My First Build - That Salt Life

[00_XJ]

Greetings! This is my first saltwater/reef tank I have ever attempted.

A little background:
I have had numerous African Cichlid tanks and other assorted freshwater tanks over the last 10 years, and have finally (after watching the BRS 160 build series a few times) decided that I am going to attempt to build a reef tank! I have done a few weeks of research with browsing the forums and build threads, talking with my LFS, and watching the endless posts in a few FB groups that I feel ready to start this process.

My goal for now is to get to a point that I am able to successfully maintain some of the easier types of corals and maybe 1 or 2 SPS along with a few easier to care for fish. The overall end game for the next few years is to prove that I can succeed with a reef at all, and progress to a new saltwater display tank over my current African Cichlid tank in my living room.

So for the actual build I am starting with the following:

Fluval Evo 13.5 AIO Kit
Hydor 50W Heater
2x Hydor Koralia Nano 240GPH Powerheads
InTank Chamber 2 Media Basket
Coralife Media Bags (Seachem Seagel in 1 and Purigen in the other)
Polyfilter Mechanical Media
12 Gallons of saltwater from my LFS
15lbs of Live Rock
10lbs of Carib Sea Ocean Direct Sand
Coralife Digital Power Center
Red Sea Marine Care Test Kit
Red Sea Reef Foundation Test Kit
Red Sea Reef Mature Starter Kit


Eventually, when I get to the point of having the cycle complete and am ready to start adding livestock/CUC, I will look at adding the Protein Skimmer and Hydor Wave Maker/Controller. Also I know the lighting in its current form will not support SPS, and I do have plans to upgrade that as well (assuming I make it to that point).

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

My Red Sea Testing and Startup Kit are not supposed to get delivered until tomorrow, so that's when I will be able to start the actual cycle.

I am aware that starting out with this small of a water volume opens me up to possible issues with stability, but my view on it is if I can succeed with a small tank like this, and keep it thriving, than moving to a much larger tank (over 10x this volume) should prove to be a somewhat easier task!

Thank you all for looking at my first build thread and I look forward to your thoughts/comments!

 

[aKlevans]

I'm liking the aquascape!

 

[hwntunda]

Nice setup, take things slow as nothing good comes from rushing

 

[LBReefer]

Great job on the 'scape. I feel like the small tanks really open themselves to a bit more artistry.

 

[00_XJ]

I'm liking the aquascape!

Thanks! Should be plenty of spots with varied heights for corals

 

[00_XJ]

Nice setup, take things slow as nothing good comes from rushing

Thank you! I am not trying to rush, I had the tank about a month before even getting this far. Hopefully I'll be able to add some CUC in about 30 days and see how it goes from there.

 

[00_XJ]

Great job on the 'scape. I feel like the small tanks really open themselves to a bit more artistry.

Thanks! I feel like most of the pictures I have seen of this tank had the scape so low, like there was no height dimension inside the tank and I was trying to avoid that. Glad people seem to be liking it!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Agree with everyone else, great looking scape!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks like a great start. Welcome to R2R!

 

[00_XJ]

Agree with everyone else, great looking scape!

Thanks! Glad the scape is getting so much love!

 

[00_XJ]

Looks like a great start. Welcome to R2R!

Thank you!!

 

[SPR1968]

Firstly welcome to R2R @00_XJ !

The tanks looking great so far and I love the design of the rockwork.

And as you’ve probably guessed. We love, sorry NEED pictures on R2R! Lol

 

[sneub]

Welcome aboard

 

[00_XJ]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

So after a few weeks, I figured it was time for an update! The one thing that ended up changing from my original post was I have used Seachem Stability for my start up instead of the Red Sea kit, it came damaged and I already had some Stability on hand anyway, so I just kicked it off with that instead.

Over the last few weeks, I have encountered quite a number of interesting events... About a week after getting everything up and running, I had my first of many types of algae make home in my tank.. First we had Bryopsis!

After it spread for about 3 or 4 days, and testing my water every other day I felt it was safe enough to start to build my CUC. I started with 5 small Nassarius Snails, 1 each of a Trochus and Cerith Snails, and a Emerald Crab. Well within 8 to 10 hours, the Emerald crab devoured every bit of Bryopsis in sight and it has yet to return! Also my Nassarius snails took care of all the Diatoms that were on the sand. Ahhh Me - 1, Marine Algae - 0!


Next on the Algae Trials, was Green/Brown Hair Algae!

This stuff... Now this stuff spread through the tank like wildfire...

This is about a 24 hour difference...

Well once this started, I expanded my CUC to add 3 Dwarf Blue Hermit Crabs, 2 Emerald Crabs, and a few more Trochus Snails (3 I believe) I also did a 40% water change and scrubbed some of the longer strands of algae off to make it more manageable for my critters to take care of. (Advise from my LFS).


Well another week or so later, everything has settled down. Parameter have been holding steady, and algae blooms have been taken care of.

My parameters are averaging as following:

Salinity = 1.024
PH = 7.8 in the morning, and 8.1 to 8.2 before the lights go out
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5 to 10
Calcium = 390 to 410
Alk = 10.5 to 11.5
Magnesium has been running high since the beginning at around = 1500


So I feel like this may or may not have been a bad idea, but I made a few impulse buys from my LFS for the 4th of July sale this morning!!!

A leather and 2 Polyps!!!
I have acclimated them with drip acclimation for about an hour, and then cut them off the frags and used epoxy to attach them to the rocks. They seem to be doing well (I know its early to say that, but both the polyps have opened up completely now).

Also the wife and I intend on getting a clown fish this weekend.

Thank you everyone for your support so far and I really do look forward to your critiques, comments, and just general advice!


Last picture for this post, I promise...

PS... I realize now looking at this, somewhere in between all of that I also got 3 Bumblebee snails!!

EDIT::

P.S.S my Fluval PS2 Protein Skimmer, as well as a pair of Current Pro Lumen Actinic light strips should be coming this week! Time to do another upgrade on this tank!