The Mandarin Reef: Waterbox Marine 35.2 AIO

[ashiWaza]

I have a 125 ish G and a 13.5 G.
(Watch people kick off about the smaller tank size!)
I rescued one of five spotted mandarins from a shop, she was the only one still pecking so I left the other four as I tried rescuing non active ones before but never found a trigger food.
I had two tanks leak in a few months so I got the Evo 13.5 as it was almost the same volume as the two that leaked, it has all that remains off my 10 year old original sandbed and lots of old rock in it.
Pods live in the sand as well and eat live phyto amongst other things.
Leave your glass for a day or two extra between cleans, pods love glass film algae.
The fancy girl in the big tank probably needs to go on a diet, my tanks are a lot grubby compared to most tanks so no chance of that.
A healthy mandarin will peck between 5 and 10 times a minute, each peck = a pod, do the maths, getting one to take offered foods helps but their instinct is to graze all day.

People jumped on my case about this pic recently, check the fat across her back, she does still look sunken below the line, whatever, if she can store fat then that is good and she has grown a bit

Yeah I actually debated adding a mandarin to my 12 gal bookshelf style tank. It's an established reeftank with only inverts, no fish. I have a blood/fire shrimp and 2 giant emerald crabs that I thought might mess with the mandarin or outcompete him for food or something. I thought about getting a hang on back style refugium to manage the pod population and everything. There is a guy in my local reef FB group who has a mandarin in a 10 gal, but he has some chaeto added in and whatnot. So it can definitely be done. Your mandarin looks pretty good, are people just concerned about the Lateral line showing?

 

[ashiWaza]

I had a Mandarin for 5 years that I got from my LFS, who trains them to eat frozen, Unfortunately 4 months ago he jumped out of my Red Sea E-260, (still trying to figure that one out). I purchased a new mandarin from Live Aquaria and he arrived a day later, (decent sized too! 2.5"). So as of today he is very happy and healthy, roaming the tank looking for pods, and when I feed, (fish eggs, brine, mysis and rotifers), he immediately starts snapping up the brine and rotifers. Sometimes he eats the fish eggs.

Ugh I am going without a lid currently....think I'm going to gamble on that at least for a bit. Most people I've seen with mandarins also go without the lid but I've definitely heard of them jumping as well. I have a friend who has one now with a 90 gal tank, with a ton of depth. I'm hoping that's the key to keeping them in.

 

[najer]

Yeah I actually debated adding a mandarin to my 12 gal bookshelf style tank. It's an established reeftank with only inverts, no fish. I have a blood/fire shrimp and 2 giant emerald crabs that I thought might mess with the mandarin or outcompete him for food or something. I thought about getting a hang on back style refugium to manage the pod population and everything. There is a guy in my local reef FB group who has a mandarin in a 10 gal, but he has some chaeto added in and whatnot. So it can definitely be done. Your mandarin looks pretty good, are people just concerned about the Lateral line showing?

Yes, she has this to hunt in, caulerpa and all.

 

[DeanB.reef]

Really nice thread!

I’m starting a new tank soon with a mandarin in mind. I’ll be using a refuge in a back compartment to hopefully keep a stable copepod population.

To save constantly buying pods I was looking into cultivating them. Have you considered this? Might make a cool side project as well

 

[ashiWaza]

I finally got some rock in! It's great to finally have something I can play with amongst all of this waiting. I ordered from saltwateraquarium.com, just because they seemed to have a better selection of Marco rocks, and offered free shipping. BRS was also very very similar price-wise, I just wanted to try something different. I ordered 20 lbs of dry rock, 10 lbs of shelf rock, and an order of Caribsea shapes. I wasn't sure which 'shape' I wanted, so I went with the whole lot. There was a little bit of damage upon arrival, but it was honestly better than expected. I received 1 giant cave, 1 donut, 2 big arches, and one tiny nano arch. Everything was in fantastic shape, except for the arches. The two big ones had 2 rather significantly sized pieces snapped off, and so I'll have to epoxy them. But othwrwise, pretty satisfied with the shipment!!

 

[ashiWaza]

Really nice thread!

I’m starting a new tank soon with a mandarin in mind. I’ll be using a refuge in a back compartment to hopefully keep a stable copepod population.

To save constantly buying pods I was looking into cultivating them. Have you considered this? Might make a cool side project as well

I havent looked into it too much, but I definitely know it's a possibility. I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're talking about but I saw this clip-on-back style compartment that had an LED light and everything. I was definitely interested and saved it for later, but I havent had time to look into it much yet.

External Hang On Refugium Box (3 Section) w/Pump & LED - Finnex

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Saltwater Aquarium or Reef Tank.

www.saltwateraquarium.com

 

[DeanB.reef]

I havent looked into it too much, but I definitely know it's a possibility. I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're talking about but I saw this clip-on-back style compartment that had an LED light and everything. I was definitely interested and saved it for later, but I havent had time to look into it much yet.

External Hang On Refugium Box (3 Section) w/Pump & LED - Finnex

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Saltwater Aquarium or Reef Tank.

www.saltwateraquarium.com

I’m still heavily in the research stage myself so I’d take what I say with some caution but I think I’m beginning to understand a bit better now.

Any refuge would work, either HOB, AIO or sump. The refuge has filtration benefits as well as being able to host a copepod ‘savehaven’ if you will. From what I’ve read if you pour the copepods into the refuge it gives them a place to stay and not be eaten by anything in the tank, some will filter through into the display tank as food and the refuge will allow them to bread and keep a fairly stable population. I think you’d still need to top up the pods once in a while though.

I was going to try getting a separate container from my tank to culture them which would save me a bit of money instead of buying them bi-weekly or monthly.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

A couple months ago I got a little spotted girl for ORA through @OceanDevotionLA. When I say this little girl was tiny! I mean itsybitsy! Pinky nail sized! While Adam QTed and condition her, he got her to take pellets and brine! Now pellets in my tank are a bit on the useless side due to black sand and higher flow but good regardless. In the time I’ve had her she’s probably tripled in size! I’ve waited years to have a tank that sustains an extreme pod population to finally be able to have my spotted mandarin! I know she will go after brine during feeding time but she absolutely prefers the pods! We haven’t needed to add any pods yet since even with her eating upwards of 30 pods a minute she hasn’t yet dented our in tank population if she eventually does we will pod hotel transfer from the oversized refugium to the tank for sure. We’d also eventually like to have a radiant in there too. So when that time comes we may have to start adding pods. Main takeaway I want people to see is the 30+ pods a minute at times this little girl chomps down! Like I said we have an absolute monstrous amount to begin with so she’s safe for now but monitoring this is crucial! The best way I can make this easy to understand is think of them as the hummingbirds of the sea. Those fins almost never stop! That burns a lot of calories! I believe for a good long healthy life these little ones absolutely need to be able to snack between regular feedings.

 

[ashiWaza]

I’m still heavily in the research stage myself so I’d take what I say with some caution but I think I’m beginning to understand a bit better now.

Any refuge would work, either HOB, AIO or sump. The refuge has filtration benefits as well as being able to host a copepod ‘savehaven’ if you will. From what I’ve read if you pour the copepods into the refuge it gives them a place to stay and not be eaten by anything in the tank, some will filter through into the display tank as food and the refuge will allow them to bread and keep a fairly stable population. I think you’d still need to top up the pods once in a while though.

I was going to try getting a separate container from my tank to culture them which would save me a bit of money instead of buying them bi-weekly or monthly.

Everything you said seems correct with what I've read. The idea is just to give the pods/whatever a shelter and have them just get continuously pumped into the DT. I'm just not exactly sure how big of a space you would need, or more importantly, a general idea of how many pods you should be trying to cultivate in that area. I also know people use chaeto and whatnot, I've also read that it can potentially strip your water of nutrients. So I'm not sure what sort of filtration media you should use along with that setup, or if the traditional media would be replaced altogether by the addition of a refugium with algae or chaeto.

 

[revhtree]

Looking good! Liking the work on the aquascape!

 

[ashiWaza]

So I started the aquascaping today, although I'm still waiting on another shipment of shelf rock. I measured out the internal dimensions on my counter with some tape, and went to work. The only certainty I have is that I really want to use the cave that was included in the Caribsea shapes bundle. It is stunning to look at in person. It also has a big hole in the back, making it more of a tunnel shape. As I intend to eventually have a mandarin, I dont want him to just hide somewhere and never be seen.

 

[ashiWaza]

Looking for thoughts on the stacking of these two shapes. They fit together almost perfectly, although I would still epoxy/glue them together. I'm concerned about a few things: 1) the interplay between the two holes/tunnels, not sure if I should just have one be the focus. However, it may be hard to tell in the pics, but the holes are at different angles, so they add a ton of depth. 2) I wouldn't be able to center this, it would need to be in a corner. I still want to include a ton of dry rock, and that would consume most of my other space. Its growing on me for sure, especially since the donut has a really nice frag slot in the top right corner, that will look incredible with some corals growing over. I cant use the 'donut piece' if not, just not enough room. I definitely like the cave too much to part with it!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I like it! Following along!

 

[NashobaTek]

I have 3 mandrins in a 125 gallon aquarium, I have a big pod population, but I also feed them fresh hatched brine shrimp every day. It gives them a variety to hunt and I hatch the brine shrimp in the same sg water as the tank. All 3 ( 1 male and 2 females) have been fat and happy and grew like weeds.

I do add a few more bottles of pods every couple of months, just to keep the pod population high.

These are from 8 months ago.

 

[ashiWaza]

I believe I have finally finished my aquascape, I am insanely satisfied with it. I used Marco rocks shelf rock in order to create the tabletops, and used a huge Caribsea arch with a Caribsea donut fixed on top of it. It is difficult to see the depth and angles through photos.

 

[ashiWaza]

I am also going to sink/raise the columns in the above pictures so that they are not the same height. I plan on slightly burying the arch, and then propping the shelf up with PVC pipe which will be buried underneath the sand, also offering a solid foundation against shifting substrate over time.

 

[ashiWaza]

Finally got my tank going on a cycle. In my AIO setup, I have a Fluval heater in each intake/overflow area, a Tunze protein skimmer in one chamber, a media basket (relatively empty rn during cycling) in the other side chamber, and my Sicce pump in the center. Random bonus doggo

 

[ashiWaza]

I also....did NOT rinse my live sand. Curious as to everyone's thoughts on this. Online, I've read numerous posts about people rinsing their live sand. However, my circle of friends who got me into reefing worked at LFS in the past, and have beautiful tanks, and never rinsed. Everyone else I asked in person about it, said they had never even heard of rinsing live sand. I plan on going relatively low flow for the mandarin anyways, and believe rinsing is to help get rid of dirt/sediment etc. Always open to the thoughts of others though

 

[ashiWaza]

While I won't be using my light during the cycle, I still wanted to get it set up and see how I liked the mount. I decided to go with the 'AI Fixed Arm Tank Mount' rather than the flex arm version. I had read many posts about the flex arm breaking, so I went with the fixed. I also got the AI Prime 16HD in black . I'm sure a ton of mounts have this feature, but I really liked that the AI mount came with a fixed rubber piece to screw to your tank, preventing any scratching.

 

[ashiWaza]

I really wish I could claim this as my own idea, but another genius reef2reef user greatly influenced how I created a 'floating' rock look. I love the look of the shelves, and wanted to keep that going. So here was my process! I knew magnet strength would be a big issue, and I immediately did some research. For those curious, it seems general consensus that ceramic magnets are reef safe, while neodymium magnets are not. The problem, is that ceramic magnets are much weaker. I was very fortunate in that I had 2 brand new Tunze magnets laying around, I'm guessing from a protein skimmer. I'm not sure of the magnet type, but they are completely encased in epoxy and a rubber cover, and everything seems in very good shape. I superglued the magnet to a piece of dry rock, and will have the other magnet behind the glass of the AIO wall, so it's not visible.