New red sea reefer 350 Build

[lennywee]

Reefing Newbie here! Watched countless hours of BRStv before deciding to take the plunge.

Finally after having the tank built and sitting dry for 3 months (went out of town to quarantine with family), I've put water in the tank and started a fishless cycle using Dr Tim's one and only. Bare-bottom tank as I like the look and would love to be able to keep SPS one day.

Possibly will look at purchasing 2 clowns next week. I'm open to letting the tank just sit for a month empty as well. Any suggestions on when to add clean up crew (snails, crabs, shrimp)?

Currently running my COR15 pump at 40%, does anyone have any thoughts on if this ok or do I need more or less flow?

Took me a whole day to make the water with my RODI unit.

Still fiddling with my Apex controls. Everything seems fine so far.

Gear:
Redsea Reefer 350
Apex EL
COR15 Return Pump (Running at 40%)
Reef Octopus Regal 150-SSS protein skimmer (leaving it off during cycle)
2 X Cobalt Aquatics 200W Heaters (one main at 78F and one as a backup which turns on at 76F, controlled by Apex)
Neptune ATK auto top off (Still haven't installed this yet)

Still have yet to buy lights and more wave pumps but figured I can wait a while on these as I won't be putting corals in for while.

 

[Adam Schindler]

Welcome to the reef! Love your rockscape!

 

[BighohoReef]

Welcome to the deep end of R2R! And Congratulations on the new tank! You’ve started off with some great equipment!

Couple thoughts. Run your flow high if you don’t have wavemakers yet. You still want water moving, you don’t want too much build up collecting in one spot on your aquascape or substrate.

Test your parameters... Ammonia, I’m of the camp for zero ammonia in the tank before adding creatures. I‘ve watched fish struggle in an ammonia it’s not pretty. Important to also check for nitrites, nitrates and phosphate.

Keep the lights off during the cycle (I know you don’t have lights yet). Just cycle your tank in zero to little light. It’ll help to reduce algae blooms. You’re fish don’t need the light out of the gate and it’ll set you up in the long run for healthier tank.

Keep asking questions and be patient. The most successful reefers I know are the ones that take their time and go slow.

I’m looking forward to seeing your tank fill! I’ll keep and eye on this thread. Congrats again on the tank!

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Love the tank and rockscape! Big fan the Reefer series. I’ve got a 750 set up since January. The build thread is on R2R.

If you have any questions about equipment, you should ask on here. Lots of very helpful people in this community. They definitely helped me out a ton.

 

[lennywee]

Display tank is still cycling using Dr Tim's ammonium chloride. Seems to take about 2 days to lower 2ppm ammonia to 0ppm. However, the nitrite still isn't moving very fast, it'll take about 5-6 days after I add the ammonia to get from 2ppm nitrite to about 0.8ppm. Guess i'll just be patient as bare bottoms seem to take longer. I only dose ammonia when both ammonia and nitrite are below 1ppm. Can anyone tell me if this is normal?

First inhabitants 1 gladiator and 1 mocha gladiator clownfish) have been in quarantine (10G QT system) for 2 weeks. Following Humblefish's protocol so it'll be another month before they can go into my main tank. Currently medicating with copper at 2.5ppm, and metroplex every other day.