Michael Hughes
Active Member
Hello all!
I have 25+ years experience in freshwater but am fairly new to the saltwater side of things. I'm planning a 125 gallon mixed reef to set up in the spring. I've built the stand, have the sump set up, and plumbed in a separate 14 gallon refugium in the stand as well - just no DT yet.
My plan is to QT all fish in a 40 tall I had lying around, and to use another 14 gallon cube as a combination frag tank and invert QT.
I've been planning this for over 18 months and I'm in no hurry to rush things. About a year ago I bought 150ish lbs of real coral skeleton rock (great stuff!) from a tank breakdown. I soaked it in a clean trash can in freshwater for about a month, changing water every few days, then dried it for 11ish months. Been in the process of building the DT hardscape with it.
About 4 months ago I set up the 14 gallon frag tank so I have some rock and sand with which to seed the DT when I set it up in the spring. I cycled with Fritz TurboStart and ammonium chloride, which worked like a charm. I have CaribSea Arag-Alive special grade sand and some of the leftover rock from the DT scape.
Current stock is 4 cerith snails and 10ish blue leg hermits. I've also added a mix of benthic pods from Reef by Steele and have been dosing some of their phyto to feed the pods.
Using RO water (BRS system) and Red Sea blue bucket salt. The setup is really simple right now with just a HOB, heater, an ATO, and a cheap full spectrum led light from Amazon. Eventually I'll be adding a controllable powerhead and I plan to eventually replace the light with Nicrew's NavaReef 60 since I already have 3 nicrews ready to use for the DT. I figured using the same brand of light on the frag tank will help smooth the transition to the DT for future corals.
With such light stocking, I've just been feeding a pinch of Omega One flakes for now. My plan is to slowly build up diversity in the system using things like IPSF live sand activator with micro brittle stars, spaghetti worms, bristleworms, etc. and perhaps some TBS live rock.
I'm currently doing about 10% water changes weekly and just enjoying the process of seeing microbial life happen in the tank. Not dosing anything other than phytoplankton since I have no corals yet and I'm fine with taking the slow and steady approach. As you can see, this isn't exactly a display, and I'm not worried much about the aesthetics since this is primarily a utilitarian tank that will be fishless.
I'm excited to see various greens, browns, and pinks showing up! I'm not worried about them, really I'm just wondering what they are just out of curiosity. I figure the brown on the glass is some kind of diatom (I should look at it under a microscope I just haven't grabbed a sample yet).
The green on the rocks I'm assuming is some kind of algae - again haven't looked at it under a scope yet.
What I'm particularly curious about is the pink stuff growing on some of the rockwork and in the sand. Is this some kind of red algae? Or perhaps some kind of bacteria like PNSB? I assume it's too early for coralline, and it seems to wipe off the glass below the sandbed really easily with a finger. It doesn't spread aggressively. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
I have 25+ years experience in freshwater but am fairly new to the saltwater side of things. I'm planning a 125 gallon mixed reef to set up in the spring. I've built the stand, have the sump set up, and plumbed in a separate 14 gallon refugium in the stand as well - just no DT yet.
My plan is to QT all fish in a 40 tall I had lying around, and to use another 14 gallon cube as a combination frag tank and invert QT.
I've been planning this for over 18 months and I'm in no hurry to rush things. About a year ago I bought 150ish lbs of real coral skeleton rock (great stuff!) from a tank breakdown. I soaked it in a clean trash can in freshwater for about a month, changing water every few days, then dried it for 11ish months. Been in the process of building the DT hardscape with it.
About 4 months ago I set up the 14 gallon frag tank so I have some rock and sand with which to seed the DT when I set it up in the spring. I cycled with Fritz TurboStart and ammonium chloride, which worked like a charm. I have CaribSea Arag-Alive special grade sand and some of the leftover rock from the DT scape.
Current stock is 4 cerith snails and 10ish blue leg hermits. I've also added a mix of benthic pods from Reef by Steele and have been dosing some of their phyto to feed the pods.
Using RO water (BRS system) and Red Sea blue bucket salt. The setup is really simple right now with just a HOB, heater, an ATO, and a cheap full spectrum led light from Amazon. Eventually I'll be adding a controllable powerhead and I plan to eventually replace the light with Nicrew's NavaReef 60 since I already have 3 nicrews ready to use for the DT. I figured using the same brand of light on the frag tank will help smooth the transition to the DT for future corals.
With such light stocking, I've just been feeding a pinch of Omega One flakes for now. My plan is to slowly build up diversity in the system using things like IPSF live sand activator with micro brittle stars, spaghetti worms, bristleworms, etc. and perhaps some TBS live rock.
I'm currently doing about 10% water changes weekly and just enjoying the process of seeing microbial life happen in the tank. Not dosing anything other than phytoplankton since I have no corals yet and I'm fine with taking the slow and steady approach. As you can see, this isn't exactly a display, and I'm not worried much about the aesthetics since this is primarily a utilitarian tank that will be fishless.
I'm excited to see various greens, browns, and pinks showing up! I'm not worried about them, really I'm just wondering what they are just out of curiosity. I figure the brown on the glass is some kind of diatom (I should look at it under a microscope I just haven't grabbed a sample yet).
The green on the rocks I'm assuming is some kind of algae - again haven't looked at it under a scope yet.
What I'm particularly curious about is the pink stuff growing on some of the rockwork and in the sand. Is this some kind of red algae? Or perhaps some kind of bacteria like PNSB? I assume it's too early for coralline, and it seems to wipe off the glass below the sandbed really easily with a finger. It doesn't spread aggressively. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
