Home Office 40B AIO "Letterkenny" Build

Donnydickerson

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have the same idea for my first tank soon with very similar setup. Looks awesome! I’m trying to see if I can get away with one light. Also gonna use live rock to cycle and HOB seachem tidal 110. Excited to watch yours progress good luck.
 

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Also…interested to hear your jebao was too much for that tank I was gonna go with that some model. I want a bunch of softies and LPS and kind of let the tank run wild.
 
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I think your stocking list looks fine although sand sifting gobies are sometimes difficult to keep well fed in a newer setup. Not much in the way of food for them to find in the sand. I lost a pair of golden head sleeper gobies years ago that wouldn’t eat anything I tried to feed them. You might consider the gramma and the cardinals first since they will readily eat whatever you are feeding the clowns which just makes feeding the tank easier. Hope that’s helpful.

Ah, I will definitely heed this advice. This also made me wonder about the logistics of QT with the sand sifters since you're not supposed to have substrate in the QT. If they don't eat pellets/flakes/frozen, QT might be a bad time. Maybe I'll go for pre-QT and conditioned for the Goby and pay to not worry about it. Were the golden head sleepers CB or wild caught?
 
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have the same idea for my first tank soon with very similar setup. Looks awesome! I’m trying to see if I can get away with one light. Also gonna use live rock to cycle and HOB seachem tidal 110. Excited to watch yours progress good luck.

Link me your build thread when you get started and I'll follow along to provide any of my learnings if I can. Thanks!
 
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Also…interested to hear your jebao was too much for that tank I was gonna go with that some model. I want a bunch of softies and LPS and kind of let the tank run wild.
I'm going for softies and LPS, too. I think the issue is that there is no coral currently, and I'll be growing out from frags - there is nothing impeding the flow and won't be for a while. It is probably more accurate to say the Jebao 30W is too big now but once the corals grow out and start blocking some flow, I'll need something bigger or just more.
 

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Ah, I will definitely heed this advice. This also made me wonder about the logistics of QT with the sand sifters since you're not supposed to have substrate in the QT. If they don't eat pellets/flakes/frozen, QT might be a bad time. Maybe I'll go for pre-QT and conditioned for the Goby and pay to not worry about it. Were the golden head sleepers CB or wild caught?
They were most likely wild caught. Asking if they were captive bred or not was not on my radar at that time, we're talking 15 years ago. Seriously doubt they were anything other than wild. Is anyone raising CB sleeper or watchman gobies currently? I can't recall ever seeing any. Not that I've really looked at all.
 
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They were most likely wild caught. Asking if they were captive bred or not was not on my radar at that time, we're talking 15 years ago. Seriously doubt they were anything other than wild. Is anyone raising CB sleeper or watchman gobies currently? I can't recall ever seeing any. Not that I've really looked at all.

Good question - had to go look. Looks like ORA has watchmen a few others have sleeper variants. I'm in luck.
 
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I'm such an idiot. I found the source of my ammonia spike... I got an auto feeder to cover the second feeding of the day. It came with two dispensing plates, one for pellets and another for flake. I tested it, worked great. 4-6 pellets every time.

Fast forward to the first day I turned it on. I came home and noticed a more than expected amount of pellets on the sand that I cleaned up when I got home. Inspected the feeder, there was a small gap (not the opening) between the plate and the barrel. Didn't think anything of it and I haven't used it since.

Now we get to this afternoon. Decided to move the right pillar forward a bit to prepare for the new wavemakers on the back wall. Trying something new. Lift it up and a literal mountain of pellets come out. Like hundreds. Scooped up as much as I could, filter and skimmer are running full bore. I'll swap out the silly filter balls in a bit once the bulk of the water column is clear.

Idiot.
 

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I'm such an idiot. I found the source of my ammonia spike... I got an auto feeder to cover the second feeding of the day. It came with two dispensing plates, one for pellets and another for flake. I tested it, worked great. 4-6 pellets every time.

Fast forward to the first day I turned it on. I came home and noticed a more than expected amount of pellets on the sand that I cleaned up when I got home. Inspected the feeder, there was a small gap (not the opening) between the plate and the barrel. Didn't think anything of it and I haven't used it since.

Now we get to this afternoon. Decided to move the right pillar forward a bit to prepare for the new wavemakers on the back wall. Trying something new. Lift it up and a literal mountain of pellets come out. Like hundreds. Scooped up as much as I could, filter and skimmer are running full bore. I'll swap out the silly filter balls in a bit once the bulk of the water column is clear.

Idiot.
No need to beat yourself up. Stuff like that happens to all of us eventually. Just learn from it and move on.
 
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No need to beat yourself up. Stuff like that happens to all of us eventually. Just learn from it and move on.
I definitely wrote my post immediately after I finished cleaning up. I'm actually more relieved than anything. I was having a hard time comprehending why my ammonia readings were so high with Dr. Tims. I'm glad it was irregular bioload and not regular bioload. Also glad that I lifted that rock. The cycle saga would have continued for a while. Partial water change, Matrix, and TurboStart tomorrow.
 

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I am thinking about getting this same AIO kit. Can you tell me how deep it is? Curious to know how much space I lose from the display portion and if it's better for me to use the smaller center mount box vs the entire wall.
 
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I am thinking about getting this same AIO kit. Can you tell me how deep it is? Curious to know how much space I lose from the display portion and if it's better for me to use the smaller center mount box vs the entire wall.

The dimensions are 15.75"x16.5"x5.25" (HxWxD). Hope that helps.
 
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Crisis averted. Total ammonia down to 0.2, about -0.4 day over day. Expecting to finally get back to 0 tomorrow. I'll be curious to see if I catch the corresponding rises and falls of nitrites and nitrates. I'll water change a few times to get them down to a reasonable level before turning the lights on.

If ammonia is down, I might grab some nassarius and cerith snails to help with any uneaten food in the sand and rockwork. Also might grab the pods and dose OceanMagik to boost the population over the next two weeks before the lights go on.

Ordered reef diapers today. I was hopeful about the balls that came with the Tenecor, less excited about cleaning socks. This seems like a reasonable middle ground.
 
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Since you reacted @Reef Diaper - I installed today, but with took some tweaking. The hole in the Tenecor is slightly oversized relative to the diaper ring and by itself, it slips through the hole. I cut up a ring from a reef sock for a temporary solution by sandwiching between the inner and outer ring. I ordered a filter cup adapter plate which appears to meet my required dimensions for the longer term solve.

So far so good on the filter performance, though. While messing around with the first chamber, I kicked up some debris that must have been on the bottom and it cleared quickly.

Ammonia is back down to barely detectable on the red sea test kit. Nitrites as expected are up >1 ppm. Nitrates haven't budged but expecting to see it go up soon.
 

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Since you reacted @Reef Diaper - I installed today, but with took some tweaking. The hole in the Tenecor is slightly oversized relative to the diaper ring and by itself, it slips through the hole. I cut up a ring from a reef sock for a temporary solution by sandwiching between the inner and outer ring. I ordered a filter cup adapter plate which appears to meet my required dimensions for the longer term solve.

So far so good on the filter performance, though. While messing around with the first chamber, I kicked up some debris that must have been on the bottom and it cleared quickly.

Ammonia is back down to barely detectable on the red sea test kit. Nitrites as expected are up >1 ppm. Nitrates haven't budged but expecting to see it go up soon.
What is the bore diameter in the Tenecor sump? If it is only slightly larger than 3-3/4" you might be able to increase the diameter of the Reef Diaper by placing a shim behind the seal. The seal is removable and you could use a rubber band for the shim or cut a strip from a plastic water bottle. Cut the shim to the same width as the seal.
 
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What is the bore diameter in the Tenecor sump? If it is only slightly larger than 3-3/4" you might be able to increase the diameter of the Reef Diaper by placing a shim behind the seal. The seal is removable and you could use a rubber band for the shim or cut a strip from a plastic water bottle. Cut the shim to the same width as the seal.
Seems right at 4". I don't think I can increase the diameter enough. I'll give the adapters a shot and see how that goes. If those don't work, I might cut and drill a plate of acrylic and CA over the current one if it becomes a problem.
 
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Finally something other than my ammonia freakout to share plus a picture.

QT tank has been assembled and the Mrs offered half of the coffee bar in the kitchen. I'm shocked... She also asked to learn how to do water and filter changes today - I'm just going to lean into it. She is my dive partner after all.

Gear:
Aqueon 10G
Custom screen top from DT leftovers
Aqueon 100W Preset Heater
Aquaclear 50 with sponge and carbon
Eheim 100 air pump and included diffuser
(Optionally used with BRS 10g Sponge)
Hygger Clip-on Light
Seachem Ammonia Alert
Prazipro
Copper Power

PXL_20220925_224319736.jpg


PVC caves get in on Tuesday. Looks like next weekend we will start QT on a Royal Gramma (provided one of three LFS have them in stock).
 
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I ordered a 25 gal snail and hermit CUC from ReefCleaners - expected to ship on Monday. It is probably a bit overkill so I grabbed some Hikari Algae and Crab Delight to make sure they have something to eat. Lights have been turned on acclimation mode starting at 40% and will increase to BRS LPS settings over the next 4 weeks - expecting to start growing food for the CUC over the next week. Pods and OceanMagik start on Saturday.

Lights on is deserving of a DSLR shot, I suppose.

_MG_8265.jpg
 
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LFS only had Reef Nutrition pods, so I added one bottle of Apex and one of Tigger. Given the size of the clown bellys tonight, I have a feeling the Tiggers are going to be low in numbers. . Well, at least now I know their favorite food. Next time adding the pods after the lights out to give them a fighting chance.
 
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Let the uglies begin. Diatoms are starting to freckle on the rock and sand, and couldn't have been better timing. CUC arrives on Thurs, and the ecopods and oceanmagik I actually wanted are expected to show up this week, too. At least the CUC won't starve.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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