Sully's Reef

JSully_94 · Jul 16, 2020

Hello Everyone,

I've been a member of Reef2Reef for a while now, but I haven't created a build thread for my aquarium until now. She's fairly simple and straightforward, but elegant if I do say so myself.

Start date
January 11, 2020

Aquarium
Innovative Marine Fusion Pro 20 gallon AIO

Equipment
Lighting - Red Sea's ReefLED 50
Protein Skimmer - Reef Octopus Classic Protein Skimmer HOB 90
~~Reactor~~ ~~- Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor 150 with Sicce Syncra Silent Pump Model 1.0 251 GPH~~
Wavemaker - Aqua Illumination Nero 5
Heater - ~~Fluval Electronic Heater 100-watt~~ EHEIM Jager 125 watt heater
ATO - Tunze Nano Osmolator 3152 and Trigger Systems ATO 5 Gallon Reservoir
Return pump - ~~Innovative Marine Desktop MightyJet 15W/24V 326 GPH DC Return Pump w/ Controller~~ IM MightyJet 538 GPH
Filtration caddies - ~~Innovative Marine Desktop CustomCaddy Media Basket and inTank Filter Floss Holder~~ inTank Media basket x2
Filtration media - inTank filter floss, Chemi-pure elite, PhosGuard, Purigen, ~~and SeaGel (definitely overkill, but I feed a lot)~~
Scrubber - Bulk Reef Supply's Universal CO2 Scrubber & BRS color-changing CO2 absorbant
Controller - Neptune Apex & Trident

Water Chemistry/Supplements/Nutrition
Salt mix - ~~Instant Ocean Reef Crystals~~ Red Sea's Coral Pro salt
~~Alkalinity Supplement~~ ~~- Fluval Sea Alkalinity~~
~~Base Elements Supplement~~ ~~- Fluval Sea Trace Elements~~
Two-part Additive - Two Little Fishies' C-Balance
Coral Nutrition - Red Sea's Reef Energy A|B
Fish food -
Other - Vibrant

Test kits
Salinity - Hanna Instruments Salinity Checker H198319
pH - Hanna Instruments pH Tester H198103
Magnesium - Salifert Magnesium Profi Test
Alkalinity - Hanna Instruments Handheld Colorimeter H1772
Calcium - Hanna Instruments Handheld Colorimeter H1758
Phosphate - Hanna Instruments Handheld Colorimeter H1774
Nitrate - Red Sea
Nitrite - Red Sea
Ammonia - Red Sea

Inhabitants
Fish
Pair of Ocellaris Clownfish
One Lawnmower Blenny

Invertebrates
Two Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs

Colony of GSP
ORA - Green Tip Pink Birdsnest, Aquacultured
ORA - Litophyton Coral, Aquacultured
ORA - Candy Cane Coral, Aquacultured
ORA - Pink Pocillopora Coral, Aquacultured
ORA - Kelly Green Psammacora Coral, Aquacultured
ORA - Blue Chalice Echinopora Coral, Aquacultured

WWC Lucky Charms Monti
WWC Slime Ball Anacropora
WWC Jedi Mind Trick Monti
WWC Blue Heron Turbinaria
WWC Combo Pipe Organ
WWC Kelly Green Psammocora (so now I have two)
WWC Sand Dollar Porites
WWC Bullseye Microlord
WWC Neon Orchid Pipe Organ
WWC Whammin Watermelon Zoa (my first zoa, so excited!)
WWC AOI Zoa
WWC Aquaman Rhodactic Mushroom (my first mushroom coral)
WWC Blueberry Lime Aussie Lord
WWC the Grinch Stylo
Jason Fox John Deere Leptastrea (from WWC)

(I've been trying to only buy aquacultured products, hence Ora)

Photos (will upload better images once I buy a blue filter for my phone)
Note - Some of the corals are not in their permanent locations yet

TriggersAmuck · Jul 16, 2020

Very nice SPS collection! What is your maintenance/dosing/water change regimen like?

JSully_94 · Jul 16, 2020

TriggersAmuck said:
Very nice SPS collection! What is your maintenance/dosing/water change regimen like?

Hey thanks! I do weekly 15% water changes. Currently just dosing alkalinity and trace elements weekly.
I recently ran an ATI ICP test showing my aquarium running lower than normal alkalinity levels and a few trace elements. I’ll provide the link below to my results:

lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/30eb110399a15e20a213

Any advice is appreciated.

JSully_94 · Jul 16, 2020

To keep myself accountable, I will try to post my aquarium water parameters on a weekly basis. I currently use the app, Aquarimate, to record my results but not nearly as often as I should.

JSully_94 · Jul 16, 2020

07/16/20 Parameters update:

Temperature - 77.4 F
pH - 7.8
Salinity - 1.025
Magnesium - 1320 ppm
Alkalinity - 7.6 dKH
Calcium - 401 ppm
Phosphate - .09 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm

BeltedCoyote · Jul 16, 2020

Man, your tank looks great!

I’m in the midst of setting up my own first build. Ironically I’m planning to start out with a few sps as well.

anyway, I have a feeling I’m going to learn from what you share, so I can’t wait to see how your tank grows and progresses!

JSully_94 · Jul 16, 2020

BeltedCoyote said:
Man, your tank looks great!

I’m in the midst of setting up my own first build. Ironically I’m planning to start out with a few sps as well.

anyway, I have a feeling I’m going to learn from what you share, so I can’t wait to see how your tank grows and progresses!

Thanks! I still consider myself an extreme newb so hopefully I don’t steer anyone down the wrong road!

BeltedCoyote · Jul 16, 2020

I feel the same man. As long as you share what you learn as you progress with your build and what you learn as you progress in the hobby, people will benefit. Reef2reef is an incredible resource and community. As I said before, welcome. The fun is just beginning

JSully_94 · Jul 20, 2020

My Polyp Lab Coral view lens finally came today. Below are so photos I have taken with it. I definitely need to improve my photography skills lol

JSully_94 · Jul 22, 2020

Time for my weekly parameters update!

07/22/20:
Temperature - 78.3 F
pH - 8.0
Salinity - 1.025
Magnesium - 1305 ppm
Alkalinity - 8.3 dKH
Calcium - 384 ppm
Phosphate - .05 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm

Changes from last week:
pH: +.2
Salinity: same
Magnesium: -15.00 ppm
Alkalinity :+.60 dKH
Calcium: -17.00 ppm
Phosphate: - .04ppm
Nitrate: same
Nitrite: same
Ammonia: same

I've been dosing Fluval's alkalinity supplement every other day.

I will dose a fraction of Kent's Nano Part A and Part B tonight as the amount of calcium and magnesium seems to be diminishing.

I wish there were an easy way to measure trace elements...

JSully_94 · Jul 29, 2020

It’s that time of the week again!

07/29/2020
Temperature - 78.2 F
pH - 7.9
Salinity - 1.025
Magnesium - 1350 ppm
Alkalinity - 7.2 dKH
Calcium - 391 ppm
Phosphate - .0ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm

Changes from last week
pH: -0.1
Salinity - 1.025
Magnesium: + 45.00 ppm
Alkalinity: -1.10 dKH
Calcium: + 7.00 ppm
Phosphate: - 0.03
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm

I moved this past Monday (07/27/2020). I basically drained the aquarium and sat it back up in its new location. This saw me filling the aquarium with all new saltwater, which explains the drastic difference in some of the parameters outlined above. I started dosing alkalinity again. All of my aquarium inhabitants seem to be well adjusted.

thatsruff · Aug 17, 2020

JSully_94 said:
My Polyp Lab Coral view lens finally came today. Below are so photos I have taken with it. I definitely need to improve my photography skills lol

JSully_94 said:
I moved this past Monday (07/27/2020). I basically drained the aquarium and sat it back up in its new location. This saw me filling the aquarium with all new saltwater, which explains the drastic difference in some of the parameters outlined above. I started dosing alkalinity again. All of my aquarium inhabitants seem to be well adjusted.

Nice pictures and nice job with the move, glad it went smoothly!

JSully_94 · Nov 13, 2020

It's been a while since I've updated my build thread. A lot has changed, mostly for the better. I was the happy recipient of a World Wide Coral's Coral Club membership and have received ten new frags thus far. My last shipment is scheduled for this upcoming week. What I've received so far:

1. WWC Lucky Charms Monti
2. Slime Ball Anacropora
3. Jedi Mind Trick Monti
4. Blue Heron Turbinaria
5. WWC Combo Pipe Organ
6. Kelly Green Psammocora (so now I have two)
7. Sand Dollar Porites
8. WWC Bullseye Microlord
9. Neon Orchid Pipe Organ
10. Whammin Watermelon Zoa (my first zoa, so excited!)

Needless to say, my aquarium is quite small for all of these corals. Luckily, all of these WWC corals are small frags. I plan on upgrading to a larger aquarium eventually. I'm just glad it appears I have some time before it's absolutely necessary.

In the meantime, demand for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium is through the roof! I have decided to adopt a two-part dosing strategy. I thought I would try Two Little Fishies C-Balance. I also recently bought two Kamoer X1 Pro2 Micropumps to dose with. Dosing shall commence this coming Tuesday (when I'm supposed to receive the two-part additive in the mail, please don't fail me USPS)!

I currently have all ten frags on an IM magnetic reef rack. So far, I like it. The magnet makes it easy to adjust the rack position on the back wall of my aquarium.

I have also ditched my Phosban reactor and replaced the inTank filter floss holder with an inTank media basket. I also replaced the IM custom caddy with an additional inTank media basket. So far, I like the change. I feel the inTank media baskets fit better in the rear chambers forcing the water through the media instead of down the caddies' sides.

My Fluval e-series heater stopped working, so I replaced it with an EHEIM Jager 125 watt heater. I requested a warranty service for the Fluval heater, and they pulled through!

I've also been having issues keeping my pH up, so I bought Bulk Reef Supply's universal CO2 scrubber and their color-changing CO2 absorbent. It's great! My pH now hovers around 8.1/8.2.

I also am in the process of changing my aquarium salt from IO Reef Crystals to Red Sea's Coral Pro salt via weekly water changes. I don't really have a reason for this change. I just thought, why not try something new.

Anyway, enjoy some pictures below and let me know what you all think! The first two pictures were taken before I started receiving the WWC corals. The last picture was just taken, and the aquarium light was off, but the ceiling light was on (why the corals look weird).