New Reef Tank Journey

[Emanuel Refer]

Welcome! I'm posting this thread because I want to document my new tank progression and the journey that got me here. About 1 and a half years ago I've started my first reef tank after viewing 52 weeks of reefing, watching the 5 minute guide and doing a lot of research. It was a small 45l (~ 11 gallons) tank that I custom modified with an AIO. The tank had a lot of problems to say the least, at first It was a big hair algae outbreak then problems with a unknown species of algae that was spreading ( I tried to identify the algae but with no succes) thankfully after 3 months I discovered that the algae didn't like a high nutrient environment. So after I raised the Nitrates and Phosphates (NO3 to 0.5ppm and PO4 to 0.1ppm) the algae thankfully went away. After that my Xenia corals melted after thriving in the tank for about 9 months. Then I had some rapid tissue recession on my frogspawn coral that also thrived for 4 months. Keep in mind that i was doing an 8 percent water change every week with 0 tds water and Aquaforest Reef salt. After all of that my tank finally sort of stabilized apart from my frogspawn coral who wasn't looking good at all. Then disaster hit, my little brother dumped a whole bottle of NO3 testing reagent in my tank while I was out for a walk. When i came back I found the bottle floating in my tank and all my corals closed up. I immediately panicked and took out every coral that I had. Thankfully I had a bucket of saltwater mixing for the water change, I've put all the corals in the bucket immediately and then prepared about 40 L of salt water. Then I found an old 54l (~14gallons) tank in my basement and transferred everything in it, I didn't had any fish so that wasn't a problem. After about 2 days thankfully all my corals opened up but they didn't had any lighting over them because my AI Prime 16HD was mounted in such way I couldn't take it so my corals are stuck for the time being with a small desk lamp. I hope to set up my new tank in les than a week time from now.

The temporary setup:

-The New Tank-
I've mentioned above that my first tank was a 45l, and after getting a taste of the hobby I want to upgrade. Now I am planning to build a 160l (~42 gallons) with the exact measurements off: 100 x 40 x 40 cm (39 x 15 x 15 in). Thankfully I saved all the rocks from the previous tank with the microbiome, but I will still need to get a lot more rock to make my aquascape. I'm planning to make the absolute essential for coral survival, and in about 1-2 months time i will add a second AI Prime and will make the aquascape, for now i will stay with only the sand bed. I am planning to make this second tank also an AIO setup with 3 compartments and as a return pump use a Sicce syncra 1.0 because it is quiet and this aquarium will go into a bedroom. I will keep this thread updated with the progress and all the important stuff. If You have any suggestions don't hesitate to share! Thank you for your patience to read all this thread!

The New Aquarium:

 

[blaxsun]

Welcome! You should look at setting this up as a build thread so you can fully document your progress (under the member tank forums) and link to your profile.

 

[Emanuel Refer]

Welcome! You should look at setting this up as a build thread so you can fully document your progress (under the member tank forums) and link to your profile.

Thanks for the advice here is the new thread with the build thread prefix: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-reef-tank-journey.921144/ so this thread has migrated there.

 

[Subsea]

Welcome to the addiction. I have been a reefer since 1970 and have not lost the passion. As a youngster I fished oil platform structures in the Gulf of Mexico. Because I often got seasick, once we reached production platforms in blue water, I would use a swing rope to transfer from boat to platform in 100’ of water. As I peered down into this artificial reef, a glimpse of the undersea world of Jacque Cousteau was visible. Thirty years later as a Senior Subsea Engineer on deep water drilling rigs that dynamically positioned themselves in 5000’ of water, I saw this picture in color from Oceeneering ”control module” which looked like the NASA space center.

Living along the Louisiana & Texas Gulf of Mexico coast has given me an appreciation for collecting the critters at the bottom of the food chain which also make up the beginning of the microbial loop that moves carbon up the food chain.

Emanuel,
Don’t lose the passion.

Laissez les bonne temps roule, which is Cajun French for “let the good times roll”.
Patrick

 

[Sumo Reef]

Welcome to the hobby! New builds are always a blast.

Then disaster hit, my little brother dumped a whole bottle of NO3 testing reagent in my tank while I was out for a walk. When i came back I found the bottle floating in my tank and all my corals closed up.

Return the little brother to your local fish store.

 

[Emanuel Refer]

Welcome to the addiction. I have been a reefer since 1970 and have not lost the passion. As a youngster I fished oil platform structures in the Gulf of Mexico. Because I often got seasick, once we reached production platforms in blue water, I would use a swing rope to transfer from boat to platform in 100’ of water. As I peered down into this artificial reef, a glimpse of the undersea world of Jacque Cousteau was visible. Thirty years later as a Senior Subsea Engineer on deep water drilling rigs that dynamically positioned themselves in 5000’ of water, I saw this picture in color from Oceeneering ”control module” which looked like the NASA space center.

Living along the Louisiana & Texas Gulf of Mexico coast has given me an appreciation for collecting the critters at the bottom of the food chain which also make up the beginning of the microbial loop that moves carbon up the food chain.

Emanuel,
Don’t lose the passion.

Laissez les bonne temps roule, which is Cajun French for “let the good times roll”.
Patrick

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate the encouragement, don't think I will drop the hobby, it is too fascinating .

 

[Emanuel Refer]

Hello! This thread has migrated here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-reef-tank-journey.921144/
Because I wanted to make this a build thread and there I've managed to do it. I will post the progress of the build in that thread. Thank you all for all the support! Best Regards!