I've got two reasons for creating this build thread. One is some where for me to capture all the lessons I've learned along the way. Which there has been lots. The other is to show that this isn't an impossible task to build a reef tank. This build is very much a team effort between me and my wife. We have been looking at reef tanks for a long time now and honestly been scared of doing by how difficult it appears to be.
Historically we have not had good luck with fish. Over the years we have attempted a few times with freshwater fish, then tropical fish. Looking back our failures in the past have simply been not understanding the nitrogen cycle (or even being aware that it was a thing). Last year we were gifted a 3 Foot tank that we turned into a functioning planted tropical tank. It's been running for 18 months now and I would say it is thriving. This has given us the confidence to have a crack at a mixed reef tank.
This is kind of a long thread...follows about the first 3 months of our setup. Just like our tropical tank this started with a gifted tank. A Fluvo Evo 52l.
Based on our previous experience with "free" tanks, our last free tank, by the time we replaced everything we needed to, ended up costing more than a brand new, larger and much nicer tank, we decided to just go out and buy a new tank. We bought an Aquaone Mini reef 160.
Straight away upgraded the skimmer from the standard aquaone that came with it. Chose the GW-5 skimmer. Been running a few months now with no issues. Only trouble is the sump water level probably sits a little high on the skimmer but it still seems to work. I did consider making a stand and even bought some eggcrate to raise it up...Just haven't really had the need to so I've left it. Pic below is the sump after plumbed in with no water. Skimmer came out when I filled it and went back in after it was cycled.
Kept standard lights that came with it...but that's going to change pretty soon.
Setup was simple enough the aqua one is pretty basic (=simple) in terms of sump. Added 1 20kg bag of Crushed coral base and about 20kg of caribsea life rock. Messed around with the aquascape for about 4 days on and off, both in and out of the tank.
The last pic is roughly what it looks like now. As you can see rock spent a little time in there with water before we added the sand. It was about a week just because we couldn't get our hands on any sand and didn't want to wait to fill it. Again scape changed a couple of times and had pretty much a full re-scape when the sand was added. None of the rock is glued, carefully placed to be structurally sound as possible without gluing anything.
We filled it with NSW and have been doing water changes with NSW since starting it.
Skimmer didn't go in straight away- Did roughly a 4 week fishless cycle, started it with a dead prawn, no bacteria added just natural cycle. Being our first reef tank I followed the cycle pretty closely testing Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate every 2-3 days. Took about a week for nitrite to show up, about two weeks for ammonia to hit zero, then a week after ammonia hit zero nitrite hit zero. Nitrates started showing up pretty much the same time as nitrite. Skimmer went in when Nitrite hit zero and ran for about a week before we added any stock.
No prizes for guessing our first fish. Pair of clowns...
First lot of corals went in pretty soon after. They were throw outs from our closest lfs. Scolly was really unhappy with a fair chunk of skeleton exposed. You can't quite see it in the pic below because of the lighting. Blasto had a few exposed skeletons as well but it has grown out of sight since it's been in.
Fungia Plate didn't make it... Blasto has nearly doubled in size since being in, Scolly and Lobo have really perked up in colour. Both were pretty unhappy in the LFS. They seem to be getting along fine now. I've been spot feeding them with Hikari Coralific Delight since they went in and they are all seem to be eating like crazy and growing.
Another thing I had heard was harder was water changes and tank maintenance. I've actually found water changes to be easier with this tank than my tropical. The photo above is mid water change. Basically all I've done is take the pump out of my ato and drop it in a drum of NSW. Then I syphon into a bucket. Tops up as it goes, no tipping buckets in. Yes I'm not vacuuming my sand, the plan is to have enough of the right kind of clean up crew to avoid having to do that. So far it's working. CUC I think I'll talk about in the next post.
So I haven't done everything perfect. There was some aptasia on the plugs of the scolly when it went in. the 3 peppermint shrimp I added seem to have taken care of that. I haven't dipped or quarantined anything that has gone in. I think I'll stop this post here and create a new one for the next stage. This kind of covers the tank up to it's first lot of fish and corals and first water changes.
Next post will be the next lot of corals and our next fish. Any guesses on what went in next?
Historically we have not had good luck with fish. Over the years we have attempted a few times with freshwater fish, then tropical fish. Looking back our failures in the past have simply been not understanding the nitrogen cycle (or even being aware that it was a thing). Last year we were gifted a 3 Foot tank that we turned into a functioning planted tropical tank. It's been running for 18 months now and I would say it is thriving. This has given us the confidence to have a crack at a mixed reef tank.
This is kind of a long thread...follows about the first 3 months of our setup. Just like our tropical tank this started with a gifted tank. A Fluvo Evo 52l.
Based on our previous experience with "free" tanks, our last free tank, by the time we replaced everything we needed to, ended up costing more than a brand new, larger and much nicer tank, we decided to just go out and buy a new tank. We bought an Aquaone Mini reef 160.
Straight away upgraded the skimmer from the standard aquaone that came with it. Chose the GW-5 skimmer. Been running a few months now with no issues. Only trouble is the sump water level probably sits a little high on the skimmer but it still seems to work. I did consider making a stand and even bought some eggcrate to raise it up...Just haven't really had the need to so I've left it. Pic below is the sump after plumbed in with no water. Skimmer came out when I filled it and went back in after it was cycled.
Kept standard lights that came with it...but that's going to change pretty soon.
Setup was simple enough the aqua one is pretty basic (=simple) in terms of sump. Added 1 20kg bag of Crushed coral base and about 20kg of caribsea life rock. Messed around with the aquascape for about 4 days on and off, both in and out of the tank.
The last pic is roughly what it looks like now. As you can see rock spent a little time in there with water before we added the sand. It was about a week just because we couldn't get our hands on any sand and didn't want to wait to fill it. Again scape changed a couple of times and had pretty much a full re-scape when the sand was added. None of the rock is glued, carefully placed to be structurally sound as possible without gluing anything.
We filled it with NSW and have been doing water changes with NSW since starting it.
Skimmer didn't go in straight away- Did roughly a 4 week fishless cycle, started it with a dead prawn, no bacteria added just natural cycle. Being our first reef tank I followed the cycle pretty closely testing Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate every 2-3 days. Took about a week for nitrite to show up, about two weeks for ammonia to hit zero, then a week after ammonia hit zero nitrite hit zero. Nitrates started showing up pretty much the same time as nitrite. Skimmer went in when Nitrite hit zero and ran for about a week before we added any stock.
No prizes for guessing our first fish. Pair of clowns...
First lot of corals went in pretty soon after. They were throw outs from our closest lfs. Scolly was really unhappy with a fair chunk of skeleton exposed. You can't quite see it in the pic below because of the lighting. Blasto had a few exposed skeletons as well but it has grown out of sight since it's been in.
Fungia Plate didn't make it... Blasto has nearly doubled in size since being in, Scolly and Lobo have really perked up in colour. Both were pretty unhappy in the LFS. They seem to be getting along fine now. I've been spot feeding them with Hikari Coralific Delight since they went in and they are all seem to be eating like crazy and growing.
Another thing I had heard was harder was water changes and tank maintenance. I've actually found water changes to be easier with this tank than my tropical. The photo above is mid water change. Basically all I've done is take the pump out of my ato and drop it in a drum of NSW. Then I syphon into a bucket. Tops up as it goes, no tipping buckets in. Yes I'm not vacuuming my sand, the plan is to have enough of the right kind of clean up crew to avoid having to do that. So far it's working. CUC I think I'll talk about in the next post.
So I haven't done everything perfect. There was some aptasia on the plugs of the scolly when it went in. the 3 peppermint shrimp I added seem to have taken care of that. I haven't dipped or quarantined anything that has gone in. I think I'll stop this post here and create a new one for the next stage. This kind of covers the tank up to it's first lot of fish and corals and first water changes.
Next post will be the next lot of corals and our next fish. Any guesses on what went in next?
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