Blopple's (first ever) IM 40L AIO Build

[Blopple]

Small update.


Whitetail and the new tailspot are both still in QT. Just over a week remaining. Both eating seem to be doing well. Ended up adding a sharknose goby straight to the tank. Risky, but he was a captive bred and was kept in a completely separate system at the LFS from wild fish (and a new system. Was dry until this shipment went in). It was a calculated risk and seems to be okay. Has been in there for a week or two now. Has picked a cool place to set up shop. Also note the 4-5 baby jawbreakers!


Still struggling a bit with the phosphate. I dose by hand every day 10-15mL and test phos 1-2x per day. I still occassionally get zeros, but it does seem to be improving slightly .01-.05 on testing sometimes. I just don't know where all the phos is going. Very weird. Sadly the phosphate dosing absolutely murdered the birdsnest. RTNed hard from the swings. Maybe if I had been dosing off a pump instead of by hand. A bummer, but not too stressed about a $10 frag.

Added a splatter hammer, a dragonsoul torch, and a clam as well. Attached the clam to a rock so I can move it around. Quite small so I am dosing phyto as well now. Seems to be doing well. Unfortunately I don't have a great picture of it yet.




Also did a 5g water change the other day and crashed the temp like 5 degrees. So I went and bought a used heater to heat up the water to avoid that in the future, everything was fine, but it was a bit scary.

 

[Blopple]

Mini holiday update.

FTS, but very early in the morning before everything is open and with very dirty glass.


F(ing)osphate. Man, I am getting real tired of this particular problem. I rarely test 0 anymore, and the dosing is down significantly, but it's still an issue. I'm still testing almost every day. Dosing 3-5mL per day now. Phos normally hovers around 0.02-0.06. Still not stable, but nothing seems too upset about it. The birdsnest is even recovering some flesh it appears. Look real weird 'growing' from the tips in. I have 2 new clove polyps, so phos was definitely my issue with them over the past however many months haha. Cyphastrea (woah that picture is trash) and GSP have really started to take off as well. I can't believe my phosphate was so low for so long and I didn't notice. Amazing how running a test just a tiny bit wrong can stunt your tank so much!


The clam decided to bail off it's rock and tumble down a level. Then immediately reattach almost touching my favorite chalice and almost perfectly facing -away- from the front glass. Grrrrr! It's very pretty, but honestly has been really frustrating with the attaching and detaching and moving on it's own and not being able to move it myself without considerable hassle. It seems very happy though, definitely has a growth edge on the shell, great mantle extension. And pretty from above!!!


Finally managed to get the blenny and the tang out of quarantine and into the tank. They both seem healthy and there has been no aggression towards or from anyone. The tang which has been named both 'Boo' and 'Movie-star fish'(? I don't understand that one) has been picking at the rocks a ton and really putting in some work on the algae. No aggression at all, a little skittish from me still, but no problems with the fish. She's pretty small, but definitely the biggest fish, and honestly looks a little out of place. So pretty though with the stripes and the tail contrast.

The blenny which has been named Jenny (I truly made a point to not name the fish, but the girlfriend and visitors never agree and they name them for me) seems to be doing fine. Unfortunately does quite a lot of hiding. Jenny has moved directly into the hole where I was finally able to catch the Midas Blenny and spends basically the whole day there. Hopefully once she settles in there will be a bit more activity and personality!


Gonna continue to grind away at the phosphate for now and work on slowly lowering the nitrates which climbed to almost 30 during the early phosphate battle. I'm on the lookout for a cool centerpiece for the top middle (where the darn clam fell from), and large LPS (scoly, acanthophyllia, trachy etc.), but otherwise I'm not really sure what to do other than wait for stuff to grow in.

I really feel like I need to increase the lights a bit?

 

[JoJosReef]

Clam will appreciate the increase in lights. Once these things start growing, it surprises you how it fills in. My trachy started out the size of a thumb and is bigger than a softball now--looks huge and running out of space!

How's the brown stuff on your sand. Diatoms? Do you have any conches? Mine work in shifts on the sand and are by far my most effective cleaners.

Tailspot blennies are the best. When yours gets comfy, it will start being quirky.

 

[Mas0n]

That dragonsoul torch is gorgeous.

 

[JoJosReef]

Also, love how your RFAs decided to stick together and give off a good RFA garden look.

 

[Blopple]

Clam will appreciate the increase in lights. Once these things start growing, it surprises you how it fills in. My trachy started out the size of a thumb and is bigger than a softball now--looks huge and running out of space!

How's the brown stuff on your sand. Diatoms? Do you have any conches? Mine work in shifts on the sand and are by far my most effective cleaners.

Tailspot blennies are the best. When yours gets comfy, it will start being quirky.

It could be diatoms, but I actually think it's green hair algae strangely enough. There were two spots in the back that actually grew out threads and hair that were unmistakable. Something must be keeping it at bay. I do have a conch, but only one. Ive thought about getting another recently as well. I was concerned they might starve if I had more than one, but now definitely not as concerned haha.

I do appreciate them not moving around too much. There are two that migrated away from the others, but they are kinda together themselves which is nice!

 

[Blopple]

New trachy! Also found the world's smallest pectinia frag. And moved the dragonsoul favia up onto the rocks with the pectinia. Gonna have to make sure the favia can't sting the pectinia from it's new spot.

 

[Blopple]

New trachy! Also found the world's smallest pectinia frag. And moved the dragonsoul favia up onto the rocks with the pectinia. Gonna have to make sure the favia can't sting the pectinia from it's new spot.

Trachy is settling in nicely. Had to move the plate coral once it inflated. Also might need to move it forward because it gets pinched under the GSP rock when it's all puffed up.

 

[Blopple]

Decided to play Pokemon snap with the fish today. Couple of clicks at each one in the span of a few minutes and sharing the best one. I really gotta up my fishtography game, some of them are horrific, but it was a fun activity. Attached below.

Also becoming honestly worried that the trachy is gonna like pop or something.

 

[Blopple]

Why is this Sharknose Goby so awesome? I swear it knows what corals are the nice ones. If he goes and sits on the acanthophyllia then I'll know he's doing it on purpose.

 

[Blopple]

Update time! It's been over a month, jeez.

Overall: Tank is doing well, some things are thriving, others are not. I generally get the feeling that the tank is finally actually 'maturing'. Coralline has really taken off which feels nice, but there are problems I would like to fix for sure. Nothing that feels like a pressing issue, however. Parameters are fairly stable, small bits of nuisance algae, but nothing too out of control or ugly. I still feel that a lot of my corals are stretching for light and plenty of stuff is getting shaded out. I feel overly concerned about raising them too quickly.


Moving: Aside from the tank, I am in the process of buying a house, supposed to close towards the end of this month. This means two things. I need to either move this tank or shut it down. What are your thoughts on that? Is it worth the hassle to move it, or should I sell off the fish and most of the coral? I could keep just the rock and whatever I can't get off of them and set up a whole new tank? I have been wanting to upgrade, but it feels like a big undertaking.


Fish: Remember back when I said my Tailspot Blenny was kinda bent? Finally got some pictures that I feel show this pretty well. I think it ended up impacting the digestive system and he slowly withered away and died. It was heartbreaking to watch. In hindsight I feel that I should have considered euthanizing this fish. I am once again blenny-less. Bad luck with them it feels.


Clownfish still bicker quite a lot, but B/W ocellaris is definitely the boss. She will pin the blackstorm against the surface in a corner and harass him sometimes, I don't like it, but nobody gets hurt and then they sleep together in the same corner later.

Sixline cruises the rocks, snacks on pods and is just a very neat fish. No aggression at all. Still not sure where he sleeps, but it seems to be somewhere around the euphyllia. Blackcap Basslet has ceded control of the tank to the tang. The basslet and sharknose goby are best friends. They both live by the trachy/duncans/mushrooms, the sharknose goby will sometimes hop on to the side of the basslet and ride around during feeding time. Really fun to watch them together.

Tang seems happy, still gets spooked sometimes and will go hide if I am moving around too much when watching the tank. She seems a little thin, but eats well (nori, algae pellets, brine/mysis) and picks at the rocks a reasonable amount.


Inverts: The clam sadly perished a while back, it ended up falling into the RFA garden. I removed it as soon as I saw it, but it never really recovered. Ended up just staying open and the CUC ate it. I won't be trying another clam in this tank or at all for a while I don't think. It ended up just being a big hassle.

The rockflowers are starting to migrate a bit, but most are still in the same garden. One has moved to the GSP rock, one below the GSP rock, one in front of the acantho against the glass, and one to the top of the zoa rock.
I ended up adding a blue tuxedo urchin as well. It's doing a great job reducing algae and is a lot of fun to watch.


Coral: I removed the green paly/zoas that were taking over the back right corner finally. They were starting to reach the rocks, were harboring bubble algae, and were just ugly and a nuisance. The rest of the zoas all seem to want more light and are stretching up. The pandoras are even moving up off of their own private rock. I may have to remove them as they have the same growth pattern as the green paly/zoas I took out.

Most of the euphyllia is doing well. The green/pink tipped torch still has that weird flesh extension. Splitting or unhappy?

The splatter hammer is stinging the tip of the setosa next to it. I should probably intervene, but haven't done so yet. Setosa has grown a good bit regardless, and it's slowly choking out the green hair algae that was growing on the very top of it. The alleged 'beach bum' monti on the top of the right tower still... exists? It hasn't done anything. The birdsnest continues to recover, has won it's war against the GHA, but has a few bubble algaes in the center of it that I will need to remove.


The 'normal' LPS is doing okay. The candy canes have shaded out the bottom head which has died. The duncans are in the process of doing the same to the bottoms heads of that colony as well. The favia (above) seems to really be enjoying the increase in light. 'Big' LPS trachy and acantho are both doing okay. The acantho may have lost some color?


Cyphastrea is doing really well.


The plate coral somehow managed to eat an entire shrimp molt (this was back in my bottomed out phos phase).


Mushrooms are doing great except the mother jawbreaker is bulldozing the sinularia which has been unhappy for months. I did move the toadstool over there and it seems happier than it was when getting shaded out by the torches.


Bonus pictures of cat and new tank setup.

 

[JoJosReef]

Sorry about the blenny, that's tough. I need to catch mine too check for flukes, although I really doubt it has flukes. I think it suffered some damage to its eye.

The pink tip torch, acantho and jawbreakers are star pieces! Looks amazing! The other pieces all look great, too, but there's always the immediate eye catchers on a tank.

 

[Blopple]

Sorry about the blenny, that's tough. I need to catch mine too check for flukes, although I really doubt it has flukes. I think it suffered some damage to its eye.

The pink tip torch, acantho and jawbreakers are star pieces! Looks amazing! The other pieces all look great, too, but there's always the immediate eye catchers on a tank.

I'm glad the acantho and jawbreakers stand out. They are truly some of my favorites. If I end up upgrading I'd be tempted to turn this one into a mushroom tank It's so fun to watch them pinch or lacerate and spread.

Really curious to try my hand at some more non-acro SPS. Monti cap, digi, stylos.

 

[JoJosReef]

I'm glad the acantho and jawbreakers stand out. They are truly some of my favorites. If I end up upgrading I'd be tempted to turn this one into a mushroom tank It's so fun to watch them pinch or lacerate and spread.

Really curious to try my hand at some more non-acro SPS. Monti cap, digi, stylos.

I'm finding it's hard to plan space for SPS in this tank. They grow tall and into each other, and since the tank is shallow, they get a kind of flat top. Digis are some of my favorites. Fast growers, interesting branching, colorful polyps. Branching psammacora is a nice slow grower. Potato chip pavona (mint) looks great when it gets bigger. Anacropora also look interesting. I'm less enthusiastic about birdsnests, but they grow easy enough. Stylos are also great but fast and intrusive so plan ahead--fortunately easy to frag. I just got a branching cyphastrea, which is LPS, but looks awesome and is probably going to be one of my favorites if it survives.

I could get you a whole SPS pack to trade for a baby jawbreaker if you like! I'm currently getting more into shrooms. I've first got to ship a pink nepthea frag to Stang for a honey trade, but I could make some time for fragging a bit later.

 

[Blopple]

I'm finding it's hard to plan space for SPS in this tank. They grow tall and into each other, and since the tank is shallow, they get a kind of flat top. Digis are some of my favorites. Fast growers, interesting branching, colorful polyps. Branching psammacora is a nice slow grower. Potato chip pavona (mint) looks great when it gets bigger. Anacropora also look interesting. I'm less enthusiastic about birdsnests, but they grow easy enough. Stylos are also great but fast and intrusive so plan ahead--fortunately easy to frag. I just got a branching cyphastrea, which is LPS, but looks awesome and is probably going to be one of my favorites if it survives.

I could get you a whole SPS pack to trade for a baby jawbreaker if you like! I'm currently getting more into shrooms. I've first got to ship a pink nepthea frag to Stang for a honey trade, but I could make some time for fragging a bit later.

That would be really cool. Once life slows down a bit I'd be interested in a swap! Shipping coral seems scary though, haha.

 

[Blopple]

Life is busy, not a ton going on with the tank. Hopefully will close on this house early next month, so it's time to start thinking about how I am going to move this thing ( or upgrade ). Thinking stock tank at the new house, and transport the rock in buckets and fish in bags. Put everything in the stock tank with the lights while I move the tank and get it set back up.

Have added some small <$20 frags (greenish/blue lepto, red lepto, green acans, blastos), but generally it's unchanged. I've noticed an increase in vermetids which I think is due to my obsession with trying to clean the sand. Probably gonna stop doing that and just leave it alone. Might go bare bottom after the move.

The hermit crabs are clearly growing because they massacred my snails. Probably 5-7 trochus snails were murdered in pursuit of new shells, so I added a few more snails.

Sadly the tang passed on in the same fashion as the blenny. When I quarantine in the future I will be adding another step in the form of either a formalin dip or general cure. They were both eating great, but just never seemed to put on any weight. Definitely a problem with my quarantine, but it was my first time. I'm still definitely learning how to reef.

Really proud of the growth on this cyphastrea since originally I wasn't even able to keep a frag alive. The clove polyps also seem to be thriving now that phosphate is no longer zero.