Started getting into this hobby in mid-May, from scratch. I've had a mild interest since I saw my friend with a dual 40gallon setup back in high school about 15 years ago. I never thought I had the time/funds to get into the hobby until now, so I started reading and watching videos. I'm not sure what exactly sparked my renewed interest, possibly one of those $1/gallon sales.
I started at Petco with a 20 gallon long, a 10 gallon and a stand. Drilled, plumbed, and built the sump myself, which was pretty fun. Grabbed some more equipment and away we went.
-Hydor Koralia
-Sicce pump
-Kessil a160we
-75gpd RODI
-Titanium heater
-25lbs of Liferock
-20lbs of Caribsea Special Grade
-Redsea Coral Pro
-Eshopps Overflow
-BRS dual reactor (not setup yet)
June 2nd.....Started with a fishless cycle using Tim's whatever and dosing Ammonium Chloride. Upped the temp to about 85 for the duration, which took about 14 days until 0 ammonia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of June - Fast Forward to the frag swap....and I have my first few coral. Picked up a frogspawn, a Sunkist bounce, and a frag of clove polyps. A couple days before the meet, I had also picked up a ASD Rainbow Millepora, and a Bubblegum Digitata. Oh yea, also grabbed a branching GSP from someone for free!
I found a deal on 2 Tunze 6055 Powerheads($250) and stuck those in there.
Changed the rock work a bit for some more vertical space.
I wanted some more life in the tank, so I added a cleaner shrimp. Was hoping to see something move from one side of the tank to the other. In the months I've had this guy, I've only seen it come out of the cave twice and both times were after the lights went out.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Mid-July - I kept reading everywhere that you shouldn't add sps to a new tank and that it had to be at least a year old, I couldn't really find a reason why besides just having stable parameters. Hard headed as I am, I decided that I wanted to attempt to prove them wrong.
I continued to add a frag of Walt Disney which I thought was a good deal and a Highlighter acro. Had some algae issues with the marine pure that I had placed the GSP on. I had algae that was completely smothering it, polyps stopped coming out. I pulled it and brushed it off a couple times but it just came back. I decided to move it to a rock, no more algae issues with it. I also got tired of seeing that giant frag plug with the Sunkist, so I chopped off half the plug and placed it on the sand bed.
I found a great deal on a pair of AI Prime 16HDs($200). For a while I had both the Ai primes and the kessil on max throughout the day. I didn't see any bleaching on anything so I assumed it was fine. I continued reading and realized that it was probably too much light, so I have reduced it to just the primes. I had originally pushed to get a Kessil because I read the shimmer was awesome, I cant really tell the difference. Maybe soon, once I get my next tank setup, I'll be able to see more of a side by side comparison.
I've also added a protein skimmer and a refugium light. I got the Bubble Magus Z5 and some random light with colored leds. I did add some chaeto from Algae barn, but it all just kinda dispersed into my tank when i added it. Since the chaeto didn't work out, I picked up some macro algae from Atlanta Aquarium, which I'm assuming is Caulerpa. The caulerpa didn't really grow, since I barely have an nitrates.
I've been feeding a mix of reef roids and reef chili, which had my phosphates go up to .2 ppm, while my nitrates stayed under 5 ppm. I actually allowed my nitrates to drop to 0 for a day or so until i started dosing NeoNitrates. I also went out and got some carbon and gfo to start up my dual reactor. I continue to feed every other day or so, my phosphates stay at around .05ppm and I keep my nitrates between 2-5ppm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First week of August - I participated in the Bulldawg Reef auction and picked up a few frags. Got the Psylocke Yuma, Looney Tunes Stylocoeniella, and a frag of Utter Chaos zoas.
While I was on the west side, I decided to check out Creation Pet store and Reefshac. I came home with my Bulldawg auctions, a Hydnophora from Creation, a red/blue tipped goniopora and a watermelon psammacora from reefshac.
Once I got home, started researching the Hydnophora and Psammacora. They are both aggressive, awesome. I've also seen some small sweepers come from the Stylocoeniella as well.
Since I've been dealing with low nutrients, I've thought about doing less water changes. However, I have to keep up with water changes due to Alkalinity and Calcium replenishment. So I've been going around to all the fish stores looking for All-for-reef in order to dose Alkalinity, Calcium, and it also has Iodine and Strontium. I can't find anyone that carries it locally.
While I was out at these fish stores.......I picked up a couple more frags. Got a really pretty mardi gras galaxea(kinda regret, but its so pretty!), a gold tipped hammer, and an Orange echinata. So in one week, I managed to add 5 aggressive corals to my tank...oops, we'll get through it. ( I guess the hammer and frogspawn can be aggressive too)
So I gotta move some coral around the tank to make room for the aggressive coral, but before that happens......I'm getting more coral. (this is getting a bit out of hand)
At end of the first week of August, I found out about the TSA back to school live sale. Free, $1, $5 coral....omg
I spent all day Saturday and Sunday sitting at my computer ready to click. Ended the sale with 12 additional coral.
Alien Finger Leather, Mohawk Zoa, Rainbow Acan, Pandora/Bob Marley zoa frag, King Midas zoas, Duncan, Bioluminescence Chalice, Pink tipped torch, Watermelon Favia, John deere Lepastrea, gatorade zoa, and a $15 mystery LPS
Safe to say I had a good time, no regrets(yet).
Here it is at the end of the first week of August, just moved everything around in preparation for my box of corals that will double the amount of coral in this tank. I've also come to the realization that I'm probably gonna upgrade to a bigger tank size before anything has time to encrust, so i put everything back onto frag plugs. (Probably moving things way too much)
And my current sump area
I guess I got tired of manually topping off and added the Hydor ATO, its been great. No issues so far.
Battling the uglies so I have 7 Trochus, 3 Nassarius, 8 cerith, and a conch in there as well.
I also have a frag of Little Shop of Horrors in there, starting to get hard to keep up with everything i've gotten.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Really hard to get a photo of this Looney Tunes stylocoeneilla, but I'm thinking it would look really cool if it encrusted on the front of this arch
I started at Petco with a 20 gallon long, a 10 gallon and a stand. Drilled, plumbed, and built the sump myself, which was pretty fun. Grabbed some more equipment and away we went.
-Hydor Koralia
-Sicce pump
-Kessil a160we
-75gpd RODI
-Titanium heater
-25lbs of Liferock
-20lbs of Caribsea Special Grade
-Redsea Coral Pro
-Eshopps Overflow
-BRS dual reactor (not setup yet)
June 2nd.....Started with a fishless cycle using Tim's whatever and dosing Ammonium Chloride. Upped the temp to about 85 for the duration, which took about 14 days until 0 ammonia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of June - Fast Forward to the frag swap....and I have my first few coral. Picked up a frogspawn, a Sunkist bounce, and a frag of clove polyps. A couple days before the meet, I had also picked up a ASD Rainbow Millepora, and a Bubblegum Digitata. Oh yea, also grabbed a branching GSP from someone for free!
I found a deal on 2 Tunze 6055 Powerheads($250) and stuck those in there.
Changed the rock work a bit for some more vertical space.
I wanted some more life in the tank, so I added a cleaner shrimp. Was hoping to see something move from one side of the tank to the other. In the months I've had this guy, I've only seen it come out of the cave twice and both times were after the lights went out.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Mid-July - I kept reading everywhere that you shouldn't add sps to a new tank and that it had to be at least a year old, I couldn't really find a reason why besides just having stable parameters. Hard headed as I am, I decided that I wanted to attempt to prove them wrong.
I continued to add a frag of Walt Disney which I thought was a good deal and a Highlighter acro. Had some algae issues with the marine pure that I had placed the GSP on. I had algae that was completely smothering it, polyps stopped coming out. I pulled it and brushed it off a couple times but it just came back. I decided to move it to a rock, no more algae issues with it. I also got tired of seeing that giant frag plug with the Sunkist, so I chopped off half the plug and placed it on the sand bed.
I found a great deal on a pair of AI Prime 16HDs($200). For a while I had both the Ai primes and the kessil on max throughout the day. I didn't see any bleaching on anything so I assumed it was fine. I continued reading and realized that it was probably too much light, so I have reduced it to just the primes. I had originally pushed to get a Kessil because I read the shimmer was awesome, I cant really tell the difference. Maybe soon, once I get my next tank setup, I'll be able to see more of a side by side comparison.
I've also added a protein skimmer and a refugium light. I got the Bubble Magus Z5 and some random light with colored leds. I did add some chaeto from Algae barn, but it all just kinda dispersed into my tank when i added it. Since the chaeto didn't work out, I picked up some macro algae from Atlanta Aquarium, which I'm assuming is Caulerpa. The caulerpa didn't really grow, since I barely have an nitrates.
I've been feeding a mix of reef roids and reef chili, which had my phosphates go up to .2 ppm, while my nitrates stayed under 5 ppm. I actually allowed my nitrates to drop to 0 for a day or so until i started dosing NeoNitrates. I also went out and got some carbon and gfo to start up my dual reactor. I continue to feed every other day or so, my phosphates stay at around .05ppm and I keep my nitrates between 2-5ppm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First week of August - I participated in the Bulldawg Reef auction and picked up a few frags. Got the Psylocke Yuma, Looney Tunes Stylocoeniella, and a frag of Utter Chaos zoas.
While I was on the west side, I decided to check out Creation Pet store and Reefshac. I came home with my Bulldawg auctions, a Hydnophora from Creation, a red/blue tipped goniopora and a watermelon psammacora from reefshac.
Once I got home, started researching the Hydnophora and Psammacora. They are both aggressive, awesome. I've also seen some small sweepers come from the Stylocoeniella as well.
Since I've been dealing with low nutrients, I've thought about doing less water changes. However, I have to keep up with water changes due to Alkalinity and Calcium replenishment. So I've been going around to all the fish stores looking for All-for-reef in order to dose Alkalinity, Calcium, and it also has Iodine and Strontium. I can't find anyone that carries it locally.
While I was out at these fish stores.......I picked up a couple more frags. Got a really pretty mardi gras galaxea(kinda regret, but its so pretty!), a gold tipped hammer, and an Orange echinata. So in one week, I managed to add 5 aggressive corals to my tank...oops, we'll get through it. ( I guess the hammer and frogspawn can be aggressive too)
So I gotta move some coral around the tank to make room for the aggressive coral, but before that happens......I'm getting more coral. (this is getting a bit out of hand)
At end of the first week of August, I found out about the TSA back to school live sale. Free, $1, $5 coral....omg
I spent all day Saturday and Sunday sitting at my computer ready to click. Ended the sale with 12 additional coral.
Alien Finger Leather, Mohawk Zoa, Rainbow Acan, Pandora/Bob Marley zoa frag, King Midas zoas, Duncan, Bioluminescence Chalice, Pink tipped torch, Watermelon Favia, John deere Lepastrea, gatorade zoa, and a $15 mystery LPS
Safe to say I had a good time, no regrets(yet).
Here it is at the end of the first week of August, just moved everything around in preparation for my box of corals that will double the amount of coral in this tank. I've also come to the realization that I'm probably gonna upgrade to a bigger tank size before anything has time to encrust, so i put everything back onto frag plugs. (Probably moving things way too much)
And my current sump area
I guess I got tired of manually topping off and added the Hydor ATO, its been great. No issues so far.
Battling the uglies so I have 7 Trochus, 3 Nassarius, 8 cerith, and a conch in there as well.
I also have a frag of Little Shop of Horrors in there, starting to get hard to keep up with everything i've gotten.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Really hard to get a photo of this Looney Tunes stylocoeneilla, but I'm thinking it would look really cool if it encrusted on the front of this arch
Last edited:
