Reef tank the long way

[John Bolden]

So after a while out of the hobby I have returned with more money to throw down the drain and slightly higher ambitions. I have a 25 gallon water box peninsula tank with a radon xr30 on it. I plan on having a mixed reef and my slightly higher ambitions are for it to be sps dominate. I didn’t take many photos setting up but the tank is set up and cycled and I finally added some new additions this last week.
Thanks for following along!

 

[John Bolden]

Here is a video

 

[kevgib67]

So after a while out of the hobby I have returned with more money to throw down the drain and slightly higher ambitions. I have a 25 gallon water box peninsula tank with a radon xr30 on it. I plan on having a mixed reef and my slightly higher ambitions are for it to be sps dominate. I didn’t take many photos setting up but the tank is set up and cycled and I finally added some new additions this last week.
Thanks for following along!

Welcome back, good luck!

 

[Fish Fan]

Loving this build!

I really like the background pics behind your tank

 

[Michael Hughes]

I love that wall - what a great tank backdrop!

 

[Bob Weigant]

welcome back and enjoy your tank

 

[John Bolden]

I love that wall - what a great tank backdrop!

Haha thanks I put it up years ago and now it has a real tank infront of it!

 

[KrisReef]

Beautiful!
Can I beg you to consider a cinematographic hint to improve future clips:

Hold the camera still and steady, after you focus on the subject and count to three before you move on to the next coral. This will give your viewer the necessary time needed to evaluate the polyp extention and let their brains grasp onto the thing you are showing, (which are nice!)

(The only example I could find, wasn't a reef, sorry)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[John Bolden]

So I went to the LFS and they had a deal on a walt disney and home wrecker and with zero self control I bought them... so now I have them and they seem to be settling in nicely! I am testing alk every 24 hours to see how much its being used to calculate how much I will need to dose. This tank has the most copopods Ive seen. In my old tank I would have some on the glass before I scraped it and then they would be gone but this tank has them all over the glass even after I scrape it. Hopefully this means my tank is doing well! I have this gold hammer I recently bought and it has been so stubborn about opening up it seems it just stays all tight as you see in the photos. On the parameters front all is good and stable exept I cannot for the life of me get my nitrates up I have been feeding pretty heavy and no luck I may switch to frozen food just to see if that changes anything but we will see. Any tips or tricks on these acros would be much apriciated as I have some experience with sps but not the most. Thank you!

 

[John Bolden]

I found some nitrate additive in a cabnet so im going to dose a little of that and eventually get a hanna nitrate test kit. I will only dose this twice then get my nitrate tested next weekend when I do a water change and hopefully the nitrate will go up. I will also be feeding only brine shrimp with the hopes that will help aswell. Hopefully the phosphates wont skyrocket.