Moving Day

Whelp, the moving day is finally here and the stress of moving the tank has come. With the help of a couple friends from work, I was able to get the tank transported to the new office fairly quickly. I've got the tank setup and performed a small water change because it was a normal water change day but also since I was taking it down anyway. Pictures of the new office will be posted below.

I found some red legs detached and floating at the bottom of the tank when I went in today. Thought my hermit may have died and got eaten but he was still in his shell. Perhaps he molted? I thought their molt would be translucent...

Anyway, the tank has been re-setup at the new office and the inhabitants seem to be doing OK. The snails are a bit active and Gumball is swimming around.I hope I didn't accidentally injure anyone in the process of moving and placing the rocks back in. The plate coral is a bit inflated and looks as if he wants to move himself a bit. The Zoa's have opened up but the Hammer and the Duncan are still closed up tightly.

Unfortunately, I no longer have access to the tank in the new building during weekends. This causes me quite a bother, especially since the tank just moved and tomorrow the building is closed. It's going to be going 3 days without any sort of monitoring, which worries me.

I'm hoping for the best but I'll have to see what Monday brings me.

~Keep on Swimming~

Moving buildings...

The office has finally determined the date of the office move and it is currently under way and it's been a roller coaster of changes. The status of the move would change daily and at one point it looked liked we'd be moved into the new building before we had to be out of the current building. That would have been perfect because moving the tank would have been simple and immediate. Now, the move is happening and we are made to work from home for about a week and a half... and hope the new area is set up when we are called back into work... So I have to go into the office to check on the tank, feed the critters and perform any maintenance that needs to be done. Then I have to worry about actually getting the tank to the new office when the new office is deemed "ready" Apparently, some cubes may not have power and we probably won't be able to move in until after the date we are not allowed back into the old building -.- 

Not looking forward to what's ahead with the tank and I'm worried it may crash or cause critter death. 

~Keep on Swimming~

Not sure if tank is going through a life-cycle phase or what...

Came in this morning and the Spiny Star Astraea Snail was out of the water. He was there on Friday so I'm thinking he must have been there all weekend. No smell so he's not dead but he could be on the verge... Although he did do this "not moving" thing for a few days in the past. What worried me was I barely touched him and he came right off the glass and fell into the aquarium. Pulled him out and his foot was hanging out. Touched it and didn't really recoil. I've placed him back into the tank under close observation. 10 minutes later and I see his eyes and antennae moving about but that's it. Doesn't really seem to be latching onto a rock. I checked my nitrates because I removed my Algone filter pack as it is meant for preventative maintenance and I wanted to know if my tank would be ok without it for a bit. My Specific Gravity (note: I've been calling it Salinity this whole time and, while related, are not the same thing) was a little low today so I'll have to add a little more salt.

I also came in to the right side of the tank covered in Pileolaria. Thankfully, these guys are beneficial and are a sign of a healthy tank.

I found the Pom Pom Crab, finally. I hadn't seen him for a week and he's right in the front of the tank in a cave. Phew, was getting worried that he may have passed.

~Keep on Swimming~

Little critters and moving update

The coral haven't been too happy lately for some reason. The Hammer is barely opening up, the Duncan is closed in the morning when I get in and opens about 3/4 of it's usual size and the plate coral is a little closed. The Zoas seem to be doing fine and the Scarlace actually seems to be doing really well. A snail or something seems to have bumped it into a shaded area and it looks like it prefers it there. I may have to re-situate it though since it looks a bit out of place.

The hammer has been knocked over a few times in the last week so that could be the reason for it's distress. However, I wonder if the rock it is situated on has moved somewhat. It seems more at an angle and I moved the light fixture a bit and the Hammer responded by opening up because it got more direct light. It was happy with it's placement all this time until recently...

We also (finally) just got word on when we're moving offices. I'm kinda freaking out about the move because when the cubes (and power!) will be available to us... So I can't plan on quickly transporting the tank and having it set up quickly to reduce the chance of tank death. But, with little information available to us, I can't really plan on anything. I may just try and take the tank hope, fully set it back up and let it hang out at home for a month before transporting it back to the new office... We'll see. Hopefully we'll get more information as the move date approaches...

I got a video of those weird bug-shrimp like critters running all over the rocks.

I also got a picture of that bivalve I had found in my tank. He decided to finally show up again. He's just to the upper right of the plate coral in this picture:

Some sort of Bivalve?

I also got some fun photos of the CUC eating off each other

Scarelet Hermit eating off the Spiny Star Astraea Snail

Nerite Snail eating off the Astraea Turbo Snail

Here's hoping for a successful future!

Overdue update

Been hectic for awhile with the holidays coming up but I need to post some sort of update on the reef.

First of all, Gumdrop seems to be thriving. He should be long dead if he hasn't been eating but it seems he has. So, good news. He could just be small enough to where it doesn't look like he's really eating. I had gotten some different food in flake form for him and he didn't seem to spit it out but the piece he 'ate' were minuscule. Maybe that's all he needs? I'm feeding the tank Mondays and Thursdays although I may cut back on the coral feeding because...

I'm having a big algae problem. I got a scraper to get rid of the snail eggs on the side of the glass and some of the algae that the snails can't keep up. Took care of all this a week or more ago and the snail has laid more eggs -.- The algae is exploding as well; it's all over the rocks and starting to grow on the sand bed. The snails can't keep up. I check my water parameters and everything is 0 so I'm not sure where the nutrients for the algae to thrive off are coming from. Hence why I'm going to cut back the coral feeding because it may be getting it from that. I should really test the drinking water I get from Walmart to actually see if it is RO water like it says it is...

I'll probably have to perform another manual scraping of the walls of the tank to clear the snail eggs and algae sometime this week and maybe get another nerite snail to help with the hair algae growing everywhere. This all good be because of the mini cycle I caused a while back and the tank is just re-stabilizing again.

Time will tell and I'm hoping for the best!

Quick post

Got a nice shot of the Pom Pom Crab hanging out with the Hammer Coral but the Hammer wasn't too happy about his presence. 

Pom Pom Crab with the Hammer Coral

Also, my team at work and I have decided to name the Clown Fish "Gumdrop" because he looks kind of like a gummi snack. I'm glad to see him starting to explore the tank more but he still hasn't eaten... even though I've attempted to feed him a couple times, now. I've read online that liquid garlic extract works to stimulate their appetite so I may have to give that a go tomorrow. I really don't want to pollute my tank with all the uneaten food so I hope the CUC are up on their game.

Sharkbait, some new pictures and a video!

So I picked myself up a baby Sharkbait last night (read: clownfish) and he seems to be adapting well to the environment. I attempted to feed him some flake and pellet food while I was acclimating him and he didn't seem to care for it. I fed the tank some frozen Mysis Shrimp today and he didn't eat any of it either. I'm hoping he just isn't hungry and/or is just adjusting to the tank. Otherwise, I'm going to have to find something he will eat.

Sharkbait

Plate Coral Feeding

I also finally managed to get some pictures of the Zoa colony I have. I'm still not too happy with how they turn out (taken from my phone) but they are currently the best I have. The colony looks SO much more gorgeous in real life, especially under the blue LEDs!

Zoa's under Full Spectrum LEDs

Zoa's under Blue LEDs

Full Tank Capture

More Livestock Freebies and Pom Pom Crab video

Stomatella Snail?

I was inspecting my tank last night and found a very small snail hiding behind my Zoas that I've never seen before. Thankfully, it turns out he's a beneficial snail and isn't predatory to any of my corals. I wasn't able to get a great shot of him but I believe he is a Stomatella Snail because he has a really long tail that extends out of his shell. I could very well be wrong but he looks like other images I've seen of these snails, albeit he's quite small at the moment :P

I also have been wondering what this "thing" under my Zoa rock was for awhile and finally decided to really look at it. Turns out, it wasn't just a piece of rock but rather a shell of some sort. Since I was unable to identify it and it had been sitting there for weeks, I decided to try and remove it from the rock with a tool. It "held on" to the rock but not like a snail would so it didn't feel like it was working against me. It felt more like it was "attached" as I could move the shell but a piece was staying on. I was finally able to work it free and began to wonder if the critter was actually alive since it wasn't easy (but also not too difficult) to remove. Instead of just throwing it out, I placed it in a new area on the sand. If it hadn't moved by the end of the following day, I would discard it. However, I came in this morning and the shell is nowhere to be found. I decided to try and find what kind of hitchhiker I could have gotten. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him as I was pretty sure it wasn't alive but I found this image online and it looks pretty darn close to the little guy. At the very least, I'm pretty sure that I have some sort of bivalve...

Anyways, onto the more interesting part! Check out the video I took of the Pom Pom Crab dancing around and eating some foods! I'll have to get a video of me actually feeding him because he goes haywire for mysis shrimp!

So confused...

Came in this morning and the Spiny Star Astraea hasn't moved since Friday. Not sure what's going on but he's definitely alive. I thought he might have been dead so I attempted to remove him but he reflexed and held firm to the rock. The turbo snail hasn't moved far from where he was on Friday, either. All of the other inhabitants seem to be moving fine, though.

I noticed my filter was overflowing back into the tank from the intake side of the filter. I attempted to move the Algone media to the basket side and a bunch of white, cheese-like substance came of and spilled into the tank. Well, crap. I can't seem to find any information regarding whatever it is so hopefully I didn't just contaminate my tank. I took the media to the sink and rinsed it off and more of that stuff came off. Seriously, it looks like a thin layer of sour cream. Smells like cheese, too. No idea what it is. So, again, hopefully I didn't just hurt my tank by rinsing it off if it was beneficial for the aquarium. Either decision I made is sure to have an impact on the tank. I'll have to keep a close eye on it...

There's also long, stiff, hair-like growth coming off the rock and glass which I can't determine what they are but they are not Dinoflagellates (as far as I can tell). 

I also believe I have a bunch of snail eggs attached to the back glass of the aquarium. Bunch of small, flat, white circles back there but nowhere else and the cleanup crew is ignoring them. I'm unsure what to do about these. One one hand - yay, free snails. On the other hand - crap, free snails! I suppose it's a good sign that my tank is healthy that the snails are reproducing (also, I found a bunch of amphipods the other day scuttering about!) but I'm not quite sure what I should do about them just yet. If I let them hatch, I know many of them will end up dying because of the lack of food for them to eat and that will just add a bunch of bad chemicals to the environment from the decaying matter... And they'd probably be really hard to remove from the tank once they hatch...

With the weirdnesses I've seen today, I decided to do a full water parameters check and everything seems normal; better even! The params are the best they've been in a long while.

Parameter

Value

Salinity

1.025

pH

8.4

Ammonia

.25 ppm

Nitrite

0 ppm

Nitrate

2.5 ppm

Phosphate

0 ppm

Calcium

560 ppm

Carbonate Harness

125.3 ppm

I'm thinking I should get a Magnesium test kit. Maybe the Mg levels are low and the snails are angry about that?...

Tank Updates

Went to Petco and picked up a Scarlet Reef Hermit to help combat the hair algae I have going on. Apparently, these guys a little lawn mowers and don't kill other snails for their shells. So win-win.

I also picked up some Frozen Mysis Shrimp for the Pom Pom crab and the coral. Gave the crab a lil feeding and he went nuts. He literally leaped from his cave and pounced the shrimp. He even started to climb on the tool I was using to feed him and was trying to grab the shrimp from within it. Had to shake him off a little and he grabbed the shrimp that landed on the sand bed. 

Maybe my corals were a little hungry. Once I tried to spot feed the Hammer Coral he began to open up. Strange.

Also, minor panic moment. I just learned about Palytoxin Poisoning which the Zoas I have can exhibit. Apparently it is the second most toxic chemical found in nature. Great, right? Freaked. Me. Out. Using gloves whenever I have to handle these guys now. I bite my nails and always have small cuts on my hands so I do not wanna run into this lil issue...

Tank is angry - no idea why...

I came in yesterday and my salinity was a little low: 1.020. Brought it back up to 1.023 by adding a little salt. This usually really angers the Hammer Coral and the Duncan will usually close one or 2 heads. A few hours later and the Duncan is fully open again the the hammer is beginning to open. I checked all my water parameters and they were all perfect (except the Nitrates were ~40ppm).

But yesterday the Hammer stayed closed all day after the salt addition. This morning, the Hammer is pretty closed up but the polyps are visible. One of the Duncan heads is partially closed. No idea why the tank is angry today. The Zoa is about 3/4 open now so he seems to be progressing. Not sure why everyone else is unhappy and I'm kind of worried... especially since I have tomorrow off. I may have to make a trip to the office tomorrow just to make sure everything is on the up-and-up.

First casualty :(

I came in this morning to my first casualty: the Peppermint Shrimp seemed to have met his demise sometime over the weekend. I had come in Saturday night to check on the tank and he was out near the plate coral. Maybe the plate stung him and killed him?

The Pom Pom crab has now taken up residence in the save the Peppermint Shrimp was inhabiting. Maybe they had a turf war scuffle; the crab is now missing one of his anemones... But I was finally able to snap a quick picture of him when he was out and about!

Pom Pom Crab

The Zoa colony is still in the process of opening up (about half way) and I believe I found a happy place for the Sarlacc Leptastrea. All the information regarding their parameters seems to differ.

I'll have to contact LiveAquaria today for a replacement Shrimp as they have a 14 day guarantee.

New Livestock and Light Controller Update

I left my light controller unplugged all night so as not to exacerbate any particular issues with the water in the controller. I figured I'd give it a full nights time to dry up and it seems to have done the trick! I plugged in the controller when I came in this morning and all the lights are powering on properly. Sa-weet!

But seriously, so many thanks to the guy that built the unit for his quick replies and service. I left him a review on Amazon and would highly recommend his unit to anyone wanting to start up a Fluval Edge Nano Reef.

Anyways, on to the livestock!

The Nassarius Snail is much smaller than I was expecting. LiveAquaria stated its' shipping size would be between .5" and .75" and he's barely .25". Not really a big deal but I'm sure he won't be able to clean up the substrate very efficiently until he gets much bigger. I can be patient though. I'll also probably never see him until he gets bigger and I can see his siphon sticking out of the sand bed somewhere.

Super Tongan Nassarius Snail

The Peppermint Shrimp is pretty neat; he sways around like he's mimicking the current even though he is surround by rock. It kinda looks like he's dancing. I fed him some sinking pellets when I was getting him acclimated to my tank water and he gobbled them down quickly. He's fun to watch eat. He found a nice, deep cave in the rock and dug out some sand around it to make it deeper to make his home.

Peppermint Shrimp

Unfortunately, I deleted the picture I had of the Pom Pom Crab because it wasn't in very good lighting and I forgot to get a new one before placing him in the tank. He scuttled down and found himself a really deep crevice in the rock yesterday and I haven't seen him at all today. Poor guy, he's missing 2 of his left legs. They weren't in the shipping bag that he came in so he probably lost them in the facility before being shipped. They can grow back once he molts but they'll be a little smaller than his normal legs. I'm thinking of calling him "Lefty". I hope he comes out sometime so I can get a nice picture of him... and so I can feed him...

The Zoanthus colony hasn't really opened up yet so I'll get a picture once he gets a little more happy. I may have to secure the colony rock to another rock as a snail literally just knocked it over as I am typing this blog...

I haven't secured the Sarlacc Leptastrea just yet because I want to be sure he'll be happy where I place him so I don't have any good pictures of him yet either. 

The Aussie Plate Coral: Stunned. I am blown away by this little guy. Since the lights came on he really started to open up and is twice the size as he was when he first got put in the tank! Immediate favorite. He looks so cool and I love to just sit and watch his tentacles sway in the current. Love this guy.

Aussie Short Tentacle Plate Coral

I hope to get these remaining pictures and a tank shot soon once everyone gets all happy again.

Light Controller Update

I've contacted the guy that built the unit and he has helped me diagnose some of the issue. It seems the LEDs themselves are fine as connecting them directly to power turn them on (phew!) but they do not turn on with their normal cycle. I'm waiting to hear back again but if I were to garner a guess I would say the controller is shot. If it is, they are only ~$30-$50 which is much cheaper than replacing the lighting unit itself.

Still, it would be great it it was just in need of a software reset or something. Hopefully he gets to me soon so I can determine what I need to do to get the lights back up. I'm sure the new coral are not going to be happy adjusting to their new home without light...

I'll be posting pictures of the new livestock soon (probably after I figure out some lighting alternative). I may bring in the stock lighting unit in the interim. It does not provide nearly enough lighting for a marine reef but something is better than nothing.

ShitShitShitShitShitShit!

I got my new livestock in today and while I was picking up one of the bags that had a coral in it I accidentally spilled water all over my light controller... Now most of the whites don't turn on and the blues are super dim. Shit! I unplugged the controller immediately and contacted the guy that built it. I'm hoping there's just a temporary short in the controller and will resolve itself once it dries. It is saltwater, however, and saltwater is super conductive. I hope I didn't short out the LEDS >.<

*So much swearing*

Light timer not set properly and hair algae?

So I popped in over the weekend after halloween to put some Purple Tech into the tank since it's supposed to be supplemented at night and discovered my light timer had my lights compeltely off. I assumed that not having a time set would use the last used settings until a new time and setting got set. Nope, you have to explicitly set all time and settings for a 24hr period to have lights be on. So, for a period of a couple months, my tank had no lights from 8pm to 4am each day. Whoops! I quickly rectified the situation and now my tank has low blues on from that time period. I'm thinking of dropping the percentage a little more as 5% is still kind of bright... I may have to set up the webcam overnight to see if the corals respond appropriately to the low light. 

I also upped the white's during the day by 5% to provide a little more day light to the tank. We'll see how it goes.

Came in this morning and there are long, slimy looking strands waving about in the current. I'm not sure if this is from the snails or if it is hair algae as it is quite long (upwards of 3" in some areas). It isn't too bad; it's more of an aesthetic annoyance at this point but I'll have to keep a close eye on it. If the algae continues to be an issue, I may pick up a Hermit Crab to help combat the population.

Ordered some more Livestock

I just placed a new order for some new livestock yesterday at LiveAquaria. I have saved the pictures from the WYSIWYG coral I bought so I could have a compare photo of what I actually get since a previous coral I purchased from LiveAquaria doesn't look anything like the one in their picture. 

The WYSIWYG coral is from the Diver's Den section in LiveAquaria though so it should match.

Here's the livestock I ordered:

• Pom Pom Crab
• Super Tongan Nassarius Snail
• Peppermint Shrimp
• Aussie Short Tentacle Plate Coral (Diver's Den) (WYSIWYG photo)
• Sarlace Lepastrea Coral (Diver's Den) (WYSIWYG Photo)
• Combo Colony Zoanthus (Diver's Den) (WYSIWYG Photo) - This guy has 3 different colonies of Zoas:
• Radioactive Dragon Eye
• Wham'n Watermelon
• Green Bay Packer

I hope to have the critters by Tuesday. It's being shipped directly to my office.

Video of Spiny Star Astraea Snail having a snack!

Check out the little guy having a bite to eat and be sure to watch it in HD!

Water parameters stabilized and Duncan head splitting

I checked my water parameters yesterday and they all are back to normal except the Nitrates; they are still a little high but the tank seems to be thriving. Still have good copepod activity and the snails are quite active. They hang out on the glass a bunch though and I wish they'd clean up some of the algae on the rocks. I think I'll grab a Nassarius snail here soon so I get get some aeration and movement within the sand bed.

As I was looking into my tank today I noticed that my Duncan coral has a splitting head! Neat! Soon that head should be 2 heads. I'm taking this as a good sign that the tank is at least somewhat healthy to cause growth.

Coral head splitting.

I am currently looking into getting some more coral for the tank but there are so many choices and decisions to be made when doing so! Hopefully I can get some more stock in soon...

Updated Aquascape!

Got some decent images of my updated aquascape layout. I'm pretty happy with is so far. The bacteria bloom has definitely begun to subside and you can see the algae bloom that has come as a result. It has a little bit more to go to fully settle down but at least the tank has cleared up significantly. Oh well, the snails will have plenty of morsels to munch on...

Aquascape update

"Floating" rock is hosting a snail party. Can you find the 4 snails?

Floating rock (side view)

I plan on feeding the corals today as they've been getting repeatedly disturbed the last week or so. I'll see if I can take a video of the feeding.

Aquascaping and Live Streaming!

I put some more rock into the tank to help with natural filtration and moved the hammer coral a little and placed him on his own rock. The coral are not happy at the moment but should open up again in a couple hours (I hope!). We'll see if the hammer likes his new placement.

I built the bring using multiple rock fragments and it turned out pretty well. I'm pretty sure there won't be any coral that would like to be on top of the bridge due to the intense light but that's ok as it'll give fish area to swim.

The rock in the far back left is attached to a suction cap and stuck to the glass. It is definitely my favorite addition so I hope I can find a coral that would work well there!

I'll take some pictures and upload them later; the sand got kicked up a bit when adding the new rock so the tank is kind of dusty. Also the algae bloom is still in place but seems to be subsiding.

I was able to get LiveStreaming working from my webcam so I can view my tank when I am away. It's pretty neat! The quality is only 720p and 30fps but it's good enough for now. I'll have to come up with a way of notification so people can know when a Stream is Live.

Check out the Live Stream!

Caused a mini cycle - whoops.

Couple flub-ups: 

1. While replacing the sponge filter and adding the Matric stones, one of the stones got into the impeller of the filter. In order to remove the stone, I had to remove the impeller assembly which required me to get the water out of the filter. In the process, I accidentally got a bunch of the gunk from the filter into the tank. Yuck.
2. I may have replaced the media too quickly after each item: my water is a bit cloudy but the livestock seem to be fine. Looks like I may have caused a bacteria bloom which, hopefully, will subside quickly and with no ill affects.
3. I believe I did not do a great job with my last water change. I was unaware that you needed to have the salt mixed and aerated well before changing the water in your tank. I thought you could just mix up some salt, test the salinity and add it to the tank once it was good. Upon adding the new water to the tank, the corals got pretty unhappy and closed up. The snails got super active after about 15 minutes though. Maybe they were happy to have fewer nitrates in their water...
4. I hadn't done a test of my water parameters in awhile; just salinity tests with the refractometer. My filter media has been in place for a few days now so I figured the tank may have stablilzed a bit to have an accurate reading of the water parameters. What I found was not good...
1. pH: 7.2
2. Ammonia: .5
3. Nitrite: 1ppm
4. Nitrate 160ppm

Fortunately, I had some saltwater mixed up so I could perform a water change.

On a happy note, I have a ton of Copepods swimming around in my tank! I was worried that the Hammer Coral I had gotten brought in a parasite or something but apparently they are super beneficial and a good sign of a healthy tank!

I would also like to come up with a way to take interval photos of the tank for when I get more coral to see if they attack each other at night so I know if I need to move them. It'd also be neat to be able to have a live stream of the tank so I can check on it at home during the weekend.

Beginning Nano Reef

10/17/2015

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My Nirates have been testing a little high lately so I've been doing small water changes here and there to help reduce them. The tank seems to be doing ok and the Coral are opening up well but I want to bring those Nitrates down. I did a bunch of research as to what could be causing the Nitrates as I only have the snails and the coral so I shouldn't be having much of a bioload that my filter can't handle. I've only been feeding the coral twice a week.

The recommendations were to cut back on the coral feedings for now. I also decided to remove the sponge filter and the ceramic filter stones from the filter itself and get better media. Apparently, Sponge Filters are Nitrate factories in marine aquariums and the ceramic stones aren't the best. I'm going to be replacing the sponge with some Seachem Matrix and the ceramic stones with some Seachem Purigen filter media. I also picked up some Algone Water Clarifier & Nitrate Remover to help drive the Nitrate levels down. I've also ordered some more Pukami Live rock as the Lvie rock aids in natural filtration. 

I'll be replacing the media over the course of a week to reduce the impact on the systems.

10/15/2015

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Picked up a nice lil Hammer Coral from my LFS today. It was the best looking one they had and am looking forward to seeing him in the tank. I'll have to keep him away from any other coral I'll be placing in the tank because his tentacles produce a powerful sting that can hurt anything nearby!

Hammer Coral

10/07/2015

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My tank is continually testing with 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates and 0 Nitrates. I believe the Aquarium Additive, Nano Reef Buffer and Purple Tech really stepped up the cycle time.

I ordered some Coral Food (Reef Roids and Reef Chili) as well as a tool to help target feed the coral and man does the Duncan love it; it has already shown significant growth! I also picked up a Reef Master Test Kit so I can test for Phosphates, Calcium and Carbonate Hardness to make sure the coral stays happy.

I also ordered some live stock from LiveAquaria.

Live Stock:

1. Ducanopsammia Coral
2. Nerite Snail
3. Banded Trochus Snail
4. Spiny Star Astraea
5. Astraea Turbo Snail

Livestock added.

10/02/2015

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I decided to get some Instant Ocean Bio-Spira Start Up Nitrifying Bacteria Aquarium Additive to give my tank cycle a little jump start. I'm not quite sure how beneficial it will be but we'll see. I've also picked up some Kent Marine Nano Reef Buffer and Kent Marine Purple Tech to begin dousing my tank with. I've also grabbed the Saltwater Master Test kit to begin testing my water parameters so I can monitor my tanks cycle stage. I've developed a Google Spreadsheet with an attached form so I can easily input my readings and track them over time. Complete with nerd graphs XD.

I've also received the custom lighting unit in the mail and I'm quite happy. This is with the default setting the controller provides. It's really cool that it can emulate a day and night cycle by fading the lights in an out.

New Marine LEDs installed.

9/26/2015

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One can spend days researching the pros and cons of every little detail about building a saltwater tank and it can get overwhelming very quick. I've decided to cycle my tank with the live rock in the aquarium at the beginning of the process. Here is my tank at it's initial setup:

Starting up a cycle!

9/25/2015

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I've always had a desire to do a saltwater tank but have always talked myself out of it due to it being an intimidating endeavor. I've decided to take a plunge (and hope for the best!) in creating a nano reef in my office at work.

Materials

• Tank: Fluval Edge 6g.
• Filter: Stock Filter.
• Lights: Custom Marine Light for Fluval Edge. These guys were great and built me a custom lighting unit that replaces the stock hood of the Fluval edge. It is seamless and keeps to the clean, sleek look of the tank. They would be happy to assit you with any further questions or custom setups. Contact Info.
• 36W CREE LED system
• System automation with Dimmer
• Water Circulation: Hydor Koralia Nano Circulation Pump - 240gph
• Heater: Aqueon Submersible Heater - 50W
• Mini Algae Cleaning Aquarium Magnet
• Aquarium Thermometer
• Refractometer

Stock

• 10lbs of Live Sand
• ~3lbs of Pukami Live Rock from BulkReefSupply
• 50g of InstantOcean ocean salt
• 6g of RO/DI water