This will be a slightly unconventional build thread. I won't be starting from day 1. It will be 8 weeks after I assembled my tank. It's taken me a while to understand how bottomless this rabbit hole just might be.
Just picking out my components and my tank was thrilling. Let me tell you about what I have so far.
Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo 20.
I love it. An all in one tank with a great price and glass clarity.
Stand: A matching stand from Innovative Marine.
Easy to build and sturdy. Nice faux-wood finish.
Pump: model included in the AIO.
It's loud. This needs to disappear, and fast. I don't like it.
Wavemaker: Jebao OW-10.
Comes with a controller and has a great price. Quoted as 132-1057 GPH. Very quiet.
Heater: Fluval-E 100W.
Always-on LED shows the temperature. Comforting for a newbie. Slow to heat up, but holds steady.
Lighting: HIPARGERO LED. 9X3W CREE LEDS.
Good brightness, and pleasing blues. I've read good things. I personally have no clue though.
Substrate: 20lbs Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Live Sand 0.5-1.5 mm.
Kinda pink. Looks very white to me. I think they've taken some liberties here.
Rock: 9 lbs of live rock from my LFS.
Had been curing for 6 months. I walked out with $90 less, a bag of rock and water. What.
Filtration: Chemi-pure blue, Marine-Pure GEMS, and Dr. Tims Ammonia+Bacteria starter.
My tank was cycled in 2 days according to my tests. I let it run for 3 weeks more to be sure.
Test kits: A combination of Salifert, Red Sea and API (Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate).
The salient one's are finicky but cheap. I really like the screw on titrator by Red Sea a lot more.
Salt: Started with regular Instant Ocean. Slowly switching over to Red Sea Coral Pro mix.
I bet you already know why. Yes, I got those. Let's leave that out for now.
It was good. Then I got my fish.
After I had them acclimated and in quarantine they really didn't want to eat. Thankfully I had plenty of experience reefers on here to ask for help: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/feeding-wild-caught-percula-clownfish.545327/
Patience was the key. They are now doing well in my main tank. From the few foods I've tried so far they love TDO Chromaboost the most. I switch in some New Life Spectrum pellets as the TDO seems very high in protein and lacks a variety of seaweed like spirulina in NLS. A balanced diet including vegetal matter seems as important for carnivores as for herbivorous fish to have a source of meat-protein in captivity. There's a lot of studies around this. I doubt this is the be-all and end-all though and would love to here what everyone else does.
Finally we get to 1 week ago today. A stable tank with 2 happy Percula clownfish.
I then made another mistake. I've been researching coral on here and what I'd need to provide for them since I first started my tank. I figured I should go 'look' at coral at my LFS in person. I now have 1 branching Hammer and 3 Accropora frags. I did a water change yesterday of 3 gallons to slowly introduce the black bucket of Red Sea's coral pro salt afterwards. I think things are going to get 10 times harder but I'm looking forward to it. Stay tuned, I hope you enjoy following along.
Just picking out my components and my tank was thrilling. Let me tell you about what I have so far.
Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo 20.
I love it. An all in one tank with a great price and glass clarity.
Stand: A matching stand from Innovative Marine.
Easy to build and sturdy. Nice faux-wood finish.
Pump: model included in the AIO.
It's loud. This needs to disappear, and fast. I don't like it.
Wavemaker: Jebao OW-10.
Comes with a controller and has a great price. Quoted as 132-1057 GPH. Very quiet.
Heater: Fluval-E 100W.
Always-on LED shows the temperature. Comforting for a newbie. Slow to heat up, but holds steady.
Lighting: HIPARGERO LED. 9X3W CREE LEDS.
Good brightness, and pleasing blues. I've read good things. I personally have no clue though.
Substrate: 20lbs Arag-Alive Fiji Pink Live Sand 0.5-1.5 mm.
Kinda pink. Looks very white to me. I think they've taken some liberties here.
Rock: 9 lbs of live rock from my LFS.
Had been curing for 6 months. I walked out with $90 less, a bag of rock and water. What.
Filtration: Chemi-pure blue, Marine-Pure GEMS, and Dr. Tims Ammonia+Bacteria starter.
My tank was cycled in 2 days according to my tests. I let it run for 3 weeks more to be sure.
Test kits: A combination of Salifert, Red Sea and API (Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate).
The salient one's are finicky but cheap. I really like the screw on titrator by Red Sea a lot more.
Salt: Started with regular Instant Ocean. Slowly switching over to Red Sea Coral Pro mix.
I bet you already know why. Yes, I got those. Let's leave that out for now.
It was good. Then I got my fish.
After I had them acclimated and in quarantine they really didn't want to eat. Thankfully I had plenty of experience reefers on here to ask for help: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/feeding-wild-caught-percula-clownfish.545327/
Patience was the key. They are now doing well in my main tank. From the few foods I've tried so far they love TDO Chromaboost the most. I switch in some New Life Spectrum pellets as the TDO seems very high in protein and lacks a variety of seaweed like spirulina in NLS. A balanced diet including vegetal matter seems as important for carnivores as for herbivorous fish to have a source of meat-protein in captivity. There's a lot of studies around this. I doubt this is the be-all and end-all though and would love to here what everyone else does.
Finally we get to 1 week ago today. A stable tank with 2 happy Percula clownfish.
I then made another mistake. I've been researching coral on here and what I'd need to provide for them since I first started my tank. I figured I should go 'look' at coral at my LFS in person. I now have 1 branching Hammer and 3 Accropora frags. I did a water change yesterday of 3 gallons to slowly introduce the black bucket of Red Sea's coral pro salt afterwards. I think things are going to get 10 times harder but I'm looking forward to it. Stay tuned, I hope you enjoy following along.