10 Gallon SPS Dominate Reef Build!

[jeeperreefer]

Update on the clowns, my pellet food has been pretty much worthless.. so I am going to need to look into buying some other type of pellet food.

I bought mysis and brine shrimp to try and get these two clowns eating as I don’t want them to starve and I hate marine life dying. Im already also to attached to them hehe.

I tried feed some mysis and brine and to my surprise they would look at it, then try it and spit it out. So I am a little worried. I bought some garlic from amazon so it should be here later today. I am going to try and feed them one last time today!!

sustainable aquatics hatchery diet will get them to eat. when they are young and removed from a group they tend to be shy and not eat until they settle in too there new home. this pellet food works awesome for these type of fish.

 

[Blitheran]

sustainable aquatics hatchery diet will get them to eat. when they are young and removed from a group they tend to be shy and not eat until they settle in too there new home. this pellet food works awesome for these type of fish.

I appreciate this! I bought some to try and get them hooked on eating pellet food

 

[Blitheran]

Alright so update in general! Tank is doing well. It is amazing to see these are fish thriving and how my tank was cycled for so long, it’s just that api was giving me false readings. Never again will I even use api to cycle a tank. As far as equipment goes, I went a head and returned my reef glass protein skimmer, and returned my ice cap nano protein skimmer as well... i love using protein skimmers but I dont feel like I have the space to use one. With that being said, I probably will go the refugium route and turn my vertex 2.0 reactor into a cheato reactor. The only kicker is that, it is a pain to remove. So I am just kinda playing it by ear.. as it stands right now my main source of filtration is my rock, I have all in all about 10 pounds so we will see how that goes in the long run, I do run filter floss and carbon, I have a ton of gfo that I got off of a reefer when I bought the apex. Im debating on running it for now, as my phosphates are at 7.

I am happy to report that my fish are finally eating! Ugh what a few stressful few days it was, I would skip hanging out with my friends just to try and get then to eat. As it stands right now I have them eating mysis/brine shrimp mixed with garlic. The trick I am thinking is I want them
Addicted to that garlic so that I can educe them with garlic pellets, and get them onto pellets so that I can get this dang AFS hooked up!

Thanks for reading let me know what you guys think I should do for extra filtration. I can get the reef glass protein skimmer, or I can get the refugium hooked up.. let me know!

 

[jeeperreefer]

I appreciate this! I bought some to try and get them hooked on eating pellet food

let us know how you make out. good luck. i soak mine for about 3 minutes in ro water and than us a turkey baster to spot them.

 

[Blitheran]

Some updates on the fish they look so sweet!

 

[Blitheran]

let us know how you make out. good luck. i soak mine for about 3 minutes in ro water and than us a turkey baster to spot them.

Well this stuff rocks! Thank you! My fish were happy eating frozen mysis shrimp, but the second I threw this in there, that went bonkers! They loved it! Amazing stuff, no I have to try and figure out how to use it with my AFS

 

[jeeperreefer]

Well this stuff rocks! Thank you! My fish were happy eating frozen mysis shrimp, but the second I threw this in there, that went bonkers! They loved it! Amazing stuff, no I have to try and figure out how to use it with my AFS

glad it worked. i got worried also when my clowns would not eat. now they are addicted ! lol.

 

[Blitheran]

Update on how the tank is going... and other news. Fish are devouring this pellet food! Which makes me happy, so that I donn’t have to constantly feed the tank. I do love it. But a driving factor is steering me away from things is being forced to do the same thing over and over, this AFS hooked up to the apex really helps alleviate the daily chores.

In other news, BRS has their weekly giveaway which is super simple to sign up for. I have been signing up for a few months now and I finally won one! Crazy! But idk what to do with it as I just got an XR-15!! The struggles haha

 

[btmedic04]

That's awesome, congrats! I've been signing up for those since November with no luck lol

 

[Blitheran]

That's awesome, congrats! I've been signing up for those since November with no luck lol

Thanks! Yea I just checked my emails today to see delete some emails, and I found this! I thought it was spam but all they asked for was a shipping address which lead me to believe it was legit! Im debating if I should try and trade it for another xr-15. There is a super sweet 24x24x12 tank on craigslist and now that I have a second light debating if I should just bite the bullet and get that instead... or just sell the light on ebay options haha

 

[Blitheran]

I am hoping to have corals in the tank within the next two weeks. Tomorrow is the 3 month mark! Defiantly taking things slow.

I still have one or two last stocking items needed to complete the reef. I need a trochus snail, maybe two... we will see. And a skunk cleaner shrimp, I love their personality and he is essential!

Fish are doing great, after about a week of playing and messing with the feeder and getting the food situation sorted out, the tank as it stands is fully automated! Perfection. I am never around when feeding happens so it is nice to know apex logs it turning on!

I got a hanna salinity checker because I need to make sure ALL of my parameters are dialed in correctly so I went with the best. I need to throw a bunch of reagent packets in my brs cart so i can have them on hand. So nice to know my refractometer was off my .04!!

Lastly it is nice to know my temp is doing well. I like to check to see how big my swings are. I have about a 1-2 degree swing on occasion should not be a big deal right?

 

[Blitheran]

My first batch of test corals have been added!
I went and got a stylo, birdsnest, acro, and monti! Lets see how they will do over the next few weeks. I am already getting amazing polyp extension out of all of them so super excited about that.

 

[Blitheran]

My first batch of test corals have been added!
I went and got a stylo, birdsnest, acro, and monti! Lets see how they will do over the next few weeks. I am already getting amazing polyp extension out of all of them so super excited about that.

This picture was taken an hour after they were introduced

 

[Blitheran]

So little bit of an update... plans have changed! I am now doing a red sea reefer 170. For two big reasons, first being that I won the kessil which offered me many avenues to go with. Sell the kessil and save the money, trade kessil for corals, or use kessil, list goes on! I decided on trading it with a fellow reefer for a second XR-15 as 1 won’t be enough for my tank. Also, I religiously watch selling forums! I love watching and seeing whats on the market. I always, had it in the back of my mind that I loved a sump. I don’t like the idea of putting everything out in the open for me to see. I realized I wanted to stay small, I need a tank small enough that 10% water change fits inside a 5 gallon bucket. I am very active and don’t mind caring 20-40lb buckets. So red sea reefer 170 is my choice!

I love the small tank it offers, 34 gallons up top. And 9 gallons below, so 43 gallon water volume = 4 gallon water change a week! Easy peezy!

Anyhow, Red sea reefers are rare and they hardly ever go up for sale used, like ever! So anyhow I did my little internet stalking on all the selling forums and saw a red sea reefer 170 for sale, $900 I jumped on it. I asked the seller what his bottom dollar was, he said $800. I said how about $700 and he said $750 so we both shook hand and here I am today. Been very busy!

Anyhow, I don’t think I can change the title of mt thread so I will have to create a new thread! You will be seeing me very soon!

 

[Blitheran]

So little bit of an update... plans have changed! I am now doing a red sea reefer 170. For two big reasons, first being that I won the kessil which offered me many avenues to go with. Sell the kessil and save the money, trade kessil for corals, or use kessil, list goes on! I decided on trading it with a fellow reefer for a second XR-15 as 1 won’t be enough for my tank. Also, I religiously watch selling forums! I love watching and seeing whats on the market. I always, had it in the back of my mind that I loved a sump. I don’t like the idea of putting everything out in the open for me to see. I realized I wanted to stay small, I need a tank small enough that 10% water change fits inside a 5 gallon bucket. I am very active and don’t mind caring 20-40lb buckets. So red sea reefer 170 is my choice!

I love the small tank it offers, 34 gallons up top. And 9 gallons below, so 43 gallon water volume = 4 gallon water change a week! Easy peezy!

Anyhow, Red sea reefers are rare and they hardly ever go up for sale used, like ever! So anyhow I did my little internet stalking on all the selling forums and saw a red sea reefer 170 for sale, $900 I jumped on it. I asked the seller what his bottom dollar was, he said $800. I said how about $700 and he said $750 so we both shook hand and here I am today. Been very busy!

Anyhow, I don’t think I can change the title of mt thread so I will have to create a new thread! You will be seeing me very soon!

Scratch that, I think I will still start a new thread but we will see. Ideas?

 

[NY_Caveman]

You can change the title. Click the button with the ellipses, then Edit Thread shown here