Mclovin is a great name for a reef tank

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i_am_mclovin

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That 80 psi is doing wonders! My water after RO membranes is a TDS of 1 going into the DI which is awesome as the DI will last a lot longer. For reference, the water pre-filtration is 215 TDS, so the sediment/carbon, and RO membranes are doing some hard work!

I have my QT tank set up and ready, so I plan to buy some clownfish today and get them into the QT as they'll be there a few weeks while the DT setup continues. And yes, I QT almost everything. QT QT QT. It will save you so much headache and heartache in this hobby. I QT fish and corals. The only thing I don't QT is inverts generally.
 
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i_am_mclovin

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Clowns!

sorry it’s a bad cellphone pic

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i_am_mclovin

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Ugh so I had bought 4x sicce xstream pumps as I did some research and thought it would be enough for my 5' long tank. Unfortunately it's nowhere near enough, especially as heavy SPS as I'm going to get. I am going to return them to aquacave and need to figure out a better in tank flow solution. For now I might just have to go the cheap but very strong jebaos.
 
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On another note, I should be ready for liverock and live sand next week! I've already spoken with @LiverockRocks at Tampa Bay Saltwater and will be placing my order. I have built a lot of tanks over the years, and I have always loved the results with TBS. Truth be told, I would have been back in the hobby a year ago but TBS was transitioning ownership so they were not shipping orders. Once I found out I could order, I started this build. I am super excited to get back into the hobby and look forward to a TBS package soon!
 

carpetlayer719

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That 80 psi is doing wonders! My water after RO membranes is a TDS of 1 going into the DI which is awesome as the DI will last a lot longer. For reference, the water pre-filtration is 215 TDS, so the sediment/carbon, and RO membranes are doing some hard work!

I have my QT tank set up and ready, so I plan to buy some clownfish today and get them into the QT as they'll be there a few weeks while the DT setup continues. And yes, I QT almost everything. QT QT QT. It will save you so much headache and heartache in this hobby. I QT fish and corals. The only thing I don't QT is inverts generally.
It does we have well water too and the booster pump makes life easier
 
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i_am_mclovin

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Things are all ready for the liverock and sand from TBS, water is at 79F and salinity in the DT is 35ppt. I returned the sicce xstream pumps and picked up 3x jebao SOW-15's for now. I think I'm going to replace one of them with the jebao scp150 on that side and see which I like more. I've always really liked that laminar flow and used them almost exclusively in my coral business. On that note, I also need to find budget for a Clearwater algae turf scrubber CW-50. I used the CW ATS's in my coral business previously and I would argue it was one of the main reasons my SPS always looked so amazing.
 
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Solved my ATS problem with the new Icecap in sump ATS. It goes into the water just like a skimmer etc. https://www.aquacave.com/icecap-turf-scrubber-ags-100-pro-small.html

And it was relatively inexpensive too! I have my stock list worked out also, but more on that later. My order has been placed with TBS and the first shipment will arrive on 11/22 so I'll share lots of pictures then. This is effectively a full "skip cycle" setup meaning I can put fish into the tank very shortly after the first shipment goes in if I wanted to. And with the massive biodiversity on the LR from TBS, I can get corals and other things relatively soon as well. Historically I have had 3-4 fish and many SPS frags within weeks of getting the first TBS shipment into the tank, and with great success.
 
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Part 1 from TBS arrived today! Shipment arrived via southwest airlines to Milwaukee without issue. I got all the live sand and half of the live rock. Everything was packaged VERY well. The sand is all double bagged and none of the inner bags leaked. The live rock has many bags, because it's rock of course, and nothing leaked out of the outer bag, it was all contained nicely. The rock has amazing life, and I did see some friendly hitchikers (some hermits and snails). TBS ships it all in seawater, same day pickup (airport to airport) so it tends to have little die off. Every tank I've started with TBS I've been able to do safely add fish within days of receiving "part 2" and add SPS coral within weeks of receiving part 2 also.

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Did you do the full recommended package? i.e. is that what 200 lbs of rock looks like?
 

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I did not. That’s is only 125 pounds of liverock. I tend to run more minimal on the rock so I have room for sps to grow big. :p
Thanks for sharing. Very helpful info as I'm starting a 75 gallon tank and am hoping to place an order for this Thursday.

Everything looks great btw!
 
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i_am_mclovin

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First coral frags. Canaries as I’d call them. To see if the tank is stable enough to hold sps.

Limitless stag
PC rainbow acro
WWC rainbow monti
Bubblegum digi
Utter chaos zoas

All purchased from boom corals of course. :)

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ReefSlice

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Looking good! How are you liking the BM ATS? I'm debating putting one on my new 40g build.
 
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Picked up a Dusky wrasse recently. Here it is in the store. It’s in QT now.
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 76 37.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 69 34.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 12.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 29 14.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
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