38g Icecap aio…. 1.5 years in the making

[reef’r]

Long winded story time, thanks in advance for those that make it to the end

So I’ve been trying to get a reef tank going for about a year and a half. Back and forth between full speed ahead with my previous setup which was a 60g cube, drilled, with a sump to thinking I don’t have the time for the hobby and trying to sell everything off, to then thinking I was going to just do a 20 gallon long because it would be “easier” I walked into one of my lfs and seen this 38g ice cap aio sitting there. Not a ton out there on these tanks but from my experience with this one so far they are really nice and at a great price. 8mm low iron glass all the way around, black silicon seams, sock chamber, nice sized secondary filtration section (undecided what I will do here just yet) and of course the return section fill out the aio compartments. Tank is sitting on the stand I built for my 60 cube which is 36” high and with the 20” tank height it has a really nice look to it.

(Please ignore missing switch plate covers, wall was just painted lol) tank will be run with a radion xr15 g6 pro. Tank is 24x24x20 and would think it would cover anything I’d like to add to this tank. If not I think adding some blades would be the route I’d go, if not another radion.

Now onto the aquascape…. Substrate is media from two little fishies, it’s large sized crushed coral and I got the idea from a lot of the tanks running over at World Wide Corals which is my lfs. Besides really liking the look of it, being crushed coral the goal is to have it covered up in coralline and also allow a place for corals to grow other than just the rock work, which brings us to the next point. I wanted to keep the rock work minimal in the sense I didn’t want to have just a giant blob of rocks in the tank making maintenance a pain and also instead of having a lot of smaller corals in the tank I really prefer a tank with lesser corals but much bigger colonies. But maybe I went too basic with the rock work? Too minimalist? I’m going to buy a few pieces of live rock to cycle the tank so will add them in but my only concern with what I currently have is enough space for corals. Going back to the substrate. Things like Zoas and mushrooms, and acans can all grow directly on it not really needing to be attached to the rocks which does free up a lot of space for other things, but still want some opinions.

Anyhow figured that’s plenty for one post, will add to this thread later with some more of the equipment and plans for tank

 

[reef’r]

Edit*** after making the post and looking at the pics posted of the rock work it’s really kind of hard to tell all that’s going on. I’ll take some better pics later and update

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[reef’r]

Few more pics of the aqua scape, not sure if they’re any better. Would like input here, plan for tank is soft corals, chalices, some LPS, montipora guess you could say a mixed reef just not a huge stick head. So with that in mind do I have enough here? I see Zoas and clove polys growing on the substrate maybe even mounting chalices to a frag tile and letting them sprawl out across the substrate, leathers, hammers, montis when the time is right, gonis and torches on the rock. Thoughts??

 

[manny826]

I ordered the same tank, it’s been out of stock and now I’m waiting for them to come out with the stand for it, supposedly when they come back in stock they will have the stands with them. And I believe the dimensions are 24x24x16. I love the look of the media as a substrate, I was thinking the same thing but think I’m going with bare bottom with some caribsea frag zone rocks.

 

[Katrina71]

I think it looks great! The substrate is awesome.

 

[reef’r]

I think it looks great! The substrate is awesome.

Thanks! I added some live rock to it and was super lucky to find a big piece covered in coralline algea! Put it in the center to cover up the big tunnel in the center and kind of make it more like a cave

 

[reef’r]

I ordered the same tank, it’s been out of stock and now I’m waiting for them to come out with the stand for it, supposedly when they come back in stock they will have the stands with them. And I believe the dimensions are 24x24x16. I love the look of the media as a substrate, I was thinking the same thing but think I’m going with bare bottom with some caribsea frag zone rocks.

Nice! It’s a sweet little tank for sure. I also love the media but am a little bummed about the animals I can’t keep because of it, certain wrasses and CUC members. But it definitely looks awesome and allows for whatever flow needs I may come across without worrying about blowing sand around, which with bare bottom won’t be an issue of yours either

 

[reef’r]

In an effort to stay on top of this build thread, got another cycling question. Even though I’m new to reefing I’ve been in the aquarium game for two years now, running several successful freshwater system. I’ve never really waited out a “cycle” I’ve always added fish flow and dealt with anything (like high ammonia) with water changes and I’ve had no issues. My tank has been running about 2 weeks, one week in I added 7-8lbs of live rock, the biggest being a 6lbs piece covered in coralline. Tank has been running again for another week with the live rock, and has two hermit crabs in it. I’ve dosed a half dose of phyto once and have dropped in a couple pinch’s of fish food for the crab. Tested all parameters and had zero ammonia, zero nitrate, confirmed by bringing a water sample to my local lfs. Anyone have any thought or opinions? Keep waiting until I get a reading of something g or go ahead and add two clowns?

 

[manny826]

my opinion I would get dr tims ammonia bottle and keep dosing that along with some bacteria and just keep testing. All you need to test for is ammonia and nitrates. I cycled my tank for 3 months and still had an algae out break and Dino’s with just two fish and a few frags. The less stuff you have in the tank the easier it is to deal with stuff I think.

 

[reef’r]

Been about a week and a half since my last post. I’ve since added two clowns, two peppermint shrimp, a lawnmower blenny, and an emerald crab that came in a piece of live rock but unfortunately he passed after a couple days, was thinking maybe the hermit killed him? Everything is doing awesome so far and did another full round of testing yesterday. All parameters are within range all though slightly higher than my last test. I did however raise SG as it was low and also I’m having a bit of trouble from my heater, it’s not wanting to make setpoint, I think it’s too small. My Mag was low going from 1380 to 1140? Not sure what could have caused that but I have 5 gallons of saltwater mixed up and will be doing the tanks first water change tonight when I get home and will take and add some pics. Went to a lfs yesterday in hopes to grab a small Zoa frag to drop in but I felt they were expensive for what they had that’s how I ended up with the blenny and 2 shrimp lol anyhow things are going good so far! Everybody happy and eating well

 

[reef’r]

So I came home today to some nice cloudy water! Turned the lights on yesterday, they are on a six hour schedule only running at 25%, I attribute the bloom to my heavy handed feeding… kept it simple with the pellets but the past couple days I discovered frozen food lol so I’ll cut back on the feeding, going to continue with the maintenance tonight as planned, scrub the glass, change 10% and add a bag of chemi-pure. Here’s a couple pics as promised! Loving things so far and excited to watch as the tank matures!

hard to tell but the third pic is my lawnmower blenny, he’s awesome! Can’t wait to watch him grow. Is it possible to keep two blenny in a tank? I’d like to get a starry night as well

 

[reef’r]

Come on folks join in! Anybody with an aio can join in on the convo I want this thread to not only document my tank but be a place people can come and get all kinds of info about starting up a new tank and share there experiences and pics!!!! Bump it up!!!!

 

[reef’r]

Update! Added the tanks first two corals and made some real beginner mistakes. The single headed utter chaos frag was nice and open yesterday (first 24 hours in the tank) but looks like I may have killed the Favia… we’ll see and I’m really hoping it pulls through. The Bac. Bloom is still lingering around. Doing a 10% water change and adding a bag of chemipure didn’t really seem to put a dent in it how ever I FINALLY tested yesterday and got a nitrate reading, so I’m super stoked about that! Even had my beautiful girl friend hold up the test so I could snap a pic lol all tank inhabitants are doing well and I was worried about the blenny not eating but I’ve seen him munching on the live rock so I’m super happy about that as well!! Thinking I may let the tank simmer here for a while before adding anything else unless I come across a very small tamini or Kole tang. RAP Orlando is in three weeks and that’s probably when I will get some good stock for the tank

 

[reef’r]

Added a chalice, tailspot blenny, dotty back and 15 mixed CUC. Things are going well, do have a little bit of diatoms but nothing serious and seems to be staying contained and not running rampant so I’m going to let it run its course. The two blennys are giving each other a little grief I’m hoping it’s short lived and they figure things out. My utter chaos looks awesome even as a single polyp, really hoping to see some growth soon as well as the chalice. Did take a couple pics but also wanting to step up my photography skills

 

[Cchamberland]

Following. I have the 20 gallon version of this tank and love it. I wish the filtration was a little better, but other than that I'm satisfied.

This after it finished cycling and I added the 2 clowns and before coral.

 

[reef’r]

Following. I have the 20 gallon version of this tank and love it. I wish the filtration was a little better, but other than that I'm satisfied.

This after it finished cycling and I added the 2 clowns and before coral.

Heck yeh post up some recent pics to the thread. I will make an update after RAP this weekend. Where did you get the lid? And yes I agree the filtration is definitely lacking and unfortunately cannot run heaters in the return section. I grabbed an aquamaxx skimmer from BRS during the 50% off sale, my plan is to remove filter sock, put heaters in first chamber and skimmer in the middle also running chemi-pure which I aim to keep. If the need arises I will just put filter floss in the overflow section above heaters

 

[Cchamberland]

Heck yeh post up some recent pics to the thread. I will make an update after RAP this weekend. Where did you get the lid? And yes I agree the filtration is definitely lacking and unfortunately cannot run heaters in the return section. I grabbed an aquamaxx skimmer from BRS during the 50% off sale, my plan is to remove filter sock, put heaters in first chamber and skimmer in the middle also running chemi-pure which I aim to keep. If the need arises I will just put filter floss in the overflow section above heaters

I have a heater and an Icecap bio-plate in the middle section along with a Coralife biocube skimmer (which I'm not a fan of and replacing soon) and chemipure elite, and everything works fine with that setup. The return pump chamber only has the pump.

Definitely keep the filter sock in though. I put some filter pad on top of it in that first chamber which helps, but they both get dirty quickly and I swap out the sock daily, and the filter pad twice a day.

edit: Forgot to add that I made the lid with a window screen kit. Cost less than $20 and works perfectly.

 

[reef’r]

Been about 1.5 months so figured I’d update. Tank went through diotoms, then Dino’s and a gnarly green stage and his come out of those. Still running a reduced photo period, but have bumped N03 to 25 which seems to be holding steady and holding the Dino’s at bay. I’ve added quit a lot and also had my first death, my convict tang. Other than that everything is doing great, haven’t done a water change in probably a month all params are staying very stable and I think doing the 5g a week was just to much which caused nutrients bottoming out and Dino’s making an appearance. Now that the green is going away hopefully it’s soon replaced with some coralline growth, I haven’t noticed any in the tank yet.

Pics

 

[reef’r]

Been four months since an update here and I’d like to get back on track with updating this thread. The tank has seen quite some changes over those four months, although new livestock additions have been at a very minimum. I had one of my clownfish and my tailspot blenny both jump into the return section of the tank, I thought they died and I just couldn’t find them however I never seen a bump in nutrients…. Then one day doing tank maintenance I see them swimming in the return pump section! I scooped out the clownfish but left the blenny as I was contemplating on what to do with him, my lawnmower blenny was really aggressive towards him which caused the jump. The next day I found my clown dead, decided to pull the blenny out and keep him and same thing, very next day I found him sucked into the back side of my wave maker. I thought both of those Instances were really strange. I also added two damsels one of which is a huge jerk and I believe the culprit to killing my clown however I can’t catch him, I’d like to add some more fish to the tank and if he continues with the artifice I will be me intrusive in my removal methods. Anyhow although live stock additions have been slow (other than two hammers) I have made some significant equipment changes which I will outline later on as this post has already ran long… here’s some pics