First reef tank: Fluval Evo 13.5g

[Vakagar]

Hello! Finally got most of my gear so I can start cycling the tank, and was eager to get feedback on my scape.

So, this will be a classic clown tank for my 4 year old to enjoy, we're going to eventually add either a firefish or a goby-pistol pair, whatever she prefers. We're also gonna go wild on crustaceans and invertrebrates because she really enjoys watching them graze about. In the far future we wanna add some LPS and even SPS with an upgraded light, and maybe even a very easy anemone.

I'm doing a fishless cycle by adding fishfood and monitoring the ammonia until it is ready. I'll add a bit of seachem stability once the ammonia starts rising to kickstart things a bit, and then I'll wait for the cycle to complete.

For the scape I tried to maximize little knooks and crannies for the fish to hide, but keeping it low enough so I can safely add corals on top in the future (these are CaribSea Liferock btw).

So my initial questions are:
1. Do you think there is enough surface area for corals in the future?
2. Are those little bits of broken rock enough to attach corals in the future to make a little island?

Video of the rockscape (sorry for the dumb music I just wanted to remove my kid screaming in the background)

 

[Vakagar]

I added the sand and 10L of water (it's hard to prepare large quantities at once in my apartment, so I'll have to do this a few more times). Looking at it now I feel like I'm lacking rock (a good portion of it got covered by the sand)

 

[zerozero]

How are things going? I'm sure your daughter will love the clowns, they're so iconic!

 

[Vakagar]

How are things going? I'm sure your daughter will love the clowns, they're so iconic!

Hello! Thank you so much for asking!

So I started off the tank with some dry rock and live sand, plus doing some Seachem Stability as recommended. I wasn't able to get my hands on pure ammonia to do controlled dosing, so I relied on fishfood for the first week, but regardless of the amount of food I added I was not able to bring the ammonia up and the tank was getting ugly with food bits.

After that 1st week I decided to try the raw shrimp route, so I dumped one into one of the filter chambers, and ammonia started gradually increasing until around 1ppm. Yesterday ammonia was down to 0.25ppm and I saw a huge boost in nitrite which I guess means the cycling process is moving well into the second phase after 10 days of running it.

As for equipment changes, I 3D printed basket chambers for chamber 1 and 2 plus some RFG nozzles.
I also installed the wavemaker yesterday, maybe a bit early but I didn't felt that the water had enough movement with just the stock pump.

I've been noticing that the Fluval with the lid closed keeps the water very close to 28ºC, and thats with the light off so I'm thinking if I may need to think about a cooling solution soon. I don't think my heater turned on yet even, if I leave it lidless overnight it will cool to 26.5ºC, but never lower.

Some pictures for updates:

Can't wait to add some fish but we're taking it slow!

 

[zerozero]

I've been noticing that the Fluval with the lid closed keeps the water very close to 28ºC, and thats with the light off so I'm thinking if I may need to think about a cooling solution soon. I don't think my heater turned on yet even, if I leave it lidless overnight it will cool to 26.5ºC, but never lower.

Glad things are coming along. Getting the powerhead was a good move. When the Diatom algae inevitably hits, it'll aid in getting them out of the display when you have to scope the glass.

We had a few days of 30C weather over the summer here and the water temp spiked just as yours did. As a temporary measure you can freeze a small bottle of water and put it in the tank. The clownfish won't mind the extra heat but the corals will.

Long-term, of course, it's not a solution. I decided to take the stock hood off. This led to extra expenses:

New light - £170 - Can't praise the light highly enough. The corals love the light and the tank looks so much better. There are lots of cheaper options lights-wise
Jump guard - £35 - Fish can jump. Not worth the risk. Your daughter might find the tank too tempting
ATO - £75 - Without the lid there's going to be more evaporation. The Automatic Top Off will keep the salinity stable

Glad you're taking things slowly. It's the only way, as you know.