75 gallon reef build

[CalisFinest]

if you're ever in San Fransisco i suggest you check out the California academy of science, they have remodeled within the last 3-4 years and now have one of the biggest live reefs in captivity its amazing. every time i go the reef tank looks totally different from both views (you can view it from above the waves and below). i like Kent and instant ocean as far as salts

 

[Nonameben]

I've never been to Cali before but would love to one day, I've never actually left the southern east coast. More of a reason to plan a trip! I'm looking at the Red Sea pro salt right now, how is that?

 

[jlylec]

I've never been to Cali before but would love to one day, I've never actually left the southern east coast. More of a reason to plan a trip! I'm looking at the Red Sea pro salt right now, how is that?

i used red sea pro salt at first and it was fine. honestly most of them are as long as you don't get complete sh1t salt. the key is consistency. i switched to instant ocean reef crystals a couple years ago because it seems to be the best for the money and you can get it just about anywhere in a pinch, and in 200g bulk boxes online (dr. foster's generally has good prices...i shop around and never have to pay more than $60 for 200g worth). it's by far the most convenient to use from availability and cost standpoint. there are articles out there you can read about salt if you have time to waste. just stick to something that you know you can get on a regular basis because you don't want to be switching salts on a regular basis. looking forward to seeing your CUC!

 

[CalisFinest]

noname, how long did it take before you started seeing signs of life in your tank?

 

[Nonameben]

i used red sea pro salt at first and it was fine. honestly most of them are as long as you don't get complete sh1t salt. the key is consistency. i switched to instant ocean reef crystals a couple years ago because it seems to be the best for the money and you can get it just about anywhere in a pinch, and in 200g bulk boxes online (dr. foster's generally has good prices...i shop around and never have to pay more than $60 for 200g worth). it's by far the most convenient to use from availability and cost standpoint. there are articles out there you can read about salt if you have time to waste. just stick to something that you know you can get on a regular basis because you don't want to be switching salts on a regular basis. looking forward to seeing your CUC!

I like red seas products a lot, but I saw the 200g boxes and they are a pretty good deal. I'll need to look into it more this week. I like the ones that show how much Ca, Mg, etc. are in it. Eh, the clean up crew wasn't as much as I thought.

 

[Nonameben]

noname, how long did it take before you started seeing signs of life in your tank?

The first life I ever saw was the day my tank was filled with rock, salt, and sand. The aiptasia was first.The 15 days later the algae was there, along with the snails and the pods. I also added peppermint shrimp to the tank. From then more life started to appear

 

[iwishtofish]

I wish I could recommend a salt - I am trying to decide which one I want to use, as well. I'm going to try to pick one with levels that are as close as possible to where I want my water to be: Alk 9 dKH, Ca 440, Mag 1350-1400. I believe that water changes can be stressful to tank inhabitants, so I want to reduce that as much as possible. Also, some salts have higher concentrations of bad stuff, such as copper, so I need to do more research.

Good testimonials and good price never hurt, of course!

 

[Nonameben]

Not the CUC I built it up to be..

Not the CUC I built it up to be..

I decided to take it slow adding animals still. 10 more astrea snails and 3 Turbo snails. Hopefully more CUC on Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday, I'll be hooking up my rodi unit I bought last week. Once that's set up I plan on filling my 29g QT tank and preparing it for fish!

Those turbo snails are huge, I'll get some pictures of them on Wednesday to post.

My next buy will be some salt, and a CPR AquaFuge2 HOB. Or the twolittlefishies phosban reactor!

 

[CalisFinest]

yeah i got impatient and scrolled back through your posts to see when those aphasia first showed up. i thought once i got water in my tank it would be easy to wait...turns out i was wrong

 

[CalisFinest]

dude wheres the update

 

[Nonameben]

Update

Update

Well hello everyone, it's been a while. Sorry for the lack of updates, school and work started to take over my life for a few weeks. Of course I worked on the fish tank too, but really I've just been letting the snails/hermits roam around and letting my tank mature a bit. Over the past few weeks I've gotten my BRS 5 stage ro/di system, a pump for my ATO, hanna checker (alk), Red sea pro salt, and some legs for my lights.

Now for the fun stuff:

The plan is to add a 30g drum to the left side of my tank as an ATO container. The top off will be pumped into a new acrylic or glass tank that will sit next to my sump. Basically, this new tank will be an extension of my sump, connected by a 3/4" bulkhead and a small piece of pvc. The return area of my sump will be moved into the new tank and the old return area will be turned into a refugium.

So that is what's going on today!
Quick question....what is this?

Two brown tube things that have tentacles coming out of it, sort of like the galaxea's sweepers.

 

[Nonameben]

 

[CalisFinest]

you probably been busy like me had to come see how the tank is doing post pics. mine has gone through quite the metamorphosis since i last posted

 

[wrxreefer823]

Those brown tube things you have are called Vermetids... a type of nuiscence snail that are caused by high nutrients in a tank. Although they are harmless, if they grow in abundance (like my tank, my rocks are COVERED in them), thay can puncture corals and such. I've considered getting a trigger or puffer to take care of them, but they're not reef safe, so I"m not really sure what I would do.

 

[Nonameben]

Hello everybody, it's been quite some time since I was last on RC. I've been a little busy with school and work and the tank. Got a bunch of updates, tank has had it's ups and downs. Right now its on the up, I think..

Here's some photos of what's been going on:

Cave goby, my first and only fish

Finally got this guy off his peg, some sort of acan

can somebody identify this coral?

 

[Waddleboy]

Tank looks good! good progress. That may be a type of star polyp or gorgonian? cant really tell from the pic sorry

 

[jayjigga]

Woohoo update! I'm leaning towards a favia. Good stuff