Reef Tank Readiness Checklist 30-Day Guide: Day Zero to Coral
The first 30 days set the trajectory for the next three years. A clean reef tank readiness checklist turns the chaotic “is it ready yet” anxiety into measurable daily and weekly tasks with hard pass/fail criteria. Built from twenty years of marine builds at Gensou Aquascaping at 5 Everton Park, this checklist sequences exactly what to test, when, and what numbers must hold before the next milestone unlocks.
Day Zero: Tank, Sand, Salt, Rock
Mix saltwater 24 hours ahead in a separate bin to 1.025 specific gravity at 25°C using a calibrated refractometer. Pour sand dry into the display, add rockwork, then fill with mixed saltwater. Switch on heater, return pump and one wavemaker. Do not turn on lights yet — algae prevention starts with darkness for the first 48 hours.
Day One to Three: Equipment Check
Confirm temperature holds at 25-26°C without thermal swing greater than 0.5°C. Check return pump flow, skimmer dry-runs without overflow, ATO float switches respond. Add cured live rock now if available — it shaves a week off the cycle. Begin photo-documenting rockwork from the front because day-one shots become reference points for algae growth and coralline development.
Day Four: Start the Cycle
Dose Dr Tim’s One and Only or Brightwell MicroBacter7 per label, then add ammonium chloride to 2 ppm or drop in a peeled raw shrimp. Test ammonia daily. Expect peak ammonia day 5-8 at 4-6 ppm. Stock test kits and bacteria starters from the water care range before this milestone, not after.
Day Eight to Fourteen: Nitrite Phase
Ammonia begins dropping; nitrite climbs to 4-8 ppm and stalls there for three to five days. Resist the urge to water-change — bacteria need the substrate. Lights stay off or run a brief 4-hour blue-only schedule to discourage diatoms. Test ammonia and nitrite every two days.
Day Fifteen to Twenty: Diatom Bloom Window
The brown silty film on sand and glass is silica-feeding diatoms and is normal. Light exposure increases now to a 6-hour gradual blue ramp. Nitrite drops, nitrate climbs to 10-20 ppm. Phosphate sits at 0.05-0.15 ppm. Resist starting GFO or carbon dosing — let the bloom run its course.
Day Twenty-One: Cleanup Crew Trigger
If ammonia and nitrite both hold zero across three consecutive tests, add the cleanup crew — 10 trochus snails, five ceriths, three blue-leg hermits per 40 litres. They will graze the diatom bloom within a week. Salinity must hold steady; add ATO water through the return chamber, never the display directly.
Day Twenty-Two to Twenty-Eight: Coraline Watch
Pink coralline spots appear on rockwork between weeks three and five if alkalinity sits at 8-9 dKH and calcium at 420-440 ppm. This is the first biological signal the system is shifting from cycling to maturity. Run a 10 per cent water change with reef-grade salt. Light schedule extends to 8 hours blue plus 4 hours full spectrum.
Day Twenty-Nine: Pre-Stock Parameter Audit
Test the full panel: salinity 1.025-1.026 SG, temperature 25-26°C, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5-15 ppm, phosphate 0.03-0.10 ppm, alkalinity 8-9 dKH, calcium 420-440 ppm, magnesium 1300-1350 ppm, pH 8.0-8.3. All ten boxes must tick. If any single value sits outside, hold and correct before stocking. Use a refractometer and a dKH titration kit, not strip tests, for accuracy.
Day Thirty: Quarantined Fish Pair
A bonded clownfish pair finishing 14 days of copper quarantine joins the display. Drip acclimate over 60 minutes, lights off for 24 hours, sparse feeding twice daily for the first week. Hold the system here for another four weeks before any coral. Gear up with proper acclimation drip kits from the aquascaping tools range.
Pass Criteria for Coral Day
By day 60, alkalinity should hold within 0.3 dKH across two weeks, nitrate at 5-10 ppm, phosphate at 0.04-0.08 ppm, and the fish pair eating actively. Only then do soft coral frags from Iwarna or Aquamarin enter the display — and only at the lowest light zone for 14 days of acclimation.
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