Babies first reef tank (Evo 13.5)

[Mr Dream Weaver]

This is more so a journal of my first saltwater tank.
Most of my experience is with reptiles, but I do have a 75-gallon freshwater community tank, and an axolotl in a 50-gallon frag tank with a 29-gallon sump.

I'm aware smaller tanks aren't the best for beginners, but I'm familiar with the concept of frequent water changes, and keeping the parameters in check. So I thought I'd give it a go. I eventually want to do a 40-gallon breeder, drilled for a 20-gallon sump or such. IF i can pull off this smaller tank.

Im a looking to stock this bad boy with 2 baby clownfish. My LFS gets lots of Photon Storms, so i want a pair of those, but i also like the Mocha Lattes they have. I originally wanted an anemone, but after a pinch of research i found that to be a bad idea? Let me know what yall think. Keep in mind this tank wouldn't be the forever home

.

I was attempting to cycle the dry rocks in a 5 gallon bucket and a powerhead since 7-10. I think i messed up and added to large/much raw shrimp. I did 3 raw jumbo shrimp. The ammonia spiked beyond my testing range. Not a hint of nitrite up to yesterday. So i started fresh and got the tank running, and it is dosed to 1.0ppm ammonia as of today.

The tank has the Fluval ps2 skimmer in chamber one, and a Sicce 1.0 return pump. Im looking to get one of those 3d printed media baskets for chamber two. I have the skimmer, so i thought id try it out even though most don't recommend it.
The more I learn, the more I hate this tanks design. But maybe the skimmer will save my biological media from getting as dirty?
I kind of want to get a plate printed to sit above my return pump, and make chamber 3 into a mini k1 media reactor. Thoughts?

I cant find any white portland cement near me, i really wanted to run a reverse under gravel filter, but cover the tubes in this DIY dry rock mix to help make it look more nature, like little rock towers for stuff to grow on. As well as make some more unique rock structures that I can't buy in store. It would cure separately while i cycle the tank. Anyone know a source of white portland cement in Mesa AZ?

Anyhow sorry for the long-winded, OCD fest of a post. I'm on my phone so it's hard to structure everything, and I'm not used to forums. Thanks for any advice, input, or criticism you can give.

 

[tbrown]

I got mine at Home Depot out here in Peoria.

 

[tbrown]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! Lots of Arizona fellows and fellettes here.


@tharbin any East side advice for White Portland Cement?

 

[Mr Dream Weaver]

I got mine at Home Depot out here in Peoria.

Whenever I check online is says out of stock. I can't find that dang cement anywhere. I really dont want to order it in online and pay the massive shipping costs.

 

[tbrown]

Yeah, I guess white is less available than grey.

 

[Mr Dream Weaver]

About time for an update, so here goes.

Finally got fish in, I fell in love with this pair on sight. They have a almost light blue hue in the white stripes, and black with orange undertones on the opposing stripes.

Im keeping them on TDO chromo boost xsmall, but im going to try the small soon.
Any recommendations for how i can better care for these guys is greatly appreciated.

Bad news is, the seller included an anemone for free. I told him I was reluctant since the tank is so new, but he assured me the RBT is hardy. So i accepted the challenge.

It picked this spot on the side of a rock right under the light, but i can't see the mouth. It ate a live brine shrimp. But quickly started to decline with all the water changes i had to do to keep the nitrate down.

A week later I also got 2 nassarius snails, 1 instantly didn't make it. A banded trochus, and a Mexican turbo. To help with the uglies.

I was having trouble with nitrate for some reason,perhaps I should have cleaned the tank better after the fishless cycle. Nitrate was going up to 30 within a week. I need a better way to gravel vac without removing water. I removed way too much water trying to clean the gravel. The Eheim quick vac doesnt work too well.

I replaced the stock filter sponge with a Fish Guild chamber 2 filter tray, and it works really well. I added some Seachem matrix and Purigen, and a layer of sponge/filter flossthen dosed a 1/2 oz turbo start to get the new filter media going.
Between that and the gravel vac, nitrates is sitting at about a 3-5 hard to tell with the test strips. For the past few days, much better now.
I got a little fluval sea powerhead to help with the flow, but i really need to figure out a better flow situation i have poo pilling up it a few different spots. Would love a gyre or something.
This is the tank today

My plan was to just wait out the algea, if that fails i will have to pull the anemone and black it out.

Anemone is looking a little better now that i got the parameters slightly stabilized.

I need to get some slides for my microscope. But mainly just the brown algea, it forms strings at some points, and little specs of what might be green hair algea. Not sure how to proceed.

Sorry if this is long winded, was typing this out on my phone throughout my shift at work, so this post is kind of a mess.

 

[Mr Dream Weaver]

Lil update.
Tanks a mess but going fine. This was more a proof of concept than an art piece to me. Once im done setting up my used SCA 50 cube and move everything over, ill probably use this as my quarantine tank

My anemone split, super exciting. (Pics a little old) Now my big momma has one and her little man has his own.
I thought forsure i was going to kill the anemone. But i just took a step back and let the tank do its thing instead of trying to make every parameter perfect. Now its getting some color back.
I do have a few vermetid snails i cant find, going to try a bumblebee snail.
I also have these tiny little flstworms that look like arrowheads. But besides being everywhere, they seem to just chill and eat algea on the glass and rocks all day so they can live.
I almost beat the cyanobacteria, i only get a tiny spot in random places. I was about to give up and use antibiotics but thankfully didnt.

Any advice with salinity measurements would be appreciated. I bought a hanna salinity checker and the dang thing threw me into a crisis. What is actually right? Conductivity vs refraction. Both methods can be thrown off by different things in the water. I want to trust the hanna but its like .002 too low. Maybe an average of the two methods? I should have just got the digital refractometer. Im going to make a standard so i know the salinity. I want the hanna to be right, but i have a feeling it's wrong. (HI98319)

Also, what yall think about serious reefs? I wish he was still doing free videos with BRS.

Thanks for stopping by, take er easy!

 

[tbrown]

I use a standard refractometer with a known standard solution for comparison.