First "Proper" Reef - RSM 130D

[Ratvan]

Greetings All,

So a little about me (as per usual) Located in Leeds, United Kingdom and I have been keeping a 2.5G Pico tank on my desk at the Office since 1st April 2019. This is a contest on another forum. However this contest ends at the end of next month (October 2019) so I have been searching and shopping around for the past few months in an attempt to build a bigger tank on a small budget (£300 set up cost).

PLEASE NOTE THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE BIOFILTER OR LIVESTOCK - I HAVE A SEPARATE BUDGET FOR THAT

Tank: RSM 130D
Heater: Unbranded 200W Heater
Heater Controller: Inkbird
Lighting: Chinese Black Box 168W
Pump 1: Maxijet 1000
Wavemaker 1: Tunze 6015 Wavemaler
Wavemaker 2: Jebao RW2 Wavemaker
ATO Container: 5.5G Cube
ATO: AutoAqua ATO

So far I have spent a Total of £240.00, I also have a Skimmer and other bits and bats that came with the tank in the auction that I do not currently plan on using.

I have spent the last week or so cleaning out the back sump section as well as cleaning up the stand and buffing out as many scratches as I could. I still want to make a few changes to the stand, namely the hinges are severely corroded and I want to replace these asap.



I have also moved this into my Office Space (YAY) hooked more or less everything up (except the Pump to Output Nozzle), picked up a bag of sand and will be looking at picking up (more) rock and possibly water tomorrow so that I can fill and start to cycle so that I can move everything into this once settled.

I plan on attempting to create a LPS dominated tank with a heavy leaning towards Euphyllia, Fox and Bubble Corals (I find these beautiful and mesmerising), photos of my corals in the Pico



The final attachment is of a tank design that I loved and want to try and replicate in my own way.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Excellent! You done a great job on that tank!

 

[Ratvan]

Excellent! You done a great job on that tank!

Would love it if that was mine. That's my inspiration shot

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

Hi, welcome to R2R! The right place to be for advise and information,I’m from the uk too, been reefing now for just over 3 years like you, I loved my one and only fluorescent bubble coral, loved it, sadly lost it, could have been my water parameters at the time. Good luck on your set up

 

[Ratvan]

Thanks for the welcome all, so couple of things from my smaller tank. My clownfish seems to be changing colour which is cool. She's developing black colouration around her head and dorsal region, also this barnacle is probably the most popular thing in my tank ever

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Would love it if that was mine. That's my inspiration shot

I missed that sorry, I went back and reread again. I'm still following to watch your inspiration come to life.

 

[Ratvan]

I missed that sorry, I went back and reread again. I'm still following to watch your inspiration come to life.

Not a problem, I had thought I had placed the images inline with text, but clearly not. Might play around later when I am not pretending to do work

 

[hdsoftail1065]

It was definitely an error in my part, I followed the pics down looking at each one when I got to the end i thought that was the final state of the tank. Does your clown sleep in the barnicle? I had a Wrasse that used mine as his penthouse, he was the only one in the tank that went into it.

 

[Ratvan]

The Clown, two Red Headed Gobies and often a Hermit as well, I have a similar thing in my 5.5G with my Tailspot Blenny.

Photos of this tank are awful, my phone camera can't WB at all, even with DD Coral Lens lol

 

[Ratvan]

And now I have hit a stumbling block, I searched the entire weekend (10 LFS Visits) and I cannot locate a decent source of Live Rock or Dry Rock in the size and shape that I want for the tank, so now looking at other options. none of which I particularly happy about but want this running by Christmas so need so sort something soon

 

[Ratvan]

Okay, so a series of bodge jobs have been undertaken on the tank and I am now starting the mini cycle, I have added 20lbs of "cycled" rock from LFS (I have suspicions that it is actually live rock, more like painted rock getting cycled) and 20lbs of Aragonite White Sand, also have a 400g bag of Bio Spheres in the back chambers now (cycled in small tank for 2 weeks)

Waiting for the mess to settle, which should be by tomorrow morning, then I can tidy up and start working with the rocks and barnacles.

dang its been a while since I tested for anything

 

[Ratvan]

So I should be in a position to transfer livestock from the first system (5.5G) on Monday that gives me time before the weekend to play with my scape

 

[Ratvan]

Hmmm, looks as though I am cycled (my WB is off on my phone - just FYI on the NH3 Test)

Scape started, got the skeleton in, when I transfer (Monday) from the 5.5g cube I can bulk this out using the live rocks (once scrubbed), also plan on moving my CuC across at this point

 

[Ratvan]

Ok so thinking of my stocking list;

I have these two in smaller systems already

Ocellaris Clownfish (Hantu)
Tail Spot Blennie (Cujo)

To which I am thinking of adding;
Watchman Goby
Banggai Cardinalfish (Pair?)
Flasher/Fairy Wrasse

Any issues with the selection above? Especially Clown and Cardinals? Currently my Clown is a softy but assuming that will cahnge

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Ok so thinking of my stocking list;

I have these two in smaller systems already

Ocellaris Clownfish (Hantu)
Tail Spot Blennie (Cujo)

To which I am thinking of adding;
Watchman Goby
Banggai Cardinalfish (Pair?)
Flasher/Fairy Wrasse

Any issues with the selection above? Especially Clown and Cardinals? Currently my Clown is a softy but assuming that will cahnge

Looks fine to me

 

[Ratvan]

Looks fine to me

Thanks. I really want a Starry Blenny but I dont think it'll get on with the Tailspot.

 

[Ratvan]

So this lunch time I transferred across the contents of the 5.5G Cube, thought I would have to stress out the Tailspot Goby and myself by chasing him around but I found out as I moved one of the rocks into the 34G that he was hiding inside. That was an easy fish transfer.

Everything is in now and settling down

 

[Ratvan]

morning all,

So ticking over nicely at the minute, small Diatoms bloom on the sand so off to pick up a Strombus Snail at lunchtime after siphon and water change.

Small amount of Cyano as well which is not too bad at the moment so manually removing

 

[Ratvan]

added a Strombus Snail, did not realise they could use their barb to break the skin, lovingly referred to as "Stabby Joe"

 

[Ratvan]

So today I did a small amount of work on the tank, I still have the Inkbird Controller to hook up and the controllers to mount on the wall. Still undecided if I want to install the heater in the "chamber of death"

Managed to set up the ATO without soaking too much of the office or myself - win. It is now set up and fully working, I set up my old 5.5G Cube as the reservoir. Now thinking about a QT Tank, I can fit another of the 5.5G Cubes on the same shelf, or with a bit of jiggery pokery (drilling holes for shelf) I can fit a standard 10G tank as my QT System on bottom shelf.