New 36 Gallon Bow Front Office Tank

[Razorp]

Ok, so I have decided to take down my two currently running office tanks and start one larger "nicer looking" set up. I ended up getting a Tank/stand combo for $150 at petsmart and just couldnt pass it up. Im going to make it a BTA and clownfish tank (just one pair of clowns) with a few other smaller fish. I am going to run all HOB equipment for the time being (skimmer and aquaclear 100). I have one ai prime 16 hd ordered and will add another down the road when I have accumulated more nems, but I figured one would get me at least 6 months down the road. I have also ordered 30 pounds of marco dry rock, a 20 lb bag of fiji pink live sand (i want a rather small sand bed on this build), and a good dc wavemaker. Ill be running coral pro salt just like i am in my 16g biocube at the house. So mixing salt should be nice and easy for both tanks. Is there any issue you guys are seeing in this build so far, or maybe something i am missing that I didn't think of? This is a rimless bow front, so i would assume at some point it will be nice to have an ato, but for the time being im fine with manual top off, since im at work 6 days out of the week and have an rodi unit handy here.

Also, I have been battling dinos like crazy in my little 5 gallon office tank. I was hoping to move my nice torch coral and the rocks over to the new tank once it had been acclimated, but would that be a bad idea? I really dont want to start a nice new tank and then start battling dinos all over again. The rock i can leave to dry out or boil to hopefully handle that, but i really dont want to lose this nice big torch coral. any ideas there?

I will post pictures next week or weekend once I have started the process of getting everything set up and cycling!

 

[MarshallB]

I would solve the dino problem before adding them to the new tank. Since you are starting with dry rock and sand that's just asking to host anything you add to it. New tank will also most likely go through the ugly phase since its starting out dry.

I would try dosing bacteria paired with a extended blackout to get rid of the dinos if you want to transfer them relatively soon.

 

[Razorp]

I would solve the dino problem before adding them to the new tank. Since you are starting with dry rock and sand that's just asking to host anything you add to it. New tank will also most likely go through the ugly phase since its starting out dry.

I would try dosing bacteria paired with a extended blackout to get rid of the dinos if you want to transfer them relatively soon.

Exactly what I was thinking. I will be using fritz turbo to start the cycle. Won’t run any lighting during that process for sure. I’m steadily working on the Dino problem in the meantime. Will probably still boil the rock from the small tank before adding it. But once the new tank has successfully cycled do you think it would be safe to add the torch assuming I have no visible dinos? If I have visible dinos I will most likely just call the poor torch a loss unfortunately.

 

[Razorp]

Equipment is starting to show up! I have also received my start up bacteria! Rock, sand, salt, and Hanna salinity checked all show up today! I should have this cycle started by mid week! I can’t wait! Still waiting on skimmer and the Mount for my AI prime. Even though those two really aren’t necessary for the cycle process.

As previously mentioned, this new tank will take the spot of these two existing tanks currently in my office. I will leave the little 5 gallon running until the new 36 is cycled and ready since I have two fish and a torch that need to transfer. The cichlids will go home to my 180 gallon.

 

[Apollo7235]

Is this your first time using an AI Prime Reef or have you had them in the past? I am interested in potentially using them in my 38-gallon reef tank-to-be, so I’d love to read your review

 

[Razorp]

Is this your first time using an AI Prime Reef or have you had them in the past? I am interested in potentially using them in my 38-gallon reef tank-to-be, so I’d love to read your review

This is my second AI Prime HD! I also have one on my 16gallon biocube! I love it, it’s been super easy to find the right program. Also very easy to tweak certain spectrums and intensity to your liking. I think it actually might be more difficult on a small tank like my 16. Took a while to find an intensity that made everything happy since it’s such a small tank. I think I’m the 30 gallon range we should be able to pick a schedule and run pretty much maxed out intensity just fine. I would recommend joining the AI prime Facebook page! There are tons of presets listed there that you can download or copy! Please just let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[Apollo7235]

This is my second AI Prime HD! I also have one on my 16gallon biocube! I love it, it’s been super easy to find the right program. Also very easy to tweak certain spectrums and intensity to your liking. I think it actually might be more difficult on a small tank like my 16. Took a while to find an intensity that made everything happy since it’s such a small tank. I think I’m the 30 gallon range we should be able to pick a schedule and run pretty much maxed out intensity just fine. I would recommend joining the AI prime Facebook page! There are tons of presets listed there that you can download or copy! Please just let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank you so much for the response!

I am leaning toward something a little less blue, honestly. Do they adjust in that direction or are they pretty much as pictured?

 

[Razorp]

Thank you so much for the response!

I am leaning toward something a little less blue, honestly. Do they adjust in that direction or are they pretty much as pictured?

It is Very adjustable! You can adjust each spectrum of light from 0%- over 100% ! My spectrum changes throughout the day and the whites are brighter during the mid afternoon times! They get up to about 35% then start going back down! Blues are around 80% and uv/v around 70% , green and red around 4% and moonlight 0%. I will try to post a picture of my schedule in the AI app later today so you can see a visual representation of what im talking about!

 

[Razorp]

Thank you so much for the response!

I am leaning toward something a little less blue, honestly. Do they adjust in that direction or are they pretty much as pictured?

Here is a picture from a few weeks ago. I have been bumping the intensity up slowly over the past few weeks. But the graph still gives you a good representation of what my light schedule currently looks like. So if you wanted less blue, you could bump those blues down and add white or UV/v or just bump the blues down and leave everything else.

while you are playing with it, the light will adjust instantly so you can see if you like where it is as before you save things. And it’s easily adjustable at any time.

 

[Razorp]

Update on the office tank.
Today I set everything up! I used the putty sticks to cement my rock structure together (ended up going with 40 pounds of dry)

Added 20 pounds of aragalive sand, hygger heater with external controller. Jabao sw-10 wave maker (which may not be enough, but we will see). Aquaclear 110, which adds TONS of flow to this 36 gallon, even on low setting. And of course the AI prime 16 hd (it definitely isn’t enough light, which I expected from the get go). I will be adding another prime16hd when uncle Joe send me my next $2000 . I decided to use turbo start 900 kit that comes with the nitrate solution. It claims a 5 day cycle, we will see about that lol. I won’t be running any lights for a while to avoid as much ugly stage as I can.

here are some pics, including or or two of the small 4 gallon that will be broken down and fish added to new tank when it’s ready.

 

[Apollo7235]

Here is a picture from a few weeks ago. I have been bumping the intensity up slowly over the past few weeks. But the graph still gives you a good representation of what my light schedule currently looks like. So if you wanted less blue, you could bump those blues down and add white or UV/v or just bump the blues down and leave everything else.

while you are playing with it, the light will adjust instantly so you can see if you like where it is as before you save things. And it’s easily adjustable at any time.

This is perfect, thank you so much for taking the time to show me!

 

[Razorp]

Day 2 of the cycle.
Dry rock dust and sand sediment has settled and the tank is super clear.
All I’m running in the filter is a course sponge and some bio media.
tempted to test it today just to see.

 

[Razorp]

Today was day 5 of the fritz 900 turbo start cycle (they said most tanks cycle in 5 days following their instructions).

Undetectable ammonia, nitrate at 20ppm, did not test nitrites as I don’t have a nitrite test.

today I added two clowns and a few of the hermits from my 4 gallon office tank. I also added some more fritz9. Will test again Monday and see where we are, if ammonia is still 0 I will do my first water change and probably go ahead and move my other two small fish over, and my torch coral.

the light is on 20% intensity right now, which is nothing for this depth of tank. The only thing that makes me not want to move the torch yet is because I’ll have to kick up the light and I just know that’s probably going to give me a nice little algae bloom. Perhaps it’s best to get it over with ‍

 

[Razorp]

First water change done yesterday, and the day before that I moved everything from my 4 gallon nano! Everything is going swimmingly so far! Ammonia 0 , Nitrate 10.

 

[Razorp]

 

[rmcrom]

This looks good. What coral is that?

 

[Razorp]

This looks good. What coral is that?

Thank you! It’s a green torch coral that has been in my little 4 gallon system for about 6 months

 

[Razorp]

Diatom stage is rocking along well. I started the tank at 1.022 salinity. With every water change I have been slowly raising. I’m at 1.023 as of right now. I ordered a skimmer and some snails and am currently waiting on those to arrive. I continue to dose bacteria with each water change as well.

my parents surprised me with a lemon tang for my birthday. I’m not sure if they realized that it will eventually be entirely too big for this tank. (Maybe I can talk them into buying me a bigger tank at the house now ) . If not I have already made plans with a friend that has a 125 gallon to take him when it’s time. For now I am enjoying watching him destroy my diatoms lol. The torch coral that was in my previous office 4 gallon is really looking great! The flow is much better in this tank with the aqua clear 110 and the slow-10 wave maker.

 

[Razorp]

Also, check out the little baby ultra bubble tip that I picked up! He’s at home in the biocube waiting for the office tank to stabilize, but he’s going to be the lucky first Nem to go in!

 

[Razorp]

Skimmer finally came in. It is set up and breaking in!