Custom AIO 40 Breeder

N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#21
#21
Dr.DiSilicate said:
If you want a scoop of sand to help with the bacteria diversity let me know. That rock is great, Andrews tank settled in pretty quickly. Love the display fuge.

Dr.DiSilicate that would be great! You have a beautiful aquarium, I know I'll get a lot of good microflora from you. Are you coming down for the meeting in February (at reef builders)?

I can't wait to get some seagrass in the fuge. I may have gotten a little too much mineral mud, but I think the mix with oolite will help the seagrass really take off!

SkyShark said:
The rock layout is great! I think the piece by the divider will look really cool when coral starts growing.

SkyShark, thank you! The more I look at it the more I think this may be one of the better aquascaping jobs I've done haha. I agree, I'm excited to get a few tabling corals over there and see how it turns out.

I'll get a few more shots of the rock once I get home tonight :)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#25
#25
I'm happy to announce that the first order had been successful..........no it's not coral or fish, but something much more important!

Flora and invertebrate fauna for the aquarium!

The order:
250 amphipods

16oz of copepod mix (5 species: Tisbe biminiensis, Acartia tonsa, Parvocalanus crassirostris, Pseudodiaptomus pelagicus, Apocyclops panamensis)

16oz phytoplankton (6 different types: Tetraselmis, Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, Pavlova, Thalassiosira, Weissflogii, Synechococcus)

Seagrass (Syringodium filiforme)

I ordered all of this through rusalty.com. I would highly recommend them if you would like to give an invertebrate boost to your aquarium.

The amphipods came in looking a little rough (there was no heat pack in the box which I found odd) I emailed them and got a response within a few hours. They informed me that they don't typically put heat packs with pods because they can withstand the cold well. I need only acclimate them and they would be okay, after acclimation I think I only saw 1 body floating everyone else took off to hide in the aquarium.

I accidentally cut a small hole in the bag when I put it in to float and quite a few amphipods took off so this is not the entire amount received.

View attachment 16411

The seagrass planted well and over the next week I'll see how it pans out in it's new home. (The mesh net is from the amphipods bag, I transfered it with some amphipods for the fuge to have as well).

View attachment 16412

I only put half of the bag of copepods in the aquarium, the other half I added to a glass jar I had so I can culture them. I'll split the culture every week or 2 and keep it going as long as I can.

View attachment 16415

After a couple of weeks I'll look to add the more charismatic species to the aquarium.
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#27
#27
I did not, unfortunately building it in an apartment isn't conductive to painting/staining. As it's an all in one system I'm not as worried about salt creep/overflowing/leaky plumbing as I would be if I had a sump (I would definitely have to figure out a way to seal it then).
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#28
#28
As is to be expected the first algae bloom is in full swing. Throughout the past week I've picked up 6 x red banded trochus snails, 3 x turbo snails, and 1 fighting conch. They are absolutely having a blast eating the algae haha.

View attachment 16449

The seagrass has been doing very well, I've followed this little shoot for the past week and I'm amazed at it's growth.

Feb. 23rd View attachment 16452

Feb 25th
View attachment 16451

Feb. 26th
View attachment 16450

Feb. 28th
View attachment 16448

I think the first fish or coral will go in within the next week or so. Nutrients have stayed low, but I will test again before anything else is added.
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#30
#30
I hope everyone was able to check out reefstock this weekend. It was my first time and I had a blast, it's fun to interact with all of the vendors and score some great deals.

With that said I can officially introduce my first inhabitants! The lights are on an acclimation regimen right now, but I got some shots tonight of them.

1. WWC blue/red favites
View attachment 16472

2. WWC Pavona (encrusting growth form)
View attachment 16471

3. Jason Fox Raja Rampage Chalice
View attachment 16473

4. WWC Pink Tabling Acro (they couldn't remember which one it was exactly).
View attachment 16470

And finally, my pod culture is doing phenomenal, look at all those guys!
View attachment 16474

I'm currently feeding them approximately 5ml of phyto when the water is clear, and splitting them about every week.
 
halmus

halmus

Registered Users
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#32
#32
TheRealChrisBrown said:
Raja Rampage is one of my favorites that I've never had. Nice score!
Click to expand...
Mine to. I had something similar early on but didn’t make it. I picked up a nice sized one from Nick at the show (along with a nice bonus SPS).

Good progress for you! How is the system going to do while you’re traveling? Someone taking care of top-off or will your system take care of itself for a few weeks?
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#33
#33
TheRealChrisBrown said:
Raja Rampage is one of my favorites that I've never had. Nice score!
Click to expand...
It's looking great so far, hopefully I can get it to grow like a weed and we can change that for you!


halmus said:
Mine to. I had something similar early on but didn’t make it. I picked up a nice sized one from Nick at the show (along with a nice bonus SPS).

Good progress for you! How is the system going to do while you’re traveling? Someone taking care of top-off or will your system take care of itself for a few weeks?
Click to expand...
Thanks! Hopefully I can get some crazy growth for you too! I think the system will do well while I'm gone. I've been pretty hands off with it lately and I don't think I'll add any fish before I leave which will help to keep excess nutrients from building up without me being able to monitor it. I need to update with some pictures of the ATO system. I'm currently running a breakout box connected to a float switch for automatic top off, I go through 5 gallons in ~7-10 days. I'll stock up on water for my roommate to switch out the buckets when needed, and create a calendar for feeding of phytoplankton and freeze dried rotifers. Ideally I'll be able to notice a little growth when I get back :D.

The next project after I get back will be feeding live brine shrimp nauplii to really increase coral growth!
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#34
#34
Well my trip was cancelled so I'm stateside for the foreseeable future. On Friday (the 13th) I stopped into mile high tides to check out the place and get some much needed RO water, little did I know they were doing a sale (all $20 frags were $13). Well I couldn't pass that up and found a few that I liked!

Dragon soul favia (has a little algae growth on it):


And a random green acro (mother colony looked good):


Although I am practicing social distancing I needed to pick up some food/RO water for the tank if (most likely when) things shut down. I saw this little guy and just couldn't help myself!

View attachment 16536
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#35
#35
Well I figure it's time for an update! The tank overall is doing well, I've been battling a little bit of an algae outbreak but besides that everything is looking pretty good.

View attachment 16587

Interestingly my phosphates started to increase while my nitrates have bottomed out at 0. I'm not sure why nitrogen has been the limiting nutrient. I recently added PhosGuard to help bring down the phosphate levels and increased feeding to help elevate the nitrates.

Also, a few things have been added since last time. So now time for everybody's favorite....pictures!!

Trimma Cana (pygmy candy cane goby) this isn't my picture, it's quite shy so it has been a task trying to get a picture of it.
View attachment 16581

Tridacna Maxima
View attachment 16582

I've also found these small slugs reproducing in the aquarium. They have quite the appetite for algae and have helped to keep the aquarium clean. I think they're Bulla ampulla (http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/bullampu)
View attachment 16585

View attachment 16586

The chalice is also looking more robust!

View attachment 16584

A feeding regime has also been put into place so I remember to keep everyone happy!

View attachment 16583

And finally....the seagrass. It seems to be growing well, however some epiphytic algae has started growing on it. I worry that it may be out competing the seagrass so I've been using a net to manually remove it. I think a small powerheads and lowering phosphates will help to cut back on the amount of growth that occurs over the week.

View attachment 16580
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#36
#36
Things are continuing to trend in the right direction, my pod population in the tank continues to grow exponentially and the snails are cruising through the algae.

Day shot
View attachment 16637

Dusk
View attachment 16638

Rainfords goby
View attachment 16643

Most of the corals seem to be doing well. My acro had bleached a little so I decided to move it further down in the tank, I think it may have been getting more light than it was used to.

WWC Blue and Red Favia
View attachment 16636

WWC Red Acro
View attachment 16639

WWC Gold Pavona
View attachment 16640

Random Acro
View attachment 16641

Cool time lapse of the JF Raja Rampage Chalice. It had to move positions from the original spot (a turbo knocked him over).

It looks like growth is occuring, which is exciting to see!
(Left to right: 3/8, 3/22, 4/5)
View attachment 16642

And I forgot the Dragon Soul Favia....I'll have to get a picture of it tomorrow. I'm also looking to add a few more fish in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#38
#38
Let's try that again ...

Finally got a picture of this guy!
View attachment 16687

View attachment 16683

Added 3x green bar gobies last week!
View attachment 16689

Fuge/sandbed: I added some wondermud and assorted sandbed critters from Indo Pacific sea farms. I would highly recommend them if you want to recharge or spruce up your sandbed critters!
View attachment 16684

Dragon Soul:
View attachment 16685

View attachment 16686

Finally...the slugs have been on a breeding rampage, I'm seeing eggs all over the display and fuge. These are great algae eaters if anyone is interested in some just let me know!
View attachment 16690

View attachment 16688
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#39
#39
Well I just couldn't keep myself from getting some fish to hang out in the water column, I really enjoy this trio and they look great in the aquarium! It's dusk tonight but I thought I would try to snap a few decent pictures as the lights wind down.

View attachment 16765

View attachment 16758

The Dragon's Soul favia is continuing to morph, I'm excited to see what it looks like when it grows out. Maybe a reverse Dragon's Soul!? It seems like the red is only present around the mouth, and fades back out to green as you get further away from it.

View attachment 16757

The clam is looking great, it's moved itself so that the incurrent siphon is directed toward the water flow wrapping around the island.

View attachment 16762

I split an order from IPSF (Indo Pacific Sea Farms) with halmus the other week, it was a great boost to my invertebrate population and sandbed. I highly recommend them for sandbed critters, I've order from them in the past and they always deliver! I picked up their wondermud, mini brittle stars, mama mia worms (aka spaghetti worms), and a sea cucumber (he has been hiding since I added him to the tank...ughh). I added 3/4 of the wondermud to the fuge area, and 1/4 to the display, the sand created a little bit of a storm so I lost track of how much I was putting in, I meant to do a 50/50 split but here we are.

They also threw in a free blasto frag which halmus was nice enough to let me have. He'll be getting a frag in the coming months as it grows out!

View attachment 16761
Some very exciting news for me, the seagrass has finally started to grow rhizomitously! I found my first new stalk a few nights ago, and it continues to grow each day.
View attachment 16759

A few FTS to end the night. I cannot seem to figure out what is wrong with the red acro, the bleaching has increased since moving it closer to the sand bed so I thought I would try closer to the light. It didn't have polyps open when I bought it, and I haven't seen any since it has been in the tank. I wonder if shipping to reefstock and being in the show aquariums for a few days stressed it out? Then the newer tank didn't do it any favors in getting it's health back? I've been spot feeding freeze dried rotifers in hopes that it will turn around, but we shall see where it ends up!

View attachment 16763
View attachment 16760

I haven't been able to keep nitrates in the aquarium (completely clear on salifert test kits), and they are currently the limiting nutrient allowing a small build up of phosphates. I broke down and ordered a couple more fish to help increase nitrate in the aquarium. I'll post them up soon!
 
N

NDaquarist

Cleaner Shrimp
#40
#40
Well someone new was added and the past 5 days have looked mostly like this ...



Because of a certain new tank mate..



But I think they finally found a permanent spot..



Blue spotted jawfish are one of my favorites. Live aquaria had an awesome special on them and I couldn't pass it up. I also ordered an ORA shark nose goby, but I haven't seen it since I first put it in . I was hoping after a few days I'd see some movement around the aquarium, but it's a no go so far unfortunately. If I don't see it at 7 days I'll see if they're willing to give me store credit towards something else from them.

The tank in general, and seagrass bed specifically has also taken a major turn for the better! I think I'm finally past the fleshy algae faze, I have noticed a significant decrease in fleshy algae around the aquarium and in the seagrass bed. I was getting a lot of epiphytic algae growing on the seagrass blades, and I was worrying it would out compete the seagrass for light so I was manually removing it each night for a while. I then tried a small powerheads to see if lack of flow was the issue, but that did not seem to help much.



I forgot to remove anything over the weekend and thought the seagrass would be coated in algae. It turns out a new species of pod has made its way into the refugium area! (I'm guessing they came in with my IPSF wondermud!)



They have completed decimated the epiphytic algae and the "fuge" hasn't looked better! (Side note: I did add a few snails for glass cleaning duties.






This little rhizomitous shoot has been growing like a weed View attachment 16820



I tested nutrients this weekend; nitrates were at 0.2 and phosphates were at 0.1.

I had been having issues with higher phosphates 0.25 and undetectable nitrates. I purchased some phosphate remover and upped feeding. It appeared that nitrogen was the limiting nutrient so I thought I could remove some of the phosphate while increasing nitrate (which would also lower phosphates). It appears to be working, my tests 2 weeks prior were nitrates 0 and phosphates 0.25.

I'm currently feeding mysis shrimp 2x a day and alternating coral/invert feeding days with 10mL of phytoplankton at night and the following day 1 small scoop of freeze dried rotifers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top