5 Gallon homebrew

[william_payne1]

Hello! Welcome!

My name is Will and I have been on hiatus for the past 3 years or so, as some of you may know my entire immediate family passed away about 5 years ago. After dealing with the aftermath of that whole ordeal taking two years and a few million dollars to settle, I kind of "fell off the face of the earth" for a few years. This tank is my re-entry to the world of reef keeping. 

 

• Goal

My plan is to build a small reef using as much equipment and livestock that I already have or that I can find for free. I am now very poor and probably shouldn't be doing this... 🤣

 

• Build Specs (as of 04-12-2024)

Tank:

5 Gallon Aqueon

Stand:

1920's record player stand with a plastic tub lid to catch water spills. 

Filtration:

Modified 20gal HOB filter

Fluval Aqua Clear 30 HOB

Flow/Circulation:

Cicce Voyager 2

None at the moment other than filter

Temp control:

None as of today, I need a heater!

50W

Lighting:

Coralife T-5 (for now)

Substrate:

8-10lbs of dead dry "live" rock from my last 50gal, cleaned & dried (The tank crashed, and I couldn't get to it till 3years after draining and moving it.)

1lb live rock from my LFS (donated)

5 LBS Live rock

Water:

Instant Ocean, premixed at LFS (donated)

Testing:

Hanna:

Alk, Calc, NO2, Phos, pH

Salifert:

NO3

 

Cycle Start Oct 26, 2023

Dosed Bio-Spira

• Water parameters

Nov 03, 2023 - NO2: .046ppm, NO3: 50ppm, pH 8.4

Nov 04, 2023 - NO2: .034ppm, NO3: 45ppm

Nov 05, 2023 - NO2: .047ppm, NO3: 55ppm

Nov 06, 2023 - NO2: .155ppm, NO3: 50ppm, Ca2: 540ppm 

Nov 07, 2023 - NO2: .200ppm, NO3: 75ppm, pH 7.87

Nov 08, 2023 - NO2: .100ppm, NO3: 100ppm

Nov 09, 2023 - NO2: .020ppm, NO3: 50ppm (after 50% water change)

Nov 10, 2023 - NO2: .020ppm, NO3: 50+ppm (I tested the water from my LFS and it has 17ppm NO3... not a fan of that...)

 

• livestock

Whatever I can find for free or cheap, anyone want to donate? 

Corals:

Kenya Tree

Green Birdsnest

Pests/Other:

Bristle worm

Spionid worm

Chiton

3x Fan worms

2x ??? (shelled organism that looks like a small abalone)

Sponge/Tunicate?

• FTS 

(Apr 12, 2024)

 

(Nov 09, 2023)

 

(Nov 07, 2023)

 

(Nov 06, 2023)

 

(Nov 05, 2023)

 

(Nov 02, 2023)

 

(Oct 26, 2023)

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Sorry about your family. That had to be terrible. 

Welcome back. Are you still in California? I would offer to help but I hate shipping corals. You probably already know this but just in case you forgot. Local reef clubs or local reefers will often be the source of some freebies. Good luck with the new set up. 

[william_payne1]

6 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Sorry about your family. That had to be terrible. 

Welcome back. Are you still in California? I would offer to help but I hate shipping corals. You probably already know this but just in case you forgot. Local reef clubs or local reefers will often be the source of some freebies. Good luck with the new set up. 

Thank you. Yes I'm still in Bakersfield, I have been visiting my old LFS in Oildale and they have been super helpful as always. Most of the local clubs have either disappeared or went into hiding it seems, most of the people I knew in the area have moved. Guess it might be time to organize something!   

[william_payne1]

I still need to get some RO/DI for top off's but I will do that when I go into town on Wednesday. I would use my well water for top off but even through an RO filter it causes all kinds of problems so I will wait. The tank is doing well though and I'm seeing some growth on the live rock, dead rock is still... dead. It will come around in time I'm sure, but I am going to try and get some better live rock to change the larger pieces out with and seed it with some pods after the first water change. 

 

Nov 06, 2023

NO2: .155ppm, NO3: 50ppm, Ca2: 540ppm

 

FTS:

[william_payne1]

Today there is noticeable change. last night I noticed some diatoms and this morning there's more! pH is back down to 7.87 from an average of 8.4 with a spike a couple days ago of around 9.7 (I don't chase pH, but it can tell you a lot during cycling.) NO2 is at 200ppb (.2ppm) and NO3 is up to around 75-80ppm. I am also in need of top off, I usually keep the tank topped off every day and will do so in the future, but I have neglected it during this cycle. my salinity is up to 1.030 from a start of 1.026. 

 

FTS:

[william_payne1]

Topped off the tank with RO/DI and got the salinity right, then I did a 50% water change. I tossed in a couple of frags my LFS gave me today as well, so much for waiting... I got a small kenya tree and a small frag of birdsnest that was laying in the bottom of the frag tank. both are quite small but kenya's grow too fast as it is, and who can say no to a birdsnest. 

 

I will post parameters tomorrow after everything settles down for the night. I also used the water change plus some new water to start the cycle on more rock, I will keep adding more rock as I fill up the tank with water.

 

[william_payne1]

Coral are doing well today, birdsnest already looks ten times better than at when I got it, the tree coral not so much, polyps are out but its still a bit shriveled, I moved it into the flow a bit more and off the bottom (still low, just not on the glass) and I swapped lights with and LED and found my Kessil but the mount screw is corroded and needs to be removed to mount it on this tank   

 

 

 

[william_payne1]

Everything is going well, the birdsnest is coloring up on the side it was laying on and already has new polyp extension on that side. I moved the tree coral up onto some rocks and into the flow a bit more, it seems to like it better there.  

[william_payne1]

Well I was cleaning the tank today and found what looked like a tiny mantis shrimp molt. I did not take a picture though I wish I had, it was only about 3/8"-1/4"long and definitely a shrimp but I think it may be a mantis, I will keep an eye out for it. Anyone want it if I catch it?  

[SantaMonica]

That's a lot of hefty rock; no lacking there.

[william_payne1]

22 hours ago, SantaMonica said:

That's a lot of hefty rock; no lacking there.

Yeah, I like a lot of rock, and it's the only filtration in the tank at the moment, I will take some out once it is more "live" I have been quite busy as of lately, but the tank is doing OK, it's going through its ugly stage at the moment. I will post an update sometime this week. 

[william_payne1]

Well, it has been a while since I posted last, but the tank is doing well. The rocks have all cycled and tank is ready for inhabitants. I had a leak arise this last week and had to replace the tank, so I just replaced everything. I removed the water from the old tank as doing a water change putting 20-25% of the total old water into the new tank, I moved all the rocks over then finished filling it up with fresh SW. put in a new HOB filter and 50W heater. Since I had to buy a new tank I picked up two of them up so my daughter can use one to build a planted tank for her Betta project. FTS is right after the changes so it's still a bit cloudy and bubbly, but it has since cleared up and I will post a better update in a few more days. My schedule has changed quite a bit so I have been too busy to stay on top of things, but it's changing back now so I should have more time to keep up.

 

FTS:

 

[colormegone]

Did you lose your corals?

[william_payne1]

On 4/12/2024 at 1:41 PM, colormegone said:

Did you lose your corals?

I took them out to do all the changes, I will replace them when the time is right. Thankfully I have a lot of support from one of our local LFS and can swap some livestock with him whenever I need too now. He doesn't have a lot of saltwater stock anymore, but he used to be almost entirely SW so he still has lots of knowledge and a few connections.