My first marine tank!

[Ludders]

Good update Liv, nice to see the pics of everything

 

[sp1187]

So it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything in my build, partly because of work and partly due to some ups and downs with the tank itself.

Where to start, well the initial cycle was going well. The ammonia had spiked and then dropped back down, and the nitrite was following suit. However I had my first major reefing disaster, around the 7th day my heater broke and the tank temperature dropped to around 18 Celsius which is 64 F. As I'm sure is obvious from that it completely killed my cycle, luckily I had a backup so I dropped that in and started to warm the tank back up. This backup heater was identical to the one which broke so I ordered a new one. To be specific it is a 50w titanium heater (Amazon product) It has good reviews and looks a lot more reliable.

Here is where is should mention that my new friend and almost mentor @Ludders has been nothing less than a godsent to me. He has helped me with any issue big or small, he recommended me the new heater and everything. He even had a full water change ready for me within an hour or crying for help.

Moving on from this it was time to start again, new heater in place and how it should have been from the start. so I put in the new water Ludders had made for me (he had also put some dormant bacteria in to help jumpstart the cycle again) and began the cycle once again.

This second try seemed to happen a lot faster, probably because of the extra help Ludders had given me and also because the remnants of the previous cycle were still there and soon enough I was ready for my clean-up crew. I began with a couple of red legged hermit crabs and bought some frozen mysis shrimp as well. These little guys settled in really nicely and one even malted within a couple of days.

Fast forwarding to he Saturday just gone (2 days ago) and I purchased my first marine fish, the cutest little clownfish I have ever seen. He is no more than an inch long and has settled in incredibly. I cannot stop staring into the water and smiling now!

now it is going to be some close monitoring of the fish, inverts and water over the next few weeks and hopefully i will be able to introduce some soft corals soon.

Again none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for @Ludders I think I would have genuinely given up if he hadn't been there to help.

Also I need a name for my little clown so any suggestions would be great!

looks like a Jasper" to me.
but then I usually don't name our fish. my mrs. does.
:cool:

 

[livie508]

Good update Liv, nice to see the pics of everything

looks like a Jasper" to me.
but then I usually don't name our fish. my mrs. does.
:cool:

Thank you Ludders!!

and sp jasper is a nice name! i will keep it in mind :D

 

[livie508]

Time for another update I think!
Its been almost 2 weeks since my last one and there's a few new things happening. the first main one is I have coral!!!
I am so excited about have corals in my tank now and I cannot wait to have my own mini reef. Once again @Ludders has been helping me and supporting me and he gave me a piece of GSP out of his tank.
Now I'm well aware GSP can grow like wildfire over your rocks so I have placed it on the sand bed for now to see if it does well (I've had it over a week now and it seems to be doing great!).

I have also encountered a new somewhat issue and that is some brownish algae has started to grow, I think there's a few reasons for this:
- My clean up crew is only 3 hermit crabs right now
- I got really busy with work due to being promoted to a new role and wasn't able to clean the tank or do a water change for 10 days so some excess food built up
- The new livestock and new light have created a better environment for the algae to grow
so next step is I'm going to get some snails, a nassarius and a trochus and hopefully they help with the algae. I will see how that goes and If I need to improve my cuc more then I will do. I have also learnt how much my clownfish will eat now so I can prevent overfeeding easily and that will make a difference.

Other than that the tank feels like its going well. I would now like to start looking at some more corals and begin to populate the rocks that I have. I am thinking some zoas, mushrooms and maybe a little bit of xenia (I know this grows crazy like gsp as well so I'm undecided).
If anyone has any other suggestions then I'm all ears, bear in mind I'm focusing on soft and LPS because the tanks so small and I need anything inside to be a bit hardier in case there's any fluctuations in water quality

 

[Ludders]

Xenia will take over your tank, just stick to zoanthids and I'll give you one of those Aussie Ultra branching hammer frags once you have some coraline growth.

 

[livie508]

Xenia will take over your tank, just stick to zoanthids and I'll give you one of those Aussie Ultra branching hammer frags once you have some coraline growth.

yeah i thought that would be the case, i like the way it looks but its a shame its hard to control. Thank you!!