My ko'a tank

[lauipala]

Hey, y'all!
You're invited to accompany me in building my first reef tank. And on the way, we will discuss equipment and stocking the aquatic life as we go along.
Shall we get started? Here we go!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Psyduck]

Whoop whoop!

 

[lauipala]

Yesterday, I drove to North Georgia with a friend and bought a pre-owned 57-gallon tank and a grey aspen wood stand with a hood. The dimensions are Length 36” Width: 18” Height: 21”. The only drawback of the stand is that it does not have a mounted power strip attached to it, but it is easily fixable.

Today, I scrapped the tank to remove the calcium water line from the tank and made my first attempt to aquascape the tank. Have a look below...

The next project will be to attach a black background to the back of the tank and mount a power strip.

 

[SaltyWalty]

Very pretty tank! Definitely following along

 

[lauipala]

Very pretty tank! Definitely following along

Thank you. It's going to take a while. I am not sure what I am doing.

 

[lauipala]

The tank is setup an cycling. Hopefully I can begin adding fish and coral soon.

 

[lauipala]

The first residents have moved in. Two (2) Black Percula Clownfish.

 

[lauipala]

The first members of the clean crew are 3 Astraea snails, 3 Blue-legged Hermit crabs, and 3 Scarlet-legged Hermit crabs.

 

[lauipala]

The first stages of the uglies have hit my tank. The racks are covered in this brown algae.

 

[lauipala]

My friend suggested I increase the size of the cleaning crew for my tank. I have added a sand sifting starfish and 3 jumbo nassarius snails.

 

[lauipala]

Yes, I went to the fish store to get more creatures that will eat that brown algae on the sand, but I also came home with my first piece of coral - a Zoanthids. It's purple and orange when it opens and 2
Banggai cardinalfish. It's not safe for me to go alone to the store.

 

[scowall]

Make sure you add copepods they will help with the ugly stage.

 

[lauipala]

The first residents have moved in. Two (2) Black Percula Clownfish.

 

[lauipala]

I love watching the starfish glide across the sand and over the rocks.

 

[lauipala]

The fish seem to be happy and doing well in the tank.

 

[lauipala]

Make sure you add copepods they will help with the ugly stage.

I did add copepods. I will add another dose in a couple of weeks. I have started using OceanMagik in my tanks too.

 

[lauipala]

The brown algae is slowly going away. This morning, I saw my Astraea snail being lazy and hitching a ride on the back of one of the Scarlet-legged Hermit crabs. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[lauipala]

My tank as of Feb, 26.... Not back for a tank that is only 5 weeks old.

 

[lauipala]

On March 1, I went to the Atlanta Reef Club for the monthly meeting and frag sale. I bought these gems home. Now, I need to decide where to put them in the tank.