45cm cube / 20g (Return from 15 yrs out of the hobby)

Ralllyant · Aug 17, 2021

I cant even find pictures of my last tank.
So figure documenting it here will be a good way to safe keep things and look back on what i did write and wrong along the way

Someone else might even find it interesting...

The beginning.

Ralllyant · Aug 18, 2021

Since we are planning to build or move house before tooooo long i didnt want to setup something to big. But the toooo long has been 2 years so far. so not going to wait any longer.
I have 4 and 9 year old helpers this time around. So a few things will happen along the way that wouldn't normally do.
sand and water went in along with some ammonia.

Ralllyant · Aug 18, 2021

The following day a big of live rock went in. The kind of "live rock" we use to get with bits of coral, feather duster worms etc on it. Not sure if that's a good thing these days? May have a few nasties in the tank now? I only left it there for a couple of days, then broke it up and stuck in in the back filter area. The tank cycled within 4 days. I couldn't believe it.
So the nagging kids got their wish of Nemo the next day.

Ralllyant · Aug 18, 2021

The following few days saw a few bits of life go in.

Ralllyant · Aug 18, 2021

The next weekend a little Catalaphyllia jardinei that i hoped the clown would use and a hammer the kids demanded went in. I know i know, its "to soon"
On day 14 my 4 yr old chose a Damsel ( i promised them 1 fish each) I want to keep the bio load low.
During this time the tank went green. something that took a month or 2 last time i setup a tank.
Thats now gone and there is a little red hair the hermits are digging into.

Ralllyant · Aug 18, 2021

Time to get the levels where i want them and keep it consistent. Im sure we know whats goin on here?
Im not sure if this is still common? But it had my acro happy last time

Ralllyant · Aug 18, 2021

For a laugh.

Rockwork was from another guy's leftovers. Eventually I don't want any Rockwork visible. Will be covered in stony polyps

I may redo the Rockwork and semi start again. Make my own rock again as I did in the past. A local Australian shel grit (chicken feed) with Cement and cured appropriately. Worked amazingly well. Or perhaps it's way, to late for that

TXislandreef · Sep 2, 2021

Ralllyant said:
For a laugh.

Rockwork was from another guy's leftovers. Eventually I don't want any Rockwork visible. Will be covered in stony polyps
I may redo the Rockwork and semi start again. Make my own rock again as I did in the past. A local Australian shel grit (chicken feed) with Cement and cured appropriately. Worked amazingly well. Or perhaps it's way, to late for

Ralllyant said:
For a laugh.

Rockwork was from another guy's leftovers. Eventually I don't want any Rockwork visible. Will be covered in stony polyps
I may redo the Rockwork and semi start again. Make my own rock again as I did in the past. A local Australian shel grit (chicken feed) with Cement and cured appropriately. Worked amazingly well. Or perhaps it's way, to late for that

Cool build. Following along.

Ralllyant · Sep 4, 2021

First bit of acro went to test the waters.
A week latter 2 more frags went in.
Today I got a frag of the first acro I ever in my first tank a Dallas Green.
Currently adding 250ml of lime water a day and that's holding the levels, I'm waiting for the delivery of my dosing pumps to take care of this for me. For now I'm adding one cap full at a time spread throughout the day.
Here's a side shot after today's, waterchange.
The dunan has already split another head. It closed up during the water change, but it's a happy little animal. I never fed corals in the past. But direct feeding reef roids to the LPS this time around.
Have another bit of live rock waiting to go into my son's tank. We are settling up a little 5gal for him.

Ralllyant · Nov 20, 2021

Long overdue update. I have continued filling the tank with acro frags each week.
Dosing pumps arrived and are taking care of the corals demand for skeleton. I have had to raise lime water up to 600ml a day, to much for my 75l tank. I now dose 450ml of lime a day and DIY 2 part of bunnings calcium chloride / alk as needed (5ml a day of each at the moment) all corals doing well and encrusting nicely. I had 3 bleach a little with an alk spike. but all coming back.
with 75% weekly water changes i cant get the nitrates up. so its kinda running as a ULNS . i dont run a skimmer or anything. but i may add a little one at some stage and start dosing nitrate and phos in future.
Ill update with some pics shortly.