Project X: reboot aka 10 gallon rock nem build *hard mode*

[ahiggins]

hello all!
About 2 years ago I moved cities and sold off all my livestock. Now I’m back! My new project is going to be a 10 gal rock nem propagation (ie loveshack) cube
A few years ago I had successfully documented 4 rounds of breeding in my last rock nem tank and I intend to do it again!
This will be my build/new tank/research thread it may be a bit long winded this time around since I’m starting with dry rock instead of live.
Original article: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/project-x-update-on-rock-nem-propagation.292627/#post-3734494

 

[btmedic04]

Awesome! Cant wait to see this come to life as I've been thinking of trying something similar myself. I might have to stop by frost corals and see if he has any rock nems available

 

[ahiggins]

As of today:
Dry rock
Sand
Sapphire damsel
5x astraea
2x nassarius
Nano skimmer
Filter floss
Ai prime hd

It’s been set up for about 2 months now. The only “live area” things that were added were snails that could have hitchhikers but today I found some itty bitty pods which made me pretty happy lol

Here it is as of today. First two are front views and the last is the view from the bed (set up in the bedroom).

 

[ahiggins]

Life got a little hectic for a while but here’s what the tank looks like today.

Inhabitants:
8 rock flower anemones (3 confirmed males)
Sapphire damsel (aka Distress, aka big D-my boyfriends doing lol)
6 astraea snails
3 nerite snails
2 trochus snails
5 blue leg hermits
4 scarlet hermits
Handful of stomatellas (courtesy of my lfs being nice)

I took out the skimmer almost immediately because I couldn’t keep nitrates up. I realize now the brine shrimp I was feeding were not contributing anything. So my water changes were stripping everything. I have since changed foods and put the skimmer back on while doing the phos remover trials below.
While definitely a challenge, I will not be starting another dry only tank. I had a 3 month struggle with dinos which led to a uv sterilizer for a month while bringing up phosphates. That did cure it, but now I’m struggling with hair algae. Small spots here and there that the cuc doesn’t seem to be interested in. I’m going to be starting phosphate rx when it gets here, small doses to bring things down slowly. Unfortunately I’m sitting right at 0.02 ppm phos so it’s going to be another challenge to bring it down without causing a bloom of cyano or dinos again.

Thanks everyone for following along!