[AC_Rhino]

Hello lad and ladettes.

I started a saltwater aquarium back in August of 2017. When I started it I converted from a turtle tank and the equipment I used were as follows:
1. 40 gallon breeder tank with glass hood
2. Two Fluval canister filters (either a 204/206 and a 104/106 … can’t remember the numbers … The 20X has 3 chambers with ceramic bio things, purigen, and chemipure and the 10X has 2 chambers with ceramic bio things and a purigen. They both use the foam filter floss as well in the set up with quilt matting as floss.
3. Aquaclear 100 HOB with an ammonia remover.
4. Fluval A3994 Sea Marine/Reef 2.0 LED, 36-46"
This kind of sounds like a typical freshwater mechanical filtration system … which it generally was. I needed to filter a lot of water per hour because turtles are filthy as **** lol.

Once everything was cleaned up I started with local sand from the beach across the street (5 gallons) and basic rocks from the tide pools and tossed in some seaweed and periwinkles. I learned quickly that if I put in locally found sponges they didn’t last long. Everything else I added to the tank from the tide pools seemed to thrive (small shrimp, crabs, periwinkles, hermit crabs, mussels, clams, oysters) however almost all of these are invasive species here … no matter. I make my own reef water, I do not collect it.

At any rate the seaweed in the tank started growing out of control … so much so that crabs started crawling out and I was finding them on my floor crawling around. At this point I pruned the seaweed and did a major scraping of some of the brown algae with a razor. Something then went very wrong. When I replaced 5 gallons of water after the scraping/pruning I hadn’t noticed that something was off with my hydrometer and I blew the salinity way out of bounds. What resulted was odd … the marine animals were fine … however the seaweed got white over the course of a few days and died … it was a pain in the *** to pull out and I had to rinse out all of the filter medium from decaying plant matter.

At this point the tank is now 5 months old. The water is all good again, the marine crustaceans are all doing as well (well the shrimps and the crabs will turn over and eat a snail from time to time and I have some loss of life do to other predation) as can be expected.

Now that the tank is cleaned up a bit I was thinking about changing directions. I know I have well established bacteria colonies in the Fluval filters and in the sand. I know I have different types of pods living in the sand and filter foam/floss.

What I want to do is get away from using mechanical foam pads (as that captures debris and it decays) and move into some live rock and fish. I added a CPR AquaFuge2 Hang-On Refugium this weekend, filled it with ½ gallon of Carib Sea Mineral Mud, a handful of Chaetomorpha Chaeto Macro Algae, a small live rock, and some red algae balls that were living in my tank. The CPR Aquatic AquaFuge LED runs 24/7 unless someone is sleeping in the room and I put it on a timer. I’m also adding an AquaMaxx HOB-1.5 Protein Skimmer this week. My plan is to get the refugium and skimmer established and then remove the collective fluval foam floss from the large fluval, and just use some small foam floss that I can rinse out once a week in the other small fluval. This should pretty much leave the tank all biological filtered with some chemical help (the purigen). I also intend to add a heater to the refugium as well (250-300 watts).

What I will have at the end of the week for equipment:
1. 40 gallon breeder tank with glass hood (with 2 inches of live beach sand)
2. Two Fluval canister filters (either a 204/206 and a 104/106) with just ceramic bio things and purigen in the large fluval, and ceramic bio things, purigen, and one filter floss pad in the small fluval.
3. Aquaclear 100 HOB with an ammonia remover.
4. Fluval A3994 Sea Marine/Reef 2.0 LED, 36-46"
5. CPR AquaFuge2 Hang-On Refugium
6. AquaMaxx HOB-1.5 Protein Skimmer
7. Heater (250-300 watts)
Marine life:
1. Refugium mud, Algae, and live rock in the refugium
2. Some fist size and smaller rocks covered in barnacles, limpets, and mussels
3. A free laying clam and oyster or two
4. A bunch of periwinkles
5. A bunch of small 1” or so see through shrimps
6. 3 or 4 quarter sized crabs
7. A dozen or so small hermit crabs
8. A tennis ball size lump of some kind of red algae ball that is growing well
9. Some misc seaweed a few inches long growing off the rocks/oysters (at one point these were over 6 ft long)
10. I intend to add a few lumps of live rock as well.

Going forward what can I/should I do?
1. Can I add some coral and if so what should I do different? Any suggestions on coral?
2. I’d like to add some anemones actually … I’d prefer then over coral … Can I do that with crabs in the tank? Do anemones need to be with coral? Any suggestions on anemones?
3. I might want to add small fish or so but I know they will eat the shrimps … any fish suggestions?
4. Should I add a second Fluval A3994 Sea Marine/Reef 2.0 LED, 36-46"?
5. Any other tips/suggestions?

Thanks