IM 60g AIO - Build thread for 'common as muck' tank

[LeonardTheWrasse]

This is a downsize from the Waterbox 100.3 I had running previously. I had pretty much constant issues with that tank, and am starting over now.

The plan for this tank is to stock it with livestock that are so common they get overlooked (at least down in Australia), for rarer, more expensive, or 'designer' options.
I've been seeing this a lot in the past couple years both in freshwater and saltwater, so I'm intentionally stocking this tank with common and overlooked (and hopefully cheaper...) livestock to show that you don't need the uncommon to have a amazing reef ecosystem.
I also find it interesting how many of the common animals at LFSs are difficult to expert level in their care needs. This is shown in fish such as sand sifting gobies, leopard wrasse, dragonets, etc, and corals like suns and dendros.

The most common fish I have in my tank, and have had for almost 5 months now is my gold head sleeper goby.
When I see these at the store, people only really get them to clean their sandbeds (shouldn't do that, they need a lot more care than that).
But they have very interesting behaviour and appearance, that I feel like it's easy to overlook them because of how common they are, however whenever people see my tank, that's the first fish they comment on.


My current fish list:
- Gold head sleeper goby
- Meleagris leopard wrasse x2
- Spotted mandarin dragonet

Final fish list:
- Gold head sleeper goby
- Meleagris leopard wrasse x2
- Spotted mandarin dragonet pair
- Skunk clownfish pair, pink or orange
- Red spotted blenny
- Canary top wrasse
- Saltwater acclimated mollies

Planned coral additions:
Plating montipora
Galaxea branching
Birdsnest coral
Sun coral
Christmas tree worms
Fox coral
Bubble coral
Poccilopora
Photosynthetic gorgonian
Frogspawn
Clove polyps

Invertebrate list (to start, will adjust as needed):
- Trochus snails x5
- Astrea snails x5
- Nassarius snails x5
- Tuxedo urchin

Thanks for visiting my build thread, hope it'll be an interesting read.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Images of my current fish, ignore the low quality.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Over the weekend I removed the pair of ocellaris clownfish that I previously had due to extreme aggression.
The gold head sleeper goby's tail and fins are regrowing nicely after the attacks.

Juvenile meleagris leopard wrasse and male spotted mandarin dragonet purchased on 16/03/2024

I also had the chance to pick up an incredibly small juvenile meleagris leopard wrasse that I'm keeping in the tank temporarily. She wasn't doing well in the store's medicated tanks.
I know having multiple leopards of the same species in a smaller tank isn't ideal, but this is just to get her to acclimate to captivity.
This addition is having the desired affect on my adult meleagris leopard though, she is now definitely transitioning.

I bought a male spotted mandarin dragonet then as well, he's eating frozen mysis, brine and lobster eggs, as well as the live baby brine shrimp and grindal worms I've been culturing.
Do spotted mandarins bury themselves? I've read that the scooter dragonets will, but that the mandarins don't tend to. I've turned the tank lights on both days now, and he's been covered in sand.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Unfortunately I lost the juvenile meleagris leopard wrasse on 23/03/2024.
It stopped eating, and was unable to bury itself.

In better news, my PO4 level has now dropped to 0.08, which is the lowest it's been in this tank.
I'm planning on introducing some new corals soon, because the levels are finally lowering.

I got a morph rock with some kenya trees on 23/03/2024 as well as the first corals added to the tank.
While cutting the morph rock at the LFS I work at, I found a pistol shrimp hiding inside the rock.

The next fish additions will be a canary top wrasse, and some saltwater acclimated mollies.

 

[Fishy Guy]

Following along. I would love one of those SR60s! Curious what problems you had in the last tank?

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Following along. I would love one of those SR60s! Curious what problems you had in the last tank?

I had issues with phosphate, no matter what I did it wouldn't drop below 0.5ppm, so I wasn't able to keep any coral alive.
Not really a problem, but just annoying, the tank was a bit of a strange size, it was really deep for the width/length of the tank, so it was difficult to aquascape and make it look good.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

I introduced a red spotted blenny recently, however my leopard wrasse attacked and killed it.
It has also been going after the other established fish in the tank, so I think I will be rehoming it.

Yesterday I picked up a blue mini maxi anemone. It's on a rock that's about 30cm all round, and is covered in red dragon's breath macroalgae, sea grass, sponges and some feather dusters.

When I was rearranging the tank for the anemone rock, I found a clam that was part of a rock of mushroom corals.
It is in surprisingly good shape, and I will be cutting the mushrooms away and moving the clam to a better spot when I get home today.

I'm planning on getting an porcelain anemone crab to host the anemone.

The next fish additions will be a small halichoeres wrasse (not decided on which one I want. In a toss up between canary top, timor, biocellatus)
Also thinking of some yellow clown gobies to add some tiny characters into the tank.