Starting up my 15 gallon cube!

[HiggsUSA]

Hopping on the train. I like what you did with the scape. Have you watched the BRStv series on the biome cycle? It was wild and I'll be dosing my tank with copepods before anything else.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Hopping on the train. I like what you did with the scape. Have you watched the BRStv series on the biome cycle? It was wild and I'll be dosing my tank with copepods before anything else.

Thanks! And I have not watched it yet but I will right now! I will most likely add copepods after C-Mas when I have a little cash to spare. My lfs sells Tigger pods would that be good?

 

[kevgib67]

Thanks! And I have not watched it yet but I will right now! I will most likely add copepods after C-Mas when I have a little cash to spare. My lfs sells Tigger pods would that be good?

Tigger pods are good fish food but not reproduce in our tanks. The pod selection in Dinkins aquatics do reproduce and replenish them selves. You can check their website to see the type of pods in their mixture.

 

[HiggsUSA]

Thanks! And I have not watched it yet but I will right now! I will most likely add copepods after C-Mas when I have a little cash to spare. My lfs sells Tigger pods would that be good?

I will personally splurge for the galaxy pods and phyto from Algae Barn. There may be other sources for a bit cheaper but I haven't dug around and this is what I've seen recommended.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Nothing really crazy happened this week besides me finding a small bit of gsp on the live rock I had bought.

Stupid nooby me decided. “I will move this off that rock to an island so it will not take over.” I did get it off and on to another rock but that did not end well. The polyps have not opened at all which stinks because it is a cool coral. I will give it another week or so but I have low confidence of it opening.
On another note my clowns are doing awesome! they still do dive bomb each other now and again but otherwise they are awesome. At night they go up into the overflow corner of the tank and lay verticals which I found strange but there clowns so they are always strange.

One last thing is I added another swim through for the fish in the back of the tank just to make sure they have somewhere to go through for more safety of the fish.

That’s all for this week and I will post another update in a few days!

 

[mizimmer90]

Nothing really crazy happened this week besides me finding a small bit of gsp on the live rock I had bought.

Stupid nooby me decided. “I will move this off that rock to an island so it will not take over.” I did get it off and on to another rock but that did not end well. The polyps have not opened at all which stinks because it is a cool coral. I will give it another week or so but I have low confidence of it opening.
On another note my clowns are doing awesome! they still do dive bomb each other now and again but otherwise they are awesome. At night they go up into the overflow corner of the tank and lay verticals which I found strange but there clowns so they are always strange.

One last thing is I added another swim through for the fish in the back of the tank just to make sure they have somewhere to go through for more safety of the fish.

That’s all for this week and I will post another update in a few days!

Looking good! One comment though is that the GSP on your rock looks more like a Majano anemone.

 

[kevgib67]

^ this, definitely not gsp.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Ok that makes more sense I was not 100% sure it was gsp but that is what it looked like. Good to know I will remove the rock I glued it to and look out for more.
If I do see more are there any natural fish/inverts to take it out or are there other ways that I have to do.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Ok to start off this is going to be a long one. First off let’s talk about last Saturday. Last Saturday I went to my LFS to pick up my first corals. I ended up getting 3 corals and an invert.

The first coral I got was a Cabbage coral. I saw it sitting in the $30 section and new I had to have it.

I know that it is a slow grower but I loved its green and for $30 I could not pass it up!
This guy is now on a rock as you can see in the FTS down below.

The second coral I decided on was this Rhodactis mushroom. (Sorry for bad pics)

This guy was also 30 and I just thought that it was pretty cool. I put it towards the bottom in inderect light with low ish flow.

The third and final coral I picked was the zoa! I have always liked zoas so I wanted one to be a nice first coral.

This is it a few hours after I got it in the tank it is a lot more open now but I will take 7 heads for $20. The shop said they had this species on a frag in the $50 section but then it grew onto the rack. They cut the rack and put it on a plug. I decided to get it as it was $20 and I really like the colors.

I also added a small emerald crab that my LFS had as a female to the tank to help with the small amount of hair algae that I have. I named her Dorthy after the Wizard Of Oz and the Emerald city. For the first few days I did not see her but then I noticed her in a small crevice in the rock. She moves all around the tank hiding in the smallest crevices and it is fun to try and find her.

This year for Christmas I had a lot of reef stuff! I had an awesome time chilling with family and making cookies with my mom at her house. Let’s start off with the gift cards from some relatives to my LFS. I also got some reef goodies including 2 little fishies revive, Flipper algae scrapper, test kits, carbon and an ATO!

I ended up getting 2 Hanna Alk checkers so I am returning one to BRS to get some pods and filter floss. On the talk of BRS I got this amazing sticker of a frag and that went straight onto my bucket!

Ok now let’s move onto the parameters of my tank. For Alkalinity I got a reading of 7.7 DKH.

For Nitrate I got around 12 ppm (Nyos)
And for Phosphate I got 0.25 witch was. little high so I did a water change which brought it down some and I added GFO that came with the filter caddy. I am going to start feeding a little less as I have been feeding a little heavy and in a few days I will update on the parameters.
Finally hear is a Full tank shot at a little less then 2 months in!

Thanks for reading and have a great night!

 

[PizzaIan339]

Quick little update!
We met up with some relatives early on today for breakfast and one of them who used to keep reef tanks gave me a power head! They gave me the Jebao CWP-5000 and I love it.

The only thing is I can not figure out how to adjust the flow! If anyone knows please comment below. Thank you for your time and happy reefing!

​

 

[PizzaIan339]

I forgot to mention that I also got a dual vca random flow generator and a sicce syncra 1.0 I love them so far especially the random flow generator!

The Sicce can be noisey but I already got used to it and it does not really bother me.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Time for this weeks update! This week I added a few new additions. First off I had to return a $10 light bulb to petco as it did not fit my 20 gallon freshwater tank. I decided that I would use a different light I had laying around instead so I used that money to get a tiger conch.

I saw some food and algae on the sand bed and I decided to get him as it will stir up the sand and eat things on the sand bed. I noticed it eating at the glass too is that weird?

I also went to my LFS to get water and saw this guy sitting in the $20 section.

I got it because I know that candy cane corals are beginner friendly and this guy was a pretty good deal for 2 heads.

I also got a trochus snail as I was getting a lot more algae on the rocks and glass. Thanks for reading and I will update again next week!

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

Ok to start off this is going to be a long one. First off let’s talk about last Saturday. Last Saturday I went to my LFS to pick up my first corals. I ended up getting 3 corals and an invert.

The first coral I got was a Cabbage coral. I saw it sitting in the $30 section and new I had to have it.

I know that it is a slow grower but I loved its green and for $30 I could not pass it up!
This guy is now on a rock as you can see in the FTS down below.

The second coral I decided on was this Rhodactis mushroom. (Sorry for bad pics)

This guy was also 30 and I just thought that it was pretty cool. I put it towards the bottom in inderect light with low ish flow.

The third and final coral I picked was the zoa! I have always liked zoas so I wanted one to be a nice first coral.

This is it a few hours after I got it in the tank it is a lot more open now but I will take 7 heads for $20. The shop said they had this species on a frag in the $50 section but then it grew onto the rack. They cut the rack and put it on a plug. I decided to get it as it was $20 and I really like the colors.

I also added a small emerald crab that my LFS had as a female to the tank to help with the small amount of hair algae that I have. I named her Dorthy after the Wizard Of Oz and the Emerald city. For the first few days I did not see her but then I noticed her in a small crevice in the rock. She moves all around the tank hiding in the smallest crevices and it is fun to try and find her.

This year for Christmas I had a lot of reef stuff! I had an awesome time chilling with family and making cookies with my mom at her house. Let’s start off with the gift cards from some relatives to my LFS. I also got some reef goodies including 2 little fishies revive, Flipper algae scrapper, test kits, carbon and an ATO!

I ended up getting 2 Hanna Alk checkers so I am returning one to BRS to get some pods and filter floss. On the talk of BRS I got this amazing sticker of a frag and that went straight onto my bucket!

Ok now let’s move onto the parameters of my tank. For Alkalinity I got a reading of 7.7 DKH.

For Nitrate I got around 12 ppm (Nyos)
And for Phosphate I got 0.25 witch was. little high so I did a water change which brought it down some and I added GFO that came with the filter caddy. I am going to start feeding a little less as I have been feeding a little heavy and in a few days I will update on the parameters.
Finally hear is a Full tank shot at a little less then 2 months in!

Thanks for reading and have a great night!

If you have problems with high phosphate I would look into feeding frozen food. Looks great so far I also got a IM15!

 

[kevgib67]

Time for this weeks update! This week I added a few new additions. First off I had to return a $10 light bulb to petco as it did not fit my 20 gallon freshwater tank. I decided that I would use a different light I had laying around instead so I used that money to get a tiger conch.

I saw some food and algae on the sand bed and I decided to get him as it will stir up the sand and eat things on the sand bed. I noticed it eating at the glass too is that weird?

I also went to my LFS to get water and saw this guy sitting in the $20 section.

I got it because I know that candy cane corals are beginner friendly and this guy was a pretty good deal for 2 heads.

I also got a trochus snail as I was getting a lot more algae on the rocks and glass. Thanks for reading and I will update again next week!

Love my tiger conches and candy canes!

 

[PizzaIan339]

If you have problems with high phosphate I would look into feeding frozen food. Looks great so far I also got a IM15!

I feed freeze dried right now but I will definitely pick up some frozen food next time I am at my LFS!

 

[PizzaIan339]

Love my tiger conches and candy canes!

Ya they are really cool!

 

[kevgib67]

Ya they are really cool!

This is my favorite picture of my first conch and I’ll throw in a picture of my candy canes.

 

[Reef Devils]

After months of research I finally decided to get my first tank! I decided that I wanted a saltwater tank when I first walked into my local fish store and saw all the coral. I knew I wanted something small that could fit on my desk so I got the Innovative Marine 15 gallon cube tank. I just got in the tank the heater, the lid and the media basket. I ordered the rock and sand to come in next week and I will be getting the reef casa halo light. Exited to get my first tank up and running! If you can leave any tips for me down below please!

First tank is always super exciting. I will be following along with this build!

 

[PizzaIan339]

First tank is always super exciting. I will be following along with this build!

Thanks!

 

[Digimes]

Great tank, I always like getting the small stuff fron the store and watching it grow out. Looks more natural over time than adding 3-4 big colonies all at once.