Nate's 55G Reef Tank Build

Hi everyone. I've spent the last 6 months building my first reef tank. A friend gave me his old 55 gallon tank which collected dust for a few months while I figured out how I was gonna do this. Somehow my friend and I managed to build a decent stand and hood in between drinking. The sump is built from 1/4" lexan that I welded together using chloroform. I wanted a coast to coast Bean Animal overflow so I got the hillbillies at the local glass shop to drill some holes and cut a couple pieces of glass then put it together. The tank should be beginning to cycle now. Everything looks like it's working nicely for the most part. I need to find a solution for the micro bubbles that make it to my return pump. I'm not planning on adding any fish until after Easter, but I'm wondering if it would be alright to add things such as macro algae in the refugium or some snails and hermits. Since there's nothing in my aquarium right now I've been adding salt mix straight to the tank as I adjust the specific gravity to 1.024 and I would expect the pH to be around 8.2-8.4, but I'm at 8.06. I'm going to try recalibrating my instruments, but I was wondering if it's normal to see a lower than normal pH when you start a tank.

 

My PH sits around 7.8. You can add a CuC if you want, but I would wait to after the cycle and they will help take care of your diatom problem you will have.

 

Thanks. I'm pretty excited about finally having all this time and money starting to look like something, but I'm managing to stay patient. No sense in rushing now I suppose.

 

Sorry for disappearing but I had a huge problem starting up and had to basically start over. In this post I'm just going to talk about what happened and what I've done since. The next will be more about where I stand currently.
Long story short i had a leak problem with my DIY, solvent welded, Lexan sump that ended with, what an engineer would describe as, a catastrophic failure during a leak test. I took all my rocks and sand out and put them in separate trash cans along with the water from the tank. I then pulled out my sump to work on, before it broke. After that I threw in the towel on the DIY sump (for now) and ordered a sump from ADHI through Custom Aquatics. It looks fantastic and was built exactly to my specs. The stand I built only allows for a tank 10" or less in width, so modifying an existing tank was out of the question due to the volume I wanted in my sump. This gave me a chance to reconsider my aquascaping and alter my rockscape to something more open and which allows me to create a circular current around my tank, even better when I alternate my powerheads, which I believe will help with the movement of nutrients. In the end I "sculpted" some rocks with the claw hammer and moved one of the larger rocks to the sump. After scooping my sand and rocks back in I pumped fresh DI back into the tank and dumped salt in periodically. I imagine this method wasn't the best and I heard from my LFS that I should have used at least some of the old water, to jump-start the new cycle, but it was smelly and I was tired of all the cans in my living room, and I couldn't immediately get my PhD expert friend on the phone. It's been exactly 2 weeks since I put everything back in tank and that's where I'll end this post.

 

I added 10 hermits and 10 snails to the tank and they all look happy. Now I'm just waiting on the LFS to call me when they get the 5 green chromis I asked for. I'm also trying to decide on what my first coral should be.

 

Welcome to 3reef fuelcell.

Congrats on getting the leak fixed that can be a real challenge.

Your off to a great start.

Water carries so little beneficial bacteria that it would not really affect the cycle IME.

 

Went to the LFS yesterday and picked up some coral. I got a decent sized rock covered in some purple zoas and at least 3 anemones. I also got another small piece with some green zoas and a couple of mushrooms. I haven't been able to match them to pictures online to figure out the exact species but I'll post some pics after work if anyone wants to give it a shot. The LFS is supposed to call as soon as my green chromis come in. I was planning on feeding the fish new life spectrum with selcon and sometimes blender mush. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about supplements or food for the corals.

 

Rod's mix!

Ya, 55's are tough to aquascape, I went through several and I am still not all that happy with mine. Tough to do with the limited width compared to the height of those tanks. Can't wait for an upgrade!

 

What type of Anemones fuelcell?

 

Picked up 5 green chromis from the store on wednesday as soon as they got there. I noticed one looked kind of splotchy from above while i was acclimating them. I added them and they all seemed fine for a few days, until friday morning i got up to feed them and the splotchy one was dead. The rest of the fish seem to be doing fine. I'm not sure if it was another chromis or if something was already wrong with him.


Here are the inverts i picked up last week. I think they gave me some sort of carpet anemonies.