First Dive into Reef Keeping

[beckisien]

After 10 years of freshwater aquarium keeping, finally decided to dip my toes into reef tanks at the start of this year. 20g Waterbox AIO, stocked with two clowns, a firefish and cleaner shrimp + a medley of CUC.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Welcome to the salty side! Take your time. I assume you are already familiar with the nitrogen cycle and have the proper teat kits for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, alkalinity and specific gravity (salinity)?

I keep a slightly bigger tank (than your 20g aio) these days. A 40g breeder aio. I have lots of corals,lots of anemones, CUC and a few other inverts... and NO fish. At one point I had 4 tanks and a total of over 700g of saltwater in the house! But that was 10 years ago. I wanted an easy to take care of tank, thus the aio and no fish. Feeding the fish and the fish defecating in the tank makes the filtration system require more maintenance than I wanted to do. Other than testing and the once a quarter partial water change, I hardly have to touch the tank.

 

[CHSUB]

Looks like you got it….

 

[SaltyGirlMom]

Welcome! I’m new here too and also started with a 20g AIO (UNS) after transitioning from the freshwater side. Your tank is looking great!!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Your tank is looking great for only having it since this year!

 

[beckisien]

Looking at two years on this tank now and have had a few shares of ups and downs, but pretty happy with the tank at the moment. Finally got stability locked in about 6 months ago with Ca & Alk and have been slowly moving over to a more SPS dominated tank.

Using RedSea Black bucket has led to a very high but thankfully stable Alk of 11.5 and Ca of 480- have been struggling with a little bit of burnt tips but have stared dosing AB+ heavily which has improved colouration significantly.

Struggled with NoPox dosing leading to undetectable Nitrates but somewhat significant Phos of around 0.12- now running Phosguard alongside carbon dosing to keep Nitrate/Phos levels in balance.

Looking into replacing the Ai Prime with Radion or adding another Prime due to significant shadowing in the tank. Anyone have any suggestions regarding lighting for SPS in a 20g Cube?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I use Reef Breeder Photons. They are great leds, super controllable and last forever. I have one that is 8 years old over my 20g aio sps & lps only tank.

BTW, your tank looks super!

 

[beckisien]

Update on the reef tank

 

[beckisien]

Some ups and downs with the tank.

Had some life stress leading to a bit of tank neglect into an alk crash that almost took out most of my sps. Slow road to recovery and everything’s looking a bit more bland but the tank has returned to stability for now.

On the other hand the pocci colony and its little offshoot have exploded in growth. Starting to shed out my other sticks so trim is necessary in the near future.

Have also noticed a cute stowaway- acro crab has taken up residence in the pocci colony. Very happy with the find.

Still need to upgrade that light as some point…