Luke's 20 Gallon Simple Reef Tank

[Luke78]

Thanks, will probably go with Salifert for alkalinity.

[Steemax]

I have the 50 gallon 4 stage RO Buddie from AL (not the twist version)... here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=aquatic+life+ro&qid=1581536721&sr=8-1

 

This is what I have and it works great. Comes with everything needed. Only thing I added were some valves. I have some pics on my build thread too. Also for Alk, the salifert kit has been great for me and is cheap. I'd stay away from the API kit for ALK/CA/Mag.

[Luke78]

2 hours ago, Steemax said:

I have the 50 gallon 4 stage RO Buddie from AL (not the twist version)... here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=aquatic+life+ro&qid=1581536721&sr=8-1

 

This is what I have and it works great. Comes with everything needed. Only thing I added were some valves. I have some pics on my build thread too. Also for Alk, the salifert kit has been great for me and is cheap. I'd stay away from the API kit for ALK/CA/Mag.

Thanks, I really liked the price of the RO buddy and the one that you listed is exactly the one I was thinking about. I will probably purchase it in the near future. I will be taking my water to the LFS to get it tested for alk/Ca/Mg to make sure that it is inhabitable for corals (don't know why it wouldn't be). I'll probably also be buying a Salifert Alk kit soon as well. 

[Luke78]

I will running some ammonia through the system tonight to see if it is suitable for keeping fish before I purchase anything this weekend. Fingers crossed that the snails have kept a good cycle and I will be removing them and placing them into a container so that I don't harm them with the ammonia. The amount will probably be around .25 ppm and I will check it 24 hours from tonight to make sure the bb are still there. Also, I see bubbles under the sand on the sides of the tank. Is this a sign of anything?

[Luke78]

Just tested the alk and it is at 9.

I'll be posting a picture update today

 

[Luke78]

I did the ammonia test and it ran approximately .5ppm of ammonia through in about 12 hours. I plan to go to the lfs today to get a pair of clowns and easy coral if everything goes as planned. Would it be better to add one clown at a time or buy one and come back for another in a couple weeks to avoid overloading the biofilter?

[Tired]

Two small clowns should be fine, I'd think. Pick little fellas. 

[Luke78]

After I added the ammonia and it cycled through, the water has turned cloudy with a brown tint to it. From what I’ve heard, this should be harmless. Will this harm any corals?

[Luke78]

Just picked up a pair of skunk clowns and a green leather coral.

[Luke78]

The coral has all of its polyps extended and the fish are doing just fine. I am quite happy with this, because when I installed a timer for the light, I accidentally knocked the heater plug out of the outlet. The temperature dropped from 77 F to 71F. Hopefully, everything will adjust properly while the heater begins to heat up the tank again.

[billygoat]

18 hours ago, Luke78 said:

After I added the ammonia and it cycled through, the water has turned cloudy with a brown tint to it. From what I’ve heard, this should be harmless. Will this harm any corals?

It's probably no big deal. My guess would be that the discoloration is caused by a bloom in bacteria brought on by the extra addition of ammonia. I imagine it will go away on its own within a couple of days.

 

1 hour ago, Luke78 said:

The coral has all of its polyps extended and the fish are doing just fine. I am quite happy with this, because when I installed a timer for the light, I accidentally knocked the heater plug out of the outlet. The temperature dropped from 77 F to 71F. Hopefully, everything will adjust properly while the heater begins to heat up the tank again.

That's awesome! Congratulations on your new livestock, and on your first fish! 😁🎉 Don't worry too much about the temporary drop in temperature. Corals and fish almost always experience similar dips in temperature during shipping, often for much longer periods of time, and most of them survive just fine. 

 

[Luke78]

Here is a picture of the tank about a week and a half after the addition of livestock. The tank is still quite cloudy. What could be the cause of this? Would feedings every other day instead of everyday help? Nothing except for pure distilled water has gone into the tank, so my tap water couldn't be contributing to the bloom or whatever it is. The fish are very active and are swimming all over the tank. The leather coral is no longer slumped over like it was the first few days that I had it and its polyps seem to all be extended. I will post my parameters later today. I will also post some close-up pictures of the fish and corals. Would phosphate cause a bloom in bacteria? 

 

Also, sorry about the bad photo quality. I'm trying to figure out some editing tricks so that I don't have to buy a new camera/phone.

[Luke78]

I'm not feeding them the shrimp pellets, I don't know why I had them beside the tank. I just thought that I needed to clarify.

[Steemax]

Does the cloudy water have a green tint to it? I can't tell from the pic. 

[Luke78]

8 hours ago, Steemax said:

Does the cloudy water have a green tint to it? I can't tell from the pic. 

No, its a brown/yellowish tint.

 

[Luke78]

I'm sorry for not updating for over a month, I kind of just got wrapped up in life and forgot to keep updating, but now I've got plenty of time on my hands and I'll make sure to keep updating. So here is an update for the tank.

 

Although I did my best to care for the two fish and the coral, they all died for some unknown reason. I checked every level that I had the means to test for and there were no spikes or swings in any of the major parameters. Everything was just fine for the first week, but things quickly went downhill after that. First, one of the clowns had died. He was acting sluggish the days prior to his death and slowly just got worse until he died. The second one died in pretty much the same way. They were at the top of the water some, which makes me think that the stupid bacterial bloom was robbing the water of oxygen, but I don't think that oxygen deprivation was the main cause of their death. The coral began to melt after the fish died and I just took it out of the tank to prevent the water from being further dirtied. The strange thing during all of this was that I never saw a spike in ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite. I didn't see a ph or alk swing either. I'm really stumped as to what caused the death of these livestock. And now, due to covid, I no longer have access to saltwater fish since all of the saltwater lfs's are shut down. I think that I will probably convert this tank to freshwater since I am good at freshwater and its something that I can do while this virus is going on. I will revisit the saltwater branch of fishkeeping sometime later, but right now, I don't have the funds to spend on more saltwater fish and I really don't want to be responsible for the death of more saltwater fish. I have all the supplies to convert this tank into freshwater at my house right now and I guess I'll keep posting updates of the tank here (if freshwater tanks are allowed to be journaled here). I'm not completely sure that I want to go that route just yet, so please give me some input on what you think I should do.

[Tired]

Everything dying pretty much at one makes me think something toxic got into the tank. Hair spray, cleaner, or the like. What DIDN'T die? 

 

I'd do a huge water change, and let it sit for awhile. See what the microorganisms get up to. No harm in keeping it up for a bit longer in case you can put critters in it again later. 

[Luke78]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Everything dying pretty much at one makes me think something toxic got into the tank. Hair spray, cleaner, or the like. What DIDN'T die? 

 

I'd do a huge water change, and let it sit for awhile. See what the microorganisms get up to. No harm in keeping it up for a bit longer in case you can put critters in it again later. 

I did do a roughly 50% water change after the events and have allowed it to sit for a couple of weeks untouched. I didn't think about toxic contamination, it could be a probable cause for the death of the creatures. I just don't know what could have poisoned them. Today, I'm doing a 25% water change. I've left the lights on for the past 2 days on a 12 hour period and I haven't seen anything clouding the water, so I imagine that the bacteria population may have stabilized. The only thing that didn't die is one or both of the nassarius snails (I've only seen one, but the other one could be around somewhere). I haven't seen the nerite snail, but I haven't given up on looking for him yet. The longer I think about it, the more I seem to want to keep it running. I may just leave it like it is and let it sit for a while longer.

 

 

[Luke78]

Not sure if this is important, but when I went to do a water change, I saw an amphipod. Are these guys a good sign?

[billygoat]

6 hours ago, Luke78 said:

I did do a roughly 50% water change after the events and have allowed it to sit for a couple of weeks untouched. I didn't think about toxic contamination, it could be a probable cause for the death of the creatures. I just don't know what could have poisoned them. Today, I'm doing a 25% water change. I've left the lights on for the past 2 days on a 12 hour period and I haven't seen anything clouding the water, so I imagine that the bacteria population may have stabilized. The only thing that didn't die is one or both of the nassarius snails (I've only seen one, but the other one could be around somewhere). I haven't seen the nerite snail, but I haven't given up on looking for him yet. The longer I think about it, the more I seem to want to keep it running. I may just leave it like it is and let it sit for a while longer.

 

 

Dang, that's rough to hear that things went downhill with your fish and first coral. Really sorry to hear it. But I'm glad to hear that you've decided to take it slow and just leave the tank running for the time being. You may want to come back to it before too long, and it will be handy to have it filled up and cycled already if that ends up being the case. 

 

1 hour ago, Luke78 said:

Not sure if this is important, but when I went to do a water change, I saw an amphipod. Are these guys a good sign?

I'd generally say so, yeah. Amphipods are mostly good guys. A few varieties are known to be coral munchers, but most of them are harmless herbivores. 👍

[Luke78]

I've been thinking about putting in some macro algae to add some biodiversity as well as for decorative purposes. I know chaeto is supposed to be relatively easy, but how hard is it to care for some of the other macro algae species? Are there any that I should steer clear of for now?

[Tired]

The red algaes commonly available in the hobby are all pretty hardy. Halimedas tend to be hardy as well. Caulerpas can be very invasive and may cause some trouble, but are fine with pruning, and some of them are really pretty. There's a kind that I forget the name of, that comes in short and tall forms, and looks sort of like a thin green SPS coral. It's slow-growing, dark green, and fleshy, and makes a really nice highlight piece. The name is something like codium. 

[Luke78]

I really like the codium and may even order it and a couple other macros today. I also like the grape caulerpas as well as pretty much every species you mentioned. Do you think that button polyps might do well in my tank or should I wait a while longer before the addition of any coral? 

[billygoat]

33 minutes ago, Luke78 said:

I really like the codium and may even order it and a couple other macros today. I also like the grape caulerpas as well as pretty much every species you mentioned. Do you think that button polyps might do well in my tank or should I wait a while longer before the addition of any coral? 

Zoanthids (aka button polyps) would be a great starter coral to test the waters. If you think the time is right to try them out, I'd say go for it and see how they do! Are you looking to order from live-plants.com? They're pretty much the best place to get macroalgae online, and you can grab some super cheap zoanthids from them too.

[Luke78]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Zoanthids (aka button polyps) would be a great starter coral to test the waters. If you think the time is right to try them out, I'd say go for it and see how they do! Are you looking to order from live-plants.com? They're pretty much the best place to get macroalgae online, and you can grab some super cheap zoanthids from them too.

I was looking at reef cleaners for the macros and button polyps, but I’ll look at the website that you mentioned since it is the best for macros. Based on the water chemistry, I think that my water may be ready now but there’s really only one way to find out I guess.