How not to start a reef tank, my first reef tank build

[living_tribunal]

Well if I didn’t have a clean up crew before, I sure as hell have one now...

The nice thing about the micro hermits is they won’t kill the huge snail population I have now.

I want to give a huge shoutout to @indopacificseafarms

I got their President on the phone and they run completely fishless systems for the inverts. I am 100% a believer in qting inverts but if you wanted more safety then they are the only company I’d trust.

 

[living_tribunal]

I’m interested in your thoughts on the Indo Pacific Sea Farms order. I have been considering getting some of the mud and live sand activator to add more diversity to my system which started out with dry rock. Please let us know how you liked the items you received and the packaging.

I HIGHLY recommend it so far. They know how to properly run a clean up crew. It’s a culmination of all of the minor things you encounter while you progress through your reefing journey.

Things like:
-Using micro hermits instead of normal hermits to ensure your snail population stays steady.
-Adding additional home shells to invert orders.
-They run fishless systems which is like quarantining them yourself.
-They jampack the live sand activator and wondermud with more crew members than you could imagine.
-They are focused on self-replicating inverts so you can get a pod mat and pod flakes that encourage breeding. Their strombus snails also breed in the tank.
- Every member in the bag poses no threat to the other.
- The mini stars are the best and most potent members added. These guys clean places you could never be able to reach and will remove all detritus at night. Not only that, but they replicate very fast and don’t pose a threat to anyone.
-You get at least 3 trochus snails per bag which are widely regarded as the best invert you can have.

I could continue but I don’t think I’ll ever get inverts from another company again.

I have no clue how many things I just added to my tank, too many to count.

 

[erk]

Quick note before I get these guys acclimated, I’ve intentionally kept my display pretty dirty since starting it.

I’ve started to have the mindset that algae and other life is key to stability in a reef tank. I am providing the nutrition for the good stuff to grow. Sure, it may be dirty right now and algae/diatoms are all over the place. But I am also growing the necessary bio-diversity that needs to be strong as I grow this tank.

I haven’t performed a water change since cycling. Phosphates are at .1, nitrates at 2-3ppm. My Chaeto ball that was golf ball size is about 30% bigger which indicates to me that progress is being made and nutrition levels are at the perfect place to grow bio-diversity without affecting the corals/fish.

I will probably do the first water change a week from now once the new team gets acclimated.

I agree with your point of view about algae being key to the stability of a reef tank. If you can't grow algae/microfauna, how can you expect to keep higher level organisms. Granted, I don't really consider PO4 at .1ppm and NO3 at 3ppm high. My tank is sitting at 25ppm NO3 and .6ppm PO4 per testing 2 weeks ago. Hopefully its come down now. The only real casualties in this were some birdsnest frags. The acros and montis seem to have weathered it ok. Even grown a bit. My aim is to keep NO3 at 5-10ppm and PO4 at .1ppm.

 

[TheWB]

I HIGHLY recommend it so far. They know how to properly run a clean up crew. It’s a culmination of all of the minor things you encounter while you progress through your reefing journey.

Things like:
-Using micro hermits instead of normal hermits to ensure your snail population stays steady.
-Adding additional home shells to invert orders.
-They run fishless systems which is like quarantining them yourself.
-They jampack the live sand activator and wondermud with more crew members than you could imagine.
-They are focused on self-replicating inverts so you can get a pod mat and pod flakes that encourage breeding. Their strombus snails also breed in the tank.
- Every member in the bag poses no threat to the other.
- The mini stars are the best and most potent members added. These guys clean places you could never be able to reach and will remove all detritus at night. Not only that, but they replicate very fast and don’t pose a threat to anyone.
-You get at least 3 trochus snails per bag which are widely regarded as the best invert you can have.

I could continue but I don’t think I’ll ever get inverts from another company again.

I have no clue how many things I just added to my tank, too many to count.

Nice, thanks for the review. At some point I will pull the trigger on an order from there, after I have given the boot to my roving band of snail murdering hermit crabs. I’ve really been enjoying your thread, keep the updates coming.

 

[living_tribunal]

I agree with your point of view about algae being key to the stability of a reef tank. If you can't grow algae/microfauna, how can you expect to keep higher level organisms. Granted, I don't really consider PO4 at .1ppm and NO3 at 3ppm high. My tank is sitting at 25ppm NO3 and .6ppm PO4 per testing 2 weeks ago. Hopefully its come down now. The only real casualties in this were some birdsnest frags. The acros and montis seem to have weathered it ok. Even grown a bit. My aim is to keep NO3 at 5-10ppm and PO4 at .1ppm.

Those are perfect levels.

After starting to get a good feel for dosing nitrates and phosphates, I’m really starting to consider running a ULN system. After the Dino outbreak, I just don’t trust my system to automatically keep nutrient levels elevated. I’d rather have a complete grasp on them and allow my skimmer/small carbon to remove all waste and then dose the levels to keep them right at the sweet spot always.


Dino’s have changed my view entirely on what it means to keep a system stable. I get excited when I see film or hair algae in my frag or display tanks. As long as it’s not a complete outbreak, it means that there are plentiful nutrients for the more dominant, and more healthy, algae, bacteria, and critters to grow.

 

[living_tribunal]

Nice, thanks for the review. At some point I will pull the trigger on an order from there, after I have given the boot to my roving band of snail murdering hermit crabs. I’ve really been enjoying your thread, keep the updates coming.

I was in the same boat, not only that but Dino wiped out my snail pop completely except for one sole survivor.

I’m mostly excited for the mini stars, they seem like the best addition to a tank. They are hardy as can be, clean everything, don’t require plankton, and replicate to perfect levels all while being non-intrusive.

They are kind of cute too.

 

[living_tribunal]

This is a happy pod if I’ve ever seen one

(I’ve never seen one)

 

[living_tribunal]

After adding the new crew, I channeled my inner noob.

And I channeled hard.

It was at this moment I decided to complete the right of passage ritual in becoming a reefer.

I picked up a frag of Kenya tree and a frag of pulsing Xenia.

More frags to come today.

 

[living_tribunal]

One of my favorite things to do so far in this hobby is to buy frags from other hobbyists.

I learn so much from seeing their tank, learning how they achieved success, and the adversity they faced along the way.

Oh ya, the frags are also a lot cheaper.

Got a gang of incoming frags, stay tuned.

 

[living_tribunal]

Just tried the Milwaukee only to learn my salinity levels have been 1.029 in the display and 1.03 in the frag tank.

It’s probably because of adding all that water from the bags today, but still, this thing is a game changer.

 

[living_tribunal]

Thinking back on this, the Milwaukee might have been the smartest purchase I’ve made so far in reefing. Who knows how bad my corals health could have become had I not picked it up. .04 is a pretty wide margin between 1.026. Feeling lucky that I acquired it.

It also makes life significantly easier. Water changes will be a breeze now.

Since I don’t have to worry about calc, alk, and mag yet, salinity consistency is the one thing I owe to my corals.

 

[Why-Me]

Thinking back on this, the Milwaukee might have been the smartest purchase I’ve made so far in reefing. Who knows how bad my corals health could have become had I not picked it up. .04 is a pretty wide margin between 1.026. Feeling lucky that I acquired it.

It also makes life significantly easier. Water changes will be a breeze now.

Since I don’t have to worry about calc, alk, and mag yet, salinity consistency is the one thing I owe to my corals.

Agreed, my next purchase after the office tank light will be the Hanna Salinity checker. It floats is accurate and handheld. AND only $69

 

[ca1ore]

Title of this thread made me laugh. Chanels the, apocryphal perhaps, comment about Edison inventing the light bulb. Paraphrasing ‘I didn’t fail, I just found 1,000 way to not make a light bulb’. Didn’t take me that many, but I’ve certainly discovered countless ways to not design a reef tank.

 

[living_tribunal]

Title of this thread made me laugh. Chanel’s the, apocryphal perhaps, comment about Edison inventing the light bulb. Paraphrasing ‘I didn’t fail, I just found 1,000 way to not make a light bulb’. Didn’t take me that many, but I’ve certainly discovered countless ways to not design a reef tank.

Welcome!

I’m not quite at a 1,000 yet but we’re getting awfully close.

Stick around if you are addicted to disappointment, tears, and the off chance of success.

 

[living_tribunal]

I posted another thread last night about phosphate levels.

I think I’m going to pick up a Hannah phosphorous checker as well so I can keep levels tight.

It’s kind of frightening how even some of the higher-end test kits can be off from actual levels.

The hanna phosphorous checker is the best kit that is under $1,000.

 

[erk]

Thinking back on this, the Milwaukee might have been the smartest purchase I’ve made so far in reefing. Who knows how bad my corals health could have become had I not picked it up. .04 is a pretty wide margin between 1.026. Feeling lucky that I acquired it.

It also makes life significantly easier. Water changes will be a breeze now.

Since I don’t have to worry about calc, alk, and mag yet, salinity consistency is the one thing I owe to my corals.

I love my Milwaukee salinity checker. Just wish it had a built in cover. I recommend making a cover for the window. Want to block out as much light during measurement taking as external light can skew the measurement. I printed a cover for mine. I use a much more expensive refractometer at work and it has a built in cover. Makes a difference.

 

[living_tribunal]

I love my Milwaukee salinity checker. Just wish it had a built in cover. I recommend making a cover for the window. Want to block out as much light during measurement taking as external light can skew the measurement. I printed a cover for mine. I use a much more expensive refractometer at work and it has a built in cover. Makes a difference.

So cover the screen with your hand before you hit read?

 

[erk]

So cover the screen with your hand before you hit read?

Yeah, that will work. I have a 3D printer and printed something off real quick so I wouldn't have to use my hand. You can also grab a large cap to a bottle. Maybe a milk jug cap or jam jar.

 

[living_tribunal]

Here are the frags I picked up last night. I basically acquired all of the guys beat up chalices. Got Miami hurricane, mummy eye; some sweet pink chalice, firework cloves and a red rhodactis.

Tonight I’m picking up the last piece I’m very excited about, a tad pricey but worth it. A rainbow orange Goni.

 

[living_tribunal]

Side note, I may have phosphates too high now in the frag qt. That’s no big deal to me as I wanted at least an initial onset of film/hair algae. We are getting a bit of cyano though so I’m going to be adding the mini skimmer and start the process of slowly decreasing phosphate down a notch or two.