35 Gallon Mixed Reef

[ArowanaLover1902]

Well I'm working on my new reef tank and thought I'd post a build thread so you guys can help me construct it as it goes. I've got the 35 gallons tank, a beautiful stand and canopy, and a 15 gallon sump. I've got most of my filter done, but need a 1/4" PVC union bottom piece to complete the filter. I'm actually ordering all of the stuff (dry rock, live sand, filter media, and chemicals) today. I'll try to post a list later tonight when I order it all. The interesting thing about the first stage of this tank will be the cycle. Because I'm actually moving over from my 23.5 gallon reef with live rock and sand, I won't have much of a cycling process and will be moving the inhabitants and water at the same time. I figure that after putting in sand and rock, I'll only have about 40 gallons of water, I'll add 5 gallons of cycled water from my tank when I get the live sand in, bringing it down to 35. Then I'll add my biological seed stuff and let it sit for a few days with only the 5 cycled gallons and 15 non cycled. When I have all the supplies in I'll take all the inhabitants from my 23.5 gallon and put them in tuperware until I'm ready. Then I'll move the sand, rock, and water to the tank and then the inhabitants. The cycling will be incredibly short, but I think, with the amount of healthy live rock, water, biological filter media (which is also moving), and live sand it'll all work out. My LFS told me it would be fine too. I'll post pics of the tank and the various stuff I'm ordering tonight.

 

[dbl]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Can't wait to see some pictures.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Forgot to post pics but I did order all the stuff. I still need the bottom of a PVC union piece that is apparently an IPS 1/2" rather than a normal measurement. Its really hard to find and the only one I have found cost $15 to ship and was only $0.68. I have every other piece except a good skimmer, and a good filter media holder (my current one will work but its loud and not the best, I've got to make a better one soon, and mangrove mud for my refugium. Can't wait to aquascape it.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Pretty much everything has shipped. I'm really happy about the heater, its a cobalt neo-therm. I've wanted a good heater for a while and for $80 I feel like it'll probably last me for a while.

The plumbing -
I found out my PVC problem. The guy who built it used IPS PVC for some reason (for those of you who don't know, IPS is an outdated way of measuring PVC and none of its parts work with modern PVC) so I've got to cut out that part and switch back to normal PVC rather than using nothing but IPS parts (which are only sold by a few online companies). I'll hopefully have the tank stocked by next week. I've got a little mangrove sapling I'm also going to put in the fuge.

The refugium -
I've decided to take a different approach than most with my refugium, because I have them from my old tank and don't want to not use them, I'll be using two orbit marine pro LOOP leds for my refugium, meaning it has the lighting to grow even SPS if I want it to. I'll have a good sized frag rack in there in case I want to move my corals around. I'll basically treat it like a tiny aquarium under my tank that has a focus on macroalgae.

The stocking (fish) -
Besides the clownfish, watchman goby, lawnmower blenny, and royal gramma I already have and am moving I plan on adding the following
- A mandarin dragonet
- Another clownfish (or possibly 2)
- Some type of fancy fish to swim around the tank (likely a sociable wrasse) (I wish my tank was large enough for a tang or angelfish

The stocking (inverts)
- I plan on adding several more hermits and snails to my clean up crew
- Skunk cleaner shrimp (or 2)
- A few more Hawaiian feather stars (5+), I'd like a big "garden" of them
- Maybe a sponge
- Maybe an anemone, I'm not sure yet, they take up a good sized chunk of reef
- various macroalgae in the tank to provide a nice place for copepods to hide (and maybe someday a pipefish, I feel like with my large refugium and a good macroalgae patch, he would have easy hunting - the other option would be to add another mandarin dragonet)

I'll post pics tomorrow, I'll probably some of my stuff in tomorrow as well, I ordered rock from reefcleaners.org btw because how awesome their rock looked.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Accidental repost

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Started the tank last night, filled it up, moved livestock, etc. The turbo snail already crawled out and I put him back in. The sandy water is making me mad, but it'll clear up soon.

The big problem at the moment is the filter is too powerful, I need to move my filter media because the overflow is wayyyy too strong and splashing. I had to turn it off. I'm going to move the media, put a bend in the plumbing (so as to reduce the velocity) and then have the water flow into the tank through a filter sock, hopefully this reduces splash enough. I'm probably going to set up a frag rack too, I've got really powerful refugium lights.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Fixed the filter, I'll either post pics today or tomorrow. I've moved one of my ricordeas to the tank to grow back after getting stung by an anemone. I also got my rock from reef cleaner in the mail and set up. 5/5 star(fish) to reef cleaners, the rock is amazing and super porous. The tank looks great, still a little misty from the rock dust but visibility is pretty good and I can't wait to add more to the tank. What fish should be next?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Current stocking -
Fish:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Royal Gramma
Lawnmower Blenny
False Percula

Inverts (besides hermits and snails):
Feather Duster
Porcelain Crab

Corals:
Duncan, 2x brains, huge frogspawn, tons of zoas, tons of shrooms, a leather, and 2 ricordeas

What else should I add?
- I'd love to add something new that swims around the tank like the gramma. I wish my tank was big enough for a tang or angel

 

[dbl]

Well let's see some pictures already...lol. Sounds like things are going smoothly. As far as fish, how about a Dottyback or Firefish? Another really cool fish is a Flame Hawkfish, although it's not necessarily an active swimmer, but they are fun to watch.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Here’s the tank, coral look unhappy because I had to turn the nighttime lights on. Good news and bad news (x2)
Bad (1st)
- clownfish swam into filter and died

Bad (2nd)
- huge diatom outbreak literally overnight

Good
- by end of day, diatoms completely gone ha ha ha

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Going to LFS soon to pick up clownfish and some additions to my clean up crew. I'm also going to start looking for some anemones. I think I'll probably eventually have an anemone and 2 clowns to try to breed them. I'd like to add some cool inverts later, but now I'm having some problems with a touch of hair algae and I'm seeing some bubble algae growing on one of my rocks. I'm going to pick up an emerald crab and a few other creatures (when I cleaned out the old tank I found the emerald crab dead, I'm not sure how but its probably for the best as he was huge). I saw the porcelain crab yesterday feeding behind a rock. Besides the diatoms, everything is looking better than ever. The coral is so colorful under the new lights and the fish are adjusting really well to the new tank (especially the gramma).

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Now:
Picked up a false percula, emerald crab (female), 3 mixed snails (I always just say surprise me or its all the same to me) and 1 nassarius, I also got 4 blue leg hermits. Everyone is doing good, the duncan coral and feather duster are looking especially snazzy. The diatoms are a pain still, but the growth is slowing down. I used to want to add macro algae to the main tank, but I'm not so sure now. I may be better adding another rock or two and adding a bit more room for coral placement.

The Future:
I've got several choices as to what to add to the tank next:
- A flame hawkfish
- A bubble tip anemone
- An arrow crab (I feel like he'd be an awesome critter to see crawling around) (I think he could stay full enough to not switch to my beloved zoas)
- A pistol shrimp
- A purple firefish (paired perhaps?)
- Maybe barnacle gobies? (It'd be cool to see them poking out)
- A starfish of some type
- Obviously loads of corals of all types
I want something for a viewer to focus on, maybe a harem of clowns in an anemone or a gorgeous fish that is actively swimming around, I'd love some suggestions though as I'm a little afraid of keeping an anemone in my tank and a fish that meets those criteria seems to be impossible for a 35 gallon (Flame hawkfish are a little too slow whereas a dottyback might not be too happy about my royal gramma, who is a long time favorite).

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Here is a model of the current layout from above, it doesn't show height or anything, but it partnered with the previous picture should give a pretty good idea.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Hey do I get a build thread banner? I posted in the thread?

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Posting pics of the tank, corals, and sump later. Sorry I don't post many, my phone struggles to post pics (plus I'm a little embarrassed about the diatoms). I plan on adding some more corals pretty soon. Besides the annoying algae, the tank looks great, can't wait till I get some good coraline algae on my rocks, give me a couple months and it'll be amazing. I dug out my feather duster and put him in deeper (he's really big and growing, his tube went a lot farther than I though it would, I want to add another two soon. I also am planning on the addition of an arrow crab, I think he will tie the tank together and if he does misbehave, he'd look great in my sump and keep some of the bad critters down.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Adding more zoas soon, got a shipment coming in. I spent a bit yesterday taking my zoa frags off of their plugs and attaching them to the live rock. I also fragged some baby green shrooms from the mother colony I have, put them on some little rock in my hang on tank. I still have 3 zoas on plugs, my blue one and my designer, as well as my larger rasta zoa. I'm not sure where they will all go yet, my plan right now is to draw a mental line under which the tank will be dominated by zoas, shrooms, and other softies and over which the tank will have LPS and maybe eventually another couple SPS to go with my little red monti (you can't see him in the pics, he hides inbetween some rocks right now).

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Diatoms fading, picking up arrow crab this week if they still have one at LFS

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Added a black spot red damselfish, absolutely stunning fish and a new favorite. Also added a huge leather coral and two new zoas (or palys, can't quite tell yet). My mushroom frags are almost ready to add to the display, I think I want to learn how to frag zoas too, I've got 2 good colonies I could take from, maybe add them to the shroom rocks frags.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Also found what looks like a radioactive zoa on the bottom of one of my old rocks, I have new clue where he came from but I'm trying to get him bigger, I can't tilt the rock too much because there are also mushrooms on it. They would make an awesome mix together though.