MoshJosh 24 gallon AIO. . . upgrade?

[MoshJosh]

Recently “upgraded” From my 15 gallon tank with 5 gallon sump/refugium to a 24 gallon all-in-one. Ideally I wanted to run a sump on this tank, but couldn’t bring myself to drill it. . . I also wanted to run a skimmer on this tank, but didn’t anticipate the low water level in the all in one chambers.

so I upgraded the water volume, and, in my opinion, the aesthetics, but I fear I severely downgraded my filtration. That’s why I put the word upgrade in quotes.

anyway, I plan to order some macroalgae‘s on payday, in hopes that growing them in the display will help control any nutrient issues. . .

All the coral are pretty angry right now. . . Probably because they got ripped out of their tank, got new lights and a different flow. Plus they are kind of just thrown around willy-nilly, as I’m not sure where to permanently place a lot of them:

also, wanted my nem front and center, but the flow is too much and it worked its way through the rock to the other side. Hard to see in the picture, but it’s right next to that clown fish.

I seriously do not understand the design choice of the AOI chambers. The way the baffles are set up Makes no sense to me, it makes the water level in the chambers pretty low, and makes a lot of the chambers pretty useless, at least when it comes to using a heater or skimmer. It is also set up to have the bio balls in the first chambers (and this is the manufacturer recommendation) Why!? Why wouldn’t you run mechanical filtration first!? I switched the order of the chambers so the mechanical filtration was first, however, this causes the included sponge to clog super quickly as water is only passing under a tiny baffle. . . Ahhhhh

 

[nothing_fancy]

Very Nice tank, I agree that there are many limitations when it comes to AIO aquariums, but you can get around it in a variety of ways. IMO running a sump on this system would be overkill although it would be fun so why not. However, Have you considered running a series of reactors instead? You can use them for whatever types of media you'd like and you can plumb them off the back chambers of your AIO using some a couple of 90 elbows and barbs and send it under tank to a manifold or run them in series. You can also use an EXT skimmer and sit it behind your tank pretty easily. Im not sure the make of your tank but if "inTank" makes a basket for you Id get that as they are much taller and will probably solve your low water level problem in your chambers. At that point you can just use your chambers to store pumps and size those up if you want some more intense filtration

 

[MoshJosh]

Very Nice tank, I agree that there are many limitations when it comes to AIO aquariums, but you can get around it in a variety of ways. IMO running a sump on this system would be overkill although it would be fun so why not. However, Have you considered running a series of reactors instead? You can use them for whatever types of media you'd like and you can plumb them off the back chambers of your AIO using some a couple of 90 elbows and barbs and send it under tank to a manifold or run them in series. You can also use an EXT skimmer and sit it behind your tank pretty easily. Im not sure the make of your tank but if "inTank" makes a basket for you Id get that as they are much taller and will probably solve your low water level problem in your chambers. At that point you can just use your chambers to store pumps and size those up if you want some more intense filtration

yeah I was thinking about running a reactor, that would need a pump to sit somewhere in the tank though right? I was also thinking of a hang on the back skimmer, however, I still think the back chamber is too low and would have to run it on the side/in the display.

 

[nothing_fancy]

yeah I was thinking about running a reactor, that would need a pump to sit somewhere in the tank though right? I was also thinking of a hang on the back skimmer, however, I still think the back chamber is too low and would have to run it on the side/in the display.

Ya, you should be able to fit a decent pump in one of your chambers, the smaller sicce pumps like a 1.0 or 1.5. If you go with an HOB skimmer, I tried that and found that a lot of the options out there are bad in build quality for what they cost imo, especially Ice Cap. You might have enough room in the center area for the reef octopus HOB which you will get what you pay for. A bit over sized for this tank but if you're looking for something that definitely works and will work for you later if you get a bigger tank go with the Octo EXT and just set it up behind your tank. You'll be dosing nitrates like crazy unless you stock it heavily. Best skimmer Ive ever had.

 

[MoshJosh]

Ummmm might may have ordered more macro algae than I thought. . .

I sort of just stuffed it where I could for now.

 

[MoshJosh]

Also some little updates on my other inhabitants (at least the happy ones)

also my “trash palys” I can’t bring myself to toss out

 

[MoshJosh]

So pretty much all the red algae died, not sure issue with my tank, or something else. If I’m being honest, I think it’s because they arrived pretty cold. And the package smelled horrible! It smells like something had died inside the box shortly after it had explosive diarrhea. Anyway some of the calcifying allergies have stuck around, and I got grape callerpa from my local Fish Store. I haven’t done a ton of testing yet. . . I know I need to. But most the softies and LPS corals seem to be doing fine. One of my acros did not tolerate the move and has died back a bit. But everything seems OK. . . for the most part.

I did add another Duncan, as my local Fish Store was having a pretty good sale.

also, I have this bubble coral, and have had it for a while. It’s never looked super healthy in my care, especially after I cut it off the frag plug it came on, and tried to scrub some weird growth off it’s base. Despite Looking unhealthy, it seems to have grown two new heads/mouths. It’s possible I never noticed it before but yeah

 

[MoshJosh]

Everything is going. . . ok? Lost a few things in the move. Lost my woolly green acro (there’s still a tiny piece hanging on, but think it’s a goner). Lost my BTA, not sure what happened. It moved back to its old spot which had very little light, then it shrunk and died.

Got some more critters and corals on Black Friday. One of the birds nests I bought is looking pretty rough after acclimation, like 75% bleached. . . Looks like it might make a comeback though.

Made a galaxea island. . . Need to move my clam so it doesn’t get stung but worried about injuring it:

 

[MoshJosh]

A little update, there have been a few changes, I don’t think anything major but still. As I said above, all the red algae died, and some of the calcifying allergies hasn’t done so well. That said the mermaids tail and the shaving brushes seem to be doing just fine. The grape culerpa is growing, but not up like I wanted it to, just spreading across the rocks and fighting coral for space. I need to go in and trim it at some point. I added a bunch of corals, only because I’m a sucker for the live sales, and things are looking a bit crowded. But for the moment nothing seems to be stinging anything else, at least not too badly. . . Well my green monti is actually not doing so hot think it maybe have been stung by my galaxea. I plan to let things grow and move them/frag them when the time comes. Also, I put my hectors goby in the display, I was going to tear down my frag tank, so I moved him, but ended up not tearing the tank down and there’s no way I’m getting him back out oh and I added my protein skimmer

 

[MoshJosh]

Some photos. . . Had to store my frags in here for the day. . .

 

[MoshJosh]

Wanted to post a little update, things seem to be doing well overall. Sadly I did lose both my torch corals. . . Not entirely sure why. But I have managed to keep my elegance alive. Also, my green Monty that I think got stung seems to be coming back.

Also wanted to show some of the growth on some of my sps, nothing crazy but it is nice to see them spreading across the rock

Also some pretty decent coraline growth

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Wanted to post a little update, things seem to be doing well overall. Sadly I did lose both my torch corals. . . Not entirely sure why. But I have managed to keep my elegance alive. Also, my green Monty that I think got stung seems to be coming back.

Also wanted to show some of the growth on some of my sps, nothing crazy but it is nice to see them spreading across the rock

Also some pretty decent coraline growth

I like the coral variety you have!!

 

[MoshJosh]

New rock for impending upgrade:

 

[MoshJosh]

Have had some phosphate issues. . . like bad haha. I checked earlier this month and found my phosphates at 0.8! So I added both aluminum oxide and ferrous oxide. . . and. . . drumroll please. . . phosphate still reading 0.8. . .

I am not stressing too bad as I will be upgrading the tank shortly and the corals (that haven't died) all seem to be OK and are actually growing. That said I did throw some chaeto and a light in the back chamber (who ever thought making the baffle tinted instead of solid black should be fired!) in hopes of helping reduce the phosphate. . .

Also, for inquiring minds I did check my other parameters and wrote them down but don't remember them ATM. Alk was a bit low, pH was a bit low 7.8 but that's all I remember.

 

[MoshJosh]

Here’s a pic of the makeshift fuge: