First tank ever!! 225 gallon reef tank

Rookie_reefer_420 · Feb 23, 2018

Hello all! I’m new to the hobby and fish keeping in general. I’ve always loved reef tanks and finally made the dive. Especially since my reefer buddy took me to Neptune’s aquatics in San Jose and the second I stepped into the store I was unloading my pockets trying to see how much tank I could afford lol. I ended up with a 225 gallon starphire tank 72Lx30Wx24T (should have went with an 8 foot long lol). I ended up with 4) mp40’s one on each side of the tank and 2 on the back panel. Nyos 220 skimmer (things a beast) an L1 return pump and lights are 2) AP700’s (may get another one when I get a floating canopy or some T5’s and do the combo which I think is a killer look and optimal coral growth/coloration) . I got a 20 inch synergy reef overflow, ATO reservoir and a synergy reef sump that match of course lol, (love the synergy reef sump and ATO), I got a kessil H380 refugium light (still not running it tho) and a new apex, necessary modules (still need a breakout box and some other small apex stuff), with a dos and the dos containers (I like it but I think going with a reef link would have been a great option as well since I’m all eco tech except the lights which I’m fine with (my buddy thinks I should have went with radion G4’s but the dang kessil shimmer got me ). The tank has been wet October 1st. It’s been a Fowler since I wanted to make sure I could keep water parameters stable before I throw coral in the tank and give me time with owning a tank in the first place. I originally went with tangs, anthias, and some damsels. Decided I wanted to do an SPS dominant tank and wanted to keep angels. So I took out almost all the original fish I owned and took them back to the lfs and started the new stocking. Now I have a Red Sea misbar regal, goldflake angel, a trio of Red Sea swallowtail 1 male, 2 females, 4 helfrichi firefish, and a blochy anthia. My fish stock is basically done except I’ll add more helfrichi in time and hopefully get a nice shoal of them. Now I feel it’s time to add corals....... and the fun really begins. Been a long informative road and this has just been the top of the ice burg. Any info on what to dose as I’m thinking I’m just going to go B-ionic as a lot of people have a lot of success with it.

kschweer · Feb 23, 2018

Very nice!!! Welcome to R2R!

GoVols · Feb 23, 2018

I live in the same home town as Synergy Reef.

Really nice build and welcome to "our" Reef 2 Reef family

Rookie_reefer_420 · Feb 23, 2018

kschweer said:
Very nice!!! Welcome to R2R!

Thank you as you can see when I first aquascaped it was a pile of rocks and now that I got Jester6 to come over and redo the scape I’m finally happy with how it looks... time for acros!!

Rookie_reefer_420 · Feb 23, 2018

GoVols said:
I live in the same home town as Synergy Reef.

Really nice build and welcome to "our" Reef 2 Reef family

Thank you!! Rick does great work!!

dbl · Feb 23, 2018

I noticed you've been a member for a while...thanks for the introduction. This would be a great start to a build thread. The tank looks great.

Crabs McJones · Feb 23, 2018

Welcome to R2R!! I'm loving the AP700s!!! Make sure to post in the kessil show off thread!!

welcome12_af875eaa887ed91c39e4c81c7d4fd966-0ed06ab93ea565647147c6beddbca4eb.gif

Rookie_reefer_420 · Feb 23, 2018

dbl said:
I noticed you've been a member for a while...thanks for the introduction. This would be a great start to a build thread. The tank looks great.

I was a memeber before I got my tank. It was apart of the research I was doing. I was just trying to read and read and read everything I could to help me make some decisions. It wasn’t untill having this up for the last 4-5 months that would have really helped with some decisions. I know I can set up another 125 4x2x2 with all the extra stuff I have lol and could take off this tank to make another reef tank. Also reef2reef is the best forum out there, currently imo. In my urgency to put up the tank I didn’t take many progress pictures (unfortunately) but I do have some and I rescaped the tank after a short amount of time as I got ick from a purple tang and lost about half my fish and then I wasn’t happy with the scape. Learned I wanted to try angels and SPS (I know for a first tank this isn’t a normal route to go) but I really like acros and angels ‍

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And I will need a lot of advise and help along the way! Thanks for stopping by

Rookie_reefer_420 · Feb 23, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
Welcome to R2R!! I'm loving the AP700s!!! Make sure to post in the kessil show off thread!!

I love my kessils and I will find the thread and post!!! Thanks

KJ · Feb 23, 2018

Welcome to R2R!!! Very nice looking tank

Crabs McJones · Feb 23, 2018

Rookie_reefer_420 said:
I love my kessils and I will find the thread and post!!! Thanks

There's a link to the thread in my signature

kireek · Mar 3, 2018

*Nice to meet you @Rookie_reefer_420 !*
Your new aquarium is beautiful.Impressionable,especially for a first go. I like the coloration on your stand and the sump area is intriguing.Keep in mind it is never too late to start a build thread.

Rookie_reefer_420 · Mar 3, 2018

kireek said:
*Nice to meet you @Rookie_reefer_420 !*
Your new aquarium is beautiful.Impressionable,especially for a first go. I like the coloration on your stand and the sump area is intriguing.Keep in mind it is never too late to start a build thread.

Thank you for the kind words and I’ll have to do a build thread as they seem pretty fun and then everyone who reads will see all the equipment and the struggle lol..