Waterbox 50.3 AIO Noob Reefer

[joli65]

Hello everyone, me and my fiancé are from the San Antonio, Texas area and have gone kind of aquarium crazy in the last two years. We’ve been really into Betta’s and went to Dallas Aquashella the last two years to get some really cool looking ones and other random freshwater fish. The corals and saltwater fish have boggled my mind especially since the emphasis at Aquashella seemed to be on the corals. The more I researched the more I wanted a reef tank but didn’t think I’d ever have the time. Luckily, I just started working from home and had just the spot for a reef tank so decided to pull the trigger. I plan to use this thread as a way for me to stay on top of what I’m doing and when and of course to get help from y’all when I undoubtedly need it. That’s enough of the boring stuff here’s what I’m working with…

-Waterbox 50.3 AIO
Blown away by WB’s service and quality, I love this thing and it went together very easy
-Sicce Syncra 2.0
-Tunze 9004 DC Skimmer
Not sure I have this running right, I just put it in last night and was about half full this morning with what looked like pretty clean water.
-2x AI Nero 5’s
Seems a little much but I want to have the headroom for more flow if need be as I haven’t ruled out SPS yet. I’m running them pretty low now as I’m not sure I’ve quite figured out the app.
-2x AI Prime 16 HD’s
These seem nice, I’ve just been using the white light while feeding but can’t wait to get some corals under them.
-XTAqua Duetto ATO
-2x Eheim Jager 150’s
-Inkbird ITC-306A
I haven’t been able to link this to my phone so I’m pretty meh on it.

It has live sand and aragonite mixed for substrate and 2 large pieces of live rock from the lfs that I added on August 21st.
I do have 20 more pounds of dry rock I am on the second week of bleaching before it goes in.

I tested ammonia on the 25th and it was a little high for the first week so I added some Fritz 900, waited a day and tested ammonia at zero so I added a clown pair (Ozzy and Sharon) on the 27th. Nitrate now reads around 5ppm and my clowns are happy and eating well frozen, flake and pellets.

We’re playing it by ear as far as livestock but I have already dropped in a liter of Jay’s Reef Bugs pods and am dosing his phyto as well. I want to work towards getting a dragonet way down the line but want to try and establish a good pod population way before. I also hope to try and prevent crazy dinos or bad algae too.

I plan on going with softies and LPS corals before stepping to anything fancier but we’ll see what San Antonio Reef Fest has in store.

Thanks for reading all this and for your help in advance!

 

[blaxsun]

The requisite pair of evil clownfish! Good luck with the tank!

 

[OldRed1]

Beautiful tank! Can’t wait to see what you end up stocking it with.

 

[joli65]

Went and picked up two panamic blennies. They are the cutest things but they’ve taken to the rock work instead of the barnacles I got for them. Watching them eat is a hoot. I got two peppermint shrimp as well as a cleaner shrimp and they’re fun too!

 

[joli65]

Update they found their spots….

 

[joli65]

Finally got around to testing using something better than API.
Po4 0.25
Alk 9.5
No3 5
Ca 450
Mg 1320

Thinking I’m due for a water change and maybe feed a little less for the elevated po4.

 

[joli65]

Looking forward to adding some corals from SA Reef Fest this weekend but Just added these two. The gramma has been shy but he explores and hangs out in his cave and the hawkfish bounces around all over the place.

I also added a piece of live rock with some gsp on it. It’s pretty small so it’ll be it’s own island and hopefully won’t spread wildly. Here’s a picture but I still haven’t quite figured out taking pics in the blue light.

 

[joli65]

The journey continues! It’s been a little while so y’all are due for an update. I’ve been fighting with high phosphate and think I finally have it won. I got a Poseidon Reef Systems Chaeto Reactor almost two weeks ago and that chaeto has been growing and growing.
My phosphate is now at .03. I’ll feed on the higher side now with the reactor light on for less time to see if I can get the phosphate to hold a bit higher. Beyond that I’m definitely going n the ugly stage and have been dealing with what I assume are diatoms. It looks like brown hair on some of the rocks.
I have some new fish added, a purple firefish and a diamond goby. Both have been great but the goby has been killing it on my sand bed and the diatoms haven’t taken hold of it. Here are some pics from when they were first added.

 

[joli65]

Fun times today! Had a power outage so opened some curtains for light in the same room my tank is and ended up leaving for the day. I come back to a huge bloom of diatoms on my glass and rock work.
that aside phosphate is now at 0 while nitrate is on the 40 range. I’ll start dosing neophos and hopefully nitrates will start to come down.
I also picked up this cardinal and he’s hanging out in quarantine for now.

I do have some coral coming in tomorrow and a couple more shipments this week so I’m pretty excited!

 

[joli65]

Side note I just remember I never posted my first round of corals and a rocksape update! I got an acan pack and a hammer from aquasd. Very happy with their service! here are some pics.
First rockscape…

now corals…

And the freebie they sent. I’m not sure what it is.

Sadly the green acan looks like it’s on its way out :/ the othe acans look plump and great overall but the green one is almost all skeleton. I’ll post a pic of that later.

I also forgot that I got a cuc package from reefcleaners.org. It seemed like what they recommend for the tank size is on the big side so I went with one of their 25 gallon snail kits and added a tiger conch and some bumblebee snails. After getting them all settled in I think 4 vibex snails were either dead or shell only, out of something like 60 snails. I’ll add a fighting conch once my lfs gets some in otherwise.

 

[martyharrison]

Tank is looking good. It’s been a few months. Any interesting updates?