First saltwater voyage starting with HelloReef

[Avgwarhawk]

Looking good. I was astonished our HR cycled in 9 days. Added fish and CUC at that time. All doing very well. It is exciting getting critters for the tank!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along@

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I have a 15 gallon as well but different brand. The filter socks can be a pain once you tank starts to get stocked. As the filter gets gunked up, It will lower the water volume in the end chamber even if the proper water volume is there causing display to back up over the rear chamber from top. I had this happen before

I ended up getting an auto filter roller. It can be a pain to dial in at first, but you won't have to swap or clean socks every couple days or worry as much about the tank backing up display. Having a baby in November myself, automations where I can has become my goal.

You have plenty of time though to get these figured out. If you stay with sock buy a couple so always have one ready and clean.

I saw someone recommended a good power strip. Another good one is Kasa strip. I can turn off power through app even when I am not home if there is an issue. Plus nice for maintenance so I'm not in cabinet wondering what plug needs to be unplugged lol. But unlike the other recommended, you may need more as I will be ordering a 3rd. So downside is you may need more.

Do you plan on doing clowns and anemone or doing more corals, both?

 

[TheReefAbides]

Looking good. I was astonished our HR cycled in 9 days. Added fish and CUC at that time. All doing very well. It is exciting getting critters for the tank!

Did you cycle with lights on at 50%, curious when you started to see diatoms and or algae growth starting

 

[TheReefAbides]

I have a 15 gallon as well but different brand. The filter socks can be a pain once you tank starts to get stocked. As the filter gets gunked up, It will lower the water volume in the end chamber even if the proper water volume is there causing display to back up over the rear chamber from top. I had this happen before

I ended up getting an auto filter roller. It can be a pain to dial in at first, but you won't have to swap or clean socks every couple days or worry as much about the tank backing up display. Having a baby in November myself, automations where I can has become my goal.

You have plenty of time though to get these figured out. If you stay with sock buy a couple so always have one ready and clean.

I saw someone recommended a good power strip. Another good one is Kasa strip. I can turn off power through app even when I am not home if there is an issue. Plus nice for maintenance so I'm not in cabinet wondering what plug needs to be unplugged lol. But unlike the other recommended, you may need more as I will be ordering a 3rd. So downside is you may need more.

Do you plan on doing clowns and anemone or doing more corals, both?

Have watched the tutorial videos, seeing how the socks needed to be changed every 2-4 days, stocking pile and washing in the machine with bleach. I thought that would be a bit time consuming and less time to enjoy the progress. First question in my mind was is there an easier more efficient way for the filtration. Saw an ad for the nature dimension fleece roller, good reviews and plenty of videos in action. So I said heck why not, order one and it should be here end of week. I did order a few extra socks just in case. As tech always has the chance of failing.

I kind of want to get an extra pump and wave maker to have on hand. I can’t think of anything worse than being Sabotaged by failing equipment.

The plan is clowns and Bubble tip anemone. I saw some mocha storms I really loved, although came with a steep price tag. Maybe some zoas also.

I can feel this becoming a very immersive hobby. As I’m already dreaming of larger aquariums to home different breeds of fish and I haven’t even stocked this one yet
I have to remind myself one day at a time
For now I’ll just keep enjoying shared reefs by others

 

[Avgwarhawk]

Lights were on. I didn't recall at what settings. I basically played with the settings as the tank cycled. It didn't affect anything. I never got much algae and still don't. Cuc do a good job and I sometimes feed them shrimp pellets, nori and algae wafers. My tank is 8 weeks old. Diatoms started maybe 2 weeks ago. No real ugly phase. Brown dust like algae on the glass but it is slowly resolving itself.

 

[TheReefAbides]

Lights were on. I didn't recall at what settings. I basically played with the settings as the tank cycled. It didn't affect anything.

Good to know, I have just read a few horror stories of algae getting out of control when cycling new tanks with lights on. Maybe that’s with live rock ?

In the HR app it says in the sections where you post your progress photo that you could view others photos. Haven’t figured that out yet, maybe it’s bugged?

 

[Avgwarhawk]

I have a 15 gallon as well but different brand. The filter socks can be a pain once you tank starts to get stocked. As the filter gets gunked up, It will lower the water volume in the end chamber even if the proper water volume is there causing display to back up over the rear chamber from top. I had this happen before

I ended up getting an auto filter roller. It can be a pain to dial in at first, but you won't have to swap or clean socks every couple days or worry as much about the tank backing up display. Having a baby in November myself, automations where I can has become my goal.

You have plenty of time though to get these figured out. If you stay with sock buy a couple so always have one ready and clean.

I saw someone recommended a good power strip. Another good one is Kasa strip. I can turn off power through app even when I am not home if there is an issue. Plus nice for maintenance so I'm not in cabinet wondering what plug needs to be unplugged lol. But unlike the other recommended, you may need more as I will be ordering a 3rd. So downside is you may need more.

Do you plan on doing clowns and anemone or doing more corals, both?

I use a filter cup with floss. Easier than the sock. Plus I added Chem Blue and ceramic biologic ceramic for bacteria to grow. It works well. Nitrates stay at 10.

 

[TheReefAbides]

Say hello to Mickey and Minnie
Mocha Storm Clowns

Picked these two beauties up from our local LFS. Great Lakes Corals. Owner is nice and helpful. He Quarantines all of his fish so that is a nice bonus.

Acclimated them to the tank temp the transfer them in with some of our new CUC.

Gave them a little while with the flow off to get their bearings. Did a feed with some pellets. Active feeding, even the hermits and nassarius snails got after some.

I’m surprised how active the nassarius snails were right off rip. Up and down the glass they went.


For CUC we picked up
- 2 cernith
- 4 nassarius
- 2 blue legged hermits
- 2 pepper mint shrimp
- extra shells
(Hoping to find some trochus snails local soon)


I turned the wave maker off for the night, hopefully the right call. Thought was to lower the flow until the clowns can adjust a bit to their new home.

 

[Calmwaters]

Say hello to Mickey and Minnie
Mocha Storm Clowns

Picked these two beauties up from our local LFS. Great Lakes Corals. Owner is nice and helpful. He Quarantines all of his fish so that is a nice bonus.

Acclimated them to the tank temp the transfer them in with some of our new CUC.

Gave them a little while with the flow off to get their bearings. Did a feed with some pellets. Active feeding, even the hermits and nassarius snails got after some.

I’m surprised how active the nassarius snails were right off rip. Up and down the glass they went.


For CUC we picked up
- 2 cernith
- 4 nassarius
- 2 blue legged hermits
- 2 pepper mint shrimp
- extra shells
(Hoping to find some trochus snails local soon)


I turned the wave maker off for the night, hopefully the right call. Thought was to lower the flow until the clowns can adjust a bit to their new home.

They are beautiful!!!

 

[Avgwarhawk]

Good looking clowns. You can leave the wavemaker on. The clowns will find a lower flow area and sleep there. Ours did the first night.

 

[TheReefAbides]

Say hello to Mickey and Minnie
Mocha Storm Clowns

Picked these two beauties up from our local LFS. Great Lakes Corals. Owner is nice and helpful. He Quarantines all of his fish so that is a nice bonus.

Acclimated them to the tank temp the transfer them in with some of our new CUC.

Gave them a little while with the flow off to get their bearings. Did a feed with some pellets. Active feeding, even the hermits and nassarius snails got after some.

I’m surprised how active the nassarius snails were right off rip. Up and down the glass they went.


For CUC we picked up
- 2 cernith
- 4 nassarius
- 2 blue legged hermits
- 2 pepper mint shrimp
- extra shells
(Hoping to find some trochus snails local soon)


I turned the wave maker off for the night, hopefully the right call. Thought was to lower the flow until the clowns can adjust a bit to their new home.

They are beautiful!!!

Couldn’t agree more

 

[TheReefAbides]

Good looking clowns. You can leave the wavemaker on. The clowns will find a lower flow area and sleep there. Ours did the first night.

thank you, everything is back on now

 

[TheReefAbides]

Attemped my first Shimp feed. Took 30ml of tank water and added a cube of frozen shrimp. Added roughly 10 MLs to the tank. Might have to dial that back a bit next time.

 

[Avgwarhawk]

I use a pipette to feed mysis shrimp. It gives me a bit more control of the amount going into the tank. I defrost the cube in a small container with some tank water. Keep it refrigerated between feedings. I keep it no longer than 3 days before making a new batch.

Amazon: Amazon product ASIN B0D127WV43

 

[TheReefAbides]

You Amazon image isn’t showing for some reason.

I do have an extra 5ml syringe I can give a go with

 

[TheReefAbides]

Thought one of our peppermint shrimp went missing. Scoured the rock work where they like to hide. No sign.

5 minutes into feeding I watched him scurry out of the tank over flow guess he likes hanging out in the sock. I’ll have to be mindful during changes.

 

[TheReefAbides]

Having seconds thought on anemones after seeing this Nano build

 

[Calmwaters]

Having seconds thought on anemones after seeing this Nano build

That's a really nice setup

 

[Avgwarhawk]

Having seconds thought on anemones after seeing this Nano build

I went with corals. A lot of varity.