Just started my first Reef Aquarium!

[nanoreef1zero]

Welcome to R2R and your list is nice. It's good to have you here with us.

You stated that you:
'Tank Start: February 23, 2019 (added water, sand, rock)

Then added with the following dates:
'Tank Mates (date added):
- GSP 2/27/19
- Neon Candy Cane 2/28/19
- Green Goniapora 3/6/19
- Ricordea 3/6/19
- Stylophora 3/6/19
- 3 Red Leg Hermit Crabs 3/6/19
- Cleaner Shrimp 3/6/19
- Live rock with what looks like a residential crab and 3 clams? 3/7/19
- (FIRST FISH) Fire Gobby 3/9/19
- Toad Stool Leather 3/9/19
- Pulsing Xenia 3/9/19
- Turbo Snail 3/10/19'

____________________________

*I'm really impressed.

May I ask how the tank went through the nitrogen process so quickly?

I read that you are not testing parameters yet. Is the LFS doing so for you?

Just trying to understand since you used dry rock and a small piece of live rock and not sure if you used live or dry substrate and some type of biological kick start.

Could you elaborate on your method, please?

~cheers~

EDIT 1256PM Your tank, rock, livestock all are beautiful! The rock looks amazing as well. Great job on getting this beauty done so fast. I love it and thanks for sharing and keep up the great work.

Okay, so quick introduction story:
Before I started my tank, I did a ton of "research" aka lurked the webs, and visited many many many reef shops in socal (I drive a lot for work, so I was able to cover LA to SD in a week no probs.) What I found was that EVERYONE has a vastly different approach and ideology to starting/keeping a reef tank. Realizing that there were, for example, 10 totally different opinions, but all 10 of these opinions seem to have yielded results (their reef tanks are living.) I decided that I would like to test the extreme ends of every ideology/opinion to find out what the real truth is. (Keeping in mind that every situation is different, I was looking for baseline facts.) My reason for doing so, was that I would rather learn the real truth the hard way, than to play it safe and never actually know anything. Especially since failing early will cost me a few bucks, while failing later will likely result in the loss of $100s of dollars.

What I actually did (please note that this is all also on my IG page WITH video/pictures:

Day 1
I got a tank, 5 lbs of dry live rock (it "supposedly" comes with dormant bacteria that gets activated when wet.) a 10lb bag of caribsea oolite (big mistake, I should have got fiji pink or something less fine... oh well, first lesson learned.) and 10 gallons of salt water from the LRS. I dumped them all in, turned on my aquaclear 70 (which is my mechanical filtration and my "power head" with 150-300gph.) and let my tank "cycle" for 4 days.

Day 1-3
My tank was super cloudy, so I just kept cleaning my filter sponge in the AC 70 every day, because I thought it was all sand. (now I think 50% of it was sand, and the rest was a bacterial bloom, but i'm not 100% sure.) and of course, I top off my tank with fresh RODI water twice a day.

Day 5
Water looked really clear now, so I added a $5 piece of GSP to my tank to see how it reacted to my water. I also bought another 1lb piece of dry live rock and added it to my tank.

Day 6
GSP went from being a beef jerky strip to a full on bush, so I got a candy cane coral.

Day 12
Brought home a small goniopora frag, stylophora, ricordea, 3 hermit crabs, and a cleaner shrimp. I also went to my LRS and got a .5lb piece of live rock from their sump (that came with 3 clams/muscles on it, and an emerald crab apparently.) I got this because I needed something to help break up my laminar water flow from the AC70.

Day 15
Brought home Jayce the Fire Goby, a pulsing xenia (pulsing like crazy, and very open) and a toadstool leather.

Day 16
Diatoms started popping up, so I got a Turbo Snail (Speedy)

Day 17
Woke up to the skeleton of my cleaner shrimp... HE MOLTED!!! Got a bowtie blaster zoanthid.

I tested MANY theories on the way, and have found that for the most part, everyone who succeeds is really, whether they know it or not, following the same guidelines, but there are just so many factors that are in play, and many people aren't aware of them, so they make blanket statements. I am not 100% sure if everything in my tank is thriving because my water actually did "cycle" enough for coral to live in the 4-5 days, or if my 7.5% water change done every 3 days is just keeping them alive, but in any case, I see insane progress in my corals every day that I come home from work and the lights are on, so unless they suddenly die, I would say that things are working so far.

All of my corals are growing new heads/splitting/extending.

TL;DR Sorry for such a long response to make a simple answer, I'm really excited... lol Yes, I used live sand from Caribsea! (didn't add the .5lbs of "wet live" rock till day 12.

Pictures are of day 17 (yesterday) before I put in my Bowtie Blaster

 

[eggplantparrot]

Okay, so quick introduction story:
Before I started my tank, I did a ton of "research" aka lurked the webs, and visited many many many reef shops in socal (I drive a lot for work, so I was able to cover LA to SD in a week no probs.) What I found was that EVERYONE has a vastly different approach and ideology to starting/keeping a reef tank. Realizing that there were, for example, 10 totally different opinions, but all 10 of these opinions seem to have yielded results (their reef tanks are living.) I decided that I would like to test the extreme ends of every ideology/opinion to find out what the real truth is. (Keeping in mind that every situation is different, I was looking for baseline facts.) My reason for doing so, was that I would rather learn the real truth the hard way, than to play it safe and never actually know anything. Especially since failing early will cost me a few bucks, while failing later will likely result in the loss of $100s of dollars.

What I actually did (please note that this is all also on my IG page WITH video/pictures:

Day 1
I got a tank, 5 lbs of dry live rock (it "supposedly" comes with dormant bacteria that gets activated when wet.) a 10lb bag of caribsea oolite (big mistake, I should have got fiji pink or something less fine... oh well, first lesson learned.) and 10 gallons of salt water from the LRS. I dumped them all in, turned on my aquaclear 70 (which is my mechanical filtration and my "power head" with 150-300gph.) and let my tank "cycle" for 4 days.

Day 1-3
My tank was super cloudy, so I just kept cleaning my filter sponge in the AC 70 every day, because I thought it was all sand. (now I think 50% of it was sand, and the rest was a bacterial bloom, but i'm not 100% sure.) and of course, I top off my tank with fresh RODI water twice a day.

Day 5
Water looked really clear now, so I added a $5 piece of GSP to my tank to see how it reacted to my water. I also bought another 1lb piece of dry live rock and added it to my tank.

Day 6
GSP went from being a beef jerky strip to a full on bush, so I got a candy cane coral.

Day 12
Brought home a small goniopora frag, stylophora, ricordea, 3 hermit crabs, and a cleaner shrimp. I also went to my LRS and got a .5lb piece of live rock from their sump (that came with 3 clams/muscles on it, and an emerald crab apparently.) I got this because I needed something to help break up my laminar water flow from the AC70.

Day 15
Brought home Jayce the Fire Goby, a pulsing xenia (pulsing like crazy, and very open) and a toadstool leather.

Day 16
Diatoms started popping up, so I got a Turbo Snail (Speedy)

Day 17
Woke up to the skeleton of my cleaner shrimp... HE MOLTED!!! Got a bowtie blaster zoanthid.

I tested MANY theories on the way, and have found that for the most part, everyone who succeeds is really, whether they know it or not, following the same guidelines, but there are just so many factors that are in play, and many people aren't aware of them, so they make blanket statements. I am not 100% sure if everything in my tank is thriving because my water actually did "cycle" enough for coral to live in the 4-5 days, or if my 7.5% water change done every 3 days is just keeping them alive, but in any case, I see insane progress in my corals every day that I come home from work and the lights are on, so unless they suddenly die, I would say that things are working so far.

All of my corals are growing new heads/splitting/extending.

TL;DR Sorry for such a long response to make a simple answer, I'm really excited... lol Yes, I used live sand from Caribsea! (didn't add the .5lbs of "wet live" rock till day 12.

Pictures are of day 17 (yesterday) before I put in my Bowtie Blaster

Are you feeding your goniopora? Im pretty sure they need food to stay alive/grow. Reef-Roids should work.

 

[nanoreef1zero]

Are you feeding your goniopora? Im pretty sure they need food to stay alive/grow. Reef-Roids should work.

Yes, I totally forgot to mention that portion lol, I am feeding everything in my tank mysis shrimp, they seem to absolutely love mysis! I will try out Reef Roids as well! But the Goniopora especially loves mysis shrimp right now, if a piece of shrimp blows through it with the current, the hands will deathgrip the shrimp lol so I just make it rain shrimp on it before every water change, and it gobbles them up!

 

[eggplantparrot]

Okay, so quick introduction story:
Before I started my tank, I did a ton of "research" aka lurked the webs, and visited many many many reef shops in socal (I drive a lot for work, so I was able to cover LA to SD in a week no probs.) What I found was that EVERYONE has a vastly different approach and ideology to starting/keeping a reef tank. Realizing that there were, for example, 10 totally different opinions, but all 10 of these opinions seem to have yielded results (their reef tanks are living.) I decided that I would like to test the extreme ends of every ideology/opinion to find out what the real truth is. (Keeping in mind that every situation is different, I was looking for baseline facts.) My reason for doing so, was that I would rather learn the real truth the hard way, than to play it safe and never actually know anything. Especially since failing early will cost me a few bucks, while failing later will likely result in the loss of $100s of dollars.

What I actually did (please note that this is all also on my IG page WITH video/pictures:

Day 1
I got a tank, 5 lbs of dry live rock (it "supposedly" comes with dormant bacteria that gets activated when wet.) a 10lb bag of caribsea oolite (big mistake, I should have got fiji pink or something less fine... oh well, first lesson learned.) and 10 gallons of salt water from the LRS. I dumped them all in, turned on my aquaclear 70 (which is my mechanical filtration and my "power head" with 150-300gph.) and let my tank "cycle" for 4 days.

Day 1-3
My tank was super cloudy, so I just kept cleaning my filter sponge in the AC 70 every day, because I thought it was all sand. (now I think 50% of it was sand, and the rest was a bacterial bloom, but i'm not 100% sure.) and of course, I top off my tank with fresh RODI water twice a day.

Day 5
Water looked really clear now, so I added a $5 piece of GSP to my tank to see how it reacted to my water. I also bought another 1lb piece of dry live rock and added it to my tank.

Day 6
GSP went from being a beef jerky strip to a full on bush, so I got a candy cane coral.

Day 12
Brought home a small goniopora frag, stylophora, ricordea, 3 hermit crabs, and a cleaner shrimp. I also went to my LRS and got a .5lb piece of live rock from their sump (that came with 3 clams/muscles on it, and an emerald crab apparently.) I got this because I needed something to help break up my laminar water flow from the AC70.

Day 15
Brought home Jayce the Fire Goby, a pulsing xenia (pulsing like crazy, and very open) and a toadstool leather.

Day 16
Diatoms started popping up, so I got a Turbo Snail (Speedy)

Day 17
Woke up to the skeleton of my cleaner shrimp... HE MOLTED!!! Got a bowtie blaster zoanthid.

I tested MANY theories on the way, and have found that for the most part, everyone who succeeds is really, whether they know it or not, following the same guidelines, but there are just so many factors that are in play, and many people aren't aware of them, so they make blanket statements. I am not 100% sure if everything in my tank is thriving because my water actually did "cycle" enough for coral to live in the 4-5 days, or if my 7.5% water change done every 3 days is just keeping them alive, but in any case, I see insane progress in my corals every day that I come home from work and the lights are on, so unless they suddenly die, I would say that things are working so far.

All of my corals are growing new heads/splitting/extending.

TL;DR Sorry for such a long response to make a simple answer, I'm really excited... lol Yes, I used live sand from Caribsea! (didn't add the .5lbs of "wet live" rock till day 12.

Pictures are of day 17 (yesterday) before I put in my Bowtie Blaster

Also please make sure you buy refractometer calibration fluid. You would be surprised how much they can be off from temperature and humidity, even rough cleaning/handling. I calibrate everytime i use it and its usually off.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks! Question: Why do I need to bring my salinity up to 1.025, is that better for everything? The premade salt water I buy reads 1.024, so i've been keeping it the same as that. (maybe it is actually higher, but my refractometer reads low? I just use the premade salt water I buy as my baseline and match it with my tank.)

Although 1.024 is acceptable, the mid (1.025) seems to be very supportive of all coral. I can say through evaporation, you may hit 1.025 on it own,. DO occasionally take a water sample to a trusted LFS to assure accuracy and comparison with your own readings.

 

[nanoreef1zero]

Although 1.024 is acceptable, the mid (1.025) seems to be very supportive of all coral. I can say through evaporation, you may hit 1.025 on it own,. DO occasionally take a water sample to a trusted LFS to assure accuracy and comparison with your own readings.

Will do! Thanks!

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

Welcome to R2R...

 

[P-Dub]

Welcome! Fast-tracking it... This goes against the grain of a lot of collective wisdom so I want to be kept up to date! Throw up a build thread so we all can follow along on this journey.
Interesting theory and I certainly hope that it works out. Thanks for sharing.
Share and like often!

 

[nanoreef1zero]

Welcome! Fast-tracking it... This goes against the grain of a lot of collective wisdom so I want to be kept up to date! Throw up a build thread so we all can follow along on this journey.
Interesting theory and I certainly hope that it works out. Thanks for sharing.
Share and like often!

Thanks, and yeah... I know it's probably annoying a lot of people, but I'm the kind of person who wants to know why things work, and it seems like the only way to find out what is true is to try it out xD lol If I fail, I will let you all know why I failed, and at least it will be while not much money has been invested...

As for the build thread, what is that exactly? I checked out the links on peoples sigs but don't really get it. I just post pictures of my set up/equipment, list my live stock, and list the equipment I have on the member tanks forum?

 

[RIreefGuy]

As for the build thread, what is that exactly? I checked out the links on peoples sigs but don't really get it. I just post pictures of my set up/equipment, list my live stock, and list the equipment I have on the member tanks forum?

Welcome!! Love the tank.

A build thread is basically a log or journal for your tank that starts with...you guessed it..the build

Mine should be in my signature (I'm new here too lol) The thread should be in the members tanks or possibly nano tanks section.

If you already have one post the link =)

Looking forward to following along.

Bob

 

[P-Dub]

Thanks, and yeah... I know it's probably annoying a lot of people, but I'm the kind of person who wants to know why things work, and it seems like the only way to find out what is true is to try it out xD lol If I fail, I will let you all know why I failed, and at least it will be while not much money has been invested...

As for the build thread, what is that exactly? I checked out the links on peoples sigs but don't really get it. I just post pictures of my set up/equipment, list my live stock, and list the equipment I have on the member tanks forum?

Regarding the build thread... What Bob, @RIreefGuy said...

 

[Captain Quint]

Thanks, and yeah... I know it's probably annoying a lot of people, but I'm the kind of person who wants to know why things work, and it seems like the only way to find out what is true is to try it out xD lol If I fail, I will let you all know why I failed, and at least it will be while not much money has been invested...

As for the build thread, what is that exactly? I checked out the links on peoples sigs but don't really get it. I just post pictures of my set up/equipment, list my live stock, and list the equipment I have on the member tanks forum?

You're not annoying anyone. Fast tracking can lead to problems and many of us learned the hard way and just don't want to see you in that situation when it is avoidable conclusion your research should have shown.

As a cliche, as it can sound 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast' holds true in our hobby.

You've presented a good enjoyable thread and thanks for doing so. My hopes are you don't take comments as caustic as it is not the intent. We are all here for one another.

 

[nanoreef1zero]

You're not annoying anyone. Fast tracking can lead to problems and many of us learned the hard way and just don't want to see you in that situation when it is avoidable conclusion your research should have shown.

As a cliche, as it can sound 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast' holds true in our hobby.

You've presented a good enjoyable thread and thanks for doing so. My hopes are you don't take comments as caustic as it is not the intent. We are all here for one another.

Thanks! I really appreciate how everyone here is so nice and helpful! And I really don't take any of these comments in a negative way! I was more referring to my experiences with many of the people I met in person, who really put me down for trying to learn by doing vs just spending thousands of $s for an autopilot/all in one set up.

Fingers crossed! lol