Ready ... Set .... Reef ! My first 65g Mixed Reef build.

[Ruskin]

I'm sure it will be fine. I used the same sand also from Big Al's and didn't rinse it. I had minor water clouding for a day when I filled the tank up and then it all cleared up.

 

[FreakPrism]

Here is the scape .. hopefully can put the sand in this evening.

 

[JaviNap90]

It's coming all together now. Awesome ! I noticed you didn't use a rubber hose for the connection to the return pump to minimize vibration. Other than than that i cant wait to see that with fish.

 

[FreakPrism]

I wanted to see if it made a difference. When I did my water test, my return pump (Jebao DCS-5000) is dead silent. No vibrations nothing with the hard plumbing. So, I'll leave as is. Not sure if the DC pumps benefit from the rubber hose or maybe I was running it at 60% and not 100%?

 

[JR Bodyman]

Looks really good! You got skills!
Keep the updates coming! Looking forward to this one!

 

[FreakPrism]

Partial fill with first 25 gallons of mixed saltwater. Next batch of RODI is done and now mixing. Using IO and find mixing for 24 hours makes it very clear with no residue. Using maxijet 1200 which seems to handle 25 to 30 gallons okay.

Used my Hanna meter and first batch in tank is at 1.025.

 

[FreakPrism]

Used 40lbs of sand but some left over. Likely not adding more to the tank. Tried to make the back taller and slope sand down towards front. Hopefully wavemakers don't rearrange things

 

[FreakPrism]

Added all the leftover sand and water. Testing the Photon V2+ ... looking good. Plan tomorrow to get some fish and start the cycle with Turbostart 900. Salinity at 1.026 @ 78F.

 

[JaviNap90]

Nice !

 

[FreakPrism]

So used Turbo 900 on Saturday evening and added 2 Ocellaris clownfish and 2 yellow tail damsels. So far so good. Tested some params yesterday (Monday) and ammonia was showing 0. PH was around 7.8 and alk between 8.5 or 9.0. Damsels hiding most of the time but come out for a bit then bolt back. Clown fish seem to be relaxed and swimming all around ...

Photons are turned on with cloudy setting for about an hour for feeding. Then set up moon light for a few hours and then lights off. Likely get a pulsing Xenia frag soon and/or some chromis.

One thing I would change is not use Fiji Pink sand as it blows around too easily. I would use CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand instead due to larger size. Just don't feel like removing the old sand and putting in new sand.

 

[FreakPrism]

I know I am going fast but I could not say no to a local coral sale! Bought a beginner pack that comes with about 9 easy to keep corals .. mix of softy and LPS.

Day 6 (Friday) .. add some Stability in prep for Day 7. I ended up buying some coral frags on sale so doing a pickup at a local coral shop.

Day 7 (Saturday) .. Put all the bags from the store into the sump to get temps up. The, drip acclimated 2 more Clownfish and added in. 1 Clown is the biggest of all and all 3 literally came and stared at the big one likely saying "oooooh" . Also put the 12 coral frags in Revive for about 12-15 minutes. Did see some critters in the bowl! Then placed in the tank which was fun. Most corals were stressed / upset but after a few hours all of them opened up. Programmedmy Photon V2+ to be 30% max for channel 3, 5 and 6. Some corals I got as part of a beginner coral pack so not sure the names. Likely create a new thread to help identify them.

Day 8 (Sunday) .. Everything seems happy. Added some more Stability and Stress Guard. During feeding one of the Zooanthid polyps (Sunny D) closed up but then opened up a few hours later. Also my duncan closed up, then opened up and is now somewhat open. Will monitor. Did a 5g water change via the sump. Temp still at 78F and Salinity at 1.025. Will test ammonia and nitrates tomorrow or Tuesday. Plan to start some Reef Roids tomorrow as well.

Comments
1. By the way, not sure if anyone noticed the Molly in the top far right, I added a male and female on Day 0. Unfortunately, 1 got sucked into the wavemaker and damaged its fin. I could not save it. The other one swims well and eats well. At night ventures to the top corner where I think flow is quiet. The clownfish and yellow tail damsels get along with the Molly so far.

2. Still not using the skimmer or socks. WIll likely add the socks back in next week Day 15 water change. So far everything is happy so, God willing, it will stay that way.

 

[FreakPrism]

Day 10 (Tuesday). Ran some tests of parameters ... looking good so far.

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78F
PH: 8.1-8.2
Ammonia: 0.0126 ppm
Nitrates: <5ppm
Alk: 10 - 10.5 dKH

Experiencing about 1 gal of evaporation daily.

Corals seem good and opening up more.

 

[FreakPrism]

Day 22 (Sunday). Did another weekly 10g water change. Everything looking good - corals doing good and growing. Seeing new polyps on Sunny D. One Anemone (Rainbow Bubble Tip) seems to still like where I place him so that is good. The other hid behind rock but can see from the front if you bend down.

Skimmer settled down and now doing a good job wet skimming. Sump came with 100u 4x12" felt socks. May get some more as after a few days they become nasty and I need to rinse out. Maybe will get mesh ones and see how those are.

Had a diatom bloom about 7 days ago. Reduced white light a bit, vacuumed gravel twice during water change, and used turkey baster. Seems it is almost gone. Likely another 7 days should be gone. Hopefully I can skips the cyano step as my nutrients are not 0 and got to algae, but lets see.

Will stabilize some more weeks then add some more Zoas to add color. May consider adding a tang once I see some algae but feel it gets disease too quickly. Let's see.

 

[Okinawa_reefer]

Looks like you were on a mission to get the tank and stand all built up! Came together real nice. Keep the updates coming!

 

[FreakPrism]

So here is a picture of the tank a week back. Was going through a diatom bloom on rocks and sand. Reduced white light a bit, water change and turkey basting the rock seems to have helped. Second picture is the tank this morning. Looks like diatoms have been almost taken care of by the tank. I had to frag the Kenya Tree as it was glued on the corner by the store and leaning too much to the left. The plug with some tissue is on the bottom right so hopefully another Kenya tree grows out of it.

Increased white light by 1% today in case the Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone on the top left needs more light. Will see how it likes it.

Last Week (Diatoms started a few days back from this picture but spread really quickly ...)

Today (7 days later ...)

 

[Dakippy]

great build!

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Awesome!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

How did you make out with the diatoms? How's the tank doing?

 

[FreakPrism]

How did you make out with the diatoms? How's the tank doing?

Hey @Sleeping Giant thanks for the post. The diatoms cleared out after a week of just scrubbing and water changes. Things seemed to be going well but all was growing slowly. I got a lot of algae so put in a cleanup crew and lawnmower blenny which helped but then the Blenny died. Not sure what happened as all the other fish were fine.

I started dosing Vibrant and that really helped clear the algae. Some of my corals seemed to be reaching to I increased my light and that brought back the algae on the back glass. I should have left it in hindsight.

During my water change I scrapped all of it and starting using my Phyton to suck it up as I was taking water out. I should have done a small portion of the glass but I only managed to get like 25% to 30% of the scrapped algae and the rest fell on my corals and rocks

So with time, I now have algae all over the rocks and brown algae on the sand (some places) but it seems to be brown and light maroon. There are even bubbles everywhere. I can't tell if it is Cyano or Dinos or just plain algae. I target fed my corals with Reef Roids and that made the algae worse the next day. If I lightly scrap the algae it flakes off in chunks and bubble goes to the surface. Likely will clean a rock at a time as I do weekly changes.

Today I checked my params and was surprised that my Phosphate (Hanna checked) was 0.006ppm and Nitrates almost 0!! Maybe they are low as the algae is consuming it. I had bought some Phosguard and Brightwel MicroBact 7 to help but may hold off since I have no nutrients.

Suprisingly my corals are doing okay, growing slowly but feel algae is bothering them. My Sunny D's are slightly open and stretching. My Xenia is vanishing (I can't believe my tank is killing Xenia ) My bubble tips (2) are well and split during this time so now have 4. Each one seems healthy and moving around the tank trying to find the home where they like (separate issue).

Any thoughts or help? I may stop Vibrant for now and switch to MicroBat7 tomorrow during my water change. I may also feed more but I need to claw back the algae growth. None of my CUC seems interested to eat this algae.

Looks like in the last picture my lone red hermit crab is saying save me

Pictures