45G JBJ AIO Macroalgae + softie low tech tank

[ithrowtofu]

Hi all, starting a build thread for my first saltwater tank. I have kept freshwater tanks on and off for the last 10+ years, but always dreamed of a reef tank. This will be my first foray into the saltwater hobby and I am striving to keep it relatively low tech and low maintenance.

Equipment
- Tank : Fiji Cube 32G AIO
- Flow: Stock return pump, may upgrade in the future
- Filter: stock filter sock, planning to add bioballs that I already have into the filter section as well
- Heater: Jager trutemp 100 watt + Inkbird heater controller
- RO/DI: BRS RO/DI plus deluxe
- Light: Popbloom RL60
- ATO: None, planning to make a glass lid to reduce evaporation
- Skimmer: none

Aquascape:
-- Carib sea special grade sand 20lb
-- Carib sea life rock 15-25 gallon Dreamscape kit

My goal is to grow mostly softies, macroalgae, and easy LPS.

Tentative fish stocking list (and in order of how I plan to add them) as follows:

• 1 molly
• Yellow Watchman goby + pistol shrimp pair
• Midas blenny
• Ocellaris Clown fish pair
• Longnose hawkfish
• 6 line wrasse

I am still waiting on the tank to arrive, but I have been working on the rock scape. Any feedback before I glue it together?

 

[Peace River]

Congratulations on the new adventure!!!

 

[ithrowtofu]

Hi all, just wanted to post an update

I ended up changing my build to a JBJ 45 gallon AIO tank + stand after snagging a Petco Black friday deal.

Tank is now filled as of yesterday. I glued together my rock with super glue gel. Haven't purchased a light yet as I am planning to keep lights off during the cycle. Pictured is just a random grow light on top of the tank temporarily

The RODI filter took a LONG time at first (was initially making 1 gallon of water in 2-3 hours) but it went faster after the second day and with using warmer water. I am in an apartment and have my RO/DI filter temporarily attached to the kitchen sink faucet.

I used a regular water pump + hose to fill up the tank from each 5 gallon bucket. Took me about 4 days to fill it up, as I work full time and was only able to make the water in the evenings after work.

UPDATED Equipment
- Tank : JBJ 45 gallon AIO
- Flow: Stock return pumps, may upgrade in the future
- Filter: stock filter sock, media + bio balls
- Heater: Jager trutemp 100 watt + Inkbird heater controller
- RO/DI: BRS RO/DI plus deluxe 75 GPD
- Light: planning to get a Popbloom RL60, still haven't purchased yet, open to other ideas
- ATO: None, using stock glass lid to reduce evaporation
- Skimmer: none

Aquascape:
-- Carib sea special grade sand 40lb
-- Carib sea life rock 15-25 gallon Dreamscape kit

 

[Joe8612]

Following. Nice work. I’m getting ready to start a 20g jbj I got from the same sale you did.

 

[NeedAReef]

be carefull with the clown pair. i added 4 mollies to a tank that has a perc pair, no kidding, and momma went like nuts and ate them, not to mention she ate 2 cleaner shrimp and a blood red shrimp... banned she is.. AND YES I saw it with my own eyes!

 

[ithrowtofu]

be carefull with the clown pair. i added 4 mollies to a tank that has a perc pair, no kidding, and momma went like nuts and ate them, not to mention she ate 2 cleaner shrimp and a blood red shrimp... banned she is.. AND YES I saw it with my own eyes!

thank you for the heads up! I had heard they can be more aggressive than people give them credit for... I was planning to put the clowns after the more peaceful fish to hopefully minimize territorial behavior

 

[ithrowtofu]

Hey guys, coming in with an update. I cycled the tank using a fishless method where I was adding fish food daily. I checked my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates every few days. It took about 3 weeks to finish cycling, with the most recent numbers being 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 5 nitrate. I think I missed the ammonia spike with my every-few-days-testing, but the nitrites spiked at 1 PPM during the first week.

My first tank inhabitant is a gold/black lyretail molly fish that I picked up from my local LFS. I ended up picking up a second Dalmatian lyretail molly fish shortly afterward, and I acclimated them together in my 10 gallon quarantine tank. I started them from freshwater and did approx 20% water changes daily with saltwater for a week until they were at 35 ppt salinity. At that point, I transferred them over to my display tank. Unfortunately, the dalmation molly fish (which is smaller than the first) could not keep up with the flow, so I have since moved him back to the quarantine tank until he can get bigger and keep up. I also noticed he has some damage to his anal fins, so I will let him heal up from that too before moving him over.

Yesterday I also received my order of 3x value pack of macroalgae from @The_Macro_Lady. I am very happy the variety. Unfortunately it looks like the Halimeda is dead as it had turned white, but I put it in my tank anyway in case it comes back.

I visited a local store and picked up a few softies. A pink tree leather coral, a green tree leather coral, tequila sunrise rhodactis, GSP, and my LFS threw in a free pink zoa/paly for me. They are still closed up but I am excited to see once they open!

 

[ithrowtofu]

I received my online order from Petco for some soft corals and cerith snails and hermits. They were having a 50% off sale on most corals and I was able to reach the free overnight shipping minimum.

Fortunately it looks like all the snails and hermits made it. The corals look pretty rough but after coral dip and rinse I placed them on my sand bed.

I also received an order of live rock rubble from Gulf Live rock and rinsed them off in salt water then added them to the tank.

It looks like the green devil's hand coral might be dead. It seems to be crumbling and is bleached. What do you guys think?

Also today (about 2 days after adding the corals, snails, hermits, and the rock rubble) I found that one of my mollies passed away. My ammonia was 0, the salinity was 35 PPT, and my other molly looks normal. Any thoughts on what could have caused his death? He had been acting completely normal yesterday

 

[Tahoe61]

Congratulations on the new corals!
The Green Devils Hand still has a decent chance at recovery, I would give it a couple days.

 

[kizzy89]

I like the scape with the macros. Nicely done.

 

[Tinklez]

Bro you’re brave to get stuff from petco! I’ve heard horror stories.

For adding the water, how did you mix the salt? Did you it until the tank was full of RODI water?

 

[ithrowtofu]

Congratulations on the new corals!
The Green Devils Hand still has a decent chance at recovery, I would give it a couple days.

Thank you! I will hold on to it longer and see how it does

 

[ithrowtofu]

Bro you’re brave to get stuff from petco! I’ve heard horror stories.

For adding the water, how did you mix the salt? Did you it until the tank was full of RODI water?

Haha well the online shop has a 7 day guarantee and I got free shipping so figured there wasn’t much to lose. There are not many shops near me that cater to saltwater aquaria

I have two 5 gallon buckets so once I filled one bucket with RODI water I then mixed salt in it, while filling the second bucket with RODI. The I pumped the mixed saltwater into the tank and refilled the bucket with RODI and repeated the process till the tank was full

 

[Tinklez]

That’s a good idea. Did you have to test the salinity of each bucket before you put it into the tank?

 

[ithrowtofu]

That’s a good idea. Did you have to test the salinity of each bucket before you put it into the tank?

I did not, just tested at the end once tank was full and made adjustments then. I did not have any livestock yet so I figured it would be fine to do so, and therefore avoid testing almost a dozen times like if I had tested each bucket.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[ithrowtofu]

Hi all, some updates

Ugly stage is ramping up. Some pics before cleaning the glass

I added copepods and 6 nassarius snails over the weekend. I also added another green toadstool and purple photosynthetic gorgonian.

 

[JSxREEF]

It looks nicely coming along. The Gorgonian will also benefit from twice target feedings of Red Sea AB+ amino mixed with Benepets coral food.

 

[ithrowtofu]

Ugly stage is winding down, sandbed has cleared up. Glass still brown but I scraped it before this pic. I added a skunk cleaner shrimp, a tiger pistol shrimp, and a tiger conch. Haven’t settled on choice of goby yet to pair with the shrimp. What shrimp gobies do you guys like the best?

 

[JSxREEF]

Yellow Watchman with my tiger pistol shrimp. They've been working well together the past 2+ years now.