My First Reef

[Donald Beckwith]

Hello,

I am starting my first reef and wanted to share my journey. I know some of the things I'm doing aren't best practice but it's what I think is best with my budget. I am using a standard rimmed 29 gallon. For filtration I am using a HOB 1 gallon refugeium and an AC50. I have a 150watt heater in the tank. I bought a light from Ebay it is an Aqua Illumination hydra 26 non HD unfortunately it does have 2 of the violet lights burnt out. I have added 2 live rock and about 25lbs of dry rock and 20lbs of carb sea live sand. I added the water and salt. I created my own DIY ATO. My next step is to figure out a way to mount my light. I have been running it with water for 2 weeks now and wanna wait t I add corals. I have an idea of what I wanna add but want to get an idea of the light first. This is half of an aquascape I am also working on a freshwater setup that meets this peak in the same 29 gallon next to it. I would love any feedback, especially thoughts on the light.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Welcome. Looking good. Just a thought, you may want to move the rocks a bit away from the glass to give you room to clean. Keep updating pics and go slow

 

[GoatmealJones]

Good luck! You came to the right place, this site is full of helpful and pleasant reefers with invaluable experience. The first reef is the most exciting one youll ever have

 

[BadFish619]

Welcome to R2R! Slow and steady wins the race!

 

[Dub_G]

I agree with Mastiffsrule regarding the rock. You won't be able to clean the glass very well with it up against the glass.

Not sure about the lights what the loss of the violet led will mean for your tank.

 

[Donald Beckwith]

Welcome. Looking good. Just a thought, you may want to move the rocks a bit away from the glass to give you room to clean. Keep updating pics and go slow

Unfortunately the glass is supporting the arch I will go ahead and move the one on the right a bit just to make it a bit easier though as it is currently against it.

 

[Donald Beckwith]

During my cycle I added 2 live rock. This started to grow on one. Is it ok?

 

[Donald Beckwith]

So I was able to mount my light with PVC fittings. It was all DIY.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

That looks awesome, I know it has been said, the glass under that arch might get pretty scuzzy. Just be prepared! Lots of snails! I think that is the hardest part...scaping something different and interesting yet functional.

 

[Jamo7]

During my cycle I added 2 live rock. This started to grow on one. Is it ok?

Looks like a ball anemone. Not bad.

 

[Donald Beckwith]

Hi,

Do you think it's ok to add corals before any livestock?

 

[Donald Beckwith]

OK so one of my live rocks has a small bit of aptasia growing on it. I also see some starfish that are starting to form on it. Should I dry this rock out and try to kill everything on it. Or should I try to manually remove the starfish and aptasia before I put it back into the tank. This rock does look to have the most pods on it and a bit of green algae.

 

[Jefdav84]

OK so one of my live rocks has a small bit of aptasia growing on it. I also see some starfish that are starting to form on it. Should I dry this rock out and try to kill everything on it. Or should I try to manually remove the starfish and aptasia before I put it back into the tank. This rock does look to have the most pods on it and a bit of green algae.

I recently cycled my first tank about a month ago. I thought that i had a starfish attached to one of my rocks, but it turned out to be a Kenya Tree that was just shriveled up. Do you have a pic of it?

 

[Donald Beckwith]

Not right now but I'm pretty sure it's a starfish. I found 2 of them and took them off the rock and when I came back later they were in different positions.

 

[Donald Beckwith]

Finally got a few corals to start and a CUC.

 

[Donald Beckwith]

Current look at my tank and my newest addition frogspawn from my lfs. I have started to feed my hammers mysis shrimp. Each head takes about 5-7 shrimp. It makes it a bit hard to keep the peppermint shrimp and cleaner shrimp away from them but i think it will be worth it.

 

[Donald Beckwith]

I did have an out break of red slime algae. I know it's a bacteria and lost all of the bird nest corals. I fixed the issue with GFO in my HOB refugium. I am also starting to see coraline algae form on my overflow box, not sure how i feel about it just yet.

 

[ttbuc40]

I would recommend staying away from sps corals until the tank matures a bit. You will regret rushing. Been there done that

 

[Donald Beckwith]

I do have an acro and 2 different monti I have been pretty luck and already see about a half inch of growth from the acro but not much from the monti.

 

[Donald Beckwith]