Office 40 Gallon AIO

unchaotic · Dec 30, 2021

muzikalmatt said:
You could try some zoanthids or maybe a montipora or something. I have a pretty good mat of gorilla nipples zoas growing on the back of my tank.

I'm considering montiporas. I'm buying a Nero5 from a local reefer soon and I'm going to probably have to change the aquascape placement after I figure out the flow pattern. Seems like montis always have pods crawling under them and I want to boost their population in hopes of getting a Mandarin in the tank.

unchaotic · Jan 6, 2022

Made some changes yesterday. Cleaned a lot of the detritus from the bottom. (I can't believe I'd never thought to use the flow from the return to start a siphon before.) The gyre has been replaced by a Nero5 which will be super convenient after I replace the Ocean Revive with my Hydra 32. The new powerhead forced me to rearrange things to work better with the flow. I kept the Nero up high to try to keep most of the flow up where the SPS is located.
The red/orange monti continues to improve and I'm hoping it will get back to its original color. I have a jedi mind trick in my tank at home that is also rebounding, although now it's polyps are neon orange. It's definitely interesting to see the differences the light settings can cause.

unchaotic · Jan 12, 2022

A couple pics from yesterday. I should have cleaned the glass a little lower for clearer coral pics.

unchaotic · Feb 22, 2022

I added an emerald crab a few weeks ago, and this is his amazing molt. I didn't know they could get so much bigger with only one molt, it's like something out of a sci-fi horror movie. He's easily 2-3 times his previous size and still eating like he's got bigger things in mind.

unchaotic · Mar 4, 2022

Daredevil tightrope walker.

unchaotic · Mar 8, 2022

Added some more SPS cuz I have no self control.

unchaotic · Mar 29, 2022

I'll post somewhere else to try to get more attention than this probably will here.

I'm not sure what this SPS is called. I dropped it when I was cutting the plug stem off and it broke into half a dozen pieces. Since then it has started encrusting and growing pretty quickly. Pinkish skin and light blue polyps. I'm sure it's nothing exotic but I have no idea what to call it.

unchaotic · Apr 3, 2022

Huge stomatella snail randomly showed up in the tank ... now I want more of them.

unchaotic · Apr 11, 2022

Who wore it better?

Toob · Apr 19, 2022

Hey - stumbled in here after a comment you made in Roberto’s thread about how you made a build thread that would mimic his. Did you end up doing that?

unchaotic · Apr 19, 2022

Toob said:
Hey - stumbled in here after a comment you made in Roberto’s thread about how you made a build thread that would mimic his. Did you end up doing that?

This tank is my attempt. It definitely looks less fancy as an AIO with a black bottom (I really wish I had painted the bottom white like he does.)

While I wouldn't claim to be nearly as successful at this as him, I did skip cycling the tank, I have never had detectable Nitrites or Nitrates in over 6 months, and I have a lot of corals including about a dozen SPS (some of which are growing pretty nicely).

Toob · Apr 20, 2022

unchaotic said:
This tank is my attempt. It definitely looks less fancy as an AIO with a black bottom (I really wish I had painted the bottom white like he does.)

While I wouldn't claim to be nearly as successful at this as him, I did skip cycling the tank, I have never had detectable Nitrites or Nitrates in over 6 months, and I have a lot of corals including about a dozen SPS (some of which are growing pretty nicely).

Awesome, thanks for getting back to me. Wasn't sure since I saw your comment about dosing ammonia - I don't believe Roberto did this, did you do this because you added coral before fish (whereas he added the fish first)?

Did you successfully skip the ugly phase - any other algae popping up yet? Did you dose bacteria (or introduce anything established to the system besides the coral frags)? Any chaeto or pods? Guessing not given the size, but it seemed that was an important part of Roberto's method as well.

Also - what is the black, cylindrical thing with a dome?

Anyway sorry for all the questions - pretty new to the hobby myself (have a 4 month old Reefer170 that is doing great so far, but want to startup my 525xl using the Roberto approach). Very interested in how this goes for you, as I will be starting the journey myself in a couple of weeks.

unchaotic · Apr 20, 2022

Toob said:
Awesome, thanks for getting back to me. Wasn't sure since I saw your comment about dosing ammonia - I don't believe Roberto did this, did you do this because you added coral before fish (whereas he added the fish first)?

Did you successfully skip the ugly phase - any other algae popping up yet? Did you dose bacteria (or introduce anything established to the system besides the coral frags)? Any chaeto or pods? Guessing not given the size, but it seemed that was an important part of Roberto's method as well.

Also - what is the black, cylindrical thing with a dome?

Anyway sorry for all the questions - pretty new to the hobby myself (have a 4 month old Reefer170 that is doing great so far, but want to startup my 525xl using the Roberto approach). Very interested in how this goes for you, as I will be starting the journey myself in a couple of weeks.

I still kick myself for my first ammonia dosing. I meant to simply put enough in to act as food for the first corals but without even thinking about it I dumped in enough to cycle the tank. I added first caulerpa then chaeto to help drag those ammonia levels back down. I think a lot of my early algae issues were caused by that mistake.

Roberto doesn't dose ammonia but he told me that he ghost feeds new tanks if he hasn't added fish yet.

White dead rock, no sand, no bacteria. Chaeto in DIY refugium baskets in the back at least until the corals start eating up more nutrients. It just feels safer to me to have that in place to avoid any ammonia spikes. Thanks to my early mishap I can't say for sure if I would have avoided an ugly phase, because I did have some wispy hair algae growth, but my rocks are still mostly white 6-7 months later. An emerald crab and a tuxedo urchin have the algae held in check now. I have also spotted a little bit of bubble algae but I assume the emerald crab will discover those eventually.

The cylinder is an Oxydator. It holds a peroxide mixture with a catalyst that supposedly breaks it down into water and oxygen. A lot of Europeans seem really fond of them and claim they have many benefits. I can't speak to them one way or the other, but I don't mind the look of them so they get to stay, lol.

unchaotic · Sep 22, 2022

Did a post elsewhere looking for some stocking recommendations. Currently contemplating adding a Springeri Damsel or 6-Stripe Wrasse.

Rham1281 · Nov 23, 2022

unchaotic said:
Added some more SPS cuz I have no self control.
View attachment 2580739

There's always room for more SPS!!

unchaotic · Nov 23, 2022

Over one year update pics. GSP is growing great, moved the zoa garden to a different tank as they never really did anything in here. Dosing Alk on top of AFR and finally holding it steady.