Scott’s Infinia Frag 125.4 build Shallow Reef

[skey44]

Hello, back in April I put down a deposit for a smallish All-In-One tank. Here we are in late July and I ended up with a much different tank than originally intended, but I’m happy so far and hopefully will be happier in the long run.
While waiting on delivery my LFS got this Infinia Frag in and the buyer backed out. While I was waiting on a tank to ship and had already decided to upgrade from the original order the Waterbox sale happened. Me and my good friend picked it up, then got it all placed and leveled on Sunday. Finished filling and plumbing yesterday (had to replace silly 28mm ID return hose with 3/4”). Now she’s wet and running. No leaks overnight and pretty darn quiet after some tuning of the overflow and strategic filter media placement in the sump. I will post the current equipment, what is on the way, and future planned upgrades. I have a few fish in QT already and am sure this build will move pretty fast from here as the rock has been curing in my garage since April.

Current equipment:
Infinia Frag 125.4
Eheim 1260 return pump
Tunze 3155 osmolator
Ultra Reef Akula UKS-180 skimmer
Kessil 160 light x2 with controller

On the way:
Vortech MP40x2

Future upgrades:
Polycarbonate/mesh lid
Lighting
Dosing pump

For now I’m just saying it’s a shallow reef tank, but I would like a theme. I’ve even been toying with the idea of a Euphyllia only tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[skey44]

Lights and rocks in tonight. Will plan for a better pic tomorrow once the dust settles. Need to pickup MP40s and setup ATO. Then to tackle the crazy mess of wires in and behind the stand! Out of sight out of mind for now…

 

[skey44]

Gonna make the tank cloudy again I’m sure! Also grabbed an extra sump foam LFS had laying around. Using the one it came with where refugium chamber flows into skimmer chamber currently and second one as intended. Overflowing water from fuge to skimmer is loudest part of sump/tank so far. Will tank a hopefully clear pic of tank when I get home prior to Vortech installs

 

[skey44]

Pretty happy with the progress. Only issue I have so far besides the mess of wire behind and under the system is that the waterbox sump and ATO container are level and the ATO will siphon until the level of the ato return is below the water level of the ato. I’m thinking I’ll have to get cute with PVC to mount the return above the ato level. I also considered a check valve but know it will eventually fail. Any suggestions?

 

[skey44]

Jump guard pro installed today. Quite impressed with how it turned out! Don’t feel a need for polycarbonate lid currently. Now to get some fish in. Plan on testing in the next couple of days and adding my fish that have been in QT for 30 days now.

 

[skey44]

 

[skey44]

How it’s going…

 

[skey44]

Week 1 tank running parameters

Salinity: 34.5ppt refractometer
Kh: 5.5 Hanna alkalinity checker (tropic Marin pro, probably switch to their higher KH original formula next bucket)
Nitrite: 0 api
Nitrate: 0.0 Hanna Nitrate HR checker
Phosphate: 0.06 Hanna Phosphate ULR checker

I’ll probably put the fish from QT in after I get my KH adjusted and have my LFS run a spin test to double check my results. Then add some new fish to the observation QT.

Headed to the LFS to get soda ash tomorrow (or whatever correction chemical they have in stock for alkalinity tbh). My phosphate was at 0.12 yesterday but I added my brs reactor with gfo and the recheck shows improvement. This is old dead live rock that has been curing in my garage so I’m not surprised there is still some phosphate leaching. Will monitor and control accordingly.
I have space for a fuge but not sure I can grow anything without a nitrogen source too. Will get that running once I get some fish to add nitrogen.
Happy with how the tank is running. Mainly hear the skimmer/return running, the occasional trickle of the top off and nothing else. Skimmer hasn’t broken in of course with so few organic, so there are some micro bubbles. Nothing crazy.

Next fish on the list- firefish, more anthias, royal gramma, peaceful wrasse (H. iridis current want), whatever combination of 3-4 of these I can acquire at the same time.

Also thinking I want 10 maybe 20 more pounds of reef sand since I’m planning on some wrasses that burrow for sleep. Will do this before I add fish to display as well.

 

[skey44]

Adding tigger pods to sump today. Plan to add my QT fish tomorrow am. Thinking 3 fire fish and a carpenters wrasse for next QT round.

 

[skey44]

Me and my 6yo had a great time at the fish store today. They were popping and the flasher wrasse we hoped for was already reserved by someone there… knew I shouldn’t have prioritized groceries over fish store stop da*n
We still got a pretty good haul! Trying a multi pack of fire fish in QT. Helfrichi, exquisite, and regular. Also grabbed a nice fluorescent caulastrea frag as a first coral attempt. Hands currently covered in superglue making it hard to type. Removed from frag plug and dipped in heavy revive, then glued to some coral rubble and glue on fingers now that I’ll blame any typos on! My daughter was happy with the fish but of course she was eyeing some “rainbow” in her words coral pieces. I told her that would have to wait lol. Existing fish are settling in the big tank post transfer and fire fish seem super chill in the 29

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Me and my 6yo had a great time at the fish store today. They were popping and the flasher wrasse we hoped for was already reserved by someone there… knew I shouldn’t have prioritized groceries over fish store stop da*n
We still got a pretty good haul! Trying a multi pack of fire fish in QT. Helfrichi, exquisite, and regular. Also grabbed a nice fluorescent caulastrea frag as a first coral attempt. Hands currently covered in superglue making it hard to type. Removed from frag plug and dipped in heavy revive, then glued to some coral rubble and glue on fingers now that I’ll blame any typos on! My daughter was happy with the fish but of course she was eyeing some “rainbow” in her words coral pieces. I told her that would have to wait lol. Existing fish are settling in the big tank post transfer and fire fish seem super chill in the 29

Glad the fish are doing great!

 

[skey44]

Caulastrea frag looking good and with my nutrient testing I went ahead and put some night time enriched brine in the tank. Probably need to start spot feeding and ramping my lights up, but so far seems happy hanging way out right after lights out. Think I’m spotting some new heads already popping up too.
Nitrate:0.0
Phosphate: 0.04
Alk:6.8
Salinity:35ppt
Went ahead and dosed 2.5 tsp of sodium bicarbonate tonight.
Did a 10ga WC yesterday just to get in the weekly habit.
Hopefully my nitrates start to go up slowly. Have some confidence to feed these fish a little more with my maintained zero nitrates.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Looking forward to following this build. Love the aquascape!

 

[skey44]

Thanks!
Everything going here.
Have my first bit of white spot in the QT on the exquisite fire fish who is honestly more beat up than I thought when I bought it. I will dose with copper accordingly I guess… boo. The firefish trio seem to be doing good though.
Display tank is good coral and fish happy. Put in a dozen tiny blue leg hermits and five red band trochus as I’m seeing my first signs of algae.
Still no nitrates with increased feeding. Just a slight bump in phosphates to .07. Dialing in my ca and kh with ca chloride and sodium bicarbonate. Last KH was 7.4 last Ca was 400. Trying to bump both up today with dosing and then weekly WC is back tomorrow. Goal Ca is 420 goal kh is 8 for me at this point.
I’ve also added some pods, both live varieties from reef nutrition.
I hope to add some real live rock to my curing bucket when cash flow allows. Also want more corals and upgraded lights soon. Probably start by adding another light in the center of the tank. Considering just going with a kessil 360 and slowly upgrading the other two over time to increase intensity and coverage.

 

[ED3]

Pretty happy with the progress. Only issue I have so far besides the mess of wire behind and under the system is that the waterbox sump and ATO container are level and the ATO will siphon until the level of the ato return is below the water level of the ato. I’m thinking I’ll have to get cute with PVC to mount the return above the ato level. I also considered a check valve but know it will eventually fail. Any suggestions?

I had this issue too, I’m currently running the same tank. As long as your fill hose isn’t actually in the water of your sump you shouldn’t have an issue.

I ultimately started using a GHL dosing pump for my ATO because I wasn’t a fan of how frequently I was having to fill the storage tank.

 

[skey44]

So far about once a week. It will siphon on the first fill even above the waterline. I just let it and then restart in the am.

 

[skey44]

Since the first coral is doing so well and I’m keeping up with my ca/alk pretty well I added two more! A nice “acan” and a branching hammer. Realize my pics are so bad! I really need an orange filter. Or take the pics in a more daylight situation.

 

[skey44]

Corals looking good and happy today. My girls like the hammer the best… maybe I should have done euphyllia specific! I really like the other lps too. There’s a blastomussa I already have my eye on at LFS
Water test day:
Salinity 35ppt
Ca 400
Kh 7.1
Nitrate 0.3ppm (yay)
Phosphate 0.04 ppm

Quarantine is holding at 2.34 ppm copper. Fire fish looking good, no spots. Exquisite fire fish fins growing back. They’ll be due to go to display in early September.

I’m planning to start with Tropic Marin All for Reef in the coming weeks. What’s the best single dosing pump for AFR? Not thinking I’ll ever add anything else if it works as advertised!

 

[skey44]

Tank was slightly cloudy today when I got home, inhabitants seem unfazed. Will halt adding MB7 until it clears. Added blastomussa coral also grabbed this tiger conch as I see some diatom growth on the sandbed.