squidsreef
Community Member
Hi everyone! I'm a new reef tank owner living in Southeastern Pennsylvania. After years of daydreaming and months of planning, I've recently purchased a Waterbox Marine X 90.3 tank (~60g display with 26g sump) along with what seemed like a truckload of equipment for an essentially first-time reefer (I owned a 5g shrimp/goby tank for about 6 months in college). I've had my fair share of small troubles already but I'm glad to be in the hobby! Here's a description of what I've done for my tank already:
FULL BUILD THREAD
Equipment:
After filling the tank with water, sand, and rock, I realized I put it way too close to the wall with an uncovered GFCI outlet next to an open sump. After a terrifying experience with a leaky overflow drain I installed incorrectly that spraid saltwater all over the wall near the outlet (yikes), I hired a local reef company to pump out some water, move the tank, install some waterproof cover on the outlet, and verify all my equipment was set up properly.
The rocks I added were ~50 lbs of Caribsea LifeRock as well as 40lbs of live sand, added some Microbacter Start XLM, and waited until my cycle was completed. During this time, my skimmer was going absolutely berserk, overflowing the cup in a matter of 10 seconds, and blasting my entire display tank with microbubbles. After days of troubleshooting, I broke down the skimmer and realized it was missing an O-ring. After ordering some O-rings on amazon, the skimmer calmed down quite a bit and was working properly about 5 days later.
After cycling, I added a pair of small ORA Black Ice Clownfish I bought on Liveaquaria, who bonded within about 20 minutes and have been living happily alone in their mansion for about a week! I feed them once a day around lunchtime for about 2 minutes. I alternate between Reef Frenzy Frozen food as well as PE Mysis 1mm pellets, both of which the pair eats right up. I have the lights in the tank on about 5-10% for the time being to minimize the growth of algae and to inhibit the "ugly" stage as much as possible, which is so far working well. I'm slowly ramping these lights up to the point where I will add a clean up crew and some hardy corals. I test the water once a week and everything seems to be going well (0 ammonia, 0.05 nitrite, ~2 nitrate, 8.2 PH, 78 degrees F).
My wife has been adamant about me only purchasing captive-bred fish as to cause a minimum impact on the environment, with the exception of "rescuing" wild-caught fish from people in the hobby looking to get rid of them. I'm always on the lookout for people looking to "rehome" their fish, so shoot me a PM if you have some reef-safe fish that fit my tank that you want to rehome!
I've done a lot of work on the tank so far, and I am very proud of it. I've included a few pictures of the tank through the stages, and a few pictures from this week of my new clowns.
FULL BUILD THREAD
Equipment:
- Waterbox Marine X 90.3 Aquarium
- A pair of AI Prime HD 16 LED lights with flex arms
- Tunze Osmolator Auto Top off
- BRS 75 GPD 5-stage RO/DI filter
- Reef Octopus Classic INT-110 Skimmer
- ~750gph Quiet One Pro 3000 AC return pump
- A pair of AI Nero 5 Powerheads
- RedSea Coral Pro Salt
- 40lbs of CaribSea LifeRock and 20lbs of CaribSea LifeRock "Shapes"
- 40lbs of CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Live Sand
- MicroBacter Start XLM
- Red Sea Mesh Screen Lid
- Eheim 250W Heater
- Several Test Kits, a Refractometer, extra temperature probe, RedSea Marine Test kit set
After filling the tank with water, sand, and rock, I realized I put it way too close to the wall with an uncovered GFCI outlet next to an open sump. After a terrifying experience with a leaky overflow drain I installed incorrectly that spraid saltwater all over the wall near the outlet (yikes), I hired a local reef company to pump out some water, move the tank, install some waterproof cover on the outlet, and verify all my equipment was set up properly.
The rocks I added were ~50 lbs of Caribsea LifeRock as well as 40lbs of live sand, added some Microbacter Start XLM, and waited until my cycle was completed. During this time, my skimmer was going absolutely berserk, overflowing the cup in a matter of 10 seconds, and blasting my entire display tank with microbubbles. After days of troubleshooting, I broke down the skimmer and realized it was missing an O-ring. After ordering some O-rings on amazon, the skimmer calmed down quite a bit and was working properly about 5 days later.
After cycling, I added a pair of small ORA Black Ice Clownfish I bought on Liveaquaria, who bonded within about 20 minutes and have been living happily alone in their mansion for about a week! I feed them once a day around lunchtime for about 2 minutes. I alternate between Reef Frenzy Frozen food as well as PE Mysis 1mm pellets, both of which the pair eats right up. I have the lights in the tank on about 5-10% for the time being to minimize the growth of algae and to inhibit the "ugly" stage as much as possible, which is so far working well. I'm slowly ramping these lights up to the point where I will add a clean up crew and some hardy corals. I test the water once a week and everything seems to be going well (0 ammonia, 0.05 nitrite, ~2 nitrate, 8.2 PH, 78 degrees F).
My wife has been adamant about me only purchasing captive-bred fish as to cause a minimum impact on the environment, with the exception of "rescuing" wild-caught fish from people in the hobby looking to get rid of them. I'm always on the lookout for people looking to "rehome" their fish, so shoot me a PM if you have some reef-safe fish that fit my tank that you want to rehome!
I've done a lot of work on the tank so far, and I am very proud of it. I've included a few pictures of the tank through the stages, and a few pictures from this week of my new clowns.
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