IM 14 Peninsula Lagoon Reef - Build Thread

[CalebWBrink2000]

[EDIT 12/22] Skip to page 3 to see the reef currently. A lot has changed in both my reef and life; I prioritize ease of maintenance now and my current coral selection reflects that.
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This all started roughly 7 to 8 years ago, depending on the count. Frankly, I've had a lot of failures during that period, most of which I will account towards my youth that lead to a false belief that I could defy the rules of the nitrogen cycle and common hobby knowledge in pursuit of my own. Granted, I eventually got there, and I've learned a lot in the process.

My first and only tank for the past seven years was a Biocube 29. It evolved from plastic ornaments from Petsmart with a clownfish and yellow tang, to a FOWLER, then a semi-reef, FOWLER once more, then a macro-algae tank, and finally into what would eventually morph into what I have today.

To anyone new who's reading this, let me emphasize: DO not following my footsteps, lol. Much death and money could be saved if you actually stick to the forums and literature like everybody says. While I won't say that my tang suffered, its simply not viable to keep a tang in such a small system. They produce extraordinary amounts of waste and simply do not belong in a small tank due to their behavior and swim patterns.

Here are some progression photographs:
The first photo is from the "semi-reef" stage, as I do not have any pictures of the tank prior.

This is when I started venturing into possibly trying a reef. However, an order from BlueZoo ensured chaos, as a clown I purchased had brook and ended up killing my first clownfish of six years. This sucked. Subsequently, every clown after that came down with, in hindsight, I assume was brook too, regardless of how long I let the tank fallow.

At this point I decided to try reefing for real, and I got a legitimate light.

My first major crash happened here. Brown jelly swept in and wiped out half of my corals.

And here lies the turning point. Unexpected bathroom constructed resulted in a layer of toxic soot entering the tank. Gradually, every fish died. Their fins became brittle and shattered, of which I assume was brook. It was gradual over the course of a week; first the wrasse, then the damsel, then my tang, and last my clown. The tang hurt; I'd had her since the first clown I got, so about six years too.

So, I decided to start over and do things by the book as much as I could. I bought the IM 14 and all the necessary equipment. An Aqualife 115 Skimmer and an InTank Media Basket that contains a sponge, Purigen, and Chemipure. In the last chamber with the return pump are MarinePure Biospheres. Fresh, dry sand was used, but all of the rock and coral were transferred over with zero losses. 8 years of live rock meant that I skipped the cycle entirely.

Here it was then:

And here it is now:

Turns out methodology exists for a reason, and the results above speak to it I hope. Stocking includes various softies and LPS with one frag of green monti in the top right. I have many macros for aesthetic reasons and nutrient reduction. Fish include a wyoming white clown, a rolland's damselfish, and a royal gramma.

The first two fish I purchased after setting this system up was another clown and a royal gramma. The ocellaris succumbed to the same fate as the clowns prior: brook. The gramma remained fine. So, I let him live alone for two months in hopes that the brook would die, and to my luck, it finally did. A wyoming white clown was purchased, and is the one you currently see now. With him was a blue/green chromis that died of an unknown cause; a rolland's damsel replaced him, of which is still among us. As such, the stocking is complete aside from CUC supplements.

To finish this off, I offer three videos.

The Biocube 29:


IM 14 Peninsula Beginnings:


IM 14 Peninsula Current:


Hopefully this can help someone avoid the mistakes and stubbornness of mine. Nobody likes repeatedly killing fish and wasting money dudes. Trust me, there are no wild exceptions; only paths to the same end, though some paths are easier to walk than others. I run my systems dirty and natural; others run theirs sterile and regulated. Both work. However, both have a substantial amount of data supporting them. Do not ignore the data like I did.

In the end, I think I eventually got there. I sure did learn a lot on the way.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Looking back, this thread should probably be in the Nano section of the “Member’s Tanks” forum.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

An update.

Below is a series of pictures showing the progress; I recently overhauled my reef in preparation for college. The previous scape, while beautiful and full, would've been a nightmare to deal with when transporting the tank back and forth for college vacations (summer and winter).

And here is the split; below are the final images of the reef in its last state before the overhaul. This is its peak; the final product, a self-contained ecosystem so robust that I honestly don't think I could've crashed it if I tried.

And now we are here. Post overhaul:

Tomorrow I have a large shipment of corals from @uniquecorals; they will complete the scape. New pictures will be posted once they settle in.

Now, everything aside from the lobo and symphillia is attached to three rocks, making its breakdown much simpler. All that is needed for transport is to place said rocks into a bucket of tank water; easy. Additionally, the scape is quite easy to recreate too.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

One more:

The photographs in the above post started to act screwy towards the bottom, and I couldn't fix it via editing, so I suspect I reached the data limit per post.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

The update:

It's all done in terms of coral now.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

My father and I built a new stand for the tank for college; the current one is incredibly unstable and has to be wedged between a desk and box to keep from swaying. This one should be much better. The bucket is for the ATO later.

 

[raul medina]

AWESOME tank!!!!

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Here is a video I made awhile ago from clips I had compiled but never stitched together; it's the last look at the first iteration of the IM 14 in it's final state- the best that this system has ever been.

Anyhow,

The college move didn't go as well as planned. As per Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. I lost two out of my three fish due to presumably stress- luckily, Bertha the clownfish survived. The move was the beginning of a downward spiral to a complete ecological crash. Here is a mockup I did two days prior to the movie of what I planned to set the tank back up as:

Changing things, anything, was a mistake. Mistake #1. I should also add that between then and my last post, my skimmer died and I never bothered to replace it. Mistake #2.

The move commences and the only fish to live is my clown. The candycanes got crushed and the gold torch outright melted. Okay; I removed the few that died and let the tank ride its wave. Things fluctuate off an on for a few days, and I wasn't able to recreate the mockup I made in the picture above, so I was incredibly unhappy with the way the tank looked.

I waited another day and decided to do some slight re-gluing of corals to try and make myself happy with my reef again- mistake #3. Typically after you rescape a reef, it takes everything a day or two for the water to clear up and the corals to readjust. Not this time. The water remained a milky, hazy color and gradually my corals started sloughing off. Oddly enough, my water tests didn't show anything super abnormal.

At this point, I was ready to be done with this and was feeling kind of defeated, so I just let it take its course instead of doing a preemptive water change like I should have as soon as the first coral started melting. Mistake #4. A few days later, with many dead corals thrown out, I think it's coming to a close. The following morning I find all of the bristleworms laying outside of the rocks unresponsive. The snails were all upside down hanging out of their shells. The hermit crabs sat motionless. My big clownfish, the sole survivor, was on her side gasping. Something took a dive during that night and I still don't know what it was. That was the defining moment, the moment of total ecological collapse. I had a small amount of fresh saltwater leftover from a previous water change that I used to quickly set up a mini-hospital and threw my clown in. Thankfully she was revived within an hour, leading me to conclude that something was poisoning my tank water. You would think ammonia, but the readings would indicate otherwise. I do believe that having a skimmer would've mitigated the severity of the crash.

One 100% water change, a few days, and a new skimmer and pump later and the clown is reintroduced- she is fine. The sole survivors of the crash were two small colonies of zoanthids, some mushrooms, the gracilaria macroalgae, and Bertha's big bubble-tip anemone.

A week and a half later and we are here, and I've begun to rebuild. I'm going with BTA's as they are strong. I'm avoiding branching corals with calcified skeletons like euphyllia and trumpet corals because they have a tendency to break during moves. Less, smaller rocks = easier to transport. What I have right now is about all I'm going to buy in terms of coral/anemones; I'd rather have this system be durable and flexible.

Given that few are in the business of moving their display twice a year, this is relatively uncharted for me. There are certain factors involved that aren't relevant to a typical setup. I've got 8 years of experience to help, though I've never seen a crash as horrific and as deadly as the one I experienced.

Here it is today.

Simple is good.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Rounding out the fish population and the livestock for the tank in general is a green chromis and a lubbock's wrasse. The tank is definitely slightly overstocked now (as all of my setups have been) and fun to watch. I've never had fish eat within the first 5 mins; these two did! So, from here, the reset is complete aside from general maintenance purchases.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

The wrasse was returned, as ultimately I feel like he would've outgrown my reef. Trying to not push the rules too much here, as this tank has to withstand being broken down and transported twice a year. I also returned the green BTA in the front; ever since I got him 3 weeks ago, he'd moved around to another location every night.

Thus, I think we're in a good place long-term now.

 

[OffTopic]

This tank is absolutely amazing! Really inspiring what you did with this nano tank

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

And finally, a new video.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Tank is looking excellent!

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Unfortunately, most of the BTA's I bought remained unsatisfied and never found a spot to be happy, so they were returned. To fill in the gaps I bought some more macroalgaes and ricordias, going back to my original lagoon theme. I'm quite happy with the results, and the tank seems to be too.

Maybe THIS time it'll be good for good. I'd like to just let it grow out now.

and a small iPhone video:

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

A few new mushrooms that I got for a pretty decent deal.

Tomorrow I will be leaving for fall break for four days; I anticipate all will be well with the reef, but you can never get it out of the back of your mind when you're on vacation, haha. I trust the ATO, the tank is doing great, and the fish are well fed, so everything should be totally fine.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

As expected, all was well with the reef.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Here's an updated photo the first morning after I moved it back home for Christmas break. No casualties or disruptions. I did have to cull much of my macroalgae awhile back to keep everything growing, so now I have a little more rock space to add to.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

 

[Gonebad395]

Very nice like it a lot