Emanuel Refer
Community Member
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:
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:
