First saltwater tank, 40 breeder

[KleineVampir]

Yeah...I got 4 6-quart containers. I don't think they make a total seal but hopefully they're good enough. I also kinda worry that one day somebody will kick the bag and it'll end up pouring the powder everywhere. Especially if I open it. Then it just needs to tip over and I have a mess on my hands. The containers I got ought to solve those kinds of problems. Honestly I couldn't find containers that were the right size and had a seal, so I finally just settled on some that are nice and big, but not overly so.

Also today I received and installed the ATO. It's a little surprising that it constantly pumps water through it. And yeah it comes with media, so you're pumping water from the overflow box, through some media, and out into the tank. I guess that's the skimmer part but it's a little more active and constant than I thought it would be. That said it's pretty cool, but suffice it to say installation was not as easy as they let on. Then again it's not super hard. I mean you have to cut the tubing yourself. Can you really call it "plug and play" if you gotta cut the tubing? I dunno, I think that's a bit of a stretch! Oh well it does seem to work nicely so I guess that's all that really matters in the end.

 

[KleineVampir]

Seems like what I've done is a whole lot of nothing! The ATO doesn't change much...I guess it's not exactly instant gratification. I got chaeto-grow, some fertilizer for the chaeto since honestly it isn't looking too good. I did the whole magnesium test with my fancy new kit, and...Whoopty-do I have a pretty decent amount of magnesium. I guess that'll matter more when I have more coral. The same goes for the 3 bags of minerals and soda ash. They are such big bags, meant to keep the corals happy as they grow and take up calcium and so forth. 1 montipora is not exactly demanding enough to make all that matter yet though. Yeah, the small green one I think died. The big red one still looks good but who knows.

 

[count krunk]

it would be almost impossible, other than luck, for the supplied tubing to be the correct length for your set up.

Only things that you just have to plug in are plug n play in this hobby. It's part of the fun!

 

[KleineVampir]

Yeah..well, it's not the tubing length that was an issue, it's the fact that you have to make a cut for the siphon break, and a cut for the elbow joint if you don't want a big old tube coming up out of your tank. I guess those are only 1 cut each, so it's not that bad. But still I think it isn't plug and play if you have to cut the tubing yourself. I have very strict rules on what can be considered plug and play! xD

 

[KleineVampir]

If anybody ever doubted whether or not I have gone and done it, see this and stand corrected; for I have truly gone and done it! Yes, despite all the clamps and so forth sticking out of the refugium, I cut the back flap to fit it. So you can finally rest easy knowing that the clowns won't suddenly jump out and that'll be the end of them.

 

[KleineVampir]

By the way, I bought one of those pink lights for macro-algae. Here it is: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/ecochic-waterproof-refugium-led-light-8831-00-tunze.html

I hope this does the trick. I think it's worth the chance... 70 bucks is so much cheaper than 300. If it's more about spectrum and less about power, this will work or at least be a lot better than what I have now. Not sure why they even give you a white light for a fuge.

 

[KleineVampir]

Also I'm upping my magnesium levels. It was at 1000 which is pretty low and probably the cause of death for my smaller monti. I did the calculation and I needed either 16 ounces or 105 teaspoons. At first I laughed at the teaspoons, but now I'm gonna use them! 5 a day for 21 days. I think that is a decent rate at which to raise the magnesium. And yes it is magnesium chloride that I'm using, just straight up dry powder but at least I put it into the refugium!

 

[nogo03]

Definitely grab some snails and hermit crabs to help keep the tank clean, I'm sure your LFS will have a few species. Another option is to buy them online of of live aquaria in a build your own "reef cleaner pack", and maybe even get a bonded pair of clowns on their divers den while your at it. Anyways, good luck!

 

[KleineVampir]

Yes, there are some cerith snails and an emerald crab in the tank currently. I'm learning about both of them. It seems that ceriths are great in that they eat anything, but they're so slow that you'd need a ton of them to keep up with everything. Maybe that's why they aren't as popular as I thought they should be. The crab is cool but he can't get the algae off the glass like snails can.

 

[KleineVampir]

I got the new light in. It's nice and purple, but not super powerful it seems. Or maybe it just doesn't look bright since its purple. We'll see if it does the job.

 

[count krunk]

what light did you get?

 

[KleineVampir]

what light did you get?

This here: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/ecochic-waterproof-refugium-led-light-8831-00-tunze.html

Not a lot is known about it. Looks like I'm one of the first ones who has to pay to find out!

 

[count krunk]

Oh I didn't realize it was for you refuge.

Could you remind me what you have over your DT?

 

[KleineVampir]

Uh...well, it's just a big ol' 36" T5. One blue bulb and one white bulb. So far it seems like algae is growing back there alright...just not the macro! It's probably growing a little too but it seems like it isn't really out-competing the other algae.

 

[Zos4me]

Just my 2 cents but buy quality equipment that you can use as you upgrade your tanks.buy junk and you will have to keep buying
Good Luck

 

[count krunk]

a 2x bulb t5 is not junk.

But i do think it is underpowered for SPS.

Over my 40 breeder will be 2x large black box LEDs. With t5, I would recommend 4x t5 bulbs.

 

[KleineVampir]

Yeah, well...that costs a lot of money, and honestly I don't think I could hope to get my chaeto off the ground with the most powerful light of all time in there. It would just turn into an algae mess. When you do 0 water change tanks, you gotta be careful with light! So what I did was arguably pretty dang cost effective.

In other news, the crab died. Just found him belly-up today. I think the snails out-competed him for algae and he just starved to death. I was putting some pellets in there for him but I dunno. Anyways, honestly it's kind of a load-off since now there's no possible predation of the clownfish in the tank. Better that he starved rather than kill another 25 dollar clown.

 

[KleineVampir]

There is some method to my madness, apparently! The chaeto has really grown, finally! That purple fuge light is completely nuts honestly. More growth in 1 week than the last month! Then again I also got the fertilizer for the cheato too. But judging by how every kind of algae is growing in there, looks like the light is playing a huge part in it.

The only thing I'm a little disappointed about is that there seems to be other algae growing within the chaeto. I know there is next to no flow in that fuge. I mean I got a nice fuge. Not sure what else I can do! I did shake it out a bit though and manually removed some fuzzy silly algae out from the chaeto area. I dunno, I'm starting to feel like that was 80 dollars well spent! Less moving parts than the kessel...I always kinda fear that thing is too powerful for its own good, and it costs over 3 times more. Surely plants can only absorb so much light, no matter how powerful it is. I think my theory that spectrum is more important may be correct!

 

[KleineVampir]

The crab....IS BACK!! Back from the dead and in my tank like nothing happened! Either that or I mistook his molt for him. One of the two! I tell ya what guys: This saltwater stuff is a wild ride!

 

[KleineVampir]

And yes...his molt looked exactly like him. I mean it was totally opaque and everything, and all the legs moved separately...never saw an opening or anything either. I see shrimp molts all the time but those are obviously molts...big open spot and almost totally transparent. This was not like that at all! So I guess this is actually a good sign for the crab, if he's able to molt and be ok afterward.