NewFish

NewFish · Mar 21, 2021

Getting started on this journey.

I have been learning whatever I can retain over the past few months. Now I'm ready as ever to take my chance at my first reef tank. I've dreamed of a saltwater aquarium since I was just a little guy so here it goes.

My plan is to build a minimal maintenance 40 gallon tank for my home. Long term I'll take the gear and lessons learned from this tank to transplant it's contents into a larger tank. But for now the immediate strategy is to use as much information, effort, and technologies as I can to succeed with this minimalist tank.

Day 1,

My goal with this tanks aquascape is a bare bottom tank with that negative-space/minimalist appearance. So to start I'm on the adventure to find some high quality live rock. I'll also want to add more surface area to the tank for all of that lovely bacteria to live so I will be making use of MarinePure bioballs in my AIO tank.

To get the process started I've added some 'live sand' to a 12 gallon tub and my bioballs. Two circulation pumps, a heater, and my Apex to take salinity and tempature measurements. I'll be adding some more water tomorrow. I might even give some of that bottled-bacteria potion a try soon.

Day 2,

Tested out the ATO solution today. Seems to be a great fit for the under-cabinet spec.

The plan is a RODI feed into the cabinet to fill a 6g jug. Tunze to fill the tank. With two water level sensors connected to the Apex. I'll have fully loaded FMMs in the design

Lots of safety protocols too. Don't worry too much community.

Still waiting on more parts to come in. I hope the VarioS-4 fits perfect.

I made it to two new local shops today. One was fresh only. The other was in pretty rough shape. No faith in any of the rocks they've been curing. Hopeful that I can find some quality hookup locally.

ShepherdReefer · Mar 22, 2021

Super nice.

NewFish · Mar 31, 2021

Day, skip a few.

Trying to keep in mind one piece advice I hear often which is "Take it slow." Essentially don't try to change stuff all the time. So that's how I'm rolling. (I think?)

Anyways. What an exciting week! Tons of new gear rolling in through the post. Tyvm UPS,AZ,FedEx,etc. Appreciate the heck out of you guys.

So we can focus on the new additions to the curing bucket over the past 10 days. I had a few goals that seemed to make sense with these additions. Plus, I can't just sit around with this really cool gear going unused.

One addition this week was hooking up the Neptune Trident. I 100% know this is overkill and could be called completely unnecessary at this point. But I'll remind anyone to check the title of this thread. 'Overbuilt' and 'over-kill' is kind of the entertaining part of this. Also, who knows? I respect the heck out of BRS Ryan's approach to experiementing so others can observe. So here I go.

From the feedback on the Trident it pretty much looks like the ingredients on the bag of salt I used. I do see some daily/hourly fluctuations in the levels but nothing that really shocks me. I'll post some readouts when I get this bucket transfered to the tank. I do see a clear drop in salinity from ~35 to ~32 sometimes. It looks like this is when the ATO kicks in. Maybe it's just because of it's close proximity to the meter.

Next, I added in some air. Just a simple Tetra 40g air pump on a single 1" stone. Getting those bubbles going. Cranking up the air and lowering the exposure to light by keeping the yellow lid covered with a towel throughout the day.

That's all that went into the bucket lately. The other process I just started tonight was bleaching some new dry rock. I ordered just a few from BRS to get a feel of what they had. Not nearly enough ordered! Local shops didn't have much. As much as I want to support them by buying locally I also want what I want. I'll keep stopping by to support for sure.

So I won't go on to much more in this post about everything. We'll see it unfold over time. A lot of this will be revisited. Photos are the magic of threads so I'll add a bunch in here. Feel free to ask questions but I'm going to end this one with some one liners to provide a bit of context to the pics. I think most of you will get it.

Battery Backup - just good advice. Still waiting on the MP40s. I got a defective one from MarineDepot and had a heck of a time working with them to get it taken care of.

Wire Track (idk the name of it) - going to put the RODI system under the sink. Run a clean H20 feed into a can and a waste line to return the dirty water. Still thinking through a clever way to have the Trident's reagents discard into the same return waste line. I don't think that should be too tricky.

Return pump - The 4 was just to big. I had to step it down so it would fit the back AIO part of this Clear For Life tank better. Still need to do a mod to the guard so it will actually fit. Hoping I can find a buddy with a 3d printer so I can do something sweet here. Or i'll fall back to the webs to find a part. If all fails i'll just do my best hokey chop job.

Scepter 20L Tanks - At first I was going to house 3 in my tank stand. 1 for clean ATO water, next for dirty, and the last for salt (for auto water changes with the Neptune DOS). I decided to instead opt for some more space in the bottom. WIred up a short Aarow Home Goods water dispenser tank I got on Amazon for $10 with two Neptune optical water level sensors. Cut a hole in the top for the Tunze Osmolater to sneek it's tubes in and one more tube for the RODI feed when that's ready. I'm going to instead repurpose the multiple 20L tanks I bought to house some extra salt batches when I mix it up. I don't have space for a big butt drum of saltwater but I can make a few of these to hold me over for a few weeks. I will probably keep these in the bottom of a closet during the winter so they don't freeze up in the garage. Oh, these also have a Neptune sensor in them so I can see when I need to swap them out.

Last but not least I also started a fishless cycle using Brightwells kit. Levels are coming in as expected. Nitrate is still staying super low.

Share your thoughts! Invite your friends to follow. It's defineatly motivating for me when I get some folks following along. I'll keep ya posted. L8r reefers.

NewFish · Mar 31, 2021

Photos

NewFish · Apr 6, 2021

Stand is a work in progress. It will be made of the same maple I used for my hardwood floors seen in the other pictures.

I'm thinking a gray stain with a granite top.

Thoughts on colors?