The tank that survives despite me

[ZzyzxRiver]

Six months ago, I got a Biocube 16 (The old build thread). I probably had a lot of beginners luck, but things went well enough that I am now a committed reefer- even more so because my son, 10 months old when I started, seems to be enjoying it more and more every time he hits some developmental milestone (he already says 'hi fish' when he sees the tank, and his favorite inhabitant is the cleaner shrimp). So what else is there to do at this point but upgrade to my big boy tank? Behold, the Day 1 FTS:

We ended up with 40lbs of aquascape (I weighed it on my bathroom scale, haha), 40 lbs of sand, and exactly 40 gallons of water inside!
The aquascape was a fun project. We broke apart about 60 lbs of rock to reattach into this configuration. Yes, I know that one peak is too high and I'll never be able to put a coral there. Let's call it a design choice.

I brought over rocks from the other tank to help assist with getting the microbiome started, and transferred the baggy of ceramic bioballs from the old sump into the new one. Then I added Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and a frozen shrimp for good measure (I like watching the gross slime blob grow around it).

Here's where I get in trouble with the tank police, maybe: two of the rocks are just rocks with muck on them, but the other two are my GSP and firework cloves/blue hypnea islands. They're super hardy and I wanted their bacteria! My green rhodactis plug unexpectedly attached to the firework cloves rock, so it came too (but I separated it in the new tank). Critters that joined the fun: an astraea snail that refused to detach, and my emerald crab that I forgot about entirely until I saw it scampering around in the bucket I transferred the rocks with. Fingers crossed for those two. Those rocks came with some spaghetti worms and spionid worms attached to them (regular harmless, not coral boring. I'm sure because I have no stony corals for them to bore into). I'm not too concerned about these, but hopefully they make it! I find hitchhikers to be super interesting.

I'm now waiting for diatoms before I transfer anything else over (except for a couple of my more boring zoa plugs). Once those get started, it's time to bring my conch and trochus snail!

Current tank status:

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I love the aquascape!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Day 5 FTS:

(I need to adjust that left door to make it even)

If you know me from my last tank thread, you know that I have gotten away with some insane behavior. This round is no different. I've already brought over every coral, fish, and invert from my old tank as of last night. Thanks to my big bag of bioballs and the three active rocks I moved over on day 1, my 2ppm of ammonium chloride converted into their end 7ppm of nitrate, then started trending back down as (I presume) they were taken back up by the corals.

Four day 'cycle'. Sorry, tank police. But everyone is alive, active, and eating. Please meet the original crew:
Two Percula Clownfish (Johnny and Moira)
Yellow Watchman Goby (David)
Red Scooter Blenny (Alexis)
Emerald Crab (Stevie)
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Jocelyn)
Peppermint Shrimp (Twyla)
Trochus Snail (Ray)
Strawberry Conch (Shawn)
Mini Brittle Star (No name, but it's a big one and I got lucky finding it and transferring it over)
Astraea that hitchhiked on a rock (I didn't bring over any of my other snails; a few more astraea, some ceriths) because I'm planning on handing them over to my friend who is buying the old setup.

The new team:
Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp (Name TBD)
Two Mexican Turbo Snails
Two 'Margarita' Snails
Two Astraea Snails

I'll be adding more CUC as demand increases. I want more emerald crabs and a tuxedo urchin eventually, once I can sustain them. Copepods, amphipods, and phyto from @Reef By Steele should be arriving this week too.

The coral list:
Zoas: Bambam, AOI, Pink Zipper, Rasta, and two other plugs that are kinda just plain uninteresting green ones that I don't know why I even bought.
GSP (On an island, of course)
Firework Cloves (they came early on one of the rocks I brought to seed the tank, and they are NOT HAPPY. It looks like they will recover, though)
Rhodactis (Green)
Discosoma (Red)
Toadstool Leather (2 on the same plug)
Purple Sea Whip Gorgonian
Pipe Organ (Also very mad about the transfer)
Duncan (This was doing poorly in the old tank, but I tucked it in the back to see if it recovers. It actually seems happier already)
Chalice ("Dragonball Z" from @SBB Corals . This actually completed died in my old tank, but started to come back right before the transfer to the new tank! I've positioned it in a better spot than before and it seems super happy now).
Blasto

I'm researching which corals I'm going to want to add once the tank has gone through its uglies, so although I've already placed things around the tank, I'm probably going to be doing a major revision in the next week.
Thanks for following along!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Update: we have diatoms and the CUC is hard at work!

We identified a dead spot behind one of the bigger rocks I used to seed the tank with. I’m not worried because I have somewhere better to put it and plan to configure a zoa garden on some low profile rocks in that space instead.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Realized that I was still working on the 16 gallon paradigm when I bought my starter clean up crew. Added 3 Trochus and 6 Astraea today! Get to work on those ‘toms, team! Pods arrive tomorrow !

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Looks good! Just a quick heads up, that might be too many snails.
It is best to start slowly adding more CUC whenever your tank needs it instead of adding too much at once.

Keep your eyes open for starving snails.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Looks good! Just a quick heads up, that might be too many snails.
It is best to start slowly adding more CUC whenever your tank needs it instead of adding too much at once.

Keep your eyes open for starving snails.

I agree that it’s a lot of snails, however I have a habit of overfeeding my fish. But if they run out of diatoms before other algae starts growing, my previous tank is still running while I wait for a friend to be ready to move it to his place—I’ll transfer them back to that tank, which has plenty for snails to eat! Thanks for the reminder to keep that in mind!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Day 9! First a FTS from the morning direct light (maxes out on this part of the room for about a half hour in the winter, a few minutes in the summer):


And the new zoa garden (some rearranging to be done still), each plug on its own piece of shelf rock for mobility down the road:


Had a heavy buildup of diatoms going- I decided to baste them off the rock so that some would get into my filter socks (larger ones are big enough to get caught according to my cursory internet search?). Then I added my phyto and pods from @Reef By Steele (great customer service as always!). I’m curious to see how the diatoms react to the competition and additional CUC.

As far as acclimation goes, I’m seeing the last few things I was worried about seem back to normal. The firework cloves are starting to reopen, the toadstool is closer to normal, and the GSP is extending a bit longer now. The emerald crab has finally emerged from her hole and can be seen on the surface of the seed rocks I brought from the last tank.

The YWG pops up all over the tank, the foundation rocks made it so he has so many great little caves to dart into, but I haven’t seen him eating yet. The red blenny is still lethargic, but I’ve added a couple bottles of copepods now. She was in bad shape before, super skinny and probably about to starve to death in the last tank. I’ve seen her eating pods a little bit, and I’ll be super excited when I see her hopping all over the rocks like she used to.

I think I may have smashed the pistol shrimp when I was moving rocks around (I forgot he dug under the one I fiddled with). I haven’t heard any snaps from the tank since I did that. Oops! Sorry buddy.

The only thing left to reopen is the pipe organs. This one I worry I’ve killed. The polyps are 90% retracted, still white but not responding to actinic light. Of the several dozen polyps, I see two glowing but still retracted. A bummer, but I knew I was taking a risk with this hyper-fast cycle.

Doing parameters testing later today and then just continuing to monitor progress for a while. Once I start seeing corals growing again and all fish back to their normal behaviors I’ll begin considering new additions!

 

[Reef By Steele Verified Sponsor]

I had a pipe organ that I thought we lost. Seemed like my emerald crab started picking at it. Was just tubes for quite a while then one day it started coming back. Don’t pull it, at least for a good amount of time.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

I had a pipe organ that I thought we lost. Seemed like my emerald crab started picking at it. Was just tubes for quite a while then one day it started coming back. Don’t pull it, at least for a good amount of time.

If even one polyp survives, I’m keeping it! It was 3 when I bought it and it grew to about 50 in six months.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Important update!! The pistol shrimp is alive! I just saw it reverse back into the hole my YWG was hanging out in. Hooray!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Ahh, alas. My first fish death. Alexis the Red Scooter Blenny didn’t make it. She had been struggling for the whole month prior in the old tank (I couldn’t manage to keep enough copepods for her to stay fed, despite her eating frozen as well), and she was skin and bones when we brought her over to the new one. She did peck at the copious copepods we poured in for her, but I think it was too late. We found her on her side front and center in the tank for quick removal- a friend to the end.

I will no longer be keeping any copepod eaters, even in the larger tank. I can’t risk not having enough for them and supplementing often enough is too costly. :disappointed-face:

In other news, CUC is settling in. All the snails are on the move and blazing trails through the diatoms. Where the diatoms are cleared, the rocks are staining light green from the phyto, and then no new diatoms grow there. Magic!

The pistol shrimp is making caves alllll over, and piling up larger sand particles to close up the holes. What an interesting critter!

Corals also mostly back to normal. Toadstool still not at full extension, trying a different location. We added a beautiful orange Yuma that I couldn’t resist at the store. Two polyps, $35. “Mushrooms = easy,” my brain said. Later Google said that ricordias are the hard mushrooms. Typical. Will add a photo of it with a FTS later.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since I fired this baby up! FTS, then updates:


(I put way too much phyto in, so I’ve been having to clean the glass like crazy. Dialing it back, but is there some way to stop this from happening?)

So diatoms were INTENSE, they even grew into long grassy threads, which I read can happen when it’s heavy (it wasn’t GHA). But the CUC made great progress and almost every last bit is gone, except for some tighter cracks that the emerald crab is working on. Oh, and the sand gets a layer as well every time the conch turns it over behind him. I think next is supposed to be film algae? I dunno if that’s what’s tinting my rocks now or if it’s the too-much-phyto that’s doing it.

Nitrates went from 12 to 9 in the last four days, so I’m keeping an eye on that, I don’t want it to bottom out. If it goes below 5 I’m going to get my next fish. Still struggling with what to get, but I want a new blenny, either a royal gramma or blackcap basslet, an azure damsel or similar, and a school of Bangaii cardinals. Not sure what order to go, though.

The Yuma looks good three days later. Will it do the “melt after two weeks” thing so many people post about in here? We shall see!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

First fish additions to the new tank on 2/1!
I bought four very small fish. I know the guidance says not to go that fast, but I was looking at how much frozen food my clowns and goby were leaving behind (I overfeed because I can’t cut the cubes any smaller) and estimated that the same amount of food will still work given the size of the additions.

So far so good! Everyone has eaten since being added. The only one who hasn’t come out from hiding is the blackcap basslet, so no photo of that, but meet the crew!

1) the tiniest six-line wrasse on earth. We named him Rascal!


2) A royal gramma, named Pamela after my son’s grandma lol


3) A teeny tiny engineer goby! I’m taking the chance that the tank is big enough for him and the YWG/Candycane Pistol shrimp pair.


And, please meet my assistant reef keeper!


This should keep us busy for a few weeks, and then once I think things are stable, I’ll be looking for new corals again. Wish us luck!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Almost 4 weeks into Reeferdale! Things are going great.

1. The diatom explosion is done, just a few spots here and there that the CUC hasn't gotten to yet.
2. Starting to get the beginning of green algae on the rocks. My CUC consists of an emerald crab, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, 9 astraea, 4 trochus, 1 Turbo, 2 Margarita, 1 strawberry conch, and 4 cerith snails. Hoping that's enough to keep green algae from getting out of control for now.
3. Fish are all happy, out, and eating. So far, the royal gramma and the blackcap basslet have been fine together. The first day there was some open-mouth confrontations from the gramma, but now they swim and eat next to each other fine. The blackcap is more reclusive anyway and has found a spot on the opposite side of the tank of where the gramma spends most of its time. The engineer goby has been a good little digger, and both basslets and the peppermint shrimp have been sharing the caves he's dug with him.
4. MOST EXCITING CORAL YET: I got a frogspawn euphyllia. It was the most money I've spent on a single coral, $85, but it's a really cool pink color and a decent size, and I found what I think is a good spot for it that's also near the clown's territory, so fingers crossed they decide to move in! I also got a neon yellow candycane that I plopped into the middle of my zoa garden for now until I figure out where I like it/the zoas encroach.

The FTS:

The Frogspawn:

The Candycane:

That's all for this update! There's a coral show coming up in march, and I'm probably going to wait for that before I buy anything else. There are some cool LFS around my house but they don't tend to have unusual stuff or inexpensive frags. Here's the flyer in case anyone is local and wants to go:

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

We have entered hair algae phase. Murky FTS to reflect that I have lowered the whites until I can assemble enough CUC to keep up:


My emerald crab is MIA—wouldn’t be surprised if she was molting, since i’ve had her for months and she never has before. I think I’m going to get two more next time I’m at the LFS. I would love some colonista snails to get into the many nooks and crannies in my rock that are too small for the snails but I have never seen a store sell them before.

A copepod explosion happened, exactly a week after I removed the filter socks to replace with filter floss (got a rad media basket). They’re all over the glass and the fish have been eating them like crazy.

The engineer goby makes itself scarce now that it has dug a few caves—but I know it’s there from sand activity and also when it comes out to feed. Not so for the blackcap basslet. I haven’t seen it for a full two days and counting. $50 for a fish I’ll never see LOL.

My new frogspawn is doing great- full extension, wafting gently, looking happy. I’m so excited to see how it does!

Till next time!

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

One month of my tank! FTS to show off the beautiful beam of light this corner of the room gets for a brief moment in the mornings:



Solidly in the beginning of GHA phase. Turning my whites way down (about 15%—I just can’t enjoy the pure blue look) has made a clear difference in its growth, so manual removal won’t be a huge burden. The tiny snip of string of pearls that is anchored in my GSP rock has begun to grow properly now so I will have another good nutrient export option going in a couple more weeks.

I forgot I have a nearly full bottle of purigen in the cabinet. I’ll be placing some of that in the media tray today!

Yesterday when doing some maintenance I noticed my water was FREEZING. 72°!!! Somehow i had unplugged the heater. We’re back to 75, and once my lid finally shows up (stuck in the snowstorms in the Midwest) I’m hoping the reduced evaporation will get me another couple of degrees. If not, I’ll need to get a new heater. I wanted 78-80°.

All the inhabitants seem good, except for GSP which is still refusing to extend fully, and the blackcap basslet which has been (hopefully) hiding for a while now. He’s earned himself the name ‘Ninja’.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

An all-white FTS to show off my neon green rock, LOL:

I’m desperate for a tuxedo urchin before the GHA gets out of hand, but I hate my nearest LFS and the good one is a serious chore with an 18 month old in tow. Scrubbing it is tougher than I thought it would be, those hairs are really anchored down. I figure at least keeping them somewhat shorter by breaking the strands is still helping somehow. My decorative nub is making progress, in probably two more weeks it will be big enough to compete meaningfully with the GHA. I’ve been stirring the sand a bit so that more diatoms add to the competition, too. More CUC eat those!

All my fish seem good except for the missing basslet. All corals seem happy except for my still halfway-extended GSP, but unless I’m imagining it it seems to be improving a bit. I’ve seen my two bigger shrimp molt and I’m still hearing snaps occasionally from my tiny pistol shrimp.

Onward!

 

[BristleWormHater]

Ahh, alas. My first fish death. Alexis the Red Scooter Blenny didn’t make it. She had been struggling for the whole month prior in the old tank (I couldn’t manage to keep enough copepods for her to stay fed, despite her eating frozen as well), and she was skin and bones when we brought her over to the new one. She did peck at the copious copepods we poured in for her, but I think it was too late. We found her on her side front and center in the tank for quick removal- a friend to the end.

I will no longer be keeping any copepod eaters, even in the larger tank. I can’t risk not having enough for them and supplementing often enough is too costly. :disappointed-face:

In other news, CUC is settling in. All the snails are on the move and blazing trails through the diatoms. Where the diatoms are cleared, the rocks are staining light green from the phyto, and then no new diatoms grow there. Magic!

The pistol shrimp is making caves alllll over, and piling up larger sand particles to close up the holes. What an interesting critter!

Corals also mostly back to normal. Toadstool still not at full extension, trying a different location. We added a beautiful orange Yuma that I couldn’t resist at the store. Two polyps, $35. “Mushrooms = easy,” my brain said. Later Google said that ricordias are the hard mushrooms. Typical. Will add a photo of it with a FTS later.

Just started reading through this thread, I bought some yumas awhile ago, absolutely no different from other mushrooms, do just fine in low-med light & flow.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Almost 4 weeks into Reeferdale! Things are going great.

1. The diatom explosion is done, just a few spots here and there that the CUC hasn't gotten to yet.
2. Starting to get the beginning of green algae on the rocks. My CUC consists of an emerald crab, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, 9 astraea, 4 trochus, 1 Turbo, 2 Margarita, 1 strawberry conch, and 4 cerith snails. Hoping that's enough to keep green algae from getting out of control for now.
3. Fish are all happy, out, and eating. So far, the royal gramma and the blackcap basslet have been fine together. The first day there was some open-mouth confrontations from the gramma, but now they swim and eat next to each other fine. The blackcap is more reclusive anyway and has found a spot on the opposite side of the tank of where the gramma spends most of its time. The engineer goby has been a good little digger, and both basslets and the peppermint shrimp have been sharing the caves he's dug with him.
4. MOST EXCITING CORAL YET: I got a frogspawn euphyllia. It was the most money I've spent on a single coral, $85, but it's a really cool pink color and a decent size, and I found what I think is a good spot for it that's also near the clown's territory, so fingers crossed they decide to move in! I also got a neon yellow candycane that I plopped into the middle of my zoa garden for now until I figure out where I like it/the zoas encroach.

The FTS:

The Frogspawn:

The Candycane:

That's all for this update! There's a coral show coming up in march, and I'm probably going to wait for that before I buy anything else. There are some cool LFS around my house but they don't tend to have unusual stuff or inexpensive frags. Here's the flyer in case anyone is local and wants to go:

Frogspawn looks great!