Boris 12g first salt

[.Boris]

Hi all!
I have just set up my first salt water tank and I will have many questions and welcome your input and advice.

 

Equipment

Standard 1' x 1' x 2' tank, 12g rimless

Koralia nano 225g/h streamer

DIY LED lights and control

 

Filtration

AC50 for filter floss/GFO/carbon

 

CUC and inverts 

2 hermits

3 snails (different species)

Corals 

Sarcophyton (toad stool)

Rhodactis

Zoanthids

 

Fish 

Main objective

Learn about reefing and to better understand the marine ecosystem.
I have no real plan how to stock but light bio load or even fish less.

Progression of different corals as I learn.

Low maintenance.

 

FTS september 2017

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

3 hours ago, .Boris said:

Hi all!
I have just set up my first salt water tank and I will have many questions and welcome your input and advice.

 

Equipment

Standard 1' x 1' x 2' tank, 12g rimless

Koralia nano 225g/h streamer

DIY LED lights and control

 

Filtration

AC50 with filter floss and phosphate remover

 

CUC and inverts 

Corals 

Fish 

Main objective

Learn about reefing and to better understand the marine ecosystem.
I have no real plan how to stock but light bio load or even fish less.

Progression of different corals as I learn.

Low maintenance.

 

I waited until my not so local FS were expecting a new shipment and got fresh live rock. The type I got is the heavier/denser type.
It has some coralline algae, some small pieces of red and green macro algae, some small sponges and some bristle type macro algae. I am also quite sure that I saw a crab claw deep in a crevice.

 

Here is the set up beneath my FW-shrimp tank.

 

The live rock

 

Preliminary aqua scape

 

 

This is really gorgeous live rock!!!

Where are you in Sweden?

Just curious, I have a friend in Malmo. 

We have at least one other member on here from Sweden too, @Alexraptor.

[.Boris]

Hi Weetabix7!
I am in Nyköping. Yes, I have followed Alex for a while on forums and you tube. Love his style!

Thanks! I really liked the appearance of this rock and it gives a lot of possible real estate but I was worried that it is a bit to dense. An hour ago a 2" worm went for a spin so it is somewhat populated. Haven't seen any pods yet...

[Weetabix7]

41 minutes ago, .Boris said:

Hi Weetabix7!
I am in Nyköping. Yes, I have followed Alex for a while on forums and you tube. Love his style!

Thanks! I really liked the appearance of this rock and it gives a lot of possible real estate but I was worried that it is a bit to dense. An hour ago a 2" worm went for a spin so it is somewhat populated. Haven't seen any pods yet...

 

You'll see pods, just give it time. 

to Nano-Reef!!

[Alexraptor]

You flatter me sir! 

That is indeed very nice looking rock! Looks and sounds like there is plenty of life in it too.
Have any plans of adding substrate or are you going bare-bottom?

[.Boris]

Hi Alex!
Yes, I will add sand but the guys at "Triton" advised me to wait for a week so I can siphon out the crap that falls from the rocks first.

[brandon429]

how is ammonia testing now, that dieoff really should stop already

[Clown79]

Looks really nice.

 

It actually looks great bare bottom

[.Boris]

Initially I wanted to do a soft cycle because it made sense and I got hold of fresh live rock. Reading about it though made it seem difficult and complicated, why else would there be such discussion about it? I decided to do a classic "hard" cycle as it is my first SW and I want to keep things simple and understandable (for me). However with some helpful guidance from @brandon429I reconsidered and decided to attempt a soft cycle thinking that the worst that can happen is that I kill everything and have a hard cycle anyway...
Turns out I didn't have much of a choice. Day 6 ammonia is zero and has never been above 0.5.

Testing:  NH   NO2   NO3

   Day 2.   0,5     0       -

                  0,5     0       -

            3.  0,5     0      0,5

                  0,5     0      0,2

                  0,5     -       0

             4.  0,15   0      0,5

                   0,25   -       0,2

             5.  0,15   0,5   2,5

                   0       0,25  2,5

              6.  0        0,1   5

                    0        0      5

 

I now see the first signs of green algae and have reduced light intensity to the lowest setting but kept the 10h photo period.
Should I do the opposite, high intensity - short period?

 

Observed hitch-hikers: one large bristle worm, one small worm, one tiny snail crawling up the glass and one 1/4" crab (dead).
I have also added some sand.

[.Boris]

I don't really know how I want to stock this tank or what I want to do with it so it is completely open within what the tank will allow, although I am partial to under stocking rather than over.
As I lay in bed (the tank is in my bedroom) watching the bare rocks under blue light it strongly reminds me of my scuba diving days, mostly deep, cold water dives with scenery like this:

 

Perhaps I should try to emulate this?
A few snails, a couple of hermits, a couple of starfish, a tuxedo urchin, a sinularia and I am home.
What do you think?

[Lula_Mae]

You could try an 8 hour photoperiod, that's what I use on my tank.  I don't know much about starfish but I think it would be cool to emulate things you used to see.  You should look up coldwater reef tanks, there's been a few on this site even, and they are super cool to look at.

[.Boris]

@Lula_Mae Yes, I have looked at cold water and may try that further on.

Tests now show NH; 0,  NO2; 0.1,  NO3; 5-10.
Hanna checker says phosphate is 0.00 so I removed the bag of GFO and increased light intensity a bit.
Now waiting for algae, pods, maturity.

[kate_bot]

I like the rock- also love the coldwater idea.  

[.Boris]

We have diatoms! This tank is racing.

[.Boris]

Still seem to have a little nitrite and the nitrate is rising, now 10ppm.
I have a couple of small, purple rubber like sponges (?) that are getting bleached spots. Maybe they are dying, either by starvation or nitrogen levels?

I was fiddling with the aqua scape and the small rock I had just placed on top is actually a piece of branched coral so I managed to balance it nicely the way it grew. Not really sure if it is cool or corny but I think I will glue it permanently .

[.Boris]

I've been playing around with the aqua scape, trying to get all scientific and stuff...
 

Which one (if any) would you prefer and why?

I am thinking not only aesthetically but also coral placement, inverts, maintenance etc. of which I have no experience what so ever.

 

1.

 

2.

 

Continued ...

[.Boris]

3.

4.

 

 5.

 

6.

 

[fishfreak0114]

I think I like 1 the best  It looks like there's a decent amount of room for coral to grow.  Can you clean the glass on all sides?  

[Lula_Mae]

I don't know that it's the best for coral placement but I like the one where you stuck the coral the way it grew.

[.Boris]

The good thing about cycling is that you get plenty of time to mess with your scape.
Anyway, this is the one I have decided to go with. Good water flow, plenty of places to put corals, some open sand for a possible fungia and a natural cave for a fire shrimp.

The "tower" on the right is not vertical but pretty steep meaning low light intensity.
What corals would work well here? Rhodactis?

[.Boris]

Tank is cycled and I finally got to put some stuff in it!

Two hermits, three snails, a toad stool, a blue rhodactis, and some pink and green/orange zoas. 

 

[Lula_Mae]

4 hours ago, .Boris said:

Tank is cycled and I finally got to put some stuff in it!

Two hermits, three snails, a toad stool, a blue rhodactis, and some pink and green/orange zoas. 

 

Nice additions!

[samuelhorn]

Great so see another Swede with his first salt in here. Great looking so far. Im in love with the final scape. I'm currently cycling my first tank, 17g rimless

[Alexraptor]

Looking good!