Boricuamed's 46g Reef Tank build

[boricuamed]

Hello All,

I have decided to get back in the hobby after a 3 year absence. My goal is to have a 46g Bowfront reef tank. It is being done in 2 stages:

Stage I.

Cycle and establish a 25g "mini-reef" that will later on serve as a refuge for the 46g show. The main reasons for doing this are: 1- Budget, and (most importantly) 2- It allows me to pace myself in such a way that when the 46g is ready to accept inhabitants, I will have learned the basics well enough to limit problems/issues.

Stage II.

Cycle the 46g tank, and then transfer the contents of the 25g into the 46g. At this point I will transfer the "show pieces" to the larger tank, leaving some of the LR and sand in the now- 25g refuge. The idea is to custom drill the 46g tank to fit a custom-built stand, and accommodate the necessary plumbing.

To date I have accomplished the following:

25g tank is about 10 weeks old. It currently contains one medium-sized rock that has some corals, sponges, algae, etc. It has been in the tank for about 4 weeks now. I will get more LR next week. Since the cycle is complete, and the water params are stable, I want to add about 5-8lbs of rock per week, so as to not provoke any spikes. I measure the following params every 3 days: Alkalinity, Ca, Salinity (as SG), temp, Nitrates. These are today's results:

Alkalinity: 9dKH
Ca: 410ppm
Salinity: SG of 1.025
Temp: 76F
Nitrate: 5ppm

These results have been +/- 5% for the past 10 days. I will monitor for 6 more days before performing a complete water test and introducing more LR. I am curious as to how I can establish a "confident trend", so that I can predict better when to add or when to hold off more livestock.

I will keep all of you posted on the progress...

-Boricuamed

 

[salt_for_brains]

Keep up the good work:thumbsup:

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Sounds like you have a good game plan :)

 

[boricuamed]

Thanks for the replies. I will try to update often.

 

[boricuamed]

Update on tank build...

Tank is doing well. Had some diatoms growing so I added some snails. Also added a new piece of rock and 2 clowns. I have updated pics in gallery.

 

[boricuamed]

So... After letting the tank settle for some time (about 3 weeks), I decided to continue to the next phase of the build. I initially wanted a 46g Bow, but after visiting a few LFS's, and some websites, I realized that I would be better off with a 40g Breeder (which is actually 44.8g). A few reasons for this:

1. Overall dimensions of the tank allow me to aquascape better and not have a "wall of rocks".
2. Since the tank is a bit shallower than a 46g bow, I can actually manage the lighting better.
3. Due to the footprint of the tank 36x18, I have much more space to fir the reef section of the tank along with more space for the fish.

So, without delay... This has been running for the past 2 weeks (w/o a skimmer!!!)... Water params are: Avg Temp 79F, Ammo 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate .5, Phos 0, Alk 12dkh, Ca 500. I do a 10% w/c every week.

CUC: Turbo snails x4, Nassarius snails x3, Emerald crab x1, Cerith snails x4

Fish: True percs x2, Blue/Green chromis x2

Corals: Mushrooms x12... and growing!, tons of sponges... Will consider which ones to add once I get a skimmer in place.

Lights: Coralife 50/50 24" fixture x1, Nat Geo (sorry but low on $$$ so this will have to do for now) 30"LED with white 7,000k-10,000k x 24 and blue 20,000k x4. So far I actually had to acclimate the mushrooms to the lights, and they have been growing very well (at least to me and I know nothing! ;))

Circulation: Koralia Nano 240gph x1 + Ocean Stream OS-101 500gph x1 + Ocean Stream OS-1 1,600gph <-- Is this enough???

I plan on installing overflow, sump and skimmer in early August. For now this setup seems to be doing very well. I would love your thoughts...

Here are the most recent pics (Did a w/c today. Will post more pics tomorrow when the mushrooms open up again.):

I welcome any feedback and suggestions. Thanks in advance!

- Boricuamed