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!
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!
Attachments
Last edited: