96 litre ocean free AIO first s/w tank

[chegz]

So I started this tank on the 27th December. Went to my lfs and purchased some rock and a chunk of live rock. We also started off using sea water as its meant to be easier and we live very close to the water. Our lfs sells it by the litre and they filter it so to me being a newbie it sounded easier to use for now. No stressing about salts and mixing etc. when I purchased the tank i also purchased a bag of dry aragonite. I washed that sand as well I as could but not to much. Normally your told to add rock then sand then water but we did sand first filled the tank then added rock. I then carefully added extra sand around the rock base. I made sure the base of the rock was on the base of the aquarium first. The water wasn’t to cloudy at all and settled over night. Got the filter running the heater and the skimmer. I started the bacteria process using stability by seachem as I couldn’t find dr Tim’s etc. for the following week I tested the water daily for salinity and ammonia etc and added my stability as per dose on bottle. We noticed on day 3 we had a hitchhiker. A little snail nassaris (sorry about the spelling) had come in on the live rock. But we don’t mind him being there. It’s kinda cool having someone at home who seems happy enough. It’s only tiny but he cruises around and gives us something to look at. I realised this scape was doing absolutely nothing for me it needed height and shape so off we went to the lfs and found a nice big chunk that totally gave us that vertical scape I wanted to see. We had a great time checking out all the lfs stores in Brisbane. We got a great look at where to buy what. And got to see some really cool creatures along the way. Also my husband who wasn’t keen is now looking at Cade 1200’s yep we’re all hooked that’s week one. I’ll make a seperate thread for the following weeks!

 

[Adrift]

Very nice!! Loving it.

 

[chegz]

Week 2
After many you tube videos and reading on r2r the reality of adding anything to our tank became obvious. So it was time to get a quarantine shak together. We got a 20litre tank, foam bio filter and extra heater, some hides made of plastic and air pump and another temp gauge and ammonia alert badge. Also the main tank needed an auto top off. We got the auto aqua smart ato lite ato mainly due to its size and price. It does the job very well. We also grabbed a dymax fan just to see how they go. Brisbane can be hot and although we use air con and it can be turned on when we aren’t home sometimes the aircon controller isn’t connected to the wifi. Out internet isn’t the greatest here in Australia so as a back up I want to set the fan up to a controller with the heater. When we are away from home. I just wish the fan had a switch it’s a pain having to unplug it all the time. Hopefully the controller will help that issue. We got the quarantine tank up and cycling adding stability again for the week. And I through in a small chunk of live rock to speed things up. I learnt a good lesson yesterday. Don’t keep the heater in the same reservoir as the pump. I tried taking the dick (duck) bill off to get better flow and that was a dumb idea as the pump reservoir was almost empty so the heater was sitting out of the water. I quickly popped the bill back on and it refilled. Todays task is finding a better spot for the heater. And I’m now hunting for a non glass heater grrrrr the lfs said to use the glass one so that will get put away once we have a decent heater. I’ve seen nothing really come up on water testing. I started with api and another lfs said to get the aqua one test kit which is painful to use but I use it to double check anything that might not read properly. I’ll be investing in better water testing equipment in the next couple of weeks. My closest lfs has asked that I bring in a sample at the three week mark. I did buy an extra small pump with a regulator on it to gain more flow in the main tank while I wait on my wave maker to arrive. Once that arrives the small pump will go on the foam filter in the quarantine tank. We are hoping to add a couple of clowns once the lfs says our testing is all good. The snail is still alive we named him Gary. My husbands name and of course Gary the snail from SpongeBob the best thing I did this week was sign up to Reef2reef I’ve been using the fluval salinity tester but just hate putting my hands in the tank. Yesterday my refractometer arrived!! Thanks eBay! It’s a game changer. So much better than the fluval for reading small increments. And no more having to worry about bubbles etc or putting hands in the tank. We’re still in week 2 so if anything happens I’ll add to the post but if not see you in week 3. I wish my bank account was bigger because I’ve got a list

 

[chegz]

Oh no I’ve got some cracking misspelled words in there hahaha another thing I’ve learnt this week is to spell check my posts here I’m sure many of you will get a laugh out of that last post

 

[chegz]

Oh no I’ve got some cracking misspelled words in there hahaha another thing I’ve learnt this week is to spell check my posts here I’m sure many of you will get a laugh out of that last post

 

[chegz]

Question for the knowledgeable. What would you upgrade? This is the AIO details I have from manufacturer. Lights are a given. I’ve been thinking about the pump and filtration media.

 

[chegz]

It’s been a few days now since I last updated here. So we added dr Tim’s one and only and have been dosing with dr tims ammonia and as of day 7 we’re seeing some good movement on the water testing. I’d say another couple of days and we will have fish. We have a quarantine tank set up and it’s running about a day later than the display tank when it comes to cycling. Obviously without sand etc it’s taking a little longer. I’ve found a guy who is known for having a great quarantine regime. He quarantines your fish for you so the first fish will already have gone through their required treatment that’s if I can come to terms buying wild caught fish I’ve become slightly hooked on corals so will aim for some in the future. Slow and steady…

 

[PeterEde]

So I started this tank on the 27th December. Went to my lfs and purchased some rock and a chunk of live rock. We also started off using sea water as its meant to be easier and we live very close to the water. Our lfs sells it by the litre and they filter it so to me being a newbie it sounded easier to use for now. No stressing about salts and mixing etc. when I purchased the tank i also purchased a bag of dry aragonite. I washed that sand as well I as could but not to much. Normally your told to add rock then sand then water but we did sand first filled the tank then added rock. I then carefully added extra sand around the rock base. I made sure the base of the rock was on the base of the aquarium first. The water wasn’t to cloudy at all and settled over night. Got the filter running the heater and the skimmer. I started the bacteria process using stability by seachem as I couldn’t find dr Tim’s etc. for the following week I tested the water daily for salinity and ammonia etc and added my stability as per dose on bottle. We noticed on day 3 we had a hitchhiker. A little snail nassaris (sorry about the spelling) had come in on the live rock. But we don’t mind him being there. It’s kinda cool having someone at home who seems happy enough. It’s only tiny but he cruises around and gives us something to look at. I realised this scape was doing absolutely nothing for me it needed height and shape so off we went to the lfs and found a nice big chunk that totally gave us that vertical scape I wanted to see. We had a great time checking out all the lfs stores in Brisbane. We got a great look at where to buy what. And got to see some really cool creatures along the way. Also my husband who wasn’t keen is now looking at Cade 1200’s yep we’re all hooked that’s week one. I’ll make a seperate thread for the following weeks!

Welcome to R2R from Adelaide.
I wish I had pacific ocean water close by.

 

[chegz]

Welcome to R2R from Adelaide.
I wish I had pacific ocean water close by.

Definitely handy while I’m learning to take care of this style of aquarium. There’s not a lot of info on this method. But hey I live so close to the water and my lfs gets beautiful water from the tweed. (Gold Coast). I think that’s why I have abundant copepods right now hello fellow Aussie reefer

 

[PeterEde]

My lfs uses natural sea water for their tanks. I will have to ask if I can get it delivered too.

 

[chegz]

So we finally got cycled today and bought our first fish… well fishes Choco tank bred clowns. We upgrade the light to a AI prime HD 16. I changed the jug I was using as a r/o reservoir to something with a lid. I’ve added cling wrap to the undersides of the lid as the lids timber. May need to rethink the lid but for now we’re cruising along nicely. I have my eye on a real nice elegance coral. But will give the clowns time to settle in. They are eating and seem happy enough. No fast breathing etc. time to enjoy my tiny fish in their new home. Updates soon.

 

[Sean Clark]

Solid work.

 

[chegz]

Changed the aqua scape back to a more simple and less cluttered style. Because I’ve become hooked on corals and wanted less shade. I prefer it a lot more this way went and checked out some corals today at my favourite lfs or should I say lcs. Their corals are really something special. I came home with a nice green and pink hammer and four tiny mushrooms two reddish orange and two blue. I’m still waiting on the hammer to open fully after it’s big day of being messed with. That coral rx smells like Clove oil if you ask me… Happy to say she’s opening up nicely. I did turn the lights off for a few hours to let her get used to her new home. I have since adjusted my lighting down and have placed a piece of paper over the lid to diffuse it some as we’re on night lights now. I’ll add some pics tomorrow when she’s happier. She did open up for some spot feeding and is getting fluffier as we speak. Happy reefing!

 

[chegz]

Our first 2 corals. Sorry about the photos but we’re acclimating we’ve got a yellow watchman and a tiger pistol on hold. They’ll go in the quarantine tank soon.

 

[chegz]

Added a few small corals this week. Two are still acclimating from being transferred yesterday. I may post up some photos of stages of acclimation as I know as a newbie myself corals do some scary looking things when they first come home. Has anyone done this? We’re waiting on our quarantine tank to cycle as we have a watchman goby and a tiger pistol pair on hold.

 

[chegz]

So we’ve been running pretty smoothly. We started the Red Sea recipe for hand dosing this week. The corals are happy for it. I’ve been looking into upgrading my return pump as the one that came with the AIO gets noisy sometimes. Looking at some sicce compact pumps. We added a watchman goby and a tiger pistol shrimp yesterday and they’ve been moving sand over night. So far everything is looking great. I’ll be upping the filtration next as well. Using nsw has been great. The pods keep the clowns going. They love any food really also still looking for a small enough wave maker that isn’t to crazy on the flow as my 110 Jebao is to much. Currently I’m relying on the return pump and a small aqua one powerhead. The power head just looks ugly and bulky. Also have a little more scaping to do and a dyi co2 buffer.. but hey we’re enjoying our tank. And that’s the best part.

 

[chegz]

It’s been a minute and I can say so far so good. I’ve added a few corals and a goby shrimp pair. I added a bio block to my return area to help nitrates and so far so good. Can’t wait for tax time for the Cade 1200 but hey I still love this lil 30 gal

 

[chegz]

Day 73 we started to hit the ugly stage a few weeks back. Started adding pods and rotifers and feeding phytoplankton. Having them has helped the uglies a lot. Still have to work out what to do with my zoas.
•Don’t mind my striped p.j’s we’re in iso dang you covid get out of my house!

 

[chegz]

Found a great Zoa frag rock today at my lfs. So many awesome shapes and sizes. I think this will become my go to rock from now on. I’ll upload the new corals once they open up. Really love this little coral garden

 

[chegz]

Some of my favourite things.. so we officially ran out of room. Hence the new build thread I needed more room for my fungia as they grow at a rediculous rate in my nano. This tank has been a great way to learn. But having to have so much rock in the display was just not my idea of pretty we will use this nano to grow out frags for the new set up. Or to trade. I’m really enjoying my lps corals and still haven’t really found any sps I like besides a Monti I’ve have for a few months. Looking forward to moving my fungia garden asap to get them away from the pistol shrimp