I’m starting my first reef tank after having a FOWLR tank in high school, an undisclosed very long time ago. I love the beauty of saltwater fish and corals and the idea of growing skills, learning, and improving. It's in my basement next to my desk, so I can enjoy its ambiance on the days I'm working from home.
Aquascape
Water & Maintenance
Future Plans
- Goal: LPS/softy dominant mixed reef with potential for a few easier SPS corals
- Tank: looked for a 4-foot rectangular, no more than 20" front to back, white cabinet - roughly the biggest tank I could do that would also meet spouse approval.
- Waterbox Marine X 110.4 (79.6G display, 105.3G total) - chosen for WB reputation, sale price, and 20" front-to-back dimension
- Return pump: Sicce SDC 6 currently running at 70%
- Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve Elite 5
- Flow: 2x AI Nero 5s, 2x Jebao SLW-30s for varied flow options from sides and back glass
- Battery backup: EcoFlow River 2 with one of the Neros plugged into it full time
- Heating: Inkbird controller with 2x BRS 300W titanium heaters for redundancy
- Lighting: 2x AI Blade Grow, 1x AI Blade Glow - selected for value and based on success seen in other tanks
- ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3
- RO/DI and mixing: BRS 5-stage with Smart Buddie Booster for quality water production. Didn’t have a good place to permanently mount it, so I put it in a small plastic cabinet I can wheel to the sink and so far that is working incredibly well. Have an extra Jebao SOW-20 pump and Eheim Jager 300W heater for mixing/heating fresh saltwater in Brute cans
- BRS universal CO2 scrubber & media, anticipating this will be good with a house full of people
- Controllers: not really a controller but have everything plugged into 2 TP-Link KASA power strips for smart features like easy on/off, timers, and power usage.
- Organization: 1 Waterbox control board that came with the tank and 1 standard Adaptive Reef control board
Aquascape
- Marco Rock: 40 lbs foundation, 40 lbs hybrid, 40 lbs Reef Saver - intentionally over-purchased for selection variety and each came pre-packaged as 40lb box. The foundation rock was awesome and made things easier.
- Design goals: multiple levels for coral placement, fish hiding spots, ample room for water flow and glass cleaning, following rule of thirds for aesthetic appeal, leave 1/3 of display height for growth
- Substrate: Mix of CaribSea Arag Alive and Tampa Bay Saltwater live sand (arriving soon) to balance benefits of dry and live rock approaches
Water & Maintenance
- Salts: Waterbox Reef Salt (came with tank) and Reef Crystals (on sale), which I’m using now for cycling. Not sure what I will use long term.
- Cycling: Using Dr. Tim's One and Only at lower salinity and higher temperature to expedite process.
- Testing: Mix of Hanna Checkers and various test kits for comprehensive parameter monitoring.
- Future dosing: Considering Tropic Marin All For Reef for simplicity in maintaining water chemistry, though I will see what the tank needs as I add fish and corals.
- Focus: Soft and LPS corals, with room for SPS experimentation
- Potential corals: zoanthids, lithophyllon, fungia, other chalices, favia, rhodactis, frogspawn, hammers, torches. Please share your favorites
- Fish: Planning for utilitarian species that complement the reef environment, added in batches: 1) Orange Ocellaris pair; 2) Small bristletooth tang (tomini, kole, or white tail), Lawnmower or Striped blenny, Diamond goby, Melanurus wrasse; 3) Flame hawkfish, Royal gramma, Banggai cardinal pair, Aiptasia eating filefish
- Really helped to buy equipment over a few months to manage costs with sales and have time to research options. I learned that every week there is a new sale and to check all the retailers, though I mostly steer clear of Amazon. Everything but the tank was on sale at least 15%, usually more, which helps my delusion that I am budgeting well.
- Encountered stand assembly issues (wobble), successfully resolved with helpful support and extra parts from Waterbox. Was also frustrating to level.
- Aquascaping was fun but TBD if I met my goals. I am a little concerned I don’t have enough separate pieces if I ever need to remove them since the 2 XL scapes were pretty heavy, or enough small standalone pieces to isolate fast-growing coral, or that I might have some low-flow traps. While building the scape the 20” front-to-back distance felt a little narrow and the internal overflow presented some challenges.
- Currently in cycling phase and it’s going well, monitoring parameters closely.
- BONUS: I also started a 10g Aqueon nano tank with leftover rock and sand, a Tunze Comline 3162, Eheim Jager heater, Hydor Koralia Nano wavemaker, and Noo-Psyche K7 mini. Also currently cycling, I plan to keep this as a fishless QT observation system for inverts and post-dip corals.
- Next step: Planning to introduce some pods and first invertebrates after cycle completion.
Future Plans
- Complete cycling process, ensuring stable water parameters.
- Introduce pods and first invertebrates to establish clean-up crew, dosing phyto and making snello or other foods for the inverts if needed.
- Since no fish are currently in the display tank, I might add the first batch of inverts directly without QT. Will leave the tanks fishless for either 6 weeks at 80.6 or 11 weeks at 78 before adding fish to play it safe -- haven't decided yet.
- Gradually add corals and fish as the system stabilizes, starting with hardier species. Planning to buy quarantined fish, then keep them in separate observation tank for a couple of weeks just in case (either a storage bin with an air bubbler and frequent water changes, or maybe pick up a 20g long tank and HOB or something).
- Continue the ongoing learning process!
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