Latest updates

Started the tank this weekend and my first time with a sump based system is going well. One tiny leak fixed. Basement sump is humming along. Lifereef Sump and skimmer is fantastic. Custom Aquarium Tank looks fantastic. Can’t wait to add fish and coral.

I've been a bit of a lazy reefer lately and I have the Aiptasia to show for it. I was using F Aiptasia everytime some popped up. It just got a little overwhelming. Looking to get some Berghia Nudis ask asap.

Part 2

Few more pics taken last night with orange filter Part 1/2

**13 July Update**

Have added some additional inhabitants! Got a skunk cleaner shrimp, two nassarius snails (one unfortunately was DOA), and a neon blue cleaner goby. Super happy with the tank as it's starting to come together. I've been dealing with elevated phosphates from the die off on the live rock but it seems to be slowing down and the chaeto I put in as a fuge seems to be working in concert.

Also pics of the fuge light going on in the back. Didn't realize the Red Sea Max Nano back wall between the sump and DT was only partially opaque, but it worked out well when I got the tunze fuge light at the bottom pointed up and away. There isn't a whole lot of light spillage into the DT and there are no signs (thus far fingers crossed) of algae in the DT growing. The chaeto appears to already be growing around the back which is awesome to see. Admittedly I am just constantly geeking out about seeing the whole environment in my tanks grow and expand.

Been doing 5 gallon w/c every 3 days trying to get the phosphates down but the nitrates are sitting at 3ppm. Hope you enjoy the night time pics as much as my wife and I!

Few top down shots from tonight while the pumps were off...although its a challenge as my Vlamingi tang seems to get the zoomies when the water is calm!

Pics of new frags

Golden Rod...is not a frag :-) (although i fragged it a tonne glueing it in place!)

20+ new Acro frags added.
Walt Disney
PC Rainbow
Petrol Slick
Tropicana
Golden Rod
Rainbow Loom
Maleficent
Electric Lime
Pink Digi
Green Monti
Orange Psammacora
Orange Lepto
Jack O Lantern Lepto
Chilli Pepper Monti
Superman Monti
Rainbow Monti
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
Pink Cyphastrea
Tequila Sunrise Monti
Gold Table
Purple Encrusting Monti
Red Fire Cyphastrea
Vivid Confetti

I now have 4 hermit crabs, multiple frags of Zoas, a sea urchin, more macroalgae, and of course I already have Frogfish and damsel and chromis

We brought in the Custom Aquariums 170 and placed it on the new bookcase stand tonight. Next step is plumbing and aquascaping with the Marco Rock we purchased. Getting close now.

Lots of hard work and loads of enjoyment. Amazing how much different reefing is 20 years later.

After a trip to our LFS with 10 water jugs (1+hr round trip), realized how unsustainable it would be to have this as my water source.

Got the BRS 4 stage plus 75 gpd RODI and set it up downstream of our whole home water softener. The incoming TDS is 2 and output 0, which makes me wonder if I even needed this thing anyway? Regardless, it’s all set up! The RODI water is plumbed into a 10 gallon bin with a float switch and the waste line is directly plumbed into our sewer system via an air gap fitting. The air gap is a physical disconnect between the water filters and any sewage preventing any damage to the softener / RODI. Took 3 hours to fill the bucket, so not bad!

And of course, I fell victim to having the darn flush valve the wrong way . At least I finally figured it out after an hour.

Cycle coming along nicely. Using Dr Tim’s ammonium chloride as fuel. Initially used Brightwater Starter XLM for nitrifying bacteria, but I became concerned when realizing the bottle was leaking that the bacteria might be shot. Returned to Amazon and replaced with Dr Tim’s one and only reef and the nitrites took off the next day. Two days of strong nitrates and just today started to see a big drop in ammonia. Getting there!

I added a turbo snail in the hopes that my problems were all related to the water change, but the turbo snail died after a week. It took a few bites of food off the glass right after going in the tank, then stopped eating and after that seemed to be trying to avoid climbing on the rocks.

I finally got a microscope from fb and was able to confirm dinos. Visually they appear to be small cell amphidinium, but that doesn’t correlate with their toxicity. I also note they’ve been on a gradual decline since I added UV to the tank, although SCA isn’t supposed to respond to it. Other change has been decreasing the light schedule. I don’t really know what it seems to be improving but I’m glad it is.

Been an exciting couple of months.
Started with a few soft corals which have all settled in nicely.
I got a few free frags from an online order which have been fun to ID and watch. A photoS gorgonian and what turned out to be a green Pavona.
I recently got some nice frags for father's day (favia, chalice, candy cane and my first euphyllia (toxic splatter frammer)).
The favia has sent out crazy sweeper polyps, no idea if that's normal or it's going to war!

I also invested in a new light as my LFS were selling some Fluval marine 3.0 at half price.
My nutrients seem reallllyy low (PO4 0-0.03, NH3 0-5) which could be the softies or my growing population of spirorbid snails.
I need to expand my testing range now that I've got some LPS but at the moment I'm just keeping up with water changes and monitoring.
Got a strawberry conch who is great at keeping my sand bed clean and a team of trochus have made short work of my algae.
I'm only running my skimmer intermittently as I don't want the tank running too clean.
All in all it's looking great, all original fish and growing well. That might be the tipping point for an increase in tank size but so far everyone is playing nice.

Still recovering from my crash. My urchin miraculously survived after my having tried to remove him from the tank twice thinking he had died. My big Zoa colony is in a “hospital tank” at the LFS until it hopefully recovers. I have brown stuff generating bubbles developing around the tank which I worry is dinos but have been unable to obtain a microscope to check (why does no one on facebook marketplace ever respond?!). I’m going to do another water change today and then try reintroducing a snail and see how it fares. If it behaves normally I’ll start restocking my CUC. I did add a bottle of tigger pods to the tank and they seem to have survived.

Debating whether to add a UV to my tank to deal with the possible dinos, but I know if it’s the wrong kind it won’t help. The bubbles disappear when the lights go off, but the brown stuff doesn’t seem to disappear (hard to tell with the different in lighting).

I’m finding it difficult to get proper testing equipment. None of my LFS have nitrate tests other than test strips and the API reef kit, which may be what I end up with (at a $20 premium over Amazon but at least I’ll know it’s new).

I followed instructions from ChatGPT and made refractometer calibration fluid. Super easy to do with an accurate scale.

My copepod breeder bucket is coming along nicely. Water is turning green and smelly. The raccoons keep trying to get into it every night, and I’m also a bit worried it’ll overheat with the high temps but I guess we’ll see.

A calamity struck my tank, and unfortunately I’m still not sure exactly what caused it. The most likely culprit at this point was some reverse osmosis water purchased at a store, but I’ve got doubts about that. All the details are here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-with-my-murder-mystery.1116007/

In the end I lost almost all of my inverts. My urchin is still alive, but barely, and it’ll be a miracle if he pulls through (but miracles happen sometimes). Somehow a Nerite snail survived, and my hermit is alive but also not active. Everything else died within 24 hours. I’m sure I also lost some zoas and clove polyps, but don’t know how many yet. My GSP is recovering.

I did a half tank water change, ran Poly filter, added another bottle of FritzZyme, and for now that’s where I’m leaving things. I’ll do another water change before I add more inverts, but I want to wait until things have been stable for a while. I wish I knew what had happened, because the idea that something like that could happen again with no warning is frightening.

I’ll add more updates as things progress. The only other problem I’m facing right now is that things are too clean—I keep thinking I’m over feeding, but nitrates continue to test at close to zero. Can a bit of floss, a refugium, and some live rock be doing all that? I can turn off the skimmer but right now it may be helping remove whatever toxin was introduced so I’m leaving it on.

Woke up this morning to my huge nem splitting its self. Can get a video to upload

I saw Barbara, my bristle worm, come out of her home to eat all the snail eggs. Circle of life.