My 55 & sump/refug is approaching 10 weeks of operation and no amonia, no nitrite, no nitrate, slight reading of phosphate and 320-350 on calcium with PH of 8.4. 55 lbs of Fiji Live Rock, Protein skimmer good lighting in a deep sand bed with plennum.
In the last 4 weeks I have slowly intoduced, 2 brittle stars, 12 bumble bee snails, 12 other assorted small burrowing snails, 1 queen conch, 4 turbo snails, 1
banded coral shrimp, 1 jawfish, 1 pair of Osc. Clowns, 2 fire fish, about 15
blue legged hermit crabs, mexicanna calerpa, red marine algae and 2 feather dusters. Also some mushroom coral an another small unidentified soft coral has made it's way in on the live rock with other small critters and a couple of those nasty Aiptasia. I really never had a spike in anything from a water quality standpoint. All items above are thriving even the refugium /sump and red marine algae clumps. I need to get the calcium up a bit and there is a slight phosphate reading but all seems well. I would like to maintain the reef hitchhikers & critters with the exception of the aiptasia. Thought about a long nose butterfly but suspect it would eat other items I want to keep. At this point I was thinking in another couple of months adding a Manderin Goby as the tank begins to mature and some blue damsels to add color and last of all a clam. Do not want to jump start this anymore than I have in this amazing short duration of building a reef tank. The last time I setup a saltwater tank in the 80's I was using a reverse flow undergravel filter in my 300 gallon tank and about 1100gph flow rate. I thought at the time from a saltwater husbandry standpoint that was about it with my cartridges and UV in-line sterilizers. What advances we have made with just lighting and basice technology.
Aside from getting rid of the Aiptasia and adding some soft corals and a clam any other items or suggestions to complete this setup?
Not wanting to overcrowd things too much. I may put a dual overflow box in place of the single and an additional refugium tank with 850gph flow with lighting etc connected to a surge tank.
After this trial run for a few months then I'll go on to a 110 display and then the 300 comes back to life. After 17-18 years I have had some catching up to do.
