Brenton's Mr. Aqua 12 gallon long reef build

Finally got a reliable phosphate and nitrate test kit (red sea) and sat down to do some testing as soon as I got home from work. It i know that I have been seeing some crazy algae growth in the sump and since putting chaeto I. Have seen that go down a little. As well the green monti cap has started to green up again from browning out.

Current values stand at
Nitrate = 0
Phosphate = .08! Yikes, looks like getting that down should help color up the monti and my birdsnest.

 

Just checking in, nothing new to report on the 12 gallon. Phosphates are falling and nitrates still at zero.

However my wife has just given me the okay on a 40 gallon breeder!!! (Petco was having their $1 a gallon sale) so I will be starting that build here soon and everything will be moved into the new tank. I still have to build a stand and sump so between work and flight school this new build will take several months and I am probably looking at the move over around mid January.

Until then I will keep up this build thread with updates for y'all.

 

Extremely cool 12 gallon you have there. I really love it. I also saw that petco $1 a gallon sale when buying dog food the other night. Not bad deals at all!

 

Thank you. I briefly debated the 55 gallon but I really like the depth of the 40 and the 55 was all tempered

 

Congrats on the go ahead with the 40 breeder! I'm sure it will look awesome as well!

 

Thank you, I have already begun to draw up some plans

 

well, do share.....what are you plans for the tank? Not in terms of the technical but what are you interested in keeping in it?

 

Right now I would like a mixed reef (with mostly sps) and several banngai cardinals and possible a clownfish or two. I'm open to suggestions though.

 

I've added a new batch of pictures to the album for this aquarium and posted a new fts on my first post
Album: http://www.3reef.com/forums/album.php?albumid=1435

I am starting to see some growth from the SPS as well as a speed up in the growth of the lps and soft corals.
And the thing that I am most happy about is that my green monti-cap is starting to color back up from browning out and is showing a ton of growth around each edge! As always it is a lot more green than can be seen in the photo and at this point I would actually say it is more green than brown. It has colored up in about 2 weeks.


I am still waiting for the green birdsnest to regain its color and I'm hoping that since the monti is the birdsnest will follow.

 

OMG! I just ordered this tank, I will have it in 2 days! Idk how I missed this thread! Awesome setup man, I'm getting ready to do a complete new build with a Mr. Aqua 12 long. How did you do your overflow? Where did you get that box? I've been scratching my head trying to figure out what type of overflow I want to use on such a small tank.