My 75 gallon reef

Fishy888 · Jan 6, 2022

Today my GSP has about 2/3 of its polyps out. My cabbage leather frags look great as do my xenia.

I discovered that my salinity was low around New Year's day. It was running about 1.021. It is up to 1.023 as of today. I simply mix up some saltwater (Reef Crystals) and put it in. It will take probably another 4 days or so to get to 1.025. I will have to get a new bucket once I get paid but my goal is 1.026 ultimately. I have just enough left to get to 1.025 which is much better.

I am attaching pics of my GSP and one of my cabbage leather frags. The blues were on and frag 2 had already begun to retract for the night. I will get a picture of it too tomorrow. The polyp extension on the cabbage leathers is better than it has been since I got them. You can really see it against the black background.

Fishy888 · Jan 8, 2022

Here is how things look today. The GSP and xenia look awesome but the cabbage leather frags are closed. I know there was a snail messing with the rock not long ago. Hopefully they will open up soon. I know that since I have been bringing up the salinity they might shed again. I am almost to 1.025 so hopefully this will be the last shed for a while.

Fishy888 · Jan 8, 2022

I forgot I turned off the circulation pumps to feed the tank. Usually I don't but I wanted the hermits to get a little frozen food. That is probably why the two cabbage leather frags are closed up. Needless to say I turned them back on.

The xenia is more like it normally is but the difference between what they looked like before I got the two pumps and when the pumps were off today is pretty clear. The polyps and the coral itself have grown tremendously compared to what they started out as.

Fishy888 · Jan 12, 2022

Sadly my GSP is developing a hole in the center where the bulk of the damaged stolons were. What was left of them died back to the mat. The mat has a hole in the center but I see some purple tissue inside the hole that may be new tissue. There was more algae on it so I cleaned it this morning. The GSP hadn't opened up to speak of in several days. I hope it opens again like it was last week. My other corals are doing well though. Sadly my hermits not so much. Three have died within the last week. I replaced them but I am wondering if they are starving because the flow doesn't allow food to settle or if they are already at the ends of their lives when I got them. Two were fully grown and the other was close. The others are doing well though. I just hope it stays that way. There are 7 hermits as of now. I also added another Mexican turbo snail so there are three. Ironically there is a patch of coralline algae on one of the original snail's shells. It has been there for a month or so and has actually grown slightly which is surprising given the high phosphates in my system. I need to get an ro/di system but it will be a couple of months until I can get one and no one within 30 miles of here sells ro/di water so I am doing all I can to keep phosphates and nitrates manageable until then.

Jimmylinny · Jan 12, 2022

This is my first saltwater tank. I’ve done freshwater for about a year and a half and I decided it was time for me to take the next step! I decided on the 120 gallon tank because I thought it was a decent starting size and I am someone who doesn’t like to upgrade and deal with tank breakdowns later on. After searching many manufactures, I settled on SC aquariums from California. Their price tag-850 for a pre-drilled eurobraced tank was amazing and free shipping too!

I had to get a couple of my friends to help me transport this tank due to the weight. Could barely get it into the back of my car to transport it .The tank looks amazing when I opened it up andi inspected for cracks and scratches and found nothing

At this point, I decided to build my own stand instead of buying it. I trust 2x4s more than the particle wood a lot of companies use and this was much cheaper than having one made. I went to Home Depot and bought the wood, the wood stain as well as polyurethane. I gave it two coats of wood stain and 2 more of polyurethane to waterproof it.

After building the stand, my next step was the sump. I looked at the prices of premade sumps and while they looked visually appealing and the build quality was very nice, the price point was just too high for me so I decided to make my own. I bought a 40 gallon breeder from petco during one of their dollar per gallon sales and visited a local glass shop for glass baffles. I had the glass baffles cut for me. I decided on a very simple sump design-first chamber being the protein skimmer, 2nd chamber for a refugium, and the third for the return section with the ato container built in.

The silicone job was pretty bad because the tube exploded in the process and I had to do the whole thing by hand Overall I’m pretty happy with the sump and it gave me plenty of space to work with. I think I spent around 150 on the sump in total-definitely better than the 400-600 on premade acrylic sumps.

At this point my next step was to make my aqua scape. I settled on using dry rocks and decided to go with a NSA styled aqua scape. I bought 100 pounds of rocks and broke them into smaller pieces.

I separated the rocks by sizes and bought 2 pounds of super glue gel, 1 pound of super glue and a bucket of emarco mortar. The process was long and tedious with some pieces coming off due to me not glueing them down properly. I first used the super glue gel to glue the rocks together for a temporary bond, giving me time to use the mortar to give it a more permanent bond. After the mortar dried, I used a mixture of sand and regular super glue liquid to further strengthen the bond of the joints and also to hide the color of the joints left vt

I was very happy with the end result.

The next step was to do the plumbing. I debated between soft and hard plumbing but decided to go hard pvc in the end because of the more permanent and durable nature. I took everyones advice and added a lot of unions. My tank is pre drilled with three holes-one drain, one emergency, and one return. I decided on the herbie overflow. I also settled in the reef octopus Vario 4 return because of the amount of reviews on how durable and quiet it was. I have to say, I can’t hear the return pump even when I put my ear to it!

There was initially a leak but after tightening the bulkheads, the leak stop and the system ran fine during the leak testing.

At this time, I had to decide what equipment I would like for the tank. First I bought a tds meter to check what my source tds was to see what stage rodi was. To my shock it was over 650! I settled on the brs 6 stage rodi and I have to say it was a good choice and I love the 2 stage di because I always forget to change out the resins on time. I had to weld a gate valve on my pipes in my basement to set it up. Also got a aquatic life booster pump because of low psi. It brought it from 40 to 105!

I had originally wanted to go cheap on the system but that idea has since been thrown out the window. For flow, I settled on 2 mp40s for the side and 2 smaller tunze pumps in back to Keep detritus off the sandbed.

For testing I bought the alkalinity, phosphate and nitrate checkers from Hanna Instruments. Especially love the alkalinity checker because of how fast it is although I have no need for it yet because I don’t have Corals yet.

For heating, I went with 2 brs titanium heaters (300 watts) and a Eheim jager (200 watt) to help out because my house is especially cold. The two titanium heaters are being controlled by a inkbird temp controller set to 78 degrees and the Eheim heater is set to 76.

For my ato system, I went with the tunze osmalator 3155 because of its countless reviews on how reliable it was.

For my protein skimmer, I decided on the simplicity 240 dc skimmer. So far it has worked very well on pulling skimmate.

Some of the more miscellaneous items I bought were micorbacter 7 and seachem stability for the cycle, fish food, the Hanna salinity checker, tunze algae magnet and a carbon reactor along with a gallon of brs rox .8 carbon.

Here is what my sump looked like after everything was set up and running. I haven’t added the doors yet

At this point I realized I had a “small” wire problem. I didn’t anticipate the amount of plugs and wires and the Medusa head of wires next to my tank grew pretty large.

I decided that I was going to build a controller board on the wall to deal with it and I also took the opportunity to build another cabinet underneath for when I will be doing two part and other things.

I think it hides the wires really well and I am very happy with it. I also added some lights to my tank for when I need to do maintenance. I just used one of my extra lights from my planted freshwater tank.

Now that everything was all set up, I started the cycle. I started it by doing 2ppms of dr Tim’s ammonia and dosing a combination of stability and micorbacter 7. I didn’t do a water change through the entire cycle-only after it was complete before adding fish. The entire cycle took 5 weeks. I dosed bacteria every day and ammonia about once a week or two.

During the cycle, I was contemplating which lights I wanted. At first I was going to go with radion xr15s. However the high price point drive me away and I bought the Reefbreeder photon v2.

The leg mounts were just temporary, I later hung the lights 16 inches from the water surface.

After the completion of the cycle, I bought two occelaris clownfish from cultivated reef. They were very healthy and started to eat after about 2 days in the tank. However, one of them died after about a week in the tank. I do not know the cause of the death because they were eating fine the night of the death and the both clownfish showed no signs of stress or disease. The surviving clown was also acting completely normal. There was also no spikes in temperature or other parameters so I can only assume it was a mysterious death.

After testing my water to make sure the death wasn’t because of an ammonia spike and to make sure my water parameters checked out, I decided to get a one spot Foxface to get ready for the ugly stage.

The foxface was very healthy. I asked for it to be fed in the lfs and it ate like a pig. It also started eating as soon as it was added to the tank. Right now I feed 2 times a day, a quarter of a cube of frozen mysis each time and I also supplement the Foxface with nori every other day.

Around 2 weeks after the fish were added, I had the first signs of diatoms

Needless to say, it got bad real fast

To help out, I decided to buy some snails and crabs from reef cleaners, they should arrive this friday and help with the diatoms.

I wasn’t exactly sure which ones to get do I got a mix. I made sure to get some that would clean the glass, some that would clean the sand as well as some that would clean the rocks. If anyone could tell me if these are good choice for a starter cuc, that would be great.

Overall I am very happy with the results so far. The entire tank build process took about 5 months, the cycle 5 weeks, and the fish have been in for around 4 weeks now. The Foxface and the clown are both slightly bigger and eat very well. There has been no problems so far since the original clown death a few weeks ago. I will definitely update this thread as I get more fish and when I get corals to actually make it a “reef tank”

tbrown · Jan 12, 2022

Jimmylinny said:
This is my first saltwater tank. I’ve done freshwater for about a year and a half and I decided it was time for me to take the next step! I decided on the 120 gallon tank because I thought it was a decent starting size and I am someone who doesn’t like to upgrade and deal with tank breakdowns later on. After searching many manufactures, I settled on SC aquariums from California. Their price tag-850 for a pre-drilled eurobraced tank was amazing and free shipping too!

I had to get a couple of my friends to help me transport this tank due to the weight. Could barely get it into the back of my car to transport it .The tank looks amazing when I opened it up andi inspected for cracks and scratches and found nothing

At this point, I decided to build my own stand instead of buying it. I trust 2x4s more than the particle wood a lot of companies use and this was much cheaper than having one made. I went to Home Depot and bought the wood, the wood stain as well as polyurethane. I gave it two coats of wood stain and 2 more of polyurethane to waterproof it.

After building the stand, my next step was the sump. I looked at the prices of premade sumps and while they looked visually appealing and the build quality was very nice, the price point was just too high for me so I decided to make my own. I bought a 40 gallon breeder from petco during one of their dollar per gallon sales and visited a local glass shop for glass baffles. I had the glass baffles cut for me. I decided on a very simple sump design-first chamber being the protein skimmer, 2nd chamber for a refugium, and the third for the return section with the ato container built in.

The silicone job was pretty bad because the tube exploded in the process and I had to do the whole thing by hand Overall I’m pretty happy with the sump and it gave me plenty of space to work with. I think I spent around 150 on the sump in total-definitely better than the 400-600 on premade acrylic sumps.

At this point my next step was to make my aqua scape. I settled on using dry rocks and decided to go with a NSA styled aqua scape. I bought 100 pounds of rocks and broke them into smaller pieces.

I separated the rocks by sizes and bought 2 pounds of super glue gel, 1 pound of super glue and a bucket of emarco mortar. The process was long and tedious with some pieces coming off due to me not glueing them down properly. I first used the super glue gel to glue the rocks together for a temporary bond, giving me time to use the mortar to give it a more permanent bond. After the mortar dried, I used a mixture of sand and regular super glue liquid to further strengthen the bond of the joints and also to hide the color of the joints left vt

I was very happy with the end result.

The next step was to do the plumbing. I debated between soft and hard plumbing but decided to go hard pvc in the end because of the more permanent and durable nature. I took everyones advice and added a lot of unions. My tank is pre drilled with three holes-one drain, one emergency, and one return. I decided on the herbie overflow. I also settled in the reef octopus Vario 4 return because of the amount of reviews on how durable and quiet it was. I have to say, I can’t hear the return pump even when I put my ear to it!

There was initially a leak but after tightening the bulkheads, the leak stop and the system ran fine during the leak testing.

At this time, I had to decide what equipment I would like for the tank. First I bought a tds meter to check what my source tds was to see what stage rodi was. To my shock it was over 650! I settled on the brs 6 stage rodi and I have to say it was a good choice and I love the 2 stage di because I always forget to change out the resins on time. I had to weld a gate valve on my pipes in my basement to set it up. Also got a aquatic life booster pump because of low psi. It brought it from 40 to 105!

I had originally wanted to go cheap on the system but that idea has since been thrown out the window. For flow, I settled on 2 mp40s for the side and 2 smaller tunze pumps in back to Keep detritus off the sandbed.

For testing I bought the alkalinity, phosphate and nitrate checkers from Hanna Instruments. Especially love the alkalinity checker because of how fast it is although I have no need for it yet because I don’t have Corals yet.

For heating, I went with 2 brs titanium heaters (300 watts) and a Eheim jager (200 watt) to help out because my house is especially cold. The two titanium heaters are being controlled by a inkbird temp controller set to 78 degrees and the Eheim heater is set to 76.

For my ato system, I went with the tunze osmalator 3155 because of its countless reviews on how reliable it was.

For my protein skimmer, I decided on the simplicity 240 dc skimmer. So far it has worked very well on pulling skimmate.

Some of the more miscellaneous items I bought were micorbacter 7 and seachem stability for the cycle, fish food, the Hanna salinity checker, tunze algae magnet and a carbon reactor along with a gallon of brs rox .8 carbon.

Here is what my sump looked like after everything was set up and running. I haven’t added the doors yet

At this point I realized I had a “small” wire problem. I didn’t anticipate the amount of plugs and wires and the Medusa head of wires next to my tank grew pretty large.

I decided that I was going to build a controller board on the wall to deal with it and I also took the opportunity to build another cabinet underneath for when I will be doing two part and other things.

I think it hides the wires really well and I am very happy with it. I also added some lights to my tank for when I need to do maintenance. I just used one of my extra lights from my planted freshwater tank.

Now that everything was all set up, I started the cycle. I started it by doing 2ppms of dr Tim’s ammonia and dosing a combination of stability and micorbacter 7. I didn’t do a water change through the entire cycle-only after it was complete before adding fish. The entire cycle took 5 weeks. I dosed bacteria every day and ammonia about once a week or two.

During the cycle, I was contemplating which lights I wanted. At first I was going to go with radion xr15s. However the high price point drive me away and I bought the Reefbreeder photon v2.

The leg mounts were just temporary, I later hung the lights 16 inches from the water surface.

After the completion of the cycle, I bought two occelaris clownfish from cultivated reef. They were very healthy and started to eat after about 2 days in the tank. However, one of them died after about a week in the tank. I do not know the cause of the death because they were eating fine the night of the death and the both clownfish showed no signs of stress or disease. The surviving clown was also acting completely normal. There was also no spikes in temperature or other parameters so I can only assume it was a mysterious death.

After testing my water to make sure the death wasn’t because of an ammonia spike and to make sure my water parameters checked out, I decided to get a one spot Foxface to get ready for the ugly stage.

The foxface was very healthy. I asked for it to be fed in the lfs and it ate like a pig. It also started eating as soon as it was added to the tank. Right now I feed 2 times a day, a quarter of a cube of frozen mysis each time and I also supplement the Foxface with nori every other day.

Around 2 weeks after the fish were added, I had the first signs of diatoms

Needless to say, it got bad real fast

To help out, I decided to buy some snails and crabs from reef cleaners, they should arrive this friday and help with the diatoms.

I wasn’t exactly sure which ones to get do I got a mix. I made sure to get some that would clean the glass, some that would clean the sand as well as some that would clean the rocks. If anyone could tell me if these are good choice for a starter cuc, that would be great.

Overall I am very happy with the results so far. The entire tank build process took about 5 months, the cycle 5 weeks, and the fish have been in for around 4 weeks now. The Foxface and the clown are both slightly bigger and eat very well. There has been no problems so far since the original clown death a few weeks ago. I will definitely update this thread as I get more fish and when I get corals to actually make it a “reef tank”

You should probably start your own build thread for this. Thanks for sharing though!

Fishy888 · Jan 13, 2022

Admittedly his tank is much more impressive than mine lol but life has happened big time since I started this tank. Thankfully there is an end in sight though it is a couple months down the road and despite not having all the equipment I would like on my system things have stayed pretty steady state. The corals and animals I have have been doing well for the most part. The exceptions being the GSP that I damaged while cleaning it recently and the three hermits that died over the last few days. The hermits were pretty mature though and the very first hermits I added 2 months ago are still doing well as are the 3 snails and fish.

I will keep persevering and things will get better. I know people probably read this thread and wonder why I didn't wait to start thin tank. My wife got me this tank for my birthday. I was looking for work but with the injuries I have sustained over the years including a TBI I can only do certain things for 8 hours a day. I had a job promised to me but they decided to not create the position. That said I will find work and it will get better but I do odd jobs and such for my friends which helps.

I am not writing this so people feel sorry for me. I am more worried about what people think of my tank and how I take care of it. Even though most would consider my system boring I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I know parameters are not the best and I am using tap water right now but once our apartment is renovated (another thing we didn't see coming. We found out in December I believe or late November) the first big ticket item will be a ro/di system. Better lighting will be next. If we are not the first to get renovated though I will get the ro/di sooner and just use temporary fittings.

The point of all this is that I care a lot about the animals I am caring for and I will find a way to get things to where they should be. In the meantime I am doing water changes and keeping things as stable as I can under the circumstances. Perseverance is key. In fact if I were to name my build it would be called Perseverance Reef.

I also hope that those who are on a shoestring budget or are going through what I am financially ATM will find solace in that they are not alone and that they can still keep soft corals, fish, and certain inverts even without a skimmer or ro/di but it is not optimal by any means. If I knew it would go the way it did I would have waited until after the holidays to start the system so I could have gotten the ro/di system even before I got the tank.

When I started this build thread I posted about getting a sump and an ATS on this tank. I am waiting on the sump until after the renovation/potential temporary move. The ATS however will be a stand alone unit built into a 13 gallon trash can. I have some grow lights I can use for lighting it. They are stronger lights than the Beamworks light I have over the tank currently. They may be too strong however since they are 300 watt lights (165 actual watts). I intend to have two screens in there though and I believe that both sides of both screens would be illuminated amply even with thick hair and/or turf algae. I am going to get some thin acrylic to make panels for the lights. I will cut out large enough windows in the sides of the trash can to allow both screens to be fully illuminated. I just have to get to roughing the screens up. I almost wonder if I could use a dremel to help rough them up. Either way I need to get started on that soon. I may not have an ro/di but the ATS would go a long way toward getting my phosphates and nitrates down.

I have two snails that have coralline in small patches and on one the patch has grown slightly. Considering the cyano that is still growing in spots and now some type of green algae that has to be scraped off the glass with a scraper, I am amazed these pink coralline spots are even holding their own much less growing.

jimmylinny your system looks awesome and I look forward to reading more about your build. I hope this post doesn't sound like I am jealous of you lol. I was going to post about the situation with my build soon anyway because I know there are a lot of people out there who read build threads like mine and think I just don't care about the creatures I keep because things ate the way they are. I am very impressed with your your system so far. Keep up the good work!

tbrown · Jan 13, 2022

Fishy888 said:
Admittedly his tank is much more impressive than mine lol but life has happened big time since I started this tank. Thankfully there is an end in sight though it is a couple months down the road and despite not having all the equipment I would like on my system things have stayed pretty steady state. The corals and animals I have have been doing well for the most part. The exceptions being the GSP that I damaged while cleaning it recently and the three hermits that died over the last few days. The hermits were pretty mature though and the very first hermits I added 2 months ago are still doing well as are the 3 snails and fish.

I will keep persevering and things will get better. I know people probably read this thread and wonder why I didn't wait to start thin tank. My wife got me this tank for my birthday. I was looking for work but with the injuries I have sustained over the years including a TBI I can only do certain things for 8 hours a day. I had a job promised to me but they decided to not create the position. That said I will find work and it will get better but I do odd jobs and such for my friends which helps.

I am not writing this so people feel sorry for me. I am more worried about what people think of my tank and how I take care of it. Even though most would consider my system boring I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I know parameters are not the best and I am using tap water right now but once our apartment is renovated (another thing we didn't see coming. We found out in December I believe or late November) the first big ticket item will be a ro/di system. Better lighting will be next. If we are not the first to get renovated though I will get the ro/di sooner and just use temporary fittings.

The point of all this is that I care a lot about the animals I am caring for and I will find a way to get things to where they should be. In the meantime I am doing water changes and keeping things as stable as I can under the circumstances. Perseverance is key. In fact if I were to name my build it would be called Perseverance Reef.

I also hope that those who are on a shoestring budget or are going through what I am financially ATM will find solace in that they are not alone and that they can still keep soft corals, fish, and certain inverts even without a skimmer or ro/di but it is not optimal by any means. If I knew it would go the way it did I would have waited until after the holidays to start the system so I could have gotten the ro/di system even before I got the tank.

When I started this build thread I posted about getting a sump and an ATS on this tank. I am waiting on the sump until after the renovation/potential temporary move. The ATS however will be a stand alone unit built into a 13 gallon trash can. I have some grow lights I can use for lighting it. They are stronger lights than the Beamworks light I have over the tank currently. They may be too strong however since they are 300 watt lights (165 actual watts). I intend to have two screens in there though and I believe that both sides of both screens would be illuminated amply even with thick hair and/or turf algae. I am going to get some thin acrylic to make panels for the lights. I will cut out large enough windows in the sides of the trash can to allow both screens to be fully illuminated. I just have to get to roughing the screens up. I almost wonder if I could use a dremel to help rough them up. Either way I need to get started on that soon. I may not have an ro/di but the ATS would go a long way toward getting my phosphates and nitrates down.

I have two snails that have coralline in small patches and on one the patch has grown slightly. Considering the cyano that is still growing in spots and now some type of green algae that has to be scraped off the glass with a scraper, I am amazed these pink coralline spots are even holding their own much less growing.

jimmylinny your system looks awesome and I look forward to reading more about your build. I hope this post doesn't sound like I am jealous of you lol. I was going to post about the situation with my build soon anyway because I know there are a lot of people out there who read build threads like mine and think I just don't care about the creatures I keep because things ate the way they are. I am very impressed with your your system so far. Keep up the good work!

Look into @noopsyche lights. They're great lights without breaking the bank. You can check out @BroccoliFarmer build thread (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/48x24x16-lowboy-build.859211/) for an excellent write up and review of the lights. There are several other users on this forum (@Gtinnel and myself) as well. @noopsyche has been very generous in their giveaways throughout the past couple of years and I expect they will continue to be in the coming year so you may have opportunity to win a light or a gift card from them. Keep up the good work and if others think your tank is boring they can go look at their own. It's for your enjoyment amigo!

Fishy888 · Jan 13, 2022

I appreciate that. I also know I am not the only reefer in my situation. Things will get better. It is my hope that in the future when my reef is doing really well that someone reading this build thread will read all this and see that things can and do get better.

Fishy888 · Jan 13, 2022

I just had a look at my tank this morning. The GSP is still completely closed. I saw some polyp like things in between the stolons attached to the mat. I am wondering if they are hydroids. My phone's camera won't get a good picture. They could also be some type of algae but they definitely aren't aiptasia. There have to be at least 10 of them.

The water is a bit cloudy as well due to the fact that I started sugar dosing yesterday. I am going to alternate between that and white vinegar. The bacteria will feed the corals and hopefully other good fauna as well. I realize I am probably feeding some bad bacteria also so I am watching things. The potential nitrate and phosphate reduction as well as free coral food should be beneficial overall to the system.

I will also be looking to see if anyone has some mushrooms and colt coral and/or kenya tree frags. I also wouldn't mind yellow button polyps. I want to get some fast growing soft corals in here because they help with nutrient export and they look good doing it. If by chance someone in Central Illinois is reading this and has frags of any of these please let me know. I will also check out some of the sellers on here as well.

Jimmylinny · Jan 13, 2022

Fishy888 said:
Admittedly his tank is much more impressive than mine lol but life has happened big time since I started this tank. Thankfully there is an end in sight though it is a couple months down the road and despite not having all the equipment I would like on my system things have stayed pretty steady state. The corals and animals I have have been doing well for the most part. The exceptions being the GSP that I damaged while cleaning it recently and the three hermits that died over the last few days. The hermits were pretty mature though and the very first hermits I added 2 months ago are still doing well as are the 3 snails and fish.

I will keep persevering and things will get better. I know people probably read this thread and wonder why I didn't wait to start thin tank. My wife got me this tank for my birthday. I was looking for work but with the injuries I have sustained over the years including a TBI I can only do certain things for 8 hours a day. I had a job promised to me but they decided to not create the position. That said I will find work and it will get better but I do odd jobs and such for my friends which helps.

I am not writing this so people feel sorry for me. I am more worried about what people think of my tank and how I take care of it. Even though most would consider my system boring I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I know parameters are not the best and I am using tap water right now but once our apartment is renovated (another thing we didn't see coming. We found out in December I believe or late November) the first big ticket item will be a ro/di system. Better lighting will be next. If we are not the first to get renovated though I will get the ro/di sooner and just use temporary fittings.

The point of all this is that I care a lot about the animals I am caring for and I will find a way to get things to where they should be. In the meantime I am doing water changes and keeping things as stable as I can under the circumstances. Perseverance is key. In fact if I were to name my build it would be called Perseverance Reef.

I also hope that those who are on a shoestring budget or are going through what I am financially ATM will find solace in that they are not alone and that they can still keep soft corals, fish, and certain inverts even without a skimmer or ro/di but it is not optimal by any means. If I knew it would go the way it did I would have waited until after the holidays to start the system so I could have gotten the ro/di system even before I got the tank.

When I started this build thread I posted about getting a sump and an ATS on this tank. I am waiting on the sump until after the renovation/potential temporary move. The ATS however will be a stand alone unit built into a 13 gallon trash can. I have some grow lights I can use for lighting it. They are stronger lights than the Beamworks light I have over the tank currently. They may be too strong however since they are 300 watt lights (165 actual watts). I intend to have two screens in there though and I believe that both sides of both screens would be illuminated amply even with thick hair and/or turf algae. I am going to get some thin acrylic to make panels for the lights. I will cut out large enough windows in the sides of the trash can to allow both screens to be fully illuminated. I just have to get to roughing the screens up. I almost wonder if I could use a dremel to help rough them up. Either way I need to get started on that soon. I may not have an ro/di but the ATS would go a long way toward getting my phosphates and nitrates down.

I have two snails that have coralline in small patches and on one the patch has grown slightly. Considering the cyano that is still growing in spots and now some type of green algae that has to be scraped off the glass with a scraper, I am amazed these pink coralline spots are even holding their own much less growing.

jimmylinny your system looks awesome and I look forward to reading more about your build. I hope this post doesn't sound like I am jealous of you lol. I was going to post about the situation with my build soon anyway because I know there are a lot of people out there who read build threads like mine and think I just don't care about the creatures I keep because things ate the way they are. I am very impressed with your your system so far. Keep up the good work!

I wish you good luck on your system. I posted my build because I wanted to show you an example of something that I did. Wasn’t trying to flex or anything lol. This is my first tank so I’m trying to do it right. Again, good luck on your tank!

tbrown · Jan 13, 2022

Jimmylinny said:
I wish you good luck on your system. I posted my build because I wanted to show you an example of something that I did. Wasn’t trying to flex or anything lol. This is my first tank so I’m trying to do it right. Again, good luck on your tank!

Fishy888 · Jan 13, 2022

Lol I knew you weren't flexing. I really am impressed with your setup and I look forward to reading more about it as your build progresses.

I posted about some issues with my reef yesterday. I was going to post about my situation anyway because I know that my tank doesn't look pretty and I have had it running for about 2 1/2 months now. Some take that as a sign that the tank isn't being cared for properly and such. It is not where I want it to be yet but it will get there.

I am fortunate that my tank is doing as well as it is though. I counted all my hermits tonight and I actually have 8 still alive instead of 7. The water is cloudy because of the sugar dosing. I noticed 5 of my hermits on one rock tonight probably eating the bacterial film on the rock. My fish are doing well also. There doesn't appear to be a lack of oxygen in there since the clownfish are acting normal.

tbrown · Jan 13, 2022

Fishy888 said:
Lol I knew you weren't flexing. I really am impressed with your setup and I look forward to reading more about it as your build progresses.

I posted about some issues with my reef yesterday. I was going to post about my situation anyway because I know that my tank doesn't look pretty and I have had it running for about 2 1/2 months now. Some take that as a sign that the tank isn't being cared for properly and such. It is not where I want it to be yet but it will get there.

I am fortunate that my tank is doing as well as it is though. I counted all my hermits tonight and I actually have 8 still alive instead of 7. The water is cloudy because of the sugar dosing. I noticed 5 of my hermits on one rock tonight probably eating the bacterial film on the rock. My fish are doing well also. There doesn't appear to be a lack of oxygen in there since the clownfish are acting normal.

2 and a half months isn't through the ugly stage yet. It's all uphill!

Fishy888 · Jan 13, 2022

tbrown3589 said:
2 and a half months isn't through the ugly stage yet. It's all uphill!

That is true. The ugly stage I don't mind but I lost 3 hermits within the last week and the GSP did not open for a second day in a row.

I believe that the hermits may well have been near the end of life when I got them. They were at their full size and they were picking at algae not long before I found them dead. One had wedged itself in a crevice way too small for the shell it was carrying. It took about 5 minutes to get it unstuck.

The GSP declined some since I attempted to clean them a couple weeks ago. I gave them a gentler cleaning and I didn't damage any stolons on Monday. Still they haven't opened at all for the last 2 days. I have them in a spot with higher flow than they were getting but they are not getting blasted by the flow either. The good news is that the mat is still a vibrant purple color.

I am going to leave things alone for now and keep going with the sugar dosing. The xenia seem to be loving it. The tentacles are extended much more but the polyps are not straining to reach the light or anything. It is the tentacles that are extending more. This is the healthiest I have ever seen them.

Fishy888 · Jan 14, 2022

My GSP has a single polyp out finally. The tank has cleared up as well. The carbon dosing will hopefully help bring the excess nutrients down along with water changes. I have to believe my corals are taking in some of the bacteria so carbon dosing will help in that area also. The rest of my corals, inverts, and fish are doing good as well.

So far I see no ill effects from the dosing but this is only day 3. I dosed 1 teaspoon in the morning yesterday and the day before. This morning I dosed 1/2 of a teaspoon of sugar and tonight I will do a teaspoon of vinegar. After that I will start mixing enough of a combination of vinegar and sugar together in water for each day so I can dose half in the morning and half in the afternoon.

I don't expect nitrates and phosphates to magically disappear but it will help slowly bring them down and my corals and potentially my inverts will get a nice snack out of it.

Fishy888 · Jan 15, 2022

It seems that I have 10 hermits still living and not just 8. When I found the 3 dead crabs out of their shells I could only count 7 still alive. Yesterday I spotted an 8th crab. Today I found 8 crabs that were on one rock. Then I saw 2 more living crabs. One on an adjacent rock and one on the substrate. I made sure that all 10 were alive and active. They were and are all alive. I feel quite encouraged.

So if there are still 10 living crabs where did the other crabs come from? I have a theory. As I have been upping the amount of crabs I have also been buying shells out of the same tank as the hermits are in at the LFS. The first reason for buying those shells are that obviously the hermits need them. The second reason is that since the saltwater tanks at the LFS are quite established the shells should carry some of the beneficial bacteria from that tank. I have a feeling there were some dead crabs in the shells I bought. Most likely as the living hermits went to take the shells I bought them they pulled out the dead crabs and moved in. I would never have known they were in those shells if my hermits hadn't taken the shells over.

As of today my GSP still has only the one polyp out. The xenia looks awesome. The cabbage leather corals have had hermits walking all over them. The rock with the cabbage leathers is where the 8 hermits are. They haven't taken the slightest nibble out of the cabbage leathers but one is shedding and the other is only halfway extended because of the crabs. I assume they are there to eat the mucus from the shedding leather. Then again that rock is the cleanest in the tank so there are likely other things the hermits are eating there.

I am extremely grateful the 10 crabs are still doing well. I am excited to see the coralline growing on the snails' shells. I am attaching 2 pictures. The first is a picture of the coralline on one snail's shell. It has doubled in the last week or so. The second is of the rock with the crabs on it.

tbrown · Jan 15, 2022

Fishy888 said:
It seems that I have 10 hermits still living and not just 8. When I found the 3 dead crabs out of their shells I could only count 7 still alive. Yesterday I spotted an 8th crab. Today I found 8 crabs that were on one rock. Then I saw 2 more living crabs. One on an adjacent rock and one on the substrate. I made sure that all 10 were alive and active. They were and are all alive. I feel quite encouraged.

So if there are still 10 living crabs where did the other crabs come from? I have a theory. As I have been upping the amount of crabs I have also been buying shells out of the same tank as the hermits are in at the LFS. The first reason for buying those shells are that obviously the hermits need them. The second reason is that since the saltwater tanks at the LFS are quite established the shells should carry some of the beneficial bacteria from that tank. I have a feeling there were some dead crabs in the shells I bought. Most likely as the living hermits went to take the shells I bought them they pulled out the dead crabs and moved in. I would never have known they were in those shells if my hermits hadn't taken the shells over.

As of today my GSP still has only the one polyp out. The xenia looks awesome. The cabbage leather corals have had hermits walking all over them. The rock with the cabbage leathers is where the 8 hermits are. They haven't taken the slightest nibble out of the cabbage leathers but one is shedding and the other is only halfway extended because of the crabs. I assume they are there to eat the mucus from the shedding leather. Then again that rock is the cleanest in the tank so there are likely other things the hermits are eating there.

I am extremely grateful the 10 crabs are still doing well. I am excited to see the coralline growing on the snails' shells. I am attaching 2 pictures. The first is a picture of the coralline on one snail's shell. It has doubled in the last week or so. The second is of the rock with the crabs on it.

Hermit crabs molt their old "skin" (exoskeleton) as do shrimp and other crabs. It almost looks like a dead crab.

Fishy888 · Jan 15, 2022

I know but the bodies were decidedly meaty looking when they were fished from the tank. It looked like something had nibbled on them. That said I will look to see what the most look like. You may well be right.