First reef tank - my 200L mixed reef

[JessKaye]

Hi everyone! I’m new to reef keeping, previously keeping fresh water tanks, and I thought it would be fun to create a build thread for my first reef tank - a 200L fresh water to saltwater conversion project! It’s going to be a slow and steady conversion, building it up around work and family and life, but it’s already bringing so much joy! Happy for any and all input (keep it kind but constructive please).

So it started a couple of months back when a friend in the freshwater hobby offered his 200L tank with a stand and decent canister filter for an absolute steal! Pictured below -

 

[MKEnovice]

 

[JessKaye]

I set the tank up with aragonite sand, dry rock and the Red Sea reef mature kit, though chose not to add the livestock when recommended. Instead I added in a couple of kg of live rock and waited for the tests to clear.

The tank is being run with canister filter (at least for now - I plan to one day upgrade to a sump!) and I’ve added a wavemaker and a small reef flare pro which I found for an absolute steal (only used for a couple of months but the mounting had broken, so my husband fixed this with some 3D printing magic). I plan to add a second wavemaker and light down the track

After some diatoms started appearing and ammonia/nitrite cleared I added in my first couple of inverts - a hermit, a stromb snail and another algae snail whose name I can’t recall.

And (finally) I introduced our first two juvenile clownfish Nemo and marlin who were quarantined in an easy quarantine set up before coming over to the tank

 

[JessKaye]

Since then I’ve introduced my first three coral - a toadstool leather, a clove polyp and a pretty hammer. The toadstool leather shed a mucus layer but then came out spectacularly and all corals appear very happy now!

Today I bought an ATO so that I can stop doing second daily water top ups and also purchased a second hand RODI unit to start making our own water. It’s just the start but I’m completely obsessed! Can’t wait to get more livestock in here - just trying to decide which fish to buy next! Happy for all suggestions as I continue to ponder