One year in! IM 20 Peninsula Mixed Build

aciak · Jan 1, 2024

Hello fellow reefers! I started keeping freshwater tanks 3 years ago and last December decided to make the dip into salt! I’ll start with the pics to show you the progression since that’s way more fun to start than reading about my journey first. I documented a ton of stuff. Great hobby. Super fun. So much learned and sooo much more to learn! Where do I go from here? It’s about time to add fish back (more on that below) and I’m going to get rid of a few beginner corals to make space for others I’ve been eyeing to get.

December 5 2022:

March 14 2023:

May 29 2023:

September 1 2023:

December 7 2023:

Comparison Dec ‘22 vs. Dec ‘23:

Other pics:

Thrill of Victory:

The ugly stage wasn’t… that bad. I think dosing Microbacter Clean on a consistent basis helped. Went thru the normal diatoms, bit of green hair algae, bit of cyano, etc. I also didn’t turn on the light for the first three months.
I haven’t lost a single coral! That’s a win in my book since this is my first journey into keeping a reef tank.
The corals seem to be growing at a healthy rate! Euphyllia are splitting heads, Blasto polyps are multiplying, mushrooms are splitting - all fun things to watch this past year!
I followed a proper dipping procedure for the corals, and I think that helped a TON with minimizing pests, bad algae, etc. I did have a bit of aptasia (all gone now, love F Aptasia), a bit of bubble algae (all gone and not much, picked ‘em off frag plugs) a bit of bryopsis (barely any, primary shows on the RFG from time to time)
Stable parameters, although always evolving, I feel are finally consistent and dialed in well.

Agony of Defeat:

Did not quarantine fish when I bought them in March & June. Paid the price in July with a velvet outbreak that killed a royal gramma and clown in a matter of days. Lesson learned: ALWAYS QUARANTINE! Tank has been fallow since then.
Accidentally bought a beer refractometer when I started the tank. Didn’t realize it till right before I added the clown in March. Quickly bought the correct refractometer and dialed in proper salinity.
Was out for a 2.5 week vacation to Europe in September. Had a webcam on the tank and someone to drop by the house to check on the tank every couple days. The ATO, for some reason, topped off to the VERY top. I think the trochus parked itself on the water intake slats and caused the ATO sensor to think the water level was low.
Was out for 1 week on another vacation last month. Checked the Inkbird app for temp before I went to bed. It was good. Woke up the next morning and the temp dipped to 62 degrees. Not sure why. Fixed it by turning the controller off then back on. The temp slowly returned back to proper range.
I recently checked the lens on the AI Prime. Lo and behold, it’s melted on the UV LED. They sent me 2 lenses for free. Going to turn down the UV slowly to hopefully prevent this from happening again.

Dry/Equipment:

Tank - IM 20 Gallon Peninsula
Cover: IM Tank Cover Kit
Return - MightyJet 326 + VCA RFG
Light - AI Prime 16HD + 3D Reefing Diffuser
Wavemaker - Jebao SLW 10 x2
Heater - BRS 100w Element + Inkbird Controller
Filtration: InTank Media Basket

Top Chamber: Filter Floss
Mid Chamber: BioBalls
Bottom Chamber: Carbon

ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3152 Nano
Rock: 20 lbs. Real Reef Rock
Sand: CaribSea Ocean Direct
RODI: BRS 4-Stage
Salt: Tropic Marin Pro
Dosing:

Kamoer X1 Pro 2
- Dosing All For Reef (currently 16ml/day)
Kamoer DP-4
- Dosing NeoNitro (2ml/day)
- Dosing Red Sea AB+ (3ml/3x/week)
By Hand
- 4 capfuls Microbacter Clean 1/wk after WC (been doing this since I started the tank)
- Photo lens:
- Orphek lens kit from Amazon

Feeding:

1/8 tsp Reef Roids 1/wk (target fed)
3ml/3x/wk Red Sea AB+

Livestock:

Inverts:
- 1 Trochus
- 5 Blue/Red Hermits
- 5 Ceriths
Fish:
- None right now, lost gramma & clown to velvet in July.
- Restocking in the Spring. Considering:
  - 1 - Firefish Goby
  - 1 - Tailspot Blenny
  - 1 - Yellow Clown Goby
  - 1 - Sixline Wrasse OR Clownfish OR Possum Wrasse
Corals: (mostly acquired from The Coral Farm in Holyoke MA, Capital Corals in Albany NY, Frag Farmer’s Market in CT, Granite State Corals in NH, and a few other friendly reefers who gave me frags for free). These were added, in no particular order, starting in March thru present day.
- Gold torch
- Yellow tip branching hammer
- Green/purple tip branching hammer
- Green frogspawn
- Red acan
- Duncan
- Some sort of green/blue’ish plating SPS
- Red plating monti
- Green plating monti
- Green ricordea mushroom
- Orange ricordea mushroom
- Red rhodactis mushroom
- Green rhodactis mushroom
- Red discosoma mushroom
- Unknown cyphastrea
- Meteor shower cyphastrea
- 3 types of blastos
- Green palys
- 3 types of zoas (can’t recall names)
- Green pocillopora
- Purple birdsnest
- Neon green candy cane
- Teal candy cane
- 2 types of gorgonians (can’t recall names)
- Neon green toadstool
- Devil’s finger toadstool
- Long polyp toadstool x2
- Potato chip pavona
- Clove polyp
- Rock flower anemone

Current Parameters:

Alk: 8.8-9.3
Phos: .05-.08
Nitrate: 10-15
Cal: 420-450
Mag: 1240-1260
pH: 8.0-8.2 (depending on time of day, season of the year)
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78.5-79

Routine:

Refill ATO every two weeks
10% WC every week (religiously)
Replace carbon 1/wk with WC
Switch out for clean filter floss every couple days’ish
Testing schedule: this has evolved over time, currently I test:
- Alk 1/wk (Hanna)
- Nitrate 1/wk (Red Sea)
- Phosphate 1/wk (Hanna)
- Calcium 1/mo (Red Sea)
- Magnesium 1/mo (Salifert)
- Salinity 1/mo
Dosed 4 jars of pods in June
Calibrate refractometer 1/mo
Clean wavemakers 3/yr