Aaron's First Reef Tank - 40 Gallon, No Sump

[ExoS]

Today was an exciting day. My firefish and blenny left quarantine and graduated to the display tank. I dropped acclimated them for more than an hour and transferred them in with the lights dimmed. The blenny darted away instantly but the firefish checked things out a bit before finding a hole. I was a little worried about how the clowns would react but when the firefish came around the clowns, there was no drama which is very good. I will try to post pics tomorrow if they are out and about the tank.

 

[ExoS]

So the fish actually were out and visible. Here is my firefish in his new home.

And surprisingly my blenny was even out (sort of). His little head was peaking out of the rock work right in the front of my tank.

Here they both are together:

So overall I think they like their new home. And no bullying signs form the clowns either which is great.

 

[ExoS]

It has been a long time since my last update. I have mainly been waiting to get enough money for my lighting. Finally I have half of it in place. I have one AI Prime right now and plan to get a second.

I also built a new cover for my tank. It did not come out great. If anyone has built a screen top before with notches around equipment like mine, I would love to hear how they made it work.

I also got my first corals. They are all softies because my alkalinity right now is too low for LPS corals. Below are a couple of pictures of them.

So its a start. Hopefully they start to grow and thrive. You can also see in the pictures that I am getting some browns fouling on the sand since I turned the lights on. I hope its just dynos that go away in a couple of weeks.

Lastly my firefish has been out of his perpetual hiding spot lately. At first I thought he had finally gotten the confidence to come out in public. Now that I look though, my new rock flower anemone has taken up residence in his old spot. So I guess he got kicked out of his home. I have other caves in my aquascape but so far he seems to be ignoring them. I hope this doesn't become a problem.

 

[Idech]

I also built a new cover for my tank. It did not come out great. If anyone has built a screen top before with notches around equipment like mine, I would love to hear how they made it work.

Here’s what I did. I bought 5/16 mesh from an online fish store and I bought a window screen kit. I made a rectangular shape to cover most of the area, then I used egg crate to make the part where the equipment is. It holds a lot better than the mesh kit.

 

[ExoS]

Here’s what I did. I bought 5/16 mesh from an online fish store and I bought a window screen kit. I made a rectangular shape to cover most of the area, then I used egg crate to make the part where the equipment is. It holds a lot better than the mesh kit.

This is a great looking solution. I am going to have to think about how I would implement it though because I have my lights on the back of the tank but my HOB filtration on the side. Still it gives me a good idea to run with. Thanks. I appreciate the help.