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First Reef Tank Build (1 Viewer)

Just finished rearragning the rockwork. Putting up my Tek 6 bulb light with acrylic cover. Setup up my JBJ auto top off hooked up to a 20g tub. Also hooked up a BRS carbon reactor. Redid my herbie plumbing. Also got my SRO XP2000 skimming properly.

Tank has been running for 2 weeks now. Ammonia is at 0, Nitrite is around 5, and Nitrate is around 10. I been using the bacterial vials from SWE.

I fed the tank couple piece of the fish food we made at last weeks food making party to get the bateria to develop.

What do you think should I add for my first CUC?

In the corner you can see my 20g QT tank. Need to set it up.

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ReefCleaners.com, they have an option so you can get a quote on what CUC you should put in your tank. All you have to do is fill it out and wait a couple days.
 
Tank looks good. Stand looks awesome. I built my own stand to and doubled 2x4 in each corner then 2x6 rim and 2x4 supports in the middle and glued and screwed each piece. But yours looks better I am pretty sure. :biggthumpup:
 
Yah I used the 1/4 acrylic from HD with the GE silicone. Its holding up but it bows out a bit on my fug. The fuge dimensions are 18w by 16h so its a pretty big sheet and it bends with the water pressure but it still is holding.
 
Anyone know how long the nitrite cycle lasts? Nitrite is still registering around 3-4 ppm. Been approx 10 days. Did a 20% water change. Nitrate is registering around 100. Yikes!
 
My 75 g just got done cycling after approx 8 wks. 40g sump. Running carbon and GFO. Have biopellets but wont start that up until tank gets a bit more mature with more fish and waste. The SRO XP2000 is pulling dark but small amount of skimmate. Have 2 koralia evo 1400 going all the time. Have 1 koralia evo 1040 running for 4 hours running from 10 am to 2 pm to eliminate some dead spots. Might add a mj1200 to also run another 4 hours from 2 to 6 pm to make sure there are no dead spots.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phosphate 0
PH 8.3

I just turned on DT light yesterday. Already have pods in DT but no algae growth. Fuge has Chaeto and plenty of pods and some brown algae growth. I have some small pods that are a shape of a small star. What are those?

Need help determining what to run on my light fixture. Since ill only have fish for the next couple months until the tank gets more stable, im only going to run 2 out of 6 bulbs on my Tek T5 to save electricity. Which bulbs should I run on those two sockets? Currently just running two Aquablue+. The other four has 2 daylight, 1 fiji purple, and 1 aquablue+. I was thinking of taking one of the daylight and putting it on the 2 bulb setup so ill run 1 aquablue+ and 1 daylight. The four bulbs will then be 2 aquablue+, 1 fiji, 1 daylight. Also do you think I can have a hammer or frogspawn on 2 bulbs? If not, ill wait couple more months still tank matures.

Also, looking at setting up a light clean up crew. I saw that SWE has a special on 3 peppermint shrimps for $18. Do you think 3 would be overkill for the tank right now? I am also going to get couple nerts (sand cleaning). About to add my first fish, a onyx clown next week. Clown has been in my QT for the last 3 wks from Matt from duluth. Eating good and looking healthy. Only worry is, its a bit shy and still small. Just starting its 2nd band and might get swept away from all the current in the DT.

Need to work on clear screen top and will start mocking up a 3 BRS reactor with biopellets, GFO, carbon being run off one Magdrive 7 pump with a gate valve and several ball valves. Lets see if it will work well.
 
Where's the algae?

I have been running my 6 bulb Tek 5 light for two weeks now. On at 6:30, off at 8 pm. There is currently a clean up crew of snails, 3 peppermint shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 1 hermit crab.

Been running GFO and carbon. Have a 10 g fuge with Chaeto/Ulva

So i have some green film on the glass but im not really seeing an explosion of algae on the DT.

Since the fish are still in QT, I feed the tank every other day with 1/2 of cube. Still no explosion of algae. Will it just explode one day when I add fish?

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Sounds to me like you took it slow and are on the right track and things are going well. Research your stocking list and start adding things slowly and let you tank adjust as you build up a bioload. You don't have to have an algea bloom as part of your cycle if you do things right. I had a small bloom in mine that lasted less than 2 weeks. But that was because I added 9 fish at once when there was basically no bioload in the tank yet (school of Longspine Cardinal and a Starry Blenny). Other than that I have had no other algea in the display tank and I am over 3 months. I started with all uncooked or cleaned dry rock and did a dark cycle like you. Then In the last 2 months I have stocked my tank very fast and heavy, but keeping an eye on params the whole time and things have panned out well so far.

Hope this helps
Casey
 
Added my QT Fish

After 3.5 months of cycling the DT with the clowns in QT for approx 4 wks. I just added them to the DT.

1 - Rod's Onyx Clown
1 - F1 Onyx Clown

Also added some zoas, bam bams, fire/ice, keds reds, and some blue center with gree edge zoas from Kyle. They all look pretty solid right now. Good polyp extensions.

They seem to just hover around the top right of the tank. Im wondering if my two Koralia Evo 1400 is to powerful for them? It seems like when they try to swim to the other side of the tank, they look like they really have to try hard.

I have the 2 Koralias pointed to the top middle part of the tank to create some swirl.

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Looking good! But i think i still got you beat :gay1: I should have my tank re-done and cleaned pretty soon so i can take some decent pics.
 
Got couple frogspawn, hammer, zoas from Rjreefer and Ray

You can see my rods onyx clown and yellow coris. Got another onyx from mpederson which still only has one strip. Starting its second strip but thats it. I wonder if it will be a misbar?

I have a ulva problem. It was in fuge but now it got into the display. I wonder if a Blarry Blenny would get it under control. It doesnt look bad. I got a emerald crab but I dont know if they eat Ulva. Thoughts?

UlvaAlgae.jpg


RightSide.jpg


LeftSide.jpg
 
LOL. Yah I bought yours and then rjreefer sold me his huge on for a sweet deal. Ill probably FIF some frogspawns since I have three. I think ill also dump a zoa colony on the top right side of the last pic. Its getting huge and it isnt really colorful.
 
Update

The tank is doing well except for bryop and some fork algae take over starting to happen. Need to spend a day pulling and pulling! I got a bottle of Tech M so that might have to be used if I cant get it under control.

Tank004.jpg


Left side with rod's onxy clown poking her head out
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Right side that is starting the algae problem. Oddly the other side has none! I might think its due to the emerald crab that just stay on the left side. Need to buy a crab for the right side.

Tank002.jpg


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Oddly all my power heads have a lot of algae growth
Tank005.jpg


Jawfish found a good hole and been there the last 3 months.
Tank010.jpg


Dendro that I got from Ray. Its huge single polyp
Tank009.jpg


Some super green zoas I got. The back ones are GPE i believe and the front ones, I have no clue.

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Here are some AOG/Apop - sell each frag square for $10. Each has 5 heads or so.

Tank007.jpg


Here is the kole tang i got couple days ago. got ich in the QT so its doing hypo starting today. SG is at 1.010
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It's funny how you are getting that green Kelp type algae. Isn't the GFO supposed to get rid of that stuff? Have you ever replaced the GFO since the beginning?

But i do think you are ahead of me now. :gay1:
 
That green kelp stuff is ulva. Heard its like chaeto so I gOt it. Well the pods love the stuff so it doesnt grow to well in sump. Apparently tangs love the stuff. I'm sure when kole tang is out of qt it will take care of it all.

Yup change Gfo monthly. It's time to change again.
 
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