24 Gallon office build

Hybrid Ken

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It all started out stopping by the local LFS to pick up food for my daughters Betta's on Black Friday. An all in one tank for almost half the normal price. Grab the tank and off to the office and set it up.
tank.jpg

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A few weeks later I pick up 20 pounds of CaribSea Live Rock and a bag of CaribSea Hawaiian Black Aragonite substrate.
Rock.jpg


After about 2 hours I decide on my scape.
scape 1.jpg


I attempted to give plenty of room for any fish I may put in and lots of room for corals to sit and grow.
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After my 7 stage RODI unit arrived and enough water was produced I dropped in 2" of substrate and added the water. One shrimp in the sump and a bottle of bacteria and I am on my way with the fishless cycle. I will not be turning on the lights until just before the corals go in to help prevent unwanted algae growth.
substrate and water.jpg

Current parameters are temp 78.5 to 79.4 F, salinity pretty dead level at 1.025 every day. At week two there was plenty of ammonia detected along with nitrite and nitrate. Protein skimmer is breaking in (boy talk about a wet skim) I have a secondary power head temporally installed until my gyre shows up in a week. The next hardware purchase will be an AI Prime light upgrade as the light that came with the tank would only support softies and not at the best levels.
Temp and salinity is checked daily with the ammonia and other such tests done weekly. The tank should be ready for fish at about the week 4 to 6 mark with the lights coming on with the addition of corals at the 3 to 4 month mark if the Nitrate and Phosphate levels are suitable for the corals but not create a explosion of algae. If needed nitrate and phosphate levels will be lowered or raise to appropriate levels. First corals will be softies like GSP and a few zoas. around the 10 or 12 month mark I hope to be butting in some LPS followed by SPS around the 18 month mark if all looks stable and existing corals are growing well. I like the slow and steady method so I can learn to listen to what my tank telling me what it needs or is doing, being more proactive then reactive to what the tanks needs.
 

SPR1968

No, it wasn’t expensive dear....
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The tank looks great so far Ken, very nice indeed

Your not going to get much work done staring at that all day I can tell you! Lol

And welcome to R2R as well by the way, great to have you with us
 
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Hybrid Ken

Hybrid Ken

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The tank looks great so far Ken, very nice indeed

Your not going to get much work done staring at that all day I can tell you! Lol

And welcome to R2R as well by the way, great to have you with us

Tank you, Actually the tank will give me a reason to slow down a bit, 10 and 12 hr days on the move the whole time is rough on a 54 y/o soul. Glad I managed to keep fit all these years...lol
 
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Hybrid Ken

Hybrid Ken

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Day 13. The shrip is still decaying in the filter. Almost have the Heater dialed in to 78 degrees F,right now its sitting at 78.7 PH stable at 8.0 After an ammonia spike at day 7 its now down to zero nitrites however are 1.0 or greater. Nitrate is at 50 with the salinity stable at 1.025 I have a water change of 6 gallons to do tomorrow and then a quick clean of the skimmer. The skimmer is still breaking in and runs good for a bit then goes bonkers. I plan on doing dkh/Alk and Calcium testsing at week 4 and phosphate/phosphorus checks at week 6. Six to eight more weeks and the fist fish go in.
 
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Hybrid Ken

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New toy arrived today, final piece of hard wear I have been waiting for. Maxspect Gyre FX-230. Even at 40% power it moves the substrate around a bit. Put it in Ocean Gyre Cycle before I left work. I half expect to find the substrate on one side of the tank in the morning. It makes almost no noise a5 50% other then a slight whine as it ramps up but sitting at my desk it was not distracting or bad at all. I could sleep in the same room with it at that level. I expect I will be fine tuning it over the next few days/weeks before
Maxspect Box.jpg


Maxspect Pump.jpg


Maxspect Controller.jpg
the fish go in.
 
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Hybrid Ken

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Gyre is working great, I didn't find all the substrate on one side this morning. The protein skimmer seems to have just about broken in and calmed down quite a bit in the last few days. Next round of tests will be Friday for week four tests.
Gyre control distant.jpg



gyre control close.jpg



Gyre front distant.jpg



Gyre front close.jpg
 
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Hybrid Ken

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End of week three testing of the cycle (I only test PH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate once a week to see how things are progressing) Even with a full piece of shrimp rotting in the tank after the initial ammonia spike at the end of week one, week two and this weeks test shows no detectable ammonia. Nitrites went from almost off scale last week (week three) to 0.02 today. Nitrate has gone from 20 on week one to 50 on week two to 10 on week three. PH stable at a consistent 8.0 and the salinity swings just a bit (if I test before or after topping off) from 1.024 to 1.025 At the current pace I might add fish at the end of week 5. I need to get a phosphate test kit or Hanna checker before I turn the lights on and make sure both nitrate and phosphates are kept low to shorten the "ugly" part of the cycle.
Since I need to start selecting fish so I can have them ordered and instore for pick up (after a one week hold, two if I pay for the food in a back room tank for me) I am looking for color and interesting fish. Being a 24 gallon tank I don't have much room. A lawnmower blenny my find his home in there just as part of the maintenance crew. Not big on fire fish but that's was because they were so small in the 125 gallon I almost never saw them nit they might shine better in this size tank. Not a big fan of the Royal Gramma but again in this small of a tank they might shine better. Any suggestions of interesting fish that are not too care intense being this is an office tank. Color and function combos are great.
 
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Hybrid Ken

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Think I have decided on a few of the fish I will get. A Geometric Pygmy Hawk fish, either a two spot blenny or a tail spot blenny, two purple fire fish. Maybe a orchid dotty back and if I think I can get away with it I might try a yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp. Corals I am still looking hard at color and pop. I do love frog spawn and hammer.
 
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Hybrid Ken

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So here we are just shy of 4 months and coral additions. Current live stock, a purple fire fish, a tail spot blenny and a banggai cardinal with plans for just two to three more fish. PH stable at 8.2 ammonia is 0 of course, nitrites have dropped from a .03 last week to a zero this week. Nitrates are steady at 5 and phosphorus readings at 68 ppb (.068ppm) dkh is 8.1 so its all set for corals from the coral xpo in a few weeks.
 
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Hybrid Ken

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The tank has entered the ugly stage but if this is the worst it gets I will be happy. clean the glass and stir the substrate once a day. You can almost miss it if you were not looking for it.


ugly tank 1.jpg


ugly tank 2.jpg



ugly tank 3.jpg
 
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Hybrid Ken

Hybrid Ken

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Added a Tunze ATO to the system las week and am loving it.

Tunze box.jpg


Tunze Controller.jpg


Tunze sensors.jpg


Tunze pump-resivore.jpg
 
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Hybrid Ken

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Now sitting at the 4 month and 2 week mark. the 4 week Diatom bloom appears to be done. Purple tip frogspawn looks happy along with the Hammer and the two Zoa (Devils Armor and can't remember the other one). I am going to give it about two more weeks then get some serious coral purchases in.
Latest parameters are pretty stable at Temp 79.1 pH 8.2 Salinity 1.026 Alkalinity 8.1 Ammonia and Nitrite are both at 0.0 Nitrate has dropped to 2 and holding for the last two weeks. Phosphate has continued to drop from 0.012 last week to 0.007 this week.

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Hybrid Ken

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Things continue to look great in the tank. Added a crew of three Turbos and three astria to keep the rocks and glass clean. They are doing an excellent job. The frogspawn as almost completed its first head split with what looks to be two more to follow soon.

This is a few weeks ago when I first noticed the split




This is this week


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Split.jpg
 
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