Aquarian86
Community Member
Hi I'm Aquarian,
I'm newish here and have been in the hobby for roughly a year. However, I started building my reef tank that this will be a build journal of back on February 9th. (The day after my birthday so yes, I am a real Aquarian who loves his aquarium). I wanted to really give a breakdown of why I chose this build, what's in it, how I've approached it, and what my future plans are for it.
Let's start off at the beginning. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and saw that it was good. . .(Sorry I had to as most of the time that I'm doing things with my tank I imagine how I probably seem like God to these fish and the inhabitants in my tank). Anyway, starting off I wanted to build a tank that represented my and my father's time in Hawaii together when I was little. The thing I found most enjoyable about our trip was going snorkeling and seeing all of the colors and the fish and the reef system (although that reef system really hurts when you scrape your knees against it (as I did a few times). Anyway, I wanted to recreate that beauty. I started off with some purple rock (about 32 lbs of it (it might be more than that)) and the sand I chose was Hawaiian live sand. The tank itself is a 40 gallon AIO Aquatop by Reciefe.
Something I made sure to do after setting up the stand, putting the mat down, and then carefully putting the tank on top of the stand was to arrange my rockwork the way I wanted it. I then proceeded to pour the sand in and then fill up the tank using Instant Ocean Reef Salt mix (I still use that mix as my LFS that I go to: shout out to Elmer's Aquarium in Pittsburgh PA) uses it and swears by it. I use/d RODI water from my Aqualife RODI system.
Then I put one fish in the tank, a maroon clownfish, followed by prime and ammonia lock. Yes I know that's not the most humane but it works and so long as you keep your salinity value where it needs to be nothing bad will happen to the fish. Then I kept the lights off for over a month and a half. I just let the tank go. I did add some copepods and amphipods to the system during this time. I also added some macro algae to the back as well as a light to grow the macro algae.
Anyway, after about a month and a half I got my first coral which was a zoa and some GSP and I turned my lights on. A few weeks later I added a cleanup crew consisting of snails, hermits, and an emerald crab.
A few more weeks and I added some cardinal fish.
A few more weeks and I added an urchin and a Duncan coral.
Anyway, fast forward and we're at around the start of my sixth month and in the tank (thriving) are the following:
1 Duncan
2 Zoas
1 Monty
1 GSP
1 Mushroom
1 watermelon anemone
1 urchin
2 gold nugget maroon clownfish (I traded in the first clown that I got for these two so that I could have a pair)
6-8 blue legged hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
1 anemone crab
1 pistol shrimp
1 flaming hawkfish
2 pajama cardinal fish
Life is good in this little island paradise tank that I've built so I've purchased about 6 more coral from the most recent Tidal Gardens sale and I look forward to watching life continue to evolve in the tank as I'll soon be keeping more stony coral and will be doing two-part as needed.
Here is a picture of what it looks like now.
Anyway as for the future of this tank, I want to let the new corals settle and then keep up maintenance and feeding and let it grow out. I'm considering adding only one or two more fish total then those will be the fish that will call this home as I will not be adding any more bio load to the tank.
I'm newish here and have been in the hobby for roughly a year. However, I started building my reef tank that this will be a build journal of back on February 9th. (The day after my birthday so yes, I am a real Aquarian who loves his aquarium). I wanted to really give a breakdown of why I chose this build, what's in it, how I've approached it, and what my future plans are for it.
Let's start off at the beginning. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and saw that it was good. . .(Sorry I had to as most of the time that I'm doing things with my tank I imagine how I probably seem like God to these fish and the inhabitants in my tank). Anyway, starting off I wanted to build a tank that represented my and my father's time in Hawaii together when I was little. The thing I found most enjoyable about our trip was going snorkeling and seeing all of the colors and the fish and the reef system (although that reef system really hurts when you scrape your knees against it (as I did a few times). Anyway, I wanted to recreate that beauty. I started off with some purple rock (about 32 lbs of it (it might be more than that)) and the sand I chose was Hawaiian live sand. The tank itself is a 40 gallon AIO Aquatop by Reciefe.
Something I made sure to do after setting up the stand, putting the mat down, and then carefully putting the tank on top of the stand was to arrange my rockwork the way I wanted it. I then proceeded to pour the sand in and then fill up the tank using Instant Ocean Reef Salt mix (I still use that mix as my LFS that I go to: shout out to Elmer's Aquarium in Pittsburgh PA) uses it and swears by it. I use/d RODI water from my Aqualife RODI system.
Then I put one fish in the tank, a maroon clownfish, followed by prime and ammonia lock. Yes I know that's not the most humane but it works and so long as you keep your salinity value where it needs to be nothing bad will happen to the fish. Then I kept the lights off for over a month and a half. I just let the tank go. I did add some copepods and amphipods to the system during this time. I also added some macro algae to the back as well as a light to grow the macro algae.
Anyway, after about a month and a half I got my first coral which was a zoa and some GSP and I turned my lights on. A few weeks later I added a cleanup crew consisting of snails, hermits, and an emerald crab.
A few more weeks and I added some cardinal fish.
A few more weeks and I added an urchin and a Duncan coral.
Anyway, fast forward and we're at around the start of my sixth month and in the tank (thriving) are the following:
1 Duncan
2 Zoas
1 Monty
1 GSP
1 Mushroom
1 watermelon anemone
1 urchin
2 gold nugget maroon clownfish (I traded in the first clown that I got for these two so that I could have a pair)
6-8 blue legged hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
1 anemone crab
1 pistol shrimp
1 flaming hawkfish
2 pajama cardinal fish
Life is good in this little island paradise tank that I've built so I've purchased about 6 more coral from the most recent Tidal Gardens sale and I look forward to watching life continue to evolve in the tank as I'll soon be keeping more stony coral and will be doing two-part as needed.
Here is a picture of what it looks like now.
Anyway as for the future of this tank, I want to let the new corals settle and then keep up maintenance and feeding and let it grow out. I'm considering adding only one or two more fish total then those will be the fish that will call this home as I will not be adding any more bio load to the tank.
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