75 gallon reef tank - first time!

[hbubley]

Hey all!

So creating this thread to track my coral growth and health of my reef tank

Started the tank about 7 months ago and as of today.

(4/1/23)
The contents of my 75g tank are:

FISH
2 ocellaris clownfish (added 3/13/23)
1 target dragonet (added 3/25/23)
1 ruby red dragonet (added 3/25/23)
1 white tail bristletooth tang (added 3/31/23, currently in observation tank)

CORAL
1 duncan (added 3/17/23)
1 ricordea (added 3/24/23)
1 zoanthid (added 3/31/23)
1 lepto (added 3/31/23)
3 chalice (2 added 3/24/23, 1 added 3/31/23)

CUC
Assortment of tiny hermit crabs and snails and a shrimp

Feeding Schedule
Sunday:
- Frozen PE Calanus
- Reef roids (spot fed)
Monday:
- Nori
- Frozen spirulina infused brine shrimp
- Frozen PE Calanus
Tuesday:
- Frozen PE Calanus
- Reef roids (spot fed)
Wednesday:
- Nori
- Frozen spirulina infused brine shrimp
- Frozen PE Calanus
Thursday:
- Frozen PE Calanus
- Reef roids (spot fed)
Friday:
- Dose Kent's Coral Accel or Kent's Coral-Vite (switching off weeks I think)
- Frozen spirulina infused brine shrimp
- Frozen PE Calanus
Saturday
- Brine shrimp (live)
- Frozen PE Calanus

Yesterday tested the DT - alkalinity was at 10.3, pH was at 8.4, and nitrates were at 10. Everything is coming along nicely! I would like to add some more live rock to the DT, getting rid of anything fake in there that I started out with, not a fan of the look. I only have 1 more plastic cave to replace and we are completely natural!

Please ignore the algae growth, trying to make sure my tang has enough to eat hehe. Also, I'm planning on changing the tank up A LOT over the coming months, just taking things slow as not to disrupt what I have.

 

[blaxsun]

Best of luck! My whitetail bristletooth spends most of his time eating the algae off the back pane of the tank (all the other tangs prefer 'seaweed on a rock').

 

[hbubley]

Thank you!! I made sure to leave the lights on in the observation tank while waiting for him to arrive to start building up an algae population. I have more than enough in my DT (ha) to keep him well fed I think, but going to run to the LFS in a minute to pick up a bunch of different foods to try with him

 

[hbubley]

Also very open to suggestions on how to move the rocks around to make this thing pretty

Also also.. I need help determining my feeding schedule. So far this is kinda what I'm doing:

Sunday:
- Frozen PE Calanus
- Reef roids (spot fed)
Monday:
- Nori
- Frozen spirulina infused brine shrimp
Tuesday:
- Frozen PE Calanus
- Reef roids (spot fed)
Wednesday:
- Nori
- Frozen spirulina infused brine shrimp
Thursday:
- Frozen PE Calanus
- Reef roids (spot fed)
Friday:
- Dose Kent's Coral Accel or Kent's Coral-Vite (switching off weeks I think)
- Frozen spirulina infused brine shrimp
Saturday
- Brine shrimp (live)

 

[hbubley]

Tang is doing great second day of observation! I woke up and the main glass pane was covered in mouth marks! I added some spirulina infused brine and he went NUTS for it, ate a huge amount of that. I added a piece of seaweed for him to try and he nibbled at it a couple times but not nearly as much interest as he had for the spirulina brine shrimp. Can I overfeed that? I assume I want him as fat as possible in observation, but don't want to go overboard.

 

[Goaway]

Feed the tang as much as he wants. Hes small, growing and burning lots of calories. Keep an eye on water quality. The tang needs to be kept plump .

 

[hbubley]

Perfect! Planning on doing a 20-50% water change today, ammonia alert looks good but the water definitely doesn’t look it’s best from all the feeding. Was a bit cloudy last night.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

looking great

 

[hbubley]

These are the three new coral I got from @WWC ! So excited to watch them grow.
The hologram chalice is my favorite, it's like a lavendar purple with bright orange dots. Sorry for the terrible quality pics, corals are tiny right now so hard to get a good shot with my iphone camera:

Hologram Chalice

Miami Vice Zoanthids

Firebird Leptoseris

Is that skirt around the lepto new growth?

Tang Update:
Tomas the tang is doing great in observation, still eating a bunch of food. Planning on grabbing some more seaweed to try, as he didn't go for the generic green I got for him. The observation tank is reading no ammonia but is quite cloudy, I assume from all the feeding. I did a 40% water change yesterday. Unsure if I should do another WC tonight or let it sit?
Also raised the salinity to 33ppm during last water change.

Random Other Updates:
Changed lighting to Saxby AI settings, these are not as bright as what I had been using, so curious to see how the corals do.

 

[Goaway]

These are the three new coral I got from @WWC ! So excited to watch them grow.
The hologram chalice is my favorite, it's like a lavendar purple with bright orange dots. Sorry for the terrible quality pics, corals are tiny right now so hard to get a good shot with my iphone camera:

Hologram Chalice

Miami Vice Zoanthids

Firebird Leptoseris

Is that skirt around the lepto new growth?

Tang Update:
Tomas the tang is doing great in observation, still eating a bunch of food. Planning on grabbing some more seaweed to try, as he didn't go for the generic green I got for him. The observation tank is reading no ammonia but is quite cloudy, I assume from all the feeding. I did a 40% water change yesterday. Unsure if I should do another WC tonight or let it sit?

Cloudy water is from bacteria if you aren't seeing ammonia, or nitrate spikes, run lots of carbon and keep the water change for when things spike. Add more oxygen as well. Bacteria suck that up.

 

[Goaway]

Basically, the water is now adjusting so, you're in a cycle now.

 

[hbubley]

Got it! I have an extra fan/wavemaker (I use it to mix up new saltwater), should I add that to the QT tank and point it towards the surface?

 

[Goaway]

Got it! I have an extra fan/wavemaker (I use it to mix up new saltwater), should I add that to the QT tank and point it towards the surface?

You can. Anything to help with oxygen increase.

 

[hbubley]

Hey guys!

Update for posterity hehe.

It was a big week! Moved the tang into the DT. He's doing great, way happier.
Added three new corals, a cabbage leather, GSP, and ricordia yuma.
Added a lot more rock! Much happier with how the aquascape looks now, but honestly so regret not planning it out before putting the tank together. I'm already dreaming of how I'll do my next upgrade.
Will definitely copper quarantine all incoming fish, have a better QT set-up for fish AND frags. I think I just made a lot of realizations this week, over stressing about the potential issues that could arise, that I'm more committed to proper planning and care moving forward.

Anyways! Here are some update pics:

Currently my favorite guy- the new yuma. Wish I could get a shot of him open but I think he's still acclimating. You can see my dragonet chowing down in the background hehe

New cabbage leather

My favorite spot in the tank- the only spot I'm really happy with atm in terms or scaping

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hey guys!

Update for posterity hehe.

It was a big week! Moved the tang into the DT. He's doing great, way happier.
Added three new corals, a cabbage leather, GSP, and ricordia yuma.
Added a lot more rock! Much happier with how the aquascape looks now, but honestly so regret not planning it out before putting the tank together. I'm already dreaming of how I'll do my next upgrade.
Will definitely copper quarantine all incoming fish, have a better QT set-up for fish AND frags. I think I just made a lot of realizations this week, over stressing about the potential issues that could arise, that I'm more committed to proper planning and care moving forward.

Anyways! Here are some update pics:

Currently my favorite guy- the new yuma. Wish I could get a shot of him open but I think he's still acclimating. You can see my dragonet chowing down in the background hehe

New cabbage leather

My favorite spot in the tank- the only spot I'm really happy with atm in terms or scaping

Your aquascape looks great, especially now with the coral being on it

 

[hbubley]

Your aquascape looks great, especially now with the coral being on it

Thank you!! That means a lot to me
I feel like this tank has been a real learning experience moving into salt water which is so so different than the freshwater tanks I used to do, and way more interactive and fun imo. So it feels good finally starting to feel like I understand what I'm doing and see the tank progress

 

[Goaway]

Looks good. Any pics of the white tail in the setup?

 

[hbubley]

Looks good. Any pics of the white tail in the setup?

Yes! I'll get some when I get home from work today. I absolutely love the white tail, he's become my favorite. Voracious eater, loves mysis shrimp and spirulina infused brine. Has slowly eaten away at the backwall of my tank, used to be a thick sheet of algae now it's a really thin layer that I can see through. He's crushing it!!

 

[Goaway]

Glad he made it through observation. Reef fish feel best when they see other fish present as well.

 

[hbubley]

Glad he made it through observation. Reef fish feel best when they see other fish present as well.

That makes so much sense. He was neurotically swimming back and forth in the small 15g, would hide in the cave whenever I walked in- would also start kicking up the sand with his tail. Now he's so confident! He has another cave hide in the DT but never really does. Calmly swims around and grazes now.
Definitely going to go the copper qt route moving forward so it's not as long of an observation period (the observation period I had planned was a lot longer but I caved because he seemed so stressed)