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

[DropoffCorals]

Here are the new frags, I got a red lobo, green trachy, blue disco, orange/yellow fungia plate, and new Duncan.

I want to give a big shoutout to Steve over at @DropoffCorals for hooking this order up. He has amazing frags at even better prices and takes good care of his livestock. I’ll be buying many more frags him in the future.

Thank you so much!

 

[living_tribunal]

So it’s been a little over a year since I last posted. To my surprise, the tank is still remarkably running. There are random noises, gurgles, croaks, possibly moans but running nonetheless.

How? I’m not entirely sure. Maybe the reef gods want a sense of comedic relief by giving me false hope?

If anyone is actually reading this, you truly need to find some more activities....

So what’s changed? Very little, but it has not crashed which is the true miracle. Just a recap if you’re incapable of scrolling to the previous image above from January 2020.



And how does it look today? Just about the same. Woe is life for a reef noob.


Side shot (side shots are so underrated)


I wish I could take more pictures from the back as there is a lot of coral back there but the best I can do is a top shot from a couple months back.


Livestock: I prefer keeping it simple.
1.) Mandarin
2.) H chrysus
3.) Tomini tang
4.) mated clown pair

Corals:
Most every lps with the exception of acanthos, cynarina, wellsophyllia (don’t mention this as I will cry) and octospawn.

Fuge: Red ogo

Export: Just a skimmer, fuge, and the occasional vinegar dose.

External cultures: I run 3 external pod cultures; tisbe, apex, and Tigre.

Params:
The software engineer in me has led me to be very experimental with my tank testing different params. I have found tremendous success the last three months running the following hyper growth setup:

Dkh- 12.5
Mag- 1400
Calc- not sure, I never test it
Po4- .15
N- 0.5-1
Ph- smack dab at 8.3

How long will the reef gods allow me to enjoy this tank? Not sure, I do hope my tears are worth their enjoyment. Maybe I’m on one of those alien reality shows? Who knows.