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20G Long - First Reef Build (Update 12/27/15 - FTS and Picture Dump)


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This is my first saltwater tank after about a year of doing planted tanks. Display is limited to mostly LPS and softies but the frag rack is almost exclusively SPS. Hope you enjoy.

 

Tank: 20 Long

Display Lighting: Current USA Orbit 24-36"

Sump Frag Rack Lighting: Kessil A150 Sky Blue

Powerheads: 3 x Jebao RW-4 (2 in display, 1 in sump for frag rack)

Heater: SunSun 200 watt

Sump: 20 Long with Custom Baffles

Return: Hydrofarm 550

Chemical Filtration: Dual BRS Reactor (BRS ROX Carbon and BRS GFO) and Purigen

Overflow: BRS Nano Overflow, 2 x 3/4" Drains

Substrate: CaribSea Aragonite Special Grade

Clean-Up Crew: 20G Long Bundle from reefcleaners.com

Auto Top Off: SL1 w/ Single Float Switch (AutoTopOff.com Float Switch Mount)

RODI: 100 GPD Aqua Reef RO - DI replaced with Refillable BRS DI Canister

Salt Mix: Instant Ocean Sea Salt

Protein Skimmer: Eshopps S-120

Controller: Reef Keeper Lite (3 x PC4s, 1 SL1)

Dosing Pump: Jebao DP-4 (dosing BRS Calcium Chloride, BRS Soda Ash, and Vinegar)

 

Live Stock:

Soft Corals:

- Pulsing Xenia

- Watermelon Zoas

- Radioactive Zoas

- Green Bay Packers Zoas

- Red Palys

- Orange Florida Ricordea Mushroom

- Green Florida Ricordea Mushroom

- Yellow Florida Ricordea Mushroom

- Pink Kenya Tree

LPS:

- Acan Lords

- Branching Green Hammer

- Purple Hammer

- Random Purple Acan

- Green Torch

- Purple Torch

- Favia Coral

- Chalice

- Monastrea Coral

- Platygyra Maze Brain Coral

- Candy Cane Coral

SPS: (All in Sump)

- Red Monti Cap

- Purple Monti Cap

- Yellow Monti Cap

- Green Monti Cap

- Red Planet Acro

- Blue Acro

- Orange Digitata

- Blue Digitata

- Purple Acro

- Tubbs Mystic Blue Acro

- Green Pavona

- 2 Random Branching Acros

- Purple Valida Acro

Fish:

- Two black percula clowns

 

FTS - 5/24/2016

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FTS - 12/27/2015

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FTS - 9/19/2015

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FTS - 9/6/2015

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FTS - 6/11/2015

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FTS - 4/3/2015

17024095365_0b923d645e_k.jpgIMAG0760 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

 

FTS - 3/20/15

16688374380_d73b4c9630_b.jpg2015-03-20_04-14-42 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

 

FTS: 3/1/2015
FTS: 2/18/2015
16386353380_29fb21b03c_b.jpgFTS (2/18/15) by vazquez_v1, on Flickr
FTS: 2/8/2015

[update - 1/24/15]

I'm officially cycled and going to be getting fish soon. Have to do a quick 2 gallon water change first. The second picture was taken today and there is one more new picture in my latest post.

 

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congrats and welcome! 20 longs are still one of my favorite size tanks. Sounds like a good start.

 

Be sure to look at a lot of tanks while this cycles and really get a feel for what you do and don't like in regards to corals. Long and shallow has lots of options. Things like Xenia, cloves and leathers can spread quickly. Zoa and Palys add a ton of color and coverage on rocks so that is a great option.

 

You have probably already read this but don't be in a hurry to do anything. read lots and before you buy something from your LFS, take the time to not buy it go home and research. It's the impulse buys while you are learning that can end up being bad decisions due to coral/fish coral and compatibility.

 

Post up some pictures tomorrow.

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Thank you and I really do like this size tank as well. My main tank is a 40 gallon that's about 22" tall so it was a pain to light cheaply and even now the lighting is the limiting factor for my plant growth but I guess that's actually a good thing. No dwarf hairgrass in that tank though :/

For this tank I've been looking at a lot of different corals and for the most part you have them listed. Xenia look awesome and from what I've seen they are very easy to propagate if I want to trade them back into the LFS. The clove polyps that you listed look great as well. I think to start the only ones I'm going to get are the zoanthids since last time I was there I saw a very nice one on a piece of live rock and then some xenia if they have it. Obviously it will also depend on the condition of the corals. I plan on using Coral ReVive when I get them back to my place and make sure that they are free of any visible parasites like flat worms. The Kenya and leather corals appear to be pretty nice as well.

One of the main concerns as of now is in regards to where in the tank these corals would go after the light acclimatization process. Since it is such a shallow tank I don't have too much vertical variation for the corals. So to start I'm thinking of xenia, zoanthus, and like a leather toadstool. Based of of LiveAquaria, the xenia and zoanthus need moderate light and the toadstool needs moderate to high. I've heard that xenia tend to take over a bit so they would need plenty of space. Scape-wise I was thinking a long mound of live rock across the middle of the tank leaving about 3" between the live rock and the glass. Xenia could go at one of the ends but at the base of the live rock structure. The toadstool could go somewhere in the middle about halfway up or towards the top of the live rock, and the zoanthus would be the same. Obviously this will change if I see any bleaching or anything like that but I wanted to get a basic idea of what their lighting needs.

And now for the pictures. I do apologize in advance because the tank is still set up as a freshwater tank for the next 2-3 weeks but I do have everything pretty much in place. I got my powerheads in yesterday and they are awesome. I love how small they are and they work very well. The Current Orbit is very small and I'm finally getting the hang of it without having to reread the instructions twenty times. So turns out these pictures are a bit too large and I can only upload one per post. I'll add the second one to my original post.


[Edit]
I've got salt!!! My instant ocean sea salt just arrived and this is really getting real and it is coming together. MyRODI unit was a Christmas present so that was sent home along with the refractometer and a few little things. I cracked this open and everything was nice and dry. I like how the lid actually has a rubber ring that helps seal the lid. One other thing that was susprising was the plastic seal used. I actually had.to get a shirt to wrap around my hand in order to get it off. This is definitely a plus because.I would hate to have this get wet during shipping. I still have about $100 worth of stuff in my shopping cart on Amazon but um holding off on that. Looking at getting the red sea reef kit for testing along with the chemical filtration. Thanks to those watching and if you have any questions or comments then please do!

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So I have a few pictures and updates. I was in Jacksonville for the past few days and stopped by a few stores and got some dead rock. These things were bone dry and I didn't see any dead organic matter or anything really that wasn't rock. After playing around with the two rocks on my desk, I finally figured out how I wanted to place them. I made sure not to make the hardscape too steep for the eventual corals too. The sand bed is about 3/4"-1" thick and I don't think I will be getting any more. It covers the entire bottom and I am a big fan of this sand so far. The CaribSea Aragonite Special Grade is awesome in that it sinks right away. The one big drawback with this sand is that you REALLY need to rinse this stuff well. I spent about 20 minutes mixing the one bag in a 5 gallon bucket. I started by filling the bucket while mixing it with my hand. Whenever the bucket filled up I would then empty out the bucket. I did this at least ten times and it just came out like milk. Eventually I got tired of doing it by hand and put my big powerhead in the bucket while constantly pouring water into it. I left and came back about ten minutes later and it was much better. Unfortunately, this stuff still clouded up the water in my tank. Here are two pics: the first one was taken an hour after adding the sand and then the second one was taken immediately after adding the sand. Sorry for uploading them backwards by accident. I left the lights off and just ran the filter (filter floss and carbon) along with the two powerheads. I replaced the powerhead in the back with my larger powerhead. I'll see how it works but I may switch it back to the two smaller powerheads later on. I'm currently just running freshwater. When I get back from holiday traveling I'm going to do a 100% water change clean the sand bed with a siphon in order to get any more loose stuff out. After that I'll add my saltwater and start the cycling process.

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Looks like you are at about the same stage as me, tho I went with a 6 gallon tank to try out the SW thing. I'm having a hard time being patient about the tank cycling, but I know it is the right thing to do. Fortunately, I've been having some issues with green cloudy water in my planted freshwater tank, so that has given me something to keep me busy while I wait for the cycle to complete!

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Good luck. Thankfully I've never had any real algae outbreaks in either of my freshwater tanks. My tank has become crystal clear which is great but unfortunately it is still running on freshwater. I got my RO/DI unit but I'm having trouble hooking it up. It came with a T-Valve adapter that I could hook up under my sink but it's too big for what I have. The only adapter that I could find to go from 3/8" to 1/2" was a small ring with threads on each side of it. That was screwed into the threads of the T-Valve and then the whole valve and ring screwed into the top of the original valve under the sink. unfortunately this was pretty much impossible to get sealed. I got the other two fittings snug and they didn't leak but I tightened the bottom as much as it would go but it simply did not work and it had a steady stream of water coming out from the threads between the threaded ring and the plastic T-Valve. Tomorrow I'm going to get an adapter so that I can simply hook it up to my faucet. It isn't ideal but it will have to do. I'm moving sometime next Summer so maybe I'll do it differently when I'm in my own place and not an apartment that I'm renting. The other issue I'm having is with the auto top-off system. It works great except for the sensor. It's designed for a sump but in such a shallow tank like mine, it would mean having the water WAY lower than I would like (~4" from the top). The part that holds the sensor is made of rubber with a magnet inside of it. I ended up cutting the rubber and it's not being glued back together with aquarium safe silicone. Now that I cut off about 1" worth of wasted space, I'll be able to keep the water at an acceptable level. I tried flipping it upside down but the magnets in the holder were too powerful and were messing with the sensor and keeping it in the closed position. I'm going to let it sit overnight and cure. I still have to get the RO/DI unit hooked up so this thing will have a chance to cure for nearly the whole 24 hours. It's holding pretty well after about ~4 hours. I got a few other goodies for Christmas too. I have the Seachem Reef Dip, the MicroBacter7, and a refractometer.

 

 

I do have some sad news and anyone who comes from the VA Beach area will have most likely known. Animal Jungle, a store that has been open for about 30 years I believe is closing down. I stopped by on Christmas Eve and it was pretty sad seeing the shelves almost completely empty and all of the saltwater stuff gone. This was an amazing store with a very knowledgeable staff. They even medicated sick bettas that came in and had an amazing selection. The tanks were run in either small clusters of 4-5 on one sump or individually with its own canister filter which was great. Overall it was a sad sight and I wandered around the store for about an hour before leaving. Ended up picking up the reef dip, some bags of carbon, and some new bulbs for my freshwater tank all for 50% off. From what I've heard, the owner was pretty up there in age and none of his children wanted to take it over. There were multiple articles I saw on FB so if anyone is interested just look it up on Google and I'm sure you'll find something.

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Alright everyone. I've got everything all hooked up and working. The RODI unit has a TDS reading of 0 ppm and working well. I did manage to put about half an inch of water all over my kitchen floor... After soaking it all back up it ended up being about half a gallon or so of water (idiot me). In regards to the tank I did buy a small piece of live rock. It has a lot of coraline algae on it and weighs 2.25 pounds. It isn't much but it's better than nothing. I'm currently in the process of cycling the tank (lights off) and it's been pretty boring. Ammonia has been at 0.25 with no nitrite or nitrate just yet. I'm "ghost feeding" and adding a small pinch of food every other day as well as dosing the MicroBacter7 every day. I tested for phosphates and it read 0 so I'm happy with that too. The auto top off stuff is back working even though I did have a couple problems at first. I got the piece glued up and it is doing well. Water has been at a constant level over the past few days so I'm happy there as well. Once I finish the cycle then I'll order my clean up crew so that I'll finally have some life in the tank. I also want to a cleaner shrimp since they look absolutely amazing to me. From there I need to save up a bit of money and get my two clowns after a couple weeks with just the cleaner crew. The black and white clowns run about $35 here so that's not too bad.

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I was pulling my hair out because I started cycling about a mont ago, and the ammonia was elevated, but never changed. Turns out I was using an ammonia test that expired 3 years ago, and even my RO water had equally elevated ammonia, according to the test. New test strips and all was good, cycle completed!!! Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites at 0! So today I got my first corals, and a single cerith snail as my clean up crew. Good luck with your tank...

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I was pulling my hair out because I started cycling about a mont ago, and the ammonia was elevated, but never changed. Turns out I was using an ammonia test that expired 3 years ago, and even my RO water had equally elevated ammonia, according to the test. New test strips and all was good, cycle completed!!! Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites at 0! So today I got my first corals, and a single cerith snail as my clean up crew. Good luck with your tank...

That's great to hear. I have heard that test strips tend to go bad but I've stuck to the API liquid test kits. So far I'm still at .25 ammonia and 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. I looked at it tonight while the moonlights were on and I am beginning to see some critters climbing around on the glass so that's a good sign at least. Good luck with your corals. I'm still not sure which corals I'm going to get. There are just so many that look amazing and that I want.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's been a while since I last posted and I have some great news. I went through a rather soft cycle but I'm officially done and ready for fish. As of now I have a reef cleaners CUC for the 20 long and they're all doing well. After about 3 weeks of cycling (adding algae wafers and fish food) I was told to add half a shrimp in there to see what would happen to the water parameters. I checked again today and have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates finally. My current game plan is to do a 2 gallon or so water change and then go get the fish. No corals just yet. I'm planning on getting most of my corals from salt critters when they do another flash sale. I am getting some solid coralline algae growth and I can see it spreading from the one live rock and have loads of other specs of growth. I'll add pics shortly.

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That's great, I have that light on my 16 gallon and love it. I know at some point I'll get the fancy EcoMarine XR15w pro. But for now the current light offers some really great features that you don't see again until you hit the $400 plus price range. I'm assuming you have the ramp timer with it? If not I'd definitely get as an upgrade to that light it programs the sunrise/sunset and time of it.

 

One of the two secrets I definitely always love to start with is live sand for sure. This tank I got a nice Caribsea product but I wish I would have read the type of sand instead of going for the price. It had a lot of shell pieces and small rocks mixed in with mostly sand. I would have liked it to be a little whiter and more of a pure sand.

 

Good luck! I have had several saltwater tanks through the years and of course love them. I had a break for a couple years and I'm just getting back into the hobby. I got a innovative marine nuvo 16 with is pretty close to the shape and size of yours. It's about 7 months old right now. I wish it was a little further along with the choraline algae growth but it will come in time. I keep adding my purple up etc. and have several seed rocks to get it boosted.

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So far so good. This light does have the ramp timer but I'm just using the presets instead of going with a custom schedule for now. I agree though, this kind of control can't be found anywhere near this price range. I got mine which is the 24" long fixture for $120. It may not be the most powerful but it should definitely do the job for soft corals and maybe even a brain.

 

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Well, I ended up splurging and got 2 black and white percula clownfish. I'll post some pics tomorrow since I've had the lights off all day. Wanted to reduce the stress on the fish as much as possible. I'm pretty nervous that they won't survive the night simply because they were so expensive and these are my first saltwater fish. Wish me luck and I'll be back in the morning with pictures. Just need to hope they survive. Btw, I tested ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate before getting the fish and it was all at 0.

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So the clownfish survived the night but I'm a bit worried about one of them. It looks like the gills are flared out a bit but I'm not really sure if anything is wrong or if this is normal. Just tested the water and I'm getting 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 0 nitrate.

 

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Quick update at the end of the day. Both clownfish are eating. I tried feeding them NLS pellets and they both just watched them fall to the bottom. I then thawed out some Hikari Mysis shrimp and both of them munched down on them. I actually fed all my tanks since those Hikari cubes are so massive. I also have some left in the fridge until tomorrow so that I can feed them before I go to teach. I think I'm going to mix in a few NLS pellets with the shrimp so that I can hopefully soon get them to eat pellets.

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Daily Update:

 

I've got them eating flakes and pellets!! I started off with some spiralina flakes and I broke one up into smaller 1/8" diameter chunks and as the flakes were sinking the larger clownfish started picking at it. The smaller clownfish followed suit shortly after. While I was at it I figured I would try some of the pellets. At this point they were both swimming about halfway up the water column and as soon as the pellet started sinking, they went after it.I think from now on I'm going to feed a daily mix of about 4-5 pellets and a little bit of spiralina. As a treat I'll give them about 1/4 of a mysis shrimp cube. If that ends up being too much shrimp then I'll just feed the extra to my barbs which will eat anything and everything.

 

One thing I noticed is that they tend to hang out in the corners of the tanks. I'm not really sure why but they just hang out there swimming in the same spot. I think that may be one of the parts of the tank with the lowest flow rate but I'm not really sure. I've yet to even see them try to swim through the rocks. I've got the one powerhead pointed at about a 65 degree angle towards the glass but I'm worried that it may be too much. The powerhead is rated at 530 GPH and I thought that would be a good amount but I think I still have too much. I've been thinking of getting a Jebao RW-4 since it's a pretty good price at only $55 from Amazon. This thing would be a big benefit to the tank and allow me to have a lot more control than what I currently have.

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Another update!!! Saltcritters has another flash sale going on right now and I ended up getting some corals. I also picked up a pack of frag mounts and some coral glue. Here is a pic of my shopping cart. I'm not sure how well they will all do but with shipping this expensive I figured I might as well just go for it.

 

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Well here are a few pics of my new corals. They are all doing well but some are taking a bit longer to open up. The purple one in the picture from yesterday still has about half the polyps closed. I'm sorry about the pictures but all I have is my phone and I am definitely not into photography at all so no other cameras. The Acan looks amazing to me.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am loving the Jebao RW-4. Unfortunately I can't put it on wave mode right now since the ATO sensor is in the tank but the control this thing has is awesome. Unfortunately it does have a bit of a hum when it's pushed a bit faster but that's too much for this tank right now anyways. Over the next week or two I should have my sump all set up with the protein skimmer but i'm still waiting on shipping. Overall everything is doing pretty well. There are more details in the OP under the latest update.

 

16474336172_8beb83a904_b.jpgNew Jebao RW-4. Percula clowns are loving it. by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

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So I spent way too much money today on this hobby like usual... I found a 20 long sump for only $30 and it's pretty awesome. After that I spent a good hour at Lowe's trying to get all the parts to plumb the thing. The plumbing along cost me about $70 which was far too much... I made sure to use a lot of unions but unfortunately idiot me forgot to put one in between the ball valve and the check valve... I did put the check vale in the right direction which is the important part. haha. So right now I have it set up as pump-->union-->ball valve-->check valve-->union. I also have a few union halfway through the rest of the plumbing that leads to the return. For the overflow, I only have a ball valve with a union on each side. In regards to the picture, please disregard the mess of wires. I'll be getting it organized tomorrow after I let it cure for 24 hours. My skimmer is currently sitting in the apt. office since I wasn't here when it arrived so I'll pick that up in the morning. Definitely excited to clean up the display tank. Still need to get a hold of a filter sock for some mechanical filtration but I may just line the inside of a bag with filter floss. That way I can just replace the old filter floss when it gets dirty.

16486655041_04f3a77be2_b.jpgDisregard the complete mess of wires. Getting filled tomorrow!! by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

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Spending too much money....ha. There's a lot of that in this hobby (I'm going to change that by creating a less than $100 reef someday). Looks pretty cool, can't wait to see it go further! Any further stocking ideas?

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Fish wise I really don't know. I'm not a big fan of gobies and I've heard fire fish like to jump and I'd rather not have a lid. I really don't know what else I'm going to put in there. I was thinking of adding two more clowns but maybe some snowflake clowns but I'm not really sure if that would cause aggression or anything like that. Coral wise I'm going to be adding some more soft and LPS corals. I'd like to get some xenia, kenya tree, hammer, toadstool, frogspawn, and more acans. A bubble tip anemone is also on the to-buy list. Unfortunately since it's only a 20 gallon with limited light I'm going to have to plan this out accordingly so that each organism gets the right amount of light and enough room not to hurt or get hurt by other corals.

 

Right now I think I'm just going to put the skimmer in the middle section and I'm debating whether or not to do a deep sand bed in the first compartment. Obviously I'd need to cut that pipe but I made sure not to glue that last section in. Even if it leaks it will still be dripping into the tank so I'm not worried about that.

 

I think it's definitely possible to do a less than $100 tank but it will probably have to be a softies only tank. PAR 38 bulb, heater, koralia nano, HOB for chemical filtration (optional) and a 10 gallon tank. That's about as basic as you can get really.

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Well I know what I'm doing tomorrow.... I plumbed up the sump and will add more pictures tomorrow. Should also be able to pick up my skimmer tomorrow as well. In regards to the skimmer, they left a note in my mail box on Monday saying that it was ready for pickup in the office but by the time I got home, they were already closed. I get to the office this morning (Tuesday) and it isn't there. From what they told me, every now and then the postman will get there right around when the office closes and first goes to the mailboxes where they drop off the note but when they get to the office, it's already closed so they can't deliver the package. This morning when I stopped by the office, the postman hadn't come yet today. Unfortunately I was in class all day and didn't get back until after the office closed. Tomorrow I'll stop by and hopefully my skimmer will be there and I'll get it all hooked up.

 

Another thing I will be doing tomorrow is making a "gurgle blaster" because this thing is LOUD. First there is the noise from the water going into the box inside of the tank which isn't too bad. Then there is the gurgling itself and it all needs to change. It should be pretty easy to make out of PVC. So far the sump is working great and I'm getting no bubbles in the display tank. It's rather late and I'll make sure to post pictures tomorrow because as always, threads are useless without pictures.

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Time for another update. Sump is working well and I ended up making a "gurgle blaster" that has made it much quieter. The only issue is that I'm still getting a lot of noise as the water comes from the tank and drops into the overflow box before getting taken out by the U-Tube. The sump also suffered some damage. The baffle between the center section and the pump return broke. After looking at it, it was only glued on one side and it was the wrong side. For now I just adjusted the ATO sensor and I'm running it as is since I don't have anything in the center section other than a heater. The skimmer is still breaking in. I had a good 1/4" of slightly tea colored liquid in there but I think when I fed the corals it went crazy and overflowed into the sump. I turned the air down a bit so that hopefully it won't happen again.

 

The display tank itself is doing a good bit better. The green algae is starting to go away and so is hair algae. The top of the rocks are actually back to their original whiteish color. Corals are also doing very well and so are the fish. Unfortunately I still need to get some Kalkwasser to add into my ATO reservoir because my Calc and Alk are both lower than I would like.

 

I also ended up making my own food and I can safely say that I have enough food for pretty much ever unless I add more fish and even then I should be set for years. I got two swai fillets, 1.5 pounds of shrimp, 1 pound of scallops, some spiralina flakes, Selcon, and some mashed up NLS pellets and put that all through a food processor. I've been alternating between feeding the frozen stuff and NLS small fish food just to keep the fish from getting too spoiled. As of now I have 1.4 Kg of food... After taking it from the food processor I mixed it really well and added it to ziploc backs and flattened it all out into a thin sheet. I've just been taking a tiny piece (1/4" x 1/4") and thawing it out before feeding my corals and fish with it. So far the fish and corals all love it.

 

15909179023_a5b8c096c1_b.jpgLittle guy on the side is all new growth. by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

Little bit on the side is actually new growth that was not there when I bought this frag.

 

16529368865_3127af82fc_b.jpgNewest addition. by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

This picture is a bit deceiving because from the base to the top, it's about 4" tall. I was wondering if I could cut it about an inch below the top or if this would hurt the coral. For now I'm just going to let it go and see how it does. You can actually see a nerite snail climbing on the base and that snail is about 1". Plus there is one of my clowns peaking over trying to get into the picture.

 

16341650178_cdafc58df5_b.jpgRicordea mushroom almost back to full health. Eating and everything. by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

I really wasn't sure how this mushroom was going to do when I got it. It may have been during shipping or poor handling by my part but if you look at the picture you can see a bit of hair algae growing. it's actually growing on a dead part of the mushroom. there used to be about 4-5 of those little stems that were damaged but now I'm down to about 2. It's actually doing very well and today I managed to feed it and it closed up right around the food. The zoas below it are also doing well and have amazing color.

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Update: 2/18/2015

So nothing new has really changed other than the addition of a hammer coral. The baffle that partially came unglued has not completely come unglued but it's still in there and isn't making a difference. I adjusted the float switch and it's working pretty well since I don't have anything in the middle section of the sump. I did add a power head into that middle section just to keep any detritus from collecting there.

 

I have some additions in the near future as well. Hopefully I can get in on the BRS group buy and if I do, I'll be picking up one of their reactors which will be running in that center section with their ROX carbon and GFO. I'm still battling hair algae in this tank but I can only imagine it's because it's a new tank and I didn't cure the rock for a month or two. It isn't too bad but I have a feeling it is hurting my zoas. I have a few polyps that closed up because of the hair algae and I don't know if some are going to make it. I did change my carbon out yesterday so hopefully that does something but I'm not really sure. I have the bag sitting in between the baffles so at least it is getting some good flow. I originally just tossed it in the skimmer section because there is more flow in there but it eventually made its way to the skimmer pump intake and was messing that up.

 

Speaking of the skimmer, it's really starting to break in pretty well. It isn't producing anything super dark but it's definitely working pretty well for only being in for a week. There will be a picture of it at the bottom.

 

So I've been "bad" today and ended up picking up a used controller from the for sale section... I bought a Reef Keeper Lite Basic package for a little more than half the new price. I would rather have an Apex but I just can't afford to toss out $300 for one of the cheapest ones. I don't get the app and stuff but I that's fine with me. Maybe eventually I'll pick up the net adapter. I actually sent the PM that I'll take it while I'm typing this so I no longer know if I'm going to be getting the reactor from BRS since between the reactor, ROX, GFO, kalkwasser, and filter socks I was looking at right around $150 and I don't think I can currently spend all that right now. Have to wait and see what kind of discount the BRS group buy gives me or else I may just buy the kalkwasser and filter socks and call it a day.

 

I know that no thread is very good without pictures and today I got a little trigger happy so I have a lot of pictures. Granted they're pretty awful since I'm taking them with my phone but I think everyone will get over it.

 

16386353380_29fb21b03c_b.jpgFTS (2/18/15) by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

16572672022_6b5961a560_b.jpgBreaking in nicely after about a week. by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

16572228271_284b786e85_b.jpg2015-02-18_03-58-21 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

My favorite coral so far

16547898566_31095fb6e5_b.jpg2015-02-18_03-58-48 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

Here you can see the one closed polyp with hair algae on it :/

16572779462_a352309912_b.jpg2015-02-18_03-59-13 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

The mushroom is looking a little bigger but it may just be me imagining it.

16387606589_8216cc5a7f_b.jpg2015-02-18_03-58-00 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

Better picture of them

16386248038_7327d29eda_b.jpg2015-02-18_04-00-01 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

Mesmorizing

15951343094_fd9264021f_b.jpg2015-02-18_04-00-23 by vazquez_v1, on Flickr

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