First Reef Tank - 40 Gallon Cube

[TheWhiteFang]

Hello All,

I decided to start a thread as I begin my journey into the reef hobby. I purchased an established 40 gallon cube from my LFS. The previous owner had some coral and a few CUC members, and I am trying to get it back to a healthy state.

Current equipment:

• What it came with
  • Tank
    • Brand - Unknown
    • Volume - ~40 gallons
    • Inner Dimensions: 23 3/16" x 23 1/4"
    • Outer Dimensions: 23 13/16" x 23 7/8"
  • Return Pump - Simplicity
  • Skimmer - Simplicity
  • Heater -
  • Sump
• What I have added/changed so far
  • Light - AI Hydra 32 HD
  • Wavemaker - AI Nero 3
  • BioSpheres
  • Extra Liverock

My current plan is to get the tank back up to appropriate parameters. I have put in a clean up crew of snails, and I am trying to clean out some of the dying cyphastrea. Once that is done and my parameters are looking stable I hope to add a few fish and do a mixed reef.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Great looking tank! What fish are you hoping to add?

 

[TheWhiteFang]

Great looking tank! What fish are you hoping to add?

I think our first 2 are going to be a firefish and a royal gramma, after that a pair of clowns!

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Hows the tank coming along?

 

[TheWhiteFang]

Hows the tank coming along?

We have had some ups and downs for sure.

Current livestock:

2 black ice clowns
Royal Gramma
Firefish
Peppermint Shrimp
Skunk Cleaner shrimp

everything was looking good and I have added some coral as well. I did have a stroke of bad luck over the last week though. A branching hammer I had ended up taking a turn downhill with polyp dropout and I had a yasha goby that managed to jump out. I am trying to make learning experiences out of both instances.

I believe the Hammer was either damaged in transit and I just did not notice it, or, my slightly low levels of alk stressed it out. I am leaning toward the first though, as I have a wall hammer that seems to be doing well.

I am still perplexed with the Yasha. I have a tight fitting lid, and I do not think it could have jumped through it. So my best guess is that during maintenance it managed to jump while I was not fully focused.

Overall I think that I am making progress and learning, but I do find it hard not to get discouraged when these things happened so closely together.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

I wouldn’t feel to bad about the goby man. Those things happen. I’ve lost more fish than I care to admit to carpet surfing. Yashas are thin and small fish so the smaller gap can be enourmous to them. I have one in my 40 gallon I get to see maybe once a month. My question is what might have made him jump? Did he have a burrow or pistol shrimp friend? I know royal grammas are peaceful but they also like the rock work, any chance of agresion?

Polyp nail out I’m not a good person for an explanation. This 40 gallon is the first tank I’ve had trouble with euphillia. Had two torches early on brown jelly, granted my tank was still maturing and going through crazy bacterial blooms and had one hammer poly bailed out. Decided not to try any more in this tank after. That was easy to do as realastate got taken up by other corals quickly and hammers for whatever reason are super expensive compared to 5 years ago. Almost double in price for a single head.

Got any updated photos?

Also I would encourage you to look into getting a wrasse when keeping hammers and what not to help against flat worms.

 

[TheWhiteFang]

I wouldn’t feel to bad about the goby man. Those things happen. I’ve lost more fish than I care to admit to carpet surfing. Yashas are thin and small fish so the smaller gap can be enourmous to them. I have one in my 40 gallon I get to see maybe once a month. My question is what might have made him jump? Did he have a burrow or pistol shrimp friend? I know royal grammas are peaceful but they also like the rock work, any chance of agresion?

Polyp nail out I’m not a good person for an explanation. This 40 gallon is the first tank I’ve had trouble with euphillia. Had two torches early on brown jelly, granted my tank was still maturing and going through crazy bacterial blooms and had one hammer poly bailed out. Decided not to try any more in this tank after. That was easy to do as realastate got taken up by other corals quickly and hammers for whatever reason are super expensive compared to 5 years ago. Almost double in price for a single head.

Got any updated photos?

Also I would encourage you to look into getting a wrasse when keeping hammers and what not to help against flat worms.

I ordered the goby through my lfs, and was waiting on the pistol shrimp to come in as well, so it definitely could have helped if there was a burrow to retreat to with the shrimp rather than the top of the tank. All of my other inhabitants were curious and would do a swim by to check it out which would cause it to stress a bit I think. The gramma has definitely peacocked around during feeding, but I have never seen it actually nip or attack the other fish I have.

I will try to get some updated photos posted later today!

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Well don’t give up on the yasha! They are super beautiful gobies! Although I only see mine about once a month it’s still a treat every time. Try and order your shrimp first if you can’t get them at the same time. The shrimp will totally be fine on its own. Then when you get your yasha back you can try to introduce him to the burrow with a tube, or honestly you can just drop him in the tank and they will 100% find each other. That’s how my introduction went and I wanna say by the end of the day they were burrowed up together.