My 40 gal breeder reef tank

[jnava19]

Hello All,

I started on the hobby a year ago (a bit extra around feb 2019) I had prior experience with freshwatwer but zero saltwater experience, much less with corals.
I joined in Jan 2020 to R2R, this has been one of my main sources to find answers, read from other reefers experiences and learn. I thought it was a good time being first year of the tank to create this thread here and see some progress.

I started with the tank and a Canister, wasn't sure at the beginning I was going to like it so I can say I began cheap (paid the price later) but overall has been a great experience and enjoying it all.

Started with a canister and the Viparspectra lights, a Koralia pump and the first fish was a pair of yellow-tail blue damsels. One killed the other first week (made it jump out) the remaining is still living in the tank.

Edit to add photos:

Start:

Added first Corals by end of May

Around June (Added Seneye monitor)

Added a sump + Skimmer around July

Replaced powerheads, battled with some algae and cyano issues, lost some corals (plate,some zoas)

October (NO3 and PO4 high but no algae issues, good growth)

Also tried some SPS but they didn't survive

Dec/Jan (Battle with Nudis, then dinos but did well) , Replaced lights for AI primes hd

End of february

April, I finally managed to get into control NO3 and PO4 (avg levels before were 30-60 for NO3 , and 0.3 PO4, now 5 and 0.08) also changed the flow, the Torch didn't like it, and bailed out, the Elegance also did this around March, other corals seem to be doing very well I got more zoas, as from all the corals I tried this ones were the ones that actually grow well for me.

I have to put together pictures from march and april, will post later here.

I have now at the moment a variety of zoas, the finger leather, toadstool, gsp, pulsing xenia, a goni (open very little), a blastomussa merleti, a red moti frag that is slowly coming back, a duncan and a daisy coral. Fish,the yellowtail blue damsel, 2 clownfish, a yellow tang and a yellow wrasse, variety of snails, blood fire shrimp, emerald crab, brittle starfish, and other creatures that I see when lights are off.

 

[El_Guapo13]

Can we see some pictures? Also you said you "started" with a canister filter, but what do you have now? What upgrades have you made to it since you started? Is it a reef tank, or fish only?

 

[jnava19]

Can we see some pictures? Also you said you "started" with a canister filter, but what do you have now? What upgrades have you made to it since you started? Is it a reef tank, or fish only?

Yes, in the process, for some reason the r2r website crashed in my Chrome Android, so will upload via laptop and complete the post

 

[jnava19]

Yes, in the process, for some reason the r2r website crashed in my Chrome Android, so will upload via laptop and complete the post

Added

 

[jnava19]

Latest parameters
NO3 5 (salifert)
PO4 0.08 (Hanna Phosphorus URL)
NH3 (0.001) Seneye
dKh 10 (Api)
Sal. 1.025
Ca 440 (Salifert)
Mg 1380 (Aquaforest)

 

[Chrisfish]

Really looks good

 

[btmedic04]

Nice! I love 40B builds! That reminds me.... i need to update my build thread lol

 

[jnava19]

July 2020 update.

I have struggled to keep everything happy, when the zoas are happy the devils hand is not, or if those are happy the lps are not happy, tried some SPS on may and didn't succeed. Only one survived (birdnest) and seems to be doing great. I did some changes to flow and light (height and spectrum), and that actually worked for most, the flow I think stressed the torch and I lost it and the hammer has its days. The light change probably stressed the blasto and is dying slowly. Other than that, zoas growing great, middle of June tried some new sps, so far seem to be doing great. The first to survive and actually improve in my tank.

Parameters:
PO4 0.07 - 0.12
NO3 0.2 - 2 (I actually dosed nitrates since I was struggling to see any color on the test, this has been working great)
Sal. 1.024 (plan is to raise it slowly to 1.026) I believe the skimmer waste is culprit.
Ca 480
Mg 1380
Alk 9 dKh

Also did ICP testing, everything looks good except Silicates a bit high and the salinity. (Refractometer needed calibration which I missed to do)

I have done very little water changes this year, probably around 2 or 3 (5 - 7 gallon)

Added a dyi algae reactor, the cheato grew well for a month, then, got full of gha, but, I saw better nutrients results with the gha, so even though is a mess inside, I am now growing gha on that reactor. Minimum algae on DT, a bit of red cyano in the right part, but dont want to touch flow, so I have been blasting it everyday.

Here some pics. (took them today when lights were going off so zoas are closing...)

Still need to work on organizing the sump and the electricals (is a mess)

 

[jnava19]

Update

Due to very low nitrates have been running the skimmer during night only.
So far looks good, and nitrates around 2-3ppm

Still have some minor algae on some plugs and red cyano on spot. But overall corals are happy.

 

[jnava19]

Update

(not much to update)

Struggling to show Nitrates on the test again.
And something very odd, Alk is very stable, with tendency to raise (no dosing), so currently researching on possible reasons.

 

[revhtree]

You've progressed very well! Those zoas sure look happy!

 

[jnava19]

You've progressed very well! Those zoas sure look happy!

Thank you!

Yes, the zoas has been so far the only ones that grow like crazy and are very happy. (and the leathers)

I still struggle with keeping LPS/SPS but hopefully with more time and patience will get to the point.

 

[btmedic04]

Your tank is looking great! I think whats happening with your alk is related to your nitrates bottoming out. Corals need some in order to grow and since you're at undetectable levels, your growth rate has probably slowed. It may be time to add more fish to help increase your levels since you've already reduced skimming

 

[jnava19]

Your tank is looking great! I think whats happening with your alk is related to your nitrates bottoming out. Corals need some in order to grow and since you're at undetectable levels, your growth rate has probably slowed. It may be time to add more fish to help increase your levels since you've already reduced skimming

Thank you!

Interesting, but, If I let Nitrates and PO4 to raise a bit, I get algae... (I still have some around a coulple zoas, stopped growing but still there...difficult to pull it without disturbing the zoa)

Right now I only have a very minor cyano, which I blast every few hours.

I thought on more fish, already have
2 clownfish
1 yellow wrasse
1 neon gobby
1 bicolor blenny

I have been researching on good additions that will not cause fighting, also at LFS have not seen many options lately, any suggestions appreciated.

 

[btmedic04]

Id look into a royal gramma and or maybe a watchman goby + pistol shrimp combo. I currently have the following in my 40b:

2x black ocellaris clown fish
2x yellow watchmen gobies (mated pair)
1x Royal gramma
1x baby yellow eye kole tang (will need rehomed or tank upgraded eventually)
1x melanarus wrasse

Everyone gets along great and my nitrates hang around 10 with a refugium, skimmer, dosing nopox and my weekly water changes.

 

[jnava19]

Thank you, will definitely look into this.

 

[jnava19]

Hello Everyone!

The tank did really great for a while, the zoas exploded at some point covering most of surface, it was great, I added some SPS...

Then last 8 months I was crazy busy with work and I couldn't continue doing all the maintenance required for the tank, and of course, I took some losses.

I reduced the time I put into the tank (tests, water changes, and general maintenance) to a minimum of replacing floss every often, replacing rodi water, testing minimum for alk, po4, no3 but maybe once a month.

Short story, I lost all of my SPS, LPS, zoas stopped doing great, first some zoas, then all of them in the course of last 6 months, 70% of zoas look still alive but not doing great, and this is progressing.
Other soft corals did great though, the leathers grew, and the GSP I had finally started growing.

Fish still looks good, I lost the wrasse, (never saw him again) clowns are good, blenny is good, shrimp is good., snails also are gone (70%) so I may need new ones. I have bit of cyano and minor algae.

Idea is to get back on track, but since I may not be able yet to put a lot of time, I want to keep only what I can with basic maintenance so no lps/sps planned soon, but planning to get some more soft ones to populate again.