Bluespot's Fantabulous Four Foot

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
Starting my build of a DSA 135.

So far I have some smelly rocks. Tank should be here on the 30th. Equipment is ready and waiting:
Coralife 300 Skimmer
Sicce 400 return pumps
Rio 200 for the refugium
Tunze Osmolater for ATO
Bubble Magnus for dosing
Reef Keeper controller
Kalk Reactor

Still need to build my screen tops.
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
I am a bit concerned that my aquascaping skills can't think only four feet. I remember struggling when I went from 6 feet in my 125 gallon to the 5 feet in the 150. But, with my rheumatoid arthritus I do need to down size. I probably went bigger than I should have :celebrate:
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
A bit of history...I still miss my old tanks.

My 125 was my first saltwater. Boy, can't believe how I kept that tank. So many mistakes and it thrived. Tap water, mixing my saltwater in the sump. Yeah, that was me back then. We cried when after over 10 years it crashed in 2006 after a water change. Outdated dechlorinater was blamed. All corals gone and the tank began a cycle. Welcome to RS. We Lost all but one fish due to the cycle. Our Emporer Angel, Red Sea Naso Tang, fox face were treating in the Qt (oxygen depletion). I rescued in the middle of the night our Palani Tang on his last breath and dumped him into the brute container. Rebuilt the tank with RO, haha.

My 65g was won at a WMAS raffle. Custom stand and canopy. Filled it up with acans and such.

My next tank was a 150 gallon when we moved to Texas in 2009. Many of my corals, my Bluespot pair, and my Picasso pair traveled the journey. Lost my flashing male Bluespot to ich. His girl and the Picassos were treated using hypo salinity and the tank build began again. Later we had three hatches of Picasso babies. A fun adventure, but a lot of work. I took the tank down in 2012 when my parents passed and it looked like we would be moving back to Utah.

My little 29g held a few of my favorite corals, some of which came from the 125. A pair of my baby Picassos as well. We moved that tank to our new home, still in San Antonio. Recently the tank was move to my daughter's apartment to make room for the new 135.
 
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bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
Patiently waiting for the rest of my rocks. Ordered them before anything else, eons ago. Expected them today when they didn't arrive last week. Supposed to be Wednesday now. Will order 150 lbs of live sand this weekend for arrival the following Wednesday.

The dry rock in the brute is still in the ammonia stage after 10 days. I moved them over to the smaller brute and did a 100 percent water change this weekend. Woke up this morning to an popped gfci. Wonder how long it was like that.
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
The tank is in the house. Basic install complete. A few piece of broken equipment to contend with and no lights yet, but I got RO running into it.

Precision Marine has awesome customer service. I pulled my old Kalk reactor out of storage to find a screw was broken. Gave them a call and it is on its way.

The new coralife skimmer was also broken. Hope that doesn't take long to resolve. Talked to the manufacturer and they referred me back to where I purchased it. Now they are talking to the manufacturer.

I am filling it with saltwater today, hopefully no leaks.
Live sand will hopefully arrive Wednesday, lights on Friday.
The live rock and rubble for the sump is ready.
The dry rock is just about ready.
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
What do you do when you can't sleep? Yip finish filling up the tank. Just about there.

I scrubbed the live rock batch last night and added it to the display. I'm still filling the sump and refugium. It's been tricky since I am mixing the saltwater directly in the tank. Difficult to know how full the tank should be before the rock goes in. I was short, so the first few batches I made in the sump transferred up to fill the tank.

Did things a bit backwards since my live sand that I ordered Thursday has not arrived yet. Hopefully it will come tomorrow or Thursday. I have surgery on Friday, so yikes if it doesn't. I wanted my rocks buried in the sand anyway so my jawfish don't knock them over when they are digging.

After the sand is in and my dry rock finishes cycling, I will add that as well. Still thinking through how I want it landscaped. I have a rough start in there now, but it doesn't have enough swimthroughs for my planned Naso tang to use the entire tank. My hubby says he has seen my reef in the ocean, so it isn't a bad start anyway.
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
Sand arrive Friday. Hubby put it in the tank. Then we added the rest of the rock that just finished cycling Saturday morning. Saturday I also made my screen tops and then my clean up crew and first round of corals arrived. The light also arrived later in the day.

Today I put in the other corals that were being held in my old 29g at my daughters. Also installed the vortechs and tunze osmolator.

First fish to arrive on Tuesday. A pair of yellow headed jawfish and trio of disbar antheas
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
I have most my corals
Lots of frogspawn and hammers, fox corals, brains, trumpets, elegance, duncans, zoos, acans.

Trio of anthias and yellowheaded jaw fish are loving the place to themselves.

Not happy with the flow in the tank. It's a bit harsh in some areas. I had hoped my vortechs could have evened that out but I have even had to stop using them completely. I might tinker with that again this weekend.

I love, love, love this light. So affordable too. The custom setting allows me to see my corals throughout the day in different ranges of blue and white.

Now if I could figure out how to post pics from my iPad you could see my progress. Posts are worthless without pics.
 

bluespotjawfish

Well-Known Member
I haven't yet, but I will on occasion.

They are addictive! Austin Aquafarms is a great source if you are interested. Very reasonably priced.
 
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