WiscoFishNut
Valuable Member
Hey folks, figured I'd share my new build here to get some advice and feedback, plus maybe some help when I inevitably screw things up lol. I'm brand new to saltwater aquariums, but not aquariums in general so I'm not completely clueless, just mostly at this point..
My intent with this setup is to go FOWLR for the first year to learn the ropes before adding corals and nems. I'm also starting out with pretty basic gear that I'm comfortable working with from my freshwater aquarium days.
What I'm working with -
75 gal tank
1 x Fluval Sea Marine Spectrum LED light strip 48", 46 Watts
Aquatop CF500-UV canister filter (525gph & small UV light 9Watt)
2 x 300 Watt heaters
3 x Hydor Koralia 240's for flow
1 x AZOO Nano surface skimmer (does a real nice job keeping the surface clean and bonus flow)
80 lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean live sand
100 lbs of dry rock (most of it was very porous/light, with the exception of some of the bigger "base pieces")
Fish so far -
1 bonded pair of black ocellaris clownfish (extreme misbar I think, but not sure)
1 purple dottyback
CUC - 5 Mexican turbo snails, 3 nassarius snails, 10 tiny hermit crabs. Just added these guys on Saturday so they're really just getting started on cleaning
The fish all get along. The dottyback thought he'd try the clowns out initially, but he quickly backed off when they weren't having any of it. He was kind of a jerk to the nassarius snails when I first added them if they went anywhere near "his" cave. If he gets aggressive with any additions down the road he'll find himself back at my lfs for credit on an orchid dottyback or a royal gramma.
The tank has been running just shy of 5 weeks. The fish have been in there for a little over 2 weeks (yeah I got inpatient..). One of the rocks I added had been recently cured, but then mostly dried out. I feel like I did a pretty half butt attempt at cycling to be honest. One thing that threw me off was I saw nitrates @20 ppm after a couple weeks, but no ammonia or nitrites so I thought hey maybe it miraculously cycled really quickly.. I added Bio-Spira a few days after I added the fish because I got paranoid about the poor attempt at cycling.
When the fish went in the water was at 78 degrees, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and 5 ppm Nitrates, salinity 1.020(to match the lfs tanks), pH 8.0-8.1 ish. Used a dose of Prime the night before to drop the nitrates down from 20 ppm.
Since the fish were added on 5/25/19 I've done 3 water changes(10-12 gal each time) and top offs when needed. I haven't seen any really major spike in Ammonia - highest was somewhere between 0.5ppm - 0.75ppm. Haven't seen a trace of nitrite. I did the water changes when I saw the nitrates hit the 30ppm mark. Salinity, temperature, and pH have stayed rock steady. For testing I'm using the API Saltwater Master test kit, but I'm strongly considering getting a 2nd set after reading a lot of comments on here; suggestions welcome/appreciated! I did add some of the Instant Ocean nitrate reducer stuff two weekends in a row, but I don't think I'll use it again unless someone here tells me its a great idea. Yesterday I cleaned the filter, removed the activated carbon pouch and replaced it with some Marine Pure 1.5" spheres. In the filter there are 2 trays with the fluval ceramic tube things, 1 with the spheres I added and the other 2 trays are filled with the sponges that came with the filter. I'm definitely interested in opinions on what the optimal setup is for that canister filter. I know long term I'll want to look at better options, but this is what I'm working with for at least a few months. The water parameters yesterday before the water change were 0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 20 Nitrates. I'm hoping the addition of the CUC will help sooner rather than later. That ammonia has lingered at .25 ppm since 5/31/19 and hasn't budged. I'll check it again tonight and update to see what difference the water change made.
My intent with the tank is to slowly add more fish and spend the time picking up knowledge on here to eventually add some corals and other fun stuff
On the fish wist list right now are - (in order of how I think they should be added)
Please let me know if I'm making some bad decisions. I know some might not be reef safe so point those out so I can reconsider. I plan on sticking with whatever types of coral are the easiest to care for if that helps any.
Diamond watchman goby
3 x Benggai cardinalfish
Longnose hawkfish
Lemon peel angelfish
Pearlscale butterflyfish
Tailspot blenny
Ruby head fairy wrasse
Yellowtail blue damsel
Now for the pics! I really wish I had seen some of the scape threads on here before I put things together. I feel way amateur when looking at most of the tanks on here lol
FTS
Left side of the tank showing some kind of algae growth
Left side of the tank w/ a better shot of satan dottyback protecting his cave
Right side of the tank
Middle section
Better shot of all 3 fish
Thanks for taking the time to read thru the post. Any suggestions and comments are welcomed and appreciated!
-Kris
My intent with this setup is to go FOWLR for the first year to learn the ropes before adding corals and nems. I'm also starting out with pretty basic gear that I'm comfortable working with from my freshwater aquarium days.
What I'm working with -
75 gal tank
1 x Fluval Sea Marine Spectrum LED light strip 48", 46 Watts
Aquatop CF500-UV canister filter (525gph & small UV light 9Watt)
2 x 300 Watt heaters
3 x Hydor Koralia 240's for flow
1 x AZOO Nano surface skimmer (does a real nice job keeping the surface clean and bonus flow)
80 lbs of CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean live sand
100 lbs of dry rock (most of it was very porous/light, with the exception of some of the bigger "base pieces")
Fish so far -
1 bonded pair of black ocellaris clownfish (extreme misbar I think, but not sure)
1 purple dottyback
CUC - 5 Mexican turbo snails, 3 nassarius snails, 10 tiny hermit crabs. Just added these guys on Saturday so they're really just getting started on cleaning
The fish all get along. The dottyback thought he'd try the clowns out initially, but he quickly backed off when they weren't having any of it. He was kind of a jerk to the nassarius snails when I first added them if they went anywhere near "his" cave. If he gets aggressive with any additions down the road he'll find himself back at my lfs for credit on an orchid dottyback or a royal gramma.
The tank has been running just shy of 5 weeks. The fish have been in there for a little over 2 weeks (yeah I got inpatient..). One of the rocks I added had been recently cured, but then mostly dried out. I feel like I did a pretty half butt attempt at cycling to be honest. One thing that threw me off was I saw nitrates @20 ppm after a couple weeks, but no ammonia or nitrites so I thought hey maybe it miraculously cycled really quickly.. I added Bio-Spira a few days after I added the fish because I got paranoid about the poor attempt at cycling.
When the fish went in the water was at 78 degrees, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and 5 ppm Nitrates, salinity 1.020(to match the lfs tanks), pH 8.0-8.1 ish. Used a dose of Prime the night before to drop the nitrates down from 20 ppm.
Since the fish were added on 5/25/19 I've done 3 water changes(10-12 gal each time) and top offs when needed. I haven't seen any really major spike in Ammonia - highest was somewhere between 0.5ppm - 0.75ppm. Haven't seen a trace of nitrite. I did the water changes when I saw the nitrates hit the 30ppm mark. Salinity, temperature, and pH have stayed rock steady. For testing I'm using the API Saltwater Master test kit, but I'm strongly considering getting a 2nd set after reading a lot of comments on here; suggestions welcome/appreciated! I did add some of the Instant Ocean nitrate reducer stuff two weekends in a row, but I don't think I'll use it again unless someone here tells me its a great idea. Yesterday I cleaned the filter, removed the activated carbon pouch and replaced it with some Marine Pure 1.5" spheres. In the filter there are 2 trays with the fluval ceramic tube things, 1 with the spheres I added and the other 2 trays are filled with the sponges that came with the filter. I'm definitely interested in opinions on what the optimal setup is for that canister filter. I know long term I'll want to look at better options, but this is what I'm working with for at least a few months. The water parameters yesterday before the water change were 0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 20 Nitrates. I'm hoping the addition of the CUC will help sooner rather than later. That ammonia has lingered at .25 ppm since 5/31/19 and hasn't budged. I'll check it again tonight and update to see what difference the water change made.
My intent with the tank is to slowly add more fish and spend the time picking up knowledge on here to eventually add some corals and other fun stuff
On the fish wist list right now are - (in order of how I think they should be added)
Please let me know if I'm making some bad decisions. I know some might not be reef safe so point those out so I can reconsider. I plan on sticking with whatever types of coral are the easiest to care for if that helps any.
Diamond watchman goby
3 x Benggai cardinalfish
Longnose hawkfish
Lemon peel angelfish
Pearlscale butterflyfish
Tailspot blenny
Ruby head fairy wrasse
Yellowtail blue damsel
Now for the pics! I really wish I had seen some of the scape threads on here before I put things together. I feel way amateur when looking at most of the tanks on here lol
FTS
Left side of the tank showing some kind of algae growth
Left side of the tank w/ a better shot of satan dottyback protecting his cave
Right side of the tank
Middle section
Better shot of all 3 fish
Thanks for taking the time to read thru the post. Any suggestions and comments are welcomed and appreciated!
-Kris
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