IM 30L first time reef :|

[3sxp]

Hello! Starting a build thread, I'm scared.

As noted in my intro post, this tank has run as a freshwater planted tank for the last 7 years or so, since I got it in 2016. I ran it low tech, and this past April stripped it completely down (moved fish into a 15g which I'm intending to rebuild into a shrimp tank, so the pair of mean black neons will need new homes ) intending to rebuild it. I plasti-dipped the back white, which was a huge pain -- and then as I was staring at it with the giant piece of wood I'd gotten as the centerpiece, I thought, you know, this tank was meant to be saltwater, and I should just stop being a coward and do it. For the past six months I've been watching tons of videos, reading (I don't even know how many hours reading through just pages of this forum!), and working on a coral reef simulation game design (I'm a game designer by trade), so this is a chance to put all that theory into practice. I went to my LFS twice and had long conversations each time, as a sanity check on what I was hearing online , and off we go.

I have so many questions! And I'm trying to keep kind of a log of the questions that I have so that I can trace as much of my path from beginner onward -- but I'll save those for later posts in this thread.

Equipment:

• Display: Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 30L
• Substrate: Caribsea reef sand (2x bags) -- pretty deep, hoping pistol shrimp likes it
• Rock: Synthetic base rock, brand unknown, maybe CaribSea South Seas?
• Pump: Syncra 1.5 powering both heads in back via Y tube (357gph adjustable)
• Filter media: activated charcoal packet (seachem matrix carbon) and quartz bio rings in left compartment, floss in right compartment
• Heaters: 1 cobalt neotherm 100watt, Marina heater 100watt (the cobalt by itself wasn't maintaining above 75F)
• Lighting: None (yet -- probably 2x Prime 16 HD?)
• Skimmer: None (yet -- but am thinking in a few weeks minimum)
• ATO: None (yet -- next on my list -- the freshwater hobby doesn't seem to know about these things?!!)
• Salinity: 1.026

Plans:

• Keep it simple and stay out of trouble!!
• Low fish bio load, aquacultured wherever possible:
  • 2 clowns (ocellaris) -- just added
  • yasha goby -- in a couple of weeks, if I can find one either aquacultured or pre-quarantined
  • firefish -- couple of weeks after shrimp and goby settle in
  • mandarin dragonet -- aquacultured pellet-eaters from Biota have me intrigued -- a couple of months away minimum though
• Inverts:
  • red and white pistol shrimp -- pre-quarantined hopefully, ideally pre-paired with yasha goby but doubt I'll get that lucky
  • Halloween urchin -- much later when the tank is grown in
• Coral: in a couple of months if all goes well:
  • mushroom
  • zoanthus
  • clove polyps
  • GSP -- hoping to get it to grow on the back wall -- hoping not to regret it!
• BTA for clownfish following coral if all goes well
• Possibly use one of the back compartments for a refugium, but not for awhile

It's boring, but I'm going for survival here!

5/6/23: empty, 5th day of cycling w dose of Fritz 9000 turbo start -- third rearrangement of rocks

5/11/23: clowns added yesterday, picked up still in their bags from SA @ my LFS -- one "mocha storm", one "orange storm"

I tested all parameters a couple of times during the empty cycling, never saw any ammonium, very slightly elevated nitrates once but went back down. Clowns added yesterday mid-afternoon, tested ammonia this morning, nothing. Fed a tiny bit of flake food yesterday just to see if they were hungry, they picked at it a little -- planning to feed every other day while watching the ammonia.

Immediate questions I'm digging around about:

• I feel bad that the clowns don't have anything in there and am thinking of adding a plastic anemone. I've seen one sold at PetCo that people seem to like. I know there's a risk they host it and won't show an eventual anemone any attention, but that seems better than having them be homeless for several months, yeah?
• How should I be balancing the flow at this point? Initially I had the pump on full power and it was too much for the clowns -- they seemed to be struggling with it and were only staying in one corner of the tank. I have it completely off right now and they're swimming around much more happily. The darn adjuster is hard to turn, but I'm going to try to turn it back on at half power and see how they do.
  • If anyone wants to double check me on this, this is what looked like a bit of struggle to me: https://photos.app.goo.gl/GRQGqs7WiM6tVCfC7
  • And this is how they were swimming with the flow off: https://photos.app.goo.gl/UXDay4PxstLznVmz8 -- I think in this video they were even still kinda tired, and seem better and are exploring more now that it's been off for a few hours.
• I'm thinking while I have the flow low, and maybe just indefinitely, I'm going to throw an airstone in the back with a small pump just to be sure it stays oxygenated. I could increase flow and move things around so I have more surface movement, but it seems like a better guarantee to just have the airstone, and it can't hurt anything?
• Until I add coral, there's no real need for a light, right? When would you add the lights given this timeframe (coral in a couple of months)? Unless I should get it earlier so the animals get used to it?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Tank is looking great! Following

 

[LiLinka]

You can add soft corals pretty much a week or 2 after cycling a new tank considering your parameters aren’t that out of wack. Flow is kind of a thing you adjust over time. It depends on what corals you’re keeping and where they are placed. It’s not necessary at the moment with no coral although it will help circulate more water. If the clowns were captive bred no anemone is needed. I’d say most clowns these days are in fact captive bred by ORA. That basically means they haven’t been introduced to an anemone and 99% sure they don’t even know what an anemone is unless placed into a tank with one at your LFS prior to buying them. I would personally turn lights on after cycling you’re gonna see some bacteria issues like cyano and Dino’s but that’s just part of the beginning process. Hope this helps!

 

[kevinf]

How's the tank going? I'm picking a IM 30l in the coming weeks

 

[3sxp]

How's the tank going? I'm picking a IM 30l in the coming weeks

Thank you for asking! I've been meaning to update.

I think it's going well? Meaning the tank looks kind of hideous but it seems like it should at this point?

This was the tank on Sunday (5/21), with AI Prime 16HD newly added in preparation for a BTA. (On advice from LFS I'm doing the anemone first so it can roam if needed before I add anything else.) That weekend I also added AlgaeBarn "clean" chaeto and pods into the back right chamber, moved floss to the next chamber over. And 5 cerith snails.

The light really accelerated the diatoms, predictably. Or rather, tbh, I was flat astonished how fast that happened. I knew in the abstract that saltwater tanks do this but the tank looked like the above one morning and by afternoon yesterday (the 25th) it looked like this:

Granted that's natural light and the actinic seems to knock down the color of the algae, but for crying out loud. I don't want to load too many pics into this post but I have a photo from the morning that same day looking way closer to how it looked on the 21st.

Nexus Joker from Tidal Gardens arrived Tuesday with two ninja star snails. I'm checking the parameters daily; still no ammonia, nitrates 2.5-5.

This is the tank today:

Closeup of anemone and clowns who were tricked into the shot by my hand near the glass (they care way more for me, I assume as the Source of Food, than they do for the anemone so far -- surprising LiLinka [sorry don't know how to embed UID links if that's a thing] not at all I'm sure ):

Tips of the anemone look stringier than in the first couple of days; I'm trying not to spaz too much about that. The ninja snails completely cleaned the rock the anemone is on very specifically for some reason. I set the anemone there thinking it would like to be directly beneath the light (I used settings recommended on a post here: UV 95, V 91, RY 110, B 85, G 3, DR 4, ML 4, CW 24) -- if anyone has recommendations on adjustments I'd love them. The anemone sank its foot way into that rock; it closes up at night with just a few tentacle tips out, then fully opens in the morning.

I've ordered some zoas from JE Aquaculture on Etsy that should arrive next week, and am about to place another Tidal Gardens order for a green Duncan, ricordea (florida), and 4 more snails (astrea turbo, Mexican turbo, another ninja star). And a Hollywood stunner chalice that is on sale. :| Will see whether any of these wind up becoming terrible mistakes. My thinking is that the coral at this point could be absorbing some of what's going into the algae bloom. Still on the lookout for trochus snails, a sinularia leather, and a couple of hermit crabs. I so far have only found the hermits sold online in packs of 10 which seems way overkill for a tank this size.

Will do a 15% water change this weekend and scrape the glass. Siphon the sand or let it be? -- is the conundrum of the moment. Right now the cerith snails actually seem to be doing a pretty good job of tunneling in there and cleaning it up -- I probably should get 5 more of them... (trying not to go too crazy on CUC and just wait out/clean back some of these blooms so I'm not starving them later ).

Right now the only thing I'm adding is plankton into the refugium in back. I also am not lighting the chaeto. I've checked it a couple of times and it seems healthy (green), and I mainly want it to house the copepods. I will likely start ReefRoids when the coral get here.

There are some very thin threads that appear sometimes and go away that seem like they might be dinoflagellates? Will try to get a pic if anyone wants to take a look.

Btw, I am anticipating that I'll need a second HD Prime -- I figured I'd start with the one and see how far it gets me. The tank gets a lot of natural light (unfortunately?), which is why there's so much algae on the left wall in particular. I may shift that left side rock away from the glass just a bit to see if more flow will help. But for now the corals I've ordered are hardy to a variety of light levels (right?) so I'm thinking I don't need to rush a second light, especially while all this gunk is going on. I may knock down the white in the light also...

 

[3sxp]

Forgot to add: I think I need a new heater. Ugh. The Cobalt (which is around 5 years old) spontaneously (?) died; red light at 94 degrees which is some kind of error it throws. It might reset if I plug it back in, but apparently these things sometimes catch on fire? So I'm not going to risk it. The second heater I had in there (because the Cobalt seemed not to be cutting it -- I think it may have been slowly failing; I never kept my freshwater tank this warm) seems to be holding it at a steady 77-78 degrees. I'm actually more concerned that as we get into the summer the warmer days may overheat the tank. But I'm also not comfortable relying on that 100W. People seem to like the IM Helio heaters? Looks like the 200W might be the way to go.

 

[FoolishWizard]

Only thing I'd say is try to keep those rocks an inch or so away from side glass (and front) so you can get a mag cleaner, scraper or your hand in there and clean.

A good heater is a must. Key piece of equip. I went with the Helio for my current build.

 

[3sxp]

Only thing I'd say is try to keep those rocks an inch or so away from side glass (and front) so you can get a mag cleaner, scraper or your hand in there and clean.

A good heater is a must. Key piece of equip. I went with the Helio for my current build.

Thank you! I will shift those rocks this weekend.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go ahead and order the Helio. Theoretically the one in there now is supposed to be a backup (and for water mixing) and it should go back to being that.

 

[3sxp]

What a difference a CUC makes? And time? And possibly a prematurely added refugium?

The tank on the 27th when I introduced +2 astraea snails ("mexican turbo"), +2 banded trochus snails, +1 red-legged hermit, +2 super tiny blue-legged hermits:

Yesterday (two days later):

This is a *little* cheating -- I had just finished a 15% water change and scraped the glass, but by the time I did so, there was really very little algae left on the glass, and you can see that the rocks are basically scoured clean. The CUC laid about in food comas for some time after.

But now I'm wondering if the tank is too clean? I have coral arriving this week (zoas, 1 mushroom, 1 chalice, 1 sinularia leather) and I'm nervous! Will post full parameters later today.

The anemone seemed to enjoy the water change and puffed up a bit, but is still more deflated than when it first arrived; I'm wondering if the flow is a bit too low (I have only the return pump (syncra 150) running at about half power -- I'm thinking of turning it to full). I'm curious if IM30L folks are running powerheads for "low flow" corals -- the dual return provides quite a bit of coverage and that syncra is 347gph against a 25g water volume. I didn't think I would need a powerhead.

I'll do the parameter check first, but I was thinking for today/the next few days:
- increase pump to 100% -- OR switch it out for a syncra 200 I have had sitting in the closet; on its lowest setting it was too high when I was running this as a freshwater shrimp tank
- full parameter check
- set up QT tank (I have an empty 15g sitting; I'm not going to do a full QT, but will let new arrivals rest a few days before dipping and introducing)
- set up ATO (meant to get to it yesterday)
- if phosphates are low, pull the chaeto from the back
- order second light and IM heater, some microbacter 7

I only put the chaeto in there in the first place -- and it's unlit -- as a house for the copepods I added at the same time. But I don't want to get into a destabilizing situation or slow down the rest of the tank cycle. I had bits of what seemed like coralline algae starting -- very pink/purple -- that got taken over by I assume diatoms, which have now been eaten.

I'm not too concerned here (maybe parameters will convince me otherwise), but the sudden total disappearance of the algae was pretty striking.

I also got a hitchhiker! After much debate (older sister being very much KILL IT WITH FIRE, younger son arguing that it wasn't going to hurt anything and would help the CUC so we should keep it), it went back into the tank.

 

[steveschuerger]

Looks like a good start. I had a 30l as my second tank. One thing I like about the IM tanks is they’re so well made. As far as corals yeah can start adding a few hardier ones pretty soon after cycling just don’t go too crazy with adding. Helios is a solid choice, I have one for my Discus setup. people might tell you that nem was added too soon but it seems pretty happy to me. Those are pretty solid coral choices. The leathers in particular are very hardy and generally good growers. I‘d suggest a bit more rock. I’m a big fan of live rock and definitely adds biodiversity to the tank. Other than that solid start.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Great looking start!

 

[kevgib67]

Looking great! I agree with @steveschuerger, a little live rock will add biodiversity.

 

[3sxp]

Thank you both! I went with a dry rock start on the advice of LFS who set me up -- Fritz Turbo 900. I'm not TOO sure how I can add more rock without raising anything I put on it too high, because the tank is so shallow -- maybe on the right side. I kind of want to keep the "islands" because this will be a primarily soft tank with stuff I'll need to keep isolated. But I'm thinking about trying a diagonal column of the "coral wall" on the back to put a few frags on...

Is the live rock suggestion mostly to add buffer and stability against future problems? Because it seems pretty good so far...

reading up on the "live rock" vs "dry rock" (vs "ocean rock") debate now...

 

[QuickrdenU]

Those mexican turbo snails are awesome. I put one in a 5 gallon tank full of green hair algae and it’s all gone after 3 days. I’ll swap him into a larger tank soon. But for the past 5 months, the astreas, trochus, and crabs I had in there didn’t make a dent in it compared to the one large snail. Pretty cool.

 

[Lebowski_]

What a difference!

 

[3sxp]

What a difference!

It really was! It actually got so clean I got worried I would need to start feeding them. But now I see some diatoms coming back on the glass... before I got started I had no idea that CUCs were so diverse and so much fun to watch. Our kids know the whole "roster" and love checking to see if they can find all of them and see what they're doing.

I posted this in another thread (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/eggs-on-glass-snail-clownfish.988582/) but I'm pretty sure the ninja star snails laid eggs on the glass. The eggs have subsequently hatched, but from what I understand I don't expect them to survive. It makes me super curious how small a tank I could keep them in to see if they would successfully breed.

 

[3sxp]

I'm going to try to keep this thread as a kind of journal, even though I have way more notes in another Slack community as kind of a blow-by-blow. But here's just an update on the "utter chaos" zoas from this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/3-pests-on-zoa.989031/

Before:

After:

I realize this is probably no big deal to experienced folks, but it was three rounds of peeling all that junk out, one failed attempt with bone cutters to cut the frag, one trip to the hardware store for tile nippers, and finally the plug chop.

I didn't expect to be in this deep in terms of plug cutting and yanking out stuff with tweezers, but then again, I'm not sure what I expected. Flashbacks to middle school dissection!

These guys seem tough as heck. I have two other zoa frags in there -- one whose plug even the tile nippers couldn't get off. Both came very clean but have been much less keen to open up.

I'm not sure what happened, but the GSP frag I had in there had been opening, but a couple of days ago it stopped. All the corals seemed to react to something each time I put the chaos (zoanthus gigantus?) back in -- I'm not sure if it was specifically releasing some kind of stress toxin or if it was ammonia buildup. Either way, I also had a lot of evaporation off the small tank over the weekend that I didn't catch, causing a salinity spike. Everything seemed fine except the GSP, which hasn't reopened. I acclimated it and put it in the DT; that was two days ago and it still hasn't opened. A hermit crab has pulled it off of its frag a bit so one edge is curled up, and underneath I think I can see some sponge growth -- I'll take it out and clean that off, maybe see if I can see anything else growing on it.

But I'm realizing that maintaining the QT tank -- which I didn't even intend to do, honestly, I just was going to let them rest in there before dipping, and then I noticed all that stuff on the UC -- is more challenging than I expected, and I may be better off just introducing all of them to the main tank. Trouble is, I need this second light on the main tank if I'm going to do that, so would need a cheap light to stick on the QT for this zoa, which isn't going back in until I can be sure nothing is growing back on it for another week or two. Still, I'm leaning toward taking my chances with the others -- two other zoas that have been slowly opening; one leather that on the one hand seems to have actually grown in the week I've had it, but keeps closing up at intervals; and a super tiny (pinkie nail size) disco mushroom whose plug I removed down to just the bit it's holding onto. Last night I moved the (space invader)chalice into the main tank where it seems to be fine. Thinking of knocking down the leather's plug and gluing it to a fresh frag and moving it over, similar for the mushroom.

Still haven't gotten the ATO working -- the tank is up against a wall so it's laborious to dismantle it. Something is causing it to be unable to get the water up to the top of the tank. I may need to drill/cut a hole in the shelf above it so that the tube can go straight up instead of down to the floor and then up the back of the tank. Considering moving it to the QT tank since evaporation is hitting that one even harder.

I thought that afternoon sunlight was causing the tank to fluctuate 2-3 degrees during the day, so put a curtain up over the main source of light -- but fluctuation continued. Then got the IM Helios I'd ordered installed and it stopped -- so that was the real issue.

While installing the ATO I was having trouble placing the sensor and got some advice that my water level was way too high (this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i...sensor-placement-water-level-too-high.988504/ ). Lowered it and realized the back chamber is high because I had the return pump (Syncra 150) taped to the outflow with gorilla tape. :| It's been this way for a couple of years, but I guess I've gotten lucky. Went and got a proper fixture and tube. The back chamber remains full, but flow is now significantly higher. Between this and feeding it some reef roids, the anemone seems to be happier; it was starting to sort of lay its tentacles down on the rock behind it, but now is more active and has more tentacles out. Fed the other corals as well; zoas seemed not really to react (though they closed for a bit; do they do this when feeding?), chalice put out a bunch of sweepers immediately and started balling it up.

Appreciate any thoughts as I muck my way through this!

 

[3sxp]

Posted this in the 'new to' forum, but just echoing here for the tank update as well.

We were out over the weekend and when I got back (having done 10% water change and very light substrate surface siphon the Friday we left) the water was quite cloudy compared to how it had been. This was true in this tank and the QT tank I still have a zoa isolated in (which also turned green). I did move the second AI prime light onto it from the QT tank on that Friday as well because I was moving in 2 zoas from the QT, and thought the chalice might want more light as well (it's on the far end).

I had been tempted to move the zoa over because it's a pain maintaining that QT tank for a single zoa, but when it was closed up last night I spotted another aiptasia. Scraped it off, we'll see tonight.

There was also a big bloom of brown spots that the CUC is not touching. They look maroon under the blue light but turn brown under white light, which also reveals some rainbowy algaes -- bright green, yellow, etc. And increasingly over the past couple of days a "fuzz" type algae has started.

One of the two ninja star snails died. The ceriths seem completely fine. One astrea is acting a bit weird. Ceriths, turbos, and hermits all seem fine. But they don't appear to be touching this stuff, whereas previously I've had brown diatom blooms that they've mowed down in short order. The ninja stars had laid eggs a couple of weeks ago. Don't know whether to be concerned by the one death. I do have pretty deep (1.5-2") sand in anticipation of a pistol shrimp arriving this weekend with a yasha goby.

I had some sporadic thready things I'm pretty sure are dinos, and now they seem to be concentrated in my filter floss. I'm going to just pull out the floss that has them, unless there's a reason I shouldn't.

Chaeto in a back chamber melted, probably lack of light -- but I had been thinking in a tank this young I shouldn't have it in there anyway (I got it as a pod habitat). I added one jar of Galaxy pods from algaebarn, but I hadn't acclimated them, so I wouldn't be surprised if none survived. I had been adding plankton daily/every other day, but stopped while we weren't home (obviously).

pH: 8.2
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Ammonia: 0.25 (API -- I know)
kH: 150
Calc: 450

My main question is whether I should manually remove the algae. It doesn't seem to be collecting much on the glass, but has covered the back wall pretty thoroughly, is heavy on the rocks, and is also spreading on the sand.

I know there are mixed ideas about this, but I have a bottle of Microbacter 7 I was going to start -- but with phosphate and nitrate 0 I'm wondering if there's anything for it to do. I've read of folks having good results dosing phosphate and nitrate when adding the bacteria -- though the bottle doesn't say to do that and I'm inclined not to throw stuff in the tank artificially. But will the microbacter be effective without anything detectable to work on?

Feeding clowns flake food daily, gave corals some reef roids last week before cleaning the tank. Had given the BTA some about a week ago which it was VERY enthusiastic about.

My plan is:
- change carbon -- it's been a month
- brush off the algae, siphon, water change
- start microbacter
- figure out why the ATO isn't working
- order more pods

Should I do something different?

Thank you for any advice!

Here's a video of the fuzziness and motion of the algae: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tfyg1RXeuVPNkWZC7

Back wall:

Cloudiness:

Filter floss dinos:

Photobombers:

Substrate stuff: