College Dorm Reef Tank!

[_cpate3_]

I took a weekend vacation to Niagara falls, came back to a perfectly healthy tank and everyone still alive! I have no bad news to report so far. Still no algae outbreaks, my pistol shrimp and goby ended up surviving if you saw my emergency thread post

Current parameters before the 20% water change:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .2ppm (gotta figure this out)
Nitrate: 15ppm (a little high)

Haven’t added anything since the tiny CUC, I put some shells in the tank for the hermit crabs, and turns out the pistol shrimp liked them more and is hoarding about half of them…

The clownfish have hosted the overflow at night, but during the day swim all around the tank.

The fire shrimp is getting more comfortable and I’m trying to hand feed it (it freaked out during the water change so I want to get it used to my hand in the tank)

The goby and pistol shrimp made a new hole in the back of the tank so I only see them when it’s feeding time.

No parasites, no algae, nobody dead, I’d say it’s going well!

I was thinking about either a refugium or a protein skimmer along with my media basket for a filtration option. Anyone can share ideas on which would be best and the best way to accomplish this? Those will be added much later as I don’t have much waste right now because the filter floss is doing a great job. But when everyone starts to grow and poop bigger and eat more it’ll be necessary. Hope you’re enjoying the tank!

 

[_cpate3_]

Uh oh… what did I get myself into!!!

I went to my LFS bored out of my mind yesterday and came home with my first 3 corals… I didn’t want corals until I go to college because the move would be so much harder, but honestly I love the little guys.

I got 1 short polyp GSP
1 AOI Zoanthid (U of M colors GO BLUE!)
1 pipe organ

They all opened over night and can’t wait for them to grow out

 

[ISFNick]

how has your tank handled the corals?

 

[_cpate3_]

Time for an update!!!

With 1 small ammonia spike about a week ago ever since my tank has been doing great. Algae has just begun forming on the gray plugs and I got a rack for them to make moving easier down the road!

We have 3 new additions being 2 RFAs and 1 porcelain anemone crab.

Parameters are stable, RODI buddie works wonders and for such a small size and price I’d definitely recommend.

My next steps are to get an alkalinity kit and some Kalkwasser to start keeping LPS corals. If anyone has slow growing but beautiful lps corals that would be great!

Pictures:

 

[NanoJHB]

Epic little tank! Taking it slow and seeing the tank mature and grow is so rewarding

 

[_cpate3_]

Epic little tank! Taking it slow and seeing the tank mature and grow is so rewarding

didn’t necessarily take it slow, but now that I’m basically fully stocked it definitely is slowing down.

At first I wanted to add so many things to make it look alive, but now I really appreciate adding just 1 thing, and seeing how it affects the scape and view of the tank

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Time for an update!!!

With 1 small ammonia spike about a week ago ever since my tank has been doing great. Algae has just begun forming on the gray plugs and I got a rack for them to make moving easier down the road!

We have 3 new additions being 2 RFAs and 1 porcelain anemone crab.

Parameters are stable, RODI buddie works wonders and for such a small size and price I’d definitely recommend.

My next steps are to get an alkalinity kit and some Kalkwasser to start keeping LPS corals. If anyone has slow growing but beautiful lps corals that would be great!

Pictures:

Love the little frag rack you have!

 

[_cpate3_]

I have to share some bad news…

Today my wheelers goby and fire shrimp died. I was gone on vacation for a week, and I had someone watching the tank. When I came back the goby was on the floor. And my fire shrimp got hit by the pistol shrimp and I think died from its injuries although I’m not sure how it died it just kinda did. The clownfish, anemones, and corals are ok as well as the pistol shrimp. Everything was going smoothly, and this was my first mistake/unfortunate event. A learning experience, and a wake up call that reefing is not as easy as I had thought

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Hows the tank running so far? I'm getting my Evo ready for cycling and was curious how everythings holding up?

 

[_cpate3_]

Hows the tank running so far? I'm getting my Evo ready for cycling and was curious how everythings holding up?

I’ve moved onto LPS corals and have a happy Acan and Frogspawn colony that seem to be holding up so far! The clownfish are still perfectly fine, and I ended up replacing my dead wheelers goby with an orange spotted goby that fit in nicely. I am done adding things until September when I move to college, where I will add my protein skimmer and a tailspot blenny to finish out the stocking!

I am going to remove my hermit crabs as they have killed 2 snails. They were a good start but my Trochus snails got rid of my ugly stage before it even began.

So far everything is super smooth, just worried about moving it in a few weeks

 

[AyoItsRocco]

I’ve moved onto LPS corals and have a happy Acan and Frogspawn colony that seem to be holding up so far! The clownfish are still perfectly fine, and I ended up replacing my dead wheelers goby with an orange spotted goby that fit in nicely. I am done adding things until September when I move to college, where I will add my protein skimmer and a tailspot blenny to finish out the stocking!

I am going to remove my hermit crabs as they have killed 2 snails. They were a good start but my Trochus snails got rid of my ugly stage before it even began.

So far everything is super smooth, just worried about moving it in a few weeks

Rightfully so, wish the best luck for you!

 

[_cpate3_]

Rightfully so, wish the best luck for you!

Can’t wait to see your tank and how it turns out!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I’ve moved onto LPS corals and have a happy Acan and Frogspawn colony that seem to be holding up so far! The clownfish are still perfectly fine, and I ended up replacing my dead wheelers goby with an orange spotted goby that fit in nicely. I am done adding things until September when I move to college, where I will add my protein skimmer and a tailspot blenny to finish out the stocking!

I am going to remove my hermit crabs as they have killed 2 snails. They were a good start but my Trochus snails got rid of my ugly stage before it even began.

So far everything is super smooth, just worried about moving it in a few weeks

Glad it is going well so far!

 

[_cpate3_]

 

[AyoItsRocco]

Looks awesome! Love the aquascape.

 

[_cpate3_]

1 week until moving to college! I’m more worried about my fish than my grades but hey we all have our priorities.

I am trying to dose Kalk using my ATO because I don’t have the space or money for a dosing pump. Having some trouble with a film building up on the top of my tank (there is enough agitation, but it’s a film in my ATO only after using kalk)

My Zoa still isn’t doing well, I guess that’s what I get for only buying 1 polyp. Still trying to figure out that problem.

I’m slowly getting everything ready for the move. Figuring out what I need and don’t need. And writing out game plans for the move. With a small tank and no grown out corals I should be fine. But the anxiety is killing me.

My next update will be post move, and hopefully everything survives the move!

And of course some pictures I’ve taken:

 

[_cpate3_]

The time came and went so fast and now I am in college! the fish survived the move and are sitting behind me as I write this still asleep.

For the move, I used 2, 5 gallon buckets and 2 styrofoam coolers for the fish. One bucket had corals and inverts, the other had my rock, and then each cooler for the goby and clown pair respectively. I decided to keep the sand during the move in order to preserve bacteria but it ended up causing a very slight ammonia spike that quickly disappeared overnight.

I will send pictures of the tank once everything has settled down and the lights turn on. So far though there are no casualties that I can see and everything is well. My only issue is that I had to flip the tank so My flow is off and will need to be played with to get it right again.

 

[TheSheff]

Go check out @brandon429 he is a genius at this. Long story short it is a way to cycle your tank in 10 days without having to test parameters based off of new cycling science. Very enjoyable reading up on it and I would go check him out

I cant find that thread or article, do you have a link to it?

 

[7of9]

The time came and went so fast and now I am in college! the fish survived the move and are sitting behind me as I write this still asleep.

For the move, I used 2, 5 gallon buckets and 2 styrofoam coolers for the fish. One bucket had corals and inverts, the other had my rock, and then each cooler for the goby and clown pair respectively. I decided to keep the sand during the move in order to preserve bacteria but it ended up causing a very slight ammonia spike that quickly disappeared overnight.

I will send pictures of the tank once everything has settled down and the lights turn on. So far though there are no casualties that I can see and everything is well. My only issue is that I had to flip the tank so My flow is off and will need to be played with to get it right again.

Good luck this year in school! What are you majoring in?

 

[_cpate3_]

Good luck this year in school! What are you majoring in?

Aerospace engineering!