First Saltwater tank - 55 Gallon | First corals ever added pg 3!

New&no clue

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I run high nutrients in my tank which softies tend to like, however, it will cause increase in algae so if that's want you want I would just suggest getting a really good CUC. I try to have a couple things for sand maintenance, and couple things for rock maintenance, and a couple things for glass maintenance.
 

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Yeah, I really like the UPS I got, I did an obsessive amount of research on which UPS to get. I'm confidant this is the best consumer UPS out there. Anything more than this will costs several hundred dollars more, and only net a few more minutes of run time. A $200 investment could potentially save thousands of dollars of equipment, fish and corals, a no brainer in my oppinion. It could easilly pay for itself the first time you have an outage. Not to mention my house was built in the 40's and ALL the outlets are on the same circuit. It's way too easy to blow a fuse in my house, this UPS for sure gives some peace of mind.

This is the UPS I recommend, I also have one for my 3D Printers and desktop computer.

Search on Amazon: Cyberpower CP1500PFCLCD UPS




Thank you for your kind words! I'm excited to be here and really enjoying my time on the saltwater side!

As for flow, the SunSun 704 canister is rated at 525gph, that is of course with no head and no media, lets say that gets knocked down to 400gph, I just have a return pipe blowing straight into the tank with no spray bar or anything like that. So there's that flow, plus I have a Jaebo Gyre pump that I'm confidant can keep up with any future flow requirements. It is a great power head with lots of options and at full blast, it rips! I have it aimed quite high to add as much surface agitation as possible. Surface agitation was an important part of my freshwater tanks, so I know it's an important part of a system.

Thanks for the pointers!



I think I was able to get all the parameters dialed in! please give me your thoughts:


PH - 8.0

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 20

KH - 12°

Phospate - 0.50ppm

Calcium - 400ppm

salinity - 1.023

Thanks for the tip on the UPS! I need to snag one of those.

Your parms look pretty good. Phosphate could be a little lower, but it doesn't seem crazy high.
 

Morbo

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So the tank has been setup for about 2 weeks now, maybe going on 3. I have the light dimmed almost all the way down and I'm starting to see some patches of brown algae forming on the highest rocks and just in front of the glass on the substrate where it gets a double dosing of light, from the light directly and the reflection off the front glass.

Not sure if this is good, bad or neutral.

Thoughts?

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As others have said, it's a sign of a cycling tank. If it doesn't get much uglier for a while then you're very lucky.

New tanks go through ups and downs for months while everything equalizes.

Can't wait to see this fill in/up.
 

DiefsReef

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Welcome to R2R and the Reef side of the world. You fresh water tanks look awesome and if they are any idication of the care you take in the hobby I'm sure your Reef will be excellent as well.
 
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Sean W.

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Did my second water change tonight! This one went much smoother than the first one I did! last time I assumed my 20 gallon tall mixing tank below the display tank held, you know... 20 gallons. So I added 20 gallons worth of salt and took 20 gallons of water out of the display tank. Turns out a 20 tall only holds 17 gallons of water. I found this out by adding one gallon of water at a time and marking each gallon with a sharpie on the side of the tank.

Now knowing that it only holds 17 gallons let me add the appropriate amount of salt first try, take out 17 gallons from the display and refill it with 17 gallons of fresh, clean and new salt water.

I added the salt last night as was letting it mix for the last 24 hours.

Took about a total of 20 minutes to do a near 50% water change. Starting to get the hang of this whole saltwater thing!

With the cycle complete, and a large water change done, I think this will set us up for success for the next few weeks as I get ready to add my first corals!

I also vacuumed the very top of the sand, didn't go all the way down, just wanted to get any of the detritus and uneaten food I could see off the sand bed. Also anywhere I saw diatoms, wanted to get that sucked up as well.

I also dimmed my light down all the way to limit any new growth of diatoms.

here a super cool action shot of me vacuuming LOL Courtesy of my awesome and supportive girlfriend
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I also added a cleaner shrimp, who looks like he is gorging himself on a sinking algae wafer I dropped in the tank!
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Sean W.

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Hey Everyone!

Did quite a lot this weekend on the tank!

Since I am starting to get a diatom algae, I figured now was a good time to start adding in my algae clean up crew.

The obvious choice was a tang of some kind, but after a lot of research I decided that rolling the dice on a Tang that may be aggressive is something I wanted to avoid, so I went with Foxface fish. From my understanding and research, they are actually better algae eaters than tangs and are extremely peaceful fish. So I grabbed a small 3" "Onespot Foxface". What a great fish, I'm really enjoying him!

I also got a "lawnmower blenny" to help with the algae

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Also this weekend I wanted to swap out my glass lids for a set of net covers to keep my fish from jumping out.

I made a thread showing how I made these, please check it out!


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Sean W.

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Hey guys!

Thinking about what fish to get next, looking for some suggestions!

Here is my current stocking in order that I added them:

- Absolute Zero Clownfish
- Snowflake Clownfish
- 3x Hermet crabs
- 2x Peppermint shrimp
- Royale Gramma Dottyback
- 2x Firefish
- 1x Cleaner shrimp
- Onespot Foxface
- Lawnmower Blenny

Fish that are on my list to get:
- Bicolor Blenny / Tailspot Blenny (whichever my LFS gets first)
- 1x Dwarf Angel; Coral Beauty, Flame Angel, Rusty Angel
- Diamond Watchman Goby

That's about all I have on my list, I think I'm getting close to putting all the fish in there that I want. I also have to keep in mind that I don't have a protein skimmer so I want to keep the bioload as low as possible.

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
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Isaac Alves

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Great build thread. Man those planted tanks are amazing.

I love softies. And I have one dedicated to them...more really for my Mandarin, but he recently passed away from old age (5 years in my care). In any case, iodine dosing was what really got a lot of my softies to take off. And a always keepIng some fresh carbon running to lessen toxins in the water. But, I really don’t know or was able to find definitive reasons why iodine in whatever form would be beneificial. The only information I’ve found so far was that iodine was just found to be absorbed in numerous types of macro algae’s, regular aglaes, xenia, etc. But nothing really on hard reasons for dosing. I started using Red Sea Colors but only dosing the iodate bottle in this tank and noticed my softies started thriving — but who knows. Could just be the age of the aquarium too.

But good luck. I’m sure the tank will be amazing. :)
 

reefd00d

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Looks like a good start!
I don't know if you have enough algae in there yet for the fox face and the lawnmower. Probably get some nori clips or something in the meantime.
And Angelfish are hit or miss with being reef safe. I've had some luck with a Pygmy Cherub Angel. They are smaller than the dwarf angels.
Also, can you keep 2 blennies in the same tank?
 
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Sean W.

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Alright! The time has finally come to add my first ever corals to my first ever saltwater tank!

A huge thank you and shout-out to @isaacalves for giving me a great deal on these softies that I got! He is somewhat local, an hour away, but my girlfriend was near him and stopped by to get the corals for me and it just worked out. A huge thank you for these great specimens!

Even tho they were just traveling an hour, he packed them extremely well, and included an icepack to keep them cool during transit!

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Lets take a look at our haul!
2x large Kenya Tree frags
3x Green Star Polyp
1x Neon green fuzzy mushroom
1x huge Green neon toadstool
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I first temperature accumulated them, then did a drip acclimation for 30 minutes before putting them in the tank
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The obligatory full tank shot
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Right side
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left side
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Isaac Alves

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I hope these pieces work out well. You’ve got some great space in that tank. I wish I had some large cabbage leathers or Fijis to give you. I could definitely see some places for awesome euphyllia garden.

Just be watchful of the Kenyas. If they take a liking to your tank they can spread fast, which could look cool if you contain the growth. But just note that they can be very aggressive growers. I’ve tried really hard to keep the one in my display from spreading; I’ve got it to be about 9 inches tall now when fully opened and with a good golf ball sized trunk. But it took a lot of time wrapping the coral with rocks to keep it from creating branches.

Looking forward to watching this build.

Happy reefing!
 

Alexkos23

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I just have to say this thread was amazing to see the process of your saltwater tank! I too just started my own 20 gallon nano reef tank after doing FW for so many years, its been really fun! Learned a lot from this thread as well!! Hope you’re enjoying your tank cant wait to see how this finishes out!
 

vetteguy53081

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Off to a nice start!!
Welcome to the R2R community !
 
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Sean W.

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I hope these pieces work out well. You’ve got some great space in that tank. I wish I had some large cabbage leathers or Fijis to give you. I could definitely see some places for awesome euphyllia garden.

Just be watchful of the Kenyas. If they take a liking to your tank they can spread fast, which could look cool if you contain the growth. But just note that they can be very aggressive growers. I’ve tried really hard to keep the one in my display from spreading; I’ve got it to be about 9 inches tall now when fully opened and with a good golf ball sized trunk. But it took a lot of time wrapping the coral with rocks to keep it from creating branches.

Looking forward to watching this build.

Happy reefing!

Thanks man! I think these will be a great start! I will first make sure I don't kill these before getting more corals!

I just have to say this thread was amazing to see the process of your saltwater tank! I too just started my own 20 gallon nano reef tank after doing FW for so many years, its been really fun! Learned a lot from this thread as well!! Hope you’re enjoying your tank cant wait to see how this finishes out!

Aw man, thank you for those kind words. It's humbling to me that you learned something from my journey. I appreciate you saying that.
 

Alexkos23

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Which stores have you been going to in your area? I live about 10-15 minutes from you cant seem to find a great saltwater fish store to find what i want haha
 
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