14G Not a Cube (Lots'a Pics)

[eggplantparrot]

Hello reefing peeps, i have been wanting to do a build thread since i started working on my 75, but that project is on hiatus for various reasons. i have however, got a 14G running to get my feet wet in reefing.

Before getting the 14G, i took a spare 10G and started learning the ways of the salt, testing, and mixing water. this was intended to be used to cycle some rock so that when i get my 75G up, it would reduce cycle time. That WAS the plan, until life happened, and the 75 went on hiatus. so i started thinking about keeping the 10G permanently. After having it in my room for a few weeks i felt that my dislike of rimmed tanks is starting to manifest itself, and i started shopping around for a rimless option.

10G with first clown, named Pablo (R.I.P sorry i didn't make a screen lid earlier)

i had originally wanted to try an 11G cube that i found at my LFS (Bigal's in Toronto if anyone's interested), but found this 14G and fell in love with the dimensions. 50cm x 33cm x 35cm, or 19.7" x 13" x 13.8". This tank is a Chinese brand called YiDing. they have a huge selection of tanks that are actually very high quality.

I decided on this 14G as i have had both a 10G and a 20G in my room separately over the past years, and found that 20G was too much, and the 10G left me wanting more, and this tank has more forward and backward depth than a standard 10G, which would make scaping easier. the 10G i was using, has been turned into a sump.

picture break:

This is the tank as of writing this post. Jan 27, 2019

This tank currently is sitting atop of a Seapora Empress stand, jerry-rigged to accept plumbing and a sump. if anyone is wondering, i would absolutely NOT recommend the Empress stand, more on this later.

Equipment -
Tank - 14G YiDing Low iron
Sump - DIY 10G sump with DIY glass baffle
Overflow - Eshopps Eclipse S
Filter - DIY socker holder + 200 micron mesh socks
Skimmer - RDC 150 Hang on skimmer
ATO - ancient washing detergent bottle gravity feeding into float valve
Return pump - Jebao DCP-3000
Wavemakers - 2 x Jebao SW-2
Light - Micmol Aqua Mini 60W
Algae deterrent - Flipper Nano + Vertex Simplex
Salt - Reef Crystsals (WANT TO CHANGE TO FRITZ RPM FOR PARAMETERS)
Dosing - Reefsupplies generic 2 part (STILL IN PROGRESS)
Dosing pump - Jebao DP-4 (NOT IMPLEMENTED YET)
Photography - Huawei G8 with orange acrylic piece.

Testing -
Salinity - Generic refractometer from Amazon with Brightwell calibration fluid.
Alk - RedSea Foundation Pro
- Hanna Alk egg
Cal - RedSea Foundation Pro
- Hanna Cal egg
Mag - RedSea Foundation Pro
NO3 - Salifert
PO4 - Salifert

Routine -
Feed livestock every day around 7-10pm
Terrorize Algae every other day or as they become ballsy and show their faces
Clean pumps every month
Change filter sock every weekend
5G water change every weekend

Picture Break:

Cheapo BTA i found colored up nicely

 

[eggplantparrot]

Now that the boring part is over, lets focus more on the fun stuff.

Livestock -
Ocellaris clown
Black ocellaris clown

Tanaka's pygmy wrasse

Royal gramma

2 blueleg hermit (1 missing)
2 red leg hermits
3 trochus snails (1 died last night)
2 cerith snails

 

[eggplantparrot]

Corals -
Zoas -
Radioactive Dragon eyes

Golden Sakura
(Picture to come)

Princess 99

(when i first bought it)

Goldie Hawn

(when i first bought it)

Utter Chaos
(picture to come)

Constellation
(Picture to come)

Orange Rainbow
(Picture to come)

Bubblegum
(Picture to come)

Yellow Hornets
(Picture to come)

Rasta
(Picture to come)

Misc. Red + Green
(Picture to come)


Acans/Micromussa -
Purple Green/First one

(When i first bought it)

Orange Green

(when i first bought it)

Orange Blue
(picture to come)

Orange Pink/Rainbow

(New polyps have all different colors)

Purple Green (same as first one, slightly brighter colors, forgot i had that one and bought a duplicate, Doh!)
(Picture to come)

Duncan (one of my first corals)

(Has WAY more heads now!)

Splattered Hammer

Blue/white Torch with Hitchhiking shrimp!

(Can you see him?)

Green with purple tips

(Favorite torch so far)

Purple with Green Tips
(Picture to come)

Cyphastrea
(Picture to come)

Green Chalice
(Picture to come)

SPS -
Green Birdsnest

Bird of Paradise Seriatopora
(Picture to come)

Pink Monti Cap
(Picture to come)

Montipora Setosa
(Picture to come)

Montipora Digitata Green
(Picture to come)

Yellow Purple Leptastrea
(Picture to come)

Green Acropora
(Picture to come)

Purple Acropora
(Picture to come)

Pink Acropora
(Picture to come)

Goniopora Green
(Picture to come)

Green Rhodactis

(Shriveled up for the night)

Green Ricordia
(Picture to come)

Orange Green Ricordia
(Picture to come)

Orange Blue Scolymia

Inverts -
White Feather Duster
(Picture to come)

Dark Purple Gold Feather Duster
(Picture to come)

Purple/Pink Feather Duster
(Picture to come)

Orange Green Bubble Tip Anemone

cant delete pictures

 

[NY_Caveman]

Wow, tank looks fantastic!

 

[eggplantparrot]

Wow, tank looks fantastic!

thanks!

More pictures to come, im too tired today after water change lol

 

[eggplantparrot]

 

[eggplantparrot]

WE WANT FOOD!!!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Love the hungry Acans!

 

[eggplantparrot]

Purply acro is browning a bit on the underside but its showing some polyps

 

[eggplantparrot]

I have noticed a week or 2 ago that my constellation frag started developing white spots on the stocks, and the polyps dont seem to be open as much anymore. After some quick research i came upon what is called Zoa pox. Not fun.

I ordered some API Furan-2 as that seemed to be the most recommended cure. I have completed day 1 of treatment and will continue for 2-3 more days.

 

[eggplantparrot]

Omg what is happening i cant delete pictures and now random ones are getting mixed in???

 

[eggplantparrot]

 

[eggplantparrot]

Day 2 of Furan-2 medication completed, hope i will see improvement soon. a small part of me still thinks it may not be zoa pox but i will treat it as such.

on another note, has anyone have any experience with Palythoa Grandis? i have caught a few for sale at my LFS and plan on taking one.

worth it? its in Canadian pesos

 

[eggplantparrot]

got some in tank photos with a Gopro Hero 5 Session, enjoy.

the shell corner and new frogspawn i picked up yesterday

my favourite boi checkin out the nem

managed to catch 3 of my fish checkin out the nem

 

[eggplantparrot]

Woot woot saturday update

added a couple of small blue leg hermits, one turned out to be not a blueleg...
all corals look great, and im seeing more growth from my acans.

my zoas are all opening again after the Furan-2 treatment.

favorite boi has gold rimmed false eye spots!

so much red coraline algae growing everywhere, out competing purple and pink coraline.

 

[eggplantparrot]

one bad thing that happened was my smaller clown developed a sunken belly. it happened very quickly and he started pooping white long white strands. things went downhill very quickly and he soon stopped eating. i do not have a QT nor am i allowed to set one up. so i put him in the sump where there is less flow, and his girlfriend wouldnt take all the food.

i took a chance and dosed some API General Cure, as well as mixed some in with frozen food to eliminate the parasites from my other fish. it seems that the General Cure may have helped, as the small clown started eating again last night! he still not super excited but i did get him to take down about 1 small pellet worth of food, and would come up to me again looking for more.

i ran out of General Cure, and because of idiots buying fish medication to take the medicinal ingredients out instead of getting prescriptions, most fish medication are now banned in ontario, if not canada... i managed to source some Seachem Metroplex and Focus from British Columbia, and it should arrive on monday. i will keep feeding medicated food, and hopefully Pablo jr. will recover and make the transition back to the display.

 

[eggplantparrot]

my LFS received some of these cool blobs, they look very interesting and are kind of cute in a weird way. not planning on getting one, but thought id share a pic

they were called Blue spot sea hare if i recall correctly.

 

[eggplantparrot]

i think im doing something right, as my goniopora has grown over the cut in its skeleton

the area with the new growth used to be just a vertical cut. you can see a bunch of new polyps forming!

 

[eggplantparrot]

my constellation mini colony is opening again!!!! it was the first zoa to show signs of zoa pox.

it is even growing onto the shell

 

[eggplantparrot]

cyphastrea is also growing quite rapidly onto my rock structure