Returning After 10+ Years Away

[NDFoz]

Hello,

When I had my first reef tank and freshwater tanks I didn’t know this place existed. But I am finally getting back into the hobby and really hoping it goes better this time. Water was added on October 25th, 2024. My setup is as follows:

Tank:
-Waterbox 20g Cube

Lighting:
-2x 12in AI Blade Grows

Sand:
-CaribSea 20lb Special Grade Arag-Alive

Rock:
-~20lbs of reef saver rock

Filtration:
-Reef-n-Roll Automatic Filter Roller
-Bubble Magus MiniQ Nano Internal Skimmer (failed after 2.5 months)
-IOAOI 50G Protein Skimmer
-Maxspect Nano-Tech Bio-Spheres

Flow:
-Aqua Illumination Axis 40
-Aqua Illumination Nero 3 x2
-Vivid Aquatics Dual Head Random Flow Generator

Other:
-Inkbird Controller w/ 2x 100W Titanium Heaters
-Useek ATO (Failed for the 2nd time tonight) (looking for one I don’t need to worry about)
-2x Reef Factory X1 Pro Dosing Pumps
-All-for-Reef (ordered the new AF 3-in-1)
-Red Sea NO3:PO4:X

Occupants:
Pair of Clowns
Tail Spot Blenny
Pair of Citron Clown Goby’s
Yellow Watchman Goby
Cleaner Shrimp
Very small Tiger Pistol Shrimp
Variety of snails as a cleanup crew

Coral:
6 Different Varieties of Zoanthids
Ultra Rainbow Acan Coral
Blue Raven Merletti Basto
Mayan Sun Favia
Raspberry Blasto
Black Widow Blasto
TSA Jade Dragon Birdsnest
Bubblegum Digitata Montipora

I do water changes every Saturday morning. I do all the testing before I do the water changes and I track the readings in the Aquatic Log app/website. I have used what I believe is almost all of the apps on the Apple App Store even some paid ones. All of them are a complete waste of money including the new AI powered one. I absolutely LOVE Aquatic Log. Dmitry Tumanov (the developer) is awesome and extremely hands on and very helpful IMHO.

I do make my own food. It’s similar to what LRS Reef Frenzy has in it. I just made a few additions/changes/upgrades. I love making the food.

My Numbers:
Calcium: Max-569 Min-350 Avg-460
Alkalinity: Max-11.4 Min-7.2 Avg-9.0
Nitrate: Max-39.5 Min-4.0 Avg-12.0
Phosphate: Max-0.71 Min-0.12 Avg-0.32
Mag: Max-1380 Min-1200 Avg-1315

If you have any questions let me know.

 

[Brian W]

I love this setup. You're off to a great start in my opinion. I love the idea of a rollermat in an AIO tank. I never knew anything like that existed. Can't wait to see more updates as your corals grow.

 

[rhitee93]

You're well on your way! I jumped back in 18 months ago after a 20-year layout. I don't regret getting back in one bit.

 

[Tahoe61]

Hi and Welcome to the hobby. :)

I have had great luck with Tunze ATO, for several yrs. Also you can just get a gravity feed adapter off Amazon for 11.00 dollars until you decide on ATO.

 

[edsbeaker]

Hi, and welcome!

 

[RoanokeReef]

Welcome back!

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome back to saltwater! Good luck with your tank!

 

[NDFoz]

So over the last week I unfortunately was struck with Dino’s. So I went online (because of course my LFS doesn’t carry UV sterilizers) bought a Sicce UV-C 7w Sterilizer. I’ve had it hooked up since Thursday (2025.03.19). After watching NUMEROUS video’s I decided to connect it directly to the return pump (Axis 40) and put it at about 70% and then the outlet for the sterilizer goes out the tank return outlet making it so that any water in the final chamber of the WB 20 goes through the sterilizer before getting pumped back into the tank. So far it’s been getting better. I also started feeding my corals (I generally don’t) Reef Roids because I know for a fact that they increase PO4 and that is what I needed because mine weren’t registering using two different style Hanna testers. Now I am reading 0.15 which is where I like them to be and NO3 is right around the 4.5 to 7.0 range where I want it.

Well before this situation came about I had ordered 6 or 7 new coral frags during a flash sale and other sale at tsa. They came on Friday and I FINALLY finished my aquascape and it finally was a little over 2 weeks of curing. So I pulled out the largest rock I had in my tank and left the remaining rock in my tank and put in my scape so that I don’t have to go through the cycle again.

The fish are very happy from the looks of it and the CUC is LOVING the scape as well because they’ve been exploring all over. I haven’t mounted the corals because I am waiting on more putty/epoxy to arrive. I have attached a new photo with the new scape.

Before anyone asks yes that is a Groot frag plug holder. My son and I love Marvel after a lot of looking I found this one. Oh and a snail catching a ride. Thought that was freaking hilarious.

 

[Anna K]

Welcome back to the saltwater community! Love your tanks already, always cool to see what others are doing. I think you'll like r2r and I cant wait to see progress photos throughout the months to come!

 

[NDFoz]

A bit of an update to my WB 20g Cube. A couple of weeks ago I purchased 7 new corals and ya. After dipping and adding them I came home a couple hours later and all but 1 fish and the inverts were floating dead and the tank smelt AWFUL and was discolored. I quickly took a solo cup of water out and removed all the rock work I temporarily had in there and syphoned out almost all of the water. Maybe 2 inches from the bottom. I cleaned the 3 sides of glass and then the back wall on both the front and inside the filtration area (FYI when a person with larger forearms attempts to do this it is NOT an easy job. Thankfully my 13yo son was there and was small enough to reach into the chambers.). I literally cleaned everything, the wave makers, the return pumps, the tubing, the filter roller and housing, the skimmer (kind of, just enough to prevent it from going nuts). By then my 40g Brute container was at 78 degrees and well thankfully I didn’t lose any other animals or corals.

I went to PetSmart bought 2 female black mollies after watching several YT video’s about converting them from FW to SW took about 3 hours I put them in and left them in there for a week making sure they were happy and alive.

Then I went to my local salty only LFS and asked for the smallest and most unwanted clowns. They got me a small Darwin and a Maine Mocca something clown (not sure why the Maine one isn’t more popular its cute AF). I added them after acclimation to temp and parameters. Well the Yellow Watchman Golby and the 2 Mollies and the 2 Clowns are doing great. The Mollies and clowns are always together. The Mollies cleared out the algae that was growing on my zoa island.

I also installed the new rock scape that I had finished a few days before and was letting it sit in my empty quarantine tank to get the bacteria starting to grow on it.

 

[NDFoz]

So I did my first ICP test on my tank and got the results back this morning. I am happy with the results on the RODI water because it literally came back nothing detected. BUT I am kind of lost as to how to adjust my tank water. Shows Zinc levels were listed as “Critically High” 35.30 and I knew my Alk was going to be high because that was when I was dropping from A4R. My salinity was low at 30PSU. That I am working on increasing slowly via water changes. This should be at 33 this coming Saturday.

Now with Potassium, Sulfur, and Silicon were Recommended adjustments to lower. But how?

Then I was low on Iodine and Iron.

Any assistance or input I’d greatly appreciate it.