4.8g Dominant Rare Soft Coral Build

[marcinpolak]

Hi all,

In the coming days I will be setting up 2 new tanks! Both on the smaller side but this is the one of the tanks and the smaller of the two. This first tank will be a Rare soft coral dominant tank with some RFAs.

Equipment-
- 4.8 Eshopps Deskmate
- Sicce Micra (90gph) pump
- VCA Return nozzle
- 25W Eheim Jager heater with Inkbird controller
- AI Prime 16 HD with the flex arm (will also be attaching a light diffuser/shader
-Kraken reef Lid with feeder cup

Filtration-
- Ceramic Bio-Sphere
- ~3lbs dry rock
- CaribSea Arag-Alive
- 2 gallon weekly water change

Fish-
-Tailspot Blenny

Inverts-
-Caribbean Spiny Oyster
-Colored knobby Mini scallop
-Ruby Red Crab
-Astrea star snail
-Marginella Snails x2
-Cerith Snail x4
-Mexican Nerite Snail x2

Coral-
- Koji Wada Nepthea (just need to trim it from my other tank)
- Red Xenia
- Giant Bali Xenia
- Pulsing Sinularia
- Stereonepthya
- RFAs

My tank arrived today (other one should be here Monday) and right now I will not be setting it up for 2 weeks due to the fact that I’ll be in Florida for a little bit. But I will play with the dry rocks and try to come up with a Aquascape.

Thank you for reading and I hope to give you all and update very soon!

 

[lapin]

Nice

 

[marcinpolak]

Some quick Aquascapes I’m came up with…

I realized I won’t have much space to clean the sides with these aquascapes but ultimately I’m ok with that. To clean this tank I will me using the magic eraser to get to those hard spots.

 

[marcinpolak]

Update!

VCA Nozzle and the Sicce micra pump arrived today! With that being said just waiting on the Kraken reef lid. I could start the tank at any moment now but since I’m going to Indianapolis this weekend and then to Florida after I’m going to hold off. Which is upsetting.

Next update most likely will be a shot of the tank as everything is going in.

Also, I will soon be announcing the second tank soon on a separate thread! Just waiting for a custom piece I ordered for it

 

[marcinpolak]

On my way back from the trip as we speak.
While no more Florida weather, I finally get to set up the new tank! But in Florida I got to see the biggest carpet anemone and caught a grey triggerfish as well. Snorkeled a little bit but I’m ready to come home and start this little tank.

 

[marcinpolak]

Update!

Kraken Reef lid arrived two days ago and was planning on setting up the tank tomorrow. But then I realized my stand is slightly uneven, so I ordered a leveling mat from Innovative Marine that should be here Thursday (thank you Amazon!). But played with more aquascapes in the meantime and starting to really dig this one! Still super bummed that this build is delayed.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Love the aquascape idea!!

 

[marcinpolak]

Good news the leveling mat came in today so that means we get to start the tank! Just right now I’m letting the mat flatten out with a couple heavy books

 

[marcinpolak]

Update!

Finally got to start up this build. All set up and ready to add sand, rock, and water. Today I primarily focused on where to put wires (organizing), taking things out of boxes. Overall I think it looks pretty well done, love my wire management. Couple of pictures being added and let me explain them a little.

Picture 1 - My wire management; this took some time because I redid it a couple times but overall it’s way better than my other tank currently. Also this is the electronic section of the “stand” I’m using.

Picture 2 - That is the leveling mat that I cut to my specifications (super easy and will buy again). The other side of it is adhesive and I stuck that onto the “stand”.

Picture 3 - The electronic section covered by the box that’s supposed to be there.

Picture 4 - The tank and how it currently looks. Tomorrow there will be water!!!

Thank you for reading and I’m excited to post again tomorrow!

 

[marcinpolak]

The tank officially has water in it! Few things to note, I will be doing a ~2 month no light period and the resident of this tank will be in there hopefully next week.

To start the cycle of the tank I used Fritz fishless fuel and then added Bio-Spira as well as MicroBacter7. To try and diversify the biological population. I also tested everything and it works perfectly.

 

[829282610]

Congrats what fish/critters are you putting in

 

[marcinpolak]

Congrats what fish/critters are you putting in

Thank you! I plan on getting a tailspot blenny along with some anemone crabs/Pom Pom crabs.

 

[829282610]

Same here. Or a clown goby, Pom Pom. yasha and pistol maybe. Happy hunting.

 

[marcinpolak]

Same here. Or a clown goby, Pom Pom. yasha and pistol maybe. Happy hunting.

All good fish/critters! I’ve been reading your thread as well and absolutely love your build.

 

[marcinpolak]

Update!

Tank was fully cycled as of yesterday and today I got the tanks only fish. A tailspot blenny, he is super tiny but he is curious already looking around what’s going outside his home.

 

[marcinpolak]

A month and 2 days in, added live rock rubble in the back. Hopefully that added some good biome in the tank!

 

[marcinpolak]

 

[marcinpolak]

Update!

Tommorow will be a big day for this tank! Couple filter feeders will be coming in and the clean up crew. Also my fridge for the liquid foods is set up and stickers were placed.

 

[marcinpolak]

Small Update

I have a bunch of new corals in the tank and filter feeders. I’ve been feeding 3 times a day with phytoplankton and oyster feast. But noticed bryposis starting to grow on the acrylic, none on the rock (figure the mithrax crab is eating it). I’ll do a bigger update tomorrow but here’s an outdated picture.

 

[marcinpolak]

Update!

So the tank has been going very nicely, I want to point out that I’ve yet to have an ugly stage. No diatoms and no algae growth what so ever. I wonder what caused this wether it’s the weekly dosing of mb7 and polyp lab genesis or is it the old live rock rubble I threw in the sump. But either way I’m hoping this trend continues. (Lights have been on over a month). The only
Algae that has grown was bryposis but that’s on the acrylic. Which I cleaned with a magic eraser and it has not came back.

This tank also has been getting a lot more nps corals than expected. I’ve been feeding three times a day with phytoplankton and oyster feast. The blueberry gorgonian has started developing a lot more polyps. I have still not tested for nitrates and phosphate but I plan on soon. I do have an algae reactor on standby if it is super high.

thank you for reading!
(This isn’t an updated picture got more corals yesterday but I want them to settle in first)