Coral Cycling A Low Maintenance and Budget Reef Tank

[WetPringleChip]

Hello, Im new to this website but I kept tanks in the past. Ive seen lots of videos and some vague posts by reef builders on a coral cycle. I couldn’t find anyone with experience so I figured Id do a “cheap” basic set up. The tank is currently 2 days old and has some of what I think are basics for a reef tank.

equipment:
Aquatop bow front 13 gallon
Glass lid to slow evap.
Small aio pump, with rear chamber filtration:
Bio balls and chemi pure blue
Drainage system has walmart poly fill (changed out when visually dirty)
Live sand
New rock
Lighting- amazon 70 buck light 2nd gen A029
Coral:
Some LPS like branching splatter hammer and Acan
Pulsing Xenia
Misc. Zoas
New to me is “beginner” SPS of some kind from a local hobbiest where the majority of corals came from.

So now that the basics are covered. In terms of care I didnt add liquid bacteria because it contains high nitrates and nitrites to fuel bacteria from what Ive researched. Im doing a 2 gallon water change per week. 0 feedings for the first week or two in theory. There is no instruction manual to this so Im assuming clean is better.
My background has always had “dirty” tanks for the fastest softy coral growth possible. It worked wonders but I couldnt keep simple monti’s or other beginner sps. So this tank will, from my knowledge have much slower zoa growth and softies in general but it will allow me to keep euphyllia and sps hopefully with a low budget build (also hopefully “low maintenance”)

Anywho, here is a quick pic before I add more corals later this week. Feel free to add advice or anything. Its much appreciated.

 

[blaxsun]

There's cycling... then there's adding coral. From the looks of it your tank is doing good.

 

[WetPringleChip]

There's cycling... then there's adding coral. From the looks of it your tank is doing good.

I fan boyed over Jake Adam’s work and saw him throw coral straight into a specific nano tank and others. From what I watched, he never really explained it in detail. Then I saw reef builders post about it but never explain the process. I only ever saw it work, so i figured there had to be more than just me looking for a decent example of either fail or success and a list of everything someone did and didnt do.

 

[WetPringleChip]

Figured Id add an update. I added more coral and fish alongside a clean up crew. The tank shows no signs of upset coral besides 2-3 that are having a hard time acclimating. All the euphyllia minus a new torch is doing awesome and the zoas are growing new flesh for polyps.

Maintenance: So the tank is obviously new and a 13 gallon with a bunch of stuff in it probably leaves 10 gallons of water. So im doing 2 gallon changes per week. Daily salinity tests just to gauge the dehydration rate with a cheap lid.
I feed every 2-3 days pretty light and when I feed heavy frozen, itll be a maybe once a week deal. For those feedings i remove the filter floss after it catches all the floaters. I also do a 1 gallon water change the following day. Once im comfortable with the stability, I think a weekly gallon change will be sufficient.
Pictures: they are from a video but there are also some tall growing coral frags placed behind the rock so when it grows it there will be a wall effect. The cheaper “beginner” branching sps, green kenya leather, frog spawn are sort of hidden.

 

[WetPringleChip]

Forgot about this thread but its been a while lets see an update haha!

New euphyllia acclimating on the bottom temporary rack until they are popping and ready to be placed on the scape.

Definitely strayed from budget the more coral I added.