PandoraChalk's 14 Gallon Aqueon Tank (Concluded due to tank failure)

[PandorasChalk]

Yeah, the zoas are reaching because of acclimation being turned on for the Ai. Under the old lights they stayed pretty close to the rock. Same with the cloves, they would usually be a bit further down. I'm just happy everything is open, the zoas were closed for over a month on average, with the green ones closed for two months during the worst of the dinos. The only corals that stayed open during the mess was the GSP (which is closed in the above pic because the snail had just ran over it) and the frogspawn. The big torch I had was open but it met a weird death right at the end.

 

[PandorasChalk]

Small update, corals are growing again. Noticed some pink coraline algae starting to pop up (see too pic + on some rock spots). I was waiting for it to show on my plastic but I guess it likes the frag plugs and rock better??

Dinos are a mess. They seem mostly fine but seem to come back onto rocks hard some days. Been siphoning out what I see daily which is helping as the overall # is going down.

 

[PandorasChalk]

I really love this…. Frammer? Frogspawn? I have no clue what it is. It’s really come a long way!

 

[PandorasChalk]

General Update

Tank is doing very well! I have been super busy with work, but the new light has helped my corals quite a bit. The UV is still putting in fantastic work against dinos, which seem to only show up every now and again. I'll go a week and see nothing but a few on the sand, then BAM slime for a day then back to nothing. Only preventatives I have been doing is blowing them off rocks and to the UV and on occasion dosing H2O2.

New Additions
A few weeks ago an LFS had a sexy shrimp and a mini-maxi carpet anemone for 20 dollars. My tank has really stabled out as of late so I went ahead and grabbed the pair and they have been doing great. My only regret? The anemone chose to rest facing away from the main view angle on the left side! To see the colors you have to gaze around the side! But it's healthy, has stayed put and gets about once a week some of the fish food that goes to it. The sexy shrimp sits on it all day or on the GSP rock and waves it's butt. Great little pair!

Hard to get a picture with my photo bombing clowns!

Coral Plate Babies

My fungia plate coral has been sprouting an impressive number of babies as of late. I need to clean the dead part of the skeleton off, it has some GHA on it. This has been one of the biggest highlights for me. When I first brought the coral home it only lasted a few days before dying. found out later from the LFS it was fresh off the truck when they sold it to me and "not surprised it did poorly". I am doing a water change today so I will get that algae off.

Other Corals
All other corals are showing excellent growth. All zoas are showing new polyps, the firework clove polyps are spreading, the GSP is spreading once again, and the Frogspawn... thing is getting even more tentacles. Candy cane coral is inflated, although lights have been a bit low to let anemone acclimate so not surprised.

Grabbing some glue this week and getting those zoas back on the rocks. Turbo snail's hunt for GHA knocked them off.

Future Plans
Right now I am planning on using some of the old stuff around the house to setup a 40 gallon breeder while I continue to save for a large tank. I was going to just keep going on saving but we've had some unexpected costs hit the books, so I figure a good way to get some rock going would be to start a second tank downstairs.

 

[PandorasChalk]

Picked up some live rock from the LFS that was pre-cured to put in this tank, only 2 pounds worth to help with biodiversity. Waterborne dinos have been absent, and the sand ones have not spread much at all this past week. Water change this coming Friday, will siphon what I can out.

 

[PandorasChalk]

General Update

The tank itself is doing well, the dinos are still mostly gone save for the sand based ones which are slowly retreating. Corals are doing well, algae is on the decline thanks to urchin and snails.

Unfortunately all three fish have as of last night developed ich! My only guess is the urchin I purchased three weeks ago had it in cyst form on it. Tank parameters have been textbook for what you should see.

(The powerhead is off, and the tank on the left is a new addition that has no thread or stock at all yet)

The firefish is the worst of the three, looking bad. Copper and test kit is ordered and will be here tomorrow. Until then treating with what I have (Metroplex/Kanaplex/Reef Rally) to help avoid secondary infections.

It is very disheartening to see, especially after the other things that have happened.



In an odd twist of fate I had set this quarantine tank up for future arrivals to the system on the left once I was ready to stock it…

 

[PandorasChalk]

An Unfortunate Update
How are things going? Well, let's take a look:



Saturday afternoon after my son went down for a nap I went into my office to take care of some budget stuff for September and noticed the water in the tank was at about half. I did not see a leak immediately, until I looked at the far back edge and seen it tricking out about 1/4th the way up from the bottom. Thankfully I have a 40 gallon running downstairs that is supposed to be a temp home until the money pool for a big tank is ready for a full blown setup going, so I quickly started to pluck out coral and inverts.

Anemone was the hardest thing to move, but the cold side of a bread knife against the foot for a brief moment made it release and it was easily plucked out. The sexy shrimp was an easy catch and all snails and the urchin were easy to pluck out. I put some seaweed on a piece of plastic with a rubber band and set it by the urchin which crawled up onto it, making removal painless.

Once everything was out I finished draining the tank and as the water line got closer to the seam rip it started to really flow out as it got bigger. Thankfully so far all coral and inverts made it, anemone is held up under a rock a bit but trying to adjust to flow change and stress I am sure. Everything was acclimated over.



Not a great picture but this is the temp tank. Started in April, I was going to just keep this one going but I really want a sump (and I started a thread asking for advice and most people pointed to sump). I built it like a normal tank since I wanted fish and inverts that like to burrow like a wrasse and snails. Despite being a canister it's been running great, and thanks to the lessons I learned on the 14 it's been thriving. The birds nest in the top has doubled in size over a few months and all the coral that was in this tank initially has expanded.

So what about the 14 gallon, maybe a replacement?

It's hard to say right now to be honest what I want to do. With the clowns in quarantine (they are doing very well), I noticed the pod population in that tank exploded and the dinos had vanished. Lots of life showed up, and my plan was to put clowns back in the tank this thread is about then when the big tank started move everything over save for sand. The tank busted though, and right now I am unsure if it's worth investing any of the big tank fund into replacing it. I am considering for now just soldiering on with the 40, then in November get a nice big tank with a sump. I've been buying pieces for that future tank (see above with the power head and lights) so when that day comes I can get things rolling.

What did I learn?

I learned a heck of a lot from the 14.

• Chasing parameters will stress you out. When I started buying coral I started to really chase my numbers and that is what lead to my dinos getting a foothold. I started using GFO immediately and a few weeks after that BAM brown sludge everywhere that stressed me out. I kick myself for stressing on numbers since I've kept some notoriously picky freshwater creatures in my time and never stressed on numbers there.
• When I had COVID my water change routine stopped for about a month and things started going downhill for a bit after that. I should of kept it up, and being a small tank things got out of hand quickly.
• Xenia and some of my zoas died because of the GFO/excessive cleaning I am pretty sure, but I kept contributing it to things like Ph. Rookie mistake.

The things above I have been learning from in the 40 and things have been flourishing. Clean the canister once a week, 5 gallon water change every two weeks, and it's been great. Super stable and even have some pods starting to pop-up from a few corals I brought in from online orders.

Thanks everyone for joining me on this journey with this tank, my next thread will start when I get my big tank ordered and setup!

 

[19Mateo83]

After reading this and then looking at the aqueon rimless tank reviews I got nervous about mine. I already have another, bigger framed tank on order. I hope the addition of 3/4” aluminum angle siliconed over the corners will add enough strength so to can sleep good.