My first Saltwater Tank

[YMRreefer]

Hi all,

I am super new to the hobby and figured I would try out starting a build thread. So, my husband essentially said he wanted a fish tank and a week later this guy came to our house. Let's just say I figured we would be starting with something for a "'beginner". But alas, here it goes... it has definitely been quite the learning curve so far.

Tank:
RedSea Reefer 525

Rock:
Marco Reef Saver Dry Rock

Lights: Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid
- 2 ATI Actinic
- 2 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 A360x Kessil

Pump: Reef Octopus Varios-8

Skimmer: Reef Octopus 150

Fuge with Kessil H380 , and some marine pure blocks

Salt: Tropic Marine Pro Reef

UV: Pentair 40-W (thanks dinos)

The husband set up an RODI system in the basement which makes water changes so much easier. I didn't have any part in building that... but I think the planning that went in to it, is going to make maintaining the tank much easier in the long run. Water changes are a breeze and take less than 20 mins.

And since starting the tank in August of this year we have added a carbon reactor.

So far...
To this date.. I think figuring out an aquascape was the most stressful part. Many late nights going over stuff and destroying our hands, but we finally settled on something pretty minimalist and clean. The open spot in the middle is for a clam or two *hopefully* in the future! The tank was filled in September and it finished cycling in October. We slowly added some fish and now have almost completely finished stocking the tank. Currently doing 20% water changes weekly. We are doing bare bottom, with dry rock, so we are doing our best to prevent too much algae growth but it's sort of inevitable I think? The T5's do not help with the algae problem though This is definitely the hard part, just dealing with the algae growth

We did add a lot of stuff crazy fast I think? But our nutrient load hasn't been high at all- we are currently testing Sundays and Wednesday until it's more established. We are actually struggling to get any measurable phosphates, and our nitrates have been 2-5 since the tank finished cycling. Even with all the fish described below. We did have to start dosing soda ash, because our dkh was getting low around 7.0, but we are chilling a cool 7.8-8.3 now. pH is 8.0-8.2, Mg 1470 and Ca 460.

The tangs and blennies seem to be doing a nice job keeping it from going crazy though. But we just started to see coralline growth all over the rock so that is exciting - seems like we will have a nice mix of maroon and purple.

Critters:
currently have a variety of LPS - zoas, aussi lords, favia, torch, hammers, mushroom, duncans etc.
-clownfish pair
-2 fairy wrasses
- powder brown tang
- yellow tang
- 3 fire banded shrimp
- starry blenny
- tailspot blenny
- purple firefish
- looking to add a white tail kole tang and then we'll be more than finished with fish


I went a little crazy on the WWC Cyber Monday sale and getting those in tomorrow... I'll post some updates when the frags get here!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Redfoxtang]

Great looking tank so far!! Everything looks super clean! To be honest for your first time all the plumbing for the tank and the mixing station looks great as well!! Looking forward to seeing it come alive!!

 

[YMRreefer]

Great looking tank so far!! Everything looks super clean! To be honest for your first time all the plumbing for the tank and the mixing station looks great as well!! Looking forward to seeing it come alive!!

Thank you! I appreciate that. I can't take credit for the plumbing - that was definitely my other half But I agree, I thought he did a great job considering it's our first big tank.

 

[Redfoxtang]

All the electrical is nice and tidy as well!! Did a fantastic job!! He would probably go nuts if he seen my wire management skills.

 

[Samina]

Wow, for your first tank I have to say this is extremely good! Love the whole setup!! Looking forward to the progress!

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Jason mack]

This looks great ...wish I had room for a mixing station....scape is awesome ..it will look fantastic once it fills in ...looking forward too more pics in the future...!!

 

[CasaReefer]

Hi Guy's... Welcome to R2R. Glad both of you are here .. Great Looking Set Up.. I have the 525 also... Love it... Your husband did a very nice job on the mixing station and just the general tidiness " Clean " look show he cares... Your a Lucky Woman...lol Thanks for sharing and keep us in the loop.

 

[Roosterjack]

Welcome!

 

[Aheinz]

Looking great, cant wait to see progress as you enjoy the hobby

 

[btmedic04]

Looks fantastic!

 

[YMRreefer]

Welp, it's been too long but thus is life. Had my 30th birthday, got sick, Christmas and NYE came and went and we have had a lot of new additions to the tank! Still trying to figure out how to get good photos of the tank.. especially the fish! So please bear with me.

So the biggest thing that happened over the last month was a second algae/diatom outbreak. This was kind of a shocker for us. We had one while waiting for the tank to cycle, but it's been so clean since then! So that was definitely stressful. For a few days we possibly thought it was dinos... that was *fun* and probably the most stressful few days of owning the tank thus far. We think our CUC got too small, our tank is still quite new, and we have also pushed the limits of how much stuff we have added. Our first fish were added in early October and we have been adding corals and more fish ever since. We did about every test we could do to see if it was dinos, and to us newbies, I felt like the tests were all kind of inconclusive. So, we just decided to get a huge batch of snails: lots of trochus, nassarius, top crown and a hermit who came along for the ride. We figured if they ate it and didn't die, it wasn't dinos lol. They are still alive and no more algae.

As you can see, I have included two tank shots, one when it was green and brown, and another from today. Yes the first shot does have the T5s on, and today doesn't, but our CUC has essentially gotten rid of everything! So a HUGE relief knowing that it wasn't dinos. In addition to the CUC, we also scrubbed the rocks with a toothbrush during three of our weekly water changes to help with the removal. We haven't had to scrub our tank the last two weeks and the snails/tangs seem to finally be able to keep up with the algae growth. Can't wait for the rocks to be covered with coralline. We are getting new spots everyday.

Some new additions include a bunch of acans (I'll get some better shots posted later but the camera died) but most importantly a gold torch (which I'm stoked about) and a white tail bristletooth tang. Putting him in was CHAOS. The powder brown went NUTS and it was incredibly stressful. I thought he was going to die within the first two hours. So, we did the mirror trick before taking out the yellow and powder brown to chill in a QT tank.. and it worked! We also WAY overfed and kept a ton of nori in the clips so there was no reason to start fights. As you can see in a couple of the pictures they are eating and getting along just fine now. We are super lucky it worked out because the powder brown and yellow tang are both bigger than the white tail.

The new torch is pretty short and stubby, but it looks like it is about to split which is awesome. Hopefully he stays happy and we can frag him back to our LFS to get some new awesome corals. We have alot more corals we got from the WWC online sale, but since they are still acclimating on the frag rack.. aka we don't know where to put them, they just don't photograph well - probably a photographer problem and not a tank problem So hopefully in the next week we find some places for them.

This is definitely the hardest part I think. Trying to think big picture and five years from now where we "envision" the tank - it's tough! Any suggestions from you guys?

 

[YMRreefer]

Couple more...

 

[YMRreefer]

Got our first Battlebox in today. Super stoked and the corals are INSANE Half the fun of this was waiting to see which corals we were going to get. I have a feeling we will definitely be ordering from Adam often. They have only been in the tank 10-15 minutes and seem super healthy already, fingers crossed this newbie doesn't kill them. Can't wait to see what happens with these guys!

Magic Wand
Reverse Sky Parade
Heart & Soul
BL Efflo 2.0 --> No idea about Efflos... will be neat to watch this guy grow
JF Fox Flame

Reverse Sky Parade

JF Fox Flame

BC Magic Wand

Heart and Soul

 

[YMRreefer]

It's been really hard. We overnight lost our bristletooth, and we think we either have ich or velvet now. We do not have a QT tank large enought to house everything so we are kind of at a loss. I can't kill our corals so we are struggling to find something on craigslists to try and save a few fish. But they are all looking rather sick. This definitely sucks.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It's been really hard. We overnight lost our bristletooth, and we think we either have ich or velvet now. We do not have a QT tank large enought to house everything so we are kind of at a loss. I can't kill our corals so we are struggling to find something on craigslists to try and save a few fish. But they are all looking rather sick. This definitely sucks.

Take a deep breath. In this hobby, there is always hope. Another tank is a nightmare but you C A N utilize a large Rubbermaid tub at a low cost and set it up like a tank, but no need to have sandbed, etc. Basically a powerhead, light, heater and prayer,
Mix new seawater with RO, heat and transfer fish. be sure to monitor water or do small change of water on Wed and Sun each week and perform your treatment. Do this for a couple of months to assure water is clean and parasite free. Continue to maintain show tank although free of fish