45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

Ok, so my local search for a Flame Hawk came up empty handed.

I still have to check a few more places if I have the energy. I stayed up late and played with Mikey at the dog park since he hasn't gotten much attention for the past couple days. His brother Ted is with my son. They play basketball together over mom's house. They are 50/50 German and Belgian. This is why I rock a bald spot.

Isn't he a dirty ugly big stupid liar? Yup, you bet he is. He farts and lies about it all the time.

My empty, lifeless tank is settling in. Everything is looking ok. Still unsure of the ORP readings whether the probe is settling in still or whatever and I'm not going to worry about it. It's been like 3 days now. The salinity is dead accurate since I refracto'd it to verify. I wouldn't expect to detect any nitrate and I didn't. ph seems to get up to around 8.1 peak and then settle in to the 7.9 zone at night. Using Hanna Checkers to verify which is cruel and unnecessary punishment. Man I hate those things. BUT, I just want to make sure this thing is telling TrOOfs and not lies. It seems pretty good. My inkbird heater and apex temp sensor read close to a degree off from one another, but whatever. Long as it stays around 78, I'm happy. Tell you what I don't miss about halides is the heat the tank would take on over the course of a day...with LEDs it's a non-issue for me.

Ok enough of that. I gotta find a fish man. I saw some fairy wrasses the other day, but I'm not gonna go there until the tank is a bit older and I have pods and stuff in there.

Oh, and we be jumpguarded. I have to notch the rear for the wires, but I'll probably never do it, because putting that thing together almost sent me into a rage fit. But some free lunch got me some precision laser cuts from a friend and it was done super clean. Check out that bar across my two kessil lights...that came extra with the jumpguard. I can drill that and bolt it to the kessil brackets and have a place to mount supps if I ever feel the need. And it's super solid with the kessil brackets bolted to my stand. I always try to find a way to use something that would normally be thrown out, so that piece is definitely not garbage. lol

 

[CBonito]

Pods from Algae Barn showed up and they were alive, so I turned off the main pump and dumped those puppies in there. Gave a dose of phytoplankton too. I can see them swimming around in there. Hopefully they settle into the rocks and be bad little boys and girls and multiply.

 

[CBonito]

I got a nice Melanurus Wrasse today. Next I will add a flame hawk and Midas Blenny. They will be my main cast of characters. But eventually I will have some anthias and chromis for schooling activity. Just don't want to jump the gun, and I would have to ask the resident wrasse expert here what the chances would be of a harem of fairy wrasses instead of the anthias and would the melanurus get ticked. He's a really nice fish and I don't want any violence. I love how mellow he is. He found a hiding place in the rocks, so I am going to let him chill and I'll try to spot feed him some dinner in a while.

Look at his head! lol Sorry, I love animals and this crap excites the hell out of me. Anyway, I dumped a jar of pods in there and he's the first one, so just let him chill, have a snack check out his new luxury pad and we'll give him some dinner later. Cover is on the tank and I now no longer have a dead tank. haha We'll see how he warms up over the next few days.

He should give my skimmer something to chew on too. It only works sporadically right now since the system is so new.
Now that I'm feeding this guy a bit, we'll grow the biome and I can get started on my refugium.

 

[CBonito]

The Wrasse is out swimming around now. Looks like waking these guys up in the morning is like waking up my son. It doesn't happen till the afternoon. ha!

 

[JoJosReef]

The Wrasse is out swimming around now. Looks like waking these guys up in the morning is like waking up my son. It doesn't happen till the afternoon. ha!

Takes some time for them to adjust, haha! Time to fatten that fish up!

 

[CBonito]

Takes some time for them to adjust, haha! Time to fatten that fish up!

I'm surprised he's out so fast. I expected it to be AT LEAST a couple days. Nope! He's looking great swimming around, picking at rocks and checking the place out. He's probably crushing that jar of pods I added. I can see their tracks everywhere in the sand.

 

[CBonito]

Got my ATO working FINALLY and that's all good. Keeps it right on the mark. Happy Happy.

 

[CBonito]

Skimmer is dialed in and it kicks butt!

Our little buddy is out and about. Gonna throw a bit of frozen in there for him. He doesn't seem to like pellets YET, but I do see him picking at everything and he appears physically well. Colors are good too. So I think we're gonna be fine. He's got a couple friends coming Tuesday.

I'm not like some sOOper dOOper photographer or anything so deal with it. LOL

 

[CBonito]

The Wrasse already comes up front and center for food. Strong appetite.
He ate two healthy meals today. I think he's in his cave now. When he's done with it, he buries himself in there and when he's chilling he just hangs and looks around. He comes out more and more though now.

I bought some really cool long aquarium tweezers and tools so tomorrow I am going to spend some time getting rid of all that macroalgae, so I can start my refugium with it. Freebie! lol

 

[CBonito]

Still doing great man. Seems really happy. I think he's gonna make it.

 

[CBonito]

Everything is running like too perfectly right now, all with the exception of my stupid salinity probe that I have to shake daily to get it to read properly. Not sure what's up with that, but I have my refractometer...No problems from the ATK which is nice. Works beautifully.

The water has become really clear, my ORP for all its worth is climbing and the natural ph is like 7.9-8.0 so far.
Alk is at 8ish. I am seeing all kinds of tracks in the sand. I don't know whether it's the pods I stocked or what came in on the live rock. Maybe both. I post a lot in here because this is kind of a journal for me too.

My wrasse ate some frozen this morning and some pellets this afternoon. He's still doing great. His colors look fine.

I have more fish coming tomorrow and once they are in the tank I am going to set up my refugium and load the hell out of it with critters. Holding back for now on what critters I will put in the tank. With the wrasse and flame hawk, I'm thinking shrimp and hermits/snails might be a bad idea? I've heard of cases where it's fine. I'll have to do more research on that, but I'm not worrying about it now.

 

[JoJosReef]

I post a lot in here because this is kind of a journal for me too.

Keep it coming! We love following people's tank progress!

 

[CBonito]

Keep it coming! We love following people's tank progress!

Thank You!

We're going to add fish tomorrow, let that settle down and go from there.
Got my ship confirmation a little while ago.

 

[CBonito]

Ordered myself a maggie muffler to make my overflow shut up (if i run it any higher than the lowest pump setting it's annoying), a reef breeders refugium light, because refugium and I am going to start my calcium/alkalinity journey with all for reef for now, manual dosing and testing until I can get an idea what I need, then we'll go for a tester/doser rig to automate it. I just want to have it here because it's getting close to coral time.

 

[dangit]

Glad to see the tank doing well! What corals are you planning to get first? Going for just a few or you planning to go ahead and cover the tank with them?

 

[CBonito]

Glad to see the tank doing well! What corals are you planning to get first? Going for just a few or you planning to go ahead and cover the tank with them?

Hey man!

I intend to stock this tank as much as I can. But for now I am going to start with a few "test corals" to see how they do. I'm waiting for a few fish to show up right now. Should be within the next hour or so.

Everything is going super good with this tank so far.

 

[JoJosReef]

Which ones are arriving today?

 

[CBonito]

Which ones are arriving today?

A midas blenny, a flame hawk, and some reef chromis.
It will be nice to see some action in there and also how my Melanurus reacts. Hopefully he likes his new tankmates. I don't see any problems.

 

[JoJosReef]

A midas blenny, a flame hawk, and some reef chromis.

Awesome, hope they arrive healthy! Flame hawkfish are notorious for staring at you through the glass. Always wanted one for my office, but I'm fairly invert heavy...

 

[CBonito]

Awesome, hope they arrive healthy! Flame hawkfish are notorious for staring at you through the glass. Always wanted one for my office, but I'm fairly invert heavy...

I've always wanted one but never owned one. I'm pretty excited about it.
I'm guessing if he gets enough food, he will be mellow. We'll find out.