30 Gallons Peninsula

[klvnnunez]

Hi all,

I am currently cycling a 30 gallon peninsula which eventually will be hosting mostly softies and LPS corals. I started the tank with Dr. Tim fishless cycling but it unfortunately crashed due to high ammonia. As of today, I have done a 50% water change and have re-started to process. You can say I'm in day one. The current paratmers are as follow:

Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 79
pH: 8
Ammonia: 4
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Equipment:
Tank: 31.5" x 13.8" x 15.7 (Drilled, one overflow and one return).
Stand
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 3 Extreme
Heater: Schego 150W (Titanium)
Heater Controller: Inkbird ITC 308S
Return pump: Jecod Jebao DCP 2500
Powerhead 1 (Main): Jecod Jebao DMP 40
Powerhead 2: Jecod Jebao DMP 10
Glass Cleaner: Flipper Mini
Sump: 10 Gallons
Light: None yet (I will open a thread on the lighting forum)*
20 LB of Marco Rocks
1" Sand bed crushed corals

 

[SaltySqueeble]

This is legit. Nice!

 

[klvnnunez]

Here's what the tank looks like with it running. The Jebao DMP 40 pump is a beast and dead silent. I'm super happy with the purchase.

These corals I have in mind for the tank when time comes:

Euphyllia [tiger torch]
Ricordea Mushrooms
Lobophyllia
Montipora Plate (red or grafted)
Favia [raimbow]
Trumpets (purple or neon green)
Pulsating Xenias (pink or blue)
Zoas (hopefully a mini garden)
Acanthophyllia [Acan]
Tube Worm [red coco]

Now I will need to figure out placement for them in the aquascape. I know for sure the Favia, Acans, and the Ricordea will be in the sandbed in fron of the tank. Looking at my aquascape, any thoughts on placement? What should I put on the right side next to the powerhead? That area will be getting blasted. I have the powerhead at 50% at the moment and its creating a ton of movement. I will also be doing a movement test down the line (before adding corals) to make sure I don't have any dead spots in the tank. Worst comes to worst. I have a Jebao DMP 10 I can put on the opposite side (left) and hit the back area of the tank if need be.

I forgot to mention, I'm having a bit of overflow noise as its just one pipe. I have added an airline at the top to silence it (it helped), but I still hear a bit of the water rushing. I tried to back pressure the overflow pipe with some success, but had to pull back becuase I was paranoid that the tank would overflow. The noise is not that bad, but I would like to completely silence it. Unfortunately, I cannot drill the tank any more, so one pipe will have to do. It was impossible for me to find an appropiate overflow box in Europe that could house an emergency pipe as well, so one pipe was the best I could do. I'm not worry about the pipe getting clogged as its 1" and it has a slated weird where a snail or fish won't fit through.

I've been fiddling with the return pump and the overflow valve to try and quite it. I have since order a gate valve for a more precision tuning, should be in this week and will change it.

**Lights are coming soon** I don't need them just yet.

 

[klvnnunez]

***UPDATE***

The tank cycle is complete after a few weeks of mishaps. I have incorporated a GHL Profilux 4 mega pack and an automatic feeder. Today I have introduce the first habitants, a pair of Onyx Clownfish.

More to come. Stay tuned!

 

[klvnnunez]

I has been 2 weeks since adding the pair of onyx. The are super happy and eating. Today I added a Midas blenny, royal gramma and a cleaner shrimp. I've been doing a weekly water change of 10% and still having issues with high phosphates. I'm not sure if it's due to the Marco rocks leaching phosphates to the water column. My daily feeding are a minimal, a few pellets in the morning at 9 am and a quarter of cube of mysis shrimps at night. I doubt the phosphate is coming from overfeeding. Any idea if the phosphate is coming from the rocks and crush coral sanded? Should I wait a few more months and let the tank mature to see if the phosphates stabilizes or use GFO to bring it down? I want to make sure the phosphates are at a low range before adding corals.

I have also tested today and the parameters are as follow:
salinity 1.025
Temp 78
Nitrate 1 (Red Sea tester)
Nitrite .5 1 (Red Sea tester)
Alkalinity 9.5 (Hannah)
Phosphate .6 (Hannah)
Ammonia 0

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I has been 2 weeks since adding the pair of onyx. The are super happy and eating. Today I added a Midas blenny, royal gramma and a cleaner shrimp. I've been doing a weekly water change of 10% and still having issues with high phosphates. I'm not sure if it's due to the Marco rocks leaching phosphates to the water column. My daily feeding are a minimal, a few pellets in the morning at 9 am and a quarter of cube of mysis shrimps at night. I doubt the phosphate is coming from overfeeding. Any idea if the phosphate is coming from the rocks and crush coral sanded? Should I wait a few more months and let the tank mature to see if the phosphates stabilizes or use GFO to bring it down? I want to make sure the phosphates are at a low range before adding corals.

I have also tested today and the parameters are as follow:
salinity 1.025
Temp 78
Nitrate 1 (Red Sea tester)
Nitrite .5 1 (Red Sea tester)
Alkalinity 9.5 (Hannah)
Phosphate .6 (Hannah)
Ammonia 0

Midas blennies are a great addition! Glad you were able to get one for your tank!

 

[klvnnunez]

Midas blennies are a great addition! Glad you were able to get one for your tank!

Indeed. I was able to find a great specimen.

 

[klvnnunez]

***Update***

It's been a bit since I last posted about the progress of the tank. After battling nitrite for a few weeks, I was able to completely remove it using an extra bottle of Fritzyme 9. I have also complety setup the profilux 4, KH Director and slave dosing pump. I've been doing a weekly water change of 10% but the phosphates are really high (.6ppm) due to leeching from the rocks and crushed coral sand bed. I know this because I tested my RODI water with a Hannah Phosphate ULR checker with a result of .01ppm. I did a bunch of research about tackling the phosphate leeching rocks and decised to dose dilluted tropic marin rapid phos. I will be dosing 25ml daily in the hope of bringing down phosphates by 0.1 mg/L per day until I reach a desire range of .03ppm to be able to add corals.

As of 4 weeks ago, I've been slowly introducing fish to the tank. I first adde a pair of onyx clownfish, two weeks after, a midas blenny, royal gramma, and a cleaner shrimp. This week I will be adding one or two fish to the community tank. My plan is to have a total of 10 or 11 small fish in the tank + cleanup crew. I have attached a mood board with the fish I would like to house in the tank. My tank is too small for both the purple and yellow tang. I need to decide which of the two to add. I will be adding the one I chose very small in size knowing I will have to find it a new home a year or two after introduction. The issue is that since Hawaii has close the export of the yellow tang, I haven't been able to find it anywhere, and the one I found is upward of 300 euros. I'm thinking about keeping the purple tang and find a yellow replacement for the tank as I would like something completely yellow that won't pick at corals. I thought of the lemon peel angelfish but it seems very prone to picking at corals. Do you guys have any other recomendation that is not a blenny, damsel, but looks stunning? I'm open for suggestions.

I leave you with the parameters of the tank as of today.
Alkalinity 9.1
Calcium 479 (a bit high, but no corals yet)
Magnesium 1415 (a bit high, but no corals yet)
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
ph 8.2
Phosphate: .6 (bringing it down with tropic Marin rapid phos)
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.2

Thanks for reading.