geekreef_05 Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Welcome to my Den Reef tank journal! This reef was started 1.5 years ago, in Jan 2022. During the first year it ran lights off. And over the last 6 months its been on a light schedule. The only inhabitants are a handful of margarita snails and alot of pods!. Patience and zen have been extensive on this project! Den Reef Objectives Silence: This room is my movie theatre and music room. I do not want to hear the aquarium at all. Reliable: Must be automated enough to run for 20 days min without intervention. Lighting: Cant run too late into the night when im playing music or movies. Coral: SPS dominant nano, including some acros, with a couple torches and goni's. Fish: As many as possible without feeling like walking through time sqaure. SPECs: Waterbox 20 cube with stand AI prime led light AI nero 3 wavemaker Siccee return pump Flat profile Colbat 100w heater Amazon pH and temp probe In-tank chamber 1 basic filter holder Amazon ATO unit Large 5 gallon ATO 3x kamoer dosing pumps 3x 1.5L dosing containers on autostirrers running 24/7 Dosing AFR, Mg and Microbacter 7 Marco rock in display. Live rock in chamber 2 There is no Skimmer. No filteration. I'll add carbon into chamber 1 today. And soon i'll add another dosing pump to dose Reef Energy AB+ . Parameters: Nitrate: 0 Alk: 12.9 Calc: 480 Mg: 1550 pH: 7.9 to 8.2 from night to day This reef has been very stable for sometime. Parameters are right where i like it. Coralline has been slowly appearing. I was going to wait another 6 months, but i decided ive met all my criteria... so ive order coral and fish! Its gonna be a full stocking all in a single go. Then I just sit back and watch it grow. Everything shows up today! 8 Quote Link to comment
Kev1n Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 You have been incredibly patient with this one. Looks cool though. 1 Quote Link to comment
Airedale.Reef Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Incredibly patient indeed! Very much looking forward to seeing how this turns out. With the tank settling in for a year in a half, I am interested to see how the tank manages the full bio load all at once! I knew that white panelling looked familiar : ) Looks like the Den is all set up! Movies, Music and Reef! Well done. 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 Thanks everyone! Corals have arrived. Im gonna get gluing over my lunch hour! 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 Coral is in! As a teaser I have start up photos from my phone that i can share.. Rockscape: Into the tank.. Water and 2% light.... I ended up gluing the structure to the glass bottom. Few days later that live sand went in. Quote Link to comment
Kev1n Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Like you, I wanted a quiet marine aquarium. It's great not to have skimmers and other gadgets making a racket. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 Well im waiting on the fish. Right now things look like this: This is about 3hrs post stocking... Coral is looking good so far... (apologize for the dirty glass!). Side shot: The gsp and xenia are attached to back glass. Front: Tried to give things enough space. Get things in the right light and flow. I placed the LPS first, acros next, other sps and then xenia and gsp last. That was strategic to get torches enough space, acros enough light and fill it out with the remaining sps. Xenia had to be in the lowest flow and light area. It was tricky cause it was not on a frag plug when shipped. Torches just start to settle: Gonis starting to be comfortable: SPS are looking good. Polyps out. Got some extra glue there. I might try to remove it later. Some corals were gluded with their frag plugs on. Some were removed from their frag plug and then gluded. I wanted to minimize the number of visible frag plugs. So far so good. Fish and shrimp will arrive within the next hour. They'll get a nice acclimation before going in. 3 Quote Link to comment
colormegone Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Looks great to me! I will finally be starting my 8.3 nano in the next few weeks and have been getting my dry rock ready for the last 2 months. I will have lots of extra rock and was thinking about adding some pcs like you have in your sump. Is this something you are going to keep or? I wasn't sure if it would collect Detres and other bad stuff in the long run. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 Everything looks good for just going in, very nice selection! Xenia… I love it but I hate it, took over my last tank. It being on the back wall only should make for a nice background. Now let’s see some fish! 1 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 Great stuff dude. Hope you can post about it. Looking forward to seeing your reef develop as well. Your totally right about chamber 3 being a potential detrius sink in my case. There are ways to mitigate with filter pads, socks and stuff. But ultimately i will be watching my nirtates and taking action as needed. If your setting up a new reef, id say filter media cubes are a good way to go as they can be easily removed if needed. Personally i think dry rock has limited functionality in that back chamber. 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 Well no fish this evening. Looks like i was mistaken on the shipping date. Fish come in tomorrow. 1 Quote Link to comment
Kev1n Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Looking really good. Nice work. Looking forward to seeing your fish choice. 1 Quote Link to comment
Staticmoves Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 been waiting "patiently" to see this one go....... looking forward to the progress... looking good. 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 Fish are in their new home! The fish had a 25min, drip acclimation after their long travel. The shrimp got another 20 mins. One of two shrimp arrived DOA unfortunately. Its been about 3 hrs and everyone looks comfortable at this point. Note its been about 24hrs post coral stocking. And the corals are fairing well. Front FTS: Pair of Benggais: Pair of clowns: A friendly yellow watchman: A blue stripped Neon Goby: Look between the sps frags ,) And the star of the show: I know. The firefish will jump one day. I have no lid. Its possible. Im totally aware. Ive had one before and he jumped. But I think he was being attacked at night..Im gonna chance it again. There's no predators on this reef. Fingers crossed he doesnt startle easily. I chose fish so i could have life occuping different areas of the reef. Watchman for the sand. Neon goby for rockwork and perching. Firefish for middle reef posing. Benggai pair for open water lingering and clownfish for... well obliquatory clownfish reasons. Its nice to see them play in the current. 4 Quote Link to comment
Kev1n Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 A cracking selection of fish. I agree with you on which fish is the star of the show. Very nice. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Nice selection! Everyone seems happy and healthy. I truly hope your firefish doesn’t jump… because they like to. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
Airedale.Reef Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 I am glad the fish came in today for you! Should make for a nice Friday evening, and weekend! I like that you picked fish based on their preferred area of the reef - You should see action all throughout your tank! I am definitely interested in how the tank handles the large change in bio load. Enjoy the weekend! 🍻 1 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 The horror! Unfortunately the 2nd shrimp didn't make it either. With the first one DOA, this one is a real disappointment. The horrorfic part. I see the dead body caught in the rockwork. I use a wood bbq skewer to try to pull it out... it slips goes right into the nero 3 which shreds half the body. Yikes. I manage to get the head half out and into the compost. But all the fish helped out eating the remains of his body. What a first meal lol. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 53 minutes ago, Airedale.Reef said: I am glad the fish came in today for you! Should make for a nice Friday evening, and weekend! I like that you picked fish based on their preferred area of the reef - You should see action all throughout your tank! I am definitely interested in how the tank handles the large change in bio load. Enjoy the weekend! 🍻 After one week, where will the nitrates land? After one month? 10ppm? 20ppm? 30ppm? Will it terribly inbalance a 1.5yr old blank slate reef? Tune-in to find out! Lol 2 1 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 5 minutes ago, geekreef_05 said: The horror! Unfortunately the 2nd shrimp didn't make it either. With the first one DOA, this one is a real disappointment. The horrorfic part. I see the dead body caught in the rockwork. I use a wood bbq skewer to try to pull it out... it slips goes right into the nero 3 which shreds half the body. Yikes. I manage to get the head half out and into the compost. But all the fish helped out eating the remains of his body. What a first meal lol. Damn.. sorry to hear that! Maybe get the next shrimp locally to avoid shipping stress? Also, looking at the pictures again those torches seem to be pretty happy. That’ll be one of my next additions. 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 4 minutes ago, Crawford_T said: Damn.. sorry to hear that! Maybe get the next shrimp locally to avoid shipping stress? Also, looking at the pictures again those torches seem to be pretty happy. That’ll be one of my next additions. 100% agreed. Im gonna get shrimp locally, next time. My ecosystem is kinda shrimp and nass snail depedant to fucntion well. So good at eating pellets off the sandbed. Im gonna order a mini nass snail army next. I was waiting til there's feeding happening for a bit and fish poop ongoing. Dude. Definately add torches on your reef! They are my favorite for sure. 2 Quote Link to comment
Crawford_T Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 36 minutes ago, geekreef_05 said: 100% agreed. Im gonna get shrimp locally, next time. My ecosystem is kinda shrimp and nass snail depedant to fucntion well. So good at eating pellets off the sandbed. Im gonna order a mini nass snail army next. I was waiting til there's feeding happening for a bit and fish poop ongoing. Dude. Definately add torches on your reef! They are my favorite for sure. I added 2 nass snails when I bought the CUC. Unfortunately one died basically the next day, I haven’t seen the other since and have assumed he died as well.. my ceriths do a good job at cleaning the sandbed and the fire shrimp takes care of any leftovers. Still, I’d like nass snails. 1 Quote Link to comment
Airedale.Reef Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 9 hours ago, geekreef_05 said: After one week, where will the nitrates land? After one month? 10ppm? 20ppm? 30ppm? Will it terribly inbalance a 1.5yr old blank slate reef? Tune-in to find out! Lol Good times await haha. We are rooting for Den Reef here! 💪 I am sorry to hear about the shrimp though. +1 on local if possible! 1 Quote Link to comment
Kev1n Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 7 hours ago, geekreef_05 said: After one week, where will the nitrates land? After one month? I am gonna go for 10ppm! 🙂 Sorry about the shrimps. Quote Link to comment
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