First Tank - Mixed Reef - Red Sea Reefer XL300

[Ashy]

This is my first marine fish tank I would like to have a reef tank that is mostly LPS and softies with some SPS in hotspots, I have been putting bits together for 4 months and finally have the tank cycling.

Equipment
Tank: Red Sea Reefer XL300
Return: Sicce syncra 2.5
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 120
Powerheads: 2x Gyre xf330
Heaters: 2x visitherm 200w
Heating Controller: Inkbird 306A
Rock: 25kg/55lbs Marco
Sand: 18kg/40lbs Dry Caribsea Special Grade
Salt: TMC PRO - for now.
Lights: None yet, will get 2x xr15 pros with diffuser

ashy's Mixed Reef

ashy's saltwater aquarium: Mixed Reef. 816 days old. 300 Liters. Red Sea Reefer XL300.

www.aquaticlog.com

2 Days later, turns out cold water and no booster pump = very slow RODI production. (and rinsing the dry sand seems to do nothing for cloudiness, altough it would help if I added the sand before the water...)

In the meantime while my tank was filling I went to checkout my LFS Exotic world/coral perfection and saw a really nice clown that made me wish I got my tank started a bit sooner.

It had a skull pattern on the side, not sure how rare that is but it looked really good in person. Would have called it Blackbeard

The tank finally cleared, not sure about the aquascape. Might need reinforcing with some more putty I dont trust it not to fall at some point.

Waiting on some adhesive zip tie mounts to tidy up this mess.

I dosed MicroBacter Start XLM and 14 grams of Dr Tims ammonium chloride on the 28th, still around 2ppm of ammonia and 0 nitrites.

Temp has been 25c, 35ppt salinity and 8PH. Waiting to buy more testkits.

 

[Ashy]

Ammonia still not moving and no nitrites, looking to be a long cycle I think the microbacter was a dead bottle.

 

[Ashy]

Got a refund from amazon for the bacteria assuming someone used it and returned the bottle with water in it, or it was just a old dead bottle.

Ordered some Aquarium Systems one and only (UK dr tims) from an actual fish shop this time.

 

[Thekitchenreefer]

Definitely recommend putty or glue for the rocks - I've had rock slides in my kitchen aquarium over the years which drove me mad. When I setup the RS250 I drilled and rodded all my rocks.

Setup looks good mate, for cable management suggest you check AZM for "cable trunking". I've used this on both tanks and it makes it look real tidy and very easy to use.

 

[Ashy]

Dosed 250 ml of Aquarium Systems One & Only(Dr tims one & only)

Lets retry with a different bacteria. This time dr tims from an actual aquatics shop.

It actually produced a cloud on adding it unlike the microbacter.

(ammonia still at 2ppm nitrites and nitrates 0)

 

[pajares55]

I used Dr. Tims one time dose to start my tank. No complaints.
Looks good so far sir, I know everyone is going to tell you but I will say it anyways.
Go slow.

 

[Ashy]

Finally detecting some change in ammonia and seeing some nitrites now, looks like the cycle is officially rocking along. I ordered a polycarbonate & mesh lid from reeftops and dont expect to see that for a month. So I will just let the tank cycle for that long and keep dosing ammonia if needed.

 

[ColoredRock]

Go slow.

Test once a week..dont get consumed and chase numbers.

 

[Ashy]

Test once a week..dont get consumed and chase numbers.

Weird, the last time I updated was a week ago.

 

[Ashy]

Cycles still going, ammonia at 0.5, nitrite at 5ppm. Just started up a white worm culture to have some live food ready for the fish. I also decided to knock the rocks over as I was not trusting the epoxy - good call after post demolition inspection showed the epoxy was not holding it very well and started crumbling.

This is how the rocks landed I dont plan on doing much to it, probably just move the rock at the front right behind the main rocks to clear up the front for substrate corals. I actually like that its not as high and not as many cliff faces so should give more options for coral mounting and better flow, it also gives a better sideview of the tank.

I'll clean up the leftover epoxy and figure out the "final" aquascape when I do the post cycle water change.

 

[Ashy]

Pretty long cycle but its over, nitrites just hit 0ppm.

I must have overdosed ammonia because my nitrites got upto around 10ppm and I performed a 50% water change and then about 2 weeks after the 50% water change nitrites hit 0. Will test nitrates and everything else on Tuesday after Mondays water change, also sending off an ATI ICP test of my tank and RODI water. I will take those samples Tuesday at the same time also.

Current tank params (tested last week)

I ordered a Royal Gramma which should be here Wednesday. I plan to run the tank with no light for 3 months starting now. I also plan on switching to IO standard salt to save a buck and I dont really need the benefits of TMC as I use the salt soon after mixing it and only need to mix in a 30 liter bucket. Not sure if I want to get my alk and calc upto around 8.6 dkh with all for reef or balling 2 part yet, the PH boost from 2 part would be nice but all for reefs simplicity also would.

Also my lid arrived.

 

[bnord]

Grammas are a great robust starter fish
best of luck

 

[Ashy]

Got the Royal Gramma on Wednesday at 9am. It went and found a hole to hide in and came out around 12pm and explored one side of the tank for about an hour so I put some PE mysis in the tank. Not sure if it was my hand or the flow being turned off that spooked the fish into going into hiding for 3 days. Wont turn the flow off in the future not much goes over the overflow anyways.

I never fed the tank again for 2 days and I notice it hiding below one of the rocks watching in the reflection slowly building up confidence to come out. Today I fed some mysis again and it came out for a sniff, saw it eating some and also rejecting some larger pieces. Tried some really small pellets and saw it spit those, later in the day I tried some first bite reef feast which is a mix of calunus, krill, mysis, nori, copepods. It seemed to like that, but I cant really feed that untill I get more fish. I might try some smaller mysis or baby brine shrimp.

I also added 3x red legged hermit crabs(mexican?) and 2x nassarius snails to get a bit of the leftover food. I plan on adding a pair of black ice clowns after 2-3 weeks, does that seem rushed?

Here's a video of the Royal Gramma. Check at the end when it tries to scare me away with its big mouth.

 

[Ashy]

Thoughts on my gyre settings?

 

[Ashy]

ICP test just came back.

RODI: https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/publicAnalysis/167158

DT: https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/publicAnalysis/165779

Pretty much everything tested close to how I did with my kits except salinity was low .89 but its hard to see 1 ppt on a refratometer so that's within the error margin

The iron zinc tin and manganese are a bit elevated not sure about those.

 

[itsdarrow]

Does that kid have cutouts for the gyre wires?

 

[Ashy]

Does that kid have cutouts for the gyre wires?

yeah they will cutout anything you need

 

[Ashy]

Been a while heres an update.

Clownfish flukes?

I got a snowflake clown pair last week and after acclimating they swam to seperate sides of the tank, both eating fine then a few days later I noticed white stringy poop from one of the clowns I thought I would just observe as the fish was eating well and behaving normally apart from what I...

www.reef2reef.com

I added a clownfish pair 2 months ago that had flukes I cured them with prazi I'm now just waiting to put together a qt system to add more fish.

I was overfeeding a bit and my phosphates ended up around 0.14 so I started carbon dosing vinegar saturated with kalk I worked my way upto 8ml of vinegar a day and got my phosphates down to 0.05 over 2 weeks, I then cut the dosage down to 4ml a day. It also got my nitrates into a nice zone.

I still have no lights but will be getting those soon and turning them on.

The fish are getting along and getting chunkier, I started seeing some coraline algae appear in spots even though I have no lights and I never introduced it apart from 3 hermits and 2 nass snails, which I think is a great sign. I also notice alot of small white dots on my glass which I think is pods of some sort could be bacterial clumps from the carbon dosing tho, they only apeared since my last glass clean before that it was like a white bacteria film.

I had a close call one day when the outlet for the tank got switched off but I was awoken by the inkbird connectivity checker on my heating controller and nothing seemed to be affected (probably off for 30 mins).

 

[Ashy]

Might get some more inverts in the meantime, currently got 3 hermits and 2 nass snails. Probably add a conch or more nas snails.