65gal reef tank

[Funston07]

Sand and water is in the tank finally. Got filter, heater, and powerheads installed. Now its time to sit back and let it do its thing for awhile. Kinda contemplating putting cardboard around tank so it gets as little light as possible to it.

 

[fishguy242]

"HOUSTON WE HAVE WATER"

 

[Funston07]

Well its been almost a week not much has changed. Gonna go check out the LFS this weekend to get a better in person look at some of the first candidates that will be occupying the new tank. Also gonna mount the lights this weekend and get everything dialed in before we start adding the fish and coral. Hopefully ammonia levels start dropping soon and can possibly get a few critters in there by the end of this month.

 

[jk_s124]

Nice looking setup!

 

[Funston07]

Nice looking setup!

Thanks, much appreciated.

 

[WIReefer]

Welcome to R2R!!! Congrats on the build!

 

[Funston07]

Well its going on 2 weeks of cycling. My ammonia has fully went away and so have nitrites. Going to be getting some Davinci clowns to put in this weekend and then start playing with the lights to get them all ready for coral. Also going to do a water change the day before i get the clowns and double check everything is ready for them, can't wait.

 

[Funston07]

Okay so I did the first WC and checked parameters both before and after, everything looks good. My clowns should be here tomorrow and will be getting them settled in their new home. Im going to make a lid to cover the top today for a diamond goby, I know they are jumpers.

 

[Funston07]

Well haven't updated this in a couple weeks, not much has happened. I ended up making a top from 1/4" acrylic, got my lights all hooked up, and now have a few critters in there. Parameters have been steady with no fluctuations, been testing every couple of days just to get the hang of it and to make sure im consistently testing the same way each time. I do have some coral coming on Wednesday and Thursday. My initial plan was to buy just a couple frags, I found a new addiction though. Ended up getting on the WWC live sale last weekend which was a mistake and then the ARC live sale this past weekend. I need help lol. Got way more coral than what was planned but couldnt pass up the deals. My tank will be pretty much stocked after Thursday. I will update with pictures tomorrow before the coral arrive on Wednesday and then after I get them all situated this weekend.

 

[Funston07]

Well here is the tank before the coral start to get added tomorrow. I just changed the carbon filters to help clear up the tank before then. Will update this weekend when I get the corals placed

 

[Funston07]

And we have the first corals and plenty of them. Kinda late on the update, they have been in the tank for a week now and doing well with good PE. Actually surprised everything going as smoothly as it has been but very grateful at the same time. Had to turn the lights down a tad bit but other than that everything adjusted great to the tank so far. I will admit though having like 20 frags to dip in one day was a task. Hopefully wont have to add any for awhile now. Next on the list is going to be adding some more fish and possibly a few inverts.

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[Funston07]

Looking good!

Thanks

 

[Funston07]

Guess what this guy got? Not one but 2 new tanks. Nothing fancy though, just some 29gal tanks that were on sale. Only spent $55 for both of them. Im gonna use one for a DIY sump and the other will be for a QT tank idk possibly just a frag tank havent really decided yet. Im gonna get the triton sump kit from Jax Racks in the next upcoming weeks and get started on that. Also decided to get a HOB overflow from Lifereef, heard nothing but good things about their overflow. Matter of fact they say theres never been one thats failed, how could you decide not to go that route? Coral have been in tank for 3 weeks now and everything seems to be growing, cant complain. I have hit the ugly stage though. Rocks are all green where the lights hit the most cant wait for the coraline to overtake it eventually.

 

[Funston07]

Coral are finally starting to grow. Havent really made any adjustments to my setup, just been keeping up with maintenance and watching the tank slowly transform. Being my first tank its definitely a cool process, slow but very interesting. I actually already have coraline growing everywhere which I wasnt expecting to happen for a couple more months. Im going to be getting a lens kit to take much better pictures and will update with actual up close pics of coral. But all in all its come a long way in a short time, I feel like I've had it set up for at least 6 months and its only been 3 months.

 

[fishguy242]

been a lil while, how is tank doing?

 

[Funston07]

been a lil while, how is tank doing?

It's been doing good. Honestly there for a while it was going too good lol. Now im in the process of trying to reduce p04, got some GHA and I believe red Cyno in a few places but overall it's been good. Had a few zoas melt out of nowhere and my torch took a downward spiral but out of 20 frags have only lost 3-4 of them. Everything else is doing good especially the blastos and acans I have. Coralline is really starting to take off so hopefully everything will start stabilizing soon. I just haven't updated the build thread recently cause I haven't made any changes. Kinda went fast with stocking so I'm letting everything catch up now for the next few months before I start making any other changes.

 

[Funston07]

I haven't posted in here in awhile but that doesn't mean nothing hasn't been progressing. Just wasnt on the forum much over the past 6 months or so but I'm back and been pretty active on here so figured I would update the thread a bit. Got rid of my HOB filter and upgraded to a sump. It was a DIY jax racks 29gal kit and a Lifereef HOB OF which turned out good imo. I've had the sump going for 3-4 months now but definitely ran into a few problems which I'll include in the next post.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I'm late to your party but I'll follow along. I'll be converting my 75g planted tank soon so I'm looking for ideas. I'm scared of sumps, they seem too smart for me, lol. So I'm researching, planning, seeing what everyone else is doing, trying to accumulate info.

 

[Funston07]

I'm late to your party but I'll follow along. I'll be converting my 75g planted tank soon so I'm looking for ideas. I'm scared of sumps, they seem too smart for me, lol. So I'm researching, planning, seeing what everyone else is doing, trying to accumulate info.

Well stick around cause I still got some updates I'm gonna post today including issues I ran into and how I resolved them which include adding the sump to my short DIY stand. But definitely go with a sump. It's made maintenance much easier and more cost effective in terms of mechanical filtration, adding chemical filtration is a breeze also. Plus you got the spare room to toss a crab thats gone rogue or something. Its a very useful piece of equipment. Since adding it I've enjoyed my tank more and don't feel like maintenence is such a chore.