Learning Is Occuring - Starting The Saltwater Reef Dream (20G Starter)

Just some photos taken after my water change yesterday. Things have balanced out after the trip and everything seems happy. Params:

Salinity: 1.025
DkH: 8.1
PO4: .02 (but again, the presence of algae leads me to believe that is not accurate)
Nitrates: 0-1ppm
Calcium: 450ppm

After the last flash sale, added some to the tank thanks to WWC and Alex!

Loving how the tank is coming together and wild to have a mixed reef (which has been the dream) after only 10 months.

Some new photos!

Just some updated pics of the tank after getting all the new coral in! Also added a few CUC members (one with his very many hats that he now loves wearing). Starting to see some growth in the coral.

Got the new frags in from the @WWC Fragtoberfest sale! Got the Goni and Blasto and then jumped on the chance to get the Florida Clove. Not in the sale but totally fine with it cause I've been waiting to be able to get that one for a while. Thank you Kieth for all the help!

Super happy with how the tank is coming together. Loving the movement from the torches and the goni! And was stoked to get the red in from the blasto to add some contrast to the greens and blues! Still trying to get the golden suns zoa frag to open back up. Done two dips of increasing from 3-1 hydrogen peroxide to a 1-1 part yesterday to kill off the GHA.

Got one of the Gold Torches from WWC into the tank this weekend...and then had the flash sale soooo, will be getting a few more pieces in this week haha!

Really happy with how it's coming together! The possum wrasse is in and I'm not at my stocking number for animal life and am now just on a mission to stock coral. Dealing with a small bit of GHA in select areas due to a spike in phosphates from bad source water due to salt (it was clearly just old and had been on the shelf for a long time) but luckily have been able to handle it and got new salt. Started dosing the AFR now which has been holding my alk between 8.4 and 85. so seems to be matching uptake as it stands now. Overall, everything seems to be happy and fully extended (minus the one zoa I need to redo a H2O2 dip on to get rid of the GHA growing on the frag).

Can't wait to get the new frags in this week!

Well, let the torch and the hammer acclimate on the bottom for a few days to get acclimated and after seeing them doing well and opening up really nice I moved them to their spots in the tank! Very happy with how it's all coming together now.

**26 Sep Update**

Got the hammer and torch from @WWC during the flash sale! Absolutely love them and getting them acclimated. The other zoas and candy cane are also doing really well. Had to mess around a bit with placement but I think we got it right. Also got the Possum wrasse from WWC in after going through QT! Got up to the limit I was aiming for on stocking.

Some photos from today after a few coral moves.

**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!