My First Reef tank (Aquatop 40g)

[callme10k]

Hey everyone, my name is Keoni

Yes, I admit I just caught the Reef bug as I’m sitting here 4am, joining these forums and Facebook groups to find a community because none of my friends are into the hobby. All they think about is Deuce Bigalow when it comes to reefing lol.

So my first build, idk anything about this hobby, I’m learning and I’m a good hobbyist cause i really dive in, nothing half done! I decided to go to my LFS to look at tanks, and saw a great deal for the All in One Aquatop Recife eco 40g, it was $600 for a brand new one, not bad as I can’t even find anything online close to that price with the same brand.

I started everything on the day I got it, Dec 20th, going on my 16th day now.

Day 1-3 :
Built aquascape and put water in. Also put in Fritz Turbo Start (2 bottles), no fish just sand and live rock.

Day 4 - 5
- Realized I didn’t secure my aquascape, so I took it out after I put water in. ‍
- after putting it back in, I didn’t like the decorative fake coral rock thing, so I left it out.
- I really like the multiple caves I was able to get with this aquascape especially the side opening and the p

Day 6:
Ammonia Levels hit 0, nitrite and nitrate still high.

Day 7:
- Added 4 Chromis, 1 died in 30 minutes. Other 3 stayed in the corner
- Added 3 snails and 3 hermit crabs

Day 8:
- Kessil A360x light came in!
- Added my first Zoas and did a Calcium, salinity, Alkilinity, Phospate, and Magnesium test. All of which were very close to ideal parameters.
- The green Chromis starting to swim around and doesn’t sit in corner

Day 10:
I decided to roll the dice and get a pair of black clown fish after seeing the Chromis swalso Added more corals:
- Candy Cane Trumpet
- Orange Lobo

- Green Goni

Day 12:
I couldn’t help it and I bought a Torch, and it’s looking great!! I also grabbed a few more Zoas:
- Bam Bam
- Green Bay Packers

Day 13:
I’m pretty sure I’m getting too many things too fast, but I ended up also getting a Purple Goby. I’m testing my levels every other day to make sure they’re ok. The purple goby is my favorite fish in my tank but he always hides.

Day 14:
I didn’t see any algae before I went to bed the night before then in the morning I came to discover algae all over my sand bed.
- With this I immediately bought more nassarius snails and hermit crabs. I think I have 7 total snails, 5 hermit crabs, and 1 cleaner shrimp.

This photo is the night before the algae bloom. But pretty much what my current tank looks like.

I’ll continue to update my progress!

 

[callme10k]

Also at the point of wanting to upgrade my pump and filter. I’m sure this black sponge thing isn’t good. I have an All in One Aquatop 40 gallon, and I haven’t found any cartridges specifically made for my tank. Any advice on this would be great!

 

[longbeachjw]

Couldn’t find any myself.
obpulled the slinger and cut strips of all in one filter paper and placed it in that chamber. Change it out every couple days.
Recommended by my lfs

 

[jeffrey750750]

Go slow, nothing good happens fast in a reef

 

[Neffly4u]

Love the setup! Just picked myself up the same tank for the same reason! Also one thing with the fritz. You have to add livestock immediately after adding it to give the bacteria a food source or you have to dose ammonia but it isn't as easy.

I'm actually in the process of building a media basket for this tank if you're interested head over here and let me know!

AIO Build - Aquatop 40 Recife AIO media basket

Hello! New to reefing and picked myself up a Aquatop Recife 40 AIO. Upon doing some research I realized people recommend ditching the included sponge filter and replacing it with Filter floss and some Matrix or Chemipure Blue. Should be easy right? just head on over to InTankAquatics and....oh...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[DeniseAndy]

Nice work. If you added truly live rock, you should not have had a cycle really. Still will get the icks on the sand, it happens on and off a lot.
I like the aquascape.
Looksl ike you have lots to let grow out for a bit. Do you think you want any other fishes? What corals are you thinking? Any other inverts you especially like?

 

[callme10k]

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, I’m officially on my 3rd month, so I think this would be a great time for a Reef Update! Tank is getting fuller as my pockets get emptie

Last time I posted it was my 2 1/2 week point, so a lot has changed. I’ve decided to re arrange my aquascape again before I attended the Coral Farmer’s Market in The Bay Area and Los Angeles and ended up buying a lot of coral. They had some amazing deals. There were some crazy high end stuff but I’m waiting for my tank to be super stable before I waste away my money.


I started mixing my own water a month ago using Red Sea’s Coral Salt Pro, which shot up my Alkalinity (12.3) and Calcium(560), but now my salinity is stable at 35ppm, before it kept dropping to 29 and going back to 32 when I was using the water from my LFS. I’d like my alk at 8 and my Calcium at 450, and last time I checked my Alk was at 9.7 and Calcium was 475. So I think I’ll be at a stable condition soon. A couple weeks after I bought my salt I went ahead and got myself a RODI unit, which is awesome but now I’m thinking about my water Bill because it does use up a lot of water for the filtered water to generate.



I also got a Phosban Reactor 150 from Two Little Fish, though I think I got overcharged for it, but it does wonders. My tank had crazy phosphate levels, .4-.6 for about a month, then when I installed the reactor it went from .3 then .2 and now I’m currently at .08. I like to feed a lot and also I do have a good amount of fish, if not too much. I also built my own media tray out of an egg crate, but i am looking for something better, it does work for now. I also started dosing copapods into the tank for my mandarin and dragonette.


Current Fish (newest to oldest)
- Small Blue Tang (I’m upgrading to a bigger tank in a couple months)
- Yellow Watchman Goby
- Mandarin Goby
- Maroon Lightning Clownfish
- 2x Black clownfish (want to get rid of)
- 1x Blue Chromis (can’t catch this guy)
- Firefish goby
- Dragonette

New Corals:
- Aussie Gold torch
- Purple Indo torch Blue Tip
- Bleeding Apple Scoly
- Reverse Bleeding Apple Scoly
- Peach Frammer
- Space Invader
- Birdsnest
- Pink frogspawn
- GSC Rainbow chalice
- GSC Tutti Frutti Torch
- Mummy Eye Chalice
- Orange digi
- Green Difi
- Fireworks
- meteor shower

Next thing I’m looking to do is get my sump and refugium started, I have a heavy bio load so I’m trying to keep up with it, I suck with taking fish out the tank cause I can never catch them so I’m trying to maintain. I also want to change up my aquascape again.

Here's a quick video of the tank!

 

[callme10k]

Love the setup! Just picked myself up the same tank for the same reason! Also one thing with the fritz. You have to add livestock immediately after adding it to give the bacteria a food source or you have to dose ammonia but it isn't as easy.

I'm actually in the process of building a media basket for this tank if you're interested head over here and let me know!

AIO Build - Aquatop 40 Recife AIO media basket

Hello! New to reefing and picked myself up a Aquatop Recife 40 AIO. Upon doing some research I realized people recommend ditching the included sponge filter and replacing it with Filter floss and some Matrix or Chemipure Blue. Should be easy right? just head on over to InTankAquatics and....oh...

www.reef2reef.com

wow bro I just checked it out!!! I need it, let me know how much!

 

[callme10k]

Nice work. If you added truly live rock, you should not have had a cycle really. Still will get the icks on the sand, it happens on and off a lot.
I like the aquascape.
Looksl ike you have lots to let grow out for a bit. Do you think you want any other fishes? What corals are you thinking? Any other inverts you especially like?

I realized it wasn't live rock since it was dry and sitting on their shelf, it wasn't in water, my cycle is still going imo because i'm not fully stable like I want. I grabbed a lot of small coral so I can see it grow, as far as fishes I kind of went OD and got a few(i'm done purchasing fish till I upgrade), check out my new updated post!

 

[longbeachjw]

Man. Lots going on in your tank. Hope you have a bigger one already on order.
Let me know how you decide to arrange media baskets. Right now in my one I have the bottom one with stock quartz rings (no real value since I have 35lbs of live rock)
And one basket with some filter bags and a couple phox cubes. Might need to look into that reactor.
I thought of getting an rodi but my lfs has rodi water for 35cents a gal and It’s right on my way to work. I need about 15gal a week or so.

Mix my own salt and do a 10 gal change a week.

Running fallow right now. All my fish but 1 died of velvet. He’s in qt at my lfs. Watchman goby.
very very very tough hitting that wall watching everything die.
Below is photo fallow tank currently. Need to run like this at least for 6 weeks.
Just added a Duncan and want to add a sun coral this week.
Photo also showing clowns before they succumbed.
Waiting for my boy @Neffly4u to make me a media basket.

 

[callme10k]

Man. Lots going on in your tank. Hope you have a bigger one already on order.
Let me know how you decide to arrange media baskets. Right now in my one I have the bottom one with stock quartz rings (no real value since I have 35lbs of live rock)
And one basket with some filter bags and a couple phox cubes. Might need to look into that reactor.
I thought of getting an rodi but my lfs has rodi water for 35cents a gal and It’s right on my way to work. I need about 15gal a week or so.

Mix my own salt and do a 10 gal change a week.

Running fallow right now. All my fish but 1 died of velvet. He’s in qt at my lfs. Watchman goby.
very very very tough hitting that wall watching everything die.
Below is photo fallow tank currently. Need to run like this at least for 6 weeks.
Just added a Duncan and want to add a sun coral this week.
Photo also showing clowns before they succumbed.
Waiting for my boy @Neffly4u to make me a media basket.

Yeah i'm debating if running my own RODI is more expensive on my water bill than just buying it from my LFS down the street. Sucks losing fish, I've lost a blenny before it wasn't eating at all. The phosban reactor is great, im still new and I don't even know what velvet is lol