First Ever Tank - 24g AIO

JoseGaspar

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Hi all! First time poster, I'm very excited to be here and learn.
I'm very new to reefing - I put together my first tank based on the advice of my LFS on this last Sunday (2/Oct)!
The tank is a completely stock 24g AOI from Aquatop - the Recife ECO 24.
Based on the advice of the LFS I added 20lbs of Live Rock and a bag of live sand as the base, then added a bacteria kickstart (I do not remember the brand, honestly. It was a black bottle).
Then on Tuesday I added my first clown, followed by another on Thursday - I now realize that this is against common advice, that I should have let the tank "cycle" and added ammonia to kickstart that process and measure over time. I am being extremely diligent about checks every day now, a fish-in cycle is scary, but so far my Ammonia and Nitrites are both at 0, nitrates are at around 30. I'm hoping the live rock and sand helps kickstart the cycle rapidly and I don't see any ammonia/Nitrite spikes.
If anyone has advice on some immediate (or long-term) upgrades, or wisdom in general, I'm all ears!
20221008_095749.jpg


Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and show everyone a picture of the two cute clowns who are now a part of the family.
 

Calebd91

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Congrats on the new tank an stepping into reefing! The aquatop 24 is a great starter tank that can be modded to your liking, we started one for my fiancé about 8 months ago an she has done most all of the upkeep herself as well as she did her own scape and picked out corals.
the first thing we changed up was the light, I have had few tanks over the years and been a fan of AI so went with a Prime 16hd
Also at same time we did the light we went with a Kraken reef lid, much better then the stock glass lid an light combo.
Then as corals started to really get added we upped the flow with a sicce 1.0 return pump, added a inline uv from a old biocube and a vivid creations random flow generator nozzle. As well as 2 Jabao slw-5 wavemakers with 3d printed nem gaurds.

as far as filtration we ditched the stock buckets stacked in middle chamber with whatever media it come with and just added a little bit of the ceramic media back. I modified a filter floss tray made for a water box 20 for the first chamber an run floss on it. I drilled a few 1/8” holes in the factory clear piece that sits over the slots to back chambers to get water level about 5/8” from the top cause with the amount of flow an surface agitation it made lot of salt creep on the lid and rimless edge.
been running skimmer less and just do 5 gal water changes every 2 weeks.

Love to see other 24g builds as we didn’t find a whole lot of them on here! Keep up the updates and good luck!
 

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JoseGaspar

JoseGaspar

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Congrats on the new tank an stepping into reefing! The aquatop 24 is a great starter tank that can be modded to your liking, we started one for my fiancé about 8 months ago an she has done most all of the upkeep herself as well as she did her own scape and picked out corals.
the first thing we changed up was the light, I have had few tanks over the years and been a fan of AI so went with a Prime 16hd
Also at same time we did the light we went with a Kraken reef lid, much better then the stock glass lid an light combo.
Then as corals started to really get added we upped the flow with a sicce 1.0 return pump, added a inline uv from a old biocube and a vivid creations random flow generator nozzle. As well as 2 Jabao slw-5 wavemakers with 3d printed nem gaurds.

as far as filtration we ditched the stock buckets stacked in middle chamber with whatever media it come with and just added a little bit of the ceramic media back. I modified a filter floss tray made for a water box 20 for the first chamber an run floss on it. I drilled a few 1/8” holes in the factory clear piece that sits over the slots to back chambers to get water level about 5/8” from the top cause with the amount of flow an surface agitation it made lot of salt creep on the lid and rimless edge.
been running skimmer less and just do 5 gal water changes every 2 weeks.

Love to see other 24g builds as we didn’t find a whole lot of them on here! Keep up the updates and good luck!
What a beautiful tank! That looks like an amazing setup, and I really appreciate all the advice!
I'll definitely look into changing the lid and lighting, that lid is definitely my biggest painpoint. I also read somewhere that other people replaced the top 2 media containers with mesh bags of their preferred media and it worked like a charm, so that's definitely a big upgrade to look towards as well.
Good idea on drilling that little plastic piece, I wasn't even using it because of how high up that water line sat, I was worried about how low the water got on the pump itself.
In a couple more weeks once I know the tank is stable I'll start researching more about Corals. I know an upgraded return pump and some wavemakers are in my future, but haven't started looking into them yet. If I change the top, I know I'll have to change the lightning, but I only have about 1' of clearance above the tank, so finding the right lightning solution should be a priority.
I'm also a little paranoid about pH and temp, this being my first tank, so I'm probably going to pick up an Apex JR just for remote monitoring capabilities while I'm at work.

Thank you so much for all your feedback and advice, and sharing your tank! It's beautiful and I hope I can make something that looks half as good!
 
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JoseGaspar

JoseGaspar

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Hey all - just wanted to give a quick update on the build!
My biggest concern was pH and Temperature stability. I know small tanks like this are more prone to swings, so I picked up an Apex Jr for remote monitoring, and the peace of mind alone has been worth it.
Ive also added a single Nero 3 to get some more flow in the tank. That's caused some small debris to be more apparent in the tank now, so I think the next steps for me are probably a better return pump and better filtration. I'm open to suggestions here.

Now the fun stuff. New livestock!
We just added: 7 new corals, 4 snails, and a Royal Gramma.

I picked up a used AI Prime HD16 light and arm, and have a kraken lid coming in tomorrow, so hopefully that combined with AB+ dosing will give us some success on the growth!
I'm also not entirely sure what kind of corals these are. They came as a bargain "mix and match frag pack" from my local LFS, and they even included a couple extra!
Big shout out to Zen Aquatics in Palm Desert.

Anyway, here is how the tank looks now! Open to suggestions!

20221019_075822.jpg
 
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JoseGaspar

JoseGaspar

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Update:
The new equipment has been installed!
Kraken lid + AI Prime is a killer setup, I'm loving the controllability.
I also picked up a Nero 3 from my LFS and added it in for some extra flow. Still really trying to figure out exactly how to get a good flow going, it seems more like an art than a science (even though I realize fluid dynamics is specifically, a science).
I also picked up a Tunze Nanostream 6040 because it was on sale, but it's still in the box. Same goes with a Sicce 1.0 return pump. We'll figure those out eventually.

Okay boring part over, now for the fun stuff!
New Corals!

I picked up the following 3 from the ARC Live Sale and I'm super happy:
ARC Dragon soul torch
Mia's Pot of Gold Favia
Long Lash Eagle Eye Zoa

I realize it's very early for the torch, and I'm doing my absolute best to keep it healthy. AB+ and Tropic Marin All For Reef every day to keep parameters up. Weekly 20% water changes. Daily testing.

Next steps:
Ive ordered a custom insert to change the plastic black filtration system in my first overflow to instead have the ability to use a filter sock. I'm not super happy with the clarity/particulate matter in the water. So that's next on the docket. After that maybe some sort of ATO. We'll see!

As always, I'm happy to hear suggestions and advice!
 

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