My New 20 Long Build

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Finally got my new tank up and running. I broke up a bunch of dry rock I had stored and glued together what I think is a nice aquascape. Keeping this one fairly simple with mostly hob equipment. Bubble magus qq1 hob skimmer, seachem tidal 55 hob filter that I added additional filter floss too and will be running ChemiPure blue in once it’s a bit more established. For heat I have a 75 watt eheim jager. For flow I’m running a icecap gyre 1k powerhead. And for lighting I have a 24” reef breeder photon v2 light. Just filled the tank this morning so now comes the waiting game

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

And since I don’t really have much need for a controller right now I am currently utilizing a couple of WiFi power strips which I can control from anywhere my phone has a signal so kinda somewhat like a co troller I guess...minus all the text alerts when something goes wrong but definitely good enough for now

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Looks good. I never heard of WiFi power-strips. That’s kinda cool. Nice

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Looks good. I never heard of WiFi power-strips. That’s kinda cool. Nice

Yeah I saw them on amazon and they were, surprisingly enough, reasonably priced (less than $20 each strip) so I figured I’d give them a try

 

[flchamp89]

Solid build. I think it will be great.

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Solid build. I think it will be great.

I hope so. I guess time will tell, lol

 

[jeeperreefer]

looks good, any idea on livestock ?

 

[Jon Fishman]

Did you leave it Bare Bottom, or is that black substrate in there?

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Did you leave it Bare Bottom, or is that black substrate in there?

Black substrate. I like the idea of a bare bottom for ease of maintenance but can’t get over the look of it. I prefer sand for aesthetics

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

looks good, any idea on livestock ?

I plan on a pair of clowns and a nem but haven’t really gotten any further than that for livestock

 

[Jon Fishman]

Black substrate. I like the idea of a bare bottom for ease of maintenance but can’t get over the look of it. I prefer sand for aesthetics

Have heard bad things about that stuff..... hope it’s no issues for you

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Have heard bad things about that stuff..... hope it’s no issues for you

It’s not just regular black sand it’s a 20 pound bag of caribsea black live sand

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

So I’m 1 week into the cycling process now and with a daily pinch flake food and a cap full of seachem stability this is where I’m at. I know my salinity is a hair high but while I was waiting for my refractometer calibration solution to show up (it came in last night) I calibrated to 0 with distilled water which is obviously not nearly as exact but close enough to start the cycling process.Looking forward to seeing what next weeks testing shows. Slow and steady wins the race...right? Lol

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Well the cycle is progressing nicely

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Test day #3 is done and over with and ammonia is almost completely gone. Now I just need to wait for the nitrites to vanish and it’ll be water change and add my clownfish time

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Not exactly another riveting post but my tank is now cycled. I seeded the tank with pods on Saturday and picked up a few snails and hermits yesterday after work. Since no lfs near me can seem to get the clowns I want I’ll have to order them at some point next week. But for now it’s continuing of the ghost feeding to keep the bioload up and setting up for a water change on Saturday to lower the nitrates before getting the pair of clowns next week.

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

There is a nice coral event put on by my reef club at the end of the month too so I’ll hold off on adding any corals until then too

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Oh boy!!! Got a few new toys in today. Can’t wait to see what these lights actually run at as far as par goes

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

My orange storm clowns showed up today. Super pumped to have something in the tank other than snails, lol. I got these clowns from www.cultivatedreef.com. They had the best price around for these clowns hands down and I can’t recommend them enough.

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

And in case anyone was interested in where I got them, I got them from cultivated reef. They had them for the best price around so I couldn’t resist buying them