thelittlereef
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2023
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 7
- Location
- Boston
- What state or country do you live in
- Massachusetts
Hi everyone, I’m Ty. I just wanted to post my first build thread. I have had many freshwater tanks over the years and finally took the leap to get into the saltwater reef tank realm and I am so excited!
Tank: Fluval 13.5 gallon
Powerhead: Nero 3
Media baskets by intank + chaeto refugium with a ACKE full spectrum grow light
Substrate: Caribsea Hawaiian black sand
Dry Rock: Caribsea
I initially started by buying and adding a pre-mixed saltwater to the tank along with the carib sea sand and dry rock. I let the tank run for 3 weeks before I touched it.
Finally I added fritz ammonia and Fritz Zyme 9 to cycle the tank and my tank was cycled within 8 days. I then redosed with ammonia to 2ppm and my tank cleared the ammonia and nitrites within 48 hours.
Thus far i’ve added a black snowflake clownfish, a green star polyp and a ricordea mushroom. All seem to be doing great up until this point. I plan on waiting probably another 3-4 weeks before I add anything else to the tank.
I haven’t had any algae blooms and i’m not sure if that’s bc it’s still too soon or if I possibly avoided some of this from cycling with my lights off + sand/dry rock?
I am very excited to be apart of this community and definitely will have tons of questions. I eventually would love to upgrade to a 100 gallon + and maintain this current tank as a QT but this is what I have so far!
Tank: Fluval 13.5 gallon
Powerhead: Nero 3
Media baskets by intank + chaeto refugium with a ACKE full spectrum grow light
Substrate: Caribsea Hawaiian black sand
Dry Rock: Caribsea
I initially started by buying and adding a pre-mixed saltwater to the tank along with the carib sea sand and dry rock. I let the tank run for 3 weeks before I touched it.
Finally I added fritz ammonia and Fritz Zyme 9 to cycle the tank and my tank was cycled within 8 days. I then redosed with ammonia to 2ppm and my tank cleared the ammonia and nitrites within 48 hours.
Thus far i’ve added a black snowflake clownfish, a green star polyp and a ricordea mushroom. All seem to be doing great up until this point. I plan on waiting probably another 3-4 weeks before I add anything else to the tank.
I haven’t had any algae blooms and i’m not sure if that’s bc it’s still too soon or if I possibly avoided some of this from cycling with my lights off + sand/dry rock?
I am very excited to be apart of this community and definitely will have tons of questions. I eventually would love to upgrade to a 100 gallon + and maintain this current tank as a QT but this is what I have so far!
