ReeferRon
New Member
Hi - Just getting back into the hobby and dipping my toe in with a small tank….since most of the real estate is taken up by kid toys and diaper changing stations these days. So I decided to setup a small reef for softies and lps. Not sure about the exact stocking yet, but there’s time.
After doing some initial research I decided on the Innovative Marine Fusion 20 AIO. I ordered up 30# live rock from Kpaquatics.com and 20# live sand from BRS “original grade ocean direct live reef sand”. I know most are going with arag-alive! (only thing stocked by my LFS), but I think my flow rates will be fine for this finer grain. Salt is n/a…I’m in San Diego, CA and the Scripps Institute for Oceanography provides free salt water they pump in from the ocean if you’re willing to make the drive.
So far, so good! I like the rocks from kpaquatics, the “starter” rocks for reference. Nice coralline algae, porous rocks, not filled with mantis shrimp. Cool hitchhiker of a little brittle star and crab that I hope survive. Sand cleared within a few hours, just follow the instructions on the bag.
Tank is testing at 0 ammonia, so I may try this dosing ammonia that I read about to test the response. My prior experiences had a pretty clear cycle, so off we go!
1st tank photo is right after setup. 2nd is the next morning. Zero effort on aquascaping. I’m probably heavy on rocks, just getting things going.
After doing some initial research I decided on the Innovative Marine Fusion 20 AIO. I ordered up 30# live rock from Kpaquatics.com and 20# live sand from BRS “original grade ocean direct live reef sand”. I know most are going with arag-alive! (only thing stocked by my LFS), but I think my flow rates will be fine for this finer grain. Salt is n/a…I’m in San Diego, CA and the Scripps Institute for Oceanography provides free salt water they pump in from the ocean if you’re willing to make the drive.
So far, so good! I like the rocks from kpaquatics, the “starter” rocks for reference. Nice coralline algae, porous rocks, not filled with mantis shrimp. Cool hitchhiker of a little brittle star and crab that I hope survive. Sand cleared within a few hours, just follow the instructions on the bag.
Tank is testing at 0 ammonia, so I may try this dosing ammonia that I read about to test the response. My prior experiences had a pretty clear cycle, so off we go!
1st tank photo is right after setup. 2nd is the next morning. Zero effort on aquascaping. I’m probably heavy on rocks, just getting things going.
