squidsreef
Community Member
Hi everyone! I'm a reef tank owner living in Southeastern Pennsylvania. After years of daydreaming and months of planning, I've recently purchased a Waterbox Marine X 90.3 tank (~60g display with 26g sump) along with what seemed like a truckload of equipment. I've had my fair share of small troubles already but I'm glad to be in the hobby! Here's a description of what I've done for my tank already:
Original Tank newly set up and a full tank video from April 2021:
Equipment:
The first issue was with delivery: they left the pallet directly on my 1-way street out my front door.
After about an hour of me sitting next to it making sure cars didn't hit it, I finally got some help from a friend bringing it inside and putting it all together.
I rushed to fill the tank up with saltwater I had been mixing for a day or two (75 gallon per day is in incredible overestimate for my RO/DI filter).
After filling the tank with water, sand, and rock, I realized I put it way too close to the wall with an uncovered GFCI outlet next to an open sump. After a terrifying experience with a leaky overflow drain I installed incorrectly that spraid saltwater all over the wall near the outlet (yikes), I hired a local reef company to pump out some water, move the tank, install some waterproof cover on the outlet, and verify all my equipment was set up properly. I've added a before/after shot of some cable management near the sump.
The rocks I added were ~50 lbs of Caribsea LifeRock as well as 40lbs of live sand, added some Microbacter Start XLM, and waited until my cycle was completed. During this time, my skimmer was going absolutely berserk, overflowing the cup in a matter of 10 seconds, and blasting my entire display tank with microbubbles. After days of troubleshooting, I broke down the skimmer and realized it was missing an O-ring. After ordering some O-rings on amazon, the skimmer calmed down quite a bit and was working properly about 5 days later.
After cycling, I added a pair of small ORA Black Ice Clownfish I bought on Liveaquaria, who bonded within about 20 minutes and have been living happily alone in their mansion for about a week! I feed them once a day around lunchtime for about 2 minutes. I alternate between Reef Frenzy Frozen food as well as PE Mysis 1mm pellets, both of which the pair eats right up. I have the lights in the tank on about 5-10% for the time being to minimize the growth of algae and to inhibit the "ugly" stage as much as possible, which is so far working well. I'm slowly ramping these lights up to the point where I will add a clean up crew and some hardy corals. I test the water once a week and everything seems to be going well (0 ammonia, 0.05 nitrite, ~2 nitrate, 8.2 PH, 78 degrees F).
We are trying to stick to buying high-quality fish from areas and countries with sustainable fishing practices or captive-bred species.
I've done a lot of work on the tank so far, and I am very proud of it. I've included a few pictures of the tank through the stages, and a few pictures from this week of my new clowns. The past year has been the busiest year of my life, and this hobby has provided me with much-needed relaxation and happiness.
11/22/20 Update:
I purchased a Midas blenny that had been in quarantine at my local fish store yesterday 11/21. He has been hiding since I added him to the tank, but he has ventured out several times to grab a piece of frozen food or two. He is currently camouflaged in terms of color due to stress (brown/white speckled over yellow instead of bright yellow), but he should be showing his true colors in the next few days to weeks. Unfortunately, the smaller of my two Black Ice clownfish that has been happy and healthy somehow escaped through a 0.75"x0.75" hole in the screen mesh lid in the middle of the night and was found this morning in front of the tank. My wife and I were very sad to see our little member of the family not make it, but we will be purchasing another black ice clownfish sometime soon. Luckily, the pair of clowns were too young to have bonded, so the remaining fish is still doing well and is seemingly unphased.
I completed the tank's first water change this morning, which went very well! I use the Python water change system, which made removing the ~10 gallons from the tank very easy. The parameters in the tank have been showing great levels, but I wanted to get in the habit of regular water changes.
In the coming weeks, we will be picking up the following fish:
I have been slowly ramping up the lights in order to prepare the tank for adding corals in the next month or so.
We will miss our little clownfish, who was always a treat to watch. He was curious, and always swam over to whoever looked into the tank.
11/26/20 Update (added to the bottom of the original post):
Our new clownfish arrived! Because the first was a little bit pricy, I decided to go with an "Extreme Misbar Black and White Ocellaris Clownfish from ORA. He has not quite developed his full colors yet (I assume) because he is currently an orangish-black and will someday be fully black. When he arrived yesterday (11/25/20) he was wayyyyy tinier than I thought he was going to be. They advertised as the same size as my previous clowns, but this one was much smaller (about 0.75"). After several hours of cautious nipping from our existing clown (nearly twice our new clown's size), they seemed to begin getting along quite well. I still see her nip him from time to time, but I expect she is just showing her dominance as interim queen of the tank (until my Tomini tang arrives).
My midas blenny is doing excellent! He is not quite as yellow-colored as many other midas blennies, but he has shown his true colors, mainly a rusty yellowish red. He has displayed classic blenny behaviors, including hiding in the rocks at night, changing to a camouflaged color at night while perching on top of our rockwork, and the unique swimming patterns. He is beginning to swim around the tank for longer periods of time, even when there isn't food in the water column.
My plan is to pick up the Yellow Watchman Goby as well as a Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp from my local fish store tomorrow, and the Tomini tang sometime next week. As soon as the entire gang is comfortable, I will be purchasing a few cheap starter LPS/softie corals from my local fish store.
Here's a video I took this morning of the entire gang hanging out together. (It has also been weeks since I turned on the lights and I am yet to have seen a single hint of algae in the tank... I'm waiting for an explosion of it sometime soon)
11/27/20 Update (added to the bottom of the original post):
Our new clown is doing pretty well! I picked up some more frozen reef frenzy food at my local fish store, and he seems to enjoy it.
I picked up a candy cane pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman goby from my local fish store as well today! The goby is super stressed out, likely because the pistol shrimp immediately crawled into a tiny cave in the rockwork. In the next few days, I'm expecting them to find each other and be comfortable again. It is by far the tiniest pistol shrimp I have ever seen.
In addition, I made a slight impulse buy. I bought a small set of 3 trumpet coral frags on a plug. I decided when I was there that this would be the my option of choice to determine whether the tank was ready for coral or not!
When I glued in the coral, they opened up quickly and seem to be doing great!
Another full tank show below of the whole gang under some super-blue light!
Original Tank newly set up and a full tank video from April 2021:
Equipment:
- Waterbox Marine X 90.3 Aquarium
- A pair of AI Prime HD 16 LED lights with flex arms
- Tunze Osmolator Auto Top off
- BRS 75 GPD 5-stage RO/DI filter
- Reef Octopus Classic INT-110 Skimmer
- ~750gph Quiet One Pro 3000 AC return pump
- A pair of AI Nero 5 Powerheads
- RedSea Coral Pro Salt
- 40lbs of CaribSea LifeRock and 20lbs of CaribSea LifeRock "Shapes"
- 40lbs of CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Live Sand
- MicroBacter Start XLM
- Red Sea Mesh Screen Lid
- Eheim 250W Heater
- Several Test Kits, a Refractometer, extra temperature probe, RedSea Marine Test kit set
The first issue was with delivery: they left the pallet directly on my 1-way street out my front door.
After about an hour of me sitting next to it making sure cars didn't hit it, I finally got some help from a friend bringing it inside and putting it all together.
I rushed to fill the tank up with saltwater I had been mixing for a day or two (75 gallon per day is in incredible overestimate for my RO/DI filter).
After filling the tank with water, sand, and rock, I realized I put it way too close to the wall with an uncovered GFCI outlet next to an open sump. After a terrifying experience with a leaky overflow drain I installed incorrectly that spraid saltwater all over the wall near the outlet (yikes), I hired a local reef company to pump out some water, move the tank, install some waterproof cover on the outlet, and verify all my equipment was set up properly. I've added a before/after shot of some cable management near the sump.
The rocks I added were ~50 lbs of Caribsea LifeRock as well as 40lbs of live sand, added some Microbacter Start XLM, and waited until my cycle was completed. During this time, my skimmer was going absolutely berserk, overflowing the cup in a matter of 10 seconds, and blasting my entire display tank with microbubbles. After days of troubleshooting, I broke down the skimmer and realized it was missing an O-ring. After ordering some O-rings on amazon, the skimmer calmed down quite a bit and was working properly about 5 days later.
After cycling, I added a pair of small ORA Black Ice Clownfish I bought on Liveaquaria, who bonded within about 20 minutes and have been living happily alone in their mansion for about a week! I feed them once a day around lunchtime for about 2 minutes. I alternate between Reef Frenzy Frozen food as well as PE Mysis 1mm pellets, both of which the pair eats right up. I have the lights in the tank on about 5-10% for the time being to minimize the growth of algae and to inhibit the "ugly" stage as much as possible, which is so far working well. I'm slowly ramping these lights up to the point where I will add a clean up crew and some hardy corals. I test the water once a week and everything seems to be going well (0 ammonia, 0.05 nitrite, ~2 nitrate, 8.2 PH, 78 degrees F).
We are trying to stick to buying high-quality fish from areas and countries with sustainable fishing practices or captive-bred species.
I've done a lot of work on the tank so far, and I am very proud of it. I've included a few pictures of the tank through the stages, and a few pictures from this week of my new clowns. The past year has been the busiest year of my life, and this hobby has provided me with much-needed relaxation and happiness.
11/22/20 Update:
I purchased a Midas blenny that had been in quarantine at my local fish store yesterday 11/21. He has been hiding since I added him to the tank, but he has ventured out several times to grab a piece of frozen food or two. He is currently camouflaged in terms of color due to stress (brown/white speckled over yellow instead of bright yellow), but he should be showing his true colors in the next few days to weeks. Unfortunately, the smaller of my two Black Ice clownfish that has been happy and healthy somehow escaped through a 0.75"x0.75" hole in the screen mesh lid in the middle of the night and was found this morning in front of the tank. My wife and I were very sad to see our little member of the family not make it, but we will be purchasing another black ice clownfish sometime soon. Luckily, the pair of clowns were too young to have bonded, so the remaining fish is still doing well and is seemingly unphased.
I completed the tank's first water change this morning, which went very well! I use the Python water change system, which made removing the ~10 gallons from the tank very easy. The parameters in the tank have been showing great levels, but I wanted to get in the habit of regular water changes.
In the coming weeks, we will be picking up the following fish:
- Another small black ice clownfish from ORA
- Pistol Shrimp and Goby pair
- Small Tomini Tang
I have been slowly ramping up the lights in order to prepare the tank for adding corals in the next month or so.
We will miss our little clownfish, who was always a treat to watch. He was curious, and always swam over to whoever looked into the tank.
11/26/20 Update (added to the bottom of the original post):
Our new clownfish arrived! Because the first was a little bit pricy, I decided to go with an "Extreme Misbar Black and White Ocellaris Clownfish from ORA. He has not quite developed his full colors yet (I assume) because he is currently an orangish-black and will someday be fully black. When he arrived yesterday (11/25/20) he was wayyyyy tinier than I thought he was going to be. They advertised as the same size as my previous clowns, but this one was much smaller (about 0.75"). After several hours of cautious nipping from our existing clown (nearly twice our new clown's size), they seemed to begin getting along quite well. I still see her nip him from time to time, but I expect she is just showing her dominance as interim queen of the tank (until my Tomini tang arrives).
My midas blenny is doing excellent! He is not quite as yellow-colored as many other midas blennies, but he has shown his true colors, mainly a rusty yellowish red. He has displayed classic blenny behaviors, including hiding in the rocks at night, changing to a camouflaged color at night while perching on top of our rockwork, and the unique swimming patterns. He is beginning to swim around the tank for longer periods of time, even when there isn't food in the water column.
My plan is to pick up the Yellow Watchman Goby as well as a Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp from my local fish store tomorrow, and the Tomini tang sometime next week. As soon as the entire gang is comfortable, I will be purchasing a few cheap starter LPS/softie corals from my local fish store.
Here's a video I took this morning of the entire gang hanging out together. (It has also been weeks since I turned on the lights and I am yet to have seen a single hint of algae in the tank... I'm waiting for an explosion of it sometime soon)
11/27/20 Update (added to the bottom of the original post):
Our new clown is doing pretty well! I picked up some more frozen reef frenzy food at my local fish store, and he seems to enjoy it.
I picked up a candy cane pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman goby from my local fish store as well today! The goby is super stressed out, likely because the pistol shrimp immediately crawled into a tiny cave in the rockwork. In the next few days, I'm expecting them to find each other and be comfortable again. It is by far the tiniest pistol shrimp I have ever seen.
In addition, I made a slight impulse buy. I bought a small set of 3 trumpet coral frags on a plug. I decided when I was there that this would be the my option of choice to determine whether the tank was ready for coral or not!
When I glued in the coral, they opened up quickly and seem to be doing great!
Another full tank show below of the whole gang under some super-blue light!
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