Floppyfish
Community Member
Hey everyone, been on here for a few months now as a member and was using the forum for info for much longer than that.
First off, lemme say I am in by no ways a rookie at reefing, just haven’t had a tank at home in about 15 years now. At work I manage 3 reef tanks, a 2500 gallon mixed reef, a 1650 gallon mixed reef, and a 1675 mixed reef. All of which are on someone else’s dime. So during this coronavirus quarantine i decided I’d set up a small project tank that I could dump all the money I want into if I feel it necessary and build it how I wanna build it. Also maybe it will spark an interest in my 3 kids one way or another with the corals,fish, or critters. Gonna try my best to keep this organized and I’m not the best at figuring out how to post pics in a forum post.
So let’s get started. As I mentioned before the tank is a biocube 32 led which I purchased online with the stand back in mid March at start of lockdown. First tank came with a crack in the sump and had to have a replacement sent. By the time the replacement came and I had the stuff needed to get it running it was mid April. Right off the bat I had replaced the stock filter basket with a intank media basket with a tunzi skimmer for the middle chamber, first chamber has my cobalt heater, and probe for the thermometer.
Earth day 2020 (April 22), Was the day I finally filled it up an added water. Didn’t have much in the way of limestone dry rock other than a couple pieces I rounded up either from the banks of canals near me (Miami oolite), which I pressure washed and bleached, and let sit out in the sun for a week to dry and off gas any minor residual chlorine. I used 30lbs of Bioactive live reef sand I was able to purchase at my LFS along with a bottle of Fritz turbo start.
Little bit clearer the next day. You can see my minimal amount of rocks.
Now I’m a big believer in using live rock. I fully understand the risks and rewards. Now was the time for me to start hunting some down in the LFS’s near me. I tried online but due to shipping issues from lockdown, it wasn’t gonna work to keep my moving forward at the rate I wanted to go. After first addition of live rock I decided this large flat coral skeleton rock wasn’t gonna cut it so I removed it.
After a second trip to another store for more live rock. This next pic is about two weeks later after the addition of the live rock. All the critters, 4 emerald crabs, monti cap frag, Caribbean pistol shrimp, and few others that came in on the rock seem to still be thriving. I’ve tested the water quite frequently. Between the 30lbs of live sand and 30lbs of live rock I’ve added chemistry is perfect so I went and bought 2 yellow clown gobies from the LFS. I figured they’d add a little more waste to test and see how this biological filtration is holding up.
Skip ahead now about 3 weeks. I’m a month in. Never had any issues with water quality. Diatoms and algae have started growing, even purple on my found dry rock I used for filler. I do my first water change and today I decide I’m going for it. I’m buying a pair of clownfish. I know they’re hardy and tough. Any minor spikes and they should be able to handle it. I go all in. Purchased a pair of orange storm clowns. Never have I ever owned a single clownfish, if I’m buying some they’re gonna be what I want. Never had any issue with the tank so far so I figure they’re good to go.
Later this same week I add a couple small pieces of coral, some zoas and green digitata frag, and another small piece of red monti cap. Later in the week I also add a small leather coral and buy a piece of favia which I later deemed too big but have since moved it a few times with the help of the snails and crabs.
I’ll continue more in the next post. Took me a bit to get this much in, sorry if there’s any typos and grammar issues.
First off, lemme say I am in by no ways a rookie at reefing, just haven’t had a tank at home in about 15 years now. At work I manage 3 reef tanks, a 2500 gallon mixed reef, a 1650 gallon mixed reef, and a 1675 mixed reef. All of which are on someone else’s dime. So during this coronavirus quarantine i decided I’d set up a small project tank that I could dump all the money I want into if I feel it necessary and build it how I wanna build it. Also maybe it will spark an interest in my 3 kids one way or another with the corals,fish, or critters. Gonna try my best to keep this organized and I’m not the best at figuring out how to post pics in a forum post.
So let’s get started. As I mentioned before the tank is a biocube 32 led which I purchased online with the stand back in mid March at start of lockdown. First tank came with a crack in the sump and had to have a replacement sent. By the time the replacement came and I had the stuff needed to get it running it was mid April. Right off the bat I had replaced the stock filter basket with a intank media basket with a tunzi skimmer for the middle chamber, first chamber has my cobalt heater, and probe for the thermometer.
Earth day 2020 (April 22), Was the day I finally filled it up an added water. Didn’t have much in the way of limestone dry rock other than a couple pieces I rounded up either from the banks of canals near me (Miami oolite), which I pressure washed and bleached, and let sit out in the sun for a week to dry and off gas any minor residual chlorine. I used 30lbs of Bioactive live reef sand I was able to purchase at my LFS along with a bottle of Fritz turbo start.
Little bit clearer the next day. You can see my minimal amount of rocks.
Now I’m a big believer in using live rock. I fully understand the risks and rewards. Now was the time for me to start hunting some down in the LFS’s near me. I tried online but due to shipping issues from lockdown, it wasn’t gonna work to keep my moving forward at the rate I wanted to go. After first addition of live rock I decided this large flat coral skeleton rock wasn’t gonna cut it so I removed it.
Later this same week I add a couple small pieces of coral, some zoas and green digitata frag, and another small piece of red monti cap. Later in the week I also add a small leather coral and buy a piece of favia which I later deemed too big but have since moved it a few times with the help of the snails and crabs.
I’ll continue more in the next post. Took me a bit to get this much in, sorry if there’s any typos and grammar issues.
