Hello! Finally getting the confidence to start a build thread. I’ve had freshwater aquariums for as long as I can remember. Buying my first house sparked an idea for a bigger tank. Purchased an inexpensive 75 gallon tank and stand combo from pets mart, with the idea of either a tank for some small lake bass or a freshwater planted tank. (Broke down and gave away my old 36 gallon bow front tank with CO2 setup. Then I thought about saltwater (FOWLR) due to the insane colors of marine fish. So I did some digging, found this forum, and decided I’d try my first reef tank! I had little to no idea what I was doing so this whole experience is a “learning tank”
I started with just the tank, and Fluval canister filter.
Ended up ordering the following:
- CaribSea life rock ~ 50 lbs
- CaribSea special grade live sand
- Current USA wavemaker x2 with controller
- AI Prime 16HD x2
- Eheim 300 watt heater
- Reef Octopus Classic 2000 HOB skimmer
Tank was filled and running in mid January 2021 once I moved in. I added a pair of Ocellaris Clowns, and let the tank cycle with microbacter start.
over the next few months, I added a juvenile blue hippo tang (knowing if this tank became successful at keeping coral, I’d be upgrading to a MUCH larger tank within a year).
Then came a yellow tang, royal grams, lawnmower blenny, and some corals (all of which died over time, due to not monitoring water quality as much as I should have been).
After watching the corals die, I became unmotivated, and kinda let the tank ride out for a month or two (also tied up with work and whatnot). In this time, I figured I’d upgrade the flow, and picked up a RedSea Reefwave 45 to add some flow.
pulled the dead corals, and the tank was without coral for about two months. I ended up finding Dinos and cyano in my tank, and small amounts of hair algae. I ordered an array of Hanna test kits (alkalinity, calcium, phosphate and nitrate) as well as a test kit for magnesium. I then began better husbandry of my tank and closely monitoring and adjusting my water chemistry to acceptable levels.
Dr. Tim’s Dino kit got rid of the dinos, and I decided to try ordering some more coral. I put in some soft corals (toadstool leather, Kenya tree, and some GSP).
Fast forward to last month (June 2020) I still had some small amounts of cyano phosphates fluctuated between .08 and .12, nitrates were around .5 to .25.
I splurged on some upgrades, and changed the following:
- RedSea ReefLED 90 with mounting arm x2
- ecotech vortech MP40 x2
- InkBird temperature controller with 300 watt titanium heating element
- Par meter
- plumbing supplies for my 75 gallon water storage tank
I added a coral beauty angel into the tank about a week prior to these upgrades. After the upgrades, I began to notice the blue hippo flashing. Also saw those dreaded white spots on him and the coral beauty. So, I got to rip all the rocks out, scrub them down in a bucket of clean saltwater (might as well since I had the tank apart) get all the fish out and start treatment. I couldn’t remember where the rocks went, so I re-scaped. Here is the tank after.
I still have a few different zoanthids that have made it through this whole journey that are alive and well. I have hornet zoas, magician zoas, superstar zoas, and a mystery zoa (I think WWC blue eyed girls zoas). They were all grey when I got them and are now starting to show some color, and they were a free frag that wasn’t listed in my order.
I set up a QT tank, and I am currently 5 days into copper treatment.
Since the reset I have added a few more corals.
- Black torch won in POTO’s live sale for Independence Day
- neon bicolor hammer (which has been mostly grey with a hint of green on the stalks since I got it. Supposed to be purple tips and green stalks).
- neon green gioni
- pink tipped aussi elegance
More to come!
My current parameters:
Salinity - 35ppt
Temp - 78
Ph- 8.2
Alk - 8
Calc- 440
Mag - 1300
Phos- .12
Nitrate - 3.75
I started with just the tank, and Fluval canister filter.
Ended up ordering the following:
- CaribSea life rock ~ 50 lbs
- CaribSea special grade live sand
- Current USA wavemaker x2 with controller
- AI Prime 16HD x2
- Eheim 300 watt heater
- Reef Octopus Classic 2000 HOB skimmer
Tank was filled and running in mid January 2021 once I moved in. I added a pair of Ocellaris Clowns, and let the tank cycle with microbacter start.
over the next few months, I added a juvenile blue hippo tang (knowing if this tank became successful at keeping coral, I’d be upgrading to a MUCH larger tank within a year).
Then came a yellow tang, royal grams, lawnmower blenny, and some corals (all of which died over time, due to not monitoring water quality as much as I should have been).
After watching the corals die, I became unmotivated, and kinda let the tank ride out for a month or two (also tied up with work and whatnot). In this time, I figured I’d upgrade the flow, and picked up a RedSea Reefwave 45 to add some flow.
pulled the dead corals, and the tank was without coral for about two months. I ended up finding Dinos and cyano in my tank, and small amounts of hair algae. I ordered an array of Hanna test kits (alkalinity, calcium, phosphate and nitrate) as well as a test kit for magnesium. I then began better husbandry of my tank and closely monitoring and adjusting my water chemistry to acceptable levels.
Dr. Tim’s Dino kit got rid of the dinos, and I decided to try ordering some more coral. I put in some soft corals (toadstool leather, Kenya tree, and some GSP).
Fast forward to last month (June 2020) I still had some small amounts of cyano phosphates fluctuated between .08 and .12, nitrates were around .5 to .25.
I splurged on some upgrades, and changed the following:
- RedSea ReefLED 90 with mounting arm x2
- ecotech vortech MP40 x2
- InkBird temperature controller with 300 watt titanium heating element
- Par meter
- plumbing supplies for my 75 gallon water storage tank
I added a coral beauty angel into the tank about a week prior to these upgrades. After the upgrades, I began to notice the blue hippo flashing. Also saw those dreaded white spots on him and the coral beauty. So, I got to rip all the rocks out, scrub them down in a bucket of clean saltwater (might as well since I had the tank apart) get all the fish out and start treatment. I couldn’t remember where the rocks went, so I re-scaped. Here is the tank after.
I still have a few different zoanthids that have made it through this whole journey that are alive and well. I have hornet zoas, magician zoas, superstar zoas, and a mystery zoa (I think WWC blue eyed girls zoas). They were all grey when I got them and are now starting to show some color, and they were a free frag that wasn’t listed in my order.
I set up a QT tank, and I am currently 5 days into copper treatment.
Since the reset I have added a few more corals.
- Black torch won in POTO’s live sale for Independence Day
- neon bicolor hammer (which has been mostly grey with a hint of green on the stalks since I got it. Supposed to be purple tips and green stalks).
- neon green gioni
- pink tipped aussi elegance
More to come!
My current parameters:
Salinity - 35ppt
Temp - 78
Ph- 8.2
Alk - 8
Calc- 440
Mag - 1300
Phos- .12
Nitrate - 3.75
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