20G Long - Improvised AIO, Tide Pool Ecosystem Peninsula

[Karliah]

First post here!
I’ve always loved tide pools because of the immense variety of organisms. So that is what I’m going for here. I’ll be using live rock and sand direct from Florida to do this. Unless something is dangerous, dying, or completely out of control it stays in the tank.

I’m trying to keep everything fairly inexpensive. A lot of stuff I already had on hand, and anything I had to buy was just basic. I’d rather spend on livestock than fancy equipment.

It’ll be macro algae, gorgonians, softies, and sponges (and what ever else comes in on the live rock)
I haven’t planned out any fish or inverts other than moving over a pipefish from another tank once everything is more stable.
I don’t have an LFS anywhere close to me so stocking will be dictated by rare trips to the closest “big city” and things I can get for cheap online.

Also sorry in advance for the ramblings. Trying to be fairly detailed here so I can look back and see what I’ve done and how it’s evolved over time. It all makes sense to me but if you have any questions please ask and I’ll do my best to explain.

The Build
07-15-2023
I wanted it to be an AIO. After some searching I came across only 2 options. One was a nice complete box that cost more than I wanted to spend, and the other had to be siliconed in which I did not want to do. So I made my own.
Items:

• Aqueon 20 Gallon Long (on hand)
• Lifewithpets tank divider
• VCA RFG nozzles on locline (on hand)
• Generic HOB canister filter (Amazon/on hand)
• InTank Media basket (on hand)
• 3D printed thin slotted overflow strainer (Etsy/on hand)
• Aqueon 100w heater (on hand)
• Various tubing (on hand)

I didn’t take many pictures because I was making it up as I went and was never sure which configuration was going to work out. Hopefully the pictures I do have make sense:

I modified the divider by cutting a hole for the overflow and output.

I used tubing to have the canister filter intake be in the middle “chamber” of the InTank media basket. There will be filter media above and below it. Routed the output of the canister to the RFG nozzles. In the canister was going to be maybe filter floss/sponge but definitely rubble.

I needed more space around the media basket for flow, so cut slits in some tubing and slid it over the feet and top pieces to act as spacers between it and the glass on one side and the divider on the other. Doing it this way maintained stability for the divider.

In theory: water comes through the overflow, across the chaeto/lit refugium, past the heater, through the filter media in the basket to the canister intake, through the rubble/secondary dark refugium that is the HOB canister, and out the the nozzles back into the display. Have a plan to add a tray to hold filter floss below the overflow, but wanted to figure out the flow first. Heater will be to the left of the media basket, and refugium/light is to the left of that.

The Setup
07-15-2023
Items:

• 20lbs Caribsea Live Special Grade Reef Sand
• 2 piece dry rock (on hand)
• FritzZyme 9 (on hand)
• NICREW ClassicLED Plus Light (Amazon/on hand)

It was super late at night by the time I got to this stage. Dumped in the sand and water. Made sure it all worked and didn’t leak. Added rocks and bacteria. Went to bed.

 

[Karliah]

7-16-2023
The next morning it was very apparent that the HOB canister was not cutting it. I knew it would be under powered as far as flow in the display part, and have a mini wavemaker on the way to compensate. However the issue was the flow in the back chamber. The water level on the pump side was significantly higher than expected. Maybe a few mm lower than the display, so no skimming was occurring.
Scrapped the whole idea of this HOB canister. Didn’t want to spend the money on a higher flow one and already had another pump on hand.

A Hydor Pico Evo 200gph just barely fit in the media basket with slight modification for the cord. Unfortunately this was only slightly better in terms of overall flow and skimming. Water level in chamber now maybe a cm lower than display. Barely if any skimming happening.

Assuming some of the issue is also because it’s not sealed separately from the display. I had anticipated a bit of this but not this bad. Hopefully over time the edges will kind of fill up with debris/algae/coralline and somewhat seal it off. Also will get another pump eventually but struggling to find one small enough to fit in the basket while being significantly more gph. Suggestions appreciated.

This is in no way the final layout of the tank. I added the rubble from the canister so it can get some life on it, and will probably end up using them to mount frags.
I am adding live rock in small batches mainly due to cost, but also hoping to maybe increase diversity a little bit by getting it at different times of year. First batch is supposed to be delivered on the 18th.
Pulled some chaeto from another tank and threw it in the display until the light for the refugium comes in. Needed to trim some gracilaria that was overgrown and light bleached(burned?). Tossed it in this tank instead of throwing it away, so we’ll see if those parts recover or not.

Also added 3 blue leg hermits and 3 astrea snails. Since adding the algae I’ve also seen 2 stomatella snails.

 

[Karliah]

07-17-2023
Still haven’t figured out what to do about the pump. Added refugium light and moved the cheato into place. Light is just a smaller NICREW ClassicLED Plus. Both this and the larger display one are for plants/“freshwater” which should be fine for what I’m doing. I did get another one for the display that’s their “marine” version which is just more blues instead of whites. Can’t decide if I want to add it or not, as the way they would both sit over the glass top would make it a bit annoying to get into the tank to feed or do anything.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Nice looking tank!

 

[Lebowski_]

This is very cool, following along.

 

[Troylee]

Welcome to r2r! Cool tank, looking forward to seeing it grow out.

 

[Karliah]

Nice looking tank!

This is very cool, following along.

Welcome to r2r! Cool tank, looking forward to seeing it grow out.

Thank you all!

 

[Karliah]

07-18-2023
A bit of live sand and first small batch of live rock arrived today. This is 3lbs of sand and 3lbs of nano base rock. I don’t plan to get any more sand but will definitely be getting more rock. Next time I’ll get the “premium” and see how that is.
Water still cloudy from adding everything.

 

[Karliah]

7/20/2023
I could not figure out why I had so many micro bubbles. Thousands and thousands. It was bothering me all day but I was working and so couldn’t spend much time on it until later.
Upon closer inspection they were twitchy and sometimes moving against the current. A bloom of some sort of copepod I assume. By the next day they were basically gone and I’ve never seen them in such numbers again.
I’ve been trying to add a video but struggling to do so.

 

[Karliah]

7/21/2023
Hygger mini wavemaker arrived. Unfortunately the anemone/fish guard I got for it makes it significantly less mini. Might try to change the guard out later but it’s fine for now. Added some baby brine shrimp to see the flow. Don’t recall if the setting in the video was what I kept, but eventually got it how I wanted it to be. Sorry I know it’s kind of hard to see. Being a peninsula in a room with many other light sources makes it hard to get pics/video during the day.
(Again can’t figure out the video thing)

 

[Karliah]

7/26/2023
It looks like I hadn’t mentioned it previously, but there has been a saltwater acclimated molly and a firefish in here from the start, as well as a brown feather duster. A few days after I added some zoas and gsp I fragged from another tank.
From the ocean live rock/sand I have seen all sorts of sponges, tunicates, barnacles, other filter feeders, micro brittle starfish, various algae, hideen cup coral, 1 cerith snail, a possible dove snail, other tiny unidentified snails, 2 chitons, 2 limpets, 2 clams, and so so many other tiny little things.
The light bleached(?) gracilaria has fully regained proper color.

I have evicted 1 tiny gorilla crab, 2 whelk snails, a handful of assumed Cirolanids, and some aiptasia.
I have a video of the gorilla crab trying to eat a Cirolanid but again cannot figure out the video situation. No idea if he was successful because he retreated back into the hole he was living in.
————
Today I added the “marine” version of the NICREW light in addition the one I was already using. Definitely helped the aesthetic, but is a bit annoying to access the tank now. So maybe looking at other options in the future.
I also added some new livestock. I intended to move over my banded pipefish, however he very suddenly got an infection and passed. Instead I moved over a Blue Stripe Pipefish. Other new things: 2 clownfish (regular and mocha), white/tan feather duster, pink/white coco worm, 2 mushrooms (rhodactis and discosoma), zoa “sea mat”, yellow polyps, and 2 NPS gorgonians.
A bit frustrated. I was supposed to have some new live rock today (premium this time) to complete the scape, but due to a communication issue it won’t be here until next week. It’s not that big a deal, but as of now there’s no real shady spots for the nps gorgonians so hopefully they do alright until then.
Also had a large order of photosynthetic gorgonians cancelled due to the weather (100+F). Understandable but also frustrating as other live shipments have always made it just fine if properly packaged and overnighted.

Leaving the glass dirty for now for the snails and pods.

Absolutely in love with how yellow these polyps are:

The nps gorgonians. Only about an inch each:

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

7/20/2023
I could not figure out why I had so many micro bubbles. Thousands and thousands. It was bothering me all day but I was working and so couldn’t spend much time on it until later.
Upon closer inspection they were twitchy and sometimes moving against the current. A bloom of some sort of copepod I assume. By the next day they were basically gone and I’ve never seen them in such numbers again.
I’ve been trying to add a video but struggling to do so.

Probably came from the live rock. I just stuck in some Australian branch that was out of the water for 3 weeks and a week later copepods everywhere. Live Phyto, algae’s etc. keep them going.

 

[Karliah]

08-01-2023
5lbs of “premium” live rock added. The pieces were a little bigger which was nice as that’s what I was hoping for, however other than that I’m a bit disappointed so far. I did see a few new critters vs the base rock. A few colorful chitons, 2 decorator crabs, the smallest porcelain crab I’ve ever seen, and 2 or 3 sea cucumber looking things that I haven’t decided if I’m keeping or not yet. It’s the life “attached” to the rock I’m disappointed about. Besides one small colony of hidden cup coral it seems the same if not less than the base rock I got, and definitely not like their example pictures.
I do realize getting such small amounts could be a contributing factor, but was hoping that would concentrate the cool stuff onto pieces I did get. Not the case for this shipment at least. Oh well.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got the large rocks where I want them. The macro algae and some of the rubble still needs positioned. Going for 3 “islands” of rock, decreasing in size from one side to the other. A little cluttered right now but it’ll get there eventually.
Water still cloudy from moving everything around.
One day I’ll figure out how to take better pictures of this thing.

 

[7of9]

I love the macro algae!

 

[danielm5]

It's looking great!

 

[Karliah]

I love the macro algae!

Thank you! I plan to have much more variety. Need some greens that aren’t caulerpa, and would love to find some yellows. All the freebies I keep being sent with other orders are red lol.

It's looking great!

Thanks!

 

[Karliah]

08-02-2023
Added some silicone thingys to the gaps on the sides of the divider panel. They are silicone stove gap covers from amazon.

This stopped (or at least significantly slowed) the flow through slight gaps, and the flow through the overflow grate is much better.

I indented to orient them a different way so they were less visible/about the same width as the divider, but it just wasn’t working out. If it had done it during initial set up it probably would have been perfect, but without disassembling the entire tank this is what works. Technically I could still trim in down on the refugium side, but I’ll leave it for a while and see how I feel about it later.
This has also helped a light issue I was having at night. The light from the refugium was refracting(?bouncing?) through the glass/around the divider and casting a beam of light diagonally across the whole tank after lights out. This has stopped that. Stoked to resolve 2 issues with 1 project.

There’s still some flow under the divider through the sand. I could use one of these for that as well, but that seems like quite a big project, if not disassembling everything. I’ll probably just leave it as is and hope the sand blocks it up after a while.

 

[Lebowski_]

Coming together really nicely, dude!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

08-01-2023
5lbs of “premium” live rock added. The pieces were a little bigger which was nice as that’s what I was hoping for, however other than that I’m a bit disappointed so far. I did see a few new critters vs the base rock. A few colorful chitons, 2 decorator crabs, the smallest porcelain crab I’ve ever seen, and 2 or 3 sea cucumber looking things that I haven’t decided if I’m keeping or not yet. It’s the life “attached” to the rock I’m disappointed about. Besides one small colony of hidden cup coral it seems the same if not less than the base rock I got, and definitely not like their example pictures.
I do realize getting such small amounts could be a contributing factor, but was hoping that would concentrate the cool stuff onto pieces I did get. Not the case for this shipment at least. Oh well.

I’m pretty sure I’ve got the large rocks where I want them. The macro algae and some of the rubble still needs positioned. Going for 3 “islands” of rock, decreasing in size from one side to the other. A little cluttered right now but it’ll get there eventually.
Water still cloudy from moving everything around.
One day I’ll figure out how to take better pictures of this thing.

love the live rock addition!

 

[Karliah]

08-07-2023
Super excited on what I saw today!
I’ve seen many tan/white little feather duster/fan tube worm things. A few days after adding in the new rocks I saw several red ones which was cool. But today I spotted a bright blue one! It is a bright royal blue and of course in the worst spot to photograph. Buts here’s a best I could do with my better camera:

Doesn’t look like much here but I’m stoked. It is so bright blue. Hopefully there will eventually be more of them!
Here’s a photo dump of some other shots I got while I had the camera out. The tiny pipefish is so hard to get a pic of, so he doesn’t make an appearance.