ReefzJR
Community Member
Hello fellow enthusiasts! My names JR, welcome to my build thread. I did not begin this when my tank was set up so I’ll spend some time catching everyone up.
Be warned, I haven’t always heeded the advice I’ve been given. Something I’m working on
July 31st- Purchase of aquarium, Agronite Live sand and one medium arch shaped chunk of that Carib “Life” rock. Here’s a picture so far
The other three rocks and rubble I purchased a few days later in an attempt to raise the arch and introduce coralline algae. In hindsight I will likely remove those two or rearrange. The structure feels to tall since id like to add coral to the top of those rocks (first suggestion I didn’t take). In total there is about 12-14 lbs of rock and 10 lbs of sand. One of the rocks had a Zoa colony. Several spaghetti worms and kelp and red/purple coralline algae growing on it. I also added a protien skimmer to chamber 1 (Biocube mini skimmer v2)
August 3rd- I added bacteria to tank and 1 Chromis. Chromis died a week later, maybe from that Gill burn. It accepted food in the beginning and explored the tank a bit but before it died it began spending most of the day in the back of the tank
August 4th- I purchased API Reef Master kit and Red Sea Multi test kit. Between these two kits I can track what I need so far (I cannot measure magnesium, strontium). I don’t know if I need to be concerned about those two yet.
I have downloaded “Reefminder”. It allows me to time stamp test results and see readings on a graph. It also lets me inventory everything from lifestock to equipment.
I have definitely been running my lights to long AND that chunk of rock that Brough the Zoa and Kelp, it also had several algae. I quickly began seeing Algae blooms
Little bit of green algae.. some cyano and that lovely green hair stuff. At this point I added a timer and switched from full spectrum to blue lights, this was recommended to me by my LFS.
August 10th I added 5 tone blue legged hermits and 1 Turbo snail. I wanted something to help move the sand a bit. All hermits and snail are doing great. I spend more time than I care to admit watching the little idiosyncrasies. I have seen the crabs molt and change shells.
Quick Lab Stop: I havent has Ammonia reading thanks to the bacteria I added. Nitrites were trace around 8-4-20 and a week later they were Zero. Nitrates around 5-10 at this point also. I took a sample to my LFS to confirm results. The color metrics are hard to read sometimes butI figured it out by using sunlight to help read. Calcium is about 480 with dKH of 10 and ph of 8.1
I added a Clown Goby a few days after the nitrites read 0. I’ll continue the rest later this is getting to long to read
Be warned, I haven’t always heeded the advice I’ve been given. Something I’m working on
July 31st- Purchase of aquarium, Agronite Live sand and one medium arch shaped chunk of that Carib “Life” rock. Here’s a picture so far
The other three rocks and rubble I purchased a few days later in an attempt to raise the arch and introduce coralline algae. In hindsight I will likely remove those two or rearrange. The structure feels to tall since id like to add coral to the top of those rocks (first suggestion I didn’t take). In total there is about 12-14 lbs of rock and 10 lbs of sand. One of the rocks had a Zoa colony. Several spaghetti worms and kelp and red/purple coralline algae growing on it. I also added a protien skimmer to chamber 1 (Biocube mini skimmer v2)
August 3rd- I added bacteria to tank and 1 Chromis. Chromis died a week later, maybe from that Gill burn. It accepted food in the beginning and explored the tank a bit but before it died it began spending most of the day in the back of the tank
August 4th- I purchased API Reef Master kit and Red Sea Multi test kit. Between these two kits I can track what I need so far (I cannot measure magnesium, strontium). I don’t know if I need to be concerned about those two yet.
I have downloaded “Reefminder”. It allows me to time stamp test results and see readings on a graph. It also lets me inventory everything from lifestock to equipment.
I have definitely been running my lights to long AND that chunk of rock that Brough the Zoa and Kelp, it also had several algae. I quickly began seeing Algae blooms
Little bit of green algae.. some cyano and that lovely green hair stuff. At this point I added a timer and switched from full spectrum to blue lights, this was recommended to me by my LFS.
August 10th I added 5 tone blue legged hermits and 1 Turbo snail. I wanted something to help move the sand a bit. All hermits and snail are doing great. I spend more time than I care to admit watching the little idiosyncrasies. I have seen the crabs molt and change shells.
Quick Lab Stop: I havent has Ammonia reading thanks to the bacteria I added. Nitrites were trace around 8-4-20 and a week later they were Zero. Nitrates around 5-10 at this point also. I took a sample to my LFS to confirm results. The color metrics are hard to read sometimes butI figured it out by using sunlight to help read. Calcium is about 480 with dKH of 10 and ph of 8.1
I added a Clown Goby a few days after the nitrites read 0. I’ll continue the rest later this is getting to long to read
