First Reef! - 75 Gallon Log

[Aricml]

My 75 Gallon soon-to-be reef has been cycling for about a month now and has trace NitrItes still, but is hopefully soon to be ready for it's first inhabitants! I wanted to keep a log for myself to watch my progress and reflect on my plans, thoughts, and ideas around getting this bad bot set up.

I plan to always kick things off with a front overview of what the reef looks like so here I go.

Front Pic 1.jpg

I got the Tank, Stand, PC Lights, Sump, Overflow, Base Rock, Heater, Sand, and a bunch of additives for $350 off Craigslist, but had to drive all the way from Pueblo to Monument to pick it up.

The stand was initially oak-colored and showing plenty of wear, so I sanded it down and painted it a flat black on the outside and a sky blue on the inside where it could possibly be visible through the tank.

Everything was encrusted in all kinds of nasty so I spent two days scrubbing everything down with vinegar before I was able to position my base rock and fill with premix and Live Rock to seed with from my LFS.

I was hoping for a few more "critters" to emerge from the LR but so far have only seen a few Asterina Stars, Aiptasia, and two small, and very sickly bleached Mushrooms.

Initial Mushroom 1.jpg

I've tried getting this guy in a position to get the light and flow that will give it a shot at surviving (and hopefully regaining some color if that's even possible). The larger Mushroom is about the size of a fingernail when stretched out and the small Mushroom is perhaps the size of a dot a Sharpie marker leaves behind.

I know that it might not work but I'm really pulling for at least one of these two to come out of this strong and colorful eventually.

Aiptasia 1.jpg

This is a little less thrilling.. At first I only noticed two of these buggers. When I take a light to see in the cracks of the rock, I currently can see no less than 8. Needless to say, I see some Peppermint Shrimp in my future..

Chaeto with Pod 1.jpg

Yesterday I picked up a ball of what I think is Chaeto from my LFS that is filled with pods, some of them are pretty big from what I understand, so hopefully I can get a population started here soon. If you look close you can see one of the pods in the middle of this pic.

So my stock plan as of now is as follows;

1 - Royal Gramma or Bicolor Psuedo
1 - Sixline Wrasse
1 - Starry Blenny
1 - Yellow Tang or Kole Yellow Eye Tang

Criticism is welcome although I want to preface by saying I am aware that a tang in a 75 is on the borderline, but I am fairly sure that this is the direction I'm going to go.

What I currently have;

8 Dwarf Hermits (Had 10 but 2 known deaths..)
2 Nassarius
2 Astrea
1 Margarita

In about a week I'm going to be purchasing a real clean up crew online and am debating between LiveAquaria.com (sold out of what I want right now), Saltwaterfish.com, Reefscavengers.com, and Reefcleaners.org. If any of you have advice on these organizations I would love it!

My Coral plan at the moment is to start with Zoa's, and build up to 5-6 different morphs, Devil Finger Leather, more Shrooms of all kinds but definitely including some Ric, and when I'm more confident I will add in some LPS, but have a lot more reading to do before I'm ready for that.

My real big plan is that I will be DIY'ing an LED Light, hopefully this spring!

I know this is long and not particularly unique, but hopefully keeping a log of my experiences will help other newbies to the hobby get on their feet and a year from now it might even interest some of the experienced people to see where I succeed and where I struggle and the progress I can come up with.

[IridescentLily]

sounds good i look forward to your progress.
good luck with your mushrooms. I've raised a tiny sliver of a mushroom that i thought was not gonna make it. It looked awful because of predation. That was two months ago. Now it's vibrant and growing.
It's hard to tell, what kind of mushrooms are they? Their shape look like the blue one i have.

[Aricml]

So I took my water to the LFS yesterday to see how things were progressing and they let me know; no Ammo but NitrItes were still present, so just keep being patient. So perhaps in another 2 weeks I'm going to try again and see if I'm prepared to get my first fish! Either the Bicolor Psuedo/Royal Gramma or a Sixline Wrasse. I have gotten a lot of confusion about which fish between Royal Gramma and Bicolor Psuedo would have the better temperament, does anyone have any experience here?

Front Pic 2.jpg

Also I made another mistake that shows how much of a noob I am. I ordered the API Master Reef kit from ozbo.com and when it arrived I realized that it is in addition to the Master Saltwater, so I will have to buy that and pay shipping twice as an idiot penalty.

But the Reef Kit is able to test NitrAtes, and I found I'm coming in at 20ppm, way higher than it looks like Chaeto will fix. So I'll go pick up some premix and do as much of a water change as I can weekly until it's down. Am I exacerbating this situation by feeding some soaked flake food to the very light clean up crew that is in there? Could it be the Marc Weiss Spectra Vital and Blackpowder I'm using? FWIW I am only using it because It came with the tank and while only a few people online liked it, I couldn't find anyone who said it had negative effects on their tank. Or is it the Bioballs in my sump? Any advice would mean a lot to me.

Sump 1.jpg


I noticed that my (hopefully) coralline that is spreading is looking hairy, and it retracts at lights out to look like it's barely there. Is this normal?

Coralline 1.jpg

I believe I have adjusted my skimmer to get good skimmate, here's the pic, tell me what you think!

Skimmate 1.jpg

[IridescentLily]

Hi,
That red stuff looks like Cyano, not coralline. I know, cuz i have both. lol.
Green hair algae and/or Cyano are both new tank issues. Most of the time caused by excess nutrients (food), light, and flow.
Also, coralline will usually not grow on the sand, only various nuisance algae can grow on the sand. Cyano is actually a bacteria not an algae per se.
These things usuallygo away in 6 mths to a year. But you can (and should) try to balance the nutrient intake of the tank, with the same amount of nutrient export. Meaning higher flow, water changes, lessen the feeding or space out feedings to be less frequent, and of course using a good skimmer as you are already.
Your tank is a nice one.
Good skimate ;-)

[freetareef]

Originally Posted by IridescentLily

Hi,
That red stuff looks like Cyano, not coralline. I know, cuz i have both. lol.
Green hair algae and/or Cyano are both new tank issues. Most of the time caused by excess nutrients (food), light, and flow.
Also, coralline will usually not grow on the sand, only various nuisance algae can grow on the sand. Cyano is actually a bacteria not an algae per se.
These things usuallygo away in 6 mths to a year. But you can (and should) try to balance the nutrient intake of the tank, with the same amount of nutrient export. Meaning higher flow, water changes, lessen the feeding or space out feedings to be less frequent, and of course using a good skimmer as you are already.
Your tank is a nice one.
Good skimate ;-)

+1

you shouldn't be feeding if you don't have any fish. water changes won't really speed up your cycle, the bacteria grows due to environment.
Just be patient.

Also, bio balls are a no-go if you want corals. Get rid of them.
if i were you i would buy more rock for your sump.
have you researched the berlin method?

[freetareef]

you are off to a good start. have you read the stickies in the new to hobby thread?

[A_Z]

Originally Posted by freetareef

+1

you shouldn't be feeding if you don't have any fish. water changes won't really speed up your cycle, the bacteria grows due to environment.
Just be patient.

Also, bio balls are a no-go if you want corals. Get rid of them.
if i were you i would buy more rock for your sump.
have you researched the berlin method?

-1
feeding imaginary fish is a suitable alternative from cycling with a raw shrimp or even cycling with fish. You need to feed the bacteria.

In fact it is mentioned in the new hobby section how to start a tank:

g) don't get 'miracle potions' of bacteria and for gosh sake, don't get a fish. You're good just with the natural dieoff from your rock, but if you just have to do something proactive, drop 4 flakes of fishfood in a day until you spot ammonia in your daily tests. Keep feeding imaginary fish daily---and 5 days after you fail to provoke ammonia, you are cycled.

some people use bioballs, some don't. I have seen many successful bioball tanks. the problem is they start to convert nitrate too fast.

[freetareef]

the cycle has already started. read the thread. the cycle is almost done and he is still putting flake food in the tank with no fish....how does this sound like a good idea?

[freetareef]

and please show me a healthy sps reef with this kind of set up.....

[freetareef]

his test said there was no more ammonia....

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by freetareef

the cycle has already started. read the thread. the cycle is almost done and he is still putting flake food in the tank with no fish....how does this sound like a good idea?

Tell me why it sounds like a bad one? The bacteria that currently populate the system are being fed, thus not being allowed to die down. The flake food is just an addition of bioload. Nothing wrong with it.

[freetareef]

the problem with bio balls is it converts mass amounts of no2 into no3...than the no3 has no where to go.

[freetareef]

im just sayin, he's waiting for no3 to drop, feeding the tank doesn't help achieve this.

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by freetareef

the problem with bio balls is it converts mass amounts of no2 into no3...than the no3 has no where to go.

You were stating that adding flake to the tank was a bad idea. My previous statement was the rebuttal. If the goal is to see no NO3, that isn't going to happen without a water change or other means of removal, which are obviously not present in this system. Also, I am not sure why a healty SPS system even came into play. Is this the OP's goal? I see no indication of that.

If I may suggest, take a minute to formulate your thoughts rather than making three, one sentence posts, one after another.