TheSun’s IM20

[TheSun126]

What’s up guys? Took a while for me to make this post but the tank is finally in a good place and I felt there’s no better time to do it than now.

The Setup

I started my reefing journey last year with an old 10 gallon I’d repurposed from freshwater, it started to smell really bad (from lack of flow and dead zones in the hob filter as I’ve now learned) so around Halloween I talked myself into a small upgrade and ended up with this new tank.




Planning the aquascape was a little tough since I knew I wanted to keep my old Rockford and incorporate some new chunks into it. Went with 25 pounds of coralline colored Marco rock. The picture above is pretty close to what I ended up with and I still have about 15 pounds of rock left for my next build whenever that happens.

The Transfer

I wanted to move the new tank into the same spot that the old ten gallon was so a single day transfer was really the only option I had to ensure everything’s safety. I did this by mixing up roughly 15 gallons of saltwater in 3 five gallon buckets throughout the day (this caused my RODI system update). Once I finished working for the day I pulled all the corals off the rocks and put them in one bucket with roughly 20% of the water from the tank. The rocks went straight into a freshly mixed bucket of water immediately after. Finally my fish and inverts (2 clowns, an urchin, a conch, a blue leg hermit, and 2 cerith snails) went in a third bucket with the rest of the tank water that I could fit. The fish and corals were put off to the side with bubblers and heaters placed in each bucket.





After that I slid the new tank and stand over and placed the old rock in and merged it with the new, added sand and filled the tank (pictured above). Moving everything in took a bit, wanted to ease the transition on the fish especially. I added the corals first (at the time 2 hammers, a porites, a rock with green star polyps, a mushroom and a blasto) then the fish and inverts went in. They were all pretty happy with the new home the next morning when the water cleared and the lights came on.




What I’ve been up to in the 4 months since the transfer

So the transfer happened about four months ago, I ended up losing my copper hammer due to flow issues and just general transfer stress, it just never seemed to bounce back, but everything else did survive. Late in November I went to my local reef store (shoutout to Detroit Reef Club, y’all are the best) and picked up a Tailspot blenny who now calls the cave in the center home and a single head New York knicks torch which settled in great. The torch actually split into 2 heads within a week of getting it. I also picked up an assortment of new hermits (now up to 3 blue legs, 2 left handeds, and a Halloween) and 2 bumblebee snails.





For Christmas I got myself the gift of a second torch coral and ended up with what I believe is a dragon soul torch though I’m not really sure. Additionally I got a purple scroll coral which is pretty cool.







I wrapped up my final corals with a beautiful new blastomussa and a cyphastrea which I’m planning to let encrust the shelf portion of the main structure.





The last couple weeks I’d been having issues with flow in the tank. Initially I thought there wasn’t enough so I picked up a Nero 3 which works amazingly well in this tank. Unfortunately I guessed wrong, my return pumps were just cranked up too high and I was inadvertently blasting my torches with too much flow from above. I turned them down last night and left the Nero on a random pattern and everything looks great today. I have a couple more plans to really finalize this tank including a small Refugium in the back that I’ll be setting up this weekend and possibly one more coral for the shelf on the far right side but I can’t wait to see where this tank goes. Thank you for reading and of course see the full tank shot I took this morning below!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[TheSun126]

Short update for this month, first up, I finally found a house, so I’ll be moving soon, any tips on transporting the live rock would be greatly appreciated.

Second I unfortunately lost one of my torches, it just started receding one day and didn’t come back, since I removed it the other has never looked better. Everything else in the tank is pretty much the same besides the addition of a few new LPS corals pictured below.








Also since the last update I started dosing all for reef and amino acids and the colors have been popping. I set up that Refugium I mentioned as well, the light I had for my old hob fuge is a little too strong but it seems to have helped balance my nitrate and phosphate. I also have way more pods on my glass since it was set up.

But yeah that’s pretty much it for this update, not going to be too many more changes to this tank until after I move. Enjoy some pictures I just took.

 

[TheSun126]

Finally moved in to my new house, the reef tank just got moved on Saturday. A couple minor losses including the last couple months include a torch head, and the mushroom. Most of that stems from the couple months I wasn’t directly involved with the tank. But all of my fish and the important inverts made it over! So that’s something to be proud of.

In the last few months I’ve been in the new house my focus was on getting my 75 gallon freshwater system set up and that’s been a heck of a rollercoaster. I have some stuff in the works for that one still but most of it is just patience while the plants grow in.

As for the reef tank the move took about 9 hours total, I bagged all the livestock and coral, removed the rocks into a couple five gallon buckets, carried the tank and stand out to my car and made the drive over. Hardest part was setting the scape back up, but I think I did ok. Here’s some pictures of the tank now set up in its new spot. I did make a purchase this morning that I’m sure I’ll regret whenever I move out of here, but more on that to come in another new build thread.