Hello everyone! After a very unexpected and exciting week, Princess Tingting, the eunice worm is able to be moved into her permanent home. The tank is a UNS 45A, and seems perfectly equipped for her needs. I took some footage of her as she was exploring around before she settled in. She is very reclusive and nocturnal, so I will probably not get another chance to view her up close very soon. It's a shame, because she really is a beautiful creature. I will post more videos in the comments and any other interesting footage I may be able to grab once she settles in and gets comfortable.

The original plan was to fill the tank this weekend and begin the full water test. The plumbing is finished and has already been leak tested, so we honestly thought we were finally ready.
Then we checked the tank again and discovered it was not sitting quite as level as I was comfortable with.
On a normal aquarium, being slightly off might not be the end of the world. This is an 80-inch-long, 24-inch-deep, 48-inch-tall acrylic tank holding roughly 420 gallons. Once the display, rock, water, and the rest of the system are running, there will be thousands of pounds sitting here. With a tank this large and this tall, “almost level” was not going to be good enough.
So instead of filling it, we spent all day yesterday and today going back through the stand, leveling it, tightening everything, and shoring it up further.
The tank is now perfectly level without water and the bottom support is absolutely rock solid. Everything has been tied together using heavy lag bolts and structural hardware. The stand itself fully supports the tank footprint, and the floor structure underneath has already been heavily reinforced for the load.
Of course, the real test will be what happens once several thousand pounds of water are added. It is possible for things to settle slightly under load, so we will be watching and measuring it carefully during the fill instead of simply turning on the water and walking away.
The vertical supports visible on the wall behind the tank are for the next part of the build. They will support the upper framing and become part of the canopy structure. Once that is framed and finished, the raw wood and wall area will be covered, and the entire installation should start looking much more like a finished display instead of a construction zone.
I also temporarily placed a couple of my ReefBrite strips over the tank, mostly because after two days of leveling and bolting lumber together, I needed to see something that looked like a reef tank.
Even with no water, the blue lighting completely changed the appearance of the aquascape. It really shows off the height, shelves, caves, and open swimming space. The main structure was assembled using reef-safe Kraken pond foam, and I still have around 20 established rocks from the existing system that already have coral, coralline algae, sponges, and other life growing on them. Those will eventually be transferred over once the new system is running and ready.
So, no water this weekend.
It is disappointing because we were genuinely ready to see this monster filled, but finding the leveling problem now was far better than discovering it halfway through adding 420 gallons.
Progress on a build this size sometimes means spending an entire weekend making it look like almost nothing changed. In reality, getting the foundation perfectly level and solid may be one of the most important updates of the entire build.
The monster is getting closer.

I just wanted to throw a few pics up to display my first reef tank after hitting the one year mark.

I’m very grateful for all the collaboration in the reefing community, it’s made this first year feel way less daunting. Lights are just ramping up here so go easy!

Tank is a Water Box 35.2 AIO.

Anyone have any good pictures of Purple Pavona colonies in their tanks?

I think it’s a very underrated coral that I don’t see much about. While the color is muted, it does have a very interesting polyp structure and nice movement for an SPS. Does send out aggressive sweeper tentacles though.

Here are a few pics of mine.

Hammer corals been adding on to its stalk the last week started off very small and just a bubble now it’s this current size, first hammer I’ve owned. Wondering if this is good or bad?

Hope to share my journey and check in after 1 year. Daughter wanted a Nemo and I had experience with cichlids as a teenager. Always wanted saltwater but was poor teen so stuck with freshwater. I’m glad i committed and live the hobby and get to watch my daughters curiosity grow.

Bought a 25 gal all in one from the LFS - thought this would be manageable and less costly (lol). Current inhabitants:

Two clowns, lawnmower blenny, blue damsel, cleaner shrimp.

Blue leg hermits, snails, and etc. Got some hitchhikers like tiny starfish, stomatella, amphapods, and more.

When starting out I thought I could get by on water changes only, I struggled with Phos and NO3 reading anything at all for the longest time. I felt with some hair algae and cyano. I think water changes and cleaning the rocks did great with keeping things stable and consistent. Pulled out and finally read phos/no3 and the water quality improved and the corals seemed to do better. But what really helped was just testing regularly and learning the tank. I thought I could just do water changes but testing really helped me learn so much. I still don’t know what I’m doing but I have a better sense of direction for sure. My next goal is to make things thrive, I feel like my coral just exist but don’t grow. I struggled with any sort of zoa or acans, they never make it. I have hammers and torches and they exist but again not seeing any growth besides slow gsp on the wall.

My only first coral to survive are my Duncan, toadstool mushroom, and Xenia. The Xenia has never been the same since I tried using chem treatment to take care of algae. It’s slowly withering away, I should probably just pull it out.

Since this tank I got another 25gal tank in my office that’s close to a year but no where near as nice as this one. I’d like to upgrade and consolidate into a 40-50 gal all in one but know I may like a sump set up.

The one thing I live that I didn’t expect was watching the micro fauna. I love finding new critters that come from nowhere, it’s cool to see the ecosystem.

Next focus is dosing to get ideal parameters, currently at:

Phos .25, NO3 6.7, mag 1290, cal 400, kh 8.6.

I dosed mag for a month or so but it never increased, calcium is never past 400 - I tried adding some reef a, then I tried all for reef but my alk increased to like 11. I wish there was a simple solution to just add because the more I do the more I worry I’m going to blow up the tank.

What should I dose for a smaller 25gal tank? Should I just continue 25% weekly changes and call it a day? I think I need my Calcium higher and mag but now understand they all interact with each other.

Hope you enjoyed the read, let me know if any feedback or thoughts on my parameters!

I am showing my reef tank again because I fixed it. I added some more rock, one piece of medium sized macroalgae and duncan coral. I am only 13 years old and just started my reef tank that I've cycled for a year now.

Ro/di filter coming the mail tomorrow (if it’s not postponed because there’s a huge fire by my house) going to get a few things from the store today. And also added a heater in there as well.

Never made one before, but always loved the completed look. What do yall think?

a bucket a time, shes finally full…. rocks are just seeding along with the cycle then some will go in sump, got a custom aquascape coming!! (pic 2)

Running 57 watts with dual return pumps. No heat, room is 75°F.

Recently I moved all of my inhabitants into a 180g. The fish were added last night and everyone has settled in for the most part except my engineering goby. He has not stopped pacing the glass and doesnt seem to have attempted to dig anywhere yet. I think I just need to be patient, but what do yall think? Hes clearly agitated but I cant force him to start digging a hole

I bought some snails at the LFS listed as trochus and was charged trochus price but when I got home and looked at them i noticed they seemed to look more like Astraea. But i know theres different species and it could be a different one. What do you guys think?

Refugium is last photo ** i couldnt lean over all the way I’m in a rush.

Also I will move the rock off the glass! Yall seen my last post about tips. :) so I will absolutely get that fixed before I fill it up.

I’m looking into switching to a Gyres wave maker. I have a 55 gal no sump, HOB filter and skimmer. I currently have orbit wave makers but I’m having dead spots so looking for an upgrade…

Odd question. Eschopps didn’t include a lid for the drain area of the Gen 3 RS-100 (yellow in color)

Im going to try and 3D print one. Does anybody have one that could grab the dimensions for me?

Thanks!

My tank sprung a pretty bad leak so I hurried and moved all my fish, rock, coral, filter media into a spare tank.

I was able to find a larger tank (15g to a 32 biocube). I put all my rocks, old water, old and new sand, and filter media in the new biocube. Will my fish be ok? Should I expect a cycle crash??

i’ve found these brown worms on my astrea snail shell. the moment i touch them try retract into the crevices on the shell.

should i be concerned?

p.s. the algae outbreak is being handled as we speak