Gary's 40G Progress

[GHogg]

Hey all!

Finally after years of saving and planning I was able to put my first reef tank together just the way I wanted. Water went in last week, and I just finished up my first 10% water change this morning. So far in the first week I've had trouble with an undersized heater due to how cold my basement is. Luckily the Inkbird has two heater plugs so a quick purchase of an on sale heater put us back on track.

Once the tank was up to temperature it was time for Dr. Tim's and regular ghost feedings. I purchased the Ecopod/Oceanmagik combo from Algaebarn and introduced the copepod population last Wednesday. I've been dosing the phyto daily. I've got the one AI16 set on schedule to help boost the phyto population. I'm hoping establishing the plankton early will help in the long run with uglies. I've been trying to keep the skimmer running, but with only a copepod population and no additional livestock there's not enough organics in the tank to really foam at all.

Saw the nitrites spike in the first week, which makes me hopeful that some inverts and maybe a couple clowns can head into the tank next week!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Nice setup Gary. What form of ammonia have you introduced?

 

[GHogg]

Nice setup Gary. What form of ammonia have you introduced?

Hey thanks! I've just been ghost feeding the tank twice a day as if it was fully stocked. Or at least my approximation of that. I never saw the big ammonia spike but my nitrites went from 0.05 ppm to 0.35 ppm in just a few days, so that seems like a good sign.

Edit: for clarity I'm introducing a pinch of marine flakes twice a day. I figured they'd be a good option cause I know they're nutrient dense and they seem to dissolve fairly quickly.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Hey thanks! I've just been ghost feeding the tank twice a day as if it was fully stocked. Or at least my approximation of that. I never saw the big ammonia spike but my nitrites went from 0.05 ppm to 0.35 ppm in just a few days, so that seems like a good sign.

Edit: for clarity I'm introducing a pinch of marine flakes twice a day. I figured they'd be a good option cause I know they're nutrient dense and they seem to dissolve fairly quickly.

Nice! Keep the updates coming.

 

[GHogg]

Hey!

Week 2 has come and gone, and it's been an eventful one.

Highlights:
Added livestock - 3 emerald crabs and 3 nassarius snails.
Encountered first potential photosynthetic pests.
Cycle looks to have progressed as desired.

The nitrite spike from last week continued to rocket over 1 ppm, which is the maximum fidelity of my RedSea test kit. I was nervous that this would prevent my plans for early introduction of clean up crew members, but after discussion in the R2R water chemistry forum I was assured that nitrite should have no ill effect on livestock. This was news to me, but I came in knowing that the hobby was always changing.

This led to the addition of the first observable members of the tank! My 40G now houses 3 emerald crabs and 3 nassarius snails. The entire family has had a blast observing these guys over the course of the week, and I fed the nassarius a small chunk of shrimp which let us observe the snail's ability to identify and seek out food even from across the tank.

This week I'm also seeing what I believe to be the spread of diatoms across the surface of the base rock, as well as a couple small patches of what I'm concerned are dinos (primarily because of the presence of bubbles and they were harder to remove from the rock than the diatoms). Both days this weekend I used a bulb syringe to blast the rocks clean as best I could. The diatoms return to the rock slowly, but so far I haven't seen anything that resembles dinos again, even when the lights kicked back on. Current plan is to monitor and up the phyto dose a bit to help out-compete the dinos for light.

During the identification of the pests I was pretty concerned they would balloon out of control, but so far the steps I've taken towards an early ecosystem seem to be functioning as intended. Only time will tell though, since it's been a few short weeks.

Moving forward the hope is continue bolstering the clean up crew with the addition of some trochus snails which will also help address the diatoms. I'm also planning on ordering some bottled coralline algae to introduce to the tank to help compete against any potential dinos.

If you made it this far I commend you, I'm mostly planning on using this thread as a journal for myself, but maybe select others can get some entertainment as well.

Happy Reefing!

 

[pikachux3]

any updates?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Love the aquascape!

 

[GHogg]

any updates?

Love the aquascape!

Thanks for checking in! You really motivated me to put together an update today!

The tank has been progressing really well. I've got regular water changes chugging along on schedule, my parameters are regularly 0 other than a few and we now have three vertebrate inhabitants! Since the last update I've added 8 Trochus snails, 2 clownfish of different morphs, and a lawnmower blenny!

My family has really taken to the tank, and I keep getting offers to purchase fish for the tank so that my nieces and nephews can all have "their" fish in the tank. I think most of these offers come before the parents realize what salt water fish cost however haha.

All of the fish are eating well, the clownfish get a rotation of chopped shrimp, TDO, Hikari seaweed extreme, and frozen oceanic plankton. Far and away the most popular is the TDO, you can tell they're aquacultured fish accustomed to pellet food. They're not quite convinced on the shrimp whole food though, I'm not sure if there's something else I should be doing to make it more appealing to them.

The Blenny gets a rotation of the same plankton and Hikari, but also gets Ocean Nutrition Formula Two in the mix. He was really hesitant to come around to eating, but about 10 minutes ago he accepted his first big chunk of Formula Two, so that felt like a big victory. I see him grazing on the rockwork throughout the day as well, so I think he's really starting to settle in to his new home.

I'm seeing a lot of good green growth on my base rock (at least I hope it's the good kind), and I added some coralline algae spores a couple weeks back. Can't wait for the rock to mature, and the stocking list to round out so I can move on to the corals!

My current source of anxiety is some stark white lines I noticed on a few of my Trochus snails earlier today. I'm not sure if it's shell growth or vermatid hitchhikers or what, but I'm planning on making an ID post after this update.

All-in-all I'm loving the journey six weeks in. Happy reefing all!