A Clown's Reef, Waterbox AIO 35.2g

Clo · Jun 21, 2021

UV sterilizer arrived. Just set it up. Will provide progress photos and updates in the coming weeks.
I also managed to blow out an outlet and all the electrical circuits to the master bedroom yesterday. I got in trouble, but the handyman was able to fix it today.

A reminder to be careful yall.

Clo · Jun 22, 2021

Oops. Put the UV sterilizer in the tank but never turned it on. It was just sitting in there for 7 hours for no reason. Lets try this again with the sterilizer actually running now.

It was wider than I expected, so I had to hang it in the return area of my AIO sump. I did have to shift my AI prime's gooseneck to make enough room. This weekend I'm going to try and move the heaters so that they're hanging off the wall shared with the DT area, and hang the UV off the inside wall so that I can center the AI prime again.

Clo · Jun 23, 2021

UV sterilizer doing god’s work in my tank. Progress photo about 30 hours in.

I think it will be completely clear come another 24-48 hours. I have it set it a lower rate on the UV to reduce some noise.

Clo · Jun 25, 2021

Water is crystal clear now.
Tank is officially in the ugly stages.

Good progression. Photo in the morning

Will probably go to LFS today for some corals!

Clo · Jun 25, 2021

Where I stand now with the cloudy water problem. No longer a problem basically

Midas blenny is also doing very well.

MONTANTK · Jun 25, 2021

littleclown said:
Water still cloudy AF today.

Did a 24% water change like 3 days ago. Thinking of doing another 20% water change. I'm learning I really need to get a RODI booster pump, and that I need an actual mixing bucket. I knew my psi was low for my RODI, but I didn't realize how much of a problem it was until I needed water and it takes a while to make water. I've been using 1 gallon jugs and just shaking the mix and letting it sit for a hour or so to make sure it's fully mixed, but it's taking too long to make water for situations like this. Thought about going to the LFS to buy some salt water BUT we're about to get a tropical storm (raining hard) and I don't have containers to lug water in so catch 22 .

I did finally come in contact with a shop in FL who had an Innovative Marine Auqashield 10w UV sterilizer with the intake pump attached at the bottom in stock, so ordered that and hopefully it'll be here over the weekend or early next week so I can get it set up. I chose that over the AQUA HOB UV because I have carpet only floors and didn't want to risk equipment that would increase my risk of a possible leak and related water damage.

On the bright side, hammer and rock nems seem to be very happy still, and I actually think my hammer is in the process of developing a new head?!

Midas blenny came in Wednesday, he was very shy, but he found himself a nice little cave, so he's been kicking up sand everywhere and has finally started coming out to swim from time to time. He's also eaten today which is a REALLY good sign.

Goals going forward are:

1. More stable water params
2. Get my water making situation figured out.
3. GHL controller set up for redundancy, monitoring consistency, and more control
4. Mature the tank, get coralline growth before adding any other fish

And lastly, tank officially hit 30 days old today so we hit our first time based milepost which is kinda nice.

What shop had that UV Sterilizer?? I have been looking everywhere

Clo · Jun 25, 2021

MONTANTK said:
What shop had that UV Sterilizer?? I have been looking everywhere

The shop is called Ocean Reef Pets located in Neptune Beach, FL.
I would call them and ask, because I may have purchased the last one in their store. However, when I emailed innovative marine, they said they did plan to restock sometime in the fall!

Clo · Jun 25, 2021

No possum wrasse in my local fish store, but I did find one in Huntersville, NC!

They'll be holding it for me over the weekend, and then I'll pay Monday to have it overnighted to me. I'm very excited. Look at this cutie that will be joining me in my little tank soon

ramona · Jun 25, 2021

How does the Tunze 9004 skimmer fit in the sump? if I may ask.

Clo · Jun 25, 2021

ramona said:
How does the Tunze 9004 skimmer fit in the sump? if I may ask.

Perfectly without any issues.
Hardest part for me was getting it in the right height with the water level since the compartment fit makes for poor visibility

Clo · Jul 2, 2021

Haven't been update cuz I'm busy working a stretch of 6 shifts over 7 days. But, they pushed me back this morning so I have some time for a couple hours.

Tuesday, around 10:30, my white banded possum wrasse delivered. He was really stressed, barely moving. He kept floating towards the bottom of the bag with his mouth down and tail up at a 45-60 degree angle. I was really anxious, so I tried to acclimate him as quickly as possible without stressing him further and put him in an acclimation box in my tank. Let him sit for a couple hours in that to make sure he didn't belly up and just decided to let him loose in my tank.

He went into my big piece of live rock, and I pretty much have not seen him since then. At this point, I don't know if he's alive or not, but based on how my snails have not congregated into the rock, I'm assuming it's still alive. I'll give it some time considering my Midas blenny took a week just to start swimming in the open, I can assuming something cryptic like the possum wrasse will take much longer.

I do plan to test for ammonia in a little bit just to be safe.

He's really cute, and I hope it acclimates well. It has these big ole intelligent looking eyes that I love. :<

Aside from that, today, my porcelain crab finally found the rock anemone and is now having the time of his life filter feeding in the open.

I ordered a proper mixing container, and I plan to hook up my booster pump so I can get to mixing some salt water more easily in the future

I also took advance of the Marine Depot liquidation sale to stock up on additional RODI filters.

Clo · Jul 2, 2021

I forgot to mention, I ordered:

Aphrodite zoa
Pandora
WWC sunfire red/green monti

Excited to have my first SPS, and hopefully I don't kill it.

Clo · Jul 2, 2021

I forgot to update, I put in some ArcReef Purple Helix Coralline Algae in June 9.

Today is July 2, def seeing some small patches of coralline algae growth. I'd say it's a pretty useful product. And yes, why bother paying if you get coralline anyways, but I wanted to try it out because some people said it also worked for them in jump starting the process to tank maturation.

Yes, money does not solve all problems.

Yes, money does make some things more convenient.

Overall,

10/10 recommend the AR Purple Helix product. Follow the instructions, check your parameters.

Clo · Jul 9, 2021

Goodies from the Marine Depot liquidation sale arrived today, including a much needed second 5 gallon bucket for mixing salt for water changes and a cheapie powerhead for easy mixing.

It's been exactly a week since I added the white banded possum wrasse, and I have not seen him at all.

It may be hiding in the big rock because there's no way for me to pull it out to check (I could but I won't), and I haven't seen him out at night either. I'm going to consider him a loss. Kinda sad over this one because I really loved the look of a white banded.

So, I guess he will be my first fish loss since entry into the reef hobby.

Honestly, I didn't have very high hopes that it would live because even when I got him out of the shipment bag, he seemed very stressed and kept floating nose down tail first a lot. My ammonia has not spike though, so who knows. I have not bothered to contact the shop for a refund because I have the feeling it's too late at this point, and I think most require a photo of the body and I am not tearing up my rockwork to find his body. e.o

Yesterday, I did go to the LFS and they had a yellow banded so I picked him up as a consolation prize for myself. It was very shy for the first few hours, but now he's swimming around in the open and eating frozen mysis and flake food so I have a good feeling about this one already. Will include some photos when my dslr finishes charging.

Aside from that, I harvest my first batch of chaeto out the reactor today!

Chaeto was put in 2.5 weeks ago at a tennis ball size, I pulled out a huge mass, and left a slightly smaller than tennis ball size amount in the reactor. Overall, it was pretty weirdly rewarding to know that I was able to get my first batch of chaeto grown without killing it. It's probably 4-5 inches tall off the foam lol.

Clo · Jul 11, 2021

Tank did fine for the 2 days I was away. However, I will need to get a fan. Temperature is sitting at 81 degrees with both my heaters unplugged and AC set to 75.

Aside from that, yellow banded possum wrasse is doing good. He's been swimming out in the open, picking pods off the glass and slowly acclimating to his new tank. It was going great until the lights when out, and I saw that my pygmy angel fish (c. flauvicada) was actively chasing down and nipping at my wrasse to the point that my wrasse was laying against the overflow grates to escape from the angel.

Somehow managed to catch the angel with minimal stress by trapping him in one of my magnetic caves with a clear plastic cup and dumped him into an acclimation box. After asking around, I think the consensus is that the angelfish just needs to go back. I may try again later, or I may just not bother with an angel in a small tank and just roll with what I have now.

While I like the angelfish, I like my possum wrasse more. Will try to see if I can go tomorrow to the LFS and see what they can do for him.

Clo · Jul 14, 2021

Still haven't hooked up my booster pump to my RODI, I'm such a bad egg.

Haven't done a water change in 2.5 weeks, and my tank desperately needs it. Plan to do so as soon as I finish writing this paper that's due tonight, and I will hopefully get the booster pump all hooked up.

Aside from that, my REEFTIDE order came in today after being delayed a few days.

Everything is in excellent condition, and already opening up after just 30 minutes in the tank. RT also included a free t-shirt, some stickers, and an extra frag (Lucky Charms Zoa) to make up for the shipping error. Overall very pleased, and I definitely plan to order from them again sometime soon.

I will add photos of the frags later.

dvgyfresh · Jul 14, 2021

Just read through and awesome journey! Your tank is coming up nicely much cleaner / researched then when I first started last year lol sorry about the missing wrasse, I just lost a baby fox face, I think it was chemical catching related because he was eating fine / swimming but then just dead the next day after buying from lfs (2nd fish to die from same store , same way ) but gotta keep going forward

Clo · Jul 14, 2021

dvgyfresh said:
Just read through and awesome journey! Your tank is coming up nicely much cleaner / researched then when I first started last year lol sorry about the missing wrasse, I just lost a baby fox face, I think it was chemical catching related because he was eating fine / swimming but then just dead the next day after buying from lfs (2nd fish to die from same store , same way ) but gotta keep going forward

Aw thank you! I definitely see some new tanks that more experienced members start up and it makes me feel certain feelings of inadequacy. I didn't know you could buy gulf live rock for starting?!

But, I'm enjoying the journey all the same. I think if I didn't have some background in fish tanks at all, it would be much more mistake prone and messy.

I can't wait to have the space for a much larger tank in a few years so that I can have some larger (more iconic) varieties of fish.

Luckily, the fish from my LFS have been extremely hardy. Based on what I read, possum wrasse can be fragile, so I ordered it knowing I would be taking a gamble having it shipped from another state. I'm hoping it shows its face in 3 months time to make me eat my words, but if it doesn't, it is what it is.

Yes, I'm definitely taking steps forwards and keeping notes so that my next tank will be even bigger and better.

dvgyfresh · Jul 14, 2021

Clo said:
Aw thank you! I definitely see some new tanks that more experienced members start up and it makes me feel certain feelings of inadequacy. I didn't know you could buy gulf live rock for starting?!

But, I'm enjoying the journey all the same. I think if I didn't have some background in fish tanks at all, it would be much more mistake prone and messy.

I can't wait to have the space for a much larger tank in a few years so that I can have some larger (more iconic) varieties of fish. Luckily, the fish from my LFS have been extremely hardy. Based on what I read, possum wrasse can be fragile, so I ordered it knowing I would be taking a gamble having it shipped from another state. I'm hoping it shows its face in 3 months time to make me eat my words, but if it doesn't, it is what it is.

Yes, I'm definitely taking steps forwards and keeping notes so that my next tank will be even bigger and better.

Happy to hear it’s all going well! Definitely going bigger as well when I am able to lol gotta feed the addiction