After moving a lot and having to take down my last takes and sell them off. I finally have a safe secure space with no international moves in sight ! That means it’s time for my dream tank, having mostly kept 3-6 gallon reef tanks in the past, my largest being a 25 gallon cube . It’s time for a tank so big and massive( to me) that I do not see my self upgrading or getting another tank!
I had this tank Custom made and designed my a girl my age! At her reef store. It’s90x55x55 cm or roughly 36 by 21 by 21 in American
by far my single most expensive reef .-. My wallet is crying . They came and set up it up for me aswell as move the tank to my apartment! It has to be done in two takes, first time not having to do everything myself, it feels a bit weird. I’m so used to setting everything up alone.
I am going to be using a mixture of dry and live rock , I’m allways a fan of live rock since I feel that it adds many beneficial bacterial strains as well as cute hitch hikers. So far the tanks number 1 priority is. to have an easy to care for system . Automating what I can. And keeping livestock limited to soft corals and a select few LPS with a group of smalller fish , think of it like a nano but on the bigger side. And yes there will be clown fish. My friend has been wanting clowns
The tank will go across from my bed and right next to the sink.
Playing with rocks at the store, hey that’s my tank!
Setting up the tank
My first ever proper sumpy sump
Set up but not yet wet!
We have water! but the clearness was not to last
Hello bacterial bloom my old friend.
Next it’s time for the shipment of live rock to come in! They came after about a week , I didn’t cure anything. There was going to be die off, supprises and algae, loads of algae
But first, let there be light!
Live rock so fresh it took about a day from the ocean to my home!
Extremely fresh, full of life and dead small animals on the bottom. Came with more small rocks then I expected, I ended up using most of them for the sump. Some larger rocks looked like dead coral but later came alive
Initial scape! Back then still had some bacterial bloom
Benefits of living with close access to the tropical ocean, very live rock, this coral later came alive!
Uglies setting in. I was about to go abroad for a month! My friend would come by and top up ATO every few days but otherwise the tank was on autopilot and the cycling was going to go well
Ammonia was high but slowly going lower and lower initial die off fouled the water to provide a start for the cycle, aswell as using bacteria to boost it.
Every reefers nightmare, while I was abroad, the tank started to overflow, had to call people to come fix it, turned out the algae got so out of control it blocked the drain into the sump! it was a long month , full of algae, and hope for a beautiful tank couldn’t be found, but once I came back I got to work on the tank. Adding a sea urchin, and then some money cowaries , followed by the first fish, a starry Blenny, eventually the algae receded like the turn of the tide, and the tank started to look better, below I’ll start posting corals and new photos
I had this tank Custom made and designed my a girl my age! At her reef store. It’s90x55x55 cm or roughly 36 by 21 by 21 in American
by far my single most expensive reef .-. My wallet is crying . They came and set up it up for me aswell as move the tank to my apartment! It has to be done in two takes, first time not having to do everything myself, it feels a bit weird. I’m so used to setting everything up alone.
I am going to be using a mixture of dry and live rock , I’m allways a fan of live rock since I feel that it adds many beneficial bacterial strains as well as cute hitch hikers. So far the tanks number 1 priority is. to have an easy to care for system . Automating what I can. And keeping livestock limited to soft corals and a select few LPS with a group of smalller fish , think of it like a nano but on the bigger side. And yes there will be clown fish. My friend has been wanting clowns
The tank will go across from my bed and right next to the sink.
Playing with rocks at the store, hey that’s my tank!
Setting up the tank
My first ever proper sumpy sump
Set up but not yet wet!
We have water! but the clearness was not to last
Hello bacterial bloom my old friend.
Next it’s time for the shipment of live rock to come in! They came after about a week , I didn’t cure anything. There was going to be die off, supprises and algae, loads of algae
But first, let there be light!
Live rock so fresh it took about a day from the ocean to my home!
Extremely fresh, full of life and dead small animals on the bottom. Came with more small rocks then I expected, I ended up using most of them for the sump. Some larger rocks looked like dead coral but later came alive
Initial scape! Back then still had some bacterial bloom
Benefits of living with close access to the tropical ocean, very live rock, this coral later came alive!
Uglies setting in. I was about to go abroad for a month! My friend would come by and top up ATO every few days but otherwise the tank was on autopilot and the cycling was going to go well
Ammonia was high but slowly going lower and lower initial die off fouled the water to provide a start for the cycle, aswell as using bacteria to boost it.
Every reefers nightmare, while I was abroad, the tank started to overflow, had to call people to come fix it, turned out the algae got so out of control it blocked the drain into the sump! it was a long month , full of algae, and hope for a beautiful tank couldn’t be found, but once I came back I got to work on the tank. Adding a sea urchin, and then some money cowaries , followed by the first fish, a starry Blenny, eventually the algae receded like the turn of the tide, and the tank started to look better, below I’ll start posting corals and new photos
