My first reef tank - 90 gallon

[aqva]

Here we go!

First of all I would say I'm here to learn and I'm hungry of notions and opinion
This will be a sort of diary of my journey
I'm new to reef tank, I'm in this hobby since 2 years with discrete result with freshwater tanks

My setup:

Tank 120x50x60 cm​

Red Sea RSK600​

Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0​

2 x Sicce Xstream SDC 8500​

DIY overflow​

PVC plumbing​

Inkbird ITC-308S​

2 x EHEIM Jager thermocontrol 200W​

TUNZE Osmolator 5017​

ATI Fiji White Sand​

Carib Sea Moani Dry Live Rock​

Tropic Marin Original Balling​

At the moment I miss the dosing pump and lights
I'm aiming to keep SPS corals

This is my hardscape:


My tank is almost cycled, at the moment I'm testing only ammonia, nitrites and nitrates
I started with dr. Tim fishless method

PS: don't mind the moving pump position

 

[jiffyjhn]

Welcome and looking good. I didn't see ATO In your equipment list. Might be good to add somewhere down the road. Will make your life a lot easier and better for stability

 

[aqva]

Welcome and looking good. I didn't see ATO In your equipment list. Might be good to add somewhere down the road. Will make your life a lot easier and better for stability

Thank you, I chose the TUNZE Osmolator 5017
It was the first think I bought cause I read about the pros of the ATO

 

[jiffyjhn]

Thank yoy, I chose the TUNZE Osmolator 5017
It was the first think I bought cause I read about the pros of the ATO

Ahh ok. Sorry I missed that!!

 

[aqva]

Some updates:
I chose 2 x Philips CoralCare gen2 and I’m loving them

12/02/2022 added 2 clownfish

26/02/2022 added a seastar

16/03/2022 added 3 turbo snails, 7 green/blue chromis and a cleaner shrimp

now I’m thinking to add a pair of turbosnails and maybe a pair of strombus to keeping the sand cleaner

there is an algae film on rocks and on the sand, probably I’m just on the ugly phase

the water parameters of yesterday:
Kh 8,6
Ca 400
Mg 1170
No3 10
Phosphate not detached
I should raise a little bit calcium and magnesium and phosphate then I think I can start add some corals

this is the tank atm

I’ll open a thread to ask which fish I can add, a coral beauty angel fish is already on the wish list

 

[aqva]

Yesterday I found a lot of copepods cleaning the glass
The tank is even more live

 

[aqva]

Some updates:
Added a coral beauty angelfish, one firefish and one melanurus wrasse

Nitrates was at 12 mg/l and I start dosing carbon by ATI, in 2 weeks drop down to less than 1 mg/l, maybe too low so now is at 5 mg/l

when the tank drop to <1 mg/l of nitrates the ugly algae start dying, the skimmer removed a lot of waste, rocks and sand were completely clean.

After that start diatoms, now sand, rocks and glass are covered by a brown/gold algae. I don’t have a silicate test so I don’t know why they appear after 5 months
In my RODI system I have silicate resin





patience is the key of this hobby, I just have to wait they disappear

On a live rock I noticed that, I suppose it’s and invertebrate but idk what and if it’s dangerous

 

[aqva]

On a live rock I noticed that, I suppose it’s and invertebrate but idk what and if it’s dangerous

okay it seems a zoanthus, it doesn’t fully opens probably due to low nitrates and not detectable phosphate but it’s growing