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Mgk201

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FTS 10/17/19: A532EEA1-8F02-451B-B3E1-4847D8F6CEA5.thumb.jpeg.1745090c5394d387f2c415ae239b1e53.jpeg

 

See below for my initial setup/journey thus far. 

 

 

 

Hey everyone! This is my second attempt at a reef tank. I tried one with hardly any research (trusted my LFS) about 5 years ago and you can probably guess how that went. This time, I did a ton of research for about 2 months and think I have a decent plan for building a great mixed reef! 

 

I set up the tank last night, got the rock work to my liking and hooked everything up. As far as equipment goes, I’m currently running the following:

IM Nuvo 10 AIO

Wavepoint Blade 9inch 18w LED light 

Hydor Koralia 240 

Eheim Jaegar 50w Heater

10lbs of Dry Rock from marine depot

10lbs of Caribsea Aragalive Fiji Pink 

 

So far I’m relatively pleased with how it looks. I do have some questions though regarding the cycle. I dosed a small bottle of Dr Tims Nitrifying bacteria last night to start the cycle. My test kits/refractometer are currently in the mail, but I’m assuming I don’t need to do any water changes during the cycle until I’m ready to add live stock right? 

 

Additionally, I have a couple of bags of chemi pure blue I am going to add. Should that be done during the cycle or after? 

 

Should the the light be on during the cycle or will that just promote algae? 

 

All in all I think I paid about $300 for everything which seems like a great deal! For future upgrades I think I’m going to change the light to an AI Prime as while this light is bright, there’s no timer on it and not a lot of information about any kind of lighting schedule. I also plan to add an intake media basket next month before my cycle finishes and I add fish. 

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Hi and welcome to N-R! 😊

 

It sounds like you're off to a pretty good start so far, you just need to add a source of ammonia to get your cycle started; the nitrifying bacteria you added are going to need something to eat in order to multiply and spread throughout your system. The easiest way to start things up is to dose a known quantity of ammonium chloride (also made by Dr. Tim's) and then test your water regularly to see how long it takes your tank to convert that ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate. Once your tank can turn 2ppm of ammonia into nitrate within 24 hours, your cycle will be complete. If you can't get your hands on an ammonium supplement, you can also use a piece of raw shrimp as a source of ammonia, or even just ghost feed your tank with fish food.

 

There's little need to do water changes or add any chemical media until your tank is finished cycling. After you start reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite with a bunch of nitrates, you can then begin to do water changes to bring the nitrate down to safe levels. And after that comes the livestock!

 

You can leave the light off during the cycle as well to save some energy. 😁

 

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Thanks for the information! I actually added a small amount of fish food already when I put the dr. Tim’s in the tank. Do I need to continuously add food each day, or was that one time enough? Also I put the arag-alive Fiji pink sand in the tank as well. Does that contain the ammonia necessary to help the cycle? 

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Christopher Marks
3 hours ago, Mgk201 said:

Thanks for the information! I actually added a small amount of fish food already when I put the dr. Tim’s in the tank. Do I need to continuously add food each day, or was that one time enough? Also I put the arag-alive Fiji pink sand in the tank as well. Does that contain the ammonia necessary to help the cycle? 

Welcome to the community!

 

The Arag-alive live sand should be enough to start your cycle and keep it going. No need for water changes while it cycles. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

The tank has finally cycled! I added an in tank media basket with sea chem matrix, chemipure blue and filter floss. I upgraded the light to an AI Prime HD and I also added a pair of designer clowns, a mocha ocellaris and a frostbite ocellaris. I think I’m pretty much stocked with fish, but I might add a small shrimp goby and and pistol shrimp combo later down the road depending on how things go. Excited to see where it goes and eventually start adding corals! 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Hey everyone, it’s been a while but a lot has changed the last few months! Everything has been running extremely smoothly. I do a weekly water change of 2-3 gallons and change out the filter floss every time. I also scrub the walls for algae and top off the water daily, but other then that maintenance is minimal. 

 

It seems like I’m starting to get a small amount of algae building up on the sand, which means it might be time to upgrade my clean up crew and add a few Nassarius snails. I currently have 3 red legged hermits and 3 turbo snails which do an excellent job on the rocks and glass, but don’t really do much for the sand bed. 

 

The corals and live stock are doing amazing! The clowns love their little slice of reef and I’ve since added a small Randall’s clown goby. I don’t think I’m going to add a pistol shrimp, but I’m hoping in a few weeks to add a skunk cleaner shrimp. I just worry about him walking on my corals and stealing food from them...

 

On the subject of corals, I currently have a Duncan that I added to the tank first, which was a small when I got it but has almost doubled in size when I got it. Then I added a hammer coral/some green star polyp (GSP is on the right in the pictures). The GSP hasn’t been doing great though, as I was having issues with the snails constantly moving it around the tank. I eventually got tired of it and stuck a toothpick through it and attached it to the rock a few days ago, but it hasn’t full recovered from the shock and I’m still waiting on the polyps to start showing again. I may end up getting rid of the GSP though if it doesn’t recover, as I’m finally starting to realize how I want to aquascape...

 

I’m going to cover the live rock in a huge zoa garden! I found a beautiful piece of rock covered in mushrooms and zoa’s. I want to cover the different pieces of rocks in different colored zoa’s/paly’s and have them grow into each other. I also think I’m going to move the Duncan to the top of the rock and have it be between two of the zoa rocks, to give it a palm tree on an island feel. I’m undecided on what to do with the hammer coral as I love the flowyness and would love to have a bunch of euphyllia surrounding the live rock and zoa garden, but since I’ve gotten the hammer I’ve done some research and realized they’re not the friendliest coral to other corals not in the euphylllia family. 

 

Sorry for the wall wall of text. The TLDR is: Tank is going great and the maintenance is pretty easy. The corals and inhabitants are thriving and I think I’ve finally figured out how I want to aquascape. I’d love some advice on what to add to my clean up crew and if I could support a skunk cleaner shrimp or possible even a small neon goby in a month or two. Enjoy the pictures! 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just wanted to do a quick update, as I’m really proud of how everything is progressing. I started having issues with diatoms about two weeks ago. It was coating everything in the tank and I’d have to scrub the algae off the glass and off the sand bed 2-3x a day. I ordered a clean up crew from reef cleaners (which is an amazing company by the way) and within a week the tank is looking pristine again. 

 

The corals are doing great. The hammer seems to be opening more/getting bigger. My Duncan is also in the process of growing three new heads on the side and is getting huge compared to when I first got it. The zoa/mushroom rock is growing really well too, but I’m starting to worry the mushrooms are going to outcompete the zoa’s for space if I don’t trim them back, so that’s something I’ll need to keep an eye on. 

 

In the next couple of weeks the plan is to possibly add a cleaner shrimp or a neon goby. I like the idea of a shrimp but I worry it will spend most of its time on my live rock, which I’m trying to cover in zoa’s and piss them off. Other then that I’m going to look into getting some zoa frags to continue coating the rocks. 

 

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The tank is looking great! I'm glad to hear things are filling in nicely. Everything seems to be thriving and that's wonderful news.

 

+1 for Reef Cleaners too. If you ever need some snails, it's pretty much the only place to go. Just be careful what you order or you might find yourself buried in them! John over there has a tendency to be rather... generous. 😅

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1 hour ago, billygoat said:

The tank is looking great! I'm glad to hear things are filling in nicely. Everything seems to be thriving and that's wonderful news.

 

+1 for Reef Cleaners too. If you ever need some snails, it's pretty much the only place to go. Just be careful what you order or you might find yourself buried in them! John over there has a tendency to be rather... generous. 😅

I’m really impressed with what I got. I think it was around $23 for everything with free priority shipping and everything arrived alive and is doing well. Like you said though, he was VERY generous in the amount he sent 😂

Are there any websites similar to that in terms of quality you would recommend for ordering corals/fish online? My LFS is great, but their selection is limited sometimes. 

 

I also love the ease of maintenance on the tank so far. Granted it’s only a 10g with no sump, but as long as I top it off daily, change the water weekly and change the filter floss at the same time, it pretty much runs itself. Thank you for the kind words and the advice while I was getting it set up! 

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So I’m looking to add some movement in the middle of my tank and add another small fish. I currently have 2 ocellaris clowns and a Randall’s shrimp goby. I was thinking about adding a clown goby, a neon goby or even a yellow streaked possum wrasse, but I’m worried 4 fish may be too much for the tank. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on whether or not it’d be feasible to add another fish? I don’t currently have a skimmer but I do a 20-30% water change every Sunday religiously and I have about 10lbs of live rock, filter floss, seachem matrix and purigen all working to help filter the tank. 

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