First 29 Gallon

[TingeOfGinge]

Hi everyone.
First time poster, but long time lurker here. I thought I'd make a build thread since I'll probably start asking a bunch of questions here and it'd be good to track the history.
I've done freshwater tanks for several years, but this is my first attempt at saltwater. I'm trying to go low budget and low tech, which I may end up regretting in the future :D

Anyway, here's my tank so far:

I got a 29 gallon used tank off of FB Marketplace that came with a mesh lid. Once I had the tank, I bought the BRS "Bring Your Own Aquarium Saltwater Starter Kit - 20/29 Gallon" that came with a HOB filter, Caribsea Sand, Marco rocks, a heater, and a Sicce powerhead. I also got a couple of pieces of live rock (honestly, probably just wet dry rock) from a couple of local LFSs in hopes to add diversity.
Additionally, I bought a Smatfarm G5 85W reef light.
Here's what the tank looked like shortly after setup:

After the cycle finished, I got my first fish. A Firefish, which is actually the fish that inspired me to start thinking about a saltwater tank. Of course, since he was supposed to be my favorite, he has since permanently hid himself under a rock and only comes out for like 10 minutes a day for food.

Since then, I've added a pair of orange storm clowns I got at a super deep discount, as well as a tailspot blenny (who unfortunately didn't make it past a few days).

I was also super excited about corals, so I added a bunch (maybe too many too quickly) to my tank. Currently, I have:
- Bam-bam zoa
- Rasta zoa
- Fire and ice zoa (that one I won at a local auction and is the tiniest thing I've ever seen)
- Fireworks clove polyps
- Yellow trumpet
- Duncan (my current favorite)
- Willy Wonka hammer
- Green petal alveopora

CUC currently consists of 2 hermits, several astrea, cerith, bumblebee (trying to get rid of some vermitids), and nassarius snails, as well as a turbo snail.

The most recent picture I have, though from several weeks ago before I got the hammer and alve:

Unfortunately, now I am currently battling dinos, but I'm working on getting the nutrients back up and I'm planning on silicate dosing as well. My inverts aren't taking it well, with about half of the snails acting larthargic or not moving at all. Also, my clove polyp was completely overrun by either algae or dinos, and hasn't opened back up after I did a peroxide dip a week ago.

That's all I have for now, but I'll try to keep this thread updated.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Subsea]

Welcome to r2r and the addiction. I have been hooked for 55 years; Old School who believes in Less Technologo/More Biology.

“Unfortunately, now I am currently battling dinos, but I'm working on getting the nutrients back up and I'm planning on silicate dosing as well. My inverts aren't taking it well, with about half of the snails acting larthargic or not moving at all. Also, my clove polyp was completely overrun by either algae or dinos, and hasn't opened back up after I did a peroxide dip a week ago.”

Picture does not show much of an algae invasion. Dinoflagellets & Cyanobacteria are opportunistic algae which flourish when nutrients bottom out and competition & consumers are limited.

You have brought in some bio-diversity with the different coral frags. To speed past the first year of the Uglies, consider getting some diver collected live rock & live sand to inoculate your system with biodiversity of micro flora & fauna.

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome, glad you are here, off to a great start!

 

[TingeOfGinge]

Welcome to r2r and the addiction. I have been hooked for 55 years; Old School who believes in Less Technologo/More Biology.

“Unfortunately, now I am currently battling dinos, but I'm working on getting the nutrients back up and I'm planning on silicate dosing as well. My inverts aren't taking it well, with about half of the snails acting larthargic or not moving at all. Also, my clove polyp was completely overrun by either algae or dinos, and hasn't opened back up after I did a peroxide dip a week ago.”

Picture does not show much of an algae invasion. Dinoflagellets & Cyanobacteria are opportunistic algae which flourish when nutrients bottom out and competition & consumers are limited.

You have brought in some bio-diversity with the different coral frags. To speed past the first year of the Uglies, consider getting some diver collected live rock & live sand to inoculate your system with biodiversity of micro flora & fauna.

Sorry, that was an old picture. Here is one from today. Nutrients are looking better though, so hopefully they won't last too long.

And as far as live rock, I would love some, but for the amount I would have room for, shipping would probably be twice as much as the rock itself.

 

[Subsea]

Sorry, that was an old picture. Here is one from today. Nutrients are looking better though, so hopefully they won't last too long.

And as far as live rock, I would love some, but for the amount I would have room for, shipping would probably be twice as much as the rock itself.

https://gulfliverock.com/price-list/ols/products/nano-package

Consider this. 10 lbs live rock & 10 lbs of live sand at $149 with $90 for next day air.

 

[TingeOfGinge]

https://gulfliverock.com/price-list/ols/products/nano-package

Consider this. 10 lbs live rock & 10 lbs of live sand at $149 with $90 for next day air.

That does sound intriguing. Not sure I have enough room for 10 more lbs of rock and 50% more sand though. If I can't beat the dinos the cheap way, maybe I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[TingeOfGinge]

My dino defeating order arrived today, including a 5W UV sterilizer and sodium silicate. I added the sterilizer to the HOB filter set for 12 hours and I dosed 0.2-ish ml of the silicate (which I plan to continue weekly), so hopefully that will do the job.
I also managed to score Hanna Alk and Calcium testers for $15 each today, so hopefully that will help my parameter testing accuracy for at least some of the test.

 

[Subsea]

That does sound intriguing. Not sure I have enough room for 10 more lbs of rock and 50% more sand though. If I can't beat the dinos the cheap way, maybe I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the recommendations!

Bryozoan limestone is dense and sand is very dense and easily spread.

Not knowing your live stock goals, I suggest you add more cover (caves, ledges or archways) for shy fish.

@TingeOfGinge
How goes it? If you started dosing silicates, I would expect an increase in algae growth, preferable diatoms. If that happened, I suggest you get more diverse CUC to include detrivores & herbivores.

 

[TingeOfGinge]

Bryozoan limestone is dense and sand is very dense and easily spread.

Not knowing your live stock goals, I suggest you add more cover (caves, ledges or archways) for shy fish.

@TingeOfGinge
How goes it? If you started dosing silicates, I would expect an increase in algae growth, preferable diatoms. If that happened, I suggest you get more diverse CUC to include detrivores & herbivores.

Since it's only a 29 gallon, the only fish left I was going to add was another blenny of some kind to replace the one that didn't make it. I'm also planning on getting a skunk cleaner shrimp as well. As far as hiding spots, the clownfish always seem to stay out in the open, the firefish has a hidey hole that he likes, and the blenny, while he lasted, seemed to be fine with backing himself into the little holes that are natually in the rocks. It's hard to see in the pictures, but almost everything under the top layer of rocks is cave-like and provides some cover.

And I don't know which of the three changes I did (nutrients, UV, or silicate) fixed it, but it looks like the vast majority of the dinos are gone. Surprisingly, not many diatoms yet, but I'm going to continue the silicate dosing just in case the dinos try to come back.
The dinos hit my CUC pretty hard. I lost about 1/4th of my snails, and everything that was alive was barely ever moving. But now that the dinos have cleared, they are all pretty active again and my turbo has chowed down on a ton of algae. Now that the inverts are happy again, I'll probably start slowing adding more CUC as needed (a conch, more hermits, and eventually an urchin).

Also, I totally overshot the nutrients somehow, especially phosphate, so I'm going to be trying to get that stable before I make any more changes. Here's a pic of the tank now. Much, much happier than last week

 

[TingeOfGinge]

In other news, I got a really good deal on a small rock full of daisy cutter zoas, so those have been added to the tank next to the candy canes. I also ended up moving my hammer, as it wasn't happy with the bright lighting higher up. Now, it's way more extended and looks much happier. I guess my lower section of rocks is now LPS Alley :D
My two original zoas, as well as my duncan seemed to be stretching, so I turned the lights up by about 30 percentage points. After a few days, it looks like everything is way happier with that. Candy canes are extra plump, zoas are returning to a more normal length, and the duncan and hammer look way bigger.
I also lost a good chunk of my clove polyps during the dinos, but it looks like they are making a comeback. While all the big polyps are gone, there's a bunch of new little ones sprouting out.

 

[TingeOfGinge]

Unfortunately, it looks like one of my clowns is one his way out. I put him in quarantine and started a thread here in case there's any hope of saving him: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/upside-down-clownfish.1167173/