The Reef Dragon

Hellic · Sep 3, 2021

Hey yall!

Starting my first ever reef tank/saltwater tank! I started with a 5 gallon betta tank which has educated me quite a bit on tank management in general. I have also done a lot of research on creating a reef tank, and humble enough to know I still don't know nearly enough about keeping a reef =) but saltwater is where my heart lays, so I am diving in!

I have a 40G Breeder with coarse sand and dry Rock that I drilled myself and added a herbie overflow, plumbed to a 20 long, 3 chamber sump that I made myself. (Filter socks/Skimmer, refugium, return). The dry rock, accidently, resembled a dragon when I was finished and so I have dubbed my DT "The Reef Dragon"

I am running reef crystals at 1.025 SG with RO/DI, and ATO. I really like euphillia and some leathers/mushrooms. Plan to have 5 or 6 smaller fish. I also added an Alexa enabled powerstrip for some automation and routines.

I have an Occ. Clownfish currently in a cycled QT for over 1 week now. My plan is one fish and coral at a time. I'm ready to get reefing!

shwareefer · Sep 3, 2021

Do you have enough room in your sump to handle the display tank drainage during a power outage?

Hellic · Sep 3, 2021

shwareefer said:
Do you have enough room in your sump to handle the display tank drainage during a power outage?

It does =) thanks for asking. My return line hooks on top of the aquarium and is only long enough to sit about 1mm into the water. So it doesn't back siphon that much water. I've done a few tests by cutting power to the return pump and all is well.

Hellic · Sep 12, 2021

Added some Chaeto today from Algaebarn. Was an interesting experience. I though it would be neutrally buoyant, but it just sank and tons of little strings went everywhere. After reading some articles I tied the chaeto around a piece of Filter foam using fishing line and it has held the chaeto together and is now floating around when it doesn't get stuck on a heater.

Clownfish update: it's been almost 3 weeks in QT and it now has white stringy poop. Wishing I had just medicated from the start. Started prazipro today and am now feeding metroplex/focus in his pellets.

Hellic · Sep 16, 2021

Added 5 nassarius snails to keep my cycle going since my clownfish got extended by 2 weeks.

Update on the chaeto: my foam didn't work and now it's just sunk again. It's also going pale. Pretty sure I'm going to lose it, but hope not.

Siberwulf · Sep 16, 2021

Your Chaeto is going to need some sort of food, phosphates and nitrates. If it's not getting that, it's gonna have a bad time. Your cycle is gonna take some time to produce a good amount of nitrates, I've found. Also, be wary of having "too clean" as you run the risk of spinning up Dinos like I did. It was not exciting to try to fight them.

Wyvern · Sep 16, 2021

Siberwulf said:
Your Chaeto is going to need some sort of food, phosphates and nitrates. If it's not getting that, it's gonna have a bad time. Your cycle is gonna take some time to produce a good amount of nitrates, I've found. Also, be wary of having "too clean" as you run the risk of spinning up Dinos like I did. It was not exciting to try to fight them.

Yep, I used Cheato too soon and killed it.
My tank exploded with dino's after 2 monthsbut very low doses of Hydrogen Peroxide have it quickly receeding.

My tank was producing Nitrates and Nitites almost the same day using live sand, "life"rock and Bio-spira, I used Ammonia dosing without any critters.

I was lazy and bought Divers den fish, I had a scare with my blenny being covered in spots and a raised mark one day but he just found a new hide hole and it is just sand on him and a scratch! I flinch reacted with ruby reef needlessly, but his scratch healed and the "spots" come and go everytime he goes into that hole.

Supposed to be a stress killer eh?

Also, expect bacterial blooms when you add fish, just monitor ammonia and nitrites and let it ride out.

Hellic · Sep 17, 2021

Siberwulf said:
Your Chaeto is going to need some sort of food, phosphates and nitrates. If it's not getting that, it's gonna have a bad time. Your cycle is gonna take some time to produce a good amount of nitrates, I've found. Also, be wary of having "too clean" as you run the risk of spinning up Dinos like I did. It was not exciting to try to fight them.

Yeah I definitely think there aren't enough nutrients in the water for it. Lesson learned lol. How did you finally overcome the dinos?

Siberwulf · Sep 17, 2021

Hellic said:
Yeah I definitely think there aren't enough nutrients in the water for it. Lesson learned lol. How did you finally overcome the dinos?

This is my battle thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-plan-to-deal-with-the-dinos-a-diary.830292/

I think the peroxide dose, lights out and nitrate dosing helped the most. And UV to keep them at bay (though I probably could have gone higher caliber UV...it was locally available and affordable)

Hellic · Sep 25, 2021

The clownfish is doing much better and has finally made it to the DT! He looks so tiny in there.

Hellic · Sep 26, 2021

Added a royal gramma to the QT tank today. Also purchased a "peppermint shrimp" but not for aptasia. Just wanted a rock picker to collect leftover food instead of Hermit crabs. Also grabbed my first coral frag ever! I picked out a small toadstool. I'll be moving it off the plug once I've found a permanent location.

Hellic · Sep 30, 2021

Upgraded my crummy sump light to a growstar ufo growlight to see if my chaeto would bounce back and it has. It's even growing. It was about the size of a dime last week. Put the old light on my QT tank lol.

Hellic · Oct 1, 2021

Turned up my WaveMaker to 48x Flow from 25x over the last few days and my toadstool fell off the rocks lol. Fortunately he landed right side up in the sand. I cut the bottom of the plug off and epoxied the toadstool to the rock. Hopefully he'll stay now at these higher flow rates. He was pretty ticked this morning but he's extending again.

afrokobe · Oct 1, 2021

Hellic said:
Upgraded my crummy sump light to a growstar ufo growlight to see if my chaeto would bounce back and it has. It's even growing. It was about the size of a dime last week. Put the old light on my QT tank lol.

lol, cute little ball of chaeto

Hellic · Oct 1, 2021

afrokobe said:
lol, cute little ball of chaeto

$30 at algaebarn lol. Rediculous...

Hellic · Oct 7, 2021

Added a new green ricordea to the aquarium! Hopefully he'll open back up soon.

Hellic · Oct 9, 2021

Ricordea is now on my rock after moving it through the sand a few days. Still closed up though. Not sure what the issue is. Parameters are all in check, nitrates around 5ppm. Maybe needs more light? Idk.

Hellic · Oct 20, 2021

Had my first loss in the tank. Boo. One of my 3 new turbo snails seemed to be struggling since i bought it and was bombarded by my Nassarius snails. Water parameters are good. Removed the dead snail.

Hellic · Oct 27, 2021

Added a red firefish to my QT this week! And found my first shrimp molt. Super wierd. Kind of freaked me out actually. My overflow picked it up though so my filtration is working lol.

Hellic · Nov 10, 2021

Had a problem with all of my snails dying recently. Couldn't figure it out since my parameters all seemed fine. Now I have a huge outbreak of algae in my tank. Today I discovered the problem. His name is Skittles the snail killer; my royal gramma.