My first reef tank

[Ianc77]

18 years after leaving the hobby, when I had a fish only saltwater tank and after many years of dreaming to return I started taking more of an active interest in setting up a reef tank.

Two months ago a friend moved away and left me his fish tank.. Not a big tank but a good start in the right direction .

The tank I was given is a simple 20 gallon long tank with a stand. 12"×24" and 16" deep. Since then I have been doing research and buying equipment. I could not start straight away since we were renovating our home and living in a short term rental. But now we have finally moved and the time to start setting up has nearly arrived.

The equipment I have bought so far:

* Tank with stand 12"*24", 16" depth.
* CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Sand, 20 lbs.
* The Perfect Mix MR Coralline Rock (20lb Box) - MarcoRocks.
* E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit - Coralline Color.
* 4 Stage Value 75GPD RO/DI System.
* Smart ATO Nano - Auto Top Off Kit.
* AquaClear 70 Power Filter.
* Instant Ocean Sea Salt (50 gal).
* Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter Start. XLM.
* EHEIM Jager Aquarium Thermostat Heater 100W.
* DrTim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride.
* Hydor Koralia Nano Aquarium Circulation Pump.
* Imagitarium Aquatic Refractometer.
* Calibration fluid.
* Basic test kits.

How does my inventory look? Should I add or change anything?

Regarding lights I am not sure what to get.. I'm thinking or 2 AI prime 16 HD or 1 Radion xr15 blue or a kessil A360X What do you suggest?

My plan is to keep soft corals/lps and a few fish. Possibly later on some sps.. maybe after a possible upgrade later on down the line.

[ReefGoat]

18 hours ago, Ianc77 said:

18 years after leaving the hobby, when I had a fish only saltwater tank and after many years of dreaming to return I started taking more of an active interest in setting up a reef tank.

Two months ago a friend moved away and left me his fish tank.. Not a big tank but a good start in the right direction .

The tank I was given is a simple 20 gallon long tank with a stand. 12"×24" and 16" deep. Since then I have been doing research and buying equipment. I could not start straight away since we were renovating our home and living in a short term rental. But now we have finally moved and the time to start setting up has nearly arrived.

The equipment I have bought so far:

* Tank with stand 12"*24", 16" depth.
* CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Sand, 20 lbs.
* The Perfect Mix MR Coralline Rock (20lb Box) - MarcoRocks.
* E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit - Coralline Color.
* 4 Stage Value 75GPD RO/DI System.
* Smart ATO Nano - Auto Top Off Kit.
* AquaClear 70 Power Filter.
* Instant Ocean Sea Salt (50 gal).
* Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter Start. XLM.
* EHEIM Jager Aquarium Thermostat Heater 100W.
* DrTim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride.
* Hydor Koralia Nano Aquarium Circulation Pump.
* Imagitarium Aquatic Refractometer.
* Calibration fluid.
* Basic test kits.

How does my inventory look? Should I add or change anything?

Regarding lights I am not sure what to get.. I'm thinking or 2 AI prime 16 HD or 1 Radion xr15 blue or a kessil A360X What do you suggest?

My plan is to keep soft corals/lps and a few fish. Possibly later on some sps.. maybe after a possible upgrade later on down the line.

Looks like a solid start!! As far as lights go. I think spread wise. The (2) primes would be the best bet here. The Radion is an awesome light but DOUBLE the cost. Then If didn’t quite cut it and had some shadowing. You'd be spending double double lol. I love my AI Primes and just picked up 2 hydras for my next build. 

[colormegone]

Looks like a great startup of goodies to me. For me a dry rock start took a bunch of weeks so take your time and cycle slowly. I'd give it a min. of 4- 6 weeks before adding critters just to be safe.

This will give you time to research lights.  Go slow and Have Fun!

[Ianc77]

13 hours ago, colormegone said:

Looks like a great startup of goodies to me. For me a dry rock start took a bunch of weeks so take your time and cycle slowly. I'd give it a min. of 4- 6 weeks before adding critters just to be safe.

This will give you time to research lights.  Go slow and Have Fun!

Even with the live sand and Microbacter start?

[Rhetoric]

Welcome back!  Yeah my dry rock took a while to stable out. 

 

My 2 cents: I would seed it with cheap coral right away.  Soon as you turn the lights on.  It's similar to adding live rock.... but it's  coral...way better, and fun.

 

Good luck.  Pictures next post 😉

[ReefGoat]

21 hours ago, Ianc77 said:

Even with the live sand and Microbacter start?

Yes even with the live sand and bottle bac

[colormegone]

Don't rush it or you might get into trouble and cost you some $. Since you don't have a filter per say you have to depend on your rock for bacteria to grow and create your bio filtration system. Just let it ride with no lights for 4-6 weeks and feed it a bit of ammonium to keep the bacteria fed. That's just me but letting it ride out is the way to go.

[Ianc77]

7 minutes ago, colormegone said:

Don't rush it or you might get into trouble and cost you some $. Since you don't have a filter per say you have to depend on your rock for bacteria to grow and create your bio filtration system. Just let it ride with no lights for 4-6 weeks and feed it a bit of ammonium to keep the bacteria fed. That's just me but letting it ride out is the way to go.

I have the AquaClear 70 Power Filter, is that not enough?

[ml86743]

For the price, I'd look into the maxspect Jump 65w.  That thing has exceeding my expectations and I've seen them sold for a great price.

[Ianc77]

Is one circulation pump enough?

[Ianc77]

Update

 

Aquascape done.. joint effort with my wife.

 

Tonight or tomorrow adding sand and water.

[Airedale.Reef]

Nice looking scape 👌🏽

[Sharbuckle]

On 8/2/2024 at 2:10 PM, Ianc77 said:

18 years after leaving the hobby, when I had a fish only saltwater tank and after many years of dreaming to return I started taking more of an active interest in setting up a reef tank.

Two months ago a friend moved away and left me his fish tank.. Not a big tank but a good start in the right direction .

The tank I was given is a simple 20 gallon long tank with a stand. 12"×24" and 16" deep. Since then I have been doing research and buying equipment. I could not start straight away since we were renovating our home and living in a short term rental. But now we have finally moved and the time to start setting up has nearly arrived.

The equipment I have bought so far:

* Tank with stand 12"*24", 16" depth.
* CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Sand, 20 lbs.
* The Perfect Mix MR Coralline Rock (20lb Box) - MarcoRocks.
* E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit - Coralline Color.
* 4 Stage Value 75GPD RO/DI System.
* Smart ATO Nano - Auto Top Off Kit.
* AquaClear 70 Power Filter.
* Instant Ocean Sea Salt (50 gal).
* Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter Start. XLM.
* EHEIM Jager Aquarium Thermostat Heater 100W.
* DrTim’s Aquatics Ammonium Chloride.
* Hydor Koralia Nano Aquarium Circulation Pump.
* Imagitarium Aquatic Refractometer.
* Calibration fluid.
* Basic test kits.

How does my inventory look? Should I add or change anything?

Regarding lights I am not sure what to get.. I'm thinking or 2 AI prime 16 HD or 1 Radion xr15 blue or a kessil A360X What do you suggest?

My plan is to keep soft corals/lps and a few fish. Possibly later on some sps.. maybe after a possible upgrade later on down the line.

Dude that is some classic nano reefing gear you’ve got there. Definitely skin through some older threads from 2005-2010 era and you’ll see many similar setups. Some great info to be found here.

 

may I suggest trying two Illumagic Pixels. They’re very simple and don’t offer controllability but the reefer spectrum is damn near perfect in my opinion and the shimmer is fantastic.

[Ianc77]

Cycling has started.. Exciting!!

 

 

11 hours ago, Sharbuckle said:

Dude that is some classic nano reefing gear you’ve got there. Definitely skin through some older threads from 2005-2010 era and you’ll see many similar setups. Some great info to be found here.

 

may I suggest trying two Illumagic Pixels. They’re very simple and don’t offer controllability but the reefer spectrum is damn near perfect in my opinion and the shimmer is fantastic.

I already have 1 AI prime 16, looking for another 2nd hand one.

[Ianc77]

I am a little confused re adding first fish.. some say after a week, other after a month.. First fish i'm thinking of a snowflake occelaris..

 

What do you guys say?

[Airedale.Reef]

No issues with the snowflake as your first fish. As far as when to add....I would wait until your cycle completes (this could take anywhere from 4-8 weeks sometimes) The goal is to see if the tank can process  ammonia in a timely manner. Rule of thumb is that if the tank can successfully process 2ppm ammonia in a 24 hour period, then your cycle is complete, and you are now ready for fish or other inhabitants.  

[Ianc77]

5 minutes ago, Airedale.Reef said:

No issues with the snowflake as your first fish. As far as when to add....I would wait until your cycle completes (this could take anywhere from 4-8 weeks sometimes) The goal is to see if the tank can process  ammonia in a timely manner. Rule of thumb is that if the tank can successfully process 2ppm ammonia in a 24 hour period, then your cycle is complete, and you are now ready for fish or other inhabitants.  

So what confuses me is that products like Brightwell MicroBacter start etc write to wait a week?

Anyhow regardless of what they recommend the deciding factor is the test results.

 

 

[Ianc77]

Lights, Ato and pump setup.. I moved the aquascape a little further back.. don't need so much room behind... still plenty of room for maintenance.

 

Now the lights are going out until after the cycle is complete.

 

Is the pump in the right place? Lights a good distance above the water level?

[colormegone]

Looks great to me. Until you add some critters there is no need to worry about where your flow is going.

Now just kick back and watch the show! Good Luck in your journey.

[anizato]

Just my two worthless pennies.
Take care of that heater my friend, you'll need a backup (in case this one fails or breaks) and make sure you have citric acid handy (to keep equipment clean) so you can keep it looking new at all times. I have had the same heater for 5 years this way with no issues or having to replace it yearly. Do not allow calcificication or coralline to grow or any kind of algae on the glass of the heater, all of these lead to heater failure.

[Staticmoves]

If you can do without the lights for 2 + months while adding live stock, you’ll be ahead of the game.

i quite enjoyed my tank sans lights.

great move on setting the rock work back a bit.

 

[Ianc77]

20 minutes ago, Staticmoves said:

If you can do without the lights for 2 + months while adding live stock, you’ll be ahead of the game.

i quite enjoyed my tank sans lights.

great move on setting the rock work back a bit.

 

Do you mean for two months after adding the livestock?

[Ianc77]

I added Ammonium Chloride enough for 20 gallons and the Salifert test shows only 0.5 ppm... suggestions?

[ReefGoat]

Are you doing the Dr. Tim’s fishless cycle method?

[Ianc77]

Yes