First Reef - Nuvo 20

[MontyAir]

After 30 years of FW, I thought I might try a reef tank.

 

Initial setup was on 20 February 2018.

 

Hardware:

IM Nuvo 20

AI Prime HD

Sicce Silent 0.5 x2

Cobalt Neo-therm 75W

Smart ATO micro

 

Aquascape:

Real Reef live rock - 18 lbs

Nature's Ocean live aragonite - 25 lbs

 

Fish:

1 x Red Firefish

 

CUC:

1 x Trochus Snail

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2018 by MontyAir
Update

[LogicalReefs]

Nice start. I just put my tank build up too. Your rock work is awesome. Any ideas of future live stock?

[Berkay]

Its about 12. day. Diatom bloom started ? 

Did you add any cleanup crew? 

and did you do water change or when do that ? 

 

[MontyAir]

No diatoms so far, but the whiter parts of the Real Reef rock are starting to take on a greenish hue. 

My LFS set me up with Dr Tim's bacteria and NH4Cl. Five days after the original setup the Ammonia was down to 0.25 ppm, so I fed the bacteria again. That ammonia disappeared in about 2 days. Nitrate is up to 10 ppm.

I'm going to do a water change this afternoon with my 6 gal of leftover LFS water from the original fill (With sand and rocks, etc, my 20 holds just over 14 gal of water), and then add more ammonia and see how that goes. I'm hoping the tank will be ready on Wednesday for a small clean-up crew of 3-4 snails and maybe a hermit crab.

 

Ultimately, I'm interested more in corals and other inverts than in fish; there are already a lot of fish swimming around in various spots in the house.

 

I have to have a shrimp, and from what I've read a small urchin may be doable. I'm planning on starting with what seems like the usual coral suspects for beginners: mushrooms, zoas, Xenia, GSP. Of course, everything you see or read about looks so interesting. I'll have to work to avoid the 'One of each, please!' syndrome.

 

My fish plan is: 1) Firefish, 2) Green Clown Goby, and 3) Banggai Cardinal.  But that's just today's plan. Who knows what I'll want a week from now. or in a month or two when the stocking is starting to take place.

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @MontyAir! You're definitely doing it right, focusing on corals and invertebrates at first can save a lot of heartbreak, fish really complicate things by comparison  . The fish you have in mind though are nice, I'm fond of choice 2 and 3 myself.

[MontyAir]

About 2 weeks ago, I added a firefish and a trochus snail. Both are doing well; the firefish took one out-of-tank excursion 3 or 4 days into his stay here (Lesson: add food, then quickly replace cover!)

 

I'm starting to feel the need for coral...