New build & new reefer

[geehad420]

Hello Reefers!

Big SW newb and looking for some expert advice and opinions/if I’m doing anything obviously wrong (hopefully not)!

Build:
-Fluval 5 EVO
-Stock light
-50W preset submersible heater (sits in return chamber), been holding 25-25.5
-fzone optical ATO (optical sensors sits in return chamber but outflows into display)
-Upgrading return pump to 90gph one off amazon that will fit in return
- VividAquatics 1/4” RFG on the way
-5ish lbs live sand
-5-6 lbs dry rock (Not the best scape ever but all glued, sits down on the glass and can reach in on all sides of the tank and between structures, so I’m thinking flow will be descent)
- vinyled out the back
- Media basket on the way (will run floss, chemi pure blue, biological media)
-No skimmer, no powerhead (seems like mixed reviews on these).
Got RO/DI & pre mixed from the LFS for the build.

Starting cycling a couple days ago, ghost feeding, microbacter7 daily dosing (I know not as fast as other options but im a patient person). Happy to wait a while before stocking, ammonia 0.5-1ppm, PH 8.2.

Stocking Plan:
-3x Zoas, Candycane, Ducan, Toadstool
- Yasha Gobie + Candy Cane Pistol
- 2-3 sexy shrimp
- 2-3 Snails
- 1 porcelain crab

Plan on feeding gobie 4ish times a week and spot reefroids once a week, maybe 20-30% water changes every week?

Does that all make sense, how does the tank look?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Congrats, looks good to me.
But why only feed the fish 4 times per week? Just curious it seems like not a lot to me.

 

[geehad420]

Congrats, looks good to me.
But why only feed the fish 4 times per week? Just curious it seems like not a lot to me.

Thanks, appreciate it! I figured once every second day feeding to limit nutrients/bioload in such a small system, but can definitely adjust as needed, a good portion of my stocking plan is effectively a CUC as well so I can probably feed a bit more!

 

[nickscorals]

I like your logic on the feeding schedule. I even target feed my fish in my pico systems just to make sure there isn’t too much loose food spiking the nitrates

 

[nickscorals]

Congrats, looks good to me.
But why only feed the fish 4 times per week? Just curious it seems like not a lot to me.

Thanks, appreciate it! I figured once every second day feeding to limit nutrients/bioload in such a small system, but can definitely adjust as needed, a good portion of my stocking plan is effectively a CUC as well so I can probably feed a bit more!

Makes sense!

If it’s a new system I’d even stick with your minimal, starting food flow for an extended period, allowing for a steady micro biome buildup

 

[geehad420]

Thanks for input @NanoReefer_NYC! Was definitely planning on spot feeding for more control and agree, definitely got to let the biome build steadily with the both the feeding and stocking. Back in my FW days I often found leaning on the side of less feeding as opposed to more went a long way in small systems.

Ended up upgrading the light for a fuval reef 4.0 bar, return pump also came in and turns out it’s 105gph (so a nice upgrade from the stock 80 gph), just fits into return chamber with no modding, and I’m liking what I’m seeing with the media basket in, bottom return hole plugged and VCA RFG. Not loving my API test kit so will probably go for the Red Sea kits in a couple of weeks.

Nitrite spiked and ammonia down a bit, so cycling is going down, PH now down a bit too, 7.8-8, still thinking it’s fine and it’s been stable. Will do a full build update with more pics of the setup in a couple of weeks once first round of stocking starts (probably just inverts first, then gobie + pistol, then corals last).

 

[Coral-Zone]

Clean looking tank! Keep up updated as you move along!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along! Can't wait to see what your tank looks like over the coming months!

 

[Esbjergreefer]

Cool scape! Will look great filled with corals

 

[geehad420]

Reefing Fam!

Bit of an update, some things changed from the original plans as I imagine is common in the hobby!

Tank was cycled last week, did a 15-20% water change, dosed some BWA MB Clean and full water test parameters were:

Ammonia & Nitrite: 0PPM
Nitrate: 5PPM
PH: 8.0
Phos: 0PPM
Cal: 380 PPM
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025

Don’t have a mag test kit yet and I know the Cal is on the low side. I figure this was because I did not do any water changes over my 4-5 week cycle and multiple top offs probably diluted things down, so hoping now with normal course water changes it will creep back up but I plan on keeping an eye on it and dosing in ATO if needed down the road. I figure Phos will probably also creep up a bit naturally. Ended up sticking with API test kits after reading a little more here on the forum (mixed opinions on it seemingly but they work fine for me, maybe will invest in a Hanna for Phos down the road).

So went to LFS Friday and ended up picking up:

Corals:

-Ducan (real nice drag with 5 heads).
-Green Candy Cane (nice frag but only 2 heads).
- purple ppl eater, fire and ice and oxide zoas (the oxide was freshly fragged before I took it home
- GSP

Inverts:
-2 sexy shrimp (more on these little buggers later)
- one cerith, one torchus and one (what I think is) a nerite.

Got home and did a dip with some BWA koralMD and dripped the inverts.


Day 1: fire and ice and Ducan very happy, almost fully extended within 20 min of being in the tank, had some complications gluing down the PPE zoa so it was a bit stressed, but looking better now. Found the nerite at night going way up the glass almost to the water line. Sexys were being cute dancing around.

Day 2: all corals started opening up and looking good, PPE was a bit slower given the stress but opening slowly, snails were a bit sluggish, decided to feed a couple pellets for the shrimp and an algae wafer given how clean the tank was. Over the course of the day I found the nerite on his back twice, I righted him but I’m doubtful he will make it at this point, funny because the torchus and the cerith seem super active and happy.

Day 3: hectic, attack of the shrimp, the shrimps strikes back, wtv you want to call it. The sexys got a taste for coral blood. I watched them hit my candy cane, Ducan, oxide and PPE zoas, within the span of a few mins all those corals retracted significantly and I saw bits of skeleton flying off, the shrimp were munching on the frag plugs but also nipping at the corals. I drew the line at the freshly fragged oxide. The shrimp went straight to jail (a heated and circulated 5 gallon bucket with a couple pellets and some seachem matrix thrown in for cover, they will be going back to the LFS tomorrow when it’s open.

A word to those who want sexy shrimp in your picos, stock them last one the tank has enough food and keep a close eye on them, they are cute looking, innocent and fun additions, but I saw the ravaging they could do in the course of mins if they decide they don’t want pellets (I didn’t have any frozen mysis on hand, so this may have been partially on me, but I think they really are reef safe WITH caution in small tanks).

Day 4 (today): everything opened back up and is looking great as far as I can tell outside of the nerite who hasn’t moved in about 24 hours, I did a quick check last night and it was still alive, but I’m doubtful it will make it :(.

Here is a couple of pics on how things look today! As always happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, I plan on testing water again after next water change in a couple of days!

 

[gsxrshane]

Reefing Fam!

Bit of an update, some things changed from the original plans as I imagine is common in the hobby!

Tank was cycled last week, did a 15-20% water change, dosed some BWA MB Clean and full water test parameters were:

Ammonia & Nitrite: 0PPM
Nitrate: 5PPM
PH: 8.0
Phos: 0PPM
Cal: 380 PPM
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025

Don’t have a mag test kit yet and I know the Cal is on the low side. I figure this was because I did not do any water changes over my 4-5 week cycle and multiple top offs probably diluted things down, so hoping now with normal course water changes it will creep back up but I plan on keeping an eye on it and dosing in ATO if needed down the road. I figure Phos will probably also creep up a bit naturally. Ended up sticking with API test kits after reading a little more here on the forum (mixed opinions on it seemingly but they work fine for me, maybe will invest in a Hanna for Phos down the road).

So went to LFS Friday and ended up picking up:

Corals:

-Ducan (real nice drag with 5 heads).
-Green Candy Cane (nice frag but only 2 heads).
- purple ppl eater, fire and ice and oxide zoas (the oxide was freshly fragged before I took it home
- GSP

Inverts:
-2 sexy shrimp (more on these little buggers later)
- one cerith, one torchus and one (what I think is) a nerite.

Got home and did a dip with some BWA koralMD and dripped the inverts.


Day 1: fire and ice and Ducan very happy, almost fully extended within 20 min of being in the tank, had some complications gluing down the PPE zoa so it was a bit stressed, but looking better now. Found the nerite at night going way up the glass almost to the water line. Sexys were being cute dancing around.

Day 2: all corals started opening up and looking good, PPE was a bit slower given the stress but opening slowly, snails were a bit sluggish, decided to feed a couple pellets for the shrimp and an algae wafer given how clean the tank was. Over the course of the day I found the nerite on his back twice, I righted him but I’m doubtful he will make it at this point, funny because the torchus and the cerith seem super active and happy.

Day 3: hectic, attack of the shrimp, the shrimps strikes back, wtv you want to call it. The sexys got a taste for coral blood. I watched them hit my candy cane, Ducan, oxide and PPE zoas, within the span of a few mins all those corals retracted significantly and I saw bits of skeleton flying off, the shrimp were munching on the frag plugs but also nipping at the corals. I drew the line at the freshly fragged oxide. The shrimp went straight to jail (a heated and circulated 5 gallon bucket with a couple pellets and some seachem matrix thrown in for cover, they will be going back to the LFS tomorrow when it’s open.

A word to those who want sexy shrimp in your picos, stock them last one the tank has enough food and keep a close eye on them, they are cute looking, innocent and fun additions, but I saw the ravaging they could do in the course of mins if they decide they don’t want pellets (I didn’t have any frozen mysis on hand, so this may have been partially on me, but I think they really are reef safe WITH caution in small tanks).

Day 4 (today): everything opened back up and is looking great as far as I can tell outside of the nerite who hasn’t moved in about 24 hours, I did a quick check last night and it was still alive, but I’m doubtful it will make it :(.

Here is a couple of pics on how things look today! As always happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, I plan on testing water again after next water change in a couple of days!

Love the zoa collection so far, pop a nice green and yellow in the middle of those 3 and that’ll grow out to look great over time!

I also wouldn’t necessarily worry about testing mag. All the tests are fairly unreliable and as long as alk/calc/phos is in check you should be good

 

[geehad420]

Reefing Fam!

Bit of an update, some things changed from the original plans as I imagine is common in the hobby!

Tank was cycled last week, did a 15-20% water change, dosed some BWA MB Clean and full water test parameters were:

Ammonia & Nitrite: 0PPM
Nitrate: 5PPM
PH: 8.0
Phos: 0PPM
Cal: 380 PPM
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025

Don’t have a mag test kit yet and I know the Cal is on the low side. I figure this was because I did not do any water changes over my 4-5 week cycle and multiple top offs probably diluted things down, so hoping now with normal course water changes it will creep back up but I plan on keeping an eye on it and dosing in ATO if needed down the road. I figure Phos will probably also creep up a bit naturally. Ended up sticking with API test kits after reading a little more here on the forum (mixed opinions on it seemingly but they work fine for me, maybe will invest in a Hanna for Phos down the road).

So went to LFS Friday and ended up picking up:

Corals:

-Ducan (real nice drag with 5 heads).
-Green Candy Cane (nice frag but only 2 heads).
- purple ppl eater, fire and ice and oxide zoas (the oxide was freshly fragged before I took it home
- GSP

Inverts:
-2 sexy shrimp (more on these little buggers later)
- one cerith, one torchus and one (what I think is) a nerite.

Got home and did a dip with some BWA koralMD and dripped the inverts.


Day 1: fire and ice and Ducan very happy, almost fully extended within 20 min of being in the tank, had some complications gluing down the PPE zoa so it was a bit stressed, but looking better now. Found the nerite at night going way up the glass almost to the water line. Sexys were being cute dancing around.

Day 2: all corals started opening up and looking good, PPE was a bit slower given the stress but opening slowly, snails were a bit sluggish, decided to feed a couple pellets for the shrimp and an algae wafer given how clean the tank was. Over the course of the day I found the nerite on his back twice, I righted him but I’m doubtful he will make it at this point, funny because the torchus and the cerith seem super active and happy.

Day 3: hectic, attack of the shrimp, the shrimps strikes back, wtv you want to call it. The sexys got a taste for coral blood. I watched them hit my candy cane, Ducan, oxide and PPE zoas, within the span of a few mins all those corals retracted significantly and I saw bits of skeleton flying off, the shrimp were munching on the frag plugs but also nipping at the corals. I drew the line at the freshly fragged oxide. The shrimp went straight to jail (a heated and circulated 5 gallon bucket with a couple pellets and some seachem matrix thrown in for cover, they will be going back to the LFS tomorrow when it’s open.

A word to those who want sexy shrimp in your picos, stock them last one the tank has enough food and keep a close eye on them, they are cute looking, innocent and fun additions, but I saw the ravaging they could do in the course of mins if they decide they don’t want pellets (I didn’t have any frozen mysis on hand, so this may have been partially on me, but I think they really are reef safe WITH caution in small tanks).

Day 4 (today): everything opened back up and is looking great as far as I can tell outside of the nerite who hasn’t moved in about 24 hours, I did a quick check last night and it was still alive, but I’m doubtful it will make it :(.

Here is a couple of pics on how things look today! As always happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, I plan on testing water again after next water change in a couple of days!

Love the zoa collection so far, pop a nice green and yellow in the middle of those 3 and that’ll grow out to look great over time!

I also wouldn’t necessarily worry about testing mag. All the tests are fairly unreliable and as long as alk/calc/phos is in check you should be good

Thanks @skinnerb! And ya I agree a nice yellow/green would be cool in the middle, I was thinking some scrambled eggs but I will probably wait a bit just until everything settles in nice before stocking anything else for the moment!

Understood on Mag and I’m definitely not opposed to doing one less test!

 

[geehad420]

Reefing Fam!

Bit of an update, some things changed from the original plans as I imagine is common in the hobby!

Tank was cycled last week, did a 15-20% water change, dosed some BWA MB Clean and full water test parameters were:

Ammonia & Nitrite: 0PPM
Nitrate: 5PPM
PH: 8.0
Phos: 0PPM
Cal: 380 PPM
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025

Don’t have a mag test kit yet and I know the Cal is on the low side. I figure this was because I did not do any water changes over my 4-5 week cycle and multiple top offs probably diluted things down, so hoping now with normal course water changes it will creep back up but I plan on keeping an eye on it and dosing in ATO if needed down the road. I figure Phos will probably also creep up a bit naturally. Ended up sticking with API test kits after reading a little more here on the forum (mixed opinions on it seemingly but they work fine for me, maybe will invest in a Hanna for Phos down the road).

So went to LFS Friday and ended up picking up:

Corals:

-Ducan (real nice drag with 5 heads).
-Green Candy Cane (nice frag but only 2 heads).
- purple ppl eater, fire and ice and oxide zoas (the oxide was freshly fragged before I took it home
- GSP

Inverts:
-2 sexy shrimp (more on these little buggers later)
- one cerith, one torchus and one (what I think is) a nerite.

Got home and did a dip with some BWA koralMD and dripped the inverts.


Day 1: fire and ice and Ducan very happy, almost fully extended within 20 min of being in the tank, had some complications gluing down the PPE zoa so it was a bit stressed, but looking better now. Found the nerite at night going way up the glass almost to the water line. Sexys were being cute dancing around.

Day 2: all corals started opening up and looking good, PPE was a bit slower given the stress but opening slowly, snails were a bit sluggish, decided to feed a couple pellets for the shrimp and an algae wafer given how clean the tank was. Over the course of the day I found the nerite on his back twice, I righted him but I’m doubtful he will make it at this point, funny because the torchus and the cerith seem super active and happy.

Day 3: hectic, attack of the shrimp, the shrimps strikes back, wtv you want to call it. The sexys got a taste for coral blood. I watched them hit my candy cane, Ducan, oxide and PPE zoas, within the span of a few mins all those corals retracted significantly and I saw bits of skeleton flying off, the shrimp were munching on the frag plugs but also nipping at the corals. I drew the line at the freshly fragged oxide. The shrimp went straight to jail (a heated and circulated 5 gallon bucket with a couple pellets and some seachem matrix thrown in for cover, they will be going back to the LFS tomorrow when it’s open.

A word to those who want sexy shrimp in your picos, stock them last one the tank has enough food and keep a close eye on them, they are cute looking, innocent and fun additions, but I saw the ravaging they could do in the course of mins if they decide they don’t want pellets (I didn’t have any frozen mysis on hand, so this may have been partially on me, but I think they really are reef safe WITH caution in small tanks).

Day 4 (today): everything opened back up and is looking great as far as I can tell outside of the nerite who hasn’t moved in about 24 hours, I did a quick check last night and it was still alive, but I’m doubtful it will make it :(.

Here is a couple of pics on how things look today! As always happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, I plan on testing water again after next water change in a couple of days!

For anyone interested in more of the build itself, will try and be as detailed as I can on this, some of it may be repetitive with my post above but I feel like it it may still be beneficial for some looking to spec out the spec 5.

Equipment list:

-Fluval Spec 5 with cut out in lid for ATO (the stock lid cuts nice if you make sure it’s well supported and go at it with a high speed tool, I used a jig saw and drilled some pilot holes for the turn, a dremel would probably work too, just avoid any hacking). I would suggest if you mod the lid to pick up a few extra from fuval, they are cheap and it’s handy to have a couple extras. As mentioned I also used some dry application vinyl on the back, makes for a clean look, I’m sure you could also paint it for an even cleaner finish.

-Upgraded light to Fluval 4.0 22W bar, light settings below (not PAR tested but so far my corals seem to be happy with it). Allows for much greater flexibility on photoperiod, spectrum and ramp up/downs and nightlight vs the stock light. Given the tank is on my desk, I like extending the photoperiod for as long as possible with 2hr ramp ups and downs to ensure the lights are on throughout my whole work day. I also got some sticky furniture feet to raise the light about 1” off the lid to allow for some air exchange. I would go with a bar vs some of the other nano lights give the bar provides a more even PAR footprint vs. Some of the other nano lights that just blast the middle (depends on your scape and goals though I suppose).

-upgraded return pump to 110 gph, generic off Amazon and thankfully it just fit into the return chamber.

- VCA random flow generator, if you call them they have some better fittings for the spec 5 and the owner of the company is super helpful! Highly recommend their product. Would defs recommend if you do this to upgrade the return pump along with it.

- 3 chamber media basket upgrade with little plug for that bottom hole to force water through the “overflow” providing more effective filtration, the difference in flow moving into the overflow was immediately noticeable. I run filter floss, chemi pure blue nano and a healthy amount of seachem matrix.

- Fzone optical ATO off Amazon, so far so good, it does what it’s supposed to do without fail so far. I keep the sensor in the return chamber to keep clutter out of the tank and have the water run in through main display, just make sure to unplug during water changes etc. 1 gallon reservoir and honestly I top it up once a week, but it would probably be good for like 3 weeks or more. I may change outflow to be closer to RFG outlet so the FW mixes a bit more quickly, small tweaks are why you want the extra lids.

- Tetra HT Submersible 50W heater. These are preset heaters and so far been holding 25.5 almost perfectly. It sits in the return chamber as well. I also keep one digital temp prob in the return (it’s a crammed return, but it all fits with no kinking in the return tube as long as you place everything carefully, let’s me keep the display super clean and uncluttered).

-Inkbird ITC 306T - this is a fail safe in case the heater ever gets stuck in the on position (which has happened to me in the past during my FW days, not a pretty sight to come home to). I run this prob into the main display and it allows me to see the temp differential between the return chamber and the display (normally 0.1-0.3 degrees), I set the cutoff at 25.8.

I also purchased a jackery in case of power outages which are common enough in the winter for me.

That’s rly it for the major build items, time will tell if the setup is steadfast but hopefully this gives people some ideas if they are looking at the spec 5, just know that budget wise, this comes out to quite a bit more than the face cost of the tank, but likely still cheaper than some of the other pico/nano AIOs out there once you factor in the fact that no matter what you get, you will likely end up upgrading or changing some components of it/some of the other companies only offer the tanks and you buy everything else separate anyways. I also personally think that the spec 5 is a real nice clean mini package and you end up with some backups/spare parts as a result of upgrading.

Light settings at peak:

Blue: 60%
Red & Cyan: 15%
Purple: 30%
White: 25%

Ramp up: 8:15-10:15am
Peak: 10:15-5:15pm
Ramp down:5:15-7:15pm (10% blue at 7:15)
Blue only evening: 7:15-8:30pm

I had my number one reef consultant (chatGPT) help me dial these setting in and so far seemingly no adverse reactions from the corals.

Hope this helps/inspires some folks with other ideas for these cool little tanks!

 

[geehad420]

Adding some build pics - happy reefing!:

 

[geehad420]

Reef Fam!

Quick update on the tank, most the corals look good, candy cane a bit unhappy but I’m chalking it up to my last water change not being fully perfect, a little blasting of the rocks that stirred up the tank, and a night where my heater seemingly wasn’t keeping up with the AC, so it got a little chilly in there a - so a lot of small stressor. Hoping it bounces back before the next water change, been trying to just leave the tank be (but my snails also love to munch on the frag plugs which I think annoys that coral in particular)

Hard to see in the pic but getting some diatom build up on the sand bed, the snails are keeping it generally in check, so ugly phase looks like it’s starting. Been dosing MB clean weekly.

Saw a little bug like critter running around in the tank too, hoping it was a beneficial because I was unable to catch it and it disappeared into my rock work, didn’t look like a worm and couldn’t get a good pic of it, moved like an ant.

Params from a couple days ago:

Nitrate: 10
Phos: 0.1
Alk: 8
Calc: 370

Didn’t feed at all this week, but planning the first coral feed right before next water change (assuming the candy cane bounce back), will retest post that to see where it’s at.

Also been debating just keeping this tank fishless and getting some cool inverts, any thoughts on a fishless reef, my nutrients already seem kinda high despite me already feeding minimally and I don’t want to have to do 50%+ water changes really.

Happy reefing!

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Hey good job so far! During the ugly stages your nutrients may start to get consumed. Make sure you keep your nitrate and phos with the 10&.1 you are currently running that’s great.!when the gha arrives use some turbo snails 1 per every 10g of water!

 

[CBonito]

Reefing Fam!

Bit of an update, some things changed from the original plans as I imagine is common in the hobby!

Tank was cycled last week, did a 15-20% water change, dosed some BWA MB Clean and full water test parameters were:

Ammonia & Nitrite: 0PPM
Nitrate: 5PPM
PH: 8.0
Phos: 0PPM
Cal: 380 PPM
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025

Don’t have a mag test kit yet and I know the Cal is on the low side. I figure this was because I did not do any water changes over my 4-5 week cycle and multiple top offs probably diluted things down, so hoping now with normal course water changes it will creep back up but I plan on keeping an eye on it and dosing in ATO if needed down the road. I figure Phos will probably also creep up a bit naturally. Ended up sticking with API test kits after reading a little more here on the forum (mixed opinions on it seemingly but they work fine for me, maybe will invest in a Hanna for Phos down the road).

So went to LFS Friday and ended up picking up:

Corals:

-Ducan (real nice drag with 5 heads).
-Green Candy Cane (nice frag but only 2 heads).
- purple ppl eater, fire and ice and oxide zoas (the oxide was freshly fragged before I took it home
- GSP

Inverts:
-2 sexy shrimp (more on these little buggers later)
- one cerith, one torchus and one (what I think is) a nerite.

Got home and did a dip with some BWA koralMD and dripped the inverts.


Day 1: fire and ice and Ducan very happy, almost fully extended within 20 min of being in the tank, had some complications gluing down the PPE zoa so it was a bit stressed, but looking better now. Found the nerite at night going way up the glass almost to the water line. Sexys were being cute dancing around.

Day 2: all corals started opening up and looking good, PPE was a bit slower given the stress but opening slowly, snails were a bit sluggish, decided to feed a couple pellets for the shrimp and an algae wafer given how clean the tank was. Over the course of the day I found the nerite on his back twice, I righted him but I’m doubtful he will make it at this point, funny because the torchus and the cerith seem super active and happy.

Day 3: hectic, attack of the shrimp, the shrimps strikes back, wtv you want to call it. The sexys got a taste for coral blood. I watched them hit my candy cane, Ducan, oxide and PPE zoas, within the span of a few mins all those corals retracted significantly and I saw bits of skeleton flying off, the shrimp were munching on the frag plugs but also nipping at the corals. I drew the line at the freshly fragged oxide. The shrimp went straight to jail (a heated and circulated 5 gallon bucket with a couple pellets and some seachem matrix thrown in for cover, they will be going back to the LFS tomorrow when it’s open.

A word to those who want sexy shrimp in your picos, stock them last one the tank has enough food and keep a close eye on them, they are cute looking, innocent and fun additions, but I saw the ravaging they could do in the course of mins if they decide they don’t want pellets (I didn’t have any frozen mysis on hand, so this may have been partially on me, but I think they really are reef safe WITH caution in small tanks).

Day 4 (today): everything opened back up and is looking great as far as I can tell outside of the nerite who hasn’t moved in about 24 hours, I did a quick check last night and it was still alive, but I’m doubtful it will make it :(.

Here is a couple of pics on how things look today! As always happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, I plan on testing water again after next water change in a couple of days!

I love duncans! I thought they were kind of a "bum coral" (whatever that means) in the beginning, but I have one and I love it. They really like a side to side current throwing them a little bit and then they get really shaggy.
I bought some AI Neros for that. I have 2 3s and 1 5 and they were an awesome investment. They don't let any thing settle on the sand or rocks and the coral seems to love the water movement.

When I feed the fish I dissolve an entire cube, stop the neros and just broadcast it and these guys like to pick up some food. They'll grow fast if you feed them. This one came as a frag on a plug. I wedged it into a piece of branch and it glued itself and it's been great. I'll definitely be giving this stuff out.

Don't look at my aiptaisa. I'm not either. I have nudis coming tuesday for that. I've given up.I had to hire some professionals.

 

[geehad420]

Reefing Fam!

Bit of an update, some things changed from the original plans as I imagine is common in the hobby!

Tank was cycled last week, did a 15-20% water change, dosed some BWA MB Clean and full water test parameters were:

Ammonia & Nitrite: 0PPM
Nitrate: 5PPM
PH: 8.0
Phos: 0PPM
Cal: 380 PPM
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025

Don’t have a mag test kit yet and I know the Cal is on the low side. I figure this was because I did not do any water changes over my 4-5 week cycle and multiple top offs probably diluted things down, so hoping now with normal course water changes it will creep back up but I plan on keeping an eye on it and dosing in ATO if needed down the road. I figure Phos will probably also creep up a bit naturally. Ended up sticking with API test kits after reading a little more here on the forum (mixed opinions on it seemingly but they work fine for me, maybe will invest in a Hanna for Phos down the road).

So went to LFS Friday and ended up picking up:

Corals:

-Ducan (real nice drag with 5 heads).
-Green Candy Cane (nice frag but only 2 heads).
- purple ppl eater, fire and ice and oxide zoas (the oxide was freshly fragged before I took it home
- GSP

Inverts:
-2 sexy shrimp (more on these little buggers later)
- one cerith, one torchus and one (what I think is) a nerite.

Got home and did a dip with some BWA koralMD and dripped the inverts.


Day 1: fire and ice and Ducan very happy, almost fully extended within 20 min of being in the tank, had some complications gluing down the PPE zoa so it was a bit stressed, but looking better now. Found the nerite at night going way up the glass almost to the water line. Sexys were being cute dancing around.

Day 2: all corals started opening up and looking good, PPE was a bit slower given the stress but opening slowly, snails were a bit sluggish, decided to feed a couple pellets for the shrimp and an algae wafer given how clean the tank was. Over the course of the day I found the nerite on his back twice, I righted him but I’m doubtful he will make it at this point, funny because the torchus and the cerith seem super active and happy.

Day 3: hectic, attack of the shrimp, the shrimps strikes back, wtv you want to call it. The sexys got a taste for coral blood. I watched them hit my candy cane, Ducan, oxide and PPE zoas, within the span of a few mins all those corals retracted significantly and I saw bits of skeleton flying off, the shrimp were munching on the frag plugs but also nipping at the corals. I drew the line at the freshly fragged oxide. The shrimp went straight to jail (a heated and circulated 5 gallon bucket with a couple pellets and some seachem matrix thrown in for cover, they will be going back to the LFS tomorrow when it’s open.

A word to those who want sexy shrimp in your picos, stock them last one the tank has enough food and keep a close eye on them, they are cute looking, innocent and fun additions, but I saw the ravaging they could do in the course of mins if they decide they don’t want pellets (I didn’t have any frozen mysis on hand, so this may have been partially on me, but I think they really are reef safe WITH caution in small tanks).

Day 4 (today): everything opened back up and is looking great as far as I can tell outside of the nerite who hasn’t moved in about 24 hours, I did a quick check last night and it was still alive, but I’m doubtful it will make it :(.

Here is a couple of pics on how things look today! As always happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, I plan on testing water again after next water change in a couple of days!

I love duncans! I thought they were kind of a "bum coral" (whatever that means) in the beginning, but I have one and I love it. They really like a side to side current throwing them a little bit and then they get really shaggy.
I bought some AI Neros for that. I have 2 3s and 1 5 and they were an awesome investment. They don't let any thing settle on the sand or rocks and the coral seems to love the water movement.

When I feed the fish I dissolve an entire cube, stop the neros and just broadcast it and these guys like to pick up some food. They'll grow fast if you feed them. This one came as a frag on a plug. I wedged it into a piece of branch and it glued itself and it's been great. I'll definitely be giving this stuff out.

Don't look at my aiptaisa. I'm not either. I have nudis coming tuesday for that. I've given up.I had to hire some professionals.

Super nice man! I plan on starting to feed mine shortly, probably just going to spot feed reef roids in my system. Ya I keep mine in a higher section of the tank with a bit more light/flow and it sways really nice, always seems puffy/shaggy they seem to be really happy with some side to side.

Hard not to love them, it’s been so tolerant with my noobness (definitely a great beginner LPS), never unhappy in my tank, and i find it looks great, doesn’t “pop” as much color wise but it has nice movement and just looks like something outta alien.

 

[geehad420]

Hey good job so far! During the ugly stages your nutrients may start to get consumed. Make sure you keep your nitrate and phos with the 10&.1 you are currently running that’s great.!when the gha arrives use some turbo snails 1 per every 10g of water!

Thanks so much! Ya will do my best to keep nitrate and phos around there, maybe a touch lower if I can. Makes sense nutrients will get consumed as algae progresses, just going to be tricky to keep it stable until I dial in feeding/water change volume for this system, will probably take a couple weeks before I figure out where things are rly settling.

On the turbo, was reading there kinda bull dozers and my tank is so small at 5g that I was steering away from them. My torchus is honestly like a roomba in the tank right not, it’s on the sand,
rocks and glass. My cerith normally just hits the rocks and glass. I think they both eat gha too right? I’m thinking if the algae rly picks up I was maybe just grab another torchus?