Sortta New but just getting back at it.

Pazil

New member
So my name is Lawrence, I have kept aquariums for about 15 years, mostly freshwater and planted tanks. I did start a reef tank several years ago but life/work did not grant me the time I needed to dedicate to keeping it. Sadly I shut it down after about a year and a half. I am now at a different place in my life / career and am having another go at reefing. I have a 7' 210g tank with a 105g sump that I have been breeding tropheus in. I sold off my colony of tropheus and cleaned everything up and started back to the salty water.

Equipment I am currently using:
84x24x24 dt with exterior overflow
100g sump (no refugium)
Bubble king mini 200 skimmer
2 titanium 500w heaters
72" t5 fixture with 14 36" bulbs (7/side) each side has blue+, actinic, coral+, purple+, coral+, actinic, blue+
full apex system (atk, atk, pm1,pm2, lsm, dos, 3 x wav, 2 x cor20, fmk, 2 x eb832, no trident (yet)

I have put in 120lbs of new aragonite fiji pink dry sand for substrate.
A friend was shutting down his 65g tank that he had been running for 3 plus years so I purchased all of his rock and inhabitants with the belief that this is not really any different than moving to another tank. None of the rock had been out of the water except to move from tank to containers and containers back to tank. The old sand was NOT used in the new tank. There is about 50lbs of live rock covered in coraline with some gsp, polyps, a few zoas and mushrooms. The remaining inhabitants were moved in as well:
2 true percs
1 skunk clown
1 pj cardinal
1 engineer goby
1 fire cleaner shrimp
1 small carpet anemone (about 3")
and a bunch of small pink bubble tip anemones (about 10 maybe 1" each) He thought that maybe there were 3 or 4 from a split but wow...... they are everywhere
1 tuxedo urchin
1 long spine urchin
1 brittle star fish
and about a dozen crabs and a dozen snails

The tank was running for about a month with just a few pcs of rock before I added the other tank's contents. I have been watching the parameters daily for the last week with no changes 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, <5 nitrates.

I think I will leave it alone for a month or so and continue to monitor but I don't think there will be any cycle.
 
Welcome back to the salty side, Lawrence! I have dabbled in fresh water planted tanks too. I think your plan to just let it ride for a month or so sounds good. I'd just do some thorough observation and deduction, for a while, so you can get to know the tank's tendencies. Good luck!
 
So quick update. I have added about 120lbs of live rock from another fellow reefer that was shutting down his tank. The rock came with a paired spotted goby and pistol shrimp... I had forgotten now entertaining these guys are. Anyway I had a very small mini cycle but nothing to be concerned with. I also had a small out break of diatoms right afterward...... left brown algae looking stuff all over the sand for 4 days then it went away. Everything is looking good, I may add a yellow tang at some pint soon.
 
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