple fish appeared to have stringy poop sometimes.

The fish went into the DT late July and all looked well. Corals settled in and started growing, sand was looking clean enough.
A week later, a still had a bacterial bloom. I could see it spinning around from the MP10s. So I put a bag of carbon in the filter sock. 5 days later the bloom was gone and I removed the carbon. FYI, I don't run Carbon or GFO. Haven't since spring of I think 2016.

Couple weeks later I start getting what I thought was a bloom of diatoms. Brown dusty stuff all over the sand and rocks. Turkey basting, sand disturbing and filter sock changes helped.
In the meantime, my corals were looking a bit pale, so I tried to balance NO3 and PO4 with some liquids. This made the brown stuff much worse and I had to clean the sand/rocks/sock a couple times/week to remove it.

I kept this dosing/cleaning battle up until the middle of September. I then decided to try dosing amino acids instead. This started to bring the colors back to my corals within days. 1 more attempt at raising NO3 and PO4 again resulted in brown crap so I stopped dosing for the last time (for now).
I dosed AcroPower @1/2 dose twice/week for 2 weeks.

This brings us to the end of September.
I've decided the brown stuff was diatoms, and has morphed into some kind of bacteria. There is a 'mulm' on the LR. I scrubbed it off with a toothbrush and changed the filter sock 2 days ago, and it has not returned.

So, today, Sept 30th, I've made my mind up to dose MB7 at ONLY the maintenance dose. I dosed 11ml/115g today and will do the same a week from now. I'm planning on only dosing this these 2 times then stop completely. We'll see what results I get where the 'mulm' is concerned.

I will keep dosing AcroPower @20ml/week as I currently do not have enough fish to support the corals' health.

Once I get the DT under control I will populate my QT with some more fish to bring my stock level back to a 'feed the corals' level

Very interesting- would love to see some photos of new display.

I threw out my remaining Acropower last night. I just got fed up with spots of cyano appearing every time I dosed. Now there is one little clump of lush GHA that is bugging me too. My sps were very pale at one point and the thing that brought back the colour for me was heavier feeding and regular dosing of Reef Chilli. I guess every tank is different.

Man, I miss using Photobucket, but they tell me I'm already @ 4 times my available bandwidth due to current pictures being viewed.

So, go here for a realistic sized picture to view

I'm working on who to use for hosting ....

Just for your Maggie :wink:

My plan is to keep a small number of specimens, with each being large in size

This is 2-1/2 months after the transfer back to the re-started DT

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...50563e_c_d.jpg

I loved all the variety, but after a year or two, the crowding became too much for me in the last setup.

I want my fish to be able to swim through the corals, not around them.

I'll be pruning and re-placing corals to promote my new wishes.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3cec35_c_d.jpg

This weekend, Oct 4-6, I've not used any MB-7. I've switched to Seachem Stability. I recall years ago I used MB-7 and had issues.
Anyway, still dealing with some 'mulm' on the LR, but nothing horrid.
Finally getting some green algae on the glass. Enough so that my Trochus snails have bailed-out from the LR and decided life is better on the glass.

I'll keep up the Stability dosing for another 1-3 weeks.

Still using AcroPower as I don't have any Cyano issues. Also using Reef Roids and PhytoPlan once/twice per week.
I don't have enough fish right now to support the Acros so I'm stuck with over-feeding my fish and adding said powders.

Dealing with a wounded Yellow Tang in a Hospital Tank right now. Once he's healed I'll be able to place more new fish in QT.

Hoping the future brings me more fish to feed the SPS

Restart is looking good! Starting out with smaller colonies is much more fun than small frags haha. Following along with the progress. I have to add that your sand is very clean, I may need to take some tips from your play book :lol:

Thanks for the pics, haha. Very nice but I miss the GSP:wink:

It'll grow back. There's a small piece front left side in the first pic

Looking good Greg! Can't wait to see it in person!