Hermie's 23 Gallon Nano Build

[Hermie]

Now I am debating the quarantine...

• have a puffer in DT that might have roundworms; so I want to move to QT tank w/ my acclimated marine mollies, and treat them all at once. Internal parasites is something I don't think fish can "fight off" effectively.
  
• I may put the sponges in the DT after a few days in a bucket w/ air stone, but I am worried my DT has elevated copper. Because of Seachem Flourite in my DSB and previous copper treatment with the lava rock.

did a API copper test and could not discern any color change... so maybe there isn't a copper issue, still want to get some cuprisorb in the tank just for long term because I can't afford a triton test atm

 

[Hermie]

Update 2/19:

• Added Tunze Turbella 6015 to right side (~400gph). Now have return pump @ "unrestricted" advertised 500gph (probably getting closer to 300) and then the Turbella.
  

  

• sponges have been in for a few weeks, developing osculum
  
  
  
• after sponge addition, seem to have a cyano "bloom" on walls and rock; have since cleaned from front and back glass
• still don't see any adult copepods, however I see organisms on the glass eating the algae films

• No chaeto in the sump yet, only polyfiber hosting microalgae. Have some ordered and it's otw. (Really need it to reduce nitrate/phosphate levels.)
• Added Cuprisorb to sump in the chemical chamber.
  
• Added a second float/level sensor for ATO, brass Madison brand. Encased in plastic medicine bottle to prevent brass/water contact, hot-glued to the float. Adjusted level by adding foam pieces to bottom of plastic bottle.
  

  

• Added 500ml of purigen in a sock inside the Skilter 250, (and removed ceramic media). Could have added 1000ml, but wasn't sure if it would fit, now I know it will. I may add another 500ml down the road.
  

  

• Skilter's limewood skimming is foaming a lot better than before, I was using a compressor for higher psi but now I am just using a whisper 10 gal and it's foaming excellently, but somewhat noisy. Want to upgrade the air pump to a quiter one, probably an eheim 400.
• Considering adding a separate fuge container as a "pod habitat," considering adding tigger pods.

 

[Hermie]

Post-update 2/19:
Turned out I didn't even realize, the Chaeto I ordered over the weekend arrived today

Thanks to HeisenbergAquaculture !

 

[Hermie]

Tests today:

dKH: 8.5
Nitrate: <5ppm

 

[Hermie]

Update 3/2:


Added 3 rock climbers a few days ago (dwarf hermits). They seem to be holding their own against the puffer, who's been more interested lately in a small mirror I keep on the side of the tank.


I removed the background because a leaky hose caused some peeling in the top right corner. I will be replacing the background instead of leaving it clear glass.


Salinity measured 1.021 last night. I am shocked by this and think it could be killing the sponges. The larger of the two orange sponges stopped revealing it's osculum and now I have the ATO filled with 1.026 saltwater. Once the ATO is empty I think the tank will reach 1.024, so I am also going to do some water changes in the next few days.

 

[Hermie]

Update 3/5:

• I moved the larger sponge into my sump's chemical chamber so that it will have much less algae growth. The flow will be less than the main tank, however in the sump, it's getting constant, moderate, aerated flow from beneath it. I am hoping it will start opening it's osculum again in this new environment. I am worried it may not get enough food down there, however it remains to be seen. It's likely getting a lot of DOC and POC since it's directly after the refugium and sponges.
  
  
• The dead snail I placed in the tank has been consumed by the large blue leg hermit crab and it's now got a new home!! Super happy about that. Since it molted recently I wanted to get a bigger shell and that worked out, fresh new shell from a dead snail. I boiled the shell for a while before putting it in the tank to hopefully kill any tomonts or parasites... we'll see if it worked. The red leg hermit took the blue leg's old shell which was also an upgrade in size. There are now 4 hemits: 2 blue leg, 1 red leg and 1 zeebra with a globluar shell. The zeebra is funny because it really loves traveling all over. The blue legs more or less hang out on the rocks and stick in one place for long periods. The red leg also crawls around the tank.
  
  
  
  
• I did a water change of about 8 gallons yesterday. I am still using tap water, so I want to get some RODI soon or distilled water to do one large water change (15+ gallons).

chaeto is growing great,


new "diy" fixture for fuge light:



Sump:

• with new coarse filter foam instead of filter floss
• ear sponge in the chemical chamber

 

[Hermie]

Update 3/8:
I've noticed scores of both Tigger Pods and some type of worm (1mm) in both the "refugium" and the substrate in the main tank. I have not intentionally introduced Tigger pods, but I suspect they came in with either the sponge, the hermit crabs or the chaeto. There are enough of them in the tank that they have been multiplying probably longer than the hermit crabs have been in there, so I am thinking it was either the chaeto or the sponge. The chaeto was apparently refrigerated before I purchased it to kill any pods, but there could have been eggs that hatched (not sure of the science but I suspect eggs can withstand light refrigeration more than the adults). Either way, this means I won't have to introduce Tigger pods as I was planning to do, which is great. I'll just wait for my QT tank to finish cycling the corals (76 day QT) and harvest the copepods from that tank into my DT to increase numbers.

 

[Hermie]

Update 3/29:

Planning on doing a comprehensive update in the next few days w/ pics.

For now, I've added 2 new corals to my pico QT tank. 1 Favia and 1 "Easter Egg Chalice" according to the place I got them from.

Also, the Skilter has been getting some really thick skimmate lately, I am surprised how well it's working.

 

[Hermie]

Update 4/1:

About 10 days ago I added a 30Watt Blue/Red LED Light to the refugium. It's a great light however it seems to have exacerbated a cyano issue that came up the past few weeks.
I believe I may need to lower the light in the refugium until the Cyano dies, but that would mean I need to lower the light in the display also or else the Cyano will just migrate...





Sponges are doing great, I have them both in the DT now. What they do is they will open their osculum for a few weeks then close them for a week or so. Sponges do that according to some reading I did, basically they "eat" and then take about 10 days to digest it all or to repair and grow as needed.

I haven't done any testing lately... need to check nitrates, alkalinity and salinity...

Still have zero coralline algae growing and zero corals (they are in the QT and will be moved over in a few weeks, April 15th). I do have tons of copepods though... Now I am working on adding more rock so that I can eventually add the spotted mandarin as I am planning.

So plans in the near term:

• overhaul refugium layout
• add Candy Cane, Sinularia and Mushroom coral
• make and cure rock to be added

Also added these 2 to the QT:

 

[Hermie]

Small update 4/7:

I got an eshopps pf-1000 overflow from someone (NIB for cheap) and my plan is to remove my DIY overflows and put this one in there instead.

To help blend the overflow box into the tank's background (rocks) I mixed up some aragocrete and shaped it onto the overflow box, it really turned out well.
However, today, while the DIY rock was curing, I knocked the whole thing over and all the rock busted into a million little pieces on the ground. The plan now is to redo it... but put it in a harder to disturb area so I don't go knocking it over!

QT Update:
I took Amano Shrimp Larvae from my freshwater tank and dropped them into the Invert QT tank. I hope they can survive in there by eating the phytobloom, however I may need to replace the filter with just a sponge filter. I have, probably, 12 female Amano that are always berried and having larvae, so it would be interesting if I can raise them into fry and then feed them to my corals... or just feed the larvae to the corals... I mean the candy cane coral has done a bang-up job of clearing the QT tank of tigger pods I swear! The QT tank had TONS of tigger pods until I put the candy cane coral in there. It had a feast! There are hardly any now. It's pretty crazy.

 

[Hermie]

Update 4/9:

My 2.5gallon QT tank had a crash and I am really disappointed because I think it was the sinularia should have recognized it way earlier. I kept telling myself, "maybe it will recover," but now the three LPS in the tank (Candy Cane, Oxypora and Favia) are all showing signs of distress (tissue shrinkage, closing up), even the Mushroom coral closed up into a "tube" shape, so I took the Sinularia out and I may just throw it away. It's just in a plastic container by itself, not sure if I should try to save it or not; it's probably not worth the hassle. Either way, I did a 1 gallon water change in the QT tank (2.5 gal) and added a fair size bag of carbon to the hob filter. Tomorrow I will do another 1 gallon water change and I hope I can save these LPS... Ugh... they were looking pretty good this past week, really good, the best they've looked yet, especially the candy cane.

Also, I need to kill all the flatworms in the tank once they recover. I will do that before I move them to the DT.

Question: Should I do a Seachem Reef Dip on the LPS as a "prophylactic and recovery" aid? I may do that, but I also don't want to stress them further.

 

[Hermie]

This was poisoning my QT tank, the Sinularia is circled. The water in that jar was completely clear about 12 hours ago.

 

[Hermie]

my new overflow (eshopps pf-1000 with herbie setup):

Once the rock cures I will be adding some to the face of the weir box, this is an approximate design that was destroyed but I have a second makeup curing now.

 

[Hermie]

2.5gal QT tank update after removing the "Toxic" Sinularia:

Chaeto still pearling (doing great)
Candy Cane closed up but tissue is recovering a little.
The Favia and Chalice don't look "Worse" which is a good sign.

 

[Hermie]

Update 4/18:

Went to LFS and saw some pretty fresh Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods, and I had to get them. According to the sticker, they were bottled on 4/1 and they all became active when I moved the bottle, so it was a good buy.

Added the Tigger Pods to sump and DT and the QT tank. I thought I already had Tigger pods, but comparing the pods to the RN pods, the ones I already had were way smaller and not the same color. I am hoping my existing pod population was not just "underfed" Tigger pods that didnt develop size or color. Either way, I never purposefully introduced Tigger pods before, and I'm hoping they do as well as the existing population.

Tomorrow I am expecting to get an order of amphipods in the mail and I will introduce those to the tank as well.

 

[Hermie]

update 5/25 fts

• added aragocrete face to overflow
• flipped main rock over to combat algae growth

larger sponge is now in DT, it has some deterioration and has not opened osculum lately, but it appears stable. the orange dark spots are where the sponge is "hard"

Smaller sponge is doing great, but it popped out of the rock when I knocked it by accident. Osculum are open so I think it will be fine. It had 3 or 4 pineapple sponges attached to it's base when it popped out.

Chalice coral (oxypora) is recovering and doing well. It's flesh is plumping up and it is healing over the break it once had. I am happy with it's progress since moving from QT to DT.

the chalice three weeks ago:

the chalice 5 weeks ago:

Mushroom is doing well, it stays in an expanded state while lights are on, and contracts during the night. Since it moved to the DT, it's now attached itself to most of the small PVC under it.


Mushroom at night (now):

Mushroom 1 month ago (unattached to pvc):

The Favia is not doing great, but not deteriorating. There is some algae growing over it's skeleton, but the algae doesn't seem to be able to grow on the tissue. I hope it can recover but it's a 50/50 chance at this point.
The Candy Cane is doing well, but it does have some exposed skeleton still to repair.

 

[Hermie]

sump 5/25:

I've reinstalled a new UV bulb and improved the chamber design. There's no leaking now out the top, which is what I think caused premature failure of the first bulb.
Chaeto chamber of sump was cleaned.
I have coarse filter sponges in the sump now which I'd like to remove, however there are amphipods living in them, so I am debating on what to do. Considering making traps for them.

 

[Hermie]

Fed the Caulastrea and mushroom corals some oyster meat for the first time today. My previous feeding attempt was a disaster but it wasn't "meat." The Candy Cane looked great while eating and next time I will use smaller pieces of meat so the corals can engulf the whole thing before they get disturbed by any fish inhabitants.

The Chalice (oxypora) had zero response to feeding, I believe it's still recovering tissue and the mouth's are not properly working. The chalice doesn't put out any mucus or do much of anything except sit there and soak up rays.

mushroom trying to eat, the piece was too large and some fish eventually pulled the meat out

 

[Hermie]

candy cane now digesting:

mushroom, after eating experience, looks normal, I don't think it ingested much meat

 

[Hermie]

fed the candy cane again today, they are now plump and digesting

however, the mushroom wouldn't take anything into it's mouth
the chalice still had no response