SCA 50 (noob)

[Impavidus]

After several months, I finally got my tank cycling. This process (new to me) hasn't been easy, but it's rewarding to see it come together. The tank is in my home office so one of my main goals was to have it as quiet as possible. My app reads 35 dB right outside cabinet.

Tank: SCA 50 AIO
Pump: Vectra S2 (sca pump was too loud)
Skimmer: NYOS 120 (sca skimmer too loud)
Light: TBD, ditching black box
Plumbing by me
Cover: DIY Red Sea
I wrapped the stock white cabinet


Mistakes:

1. Glued piping only to realize bulkhead gaskets were on wrong side. Had to cut and redo a portion of piping.
2. Another gluing mistake where I glued the slip portion of a connector without the connector piece. Stupid, but small mistake. I was to able to buy the connect slip pieces luckily.
3. Filled up tank dirty RODI water (38 measurement). Flushed RODi and issue corrected.

Next steps:
Buy auto top off. Mount pump and heater controllers to side of cabinet. Buy a light with a mountable arm. Continue fishless cycle (day 4). It's going good so far. No nitrite detected, but Nitrate is detected.

My goal is to eventually get up to SPS coral. I picked my tank more for space rather than a budget build. Hence me upgrading pump and skimmer aiming for low sound.

It's not perfect, but it's rewarding to say I did it on my own.

 

[SPR1968]

Very nice and I like the aquascape design

 

[revhtree]

How’s the build going?

 

[Impavidus]

How’s the build going?

Dr. Tim's fishless cycling has been going pretty good for the most part. Ammonia levels continue to go down, but my Nitrite spiked really high. I just did a 30% water change to help with that.

I'm really excited my nyos 120 is officially broken in. It took about 6 days.

I purchased an AI Prime 16 with a fixed stand and plan to purchase another one when I get coral.

Getting very close to making my first trip to the LFS with my 5 year old to pick out her 1st clown fish. I'm in Austin, TX. Looks like we have some great fish/coral options.

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

Looking good so far! I have this same tank. There is a ton you can do with it even though it’s 50 gal. Have some patience, learn as much as you can and pick yourself up after mistakes! I’ve made plenty for sure. Here is mine from when I first set it up in Feb 2019 to today! Keep us updated as you go along! Happy reefing!!

 

[Impavidus]

Looking good so far! I have this same tank. There is a ton you can do with it even though it’s 50 gal. Have some patience, learn as much as you can and pick yourself up after mistakes! I’ve made plenty for sure. Here is mine from when I first set it up in Feb 2019 to today! Keep us updated as you go along! Happy reefing!!

Awesome, thanks for the inspiration. I like how you utilized the space and your SPS growth. Vibrant contrasting stick coral is my end goal.

I'm still dealing with high nitrites, but I finally got it below 1 after a second water change (50%). Ammonia is barely detected. I'm just over 3 weeks in my Dr Tim's fishless cycle process.

I turned my return pump around and put my heaters in that section. My middle section will eventually be used for chaeto. The space is thin so I'm concerned if I can get it to rotate.

No brown algae on rocks or crushed coral. One rock has a barely visible dark green patch.

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

I tried cheato, it all died. My fuge is small pieces of live rock and believe it or not, green hair algae. It does a great job and I don’t have one speck of it in my display. This is mainly due to the massive amount of coralline algae covering the rocks. I found that once it settled in, the ugly algae’s couldn’t out compete it for space. My tang and CUC took care of everything else.

If you like coralline algae, I suggest going to https://arcreef.com/ and picking up a bottle of the coralline algae in a bottle. It has coralline as well as beneficial started bacteria like Dr. Tim’s. It worked SO WELL for me. I put it in right as I turned the lights on. It Took 2-3 weeks until I saw spots of it growing and since then, it’s kept my algae down a bit.

 

[Impavidus]

July update:

My fishless cycle took 2 months. It was really discouraging along the way, but I stayed patient with the process until my Nitrites finally came down. I had a lot of water changes along the way. I also got a notification from my water company that they switched to chloramine during my cycle process. My patience was tested, but it's rewarding looking back on what I learned.

I went with a relatively small clean up crew. The good news is I didn't have a very bad ugly stage. I'm up to two clown fish, a watchman goby and a pistol shrimp that paired immediately. Witnessing the symbiotic relationship has been the best part so far. I was concerned about the Goby's color, but I was glad to learn it will change as it matures. I look forward to being able to get an anemone in the future to keep that theme going.

 

[Impavidus]

I made some changes to my aquascape. The big rocks I have have a lot of hiding spots within.

I made some nice livestock additions to my tank and plan to start adding coral in the next month. Unfortunately my clowns are in QT, but they are getting better.

The good news is I skipped an ugly phase and my levels have been good for quite a while. I added purple and pink coralline algae. I can’t wait for my boring white rocks to get some color.

Here’s an updated pic. (Ignore the glass cleaner that just came apart)

 

[Impavidus]

The tank is in a really great spot. My RBT Anemone is thriving, but my clowns haven’t started hosting it. My levels have been great and I’m really liking where the tank is headed.


Coral & Anemone additions:
4 mushrooms
Micromussa
RBT Anemone
Birdsnest
Favia
Favities
1 Acro

My plan is to see how the additions do before adding anything else.

Im not sure what to put on the right rock with Micro or left rock with favities. If you all have any recommendations I’d appreciate it.

 

[Impavidus]

My space is limited, but I was able to add 2 small reactors for gfo and carbon. Bio pellets are in a media bag right before skimmer. I need to get a lens so my pictures look closer to what I see.
Here are some pics. I changed up the rockscape a bit.

I gave up on getting my clowns to care about my anemone. I moved the anemone rock right by the corner they host, tried to block their movement to the anemone, played looping anemone videos and 3 days of having them in a pasta strainer with it. After those 3 days I decided to not try to force it any more.

I will say that I love my tank. I can sit in front of it and just get lost watching everything going on.