Reef_prop88 Tries SPS's (29 gal build thread)

Reef_prop88

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12/27/21 update

This thread is here to document the build up of my small sps setup from day one. I will keep the first post updated with my most recent pic and list of livestock and equipment being used.

Equipment
-Standard 29 gallon rimmed tank
-Fluval 307 canister filter 300 gph (due to limited space under tank)
-Reef Octopus 2 wave pump 1600 gph
-Reef Octopus classic 100 hob protein skimmer
-Radion XR30 blue w/ diffuser (12 hr on WWC mixed reef setting until I introduce sps corals)
-BRS C02 Buffer (works great at keeping ph in check)

Livestock
-Onyx True Percula Clown
-Black Ocellaris Clown
-6 blue leg crabs
-11 snails

Corals
-Neon Blastomussa Merletti coral (Freebie from ipsf order!)
-Acan Lord
-Rhodactis Mushroom
-Bounce Mushroom (lfs find)
-JF Mango Cooler Zoas
-WWC Pandora Zoas
-JF Night Life Favia
-JF Psycho Rainbow Rim Favia
-Gold Hammer
-Gold Tip Christata
-Teel Hammer
-Peach Branching Frog Spawn
-Blue/Orange Acan
-JF John Deere Lepto
-Rainbow Ricordea Mushroom



Tank started 12/1/21 with 40 lb Marco rock, 20 lb sand and Microbacter7 dosed daily. Ipsf live sand, miracle mud and liquid n reducer added 12/18/21



clowns 2.JPG
feb 8 22 rainbow acan.JPG

After 5+ years out of the hobby I am finally back and it feels great! I am jumping head first into starting up a small SPS dominant tank so I can learn the ins and outs before hopefully next year bumping up to a 200+ gallon setup. Since budget isn't as big of an issue as it was in the past, my plan for this tank is not to cut any corners when it comes to equipment and the proper tank inhabitants. The fish in this tank will not be for show as much as to do a job, and the main focus will be the corals themselves.

This time around I decided to take my time on the setup of the tank and do a fishless cycle (microbacter7 and ammonium chloride) with base rock instead of live rock in hopes of keeping unwanted pests out of my tank. Also any corals I buy will be purchased only off reputable sources online that are known for selling clean pest free specimens. If there is any possible way to save myself headaches on this tank I will do it lol.

The setup is a plain jane 29 tall tank with unfortunately a fluval 307 filter instead of a sump in order to save space. For lights I may have a gone a bit overboard and bought a Radion XR30 Blue lol. I figured If I planned on going big in the future I might as well get something that could be used on that tank also! Future purchases will include a automated dosing system (Neptune Apex) and 2 VorTech MP10QD powerheads.

I look forward to your feedback and I am 100% open to suggestions if anybody feels like I might be making a bad decision on equipment or anything!

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Reef_prop88

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Just received my 5 stage RO system from BRS. A quality tank starts with quality water right?
06BB0700-085A-4643-A539-0541125DF246.jpeg


Also I am looking to put in an order for a couple quarantined fish to marinecollectors.com within the next week or so since I am 10 days into a fishless cycle. I figure the tank will be cycled by the time the fish are quarantined and ready to ship. The plan is to have the fish in the tank for a couple months before any corals get put in, that way it has a little time to mature first with the lights on.
 
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Reef_prop88

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I made a trip to The Reef Shoppe in Rochester NY today to see what kind of goodies they had that I needed for the tank! That place is amazing when it comes to coral selection and I couldn't believe how clean and healthy their tanks were! I ended up leaving with a Reef Octopus Classic 100 hob protein skimmer and a nice Reef Octopus Octopulse2 power head.

Also I have been going back and forth on weather or not I should buy some live rock for the tank in order to add a little bio diversity. I decided to stick with the original plan and ordered the live sand activtor plus package from ipsf.com instead. I know alot of people on here are dead set against setting up a tank without live rock but I think I can make it work as long as I am patient and let the tank get well established before loading it with fish. We'll see I guess.

The tank is on day 10 of its cycle right now reading .25 ppm ammonia 2.0 ppm Nitrite and maybe a tiny bit of nitrate. I have not ran the light at all and don't plan on it until I get the tank cycled and introduce a clean up crew.
60A0E825-7132-45E9-881A-E5E88B781C5C.jpeg
 
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Reef_prop88

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Just did some tests and the tank is finally reading Nitrates! Jumped to 40ppm overnight it seems. This is all perfect timing because the live sand ,miracle mud and very small cuc from Indo Pacific Sea Farms shows up today. I mixed saltwater last night for a 20% water change so I will do that today and continue doing them until I can get the nitrates down below 10ppm.

I will make sure to post up pics of what comes with the live sand and mud.
 
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Reef_prop88

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I just got home with my package from Indo Pacific Sea Farms and everything is alive and well! They even sent me a 2nd bag of free pods (roughly 15-20 pods) and a freebie coral that looks like it might be a trumpet! Hope I can keep it alive with my tank being so new! It's also a bit of a relief that they sent some macro algae as I was a bit concerned about everything being able to eat with the tank not having any algae yet.

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Reef_prop88

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So the tank will be 30 days old tomorrow and I decided it is finally time to goto to the LFS and see what they have for fish. I ended up coming home with 2 very small clownfish (Onyx true percula and a black ocellaris). They came out of different tanks at the store but became friends as soon as they were introduced into the tank.

As for corals I decided to get a random Acan at the LFS since the blastomussa I got for free is doing great and I placed an order with Jason Fox Corals that will show up tomorrow. I will update with pics of the new frags when they show up!

Up until this point I have been feeding mysis shrimp to the hermits and Blasto every 3 days in hopes of keeping everybody alive and to keep the beneficial bacteria in the tank thriving and multiplying. My Ammonia and Nitrites have been zero for a couple weeks and Nitrates are being taken care of with weekly 5 gallon water changes.

clowns1.JPG clowns 2.JPG acan 1.JPG blastos1.JPG
 
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Reef_prop88

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I got my first shipment of nice corals from Jason fox today. It consists of Orange Infused Rainbow Clove polyps, Mango Cooler Zoas, Night Life Favia and Psycho Rainbow Rim Favia. Everything is looking very healthy and so far I think the Mango Coolers are my favorite. Unfortunately it seems like the anthropods in my tank really really like them as well. Anybody with suggestions on what I should do about the anthropods munching on my zoas please chime in!

I should have new lenses coming in tomorrow too from flipper to hopefully get some much better pics. Pretty pumped about that!

Psycho Rainbow Rim Favia/ Mango Cooler/ Night Life Favia
Psycho rainbow rim favia 1.JPG
mango cooler zoa 1.JPG
Night life favia 1.JPG
 
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Reef_prop88

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Since getting the new corals in everything has seemed to do well after putting them in my tank except for the Orange Infused Rainbow Clove polyps. So far the polyps have not fully come out. I have them in a spot in the tank with medium flow toward the bottom hoping they just need a little bit of time to acclimate. Any pointers on how to make these guys happy would be appreciated. Maybe they just need more time?

Also as you can see after a month I am going through a very mild case of the uglies. Not really worried about it though. The clean up crew seems to be doing its job and I have been good about doing weekly water changes.

Orange infused rainbow clove.JPG
 

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Got the tank set up with the rest of the base rock. I think this is somewhere around 30-40 lbs.
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The only thing I can suggest is to be sure you've left plenty of room between the rock and the glass so you can clean there..especially if coral is growing there. Don't as me how I know...lol...I had a 29 biocube that was up and running for 6 years before I moved. I had the rock way too close to the glass and it was always difficult to clean. People here are suggesting at least 3 inches away from glass. Otherwise...everything seems to be progressing great!! Following along!
 
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The only thing I can suggest is to be sure you've left plenty of room between the rock and the glass so you can clean there..especially if coral is growing there. Don't as me how I know...lol...I had a 29 biocube that was up and running for 6 years before I moved. I had the rock way too close to the glass and it was always difficult to clean. People here are suggesting at least 3 inches away from glass. Otherwise...everything seems to be progressing great!! Following along!
That makes sense for sure. Most the corals on the bottom are able to be moved around a little bit and nothing is secured since I'm planning on this tank being a temporary home for these lps corals. I'm looking into getting a frag tank for my basement to grow out and frag lps and softies :D

This is my most recent addition from the lfs! And tomorrow I get a shipment of 8 corals from aquarium wholesale since I decided to drink a couple too many beers one night and join their auction lol! :rolleyes: I will make sure to post another pic once it fully opens up. Also this pic is taken with the kickflip lens I was talking about.

bounce mushroom.JPG
 
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So today I got a whole bunch of good things in the mail. I got my shipment of corals from aquariumwholesale.com auction and they are all 100% healthy and beautiful. And I also got all the rest of my test kits to get a more accurate reading on my parameters since I was originally using the api kit.

The one thing that I was most excited about today was getting the c02 scrubber from bulk reef supply since I have been having a hell of time getting my ph up without jacking my alk through the roof with buffer. My starting point with ph is 7.95 today with 10.5 dkh alk , so we'll see where we end up tomorrow!

Ghetto temporary scrubber location until I mount it inside the stand.
c02 scrubber.JPG


Shipment includes
Peach branching frogspawn
Gold hammer
Gold Tip Christata
Teel Hammer
Baby Blue acan (have to figure out the name)
John Deere Lepto
Ricordea Mushroom
Pandora Zoas mixed with some other zoas
Bounce mushroom (Purchased Jan 4th at lfs)

euphylia.JPG
frog spawn and hammer.JPG

john deere lepto and blasto.JPG
bounce mushroom.JPG
ricordia.JPG
 
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Reef_prop88

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So far the scrubber seems to be working. My ph has slowly raised from 7.95 (with the help of buffer) to 8.33. Makes me happy to know I could take care of my ph issue with such an easy fix.

All my parameters since I finally have my tests.

PH - 8.33
Alk - 8.1
Cal - 440
Mag - 14870-1500 o_O
phos - .03 :cool:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
nitrate - 15 ppm

As of right now I think I am pretty dang happy with how everything's turning out for being a 1 1/2 month old tank that was started without a single lick of live rock. Today I will be starting a very light amount of carbon dosing in hopes of getting my corals the phosphates they need in their diets. I will be doing this very carefully to make sure I don't zero out my nutrients causing me issues down the line. I have also started dosing red sea kh/alkalinity supplement and slowly working it up from 8 to 11-12 in hopes that it will help boost growth in the corals.

I also got this little guy since I was at the fish store for nopox and have not self control. I put him up close to the light to see if high intensity very blue lighting does in fact make these shrooms "bounce".

Rhodactris mushroom.jpg
 
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Reef_prop88

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As you'll find out if you read through this build thread in the future, I try to keeps it real:cool:. So with that being said with all this great news about my parameters checking out for the most part and all my corals getting shipped to me in great shape, I had some funky stuff go on in my tank today which I think happened due to the room getting a bit toasty and sending the tank temp up from 77.9f to 79.2f. I'll post some pics below. The psycho rainbow rim favia looks like it has little clear bubbles ( like deflated sweeper tentacles) sittin on its surface. The Night life favia looks like it got kinda pale looking and kinda deflated. Then the hammer I honestly think I messed up accidently by moving it and being a bit too rough. I think it might have also touched a zoa at one point when I first got them and dipped them.

Also I am trying to figure out what is going on with my alkalinity. I tested my alk this morning at 8.9 then 12 hrs later it read 7.4! Isn't that a ton of alk consumption for a 29 gallon tank with 10 lps corals and 5 softies in it? I mean maybe they are actually strippin the alk out of the water that fast with my ph pegging out at 8.35 - 8.4?


The damage on the hammer is a complete seperate head. The 2nd head seems healthy.

phsycho sick.JPG
hammer damage.JPG
night life favia sick.JPG
 
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Reef_prop88

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Woke up this morning and took a look at the dark tank to find sweeper tentacles attached to my zoas from the psycho rainbow rim favia soooo it's time to put the two favia in their own little corners of the tank. I'm not sure I would recommend Favia's for a smaller tank since their sweeper tentacles are so long. They really need some room around them. Also after looking it up this morning alot of people say they will sting their own species to death so I cant even put them in the same corner lol.
 
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Reef_prop88

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Just a quick little update. My Gold Hammer is still alive and doing well minus 1 head which I am gonna blame on myself handling it too roughly and all my parameteres are still with within spec. The co2 scrubber is working better than I ever expected but it rips through media like nothing. 1 week went by and It is already ready to be refilled (ph started dropping). If you every wonder why you're running really low ph I would definitely start there.

Here's my last coral I added to the tank to take a stab at an easy sps. Not sure of the exact name but its a purple branching montipora with green polyps.


branching montipora.jpg
 
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Just a quick update. Everything is doing great except for the gold hammer which I unfortunately had to take out of the tank due to it wasting away for some reason. I think it may have gotten stung by the gold tip christata that it was placed next to.

Other than the death of my hammer all my corals are doing better than I would ever expect in a 1 1/2 month old tank started with dry rock (knock on wood). For the most part all my parameters are where I want them to be for optimal growth. At this point I am dosing 3ml a day of nopox with the hopes of eventually ending up with a ultra low nutrient system. At that point I will chum the water with food and dose nitrate and phos.

Current parameters

Ph- 8.3-8.4
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 20
Phos- .06
Alk- 8.2-9 (Dosing 26ml red sea kh/alk daily)
Cal- 400-450

*Dosing 5ml daily acropower + 3ml daily nopox

Radion xr30 set at 30% running wwc mixed reef settings 12 hrs/day

In other news I will have another build thread in the frag tank section. I just ordered a 50 gal lowboy that will have a external overflow paired with 40 gal sump (big enough for 2nd lowboy down the road). The plan is to start moving the corals out of the 29 and into the frag setup to slowly convert the 29 into more of a sps display like originally planned.
 
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