My converted 12g (55Litre) reef tank (first one!)

[Krakens.Rudra]

Hello all, 
This is my first post and I've been a reefer for just over 2 years now. Thought I'll share my tank and be part of the community!

This is my first tank, and it all started after purchasing an aquarium from eBay.  It is an Aqua One 55L, which is a 12g freshwater tank and I don't know why, but for some reason i thought I'll make this a reef tank with no initial research and diving straight in by purchasing live sand and some live rock.

After paying the first bill, I was like.."well i can't go back now, i've spent so much..", oh little did I know how much this hobby can take from you!

Anyway, watched a ton of Youtube videos (thank you inappropriate reefer!) and got myself a hang on the back filter, an Aquaknight light from Amazon and off I went. My first 18 months I battled with green hair algae and a lot of stability issues.  But then things changed after I got myself a Skimmer, An ATO (a god send!) and trying out Vibrant. My tank eventually became stable.

I don't use vibrant anymore and things are going well.

I don't think I am ready for SPS, so softies and LPS is what I have. My current setup is the following

- AI Prime 16HD

- Tunze 9004 skimmer (on 24/7)

- Eheim heater

- 2 bags of seachem matrix 

- 1 bag of chemipure blue

- Filter floss

- Tunze ATO

 

That's it.. I do a water change every 2 weeks of around 20%.

I never used to do this, but this has helped me alot - rinsing my chemipure blue and 2x bags of seachem matrix in the saltwater I take out during water changes. 

 

For the past two weeks, I've changed salts from Instant Ocean to Tropic Marine Bio-actif, which has started to cause some diatoms to appear but I'm sure it will fade

 

Right now, I have no idea what coral to add in the middle, I thought zoas, but then I need something more presentable, maybe a plating monti? That may cause too much shadow underneath..Welcome any thoughts!

 

I have battled alot and learned a lot (still learning though..)

[Nano sapiens]

Looks like it's coming along nicely 👍 

 

It's always a learning curve no matter how long one is in the hobby, which keeps things interesting!

[ajmckay]

Lol it sure does cost a lot!  I totally get the "well no going back now" justification.  Sometimes you just have to dive in.  I mean I don't recommend people just decide to go to the LFS and pick up everything solely based on the LFS employee recommendations - but that being said there are a lot of ways people get started in the world of reef tanks - or fish keeping in general.

 

Glad that you have a nice stable tank now.   I'll second what you said that one of the best things I ever did for my aquarium was get an auto top-off.  They contribute greatly to keeping stable water parameters.  I have mixed success with skimmers - I think ATO and using good water to begin with are better investments.  

 

As for a coral in the middle... that's a tough one.  With that torch right near it you'll have to be sort of careful (but the flow goes left to right?). But I really do think that some zoas or mushrooms or something would work well.  Something that stays close to the rock. I'm not particularly good with scaping, I just think those would work well.  Maybe some blastos?  Those are nice.