My Official 120 Rebuild New Pics on 9/18

I'm using just the bulk stuff. My wife got it at "joanns" which is a sewing store. It's working very well for me.

 

OK so I'm going to go down the equipment list on my tank just to give a little insight into what I'm running:

Tank is 120 Gallon AGA dual overflow
Stand is AGA
Canopy is a hack job I did myself
Lighting - evergrow IT2080 LED
Sump - 48 x 24 x 24 filled to about 8 inches
Skimmer - 5 year old octopus 8 inch (I forget the model)
Flow - 2 Hydor Koralia 4's, 2 x koralia 3's, mag 9.5 for return.
2 x brs media reactors with carbon and a LITTLE gfo this time
Reefkeeper Lite controlling temp and dosing pumps
2 x BRS dosing pumps for alk and mag
2 x Hydor Theo heaters (the thermostat sucks on these but work well with controller)
100 LBS LR
2 inch sand bed

I'm sure I'm missing something but here ya go

 

I just tested my water for the big 3 (they are the big ones IMO anyway)
NO3 - 0
Alk 9.2
CA 450

All looking really good

 

So I'm still not super happy with the little tufts of HA I have growing in a couple of spots so I've decided I'm going to try the vinegar dosing thing. I used to dose vodka at one point on a former tank I had and had really good results with it. Water was amazingly clear, corals were happy and skimmer was more effective than ever. The reason I decided on vinegar this time is the fact that you dose more vinegar so there is a bit more room for error. I have thought long and hard about it and think this is the best way to go for me right now. I will update the thread here as I go along. So, now I'm on day 2 of dosing. I don't and have never tested for phosphates. I'm one of those that will let my tank do the talking and I know I have some loose phosphates. If phosphates are super low, you have little to no nuisance algae. I however, do have a bit so I know there's room for movement in the downward direction. So, day 1 and day 2, 20 ML of vinegar. I think Randy Holmes Farley recommended 15 ML per 100 gallons to start. I have about 150 gallons total volume so I decided I would stay a little on the low side. Really nothing to report on it yet so stay tuned.

 

So I have a few updates to clue you guys in on. I'm not much of a writer so I will try to keep it short and sweet:

GFO - The second GFO test/use was a bummer. I used a much smaller amount and had a ton of bleaching from my montis as well as xenia that got super angry at me and decided to close up. Took the GFO offline again and will never try it again. I'm done with the stuff.

Vinegar Dosing - I am in my 4th week of dosing vinegar and I must say that my tank is starting to look much better. Most of the cyano is completely gone and nitrates are still undetectable. Any hair algae that was in the tank is at a stalemate now and not spreading at all, it is actually starting to turn brown and lose color. I'm very happy with the results so far. For anyone who is curious, I started with 5 ML per 50 gallons and now I'm up to 15 ML per 50 gallons...roughly. I will stay at this dosage which is about 50 ML per day.

I have had a couple of what were, mysterious fish losses but now I think I may know what the culprit was. I lost my powder brown, 2 dispar anthias and I'm assuming a jawfish. The powder brown had a very strange wound on his noggin, got ich the day after I noticed the wound and succumbed to the ich about a week later. I'm sure it was the stress. Anyway, this was a big freakin crab wreaking havoc in my tank. He is now gone.

As far as parameters go, they are as follows:
ammonia, nitrate and nitrite are all at 0
ALK and CA are 8 and 400 just where I like them
Mag is at around 1300
ALK, CA and Mag are all being dosed via BRS 2 part but I will be switcing to DIY 2 part as soon as the BRS stuff runs out.

 

Just a couple of pics I took today

 

Everything looks happy Daniel! Glad to hear that vinegar dosing is working great for you too!

Hmmm Im curious about DIY 2 part..

 

Tank is coloring up really nice Daniel.

 

DIY 2 part works really well. The only reason I am using BRS right now is because it came with my pumps and was a pretty good deal. I have used "prestone driveway heat" for my ca part and just typical baking soda for the alk part.

Thanks, I am really enjoying it a lot. It is starting to get a lot of color. The rock is completely purple now and the overflows are completely covered in coralline. The back glass is really starting to get some big spots as well.

 

Tank looks totally awesome Daniel! What is the 7th picture of? It is beautiful!! Is the yellow fish another mimic tang?