Neidan's 100g Rimless

NeiDan · Apr 8, 2016

Hi!

I'm going to divide a lot of things into spoilers because I like to rant and this post is a little longer than expected

I'm a little less than 2 weeks into my first tank in about 7 or so years. My other tanks were species tanks with a few soft corals, mostly mantis shrimp. I thought it'd be interesting to document my progress.

I got this from a local reefer who was tearing down in preparation for moving. It was about 3 or 4 years old, I think. I got the lion's share of the rock and yes, even the sand. I was prompted by a combination of a larger-than-expected tax return and my poor spending habits lol. My original idea was to somehow separate part of the tank by a acrylic barrier and put a peacock mantis shrimp in 1/4 of it. My love of mantis shrimp is not to be understated

But I soon realized that proper flow would be a real issue and I did want to keep some more sensitive coral, so having a large predator would make that untenable. Furthermore, they tend to do poorly under strong lighting and develop shell rot, so maintaining any SPS with them is tough. So I chose to make it a pure reef tank.

The eventual plan for the tank is:

3-4 SPS colonies
A few LPS
some GSP and Xenia islands
1 Tomini Tang
2 dragonface pipefish (added about 4-6 months in at the earliest)
A mated pair of yellowhead jawfish
1 Midas Blenny

Some background on the tank:

There were some issues getting the tank to my location, but suffice it to say it got here safely. It took the better part of a week to fill it, 10 gallons at a time (I couldn't mix in tank since the rock and sand we live). I still haven't got the sump filled since the plumbing is a little messed up. The Bulkhead for the return flow is loose so it will leak if I add any water. The former owner and I tried to disassemble it but it wouldn't unscrew. I think I'm going to have to use a dremel or something to cut it off and replace it. It's unfortunate because I just got my skimmer in the mail and I bought the ATO system from the guy, but I'm sure I'll figure it out in the coming weeks.

What I've done so far:

I moved somewhat haphazardly forward. The initial plan was to buy some partially cured live rock to help the cycle, but I found that the tank kept reading 0 ammonia. Then I added a couple of saltwater acclimated mollies (which I plan to return when I get the tang). Still no ammonia. Interestingly the tank came with a couple of hitchhiker corals, one of which seems to be an orange Montipora Digitata according to the SPS forum. It's growing rapidly and seems happy, which is encouraging. I knew this was an SPS when I saw it, though I had no idea what it was exactly. But I figured that this would be my canary in the mine. If things were going bad I'd see it here first, and it's thriving. So I got bold. I know that's a bad idea in this hobby, but it hasn't bitten me (yet). Next I added a stalk of Xenia and a small bit of GSP (isolated to islands) as well as a peppermint shrimp. When those were thriving as well I saw a beautiful and active Midas Blenny at the LFS on Monday and made an impulse purchase. I also got in a reef cleaning package from reefcleaners. The 105 package with hermits, 3 more peppermint shrimp and a couple of emerald crabs. Those were added yesterday. I'm keeping a close eye on the parameters and have an emergency 10% water change ready for the first sign of ammonia, but so far so good. The tank has been set up for 11 days and I've decided I'm going to let this be for a few weeks while I get the plumbing sorted out. I realize I've been moving too fast and am going to take it slow from here.

The equipment so far:

-2 48" Orbit Marine LED lights. About 100 watts between the pair, I figure it should be enough to grow most SPS within the top 1/3 of the tank. I was drawn by the programmability of them and the fact that they didn't need to be hung. The price point was right too.
-2 Koralia powerheads: 1 600 (Gen 2) and 1 1150 (Gen 3 with diffuser head).
-1 180 gallon SC Aquariums protein skimmer (waiting to get the sump running)
-1 Eheim 1260 (640 GPH) pump
-1 300 watt heater. Will be putting something with a little more heft in since it tends to get pretty cold in the basement
-40 gallon breeder sump with refugium
-ATO with 5 gallon reservoir tank

Now for what you've all been waiting for (and congrats on those who made it through that wall of text) PICTURES!

Full tank shot (what do you think of the aquascaping?)

Under the cabinet

My new blenny. He's still stressed from the move, but he's just started eating and coming out more so I think he'll color back up soon

1 of the mollies

Unidentified hitchhiker coral

My Orange Monti hitchhiker

My GSP and Xenia under mostly actinics

A peppermint shrimp cleaning my finger

My giant emerald, dubbed King Crab. He must be about 3" around. I'm keeping a close eye on him and keeping him well fed (I hand fed him a piece of nori today), but he seems peaceful so far.

What's next?

I definitely need a screen top for the tank if I'm going to get jawfish, and I know Midas blennies will jump on occasion too. I've already order a kit on BRS and it should be here within the week. I'm waiting on help to get the plumbing sorted out, so that might take a couple of weeks. Once I get the skimmer set up I might move forward with some LPS corals, but in the meantime I'm keeping a close eye on the tank's chemistry and making sure that everything is happy and healthy. Next month I may look into getting the jawfish, though I understand that they're a summer fish so I may not be able to get them for a while. The tang is ~2 months down the road. The pipefish are at least 4, and I'm taking special care to make sure the tank will be well populated with pods. I may add some sps around this time as well, although I still haven't come up with a solution for how to maintain Calc/Mag/etc. levels yet and manual dosing seems like it would be unsustainable. I'd love some tips on that, if anyone has any.

NeiDan · Apr 14, 2016

So time for an update! The Midas Blenny is doing wonderfully. He's still not colored up much, but he's constantly out and about and eating like a pig. Every time I stand up he starts swimming. Also, about 4 days ago I bought a Branching Hammer coral. Almost immediately a couple of my peppermint shrimp started tearing into it, of course. I batted them away. Then every morning I came back to find a head dying or picked clean. Sigh. I removed 2 out of 4 of the peppermint shrimp (none were camels, I checked) and brought them back to the LFS. Since then the 3 surviving heads of the Hammer are doing great, and a "new" tiny head has sprouted on one of the previously dead stump of an old one. I also ended up bringing a mantis shrimp home lol. Just a little 2" G. Viridis. The LFS employee lead me to believe it was a juvenile P. Ciliata by describing it as "spearer", but it's clearly a smasher. Anyways, I set up a small 2.5 gallon fluval with some sand and small rocks from the main tank. It's burrowing under a little rock in the back now, I haven't seen much of him since I put him in but I hear him clicking every now and again.

I also setup my plumbing under my tank as well. I may have made it a -little- too permanent, but I'll worry about that when I need to lol. I'm mixing up the water to fill it right now. I also got the Red Sea Ca/Mag/Alk test kit and started testing. Here's my latest results:
Alk: 3.2/9.0
Calc: 440
Mag: 1480
PH: 8.6
No3: 2-5

The Magnesium is a little high, and so is the PH, but I think it's acceptable.

So picture time:
My hammer shortly after adding it to the tank. 3 of the heads are dead now, but the other 3 are thriving. I'm going to get new pictures tomorrow.

Here's the Mantis:

And his tank:

NeiDan · Apr 21, 2016

Sorry for taking so long on this update. As of Sunday I have a fully functioning sump! It was a little more work than I thought but now that it's running I'm pretty happy with it. Unfortunately I filled the sump separately from the tank. I rerouted as much of the return through the refugium as I could to get a slow trickle, but it was enough to cause a small die off and ammonia of 2.0 in the system by the next day. It cleared up quickly by Sunday (when I turned the pump up to a more normal speed). I lost a handful of hermits (maybe 2-5) and both of my peppermint shrimp. It's a shame but the fish, coral, emerald crabs and snails all seem to have handled it without issue. I also got a new coral, a green pagoda cup. It opened up almost immediately after being added with no issues. I'm keeping an eye out for Frogspawn, bird's nest and maybe a green slimer, which I think will be my next additions. Within a month I'm going to add a couple of inches of sand and add a mated jawfish pair and a couple of neon gobies, along with a new peppermint shrimp.

I've also been keeping a close eye on my parameters and am testing 3 times a week for now (I'll probably slow down once my system is a little more aged and I'm not adding new things every week). Everything looks good, except for the PH being at 8.6 and the magnesium being a little high, but I don't think those will be problematic. Nitrates are hovering at about 5 ppm, and I'm trying to maintain 2-5 ppm since that seems to be a sweet spot where A) Xenia doesn't spread to fast B)It's clean enough for SPS and C) It's dirty enough for LPS.

First a new full tank shot! I need to move the heater into the sump soon.

And my finished sump! There's gracillaria and chaeto in there, along with some rubble for the pods. I'm running the light 24/7. The skimmer is an SCA 302, which is rated for 180 gallons. Fun fact: The PVC sections holding the skimmer at the appropriate height are not secured in any way! (I should do something about that...)

And the new pagoda cup. Seems pretty happy so far, I'm told they're extremely easy to care for

And the Hammer coral as of this morning. The 3rd head is behind the one on the right, couldn't get a good picture of all three. I'm also just realizing I should've gotten a picture of the baby head, but I'll grab it for next time

NeiDan · Apr 21, 2016

So I found an LFS near me today that must have the best selection of corals within an hours drive at a much cheaper price than my usual place (Wet Pets in Vernon for anyone in CT). Upon entering the store I lost all impulse control and bought a frag of bicolor frogspawn and a green monti frag. I tried to strategically place the frogspawn between the xenia and the main rock structure, I'm hoping it'll be a good barrier.

The green monti:

and the bicolor frogspawn: