My first saltwater tank - mixed reef AIO in a 40 Breeder

shorediver · Aug 11, 2020

I've mostly left the tank alone since April, and I'm glad I have. The coraline has established itself all over my rock; some yellow tunicates and a red feather duster worm have appeared out of nowhere; the micro life is really thriving with tons of pods and hydroids; my snails and crabs seem to have found their niches and aren't really murdering each other too much; and my mushroom corals are splitting and spreading over a bit of the left hand rock.

Less good news is a growing number of aiptasias. More than I can conquer by hand. I am considering berghias.

Casualties to date include my large halloween hermit, Freddy, who just vanished one day. No sign of him anywhere. I wonder if he was molting and got eaten by something else. He was cool, I'm sad.

A couple weeks ago I finally added fish. Meet pasta and meatball, which are tank-born occelaris "gladiator" clowns. $5 more than regular occelaris but the only ones my LFS could claim were bred in captivity. Apparently too young to yet have established sexes, they are a surprising amount of fun to watch. They have clear personalities and are very interactive. My kids (who named them) love them, of course. At the same time I added Pinhead, a blue tuxedo urchin, with a view to having him conquer my moderate green hair algae infestation. So far he's been moving like he's eating it, but I am not seeing much reduction. Oh well; It's on the back and side glass, not the rocks, I don't really mind it.

JumboShrimp · Aug 11, 2020

Love the "less is good" philosophy. Very nice looking.

shorediver · Oct 26, 2020

Well the year is winding down and the only thing that's been spreading faster than the Virus That Shall Not Be Named is the aiptasia in my tank. Stuff has been _everywhere_. The big momma aip that I repeatedly killed with lemon juice injections finally disappeared, but not before it had seeded a billion little children all over the tank.

So I added 6 berghia nudibranchs from Reeftown in late September, and now all the aiptasias are gone. Not a one remains. The poor berghias are on the glass looking for more. I bought some more corals from my LFS (where all my aiptasia come from) in the hopes of feeding them a bit, but the tank remains clear.

What else... I still don't have a handle on my skimmer, which runs really wet despite being as far out of the water as it can go and only running at night on half power. The result is that I don't use it very often and the surface of the water is fairly nasty.

But the interesting stuff is what I've added:

Last weekend, some fish: three blue/green chromis and a small 6 line wrasse. An emerald crab, which I hope will keep a lid on my green bubble algae. And corals: a green star polyp, and a rock covered with zoas and palys

This weekend, after those corals and fish settled well, some more challenging stuff: a green leptoseris frag, an anonymous leather, a green/purple frogspawn/hammer, and a tiny frag of an encrusting red montispora with blue polyps.

Really happy with how this tank is turning out so far. Knock on wood...

shorediver · Mar 12, 2021

Okay update time, and it's not all good news.

The six line wrasse jumped the tank. I found her dead behind the tank a day after she vanished after searching for her when she didn't come out for food. I knew it was a risk, I didn't put a screen lid on the tank, and now she's paid the price

I say she, I have no idea. My kids named the fish "Zoe" so there you are.

My SPS didn't make it. Best guess is alkalinity too high, probably from the live rock still leaching.

And then there was the cyanobacteria outbreak. Oh my. It started when, on the advice of my LFS, I removed the skimmer, since nutrients were at a flat zero and not helping anything. My little tiny montipora frag had died. After I disabled the skimmer, nutrients crept up and the tank was happy. Then the red fuzz began to grow. It took over the tank in about a week. Phosphates were too high. I added a mechanical filter, and within 36 hours the cynano had vanished. I wasn't expecting that, it remains a mystery, but the coral seems happier and I'm pleased to have got that without adding chemicals.

LPS and softies are growing well though. The GSP in particular is growing at a heck of a pace. Coraline continues to spread. As does the aiptasia... Once it warms up, I'll get some more berghias as they did a banging job last time.