- Joined
- Aug 8, 2025
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 35
One year later - yea looks pretty sick
Previously kept a 3-gallon Marineland reef that ripped (see 'My first reef' thread) but obviously couldn't turn down a free upgrade. Thank you @nickscorals
A bit over a year into reef keeping, im still pretty green. Bought coral. Lost coral. Got new fish. Lost said fish. got better at keeping my reef.
This current tank iteration has taken a while to reign in, I feel its really only started stabilizing and coming together in the last couple months.
Good things really do come with time.
I'm performing 2.5ga weekly water changes, which gets the job done. My nitrates are sitting at 10.9ppm currently and alkalinity at 9.6 although nitrates had been hovering between 15-25ppm for a while. I've become more consistent with my water changes and I'm working on developing a lighter hand when feeding. I've got some new fluorescent macro algae and plenty of mature live rock and bio-media doing the heavy lifting.
Recent additions:
Can't be overstated how cool some of these ORA clownfish are. A "zombie" clownfish named Ruby is the latest in my reef. Very bold and high contrast OSHA orange. My girlfriend is sick of hearing me talk about this fish.
Also Mystery, the Banggai Cardinal. Cool dude, loves mysis at feeding time.
100x hype for aquashella NJ as I'll likely be aqcuiring some heater corals...
______________________________________________________________________________________
Nitrates: 10.9
Alkalinity 9.6
Current Gear and blah blah blah
Tank: Lifegard 10ga AIO
Light: Kessil A80 with intensity knob at 2:00 position
Return pump: Sicce micra plus 158gph running at 100%
Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 50watt
ATO: $50 Amazon ato with 2.5ga jug as resevoir
Protein Skimmer: Mame Skimmer 3 hooked up to Hygger airpump

Previously kept a 3-gallon Marineland reef that ripped (see 'My first reef' thread) but obviously couldn't turn down a free upgrade. Thank you @nickscorals
A bit over a year into reef keeping, im still pretty green. Bought coral. Lost coral. Got new fish. Lost said fish. got better at keeping my reef.
This current tank iteration has taken a while to reign in, I feel its really only started stabilizing and coming together in the last couple months.
Good things really do come with time.
I'm performing 2.5ga weekly water changes, which gets the job done. My nitrates are sitting at 10.9ppm currently and alkalinity at 9.6 although nitrates had been hovering between 15-25ppm for a while. I've become more consistent with my water changes and I'm working on developing a lighter hand when feeding. I've got some new fluorescent macro algae and plenty of mature live rock and bio-media doing the heavy lifting.
Recent additions:
Can't be overstated how cool some of these ORA clownfish are. A "zombie" clownfish named Ruby is the latest in my reef. Very bold and high contrast OSHA orange. My girlfriend is sick of hearing me talk about this fish.
Also Mystery, the Banggai Cardinal. Cool dude, loves mysis at feeding time.
100x hype for aquashella NJ as I'll likely be aqcuiring some heater corals...
______________________________________________________________________________________
Nitrates: 10.9
Alkalinity 9.6
Current Gear and blah blah blah
Tank: Lifegard 10ga AIO
Light: Kessil A80 with intensity knob at 2:00 position
Return pump: Sicce micra plus 158gph running at 100%
Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 50watt
ATO: $50 Amazon ato with 2.5ga jug as resevoir
Protein Skimmer: Mame Skimmer 3 hooked up to Hygger airpump

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