My First Softy Tank... which has turned into a mixed reef

[Txplicit]

So my tank has been fairly quiet for some time. Of course the dark side of me says there must be chaos just brewing below the surface, pun intended ;Joyful . Last night when I got home from work I noticed my Duncan was closed. I didn’t think much as something is always mad in my tank, but this afternoon still closed tight.

So I started really examining my tank, and eww gross.

First, I got three pipe organs from WWC. I was so excited to get these. When they were still on my frag rack I notice two had bubble algae on it. I popped them all off there plugs and cut the frag where the bubble algae was. I didn’t do a great job as two didn’t recover, and one only had one tube left;Doctor. I wasn’t ready to give up on them though and I thought I had got it all... well nope. While searching the tank I found more bubbly algae on my cloves.

I pulled this out and popped the bubble algae off. I didn’t know it was hard. I thought there was only one, but there were three.

Next while looking at my torch what do we see there

vermetid snails. There were three on this coral. So I pulled it out and scrapped the tubes off at the base.

Still not sure why my Duncan is closed. Since cleaning my skimmer it’s actually working and not overflowing constantly, so maybe it’s just not use to a clean tank. Probably should actually test some parameters.

Also to add to the joy of all this tank grossness while I’m elbow deep in the tank my dog starts making that sound that makes any dog own wake from a deep sleep. My 1 year old is napping so I’m yell-whispering at him to get off the carpet... he didn’t make it

Get an emerald crab if bubble algae show up again. He'll make short work.

Regards to the vermetid, I just take my coral ice glue and dab a dollop (yes I said dollop) on the opening and leave be. The coral will encrusted over and cover it in time. Scraping them sometimes works. Sometimes you leave traces and the water flow picks it up and they spawn elsewhere.

 

[New&no clue]

Get an emerald crab if bubble algae show up again. He'll make short work.

Regards to the vermetid, I just take my coral ice glue and dab a dollop (yes I said dollop) on the opening and leave be. The coral will encrusted over and cover it in time. Scraping them sometimes works. Sometimes you leave traces and the water flow picks it up and they spawn elsewhere.

I should have glued them because I see more. Not sure if it’s from scraping or if they came in on a frag, spread, and now I’m starting to see them. The rest I’m going to clue. Do you leave them in the water to glue or pull out?

I’ve thought of an emerald crab, but don’t they also go after corals?

 

[Txplicit]

I should have glued them because I see more. Not sure if it’s from scraping or if they came in on a frag, spread, and now I’m starting to see them. The rest I’m going to clue. Do you leave them in the water to glue or pull out?

I’ve thought of an emerald crab, but don’t they also go after corals?

I have heard some emerald crabs do this, but worse case if they do, pick him out.

The snails; take the plug out of the water. The frag will reduce in size making it easier to glue the snail. Dollop away, place back in and leave alone.

 

[Thad disbrow]

NIce job on the build. Keep going and take it slow. Love it all including your flying dog!

 

[New&no clue]

Dollop away, place back in and leave alone.

Will do as soon as I get home, I’m on vacation right now, putting out good vibes my tank isn’t exploding.

 

[New&no clue]

NIce job on the build. Keep going and take it slow. Love it all including your flying dog!

thank you, I bought a NUVO 30L for my office. I’m hoping everyone will love it and it will convince my boss we totally need a 300 gallon... company paid for of course. So I’m going to leave my home tank alone, let it grow and mature.

 

[New&no clue]

Sometimes this tank just is so cool. I had to get up way too early this morning and so I peaked into my tank with the out. I knew the corals had feeder tentacles that come out, I see most of the other corals throughout the day when I feed. This morning I saw the Trachy, I’ve never seen it before.

lights on

lights off

Always amazing me.

 

[Magellan]

Sometimes this tank just is so cool. I had to get up way too early this morning and so I peaked into my tank with the out. I knew the corals had feeder tentacles that come out, I see most of the other corals throughout the day when I feed. This morning I saw the Trachy, I’ve never seen it before.

lights on

lights off

Always amazing me.

Oh wow! Didn’t realize a trachy would ever look like that! My scoly will do that too, I’ve been obsessed ever since I got him. Looks like I’ll also be getting a trachy

 

[New&no clue]

I know, I didn’t expect it. I wanted to feed the tank immediately... but everyone else was fast asleep. I didn’t want to disturb them.

 

[Magellan]

I know, I didn’t expect it. I wanted to feed the tank immediately... but everyone else was fast asleep. I didn’t want to disturb them.

I don’t know how easy it would be, (depends on location in the tank) but what I do is take my turkey baster, put a small amount of water in a cup, put some sinking pellets in the water, suck it all up in the turkey baster, and then just hover it over my scoly. You don’t even need to squeeze the bulb, the pellets will just gently fall out where you want them. My fish don’t seem to mind at all

 

[New&no clue]

Had the pumps off for a second today so I took a nice picture of my a**h**** RBTA who lives on the back of a rock. I am so tempted to turn the rock, but I assume if I turn the rock it will just move to the back again, because obviously it’s happy there.

 

[New&no clue]

Month end tank update

End of the month update on the tank. First off I haven’t bought any more corals, but I’m feeling the itch. I did make some incredibly low bids on eBay for a torch, which I didn’t win. I also did some testing... kinda slacking on that... and my levels are on the lower end. So I’m thinking I might need to start dosing. I’m not sure how to start the process. Once I bought corals I bought some Red Sea Reef Foundation ABC+. Probably not the best thing, but I was young and naive 6 months ago. I read that I should test, and then test again a couple days later and see what was used, but how do you know what to add? I plan to test again to night and see how it’s doing.

 

[Magellan]

Test your water at the time of day you want to dose. Pick a target, but don’t try to get there all at once. Start small, and use equal amounts of alk/Ca. (I think Red Sea has the third part for magnesium) Dose again the next day and test to see what kind of difference that made, adjust from there. Your consumption will increase over time, especially since you have coralline growing! (A big consumer). Just test regularly and make any adjustments to your dose that you need. Most people use automatic dosers, but I see so many horror stories about them that I feel more comfortable dosing by hand. Personally, I dose every day at 9:00pm and have had no problems, except my corals are outgrowing my tank!

also, keep an eye on your salinity. 2 part dosing can gradually increase it over time. (Just a minute difference, but it can add up if you are lazy and only checking your wc water like I was!)

Also: your tank looks GREAT!! I love the tuxedo

 

[Nanorock1970]

Love the tank build...I myself am a year and a half with my tank. I only have a small colony of crappy looking zoa's (one of the LFS convinced me to buy it cause it was easy and only $15 so um yeah brown stalky thing with orange centers sort of) but it has been in the tank about a year now. Going to do the softy tank as I do not have a sump or a skimmer and my go to LFS said I should be good to go. I think I am going to start with some shrooms but I really like the Fuzzy Pulsing SInularia and might be a second or third purchase. You are doing great and hats off to you.

 

[New&no clue]

@Magellan So here is my confusion with dosing. I bought the red sea ABC+ and it has a chart on the side. It would appear you are supposed to dose based on Calcium levels. So I tested and my calcium levels were 400, I think i need to be at 430 for softies and LPS... I think. So according to the chart I need to add 20..20 what? 20g? I think that's what it means. So 20g per 25 gallons. So my system is 91 gallons with the sump, but then I have rock, sand, equipment, so maybe closer to 80. So I would need 3.2 x 20g which would be 64g. So would you try to go up from 400 to 430 at once or do it over a couple days? The next goal would be to maintain at 430 going forward and does daily to keep it there? Lastly where do you does, in the sump? Does it matter where?

PS I love that shirt ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

 

[New&no clue]

I really like the Fuzzy Pulsing SInularia and might be a second or third purchase.

The only place I have seen them are Marine Farmers. I don't know if you've ever seen Mike C Softy Tank but it is pretty impressive. It was my inspiration when starting.

 

[Magellan]

@Magellan So here is my confusion with dosing. I bought the red sea ABC+ and it has a chart on the side. It would appear you are supposed to dose based on Calcium levels. So I tested and my calcium levels were 400, I think i need to be at 430 for softies and LPS... I think. So according to the chart I need to add 20..20 what? 20g? I think that's what it means. So 20g per 25 gallons. So my system is 91 gallons with the sump, but then I have rock, sand, equipment, so maybe closer to 80. So I would need 3.2 x 20g which would be 64g. So would you try to go up from 400 to 430 at once or do it over a couple days? The next goal would be to maintain at 430 going forward and does daily to keep it there? Lastly where do you does, in the sump? Does it matter where?

PS I love that shirt ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

Dear lord Red Sea makes it complicated! I use Reef Fusion part 1 and 2... measured in ml like basically every other thing I’ve ever put in my tank lol

yes, dose based on total water volume. That looks like a solid rather than a liquid, so I would get a cup of tank water to dissolve it in, then pour into a high flow area in your sump. I also would not try to fully correct things on the first dose. Start small, see how much that changes things, then go from there. Imagine a roller coaster: your tank is consuming on the drops, and you are adding things back on the hills. You want small hills and small drops

(I love the shirt too!!)

 

[New&no clue]

Random fun story. My cleaner shrimp has been waiting 8 months to clean a fish. When he got into the tank he set up his cleaning station, put out an open for business sign, passed out flyers, and then patiently waited. No customers. So he took a new approach, door to door sales man, he’ll come to you to get the job done. No takes. Now he started to get aggressive with his sales strategy, full on chasing fish down. Got slapped in the face several times. Finally he gave up, went back to his rock, turned off the neon open sign and gave up. Well today I come downstairs and there is the goby peaceful sitting while the shrimp gives him a full work up. He’s so happy I think he’ll dig that sign out of storage and set it back up.

 

[Rudzbrewski]

I LOVE R2R!!!! Thank God for this place I would never have continued on this journey without it. Also need to give a shout out to my LFS who has also been amazing at answering all my questions that I have during business hours (no one there will give me their cell phone number);Writing .

Hi, my name is Nicole, I live in Maine and it’s cold a large portion of the year. I grew up in Utah and then came to Maine for college. I got married and have two kids and a dog. I have loved aquariums forever, and within months of my husband and I dating we both decided one day we would have an awesome reef tank. We probably started down the path 8-10 times over the 12 years we have been together. But we always were discouraged by the absolute overwhelming amount of information and the initial setup. Finally, at the start of the year I decided to just do it. I walked into my LFS and just started to ask questions. I found a tank on Amazon that was a 50 gallon with tank, sump, stand, skimmer, return pump, plumbing, and some filtration items all for $800. I thought this was a great start up package, but my LFS talked me into just getting a stander 55 gallon tank with an HOB filter, 2 power heads, heater, and aerator for $400 and my first tank was born.

My next step was to add live rock and after a little bit of time a small clean up crew

And then I waited… and waited… and waited some more for my tank to cycle. During this process I began to hate the lights in the hood that came with the tank. They were too bright and really boring so my first big purchase for this tank was new lights. I bought (2)48” Current Orbit Marine IC PRO LED Reef Aquarium Light System. This came with the Loop system so I could later add on wave pumps and a sump pump. Now the tank looked so pretty even without fish or corals. I also change the blue aerator tubs to black and got some clips so they weren’t moving all over the place.

Finally, after a very long time I added two clown fish, a peppermint shrimp, and a cleaner shrimp. Then I added a bi-colored blennie and finally I have a purple fire fish in QT.

All this time I had been either buying water from my LFS or… using tap water wither primer;Facepalm… I know terrible so my next big step was to buy my own RO/DI unit and set up a mixing station. I went back and forth on this a lot as I am slightly terrified of plumbing anything. At first I was going to go really big, but in the end I decided to start small and simple.

All this time I am kind of disappointed I didn’t go with the 50 and sump option from the beginning. I wish I had just gone for it. Mostly because I felt limited and because it was more maintenance. I talked with my husband back and forth on different options, we could get an HOB overflow for our current tank. We could drain our current tank and drill it. We could go buy a new tank that was already drilled, or a package like a Waterbox or Red Sea Reefer. We weighted out the options, the cost, the setup, the potential disasters. And in the end we decided to just go for it and get a Waterbox130…YAY!!!

I started to price out skimmers, new power heads, pumps, filtration options, heaters, I had a list of what I needed and was narrowing down which ones I wanted when I had a light-bulb moment of asking how big the tank was. Now when I initially started to do this I measured our current tank which as 48x13. The WB130 is also 48” long… and I guess I just stopped looking there, but I started to think. Hmmm… if it holds almost double the water then it has to be a bigger tank… and if its not any longer it is either really tall or a good deal wider. Wider is the answer, the WB130 is 24” wide which will stick into the door way by 2”. I have two small boys and 1 hyper dog, none sit still and none move at a calm pace. This picture is literally my life with a 4 year old sprinting around the house and a 2 year old dog trying to jump on him.

So back to the drawing boards on this one.

We really wanted a Waterbox or Red Sea Reefer so after checking all the dimensions the biggest we could get was the RSR350. So I went back to the list of equipment I had already picked for the WB130 and tried to figure out what I could still use. I figured it was better to have equipment larger than needed so I stuck with most things but change a couple. On Saturday I made the order and now everything is on the way.

Equipment
Red Sea Reefer 350
(2) Current USA 6005 1050 GPH eFlux Accessory Wave Pump
Current USA 6009 1050 GPH eFlux DC Flow Pump
24" X 24" R42080 CUSTOMIZABLE DIY AQUARIUM NET COVER
200W EHEIM JAGER AQUARIUM HEATER
REEF OCTOPUS ESSENCE S-130 INTERNAL PROTEIN SKIMMER
4" FILTER MEDIA CUP-not sure what to put in there (maybe carbon?)
1 1/2” SPHERES CERAMIC BIOMEDIA

I stuck with the Current USA for my pumps because I can hook them into my current LOOP system I have with my lights and have everything on the same timer. As for the rest I read reviews and looked for recommendation on BRS. I also bought another 15 pounds of Dry live rock from my LFS that I have curing in a bucket with a piece of my current live rock from my tank as well as some BIO-Spira water treatment.

Hopefully things will start to arrive late this week early next, and I'll update as they come.

Loved reading through your experience as I am planning a very similar build for my first tank. Of course I started following along now. I was thinking about a very similar RODI setup as you have as my first step to get the rock curing. Any comments or suggestions you have from experience with your setup, or have you been overall happy with it?

 

[New&no clue]

Any comments or suggestions you have from experience with your setup, or have you been overall happy with it?

I wish I had gone with bigger containers.