First reef - 40 gallon breeder mostly DIY

[west co reefer]

Nice scape! I miss my 40B. Love the dimensions of that tank

 

[sassmastawillis]

Howdy everyone! Since my last update, I've finished plumbing the tank and filled her up. Been letting her cycle for the last 3ish weeks, but I've been gone a lot of that time so I haven't been testing to 100% verify the process is complete. I added a bottle of Dr. TIm's one and only bacteria and ghost fed it some dry flakes I had lying around, but didn't really test ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels for a week or so afterwards. I added a small chunk of live rock from my LFS, and all levels have been at 0 since I've been testing this past week.

Big update was that I picked up my first saltwater fish this weekend! Grabbed myself a pair of clownfish from my LFS. These guys are so fun to watch, and already have so much personality compared to other freshwater fish I have kept! I am still testing water parameters daily just in case there is a huge spike in anything, but hoping their bioload will be covered by what's already cycled in the tank. The food they recommend and swear by is frozen 'Rods Food Original Blend', and I've been feeding them that a tiny bit daily.

For the sump, I am just leaving it open for now. I finished printing a few parts for that DIY filter roller I've been working on, but can't really be sure if it will work. Not really sure how high the water level inside the housing will rise, and how much waste is actually required for it to 'work'. Hooked it up to my drainage pipe for now, and I can always just manually advance it or swap it out for filter socks. I also originally wanted to add a refugium chamber to my sump, but I waiting for the tank to become more mature before I do. I'm also planning on turning the skimmer back on and play with it's adjustments to see how it works, as I've never used one before. My ATO is hooked up to the reefpi, but I just have a basic float switch hooked up to the dc pump for now until I can figure out how to configure that in reefpi.

I also attached a picture of some algae that's been growing on one side of the aquairum, I assume becuase its been getting sunlight from a window. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like normal 'ugly phase' diatoms. I taped some cardboard on that side to try and block it out, and I still keep the lights off.

As always, feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!