Stocking for a 30 gallon with 20 gallon refugium Soft Corals/Macroalgae

[jt8791]

That might actually be the most logical option, add a coral beauty and start growing red ogo in the fuges to feed the cb. Might have to rehome it if it starts getting cramped, but I can’t think of any other options that would work. That would be super overstocked though, depending how big the clowns get.

It’s either that or start dosing nutrients and go through the never ending headache of chasing numbers but that just sounds aggravating. Feed fish x amount of times a day and change x amount of water at a certain interval, then just use the macro as food for the cb. Chaeto is good for pods and nutrient export but nothing eats it so unless I happen to be going to lfs when I harvest it goes in the trash. Seems like a waste

 

[jt8791]

Yeah I tried changing too much at once and didn’t think to shut down my fuge light until I got back up to a reasonable bioload. Was having an issue with what I thought was diatoms, assumed nutrients bottoming out would sprout up dinos. Gave up on the blackout, seemed too stressful for the nems.

Went overboard on overfeeding and got a bit of a bloom but n and p are detectable now. I turned the display light intensity and photo period down for now, fuge light is still off but I tossed the chaeto anyways. Don’t think I even have a big enough bioload for chaeto, I couldn’t get hardly any growth which is why I tried turning the fuge light up. Didn’t have much luck growing reg ogo in the fuge before but might try that again

The pump I got for the uv sterilizer was too overpowered and honestly cheap junk but I wasn’t surprised for $12. Took the uv offline for now, was sending sand all over and half the time pushing air bubbles. Will feed very lightly, probably just frozen once a day and wait for this bloom to clear. Probably won’t even need the fuge anytime soon with this light bioload.

Not sure on the coral beauty, hear some people have luck keeping them in a 30 but that would be a major overstock. Might just have to leave the fuge offline until the clowns get bigger. 7” of fish isn’t enough bioload for nems and macro in the fuge but hard to add a 4th knowing these 3 should hit a total of 15”. Had initially planned to keep it just the clowns but don’t want to go through the headache of dosing nutrients and constantly chasing numbers.

 

[jt8791]

Probably wouldn’t even be an issue if it wasn’t for these two fuges. They work good somewhat, but I have to slightly overstock or dose nutrients to keep up with both of them.

Almost debate if upgrading the wave pumps and trashing the three filters would be the simplest bet, they seem to cause me more problems than they solve. Nevermind all three are detritus traps.

 

[jt8791]

Got new sponges for the prefilters, had to tear the filters down and give them a good cleaning in the process. The rubble wasn’t too dirty but the impellers and filter baskets were plugged with detritus. If these sponges don’t do the trick I’ll switch to filter floss over the intakes.

Sad part is I lost of mysid shrimp in the process and probably some pods. I’ll have to add some more pods this weekend with the macro algae.

Gonna pick up some red gracilaria and sea lettuce tomorrow, seems fitting to grow food for the urchins rather than rely on dried seaweed. Probably just throw a hand full of it in the tank weekly for harvesting.

Considering I had to massively overfeed to even get 5 nitrates and detectable phosphates I think I’m gonna go ahead and add the 4th fish. Might have to rehome it later on down the road but the only fish I can think of that would work with these 3 would be a coral beauty angel.

 

[jt8791]

Yup everyone on here was right, better off making it just the clowns. Adding the wrasse didn’t help anything so will be catching him this morning. Nitrates are at 10 and phosphate between .25 and .50 so I should be fine.

Got gracilaria and sea lettuce in the fuges but sea lettuce isn’t doing so good so will probably swap it for the ogo. Will be ordering Hanna checkers in a few weeks, at least hr nitrate and lr phosphate. Trying to keep nitrates at 10 but could stand to drop phosphate some but probably won’t need to change water for a while.

 

[jt8791]

Whoops, definitely added too much flourish, time to get chaetogrow. Well urchins will have plenty to eat, probably could have even added the lettuce nudibranch I saw at the lfs the other day. Wrasse is out, gonna shut the red, green and white lights off while the urchins work on it. Should probably test nitrate and phosphate in the morning. Will go to the lfs Friday to restock on some snails, maybe grab a nudibranch if the urchins aren’t making a dent in it.

Edit: a lot of back and forth information but guess the lettuce nudibranch doesn’t eat gha so I’ll scratch that off the list

 

[jt8791]

Well just to update this, I swapped the plant light for the marine version and getting a bit of growth on the gracilaria in the fuges. Gha in the display is getting better, still some diatoms but mostly in the sandbed. Had my lfs order a yellowtail Pygmy angel that they will qt for me to top off the stocking.

Had debated on a 20 gallon tank but gonna forget that, shifted the living room around and thinking of doing the 33 long between the tv and the 30. Assuming a 48” fluval marine 3.0 should be enough light for bta’s with the whole scape 6” under the water surface. Just have to figure out what fish to stock it with and how to work around the center brace. Might just modify an ac110 to flow around it, shouldn’t be too difficult to pull off but I could look into other filter options.

 

[jt8791]

Yeah I wasn’t thinking when I pulled sand out all the way down to an inch, that was a lot of surface area I lost. Rather than keep fighting diatoms I’m just gonna add some live sand and rinse it with the gravel vac and tank water to get back up to 2”.

Cheapest option locally was 10lb oolite and 20lb Fiji pink at Petco, in store pickup $28 with tax. Will pickup a conch probably later on this week, nassarius snails don’t seem too happy with the thin sand bed. Was an inch but after vacuuming the diatoms off the tops it’s more like 3/4” now.

33 long would be a tight squeeze, would end up 6” from my tv. Thinking I will go for another 30 just gotta figure out what to put in it. Everything will be the same as the other 30 equipment wise but thinking logically I should go for another macro tank since I already have the fluval plant lights. No interest in doing a freshwater planted tank.

 

[jt8791]

Ended up with a bit extra sand but I also found a fighting conch. Decided to get this tank where I want it then build another one just like it rather than go a different direction . Might even do the same fish just for the simplicity, both would be pretty simple to maintain. Almost went with macros again but I like my urchins too much.

 

[jt8791]

Yup missed the 2” mark by a bit, 2-5-3” depending on where you measure but could be a few low spots. Realizing now I should have gotten a tiger conch instead so guess I’ll just do one of each. Think I’ve got enough on rest of snails, plenty nassarius, 6-7 trochus and 5-6 cerith, debating on a few more of these two but might be fine.

 

[jt8791]