TimJ
New Member
this is post dated so bear with me. Build began in in Jan 2022
started out thinking this would be fowlr system. Lol. How naive. All it took was getting a couple mushrooms from the LFS and seeing them under the actinic blue and I was hooked. Once my Valentini puffer established that he wouldn’t eat them it was on. used to think coral was just a garden but now I understand the addiction. The science only adds to the fascination.
Rewind back to Jan. Built the aquascape with mostly dry Marco rock with my son. Used Carrib Sea live sand and painted the back of the tank black
Bought an Aqueon tank with offset overflow box and their Megaflow overflow kit. FYI for anyone considering this setup: their drain bulkhead is NOT a 1 inch fitting. Ended up replacing the bulkhead with a 1 inch threaded and have been good to go.
Supplemented with about 10 pounds of live rock a few weeks later. Got some from my LFS that had some cool coral skeletons.
went fishless cycle with the live sand, live rock, seachem stability and Dr Tim’s ammonia. Took about 4-5 weeks to cycle
Got some fish. Got some ich. Blew up the DT to catch them. Got all the fish in QT, ended up losing half of them. Gut wrenching. learned a lot. Mostly I never want to be a fish veterinarian again. survivors stayed in QT for 6 weeks while tank was fallow. Went the 45 day period at 82 degrees. It worked. Have had no issues since. Rebuilt reef was an improvemen.
june. First corals. I bough a couple mushrooms at my LFS as a test to see if they would succeed (and not get eaten by my puffer). Success! Once I saw them under actinic I was hooked on coral instantly.
Ugly Stage was, well.…ugly. A test of my patience and resolve. Sucked stringy Dinos/Cyano out with a turkey blaster every day for 3 months. It was horrible and so frustrating. Ran high nutrients (10 nitrate) for a few months until biodiversity was established. This took awhile with all the dry rock used in the aquascae. Eventually noticed the stringy crap changed appearance slightly. Guessed what was left was cyano so lowered nitrates to below 5 and everything cleared up. Still some cyano but tank is stable and no more turkey baster.
since then I’ve added a couple corals once a month or so. few fish but I’m very cautious about the fish. always buy from QT seller and don’t mess with anything. My fish are beautiful. They get along. they don’t bother corals. Don’t mess with success
Current Setup
75 Gallon
Reef Octopus Essence 130 skimmer (love this guy)
lighting could be better. Started out thinking this would be Fowlr and the Current IC would be fine. for coral they need to be pretty high up to get any useful PAR. at some point I’ll upgrade.
Current Orbit Marine IC
Reef Brite Lumi Light Actinic.
One Spot Foxface
Valentini Puffer
Midas Blenny
Flame Hawk
Black snowflake Clown
Stubby Clown
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Ricordea, Rhodactis Hairy Mushrooms
Frogspawn
Vargas Cespitularia
pulsing Xenia
Toadstool
Acan
Zoas
candy cane
cyphastrea
love my hairy mushroom. Cespitularia has quadrupled in size in 3 months. It is mesmerizing. Got 2 orange rhodactis at my LFS for $60. They were about 3/4 inches. Both are splitting. Blue ricordea split. Xenia is blowing up.
started out thinking this would be fowlr system. Lol. How naive. All it took was getting a couple mushrooms from the LFS and seeing them under the actinic blue and I was hooked. Once my Valentini puffer established that he wouldn’t eat them it was on. used to think coral was just a garden but now I understand the addiction. The science only adds to the fascination.
Rewind back to Jan. Built the aquascape with mostly dry Marco rock with my son. Used Carrib Sea live sand and painted the back of the tank black
Bought an Aqueon tank with offset overflow box and their Megaflow overflow kit. FYI for anyone considering this setup: their drain bulkhead is NOT a 1 inch fitting. Ended up replacing the bulkhead with a 1 inch threaded and have been good to go.
Supplemented with about 10 pounds of live rock a few weeks later. Got some from my LFS that had some cool coral skeletons.
went fishless cycle with the live sand, live rock, seachem stability and Dr Tim’s ammonia. Took about 4-5 weeks to cycle
Got some fish. Got some ich. Blew up the DT to catch them. Got all the fish in QT, ended up losing half of them. Gut wrenching. learned a lot. Mostly I never want to be a fish veterinarian again. survivors stayed in QT for 6 weeks while tank was fallow. Went the 45 day period at 82 degrees. It worked. Have had no issues since. Rebuilt reef was an improvemen.
june. First corals. I bough a couple mushrooms at my LFS as a test to see if they would succeed (and not get eaten by my puffer). Success! Once I saw them under actinic I was hooked on coral instantly.
Ugly Stage was, well.…ugly. A test of my patience and resolve. Sucked stringy Dinos/Cyano out with a turkey blaster every day for 3 months. It was horrible and so frustrating. Ran high nutrients (10 nitrate) for a few months until biodiversity was established. This took awhile with all the dry rock used in the aquascae. Eventually noticed the stringy crap changed appearance slightly. Guessed what was left was cyano so lowered nitrates to below 5 and everything cleared up. Still some cyano but tank is stable and no more turkey baster.
since then I’ve added a couple corals once a month or so. few fish but I’m very cautious about the fish. always buy from QT seller and don’t mess with anything. My fish are beautiful. They get along. they don’t bother corals. Don’t mess with success
Current Setup
75 Gallon
Reef Octopus Essence 130 skimmer (love this guy)
lighting could be better. Started out thinking this would be Fowlr and the Current IC would be fine. for coral they need to be pretty high up to get any useful PAR. at some point I’ll upgrade.
Current Orbit Marine IC
Reef Brite Lumi Light Actinic.
One Spot Foxface
Valentini Puffer
Midas Blenny
Flame Hawk
Black snowflake Clown
Stubby Clown
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Ricordea, Rhodactis Hairy Mushrooms
Frogspawn
Vargas Cespitularia
pulsing Xenia
Toadstool
Acan
Zoas
candy cane
cyphastrea
love my hairy mushroom. Cespitularia has quadrupled in size in 3 months. It is mesmerizing. Got 2 orange rhodactis at my LFS for $60. They were about 3/4 inches. Both are splitting. Blue ricordea split. Xenia is blowing up.
