My First Saltwater Tank - 60Gal Aqueon

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Hi everyone! I am super excited to document my progress. I've been researching for months, buying items a few at a time, and finally started some progress today on my peninsula tank! Starting with fowlr tank before diving into corals. Not sure yet.

- Connected my RODI water filter to our laundry sink and made a few gallons of RODI water. Didn't want to keep it on for a long time but eventually I will feel comfortable doing so.
- Rocks! Started to create my aquascape. I have about 50-60 pounds of marco rock including some foundation pieces. Im using water weld and gorilla glue (green tip) combined to glue pieces together. I initially tried just epoxy alone and also tried just the super glue gel alone. Was not stable enough for me. My goal is to create caves and arches. I had an inspiration photo but I felt it was too complicated for me. So i just broke the rocks with my chisel and hammer..and then played around with the pieces until I liked it.
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- AIO drop in kit from Tenecor. I was debating heavily on this. AIO kit, sump, or hob filter. I chose AIO kit since the sump felt too complicated and the hob felt too restricting. So AIO I go! They have one specifically designed for the aqueon tanks! So I got some silicone and put that all together! A little messy, but first time using a caulk gun. Lol my hands were shaky!

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Got a lot of next steps:
- Wait for silicone to cure fully
- Make more RODI water
- Continue with aquascape (I feel this will take me many days)
- Buy salt (haha realized i forgot the most important thing in saltwater aquarium! Salt!!)

I am switching from freshwater but I was a simple freshwater person with conditioning tap water then just had my hob filter. My family and I had Koi which stayed alive till I was in college! 20ish years! I missed that so I wanted to start my own journey...with saltwater fish! I'm not too handy and am super intimidated and overwhelmed with all the information out there. I watched the BRS beginner series many times and looked at other builds. Taking what I like and creating my build. Thanks for reading! Hope to have another progress photo soon.
 
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Update: Apr 20
- Mixed saltwaterused instant ocean salt.
- Added 60 pounds of carib sea special grade sand
- Added my aquascape! Loving my rockscape on all sides!
- Temporarily have powerheads in random spots in the tank to help with clearing the water after adding everything!
- Have my return pump running with a filter sock. Will be switching the filter sock out tomorrow and once water is clear, will hopefully start the cycle in a few days!

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May 5, 2023 update
Still waiting on nitrates to go down. Currently using API test kit and will upgrade to another later on.
I see the ammonia going down, converting to nitrite but nitrite not yet converting to nitrate. Using dr tims ammonia to cycle.
Patiently waiting until nitrites are down. :)
 

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Update: 5/18
My ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0. I have cycled! Heard the API tests weren't too accurate so I double checked with salifert.
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Did a 50% water change and added a prism ato.

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Tested this out and am really happy with it so far!

Fixing my wavemakers to get the flow I want throughout the aquarium. Planning to add my first 3 fish this weekend. Very excited!
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My first fish! I went to my local fish store for clownfish! Also grabbed some tdo small pellets and mysis shrimp since this is what the store was feeding them. I wanted to make sure i bought the store food so they'll eat! I drip acclimated them as the fish store salinity was lower than my tank.

First 2 days, they stayed in a corner near my powerhead. Of course they choose the most random corner of my tank. This powerhead isn't on btw, as i saw they were struggling to swim. I have my return pump on at the moment and will turn on another pump in a few weeks as suggested to me. Had no idea clowns were poor swimmers!

The morning after acclimation, i turned off the flow to feed them. They left their spot and ate! Was so happy. Then when they were done, they went back to their spot
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Today is the first day I turned on my light. They seem to like it as they're now not in the corner, and swimming around in the tank! But occasionally still go back to their spot


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For the light, I am using Nicrew 48-60in from Amazon. Initially I purchased SmatFarm and actually loved it, but since my tank was rimmed, the clamp didn't fit without tweaks and I didnt want to mess with the rim. Maybe in the future.
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I programmed the timer, took some time but got it working. Im really happy with it and saw such a difference with the light on!
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Planning on just having the clowns right now until i am comfortable with water changes, set up my QT for future fish. My supplies are coming in the next few days.

Thinking of getting a trio of bangaii cardinals next.
 

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When the Algae starts to make itself known, and it will, head over to reefcleaners.org and start looking at Clean Up Crew for that size, they have packages based on tank volumes!! I have a 300g with somewhere around 340 snails and crabs, sand star, etc to help control the Algae, I also have 5 Tangs contributing to the clean up process. At 60g you're a little too small for Tangs (Kole requires 70g min and is the smallest Tang), so look at other Herbivore Fishes that love to chow on Green Hair Algae (most common type in salt tanks).

Your scape is beautiful, I'm kind of hoping you decide to add coral, it would be beautiful grown out with that scape.
good luck to you on this adventure!!
 
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When the Algae starts to make itself known, and it will, head over to reefcleaners.org and start looking at Clean Up Crew for that size, they have packages based on tank volumes!! I have a 300g with somewhere around 340 snails and crabs, sand star, etc to help control the Algae, I also have 5 Tangs contributing to the clean up process. At 60g you're a little too small for Tangs (Kole requires 70g min and is the smallest Tang), so look at other Herbivore Fishes that love to chow on Green Hair Algae (most common type in salt tanks).

Your scape is beautiful, I'm kind of hoping you decide to add coral, it would be beautiful grown out with that scape.
good luck to you on this adventure!!
Thanks so much for the tips and compliment on aquascape! O was so nervous about the scape as I saw others and didnt think I would be able to make anything nice haha. I'm anxiously waiting for the ugly stage to hit. Haha nothing in the tank to clean yet though so i havent added any clean up crew yet. :)

I hope to add corals once im more comfortable and better with water changes/testing. I'd like to establish a routine before adding more parameters I need to keep in check. What coral would you recommend for a beginner?
 

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Thanks so much for the tips and compliment on aquascape! O was so nervous about the scape as I saw others and didnt think I would be able to make anything nice haha. I'm anxiously waiting for the ugly stage to hit. Haha nothing in the tank to clean yet though so i havent added any clean up crew yet. :)

I hope to add corals once im more comfortable and better with water changes/testing. I'd like to establish a routine before adding more parameters I need to keep in check. What coral would you recommend for a beginner?
ZOA'S!!!! easy to keep, tons of color diversity etc. Duncans are easy, acans also.
 
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Small update: June 18
Added a watchman goby and pistol shrimp. The watchman looks so grumpy all the time, I love it! He found the shrimp the first night i put him into the display tank and now they are always seen together. Thankfully i have some vision to where they are burrowing. Also, goby is so quick to come out when it is feeding time! I feed it mysis but have noticed it also eats my clownfish's pellets (using tdo pellets small for them).

Waitinf a bit until adding a clean up crew. Thinking about a conch and some snails.
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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