The First Reef Tank (and 2nd and 3rd)

[Awingo1121]

Tank Update Shots

Early July/2019

Early August/2019

08/15(ish)/19

09/10/19

09/28/19

11/18/2019

3/31/20

 

[Awingo1121]

Hello all, my name is Andrew and I’ve been lurking around on R2R for months now, learning everything I can. After find a nice deal on Craigslist a few months ago I decide to finally make the plunge and begin my first reef tank. It was a 27 gallon cube but not a biocube. Here’s my original scape, I lucked into getting free live rock from the guy I got the set up from that he’s been running for over 10 years. Later I also added some dry rock that I had from my first attempt at a saltwater tank from a few years ago. Not thinking ahead when I was rescaping with the added rock displacement overflowed my tank. Right on to my power strip I reacted quickly when I heard the electricity but quick is not always correct. I went for the kill switch on the strip and got a nice shock go through my arm into my shoulder. After recovering a few seconds later I did what I should’ve in the first place and grabbed the rubber outlet and pulled it out of the wall. This was the only real drama I had during set up. I had a very quick cycle that showed no ammonia and nitrate after two weeks. I then added a bottle of Fritz turbostart and waited another week still having no ammonia and nitrite I decided to add my first inhabitants. My first clean up crew members. About 10 snails and 5 hermits.

 

[Awingo1121]

When deciding on my tank build I knew I wanted to use a sump mostly because I didn’t like the look of hang-on skimmers. (More on the sump later). But to start with I had a spare canister filter that I thought would do a good enough job while I figured out what I wanted long term. I began with only half of my aquarium being covered with a glass top after the first day I needed to top off somewhere from 2.5-3 gallons of Ro that struck me as a lot of evaporation but didn’t seem completely unreasonable as in the shop I work at that’s probably the average amount of water we have to top off daily. The difference however is those are all 200 gallon systems vs my 25. I went on just topping off for a couple days before realizing the floor was wet next to my stand, not a lot but more than I knew that I could of spilled. I open the stand door to find it hold a two inch puddle of water. The canister had a very small 2-3 drop leak coming from where the top clamps down to the body of the filter. After mentally reprimanding myself for not thinking to check for leak especially after having a gut feeling that it was an unreasonable amount of evaporation, I removed the filter to figure out if I could fix it, there was a small section of the O-ring that looked like it had been crushed somehow. I ordered a replacement but it wouldn’t arrive for a few days. I decided to just repurpose another canister that I felt my freshwater tank could survive without. After a thorough cleaning I switched the media over from the leaker and had everything running again. After this I learned my actual evaporation was around a gallon after 4 days.

 

[ScottR]

Hello all, my name is Andrew and I’ve been lurking around on R2R for months now, learning everything I can. After find a nice deal on Craigslist a few months ago I decide to finally make the plunge and begin my first reef tank. It was a 27 gallon cube but not a biocube. Here’s my original scape, I lucked into getting free live rock from the guy I got the set up from that he’s been running for over 10 years. Later I also added some dry rock that I had from my first attempt at a saltwater tank from a few years ago. Not thinking ahead when I was rescaping with the added rock displacement overflowed my tank. Right on to my power strip I reacted quickly when I heard the electricity but quick is not always correct. I went for the kill switch on the strip and got a nice shock go through my arm into my shoulder. After recovering a few seconds later I did what I should’ve in the first place and grabbed the rubber outlet and pulled it out of the wall. This was the only real drama I had during set up. I had a very quick cycle that showed no ammonia and nitrate after two weeks. I then added a bottle of Fritz turbostart and waited another week still having no ammonia and nitrite I decided to add my first inhabitants. My first clean up crew members. About 10 snails and 5 hermits.

Looks nice. I hope you’re enjoying your time here.

 

[Awingo1121]

Originally I went with this cube tank over a biocube because I was planning on using a sump. But in those first couple weeks I realized that I couldn’t fit a standard 10 gallon tank in the stand like I had planned to. The tank was about half an inch to wide to fit. Leaving me to look at pre-made sumps or trying to come up with my own diy options. The former being out of my price range (at the time, I came in a little unrealistic about what I was willing to spend) and the later being a little outside of my abilities. Another week or two passes with no real changes except a water change. Thinking about my filtration dilemma, I looked over at one of my freshwater tanks (a 54 gallon corner tank) and realized I could switch the two. Thus having my problem solved while doubling the size of my reef tank that I was quickly realizing I was obsessed with. Getting more tank for no upgrade costs sounded like it was win-win.

Here’s a shot of what the freshwater tank looked like at the time.

 

[Awingo1121]

Being a college student who switches apartments every year (at least the last 3) I’ve had some experience with moving an aquarium granted always freshwater but I know having a written plan with all the steps is immensely helpful. So I set about planning the tear down of the two, transfer and the dual resetting of the aquariums. All told I think this process took around 7ish hours from start to finish. I had no fish losses (freshwater) and very little die off, at least I think I used the other half of my turbostart bottle just in case. And here’s what the two tanks looked like after the switch, the reef shot is from a week or two after, you might notice I got my first frags!!!

These additions included GSP, a hammer, Duncan, two Zoas, a small leather, purple stylo, a rock with 9 yumas on it and a very small BTA.

The new planted tank

The reef a few weeks later with first corals

 

[ScottR]

Nice planted tank. I was never successful with freshwater and planted tanks for some reason. I just winged it I guess.

 

[Awingo1121]

Everything went smoothly for another two weeks or so, all the corals seemed to be doing good and watching the snails and crabs roam the tank was a joy. I was up early one morning and decided to head in to one of the LFS thinking of adding my first fish. I actually got there before they opened and the employee was bringing in a bucket of frags from his tank. (I’m really partial to euphyllia btw) Well long story short I didn’t end up with a fish but instead spent $150 dollars on corals and was super excited about it, included in this addition was a huge Monti cap, two hammers both with a few heads, two frogspawns both with 4 heads each, a lime green yuma to add to the Yuma garden I was planning to create.

Here’s a few shots from a few days later showing the scape with all of the new additions.

 

[Awingo1121]

Another week or two passes with everything going smoothly all the corals were extending and feeding. I felt like I was really getting in the groove of things. My first big equipment purchase came, I found a local guy selling off all of his reefing equipment I ended up with a premade DIY 10 gallon sump, fuge light and bubble magnus skimmer for $125 and a eco tech Radion Xr15 g4 with the mounting system for another $250 both were steals I could pass up and equipment I was looking for anyway. My first fish was the last new addition of the week. I chose a little yellow clown goby that had been at the shop I work at for a couple of weeks. He seemed to adjust well although I didn’t see him eat for the first week or two. Here’s a picture of him on the monti. I did catch him rip off a head of frogspawn and spit it out which made me think I’d made a mistake but since this incident I haven’t seen him do it again. I’m hoping it was a one off thing I just happened to see.

Here’s a couple shots of him hanging near the monti he seems to have claimed as home.

 

[Awingo1121]

Nice planted tank. I was never successful with freshwater and planted tanks for some reason. I just winged it I guess.

Thanks, personally I thinking reefing is 5 times as hard as a planted tank but that may just because I'm familiar on that side of things.

 

[Awingo1121]

Time to que the next mistake. I came home from school and noticed a smell walked over to my tank and realized the food I set out to thaw before I left was still there. Instead of doing the sane and rational thing and taking it to the toilet I went ahead and poored it in the tank. What a bonehead move. It was clear the next morning the corals were not happy so I did a series of 3 water changes over the next few days 50% and two 25%. On top of the initial mistake in my panic to just get new water in my first water change was rushed and like swung the prams and likely did more harm than good. The damage had been done. The stylo and birdsnest both began bleaching and the orange yumas all shrunk and began to bleach out as well. The euphyllias pretty much all began to shrink and recede. The Duncan and Nem closed completely. Even the red mushrooms I’m not the biggest fan of looked ghastly. The water changes seemed to stop the bleeding and things seemed to stop getting worse but not necessarily better either. Other than testing I tried to leave everything alone for the next couple weeks. Most of the LPS seemed to be bouncing back but during this time was also the first coral losses. The lime green ricordia never seemed phased but all of the rest of them shriveled and died, the stylo and birds nest slowly bleached entirely. The Monti cap began both bleaching and browning in spots (still up in the air or wether this guys going to make it but it seems to have stop getting worse).

I took a few pictures as I wanted to document everything.

 

[Awingo1121]

I spent the next month doing nothing but very light feedings and a 10% weekly water changes hoping things would settle back out to the dearly success I was having. No update pictures were taken as nothing really changed. The next big update was the addition of a pair of fish, a royal gramma and an adult clown, who were rehomed from a family friend who was breaking down their tank. Two more smooth transitions with these guys and they were both eating the next morning. For the first week it almost seemed like the two had paired up as they were always hanging next to each other and seemed like the gramma was even being a little submissive to the clown, but had passed now as they’ve found they’re own spots in the tank.

Here’s shots of them from the night after they got added.

 

[Awingo1121]

We’re getting close to the present tense. Had an issue using the overflow box and lost syphom causing the DT to overflow luckily it was caught in the first minute so not much of a mess but enough for me to lose confidence in using it. I started researching aqualifters and smaller u-tubes or getting a different return pump, but at the same time saw a local club member who had a 75 reef ready set up for cheap and got to thinking I could just get a drilled tank and not worry about overflow boxes at all. So that’s what I did. Yep another tank upgrade in less than 5 months but it’s finally the tank I actually wanted and I’m so glad I went through with it. My transition with even smoother than than the last transfer since I was only moving one tank into an empty one vs draining both and resetting up both. This move only took about 3 hours start to finish and the corals and fish were only outside of a running tank for minutes a most. The only misstep of this entire process was not getting sand all the way back into the back corners so light from the fuge is actually leaking up into the DT. I have a plan to fill it in with a funnel and tubing but at the moment I don’t see it as the biggest issue.

Here’s the first shots of the 75 after set up where pretty much everyone's still closed up.

 

[Awingo1121]

Figure this can be my equipment post since it would’ve been a pain to go through it with each upgrade. So during this transfer I actually did some cable management and bought a Kasa power strip which is WiFi controllable for each plug. I’m finding it immensely helpful with feedings and water changes as I can turn off all the plugs I need without having to figure out which ones I need to unplug. I plan on adding a second one when I have a spare $60 to throw towards the tank.

Lighting- 48 inch T5 fixture with two sets of two 24in bulbs. 4 bulbs total.
2 Radion XR15 G4 Pros (that I severely overspent in terms of my budget on)
Auqa Gadget Cheatomax LED

Wavemaker/Powerhead
Hydor Smart Wave Controller
Hydor Evolution unknown size
Jeabo PP-4


Sump
Bubble Magnus Skimmer
10 Gallon DIY Sump
Sicce 1.0 Return pump
3 Cobalt Neotherm Heaters

This picture was before I got the second Radion but I still need to buy a longer rail so at the moment it still looks this unsightly on top as the last post.

 

[Awingo1121]

Since the the transfer to the 75 everything has been going flawlessly and I had two large coral purchases one being the beginning of my Zoa garden and the second being another tank break down where I scored a massive deal. My tank is now very filled out and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s turning out. I’m going to included pictures of each coral with the blues on and show it off. I’ve completely blown every budget I made for myself to this point. I’ve also kept track of every dollar I’ve put into the tank. So for the foreseeable future there will be no additions. But the local frag swap is in a few weeks so I’ll like come home with something. But as of this post things will be up to date the plan is to update every few weeks or anytime something eventful happens or something gets added. This was a synopsis of my first 4.5 months of my reefing journey that I plan on continuing to share with you all. Thank you R2R for creating such an awesome community that I am happy to now be a part of.

 

[Awingo1121]

Been a little while since my last update, a few days ago I broke up two large rocks that I didn’t quite like and rescaped. I like how it turned out but it’s turned out to be a costly day. A water spill on one of my radions likely ruined it, Ecotech support seemed helpful over the phone it’s being sent in but will likely need replacement. I left my fish in the tank while I rescaped and while it was only an hour or two I believe the stress is what caused the spread of velvet/brook that has wiped out a number of my fish.

 

[Awingo1121]

Over the past few months (November-January) I really neglected the tank, no water change for months, irregular feeding, there was even a period where I didn't top off so badly that the display's water line was down 3-4 inches. Obviously, I slowly started losing some of the corals, and cyano was taking over. Because of my lack of interest (read poor mental health) I don't really have pictures to share of my tank from this period but this one where you can see how poorly part of the large monti and green, SPS colony (No idea on the name) were doing and the beginnings of the cyano explosion, as well as my favorite fish, my Melanarus Wrasse.

 

[Awingo1121]

Fortunately, things got better for me in February, and my love for the hobby rebounded. Over the last two months, I’ve added several new fish, ridded my tank of Cyano completely, and found a local guy who was shutting down his system and got lots of free coral, which required a complete rescape. The tank looks as good as ever. I can see most of the corals recovering. It amazes me that most of them were able to survive in the very poor conditions they were in and funny enough, I actually think most of the zoas gained polyps.