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Research Monkey

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Sometime in October I finally decided to take the plunge into a saltwater tank. I've been into freshwater tanks since I was in High School. Had 3 planted tanks and sold 1 setup to start the saltwater tank. Figured 3 freshwater and 1 saltwater was a bit too much for me... that and the wife didnt seem too happy about 4 tanks haha.

I've always liked the look of long/short tanks so I figured i'd start with a IM Fusion Pro 20 Peninsula. I think if i would have researched a bit more I might have chosen something different to save on lighting since this thing has a 26" display length / width. My thought process going into this was that I'd probably upgrade to a bigger tank later on so some components might be able to transfer over.

I started buying stuff randomly over the last 3 months and finally got water in the tank a couple weeks ago.

Equipment list:
Light: 2x AI Prime 16HD w/ hanging mounts
Pump: Stock Mighty Jet for now
Wavemaker: Nero 3 (I liked the idea of a single app for both lights and the wavemaker)
Heater: 75w Eheim Jager (Been using these for ages and have been the most reliable for me)
ATO: Tunze Nano ATO
Skimmer: Eshopps Nano Skimmer (havent put it on yet, since i'm still in my cycle)
Misc: IM Swim Stream Random Flow Generator (good grief this thing is the loudest part of the setup, hoping it quiets down in the next couple of weeks - took almost 5 weeks for this thing to shut up)
Inkbird Temp Controller added

I was going for the NSA type of aquascape so I purchased about 35lbs of Marco rock. Smashed and glued away! - Shoutout to Glue Masters on the forum for a forum member discount!

I used 20lbs of Caribsea Live Sand whatever the regular one was. (i'm into deep sand beds, but that's probably from having planted aquariums). I struggled with this a little as I was reading about bare bottom tanks. A local fish store has some really really nice bare bottom display tanks that look to be very established. I actually purchased 1-20lb and 2-10lb bags but only ended up using the 20. Will probably sell the 10 and maybe dump the other 10 in. Not 100% sure yet.

The stand is actually a custom doll closet I found on Craigslist that was built by a carpenter. The thing is really sturdy... like I can jump on the thing and it didnt move haha.

Due to the shape of the peninsula, limited space in the AIO chamber, and this was going in a room with high ceilings, I decided to make my own light stand. Googled a bit to see what others were using. I decided to go with steel pipe. I have a few other things in the house that were built with it and it seems to be a trend. I didnt feel comfortable with the length of it (i know, it would have probably NEVER been a problem, but I'm a little anal when it comes to "just in case"). So I offset one side so it might "feel" like it's floating and maybe hide it a bit more. Holes are drilled into the back and the wires are run through the pipe into the cabinet. Decided I needed to make cabinet pulls as well so I bought some more 1/2" pipe to make them.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how everything came out so far. Still have to clean up some of the wires. Wasnt a huge fan of the clips/stickies for the nero 3 but I plan on running the wire on the edges of the tank.

Looking forward to learning more and being a part of the community.

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Chrisfish

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Welcome to R2R and congratulations on your new tank, The whole set up looks really nice.
 
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Research Monkey

Research Monkey

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Picked up a couple of clowns a couple weeks ago or so and they committed suicide on night 1! They jumped out of the tank somehow even with the lid on. They were really small though so maybe through the water inlet fins and then jumped out from where the filter media is. I ended up stepping on one because I didn't see it and the other one I assume the cat ate. Maybe I'll find a dried up clown in a corner someday.

I went and picked up a couple replacements and a small frag of GSP. I glued the GSP to its own island.

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Last week i had algae finally show up in the tank so I went and purchased a clean up crew. Don't mind the owl stool. 2 Trochus, 3 Astrea, 2 i believe are Nerites, 2 Nassarius, and a Conch. One of the astrea snails seems to have another snail latched onto his back. Tried pulling it off but its on there pretty good. Gotta admit, the astrea, nerites, and Trochus are putting in work.

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Research Monkey

Research Monkey

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What an interesting past few weeks. 2 weeks ago:

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Went a little overboard and found cheap frags... haha. Stocking now looks like this:

2 Clowns, 1 Blue/Green Chromis, 1 Wheeler Goby (MIA), 1 Sandsifting Starfish, 7-8 hermits, 3 GSP, 4 different Zoas, 2 different mushrooms, 1 hammer, 1 frog spawn, 2 different cloves, 1 Goniopora, 1 Blasto, What I thought were cloves but might actually be xenia, and a Duncan. Oh, and my CUC (7 astrea, 1 conch, 2 trochus, 2 Nassarius, 2 nerites or margaritas) and some Dragon's Breath macro algae

Now:
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The Chromis, 2xGSP, Cloves, Hermits, 4 astrea, and Duncan I got for free when purchasing some used equipment from a local tank breakdown. The duncan didn't really look like a duncan but over the past week he's been coming back. First photo is from 7 days ago, and the second one is from today.

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The Wheeler Goby went MIA after 4-5 days. He may have jumped through the screen top and the cat probably ate him. My intention was to get a pistol shrimp and goby combo at the same time but I can't find any pistol shrimp locally at the moment. I've read of other people mysteriously losing their Goby but this tank is small enough to the point I've looked everywhere... He was also a REALLY good eater and I would spot feed him mysis and he'd always come up and grab them. It's a bummer because that makes 3 fish that jumped ship WITH a lid on it...

I'm already starting to see coralline algae growth on all my rocks so I'm pretty stoked on that.
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Hitchhikers have included small berghia nudibranch, a single aiptasia that I didn't see (somewhat glad to see it if the nudibranch is still alive), and a stomatella snail.
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Parameters have been pretty spot on but I do a 10% water change every 4-5 days and i've been testing every 2-3 days. Upgraded from my API test kit to some Hanna Checkers and a Nyos for Mag.

I also stopped buying RODI/Saltwater from the LFS and found a new in box Marine Depot 4 stage RODI and bought some Tropic Marin Pro Reef. Crazy how much waste water gets thrown out. I put them in buckets and water the plants in the back yard. The TDS meter and the pressure gauge came in today.

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Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 73 51.8%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 72 51.1%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 36 25.5%
  • None.

    Votes: 31 22.0%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.4%

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