Soft Coral Cube Build

[JumboShrimp]

"Softie-lovers of the World, Unite!" Lol.

 

[danieyella]

New coral arrived today from Premierreefsmn (https://www.premierreefsmn.com/).
Packaging was great. The frags/ mini colonies looked great, even got an extra freebie. Polyps were already coming out after being in the tank for 10 minutes. .

10/10 would recommend ordering. Great experience.

Here’s some photos of the tank right now. Didn’t feel like cleaning the glass lol.

Final places not set yet. Thinking of moving the red brick toadstool next to the white polyp toadstool in the upper left. Putting the pink finger leather where the red brick toadstool is. Then mounting one of the other sinularia on the back glass w a magnet.

Placed an order with this guy per your recommendation last night, excited to unbox tomorrow when it arrives.

 

[ruxsir]

Placed an order with this guy per your recommendation last night, excited to unbox tomorrow when it arrives.

Great let us know how it goes!

 

[ruxsir]

Tank update. Really enjoy how simple this tank has been. Clean the glass once or twice a week, 10% water change once a month, change the filter sock once a week. Haven’t even tested anything in a couple months, just look at the corals. Also helps the mineral demand is super low with softies.

Still only have 5 trochus snails in the tank. Debating on what fish to add after the new year.

Pair of wild solomon island percs
Orchid dottyback
Firefish
Yellow Assessor

Would love a captive bred multibar angel but don’t think it is feasible to feed heavily for it without overpolluting the tank.

 

[ruxsir]

Tested for first time since September (?)

I test with my eyes, corals open and look good, no crazy algae growth besides normal growth on the glass, etc. Helps to only have soft corals which is what I prefer.

pH - 8
Alk - 6.7 (salifert)
Ca - 450 (salifert)
Phosphate - 0 (salifert)
Nitrate - 0 (Hanna high range)

Not bad for only water changes every 4 weeks or so. Nutrients low obviously because there’s no fish, so have to add a couple soon.

 

[Jposch]

Placed an order with this guy per your recommendation last night, excited to unbox tomorrow when it arrives.

You left us hanging.

 

[Jposch]

New coral arrived today from Premierreefsmn (https://www.premierreefsmn.com/).
Packaging was great. The frags/ mini colonies looked great, even got an extra freebie. Polyps were already coming out after being in the tank for 10 minutes. .

10/10 would recommend ordering. Great experience.

Here’s some photos of the tank right now. Didn’t feel like cleaning the glass lol.

Final places not set yet. Thinking of moving the red brick toadstool next to the white polyp toadstool in the upper left. Putting the pink finger leather where the red brick toadstool is. Then mounting one of the other sinularia on the back glass w a magnet.

Thanks for the shout out. Found your post while looking at website search engine crap, and your build thread came up as a "backlink."

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank update. Really enjoy how simple this tank has been. Clean the glass once or twice a week, 10% water change once a month, change the filter sock once a week. Haven’t even tested anything in a couple months, just look at the corals. Also helps the mineral demand is super low with softies.

Still only have 5 trochus snails in the tank. Debating on what fish to add after the new year.

Pair of wild solomon island percs
Orchid dottyback
Firefish
Yellow Assessor

Would love a captive bred multibar angel but don’t think it is feasible to feed heavily for it without overpolluting the tank.

Glad to see your corals are doing great!

 

[ruxsir]

Ordered to fish from a local shop - Wet Dreams Aquatics. Yellow assessor and orchid dottyback. Should pick them up this Saturday.

Since theres been no fish in the tank, there are pods crawling everywhere on the bottom.

Don’t know if they could be irritating a couple of the corals or if that’s just the leathers being leathers and closing for no reason.

 

[ruxsir]

A single aiptasia popped up. Thinking of maybe getting a peppermint shrimp to handle that.

Saw some concerns that they will go after corals, mainly LPS it seems. Any experiences?

 

[Tahoe61]

Peppermint Shrimp may harass LPS to obtain food, causing tissue damage. Some will state that you need to feed more. Others will state they weren't Peppermint Shrimp but rather Camel Shrimp.
My experience with true Peppermint Shrimp was that they ate my Maxi-Mini Anemone, harassed the LPS, and the shrimp were difficult to catch.

 

[ruxsir]

Peppermint Shrimp may harass LPS to obtain food, causing tissue damage. Some will state that you need to feed more. Others will state they weren't Peppermint Shrimp but rather Camel Shrimp.
My experience with true Peppermint Shrimp was that they ate my Maxi-Mini Anemone, harassed the LPS, and the shrimp were difficult to catch.

Seems like they aren’t worth it after they do their job with aiptasia. I’ll try and remove it manually first, will have to get some F-aiptasia or aiptasia-X.

 

[ruxsir]

Added a yellow assessor and orchid dottyback today. Also 5 bumblebee snails since some vermetid snails appeared.

 

[ruxsir]

Side tank shot and shot of the assessor near his cave. The dottyback died second day in the tank. Unfortunate.

 

[ruxsir]

Couple shots on this snowy Wisconsin day post water change and reef snow.

 

[ruxsir]

Couple photos with the sun hitting the tank. Can’t wait for the summer months.

 

[ruxsir]

Tested post WC yesterday.

Alk - 6.6 (Hanna)
Phos - 0.04 (Hanna ULR)
Nitrate - 0.0 (Hanna HR)
Ca - 430 (Salifert)

 

[ruxsir]

Alk tested at 6.4 today and Calcium at 450. Wondering if I have a batch of IO regular that is just low on Alk.

 

[ruxsir]

Added a Firefish a week ago. Been trying to feed more to increase nitrates. Feeding mysis twice a day most days.

Alk (Hanna) - 6.9
Alk (salifert) - 6.7
Calcium (salifert) - 440
Phosphate ULR (Hanna) - 0.07
Nitrates HR (Hanna) - 0.0
36 ppt

Not sure how my nitrates are 0.0 still. Guess the 5 pounds of live rock rubble in my sump is doing a good job. Corals are probably uptaking some too.