My first Reef, 30 Gal.

Bones6966

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Im imprtting my jornal I had started on another forum. I hope that's ok.
Jornal started about a month ago.


My tank was fit with the following

Lighting - NICREW Saltwater Aquarium Light, Marine LED Fish Tank Light for Coral Reef Tanks, 2-Channel Timer Included, 24 to 30-Inch, 24-Watt - amazon

Canister Filter- Aqueon QuietFlow Canister Filter up to 55 Gallons

Heater - Orlushy Submersible Aquarium Heater 300W

Substrate - Crushed coral 2"

Live Rock -10Lbs from local fish store tank. Loads of algy and hitchhikers living on rock.

Fish - 6 Mollies and about 7 guppies, Pair of clowns

Invert- Emerald Crab, Small hermit crab, 4 asterina starfish, 2 Limpets, 2 fuzzie small yellowish sponges, and a small clam on the first rock I bought he is doing well so far a month in.

Coral - Green Zoanthid, Pulsating Xenia, Ricordea Mushroom, Duncan Polyp.

Mu Reef - https://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/bones6966/1


I started out with a fresh water tank. After finding out that mollies can guppies do just fine in salt water I decided to slowly convert the tank to salt. I Enjoy these fish and have always wanted a reef ecosystem.
I was having a bit of an issue with the cycle but it is getting much better now.
My plan would be to add a mushroom or two and see how I manage with them. Once they thrive might add another peace of another kind and so on.
Also once the cycle is stable ill add a bit more of a clean up crew and maybe a larger starfish or something.
That's about it I think. I will add as things change,

What do ya think?

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Bones6966

Bones6966

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After 4 days


Ammonia is down to 0 yay!

I went to ly LFS and brought a bottle of my tank water. The put it threw the whole gambit of tests for me as I did not trust my ammonia test.
But alkalinity is high as well as phosphates.

Game plan is as follows:
Use kolar GFO Phosphate reducer in my filter to avoid the algi nightmare.
Stop using tap water! a water store down the road sells 5gal of RODI water for like $3 so I will keep two of these on hand and use them for water changes/top ups.
This will require me to pre heat the water before doing a change but that's fine to protect my little dudes.

For now the plan remains fix water, add my first coral, a Mushroom or Xina (They will be put on an island and left to take over, saving the main rock display for future decorations.) and add my pair of clowns. I want my first coral to be one that will grow fast and take over there island, showing me I can do it haha

After the island is full and I'm comfortable I will start to decorate the main rock display.
I would like to have a nice mix of colors and species of coral on the main rock. but will need to do a lot of research before I know what I want.
 
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Bones6966

Bones6966

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After 10 days


Upgraded to a canister filter.
First stage is coarse filter sponge followed by filter floss.
Second stage is activated carbon and GFO.
Third being ceramic bio media.

Tank is crystal clear and numbers looking good.
Got my first coral in the tank now. Some green polyp coral. They are all open and looking fantastic.

I have had an issue with my clean up crew, mainly the large snails (not sure what they are called.). I came down in the morning and they appeared to have fallen off the glass and got stuck upside down. I righted them over and they did it again that day. They then proceeded to die. I had to clean the shells out so they don't effect the tank.

Other than that all is well in aquarium land. I am thinking of cannibalising my Large hang on back aqueon filter. I was thinking of cutting the filter stage up and using some left over Lexan I have at work to make a makeshift hang on back refugium. With some live rock/sand, maybe a copepod population and some macro algae to help reduce the algae I'm having in the tank.
The algae is not a huge issue at the moment but looks like it might keep going so I'm not sure on how to proceed on this front so far. I will have to do some more forum scouring to figure it out. My original plan was to have a sump but room and engineering it is kind of a hold up at the moment so this will have to do.

I'm not even sure if people read this or not but anyof the more experienced reefers that would like to add in there 2c/comments/critiques are more than welcome.
 
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Bones6966

Bones6966

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Today!


I obtained two more types of coral today, a Duncan Polyp, and a Ricordea Mushroom.
I rearranged the tank a bit to give them a bit better flow and im overall happy with how its all looking.

I'm still having Phosphates troubles but I'm trying a new brand of GFO and using a small HOB filter as a makeshift reactor. Hopefully I can get this algae under control soon, I'm just lucky that the Mollies love to eat it and are keeping it far from plague levels of algae. If I'm able to maintain low levels of phosphates I have to figure out how to remove the algae that is already on the rocks and not coming off with a toothbrush. I think I read something about dosing peroxide but will need more research.

Other than that I would love to try fragging my green Zoas. I would like to move a bunch of them off the rubble they came on, and onto my rocks. but I'll need glue and a good razor. I would like to move the rest to frag plugs and see if I can start a few more colones. I also don't think my Xenia enjoy being moved around. One or two of the heads seem to look pitiful compared to the rest of them and might be dying.

All fish and inverts are happy. Mollies are spitting out more Fry as per usual, Clowns are growing nicely. One of my hermit crabs made a poor choice of a new home and seems to struggle to move around but I'll keep an eye on him.

As a side note, I am still dealing with white bacteria blooms/cloudy water every time I do a water change. I'm assuming it is coming from the high phosphates.
I dream of the day I can have crystal clear water. #tankgoals
 

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