New Member, New Tank

[ReefJuice]

Hi everyone,

It's been quite some time, around 10 years since my last tank, which was my first. It was a lightly stocked 55 gallon. I had a bargain purple tang that I nursed back to health, kept some SPS corals and a small refugium. I had to break it down when I had to move. I realize now that I was extremely fortunate that the tank ran with so few problems. I've been watching quite a few educational videos on Bulk Reef Supply, and knowledge of the hobby has come a LONG way in the past 10 years, and I'm trying to be as prepared as possible to give the tank the highest chance of success, since I'll inevitably screw something up. Without further ado: here's the tank:

Tank: Waterbox Peninsula Mini 25 gallons

Equipment:
RO/DI: 4 Stage Value 75GPD RO/DI System
Pump: Sicce Syncra SDC 3.0 Wifi
Skimmer: Aquamax Bullet-1 Hang-On-Back Protein Skimmer
Heater: Aquael 150W Ultra Heater
Cooling: 2 Fan Propeller Breeze 3 - GHL
Flow: 2K Gyre Flow Pump (2000 GPH) with WaveEngine LE Controller - IceCap
UV: Coralife Biocube Mini UV Sterilizer
Light: AI Prime 16 HD
Filtration: Felt 225 Micron filter sock, Activated carbon
ATO: Prism Auto Top Off - ReefBreeders

No refugium (This one worries me the most, but I live on third floor of my building and weight is a concern)

Salt: Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
Sand: CaribSea Arag-Alive Live Sand
Rock: Around 25 lbs of dry rock

Currently the tank has no water in it. The current aquascape is in the attached photos, none of the rock is super glued or epoxyed yet. Sorry for the photo quality, my phone's camera sucks.

Goal: SPS dominant tank, long term is hopefully acropora, but first will be an island of star polyps, followed by hardier SPS, i.e. stylophora and bird's nest.

I currently have Hanna checkers for Calcium, Alkalinity, Ultra Low Range Phosphate, High Range Nitrate, and Salinity
Red Sea Ammonia Test kit, API Nitrite test kit (mulling finding something else)

I don't have a quarantine tank yet, but that is next on the list, so please feel free to make recommendations.

Fish/Inverts planned: This is largely up in the air and will gladly take advice
1 Court Jester Goby
1 Six-line Wrasse
3-4 Chromis (maybe)
Possibly a smaller tang, but unlikely due to tank size recommendations
1 Peppermint Shrimp
3-5 hermit crabs
3-5 trochus snails
1 emerald crab

Immediate plan after hardware: Fishless cycle with Brightwell MicroBacter QuikCycl, MicroBacter StartXLM, MicroBacterClean, and Purple/Pink Coralline Algae dose in very low light for at least a month. Still need to do the initial tests on the RO/DI water to determine if I need another stage or not.

Notes: The pump doesn't fit in the pump chamber in the tank (doh) but I'm way too attached to it to not use it, however it does fit in the center chamber without the pump guard. Trying to figure out something so the pump intake isn't completely unguarded. The UV Sterilizer is cheap, but it's small enough to fit in the back.

Anyway, for anyone who's read this wall of text, thanks. And let me know if I missed something, or you have recommendations. Happy reefing!

 

[blaxsun]

Fish/Inverts planned: This is largely up in the air and will gladly take advice
1 Court Jester Goby
1 Six-line Wrasse
3-4 Chromis (maybe)
Possibly a smaller tang, but unlikely due to tank size recommendations
1 Peppermint Shrimp
3-5 hermit crabs
3-5 trochus snails
1 emerald crab

Best of luck with the new tank. 6 fish for a 25-gallon will be fine (you may find you need a protein skimmer at some point down the road, depending on the size of the fish). Unfortunately the tang is out unless you're planning to upgrade to a larger tank within 6 months. The fish selection is fine (you will get mixed opinions on the sixline, but I like mine), chromis are great schooling fish (a mix of green, blue, black bar and bicolor, etc. is very nice to have in a tank). I would hold off on the emerald grab at least initially until you the tank is a bit more established (they will tend to spend most of the time in the rock work hiding and looking for algae).

 

[keatonmjenkins]

Everything looks great besides the talk of having a tang in a 25 gallon tank lol.

 

[ReefJuice]

Everything looks great besides the talk of having a tang in a 25 gallon tank lol.

Yeah, I likely won't put one in, but I really miss my purple rescue tang. Most of his fins had disintegrated and was losing skin on his sides and somehow recovered. I loved that fish.

 

[ReefJuice]

The fish selection is fine (you will get mixed opinions on the sixline, but I like mine)

Yeah, I've heard the six-line can be a tank bully, but the advice given in the BRS videos seems to be there's much less of a risk if you introduce it last. I primarily listed him for pest management, so if there's a more peaceful option, I'd consider it.