swebb's Dorm Tank

[swebb]

Hi reef2reef,
About a year ago during my freshman year of college, I decided that I wanted to set up a saltwater tank which had been a dream of mine for the last 10 years. I began by watching the BRS 52 weeks of reefing followed by just about anything else that I could find. I planned out everything that I was going to buy from equipment to stocking. I did not begin to set up the tank until summer because the current dorm that I was in was not an over summer dorm. At the start of summer, I began to cure the dry rock. At this time I also bought a 40 breeder and started construction on my stand. In August, when I was able to move into my dorm. I added the sand, rock, and water. I added the red sea reef mature starter kit. I kept this cycle going by dosing Dr. Tim's ammonia every three days to keep the ammonia up. At this point, I got the zetlight zs7000 and I added one more small piece of live rock ( not sure if you can guess which one).

This is a picture of the tank on September 6, 2017

I was also planning on the red for the stand being darker, but it ended up being bright red.

 

[Tahoe61]

Great beginnings. I always had a tank in my dorm. You're popularity points are going to go up trust me.

 

[swebb]

Great beginnings. I always had a tank in my dorm. You're popularity points are going to go up trust me.

Haha yeah, I already get a lot of people that want to see it.

 

[swebb]

After it had cycled I added my first fish. It was a green Chromis named Lance, after the first man on the moon.

About three weeks later I added a second fish, a red-lined wrasse. He is a bit of a primadonna because he wakes up late every day. As well as he will bury himself in the sand for a few days if I change the rocks or add another fish, sometimes he will disappear for a day or two after a water change if the hose gets to close to him.

The next fish I got was after the wrasse had buried himself in the sand for a week. I was convinced that he was gone so I decided to get another fish. I went with a chalk bass. His name is Big Tim because he eats more than any other fish in the tank. He is also the slowest and least afraid of my camera making him the most photogenic fish in my tank.

Another inhabitant of the tank at this point is Skippy the cleaner shrimp. He seems to be the star attraction to everyone that sees the tank.

I had also gotten two corals by this point. I got a frag of zoas that had both green and red/orange ones.

I also got a small colony of tree coral.

I have better pictures of the corals to show growth that I will be adding as the build thread progresses. At this point, the date was November 14, 2017.

 

[swebb]

Next, I noticed that there was a film that kept forming on top of the water. I decided to add a sump. I found the sump on Craigslist, it is 20 gallons full but the baffle keeps it around 10 gallons. The only thing in the sump was some extra rock that I had. For the overflow, I went with the CPR CS something overflow. This overflow is a pain because it slowly accumulates air in it that could eventually break the siphon. The air needs to be removed every 2-3 days which is a bit much for something that would be unnecessary if I had drilled and overflow while setting up the tank.

CPR overflow

DIY leg for the light fixture to accommodate the overflow.

 

[swebb]

Soon after I noticed there was something growing on one of my snails. I believe it is a bivalve of some kind.

Full tank shot from November 21, 2017

At this point, my mind was shifting to SPS corals especially Acropora. I changed my parameters from
Calcium 380 ppm
Magnesium 1290 ppm
Alkalinity 8.7 dKH
to
Calcium 430 ppm
Magnesium 1290 ppm
Alkalinity 9.25 dKH

I practiced testing the water every day and dosing the red sea foundation elements to keep my parameters constant. I did not need to dose much in order due to nothing taking up the elements. On December third, I got my first piece of sps, a rainbow stylophora.

 

[swebb]

Once my SPS coral started to take up alkalinity consistently (it was taking 1 ml of the red sea reefer foundation solution B per day), I wanted to try my hands at Acropora. I went with what I felt was the safest option and went with a Battle Box from Adam. I received the corals on the 4th of January.

Corals in bags from battle corals

Blue Berry Nasuta

PC Rainbow

Sunshine Milli

Blue on Blue Tenuis

Paletta Pink Tip

Skydopple

BC Bliss Table

All of the corals arrived alive and healthy. The Blue on Blue Tenuis even had its polyps out in the bag. There was a small black spot on the BC Bliss table but Adam said it was nothing to worry about.

 

[swebb]

On January 12, 2018, I decided it was time to finally buy a skimmer. I found a used e-shopps s-120. I set it up and after about 30 minutes of continuously bubbling over and filling the collection cup, it started to get more consistent. Currently, I am producing one cup of skimmate every week and a half. I would prefer to skim a bit wetter to about a cup a week, but I am choosing to slowly adjust it. This is my first skimmer so I do not really have anything to compare it to, but it fills up with a brown liquid that smells atrocious.

Photo of sump and skimmer (February 25, 2018)

 

[swebb]

The next fish that I got was a Bartlett anthias. Keeping up with the feedings have been easy because it is no problem to feed a bit of mysis between classes.

The other new addition was a long spine urchin.

These were purchased on January 19, 2018.

 

[swebb]

The sps are growing nicely aside from the sunshine milli. After 3 weeks, I woke up one day to find most of the tissue had fallen off the skeleton. There is still a 1 cm3 of flesh still on it so I am not going to remove the frag and hope it recovers.

Photos from February 25, 2018.
BC Bliss Table

Blue Berry Nasuta

Blue on Blue Tenuis

Rainbow Stylophora

Paletta Pink Tip

Skydopple

PC Rainbow

 

[revhtree]

Looks good!

 

[swebb]

Looks good!

Thanks!

 

[swebb]

So in April, I would say that I made my first major mistake. It started with me forgetting that the water that the skimmer replaces needs to be replaced with saltwater. This lead to my salinity dropping from 1.025 to 1.017. I only realized this because I decided to test for everything after my finals winter quarter. Now despite the fact that my salinity was very low my corals and fish all looked fine. (I recalibrated my refractometer to make sure that calibration was not the issue.) I should have not panicked and slowly worked to raise it back, but instead using water changes and topping off with saltwater. This shocked my tank a bit and about have of my hard corals went up in flames. After this, I was able to get everything back under control and the sps that survived have really started to up and I will be posting updated pictures in a bit. I have some other updates that I will be posting soon as well.

 

[swebb]

RIP to the only photogenic fish in my tank. He managed to jump out when the top was off for feeding, and I did not notice until the next morning.

 

[swebb]

Blueberry Nasuta after almost 6 months

Coraline Growth on powerhead

Bartlett Anthias next to Tree Coral

Grey Poma Angelfish in Moderate Focus

Tank Update, on last water change used a turkey baster to spray junk out of rocks, caused a small cyano outbreak which is starting to go away after 2 days.

 

[Flippers4pups]

RIP to the only photogenic fish in my tank. He managed to jump out when the top was off for feeding, and I did not notice until the next morning.

Sorry for your loss. I've always been fond of chalk bass.

Tank looks great!

 

[KJ]

Nice looking tank!

 

[swebb]

Sorry for your loss. I've always been fond of chalk bass.

Tank looks great!

It was a great fish, I will definitely get another, but I am very happy with the current stocking of my tank right now.

 

[Dmsick]

Very cool tank. So what happens when school is out for summer?

 

[swebb]

Very cool tank. So what happens when school is out for summer?

Fortunately, the dorms are on a 1-year lease so I do not need to worry about it moving it. Additionally, I live very close to campus so I can maintain the easily from home. Finally, I have an empty tank that I could set up at home if it becomes too much work to make the commute to take care of the tank.