40 gallon mixed reef, no sump & skimmer, 8 months old

dimitrinivo

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Hey guys, this build thread is kinda late as the tank is 8 months old, but here it is, my 40 gallon breeder mixed reef!

Updated fish stocking:
-royal gramma
-spotted mandarin dragonet
-springers damsel
-bangaii cardinal
-six line wrasse
-2 percula clowns

Updated Inverts list:
- blue leg hermits
-red leg hermits
-common hermits
- coral banded shrimp
- tiger sand conch
- 2 hawaiian feather dusters
-peppermint shrimp
- heart urchin (rare)
- tuxedo urchin

Corals:
-gorgonians
-hammers (gold, bi - color, etc)
-various monti caps
-various encrusting montis
-various favias (poseidon, christmas, dragon soul, etc)
-duncan colony
-rare fuzzy lobophyllia
-various scolymia (ultra bleeding apple, ultra war paint, etc)
-GSP
- various zoas (blue eyed blonde B*tches, rasta, LA Lakers, fire and ice, etc)
-various palythoas (utter caos, nuclear toxic, sunny D, etc)
-many more coming soon!

Equipment:
-40 gallon breeder tank
-homemade magnetic glass & eggcrate lid
- Current Orbit IC Pro dual LED with LOOP
- seachem tidal 55 hob filter
- 2 528gph power heads
- 150 watt heater
- 60lbs live sand
- 40lbs caribsea life rock
- Seachem matrix biomedia
- purigen
- phosguard

Maintenance:
- weekly 10% water change with reef crystals
- weekly filter clean
- weekly algae scrape
- weekly parameter testing
- Ca, Kh, Mg, dosing when needed (not often)
- bi weekly trace elements dosing
-cleanup crew replenishing when needed
- chemical media change out when needed

Average tank parameters:
-Ammonia 0
-Nitrite 0
-Nitrate 15 to 25
-phosphate 0.1
-Calcium 490
-Magnesium 1460
-Alkalinity 10.6

IMG_20210307_181010601.jpg IMG_20210307_181001971.jpg IMG_20210307_181010601.jpg IMG_20210307_181034818.jpg IMG_20210307_181134622.jpg IMG_20210307_181232153.jpg IMG_20210307_181236154.jpg
 
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dimitrinivo

dimitrinivo

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Update, my jawfish has gone missing over the past 5 days and i had a phosphate spike so he might have passed, or he's hiding and my phosguard wore out, hopefully he turns up soon, he's hands down my favorite fish.
 
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dimitrinivo

dimitrinivo

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Wednesday is water change and dosing day!
 

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dimitrinivo

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Update;

unfortunately I've suffered a couple of losses this week, my bluespot jawfish disappeared (presumed dead) and my brittle star died.

I've had horrible luck with starfish so i wont be replacing my brittle star, and this was my second attempt at a bluespot jawfish (first one jumped out), i also wont be replacing him as i am starting to learn that bluespot jawfish truly require special temperature requirements to keep them long term.

Despite these losses, i took the opportunity to add some new fish (after i ruled out disease and water parameters as cause of death). I added a royal gramma and a spotted mandarin dragonet which has been trained to eat frozen food. I also topped up my cleanup crew with a heart urchin, tuxedo urchin and a coral banded shrimp.

My updated stocking list is;

fish;
-royal gramma
-spotted mandarin dragonet
-bangaii cardinal
-2 percula clowns
-six line wrasse
-springers damsel

fully stocked at 7 fish, no more additions assuming no-one dies

Inverts;
- 12 total blue leg, red leg, common hermit crabs
- heart urchin (rare)
-tuxedo urchin
-fighting conch
-10 trochus snails
-coral banded shrimp
-peppermint shrimp

I'm pretty close to being fully stocked on inverts too, i plan to add a cleaner shrimp and not much else.
 
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dimitrinivo

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Update: I'm upgrading my light to the Current Orbit IC Pro LED from my Nicrew, I trust the brand name will give me a little better growth and coloration
 
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dimitrinivo

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UPDATE: this tank is going through changes yet again :/

My fish got sick with ich and flukes so i moved them all into a 20 gallon quarantine system where they are undergoing a hypo salinity treatment. Now that I have a QT tank, any new fish i add to any of my systems will be quarantined and medicated before entering the display tank.

As for the 40 gallon breeder, I'm keeping it fallow for 3 months to ensure all diseases die out before i re - introduce my fish. When I caught my fish and moved them into QT i had to take out all the rocks and corals, thus the tank has been re-scaped again, I'll show you guys the new look soon.

I might make a few changes to my fish stocking as well once their treatment is done. I've been thinking of re-homing my six-line wrasse as I'm worried about his aggression building up, so i'll consider that, but would prefer to keep him if the risk seems low. I will rehome my spotted mandarin as i had bought him eating frozen, he has since stopped eating frozen and i don't want to deal with feeding him pods so he'll be donated to my lfs. Lastly I may replace my springers damsel with a cherub angelfish, the springer is one of my least personable fish and I feel like the pigmy angel would add some more personality to the tank.

While the tank is fish-less I'm adding a Debelius Reef Lobster, he will replace my mandarin dragonet in the bottom of the tank, I'm also adding more corals like goniopora, frogspawn, some more zoas for the garden and some branching GSP!
 

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How's the tank doing? What are your thoughts on the Current Orbit IC Pro LEDs? I have AI Primes but I've been thinking about "downgrading" since they have a lower profile and I have little interest in SPS corals.

Was 1 light bar sufficient or did you have to run 2 bars?
 
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How's the tank doing? What are your thoughts on the Current Orbit IC Pro LEDs? I have AI Primes but I've been thinking about "downgrading" since they have a lower profile and I have little interest in SPS corals.

Was 1 light bar sufficient or did you have to run 2 bars?
Thanks for checking in: the tank is going through alot of changes rn. My fish are still in the quarantine tank and the display will be fallow for 72 days from today, so until July 15th. I haven't had the current orbits IC Pro long enough to give them a proper review, I'm running two bars rn roughly 6" above the tank, the IC Pro comes with two bars. I like the controllability of these lights and the cool visual features like clouds and lightning strikes, I can however tell right off the bad that this is a light for Lps and soft corals only, I don't see them growing SPS unless they were really high up in the tank. I redid the rockscape again today, I just didn't like the look of the caribsea live rock or the Marco rock, so luckily I got my hands on 45lbs of actual live rock from a customer at my lfs, redid the Scape and much happier with it. However this resets my fallow period and I have to go 72 days from today to ensure all parasites on the rock die out. During all this chaos, I lost a good portion of my corals, simply by rough handling of them during moving the rocks, so I plan to restock the tank with mostly Lps corals and a few softies, I'm going to re-home my SPS as I feel my lighting is better suited for Lps and soft corals. My inverts are still in the display tank: I have a coral banded shrimp, debelius reef lobster who is very shy and a peppermint shrimp, as well as some trochus snails, tuxedo urchin and hermit crabs. My fish are still in QT, my six line passed away during hyposalinity but my remaining fish are...... A royal Gramma, bangaii cardinal, 2 percula clowns, spotted mandarin, pygmy flame back angel and springers damsel. I will regime the springers damsel to slightly lower my bioload but the rest of the fish wil be moved in on July 15th. I will keep u guys updated
 
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dimitrinivo

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Thanks for checking in: the tank is going through alot of changes rn. My fish are still in the quarantine tank and the display will be fallow for 72 days from today, so until July 15th. I haven't had the current orbits IC Pro long enough to give them a proper review, I'm running two bars rn roughly 6" above the tank, the IC Pro comes with two bars. I like the controllability of these lights and the cool visual features like clouds and lightning strikes, I can however tell right off the bad that this is a light for Lps and soft corals only, I don't see them growing SPS unless they were really high up in the tank. I redid the rockscape again today, I just didn't like the look of the caribsea live rock or the Marco rock, so luckily I got my hands on 45lbs of actual live rock from a customer at my lfs, redid the Scape and much happier with it. However this resets my fallow period and I have to go 72 days from today to ensure all parasites on the rock die out. During all this chaos, I lost a good portion of my corals, simply by rough handling of them during moving the rocks, so I plan to restock the tank with mostly Lps corals and a few softies, I'm going to re-home my SPS as I feel my lighting is better suited for Lps and soft corals. My inverts are still in the display tank: I have a coral banded shrimp, debelius reef lobster who is very shy and a peppermint shrimp, as well as some trochus snails, tuxedo urchin and hermit crabs. My fish are still in QT, my six line passed away during hyposalinity but my remaining fish are...... A royal Gramma, bangaii cardinal, 2 percula clowns, spotted mandarin, pygmy flame back angel and springers damsel. I will regime the springers damsel to slightly lower my bioload but the rest of the fish wil be moved in on July 15th. I will keep u guys updated
Re-home* the springers damsel
 
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dimitrinivo

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The tank today: needs some work :/
 

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count krunk

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How's the tank doing? What are your thoughts on the Current Orbit IC Pro LEDs? I have AI Primes but I've been thinking about "downgrading" since they have a lower profile and I have little interest in SPS corals.

Was 1 light bar sufficient or did you have to run 2 bars?
Never ever ever down grade your lights man!

Your tank looks good, just need some more life in it!
 

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