Hi All,
So a very short introduction. I am new to reefing that's for sure. Had freshwater fish tanks at the parents years ago when I was a kid but now I am grown up with a partner and a child I thought it'd be nice to have a tank. As often with me, I looked more into reef tanks and then it settled it, had to be reef or nothing! My other half is really keen with this too, she is absolutely loving reading up about corals and thinking about planning where to put them etc.
I am the scientist, she is the creative!
I know the way I have set this tank up isn't what is 100% recommended but I am hopeful and encouraged that others have had and have success. I also appreciate this means it may be harder to upkeep but I am willing to put in the effort.
In 2019 we got a used tank 110L (30US Gallon)-ish, stand and filter (fluval 406) that was essentially a gift. That month we had building work and they cracked the tank!
Fast forward a year, yes a year to 2020!! and we bought a new tank of the same size. We had already bought sand, heater, rock, salt, we were all ready to go! It gave us a year of researching, reading, I think we have watched every BRS video ever made.
The 406 is set up with course filters, then in the bottom tray, course, medium sponge and fine floss. Then the other 3 baskets are full of Biohome ultimate marine pellets which should be more than enough for full cycle chemical filtration.
We have Marco Dry Rock, Caribsea Fiji Pink Sand, Eheim Jager Heater. At the moment a cheap LED light from Amazon.
We used the old tank to figure out how we wanted the rock, we're still not totally happy but we may add more later or clever positioning of coral.
New tank:
Rock added, used D&D, hoping when coralline covers it will disappear!
flushed out the sand to remove all the fines.
Sand place in the tank..
Filled with Rodi Water. I mixed the salt and added a bucket in each time. My RODI filter is a 4 stage.
To start the cycle, I bought Seachem Stability and Dr Tims Ammonia.
However, weeks in and by weeks I mean 2 months. Nothing was happening. Ammonia still read on the test kit but no nitrites, no nitrates. Nothing. I dosed the stability as per the instructions and ended up putting in 2 whole bottles, with no results.
So then...I bought this.
Within 24 hours, I had lower ammonia, nitrite reading and nitrates! Woohoooooooooooooooooooooo.
Now 3 weeks down the line, it will remove 3ppm ammonia in 24 hours and nitrites are now slowly catching up. Hoping it won't be too much longer before I will be fully cycled.
Now however, we have some green algae starting to appear.
I assume that Nitrates are high, I had stopped testing because honestly I was testing only ammonia and nitrites to get the cycle stage info but I think with the light and nitrate levels this is what is causing the green algae. We are now keeping the light off and I am going to do a water change.
Another issue that I wasn't fond of, was detritus on the surface of the water, I was manually skimming it out with a jug but I thought there must be another way.
So I ordered an intake with surface skimmer...
As you can see I arranged the heater differently too so that it is horizontal instead of vertical, it hides it better. I also have used clear tubing for the inlet and will do the same when the lily outlet is delivered at some point.
With the new surface skimmer not only does it look better in the tank visually but the surface...wow.
Before:
After..
The water is now crystal clear in the column and surface
And that's where I am up to.
I am going to do a reasonably small water change tonight and to do that I am going to incorporate vac'ing the sand bed. Once that's done, I will then do a full test of all parameters to see where we're at and then dose with ammonia again.
We are thinking about buying Vibrant to help with the algae issue.
Thanks for reading. Please be gentle but any advice or recommendations are welcome.
So a very short introduction. I am new to reefing that's for sure. Had freshwater fish tanks at the parents years ago when I was a kid but now I am grown up with a partner and a child I thought it'd be nice to have a tank. As often with me, I looked more into reef tanks and then it settled it, had to be reef or nothing! My other half is really keen with this too, she is absolutely loving reading up about corals and thinking about planning where to put them etc.
I am the scientist, she is the creative!
I know the way I have set this tank up isn't what is 100% recommended but I am hopeful and encouraged that others have had and have success. I also appreciate this means it may be harder to upkeep but I am willing to put in the effort.
In 2019 we got a used tank 110L (30US Gallon)-ish, stand and filter (fluval 406) that was essentially a gift. That month we had building work and they cracked the tank!
Fast forward a year, yes a year to 2020!! and we bought a new tank of the same size. We had already bought sand, heater, rock, salt, we were all ready to go! It gave us a year of researching, reading, I think we have watched every BRS video ever made.
The 406 is set up with course filters, then in the bottom tray, course, medium sponge and fine floss. Then the other 3 baskets are full of Biohome ultimate marine pellets which should be more than enough for full cycle chemical filtration.
We have Marco Dry Rock, Caribsea Fiji Pink Sand, Eheim Jager Heater. At the moment a cheap LED light from Amazon.
We used the old tank to figure out how we wanted the rock, we're still not totally happy but we may add more later or clever positioning of coral.
New tank:
Rock added, used D&D, hoping when coralline covers it will disappear!
flushed out the sand to remove all the fines.
Sand place in the tank..
Filled with Rodi Water. I mixed the salt and added a bucket in each time. My RODI filter is a 4 stage.
To start the cycle, I bought Seachem Stability and Dr Tims Ammonia.
However, weeks in and by weeks I mean 2 months. Nothing was happening. Ammonia still read on the test kit but no nitrites, no nitrates. Nothing. I dosed the stability as per the instructions and ended up putting in 2 whole bottles, with no results.
So then...I bought this.
Within 24 hours, I had lower ammonia, nitrite reading and nitrates! Woohoooooooooooooooooooooo.
Now 3 weeks down the line, it will remove 3ppm ammonia in 24 hours and nitrites are now slowly catching up. Hoping it won't be too much longer before I will be fully cycled.
Now however, we have some green algae starting to appear.
I assume that Nitrates are high, I had stopped testing because honestly I was testing only ammonia and nitrites to get the cycle stage info but I think with the light and nitrate levels this is what is causing the green algae. We are now keeping the light off and I am going to do a water change.
Another issue that I wasn't fond of, was detritus on the surface of the water, I was manually skimming it out with a jug but I thought there must be another way.
So I ordered an intake with surface skimmer...
As you can see I arranged the heater differently too so that it is horizontal instead of vertical, it hides it better. I also have used clear tubing for the inlet and will do the same when the lily outlet is delivered at some point.
With the new surface skimmer not only does it look better in the tank visually but the surface...wow.
Before:
After..
The water is now crystal clear in the column and surface
And that's where I am up to.
I am going to do a reasonably small water change tonight and to do that I am going to incorporate vac'ing the sand bed. Once that's done, I will then do a full test of all parameters to see where we're at and then dose with ammonia again.
We are thinking about buying Vibrant to help with the algae issue.
Thanks for reading. Please be gentle but any advice or recommendations are welcome.