watanabeireef- New mini reef journal

[watanabeireefer]

Welcome to my build thread and thanks for stopping by!

The Details:
This thread is going to follow me taking my very new reef, I decided to go with a NUVO 25 gallon. I have had several years of saltwater and reef keeping experience and have recently decide to jump back in. The tank has been aquascaped with roughly 18 pounds of reef rock. My vision was to create hiding spaces for fish and invertebrates while still having an open concept with plenty of water movement. The tank water is still settling, so it's not entirely clear.

Please feel free to comment and provide any feedback.

 

[watanabeireefer]

My tank(Nuvo 25 gallon) has been up and running for about two weeks now. The tank is still cycling, I tested about five days ago and had an ammonia reading of .25PPm. Three days ago, I have noticed my first bloom of algae on the sand. It appears to be brown diatom algae, as of checking it today it seems to have began to decrease. I will test water parameters again tomorrow, salinity has been a little high.

White there haven't been any photos something I wanted to share was how I did the aquascaping layout. I use two large pieces of cardboard one to set out all the rocks and another to lay out the dimensions of my tank. I used the second piece of cardboard as a "space to design the aquascape the tank within the confides of the tank dimensions. There were two over positives I found, first- there was the opportunity to change and sculpt the rocks with a 360 degree perspective. The second, there was no chance of bumping into or scratching the glass, when every rock when into the tank it had a pre-determined place. This wasn't my first go around aquascaping, but it certainly worked out well for me. I am very pleased with my finally design for now.

What were your experiences aquascaping your tanks or others, what do you feel worked best or didn't work?

Looking forward to posting some pictures of livestock, as tank continues to cycle through soon!

 

[watanabeireefer]

this post was from about two weeks ago. I stocked my firs tank inhabitants!

Green toadstool leather, frostbite clowns(Pair), Green BTA, Tiger sand conch. The sand conch is by far one of the coolest inhabitants, I have ever had in all my years of reefing. I would highly recommend getting one of the opportunity arises. Corals have been in the tank a week now, The fish have been in the tank for two weeks.

Please if any one has any suggestions for zoas and Acans what your favorite are share or would recommend.

Happy Reefing

 

[watanabeireefer]

So about a week a go I picked up some orange Zoas, overall they seem to be doing fairly well. However, I have noticed through the week at times they may close for a period fo time then open again. Some of the polyps look extremely happy, while others look like they may benefit from perhaps moving the piece. I wanted to give it about a week to see where how they were doing and the chance to adjust to the new setting. I had Zoas many years ago, several different times, they always seemed to be happy and thriving. So this is a first for me! I do plan on getting maybe two more types of
Zoas further down the road. I want these to settle down.



The first picture was Thursday afternoon.

The second picture was Friday night

Just wanted to get some different prospectives and thoughts.

 

[watanabeireefer]

Here is the most recent update,. 9/12/19

 

[watanabeireefer]

So its been a while since my last update, some delays and sanfus with the tank and sometimes life just gets crazy.

So I added several pieces and now am in the process of waiting for things to color of grow in. Overall the tank is still cycling through the algae process, now I still get a little brown and the hair picked up a little. I also tried reef roids, which did spike everything a little quicker, it could be a combination of both!



So a few side notes the hammer and frogspawn, actually were given to me by someone who is starting a new tank, I really couldn't be any happier with both pieces. If I hid a choice I would of found something similar, both are two of my favorites. For the hammer on the bottom, it is actually the same piece, but has adjusted as well yet. The tank they came from had T5 lighting.



I also picked up some Acans with outstanding color, the blue one is like nothing I have ever seen. I really have enjoyed the acans and look forward to picking up one more.



Also the water has been cloudy since, I picked up a goby. That will be for my next post in the coming days