Keep your money in your pocket you can have amazing reef on a low budget . Going down a rabbit hole and you will spend thousands
on non e needed equipment
on non e needed equipment
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I’ve been saving up for this for 20 years. There’s a budgetKeep your money in your pocket you can have amazing reef on a low budget . Going down a rabbit hole and you will spend thousands
on non e needed equipment
Damsels and clowns practice different religions, it could never work!That is entirely subjective. My wife would probably feel differently lol.
I do appreciate the response. Thinking back through and I agree, I am going to take it slowly through a couple fish first and gradually and slowly add in additional biodiversity.Regarding starting a tank with coral first. I am not sure how it would work. LPS coral do have larger skeletons so they would bring in some biodiversity and help the bacteria in the tank get established. However, coral are susceptible to nutrient levels and require light. Cycling with a light from day one will ALWAYS prove to be difficult, as the uglys thrive on light. They will grow like crazy out competing everything else. In addition once you are passed that stage and then add the fish your bio-load will change very quickly and you will probably go right back to that stage. Not to mention that the spiked nutrient levels will have an adverse if not detrimental effects on the corals. I would start with fish and really get everything as stable as possible. You mentioned you have an apex. Get a trident, or just get some good test kits. See what your salt mix reads as far as calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Then start dosing the tank lightly even though there’s no consumption. Elevated calcium or alkalinity will not affect the fish at all. It will help you get a feel of how much of each additive moves the needle on your empty tank. You want to get a real feel for consumption both for calcium and alkalinity and for the nutrients in reference to feeding and your method of export. It’s like cooking without a perfect recipe. Add a little this that etc… You want to get that feel. While your doing all of this you will eventually see some coralline algae. When you see that it means that your tank and methods do promote calcification and you’re ready for corals.
Adam
you aint seen nothing yet, lolAnd I thought golf was an expensive hobby…
I haven’t even entered the fish/coral buying phase yet and hoooboy.you aint seen nothing yet, lol
Yes learning how to test properly is very important. I just started using the trident. So far I have found that I am needing to recalibrate it every time I check KH with my Hanna checker. I guess time will tell. I have been manually checking for years but I do love me some gear and tons of automation. You do sound like you’re off to an extremely good start though. You clearly did more reading than usual.I do appreciate the response. Thinking back through and I agree, I am going to take it slowly through a couple fish first and gradually and slowly add in additional biodiversity.
I obtained all of the required tests as best researched on this site, so I’m planning on keeping a log of parameters weekly (biweekly) as the tank goes (data nerd).
I will probably trident at some point, but maybe not until I get well versed in manual testing as it is a skill I’d like to master first. Plus I’ve heard a lot of very mixed reviews on the trident, so a part of me is also curious if an updated version will drop sometime in the nearish future.
Thanks for popping in and offering some insight.
Yeah it’s been a firehose of information for a couple months now. Luckily I have a cousin who I am very close with whom has a tank so he’s been a great source of information. I agree that my end goal here is to automate as much as possible (3 kids 7 and under) as time can get limited.Yes learning how to test properly is very important. I just started using the trident. So far I have found that I am needing to recalibrate it every time I check KH with my Hanna checker. I guess time will tell. I have been manually checking for years but I do love me some gear and tons of automation. You do sound like you’re off to an extremely good start though. You clearly did more reading than usual.
Sorry wrong thread, I’m not crazy no matter what my psychiatrist says.Damsels and clowns practice different religions, it could never work!
Won’t lie, took about 5 minutes trying to extract meaning from that. Glad I wasn’t the only one going a little crazy.Wrong thread, I’m not crazy no matter what my psychiatrist says.
Yeah, the outside of the blue tape is the tank so I’ve attempted to give myself 3” of clearance around the front and sides. I think I’m going to leave the back to go natural since it’s already black.looks cool, one mistake I made was I have one area where my mag cleaner can't get between my scape and glass. I wish I would have moved it half an inch but not the end of the world.
Appreciate it!yea definitely a process, this is what I did. just sharing for inspiration.
Light looks great!LET THERE BE (half) LIGHT!!! Side note, going to need to get a shade for these lights, straight into my eyes when sitting at my work desk.