Purrling Reef

[Barncat]

I named my tank PURR-ling because I love my cats, get it?

This is probably going to be my first and only tank build because:

- corals are expensive here (Canada)
- I just wanna love my smart saltwater fishy friends (& invert company,) like proper pets.

Which means I probably went overboard when I built Mount Purrling because it's probably excessively tall for aquascape but it's got like seven caves (some of which are connected by a big natural hole in the rock which I forgot to photograph) but hey I think that I'll have some happy fish! Plenty of caves for everyone.

My tank is a Fluval Evo 13.5 that was a warehouse special listed on Amazon as being in 'great condition' except somebody stole everything but the stock pump and the mediocre stock lid. I managed to wrangle a 30% refund of about $71 for the missing kit but ugh. Stupid Amazon.

I digress; I got the Fluval marine light because everything else seemed so expensive and I kinda like that I can program it from my phone then just... not fuss with it anymore from there. I have ADHD so being able to program something to just dependably do its job is nice.

At this time I have no plans to replace the stock pump unless it won't be strong enough for the two little hammer corals that I plan to put on the larger of my two satellite islands. (The other one is for -possibly- green star polyps or clove polyps.)

Here're Purrling Reef's basic stats:

Tank: Fluval Evo Sea 13.5 gallon

Aquascape: Two Little Fishies Stax

Sand: CaribSea Ocean Direct Oolite (wanted the Arag Alive sand but I'm on a budget)

Pump: Fluval Evo Sea Stock pump (unless a stronger pump is needed for hammer corals?)

Skimmer: Fluval Sea Mini Protein Skimmer

Light: Fluval Marine Nano LED

Heater: Eheim Jäger Trutemp 50 watt

Temperature Controller: Inkbird ITC-308

Chiller Fan: some cheap tiny desktop fan from Canadian Tire, probably

ATO: AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite SATO-260P

Emergancy Backup: Skywin Fish Aerator Pump (can be charged from a battery bank as it loses power if power outtage continues beyond 8 hour battery life period as it is USB chargeable)

Lid: Transparent, coming from LidPropzShop on Etsy

Filter Media Caddy: also coming from LidPropzShop on Etsy

Wavemaker: Vivid Creative Aquatics Nano Return Flow Kit (originally LidPropzShop random flow generator.)

I will be running Seachem filter media for everything; I probably have excessive rockwork for bacterial colonization already in my tank but I still intend to buy some Seachem Matrix to stuff into the bottom of filter chamber 1 and use as rubble. (The Fluval biomedia rings are ugly.) Will be dosing my system with Seachem Stability and Doctor Tim's One and Only Ammonium Chloride for a safe fishless start.

For cleaning crew I plan on copepods, bumblebee snails, astrea snails, dwarf hermit crabs, a candy cane pistol shrimp, a skunk cleaner shrimp and eventually a pincushion urchin.


I'm hoping to find frozen Okanagan Lake (my local lake) mysis shrimp to feed. I will also be feeding a varied diet of Fauna Marin soft clownfish food, Hikari crustation food, Polyp Labs Reef Roids, and possibly another pelleted food too but my LFS seems to mostly just have herbivore food!! (All the fish I plan for are carnivores.)

I plan on supplementing my little reef with kalkwasser via my ATO system. I will be using the API test kits and RO/DI water from my LFS. My salt is Seachem Vibrant Sea (it seems just fine to me and it was on sale. I am weak financially so I'm going to sale hunt when I can and I like Seachem's other stuff so why not go with their salt too?)

Planned corals are zoanthids, discosoma mushrooms, possibly a blastomussa, a duncan, and my holy grail: a purple grape hammer coral.

I'm really looking forwards to finally putting some water in. Also looking forwards to seeing some coralline algae obscuring the ugly chewing gum green Fluval epoxy sticking my rockwork together. Definitely placing some coral strategically to hide that too! (Hopefully my future copepods THRIVE in it!)

My dad made the silly addition of piranha statue. I am leaving it to humour him, knowing that it will soon just look like a fish-shaped rock.

I blocked that pesky bypass hole with epoxy.

 

[jsker]

Great start to a Great setup!!

 

[1112-425XL]

Looking good! Following along.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!!

 

[Nano_Man]

Great start to your journey
I will be following

 

[Barncat]

Thank you everyone for the positivity

Today I received my new lid and filter media caddy from LidPropzShop on Etsy; a quick tug got rid of the piece of the lid that is meant to cover the filter area, as it doesn't fit anyway with my skimmer there.

Unfortunately, the seller's shipping packaging was extremely insecure and I lost all but the two end nozzle pieces of the random flow generator. Since my tank came to me utterly missing the original flow generator piece, this is a Problem, and I have no idea how to fix it.

I'm not willing to pay $20-$30 shipping for the part again and it is doubtful that the seller will replace it with shipping that nasty.

Edit!: I found a fix! I've ordered Vivid Creative Aquatic's Return Flow Nano Kit. Thank goodness.

 

[00W]

I'll be following as well!
Good luck keep us updated.

 

[Barncat]

Today I got some of my final supplies in so I set up the electrical; I bought a Geeni smart surge protector off of Amazon that has six power outlets which with my Inkbird temperature controller handling my heater and still-to-be purchased cooling fan, works great! I also organized my supplies and equipment underneath better.

It was here that I discovered that while I thought that I had bought the basic API testing kit with Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite and PH, I had actually bought their Reef Master kit containing tests for calcium and magnesium and whatnot, which based on my research actually makes more sense anyway, so happy accident?!

I also got my filter media caddy ready with Polyp Labs carbon (don't worry, I will rinse it before I start the tank,) Seachem Purigen and Marine Pure Gems. Being a tree hugger, at least for now I don't plan on using any foam or filter floss filtration; I feel that my skimmer will hopefully make up for my not using foam.

I also programmed my Fluval Marine Nano light with the default settings. I'm really stoked that it will have a full day night cycle! I know that's potentually gimmicky but I think that it will be restful to view.

I may drill a hole on my acrylic lid for my airline tube; now is clearly the best time to do so, before I add any fish!! I also want to cut a feeding port lid out of the unneeded section of the new lid which would have covered the filter area.

I had time to drive to the next city this late afternoon so I bought Seachem's Ammonia Alert and PH alert combo pack, plus some Seachem Prime and Matrix (I'm stuffing biological filtration media wherever I can. I want my future bacteria and copepods to feel like they've hit the jackpot when it comes to habitat!

 

[Barncat]

Yesterday my ATO system artived which I'm really stoked about. I'm torn between using an actual water bottle for its reservoir and using a big tall tupperware; soon hopefully I will figure it out. Tomorrow, hopefully I buy water from my LFS to fill it with.

 

[Barncat]

Forgot to add: I've been planning my coral placement and researching which corals I actually want. I will be adding some stonework to the far little island so that it can be seen over the nearer one with marco rocks and on top of that island is where I plan to put a purple grape hammer. For the near island I'm torn between a few ideas:

- Blastomussa
- Green Star Polyps (although I'm kinda afraid of them with how weedy they are)
- Mushrooms (which I think are pretty boring honestly)

Alternatively I may put clove polyps on the back island and the hammer on the near island.

Mount Purrling will be reserved for peaceful corals so a Blastomussa could live there too alongside the Zoanthids I want and I think I may also put a meteor shower Cyphaestria at the bottom where it's nice and shady. Longterm I'd like to put a Stylophora or Birdsnest coral near the top of Mount Purrling.

My favourite colours being purple and turquoise... it's gonna be very hard for me not to have those colours absolutely everywhere.

For Zoanthids I have tentatively chosen Rasta, Candy Apple Red and Agave varieties. J&L Aquatics' Agave variety practically sings my name! I keep telling myself that I should add more colours to the tank to offset the overall purple-and-turquoise-ness. At least the two clownfish and watchman goby I have planned are on the warm colour spectrum!

But seriously, doesn't this zoa just sing come hither? I love it so much.

I wish I had better LFSs. The two present here have barely any frags for me to drool over and the one was quite offended when I told them that I intend to buy most of my corals online. I retorted that if I'm spending money on something, those somethings need to sing to me and if the LFS doesn't have anything that appeals me that's not my problem, I'm going to take my business elsewhere. I'll certainly buy food, chemicals and filter media from them though.

 

[Barncat]

My new random flow generator from Vivid Creative Aquatics finally showed up but alas, it seems that I still need a piece of tubing in order to splice it with my pump's output. (That Amazon thief really messed me up.) My dad has suggested that I check our local hardware store for tubing so I'm gonna try that because I don't recall my LFS having any larger tubing.

I also need to make a cover for the feeding hatch in the lid to prevent precision escapes and drill a hole in the back corner of the lid for my airline.

 

[Barncat]

Two days ago I started my tank's cycle and somehow got my tank's salinity right on my first try! For the first twelve hours Purrling Reef enjoyed an underwater sandstorm but two days later the water is beautifully clear. Ammonia was at .2 ppm yesterday and this morning it is at .05 ppm.

Temperature is too high at 82.5°F, four degrees up from my target of 78°F. I need to buy a fan and potentially switch to a mesh lid because I'm not sure how useful a fan will be with my ventilated acrylic lid. Possibly I could use a mesh lid in summer and the acrylic one in the cooler seasons when the ambient air temperature isn't so grotesquely toasty.

Last minute arch addition with Marco Rocks looks so cool! (Mr. Piranha looked spooky as heck during the sandstorm!)

 

[Barncat]

Update! Two weeks ago I introduced:

- 1 baby normal phase Ocellaris clownfish (who was ordered as a mocha but J&L Aquatics sent me a normal instead.) I named him Moby.
- 1 yellow watchman goby, whom I named Clyde.
- 1 skunk cleaner shrimp whom I named Jacques.
- 2 blue legged dwarf hermit crabs
- 2 Wilson's conchs
- 2 trochus snails

Everyone seems to be surviving just fine. Since my tank finished cycling and I added my first livestock I have added lightweight dollarstore 'pigeon spikes' on top of the tank to dissuade my two year old cat from trying to go fishing, an Innovative Marine mesh lid (to fix cooling issue, the acrylic lid blanketted in the heat) and today I removed the Fluval Mini skimmer because I couldn't figure out how to fix its malfunction. I may purchase a different skimmer in the future.

Water quality is good and my fish seem happy; here's the next livestock which will be added soon:

- 1 pistol shrimp (tiger or candy cane)
- 1 emerald crab
- possibly another larger, more interesting

hermit crab
- a picasso phase Ocellaris clownfish

 

[Barncat]

Today was a big little landmark for me - I introduced copepods! These guys will hopefully colonize the extensive rorkwork that I built for them and complete the microfauna of my tank. (I dumped most of them into the main aquarium, a good quarter into the biological filter media under my media caddy, and the last tiny bit went into the empty-ish compartment beside it which will hopefully house some macroalgae in timeand which currently has a tiny bit of biological filter media and an extra piece of aragonite in it.)

Also managed to get some help from my LFS with my Eheim Jäger 50 watt heater which had been seemingly failing at night; since I have it connected to my Inkbird my LFS guy advised me to jack up the temp on the heater itself past the temp that I have the Inkbird set for. So far, so good, but we'll see what the temp looks like tomorrow morning.

 

[Barncat]

My LFS store guy's tweak worked! My heater kept temps more stable overnight and I am so relieved; now I can think about corals, and maybe finally replacing the cleaner shrimp that I lost.

 

[Lebowski_]

So I am a bit late to the party, but there is a place called "Cultured By Science" here in Ontario that sells Agave's at a decent price. I am a big fan of them, and they have some really inexpensive frags to get started.

New Dawn Aquaculture and J&L are the other two that are more local to you, both great suppliers, but a bit more pricey. Less travel time for the shipment, though.

Anyways, off to a great start fellow Canuck, best of luck!

 

[Barncat]

So I am a bit late to the party, but there is a place called "Cultured By Science" here in Ontario that sells Agave's at a decent price. I am a big fan of them, and they have some really inexpensive frags to get started.

New Dawn Aquaculture and J&L are the other two that are more local to you, both great suppliers, but a bit more pricey. Less travel time for the shipment, though.

Anyways, off to a great start fellow Canuck, best of luck!

Thanks Lebowski, I appreciate it! I've already utilized J&L, and I'm looking forwards to checking them out in person sometime whenever I'm down through the Lower Mainland next. I'll check out New Dawn Aquaculture, it's good to have another source with saltwater shops so sparse here!