wilsonline
New member
Finally, I have a saltwater tank. This is my second attempt to set up a reef. On my first try, I had to sell everything before I had water in.
This time, it started when I got a broken tank to fix. This guy was about to dump this tank, but his brother in law posted it on OfferUp. So almost everything here I got second hand. Saved some money, had a lot of work and a bit of a headache. Anyway, this is it.
.
Tank Red Sea 350
.
Equipment
Sand Carib Sea oolite
Rocks Dry randon rocks from local reefer + Marco rocks
Light 2x Radions XR30 Pro G3
Skimmer Bubble King Double Cone 180DC
Circulation 2x MP40QDs + Maxspect 250 + Jebao 2w for sump
Return Cor-20
Controller Apex Wifi
Doser DOS
Trident
Heater Aqueon 200w + Fluval 100W
Cooling cheap home depot fan
UV sterilizer Jebao 36 watts
.
Live stock
Fish 4 striped damsels, 3 yellow tail damsels, 2 firefish, 3 ocellaris, 1 yellow chromis wrasse, 1 sixline, 6 Pseudanthias dispar, 1 purple tang, chalk bass.
Inverts 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, 2 nassariuns snails, some hermit crabs, 1 cleaner clam, more snails, 2 nasty shrimps.
Corals a dozen acro frags, 4 montis, 1 plate, 3 encrusting sps, 2 lps, 3 zoas.
.
So I cycled this tank for 2 months with low salinity, warm temp and dosed Dr Tim bacteria, Nitout, Fritz 9, Ammonium chloride. Dosed vinegar in the middle to drop nitrates, it was over the charts, same at the end of the 2nd month.
.
I didn't have the barrels and all the logistics to do wc. I had the RO/DI, but no barrels and stuff. So I started the tank (adding fish) without a large wc as I should. Added 2 ocellaris, observed for 2 weeks, everything seemed fine. So I went crazy and started adding fish and coral a bit too fast and way too much lol.
.
Added first frags, some more fish. All ok for a week. Added the purple tang. The guy from a lfs said they didn't have purple tangs for 2 years and that I should get one. Actually it was a great fish, a bit aggressive but super cool. Up to this point no major problems.
.
So I added like a dozen fish and a 1/2 dozen sps frags. All seemed fine. I should have stopped there but I kept adding fish lol. So I added a sixline. It came packed with fluke. Got more fish. Fluke and who knows what else was there. Fluke spread like fire with all those fish in a tiny tank.
.
I treated the tank with prazipro. Didn't see fluke anymore, but corals were hit hard. Not sure if by the medicine or bc I dosed vibrant to keep rocks white, rocks were starting to get dark.
.
So, I kept going. Added a copperband, it died. Added another one. Second was great till it jump, yes a ****ing copperband jumped. I would never imagine that. Third one died the same way the first, didn't eat.
.
Killed more: sweetlip, 6 Pseudanthias tuke (purple queens), watchman gobby, convict tang. So I added too much fish and some very fragile fish. All those fish came in very poor condition, very skinny, with parasites. Very dumb mistake. I think pretty much all fish I lost would have a chance if I had a QT and treated the parasites they brought in. But all done now.
.
Not only lost all those fish, but corals were not doing fine at all. Corals were not growing and started going downhill. I started chacing the issue and I came across some videos of dinos that kept coming to my head. Shout out to the site Coral Wonders and the YouTube channel Reef Show. Very organized content about dinos.
.
I realized the brown algae was actually dino, probably ostreopsis. I had no idea why and not saying the issues were all bc of the dinos.
So I passed the last two weeks fighting the dinos. Did a blackout this weekend. It was a 4 days blackout, dosed Dr. Tim waste away, NitOut, Vibrant, Uv directly on the display, shifted the sand twice, hummmm, I think that was it. So, yeah, the tank came out clear. Now let's see if it comes back.
.
Unfortunately, this didn't pass without losses. In the process, I lost those beautiful purple queen anthias. Those stopped eating and disappeared. Not sure if that was the cause alone or what, but orp was really low about 290, it used to be between 330 and 410. So today a friend asked me about ammonia, bc I lost 4/5 fish right?! So yeah, I didn't think about that, even though the orp was screaming at me. So this morning, I tested nitrite and it was at 0.25ppm. Couldn't see how was the ammonia, salifert test, just horrible.
Now I'm just waiting for the tank to get better. No more fish coming in oc. Gathering stuff for a qt.
Dang how to add pics :headwally:
This time, it started when I got a broken tank to fix. This guy was about to dump this tank, but his brother in law posted it on OfferUp. So almost everything here I got second hand. Saved some money, had a lot of work and a bit of a headache. Anyway, this is it.
.
Tank Red Sea 350
.
Equipment
Sand Carib Sea oolite
Rocks Dry randon rocks from local reefer + Marco rocks
Light 2x Radions XR30 Pro G3
Skimmer Bubble King Double Cone 180DC
Circulation 2x MP40QDs + Maxspect 250 + Jebao 2w for sump
Return Cor-20
Controller Apex Wifi
Doser DOS
Trident
Heater Aqueon 200w + Fluval 100W
Cooling cheap home depot fan
UV sterilizer Jebao 36 watts
Live stock
Fish 4 striped damsels, 3 yellow tail damsels, 2 firefish, 3 ocellaris, 1 yellow chromis wrasse, 1 sixline, 6 Pseudanthias dispar, 1 purple tang, chalk bass.
Inverts 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, 2 nassariuns snails, some hermit crabs, 1 cleaner clam, more snails, 2 nasty shrimps.
Corals a dozen acro frags, 4 montis, 1 plate, 3 encrusting sps, 2 lps, 3 zoas.
.
So I cycled this tank for 2 months with low salinity, warm temp and dosed Dr Tim bacteria, Nitout, Fritz 9, Ammonium chloride. Dosed vinegar in the middle to drop nitrates, it was over the charts, same at the end of the 2nd month.
.
I didn't have the barrels and all the logistics to do wc. I had the RO/DI, but no barrels and stuff. So I started the tank (adding fish) without a large wc as I should. Added 2 ocellaris, observed for 2 weeks, everything seemed fine. So I went crazy and started adding fish and coral a bit too fast and way too much lol.
.
Added first frags, some more fish. All ok for a week. Added the purple tang. The guy from a lfs said they didn't have purple tangs for 2 years and that I should get one. Actually it was a great fish, a bit aggressive but super cool. Up to this point no major problems.
.
So I added like a dozen fish and a 1/2 dozen sps frags. All seemed fine. I should have stopped there but I kept adding fish lol. So I added a sixline. It came packed with fluke. Got more fish. Fluke and who knows what else was there. Fluke spread like fire with all those fish in a tiny tank.
.
I treated the tank with prazipro. Didn't see fluke anymore, but corals were hit hard. Not sure if by the medicine or bc I dosed vibrant to keep rocks white, rocks were starting to get dark.
.
So, I kept going. Added a copperband, it died. Added another one. Second was great till it jump, yes a ****ing copperband jumped. I would never imagine that. Third one died the same way the first, didn't eat.
.
Killed more: sweetlip, 6 Pseudanthias tuke (purple queens), watchman gobby, convict tang. So I added too much fish and some very fragile fish. All those fish came in very poor condition, very skinny, with parasites. Very dumb mistake. I think pretty much all fish I lost would have a chance if I had a QT and treated the parasites they brought in. But all done now.
.
Not only lost all those fish, but corals were not doing fine at all. Corals were not growing and started going downhill. I started chacing the issue and I came across some videos of dinos that kept coming to my head. Shout out to the site Coral Wonders and the YouTube channel Reef Show. Very organized content about dinos.
.
I realized the brown algae was actually dino, probably ostreopsis. I had no idea why and not saying the issues were all bc of the dinos.
So I passed the last two weeks fighting the dinos. Did a blackout this weekend. It was a 4 days blackout, dosed Dr. Tim waste away, NitOut, Vibrant, Uv directly on the display, shifted the sand twice, hummmm, I think that was it. So, yeah, the tank came out clear. Now let's see if it comes back.
.
Unfortunately, this didn't pass without losses. In the process, I lost those beautiful purple queen anthias. Those stopped eating and disappeared. Not sure if that was the cause alone or what, but orp was really low about 290, it used to be between 330 and 410. So today a friend asked me about ammonia, bc I lost 4/5 fish right?! So yeah, I didn't think about that, even though the orp was screaming at me. So this morning, I tested nitrite and it was at 0.25ppm. Couldn't see how was the ammonia, salifert test, just horrible.
Now I'm just waiting for the tank to get better. No more fish coming in oc. Gathering stuff for a qt.
Dang how to add pics :headwally:
Last edited:
