Office 40 Gallon AIO

unchaotic

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I got permission from my manager to setup a tank in my office. (This was easier than it would be for most considering I bought my 200 Gallon aquarium from him.) The build progressed very nicely from a 5 gallon to a 10 gallon to a 40 gallon NUVO AIO.

The tank will be starting with dry rock. I'm going to start bare bottom and have GSP grow to cover the bottom glass to get the look of a grassy field.

I'll be putting coral in it within the first week. After coral and macros have had a bit to establish themselves and start taking up nutrients from ghost feedings/ammonia dosing, I'll start slowly adding fish. Not too worried about the fish in this one so I might just stock it with smaller shy fish from my tank at home.

As for the stand, I took two file cabinets from work and riveted them together.

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Then i pulled out unnecessary hardware and bondo'd those holes and the front seam.

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The handles and the edge of the countertop I built were painted with a matching color changing paint while the cabinet itself is a white lacquer.

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Still have a lot of work to do (heater and light installation, aquascape, ATO setup, and a hood plus splash protection for that outlet) but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
 
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unchaotic

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Added a little protein skimmer. Not sure if I'll use it for more than gas exchange but we'll see.

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Been busy on this one. Swapped out the light and added a temporary bottle style ATO. But that's not the most glaring thing in this picture.

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I wanted to mimic @Roberto Denadai on this tank and I screwed it up right away. I had plans to dose low amounts of ammonia to feed corals and then without even thinking I dumped enough in to get to 2 ppm.

I didn't think I'd have time to do a huge water change so I added macro and dosed Prime before adding anything. So that's a perforated bag of grape caulerpa free floating in the tank.

Ammonia is currently down to .8ppm (according to API) and I've added a couple corals. There are two pieces of GSP slowly acclimating to this vastly different water and there's a 3 inch long purple stylo that's been looking awesome for several days now.

Side Note: No matter how many times I try to explain toxic ammonia, my coworkers keep complaining that I haven't dumped a whole bunch of fish in there. :rolleyes:
 
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Setup a temporary control tower and started dosing All For Reef with a new Kamoer X1. Also decided I'd like to grow a small zoa garden on a "hill" in the tank.
 
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The first fish enters the tank! I picked up two springeri damsels so we now have one in every tank. I think he's just in shock about how big his world just got.

I also added some Eagle Eye zoas I propagated at home, and some Radioactive Dragon Eyes and Sunny Ds. Everything is looking happy so far. I want to add at least 2-3 more zoa types but now I need to be pickier about the colors. I feel like I've got green, orange, and purple fairly well covered.

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I've got some work to do but this is my future control cabinet/storage area. Plenty of room for my ATO reservoir , dosing pump and container, gyre controller, power strips, etc. I'll also set up a support arm for my light.

Not sure about the glass doors yet. I might put vinyl on them, tinting, frost ... something.
 
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I adopted some livestock from a local reefer who has to move half way across the country. The pair of clowns are now named John and Wayne. Nope, not John Wayne the actor. John Wayne Gacy the "Killer Clown". The skunk cleaner shrimp came in named Jacques and I guess I'll stick with that, lol. There's some branching motipora (possibly digitata) and three new zoa frags I'll need to work on getting IDs. Everything made it through the weekend and is looking good.
 
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There's something very satisfying about propogating your own corals. This hammer frag came from one of the first corals I added to my home tank back in April.

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I got a colony with 5 heads and they have all split. A couple weeks ago everything had grown far enough apart to frag it. So this is my first coral that I have actively and purposefully fragged.

I brought it to work with me this morning and so far, it seems to be handling the tank swap well.
 
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I put a floating feeding ring in the tank. The cleaner shrimp found it and is officially smarter than the fish.

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I got some SPS frags in from @Zhubbell. There has been some pretty serious polyp extension, which has been fun to see. The new frags made me switch to a bigger frag rack until I'm ready to attach them to the rock. I took two more SPS out of my home tank to see if they would prefer this one. I also picked up some more zoas to fill out my garden rock. Some of those are multiplying very quickly!

The controller cabinet is coming along and I'm hoping to get it in place this year still.

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So I suddenly came to the realization that I have enough coral in this tank. I mean, the idea is for it to GROW right? I'm probably going to start gluing frags into place next week. Then when the controller cabinet goes in place it feels like this tank will be pretty much in autopilot mode.

I just wish the GSP would grow faster on the bare-bottom.
 
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Corals are glued down. I'm ready to add some more non-coral livestock to this tank. Seriously lacking CUC.

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muzikalmatt

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Awesome build! I have the same tank and love it! I really love the idea of GSP on the bottom of the tank. I'm currently trying to get it to grow in the back wall of mine.
 
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Awesome build! I have the same tank and love it! I really love the idea of GSP on the bottom of the tank. I'm currently trying to get it to grow in the back wall of mine.
Thanks! I might snip a big chunk of GSP out of my 60 gallon at home this weekend and try to really jump start this bottom coverage.

I've been kicking around the idea of growing something on the back glass but I'm just not sure what yet.
 

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Thanks! I might snip a big chunk of GSP out of my 60 gallon at home this weekend and try to really jump start this bottom coverage.

I've been kicking around the idea of growing something on the back glass but I'm just not sure what yet.
You could try some zoanthids or maybe a montipora or something. I have a pretty good mat of gorilla nipples zoas growing on the back of my tank.

You can see then on the back wall in the middle of the picture.
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 68 37.2%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 62 33.9%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.7%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 15.3%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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