1st saltwater Tank Red Sea reefer 170

Franco1024

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I am just starting it out, I realized I needed to rearrange the live rock after joining this site and finding some tips. Looking to Start with clowns of course, I would like to slowly add in some blennies, royal gamma basset, a star fish and when i think I’m ready a mandarin. Of course I’m looking into some clean up crew but needing to do more research as I want to add in a plate coral, and some torches and other anemones and corals that would go well with the planned livestock and if I can eventually a really nice giant clam.I want to do a refugium in the sump and I have seen some ideas I like but I don’t know where to start? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all for the warm welcome

skimmer is not currently on until the bio filter can be established based on the back of the bottle of Fritz-Zyme 9 nitrifying Bacteria

The set up:​

Red Sea Reefer 170
AI Prime HD
SICCE Syncra Silent 3.0
Red Sea RSK 300 Protein skimmer
Matrix bio Media balls ( in return tank)
Chemi-Pure Elite Carbon bag ( in red sea filter bag)

The show:
Live rock (32Lb)

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Franco1024

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Update 1: Very long and through update sorry in advance. I have added a lot to the tank since the last time I have posted. I changed the layout a little more. I have added in a lot of new stuff and have been keeping an eye on water chems.

Current water conditions:
Temp 77.0 and 77.1 on the 2 probs
Salt 1.024 on refractometer and Milwaukee digital refractometer.
PH 8.0 API saltwater master test kit
Ammonia .5 API
Nitrite .25 API
Nitrate 0 API
Cal 370 Red Sea reef test kit
Dkh 7.3 Red Sea
Mag 800 Red Sea

I don’t really like the API kit as I feel it leaves a lot of room for human error. Looking for recommendations for a different full kit if you can recommend one. The Red Sea took a couple try’s to get down but I really like it now and like the accuracy it provides on

I started dosing All for reef since the additions of the corals. Started at the recommendation on the bottle at 8ml~ for 43gal. Up to 15ml in 4days to bring up calcium, dkh, and magnesium. Stil have a ways to go to get to the levels I want to maintain but taking it slow.


*=New addition

The set up:​

Red Sea Reefer 170
AI Prime HD
SICCE Syncra Silent 3.0
Red Sea RSK 300 Protein skimmer
Matrix bio Media balls ( in return tank)
Chemi-Pure Elite Carbon bag ( in red sea filter bag)
*.25 inch acrylic panel divider
*Temp probe thermostat x2
*Eheim 125 heater
*Eheim 100 heater
*Fluval submersible light
*Marin pure bio filter block
*Chato
*Child lock to keep the kiddo out of the sump

The show:
Live rock (32Lb)
2 Halloween hermit crabs
2 Clownfish
*1 Valentini Puffer- so far so good trying to keep it very well feed so it doesn’t start nipping tankmates or planned coral/anemone
*1 Blue tang only being keep for 6months(maybe less) unless we can find a good deal on an upgrade to a 180gal+ tank
*1 Golden Headed Sleeper goby
*10 snails? (Don’t know what kind)
*2 Blue hermit crabs
*1 Tubbs Neon Green Polyp Birdsnest
*1 Pluto Passion Paly
*1 Peach Cluster zoa
* I threw in a bottle of tigger pods to seed the tank but I feel as if they have all been pumped into the tank and the current residents did not leave any left to see the tank lol. I will be ordering from alge barn to seed the tank and have a monthly shipment of the 5280s for a Manderin we plan to add last

P.S. I will take some better pictures soon I didn’t want to suddenly change the light when it was winding down time.

TL;DR: added a lot of new stuff waiting it out to see if everything survives for another month and try to add an anemone for the clowns to host.

1A928F77-C07C-4390-974D-7B94348462BB.jpeg 3D2F75A4-74BB-418D-8880-661841D043A7.jpeg
 
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Franco1024

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The PS is bigger than I thought it would be in the sump and if I were to do it again I would probably look for a smaller one to increase the size of my refugium. 4x9 is not a big enough refug (imo). But the quality and ease of use of the rsk 300 is nice. I don't need a smaller skimmer I need a bigger sump lol.
 

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The PS is bigger than I thought it would be in the sump and if I were to do it again I would probably look for a smaller one to increase the size of my refugium. 4x9 is not a big enough refug (imo). But the quality and ease of use of the rsk 300 is nice. I don't need a smaller skimmer I need a bigger sump lol.
I agree sump is uncomfortably small. I was using a bubble magus curve 5 and i eventually just went back to using my aquamaxx ws-1. The aquamaxx is nice because its so small I could run a refugium with it or even a tiny frag section in my sump.
 
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Franco1024

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Update 2: I am currently in the process of switching the water to Red Sea coral pro salt. I have done 2 water changes to try and save my Sea Bae anemone from really high nitrates. The rest of the tank besides the anemone are happy and growing. stopped dosing All for reef for now until I get the last water change done for the anemone. I have been doing 30% water changes every 3days until nitrates reach 10-20ppm.

Tank Parameter's: This morning.
Temp 77
Salt 1.024
PH 8.0
Ammonia .2
Nitrite .2
Nitrates 20-50
Cal 400
DKH 12


The set up:​

Red Sea Reefer 170
AI Prime HD
SICCE Syncra Silent 3.0
Red Sea RSK 300 Protein skimmer
Matrix bio Media balls ( in return tank)
Chemi-Pure Elite Carbon bag ( in red sea filter bag)
.25 inch acrylic panel divider
Temp probe thermostat x2
Eheim 125 heater
Eheim 100 heater
Fluval submersible light
Marin pure bio filter block
Chato seeded with pods
Child lock to keep the kiddo out of the sump

The show:
Live rock (32Lb)
***1 Halloween hermit crab Puffer got hungry one night or they fought over a shell. leaning towards puffer tho.
2 Clownfish
1 Valentini Puffer
1 Blue tang
1 Golden Headed Sleeper goby
10 snails? (Don’t know what kind)
2 Blue hermit crabs
1 Tubbs Neon Green Polyp Birdsnest
1 Pluto Passion Paly
1 Peach Cluster zoa
*1 Neon Green Toadstool
*1 Red Fromia StarFish
***1 Sea Bae Anemone, Its not really happy at the moment.
 

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Franco1024

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Update 3: The coral pro salt has been good it is holding cal mag and alk steady with weekly water changes I have the coral listed below. I changed the aquascape once again but I like it this time so I’m trying to figure out how to best attach it together without having to dry the live rock. My only battles that I am fighting are high nitrates started in the 50+ now down to 20-40ppm lately . I also have cyano consistently growing back. It was getting pretty bad but now I moved the power head to get better coverage and that seamed to help a lot.

I have been doing weekly water changes every tues/wed. Usually 10-15 gallons but I have increased to 20 gal as of last week to try and get nitrates down.

Tank perameters:
Temp 77
Salt 1.025
PH 7.8 api / 8.0 Red Sea
Ammonia 0 / 0
Nitrite 0 api only
Nitrate 40ppm api / 20 Red Sea
Cal 400 Red Sea
Alk 11dkh Red Sea
Mag 1200ppm Red Sea
Po4 .04ppm Red Sea

The show:
Live rock (~50Lb)
2 Halloween hermit crabs, apparently we still have both they just ended up molting.
2 Clownfish
1 Valentini Puffer
1 Blue tang
1 Golden Headed Sleeper goby
10 Astoria snails
4 Blue hermit crabs, added 2 more
1 Tubbs Neon Green Polyp Birdsnest
1 Pluto Passion Paly
1 Peach Cluster zoa
1 Neon Green Toadstool
1 Red/black tip Fromia StarFish
*1 Red/white tip Fromia StarFish
*2 Red/green Rock Flower Anemones
*1 Yellow/green Rock Flower Anemone
*1 Green Mandarin Goby
*1 mystery batch of zoas
*1 Kryptonite torch
*1 Florida Ricordea
*2 different Duncan Corals
*4 Turbo snails

The set up.:

Red Sea Reefer 170
AI Prime HD
SICCE Syncra Silent 3.0
Red Sea RSK 300 Protein skimmer
Matrix bio Media balls ( in return tank)
Chemi-Pure Elite Carbon bag ( in red sea filter bag)
.25 inch acrylic panel divider
Temp probe thermostat x2
Eheim 125 heater
Eheim 100 heater
Fluval submersible light
Marin pure bio filter block
Chato seeded with pods
Child lock to keep the kiddo out of the sump

50DA0D56-4702-4D5F-94D8-2E39A6A5A72D.jpeg 58E7E27A-5E25-4EED-BE12-93C20292004A.jpeg 85235347-A668-42C5-BD0E-B39325F23EF7.jpeg 3E693C55-54C3-404C-865A-4922968CD929.jpeg 6D32E6D4-77E1-4FCD-B18A-DE3B3A607E23.jpeg
 
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Franco1024

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Update 4: the tank has been doing great once i got this one stable the wife loved so much we got a 425 for the living room. We have added quite a lot since the last update.

PXL_20211120_004343520.jpg PXL_20211120_004302941.jpg PXL_20211120_004248175.jpg PXL_20211120_004029738.jpg PXL_20211120_004021230.jpg
 
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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