UNS 60s Budget Beginner Build

[Prooda]

Hello everyone! I have a UNS 60s that I've been using for the past 5 years as a freshwater aquarium and recently found a small crack in the corner. I thought of resealing it and keeping it as a freshwater tank. However, I didn't like the look of the reseal so decided to turn it into an AIO aquarium instead. This will be a budget reef tank so that will be an added challenge as a new reefer!

Originally, I wanted to build the AIO with laser-cut acrylic but found that it would cost me close to $80 just to build the AIO portion. I decided to build it out of expanded PVC sheet from a leftover project instead. I have no prior knowledge of building AIOs so there was definitely some trial and error. Another challenge is I don't own any power tools but I do have a 3d printer to help me with this project. For the intake side, the comb was 3d printed and the bottom hole cover was also 3d printed. For the outflow, I used a 210 GPH Vivosun Pump with a Fluval flex nozzle set as my bulkhead. I also printed some shims to make the bulkhead watertight. I used e6000 to glue the sheets together and silicone it to the tank. I let it cure for a week before filling to check for leaks and water movement.

At this point, the only equipment that I was missing was the light. I started working on this tank in early September and I knew that Prime Day was coming up so I decided to wait until then to purchase the light. Next up on the list was hardscape. At this point, I didn't know if I wanted dry rock, life rock, or live rock. My only requirement is that it had to be cheap. After a week of searching, I found someone who was selling dry rock for $1/lb and he had a tote full of them. He had a great selection of them and a lot of small pieces that were already broken up for gluing. I ended up with 15 lbs of dry rock.

Next on the list was salt... As a beginner, mixing your own water sounds like a daunting task but since I already have an RO system from the freshwater side, I decided to learn more about it and mix my own water instead. I had a tough time picking the salt but in the end, I went with IO for its simplicity, price and many people recommended it. When I purchased the salt, Petco had a bunch of promotions and my salt only cost me $30 for 46lbs of salt. I also got a 20lb bag of Arag-Alive Fiji Pink for $20.

At this point, I had no intention of buying a fish but I was dumb enough to go look at the saltwater fish section when I went to go pick up my Petco order. Let me start by prefacing some things. Yes, many Petcos do not look after their fish and I try not to use Petco as much as possible. However, not all Petcos are bad. There are many Petcos around San Diego and the only one that I trust is my local Petco. They're very careful with their fish and I constantly see them write "Nfs, fish under qt" on their tank. This is one of many reasons why I like this Petco. They will not sell you sick fish and they observe them every day. I rarely see any dead fish in their tanks (Yes they could've taken it out but that also means that they're constantly looking at their tanks. Maybe, this is why this Petco has a much larger live fish selection than other Petcos. They even sell coral at this place... Anyway, I saw a Mocha Storm clownfish that I really liked and as I was talking to one of the employees, he said that they were having a silent sale (20% off all livestock that weekend). So I decided to wait until tomorrow night to buy him if he's still available.

That night, I added sand, hardscape and the salt water that I mixed to 1.026 into the tank. This upcoming part was largely due to reading a lot of threads about skip cycling and @brandon429 knowledge. Since I knew that I wanted a fish the next day, I went to a LFS to buy a small live rock. I picked up the rock Sunday morning, put it in my tank and later that night, I was a proud owner of a Mocha Storm Clownfish. I also picked up a bottle of Biospira just in case. Added the 1/3 bottle of Biospira in the tank, and acclimated the fish. The clownfish was fat and healthy and ate the same night that I got him which was a very good sign.

2 days later, Prime Day started and I picked up a Smatfarm G5 light for $64 (I had a giftcard, sale price was $126). This light is a complete overkill for this shallow tank but I wanted something that didn't have the spotlight effect and is future-proof if I end up with a bigger reef tank. Setting up the light was pretty easy but I'm still learning light intensity for my tank. Its currently set at 10, 25, 25, 25, 10, 5 and the light is approximately 18" from the bottom of the tank. I also 3D printed a mount to work with my previous freshwater lighting setup. Couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Tank is 3 days old in this picture. The majority is dry rock except for the small live rock in the front left.

I went to Petco to get my water tested as I do not own a saltwater test kit and I find it a waste to buy an ammonia and nitrite test kit just to confirm the skip cycle. This was the moment to see whether or not the skip cycle was true. They used API test kit which is known to give false reading but at least its something. My amonia level was around 0.25-0.50, nitrite was 0 nitrate was 2ppm (I did a 50% water change 2 days before the test). Everything looks good! When I was there, I saw they had a Snow Storm clownfish and I had to get him too. Some people think I'm rushing but from my experience with freshwater, if the water condition is good, then it's good and I largely think that the live rock helped a lot.

I'm very fortunate to live near AquaSD as they often do coral auctions on eBay where I can get corals at a much discounted price. I won my first ever coral (Fireworks clove for only $8!!) and went to pick it up that weekend.

Tank is 1 week old (2 clownfish and 1 firework clove on the live rock)

This is the tank as of this morning. Moved the Firework clove in the back instead of the front. Still playing with lighting and flow

Second day in the tank after being moved to a new location.

Firework Clove today. All opened up!

They haven't shown any aggression towards each other and is always swiming together. The Mocha is a bit bigger so hopefully, they will bond. They're being fed once a day and they go insane for food.

Also picked up 2 Blue Leg Hermit Crab and 1 Cerith Snail when I went to pick up the coral.

Next up on my list is an ATO and a lid and that should be it as far as equipment. Since the tank is about 7.5 gallons, I will be doing a weekly 50% water change to keep nitrate under control. No algae so far and the fish are eating and happy.

Cost of everything
Equipment:
-Smatfarm G5: $64 after tax
-Heater: Already owned from the previous setup
-E6000 glue: $4 after tax
-Vivosun 210GPH Pump: $18 after tax
-Expanded PVC sheet: Already owned from previous projects
-Nozzle set: $7 after tax
-3D printed parts: self printed, not too sure how much it would be
-Super glue: $5
-Epoxy for hardscape: Already owned from previous projects

Hardscape:
-Dry Rock: $15
-Live Rock: $5
-Sand: $20 after tax

Fauna:
-Mocha Storm Clownfish: $71 after tax
-Snow Storm Clownfish: $51 after tax
-Blue Leg Hermit Crab: $2 each after tax
-Cerith Snail: $3 after tax

Coral:
-Firework Clove: $8

Misc:
-IO salt: $30 after tax
-Biospira: $15 after tax
-Refractometer: $20 after tax

Total cost so far: $338 including fish, coral and equipment.

So far so good and its definitely exciting to get into the reefing world!

 

[blaxsun]

$338 is a pretty decent budget! Kudos!

 

[SliceGolfer]

Love the aquascape against the shallow lagoon. Interested in seeing how things develop for you!

 

[Prooda]

$338 is a pretty decent budget! Kudos!

Thank you! If we're just calculating the necessary equipment and misc stuff for a running saltwater tank, it'd only be $185! I think that's a pretty good budget for converting a freshwater tank to a saltwater setup. I could've gotten away with a cheaper light but I like an overkill light just so I have more coral options if I wanted to haha

Love the aquascape against the shallow lagoon. Interested in seeing how things develop for you!

Thank you! I'm new to saltwater so I'm also excited to learn more about it. This tank will be LPS dominated so hopefully, I didn't bite more than I could chew

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hello everyone! I have a UNS 60s that I've been using for the past 5 years as a freshwater aquarium and recently found a small crack in the corner. I thought of resealing it and keeping it as a freshwater tank. However, I didn't like the look of the reseal so decided to turn it into an AIO aquarium instead. This will be a budget reef tank so that will be an added challenge as a new reefer!

Originally, I wanted to build the AIO with laser-cut acrylic but found that it would cost me close to $80 just to build the AIO portion. I decided to build it out of expanded PVC sheet from a leftover project instead. I have no prior knowledge of building AIOs so there was definitely some trial and error. Another challenge is I don't own any power tools but I do have a 3d printer to help me with this project. For the intake side, the comb was 3d printed and the bottom hole cover was also 3d printed. For the outflow, I used a 210 GPH Vivosun Pump with a Fluval flex nozzle set as my bulkhead. I also printed some shims to make the bulkhead watertight. I used e6000 to glue the sheets together and silicone it to the tank. I let it cure for a week before filling to check for leaks and water movement.

At this point, the only equipment that I was missing was the light. I started working on this tank in early September and I knew that Prime Day was coming up so I decided to wait until then to purchase the light. Next up on the list was hardscape. At this point, I didn't know if I wanted dry rock, life rock, or live rock. My only requirement is that it had to be cheap. After a week of searching, I found someone who was selling dry rock for $1/lb and he had a tote full of them. He had a great selection of them and a lot of small pieces that were already broken up for gluing. I ended up with 15 lbs of dry rock.

Next on the list was salt... As a beginner, mixing your own water sounds like a daunting task but since I already have an RO system from the freshwater side, I decided to learn more about it and mix my own water instead. I had a tough time picking the salt but in the end, I went with IO for its simplicity, price and many people recommended it. When I purchased the salt, Petco had a bunch of promotions and my salt only cost me $30 for 46lbs of salt. I also got a 20lb bag of Arag-Alive Fiji Pink for $20.

At this point, I had no intention of buying a fish but I was dumb enough to go look at the saltwater fish section when I went to go pick up my Petco order. Let me start by prefacing some things. Yes, many Petcos do not look after their fish and I try not to use Petco as much as possible. However, not all Petcos are bad. There are many Petcos around San Diego and the only one that I trust is my local Petco. They're very careful with their fish and I constantly see them write "Nfs, fish under qt" on their tank. This is one of many reasons why I like this Petco. They will not sell you sick fish and they observe them every day. I rarely see any dead fish in their tanks (Yes they could've taken it out but that also means that they're constantly looking at their tanks. Maybe, this is why this Petco has a much larger live fish selection than other Petcos. They even sell coral at this place... Anyway, I saw a Mocha Storm clownfish that I really liked and as I was talking to one of the employees, he said that they were having a silent sale (20% off all livestock that weekend). So I decided to wait until tomorrow night to buy him if he's still available.

That night, I added sand, hardscape and the salt water that I mixed to 1.026 into the tank. This upcoming part was largely due to reading a lot of threads about skip cycling and @brandon429 knowledge. Since I knew that I wanted a fish the next day, I went to a LFS to buy a small live rock. I picked up the rock Sunday morning, put it in my tank and later that night, I was a proud owner of a Mocha Storm Clownfish. I also picked up a bottle of Biospira just in case. Added the 1/3 bottle of Biospira in the tank, and acclimated the fish. The clownfish was fat and healthy and ate the same night that I got him which was a very good sign.

2 days later, Prime Day started and I picked up a Smatfarm G5 light for $64 (I had a giftcard, sale price was $126). This light is a complete overkill for this shallow tank but I wanted something that didn't have the spotlight effect and is future-proof if I end up with a bigger reef tank. Setting up the light was pretty easy but I'm still learning light intensity for my tank. Its currently set at 10, 25, 25, 25, 10, 5 and the light is approximately 18" from the bottom of the tank. I also 3D printed a mount to work with my previous freshwater lighting setup. Couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Tank is 3 days old in this picture. The majority is dry rock except for the small live rock in the front left.

I went to Petco to get my water tested as I do not own a saltwater test kit and I find it a waste to buy an ammonia and nitrite test kit just to confirm the skip cycle. This was the moment to see whether or not the skip cycle was true. They used API test kit which is known to give false reading but at least its something. My amonia level was around 0.25-0.50, nitrite was 0 nitrate was 2ppm (I did a 50% water change 2 days before the test). Everything looks good! When I was there, I saw they had a Snow Storm clownfish and I had to get him too. Some people think I'm rushing but from my experience with freshwater, if the water condition is good, then it's good and I largely think that the live rock helped a lot.

I'm very fortunate to live near AquaSD as they often do coral auctions on eBay where I can get corals at a much discounted price. I won my first ever coral (Fireworks clove for only $8!!) and went to pick it up that weekend.

Tank is 1 week old (2 clownfish and 1 firework clove on the live rock)

This is the tank as of this morning. Moved the Firework clove in the back instead of the front. Still playing with lighting and flow

Second day in the tank after being moved to a new location.

Firework Clove today. All opened up!

They haven't shown any aggression towards each other and is always swiming together. The Mocha is a bit bigger so hopefully, they will bond. They're being fed once a day and they go insane for food.

Also picked up 2 Blue Leg Hermit Crab and 1 Cerith Snail when I went to pick up the coral.

Next up on my list is an ATO and a lid and that should be it as far as equipment. Since the tank is about 7.5 gallons, I will be doing a weekly 50% water change to keep nitrate under control. No algae so far and the fish are eating and happy.

Cost of everything
Equipment:
-Smatfarm G5: $64 after tax
-Heater: Already owned from the previous setup
-E6000 glue: $4 after tax
-Vivosun 210GPH Pump: $18 after tax
-Expanded PVC sheet: Already owned from previous projects
-Nozzle set: $7 after tax
-3D printed parts: self printed, not too sure how much it would be
-Super glue: $5
-Epoxy for hardscape: Already owned from previous projects

Hardscape:
-Dry Rock: $15
-Live Rock: $5
-Sand: $20 after tax

Fauna:
-Mocha Storm Clownfish: $71 after tax
-Snow Storm Clownfish: $51 after tax
-Blue Leg Hermit Crab: $2 each after tax
-Cerith Snail: $3 after tax

Coral:
-Firework Clove: $8

Misc:
-IO salt: $30 after tax
-Biospira: $15 after tax
-Refractometer: $20 after tax

Total cost so far: $338 including fish, coral and equipment.

So far so good and its definitely exciting to get into the reefing world!

Love the aquascape!

 

[Prooda]

A little update today. Made a lid for the aquarium out of Homedepot's window screen kit. Works pretty well! Also picked up 2 Astrea Snails, Red Lips Blasto Wellsi, Ricordea Florida, and AquaSD was nice enough to give me a frag for free! He said it was a Lava Lamp mushroom but I'm not sure what type of mushroom it is so if someone could ID it, that'd be great (my guess is a Rhodactis or possibly Yuma??). All corals were dipped in Bayer for 15 minutes and double rinsed. Didn't see any flatworms or anything so I'm guessing their corals are pretty clean?

Tank is 1.5 weeks old, still no algae so far. Light is a lot lower than before, let's see how these corals do. I don't know the placement for these corals yet so they will sit on the sand for the time being.

Stressed after dipping

Riccordia Florida opened up after 30 minutes. I picked this one because I saw a couple of mouths on it. Hopefully, it will split up soon!

Mystery Lava Lamp also opened up after 45 minutes. Is it a Rhodactis or Yuma??

Blasto is still opening up after 45 minutes. Looks good though!

 

[Prooda]

Added more corals yesterday and my concern now is the flow. The original nozzle setup had way too much flow to the front of the glass and was blowing the sand away. I printed out 2 random turbulent flow generators by Cleven and it does seem like it's blowing randomly. But now the issue is that there is barely any flow to the left side of the tank. Not too sure how to go about this. Maybe take out the dual 1/4" nozzle and only use 1 1/2" random turbulent flow? I also don't know what is considered too much flow or too little flow in a saltwater tank.

Here are some pics

Tank at 2 weeks old

Current Nozzle set up

Diatom is starting to show up but it seems like the 2 Astrea snails are able to take care of it pretty quickly. Diatom was found at night and it was cleaned by the next morning.

Picked up 4 types of corals from a local hobbyist for a great price! Left side is a Hammer coral, I don't know the name but its gold/greenish. Middle is Firework Clove Polyp with an Aquaman Rhodactis attached to it. Decided to pick up another Firework because the first one is all green and I wanted the orange tip to it. Maybe the LFS mislabeled it. The right side is a Space Invader Chalice.

Closer look at the Clove and Rhodactis rock.

I never had the intention to get a Chalice but I couldn't pass it up after seeing such vibrant colors. Maybe I'll have it at the entrance of the cave

Hammer coral is still very unhappy after 18 hrs. Hopefully, it'll open up soon. It's currently sitting near the front of the tank so I can monitor him. When he looks okay, Ill put him in his final spot.

This is what the right side is looking like. This side will be mostly mushrooms. Hopefully, they'll play nice with each other

 

[Prooda]

Update update update! It has been a week since I've taken pictures of this tank and lots have changed. I came across a deal that I couldn't pass up on. Hanna ULR, Hanna PH, Nyos Nitrate, Red Sea Calcium test kit, AI Prime 16hd, and a Duetto ATO unit. All for $150! I'm super grateful for the person who was selling me all these things.

A brief review of the Smatfarm g5 light:
Although it's a budget light, I would consider it a really good light but only for the right person. The reason why I say for the right person is because if you like really blue light with barely any white, then this light is for you. As soon as white is added to the spectrum, the color of the corals turns pale. Yes, I've played with it and I still couldn't get it right. My settings were 1% cool white, 20% (blue, violet-blue, and violet), 3% warm white, 3% green. Another thing that I couldn't handle was for some odd reason, my eyes would hurt and tear up whenever I looked at my tank. This issue never happens with lights from LFS and other hobbyist tanks. Not too sure why these lights do that to me.

Switching over to the AI, I noticed an immediate difference in my corals (currently using David Saxby's profile). The colors popped way more, it was much softer and not as harsh as the Smatfarm. Another thing is the controllability of the AI is so nice for quick viewings. With the Smatfarm, I had to click a bunch of things before I could turn it on.

So what has happened in the past week?
Negative:
Before I had the ATO unit, I would have to top off the tank every morning. One morning, I had a family emergency and forgot to top off the tank before I left the house. Welp. After a 14hrs away from the tank, I came home to an unhappy pump and an unhappy tank. The water got too low and it caused the pump to pump a mix of air and water which made water evaporation even more intense. Because of this, both my Lava Lamp Rhodactis and Aquaman Rhodactis shriveled up and both of them were producing mucus. The next day, they were covered in mucus. The day after that, I took both of them out and did an iodine dip to see if that would do something. It did for the Lava Lamp but the Aquaman was way too far gone and unfortunately, I lost it. The Lava Lamp went from the size of a quarter to half of a penny.

Now that I have test kits, I'm able to test my Phosphate and Nitrate. As of this morning, Phosphate was higher than 0.90 and the Hanna test was not able to read it. I thought it was a faulty unit since I did buy it used but I tested it again and tested my clean saltwater mix and yes, it is accurate. Clean saltwater tested at 0.02 and my tank water was tested above 0.90. Nitrate on the other hand was testing at 3ppm so thats good. The high phosphate is definitely from dry rock leaching so I will be purchasing Chemi-Pure Elite to help with this.

Positive:
I had a diatom outbreak and at the time, I didn't have a test kit to test my water so I was replacing the filter pad every day and this helped tremendously. Diatoms were at a controllable level within 3-4 days. I also saw a couple of thread-like algae that popped up. My guess is green hair algae. But happy to report that my CUC was able to take care of all the algae.

All corals seem to be happy and always open up when the light is on except for the hammer. Makes sense though, from my research, it seems like hammers are sensitive to water parameters, and with my setup, the water is not stable yet. ATO should help and Chemi-pure should also help.

Fish are still happy, they go crazy for TDO chroma boost and I recently found out that I can also feed my corals with that. So right now, I'm feeding my fish TDO and any left overs will go to my corals and CUC. I have reef roids too but with the high phosphate in the tank, I will hold off on feeding that right now.

Here are some pictures of the tank! FTS were taken with a yellow 20k lens filter and were not edited (previous pictures were edited due to how harsh the Smatfarm light was and I also didn't have a lens filter kit). Some pictures were also taken during the first hour of the ramp up and some were taken with whites raised up. All pictures were taken with the AI Prime

Tank is now 2.5 weeks old! I still have not cleaned the glass or the rocks or the sand. Everything has been taken care of by the CUC.

Above view. You can see some diatoms still left on the sand in the back area. The sand was covered at the beginning of the algae outbreak.

Close-up of each side

This Yuma has become my new obsession. The color under blue light is very dull and unassuming but when the whites are turned up, the color is amazing. Aquasd calls it their Super Energy Yuma Ricordea.

Another new obsession are Alveoporas and Gonioporas. These corals are amazing. The left picture is a Red Goddess Goniopora I believe? The middle picture is a Green Tips Alveopora. The right picture is an Ice Storm Alveopora.

This one is also pretty nice with high whites, it's a very vibrant green but it doesn't show that well through pictures. I believe Aquasd calls them Swamp Thang Rhodactis.

Wasn't sure about Duncan corals but took a chance on this one and it's starting to grow on me. The feeding response on this guy is absolutely insane. Once there is food near his mouth, he'll close up within seconds

This is another mushroom that wasn't doing too well after that water mishap. I put him in a cup so he can recover. Its been 3 days since he's been in here and he looks to be recovering well. Ultra Florida Ricordea.

This is my other Ultra Florida Ricrodea. The color is darker than other Floridas that I've seen. Super unique!

This is another mushroom that doesn't look that good in heavy blue but pops so much in the white. Aquasd calls this Purple Rain Yuma. This one has been weird to me lately. The first day I got him, he was spilling his guts in the bag and then he settled after placing him in the tank. But then every night, around an hour before the lights go out, he'll spill his guts again, and then by the next morning, he's as happy as ever. Weird behavior to say the least.

Aquasd calls this one Blue Base Super Yuma. This one is tiny but it really loves to eat TDO whenever I feed it.

 

[Prooda]

I think I just found out why this Yuma is so irritated and spilling its guts. I've been watching this clownfish rubbing itself on the mushroom for the past 10 minutes. Is he trying to host the mushroom??? I haven't seen him do that to any other corals except for this one

 

[Prooda]

Checked back an hour later and now the mushroom is even more ticked off. I've heard of other people's clowns hosting mushrooms but my mushroom hasn't even had the time to settle in yet. For now, I'll leave him in a cup and hope that the clownfish can't get to him.

 

[Prooda]

Added the Chemi-Pure Elite this morning and after 8 hours, it seems like its starting to do its job! I'll still continue the 70% weekly water change to help it out.

 

[Prooda]

Update!
The tank will be 1 month old in 6 days and I can't believe it. You can research all you want but you'll gain the most knowledge when you actually have a tank yourself. Coral addiction is real and I somehow managed to fill half of the tank with corals already. I'm still being financially responsible and the corals you see are either from hobbyists in my area or from a sale at Aquasd. But, for now, I'll stop purchasing new corals and see how these play out (at least I hope to...). So far, I've killed 2 mushrooms and my clownfish killed 2 mushrooms. We'll get into that later on.

Since my last update, my phosphate has been bouncing between 0.1 - 0.3. It mostly bounces whenever I feed which is understandable. Nitrate is still low at around 3-5ppm, not too sure if this is normal or not. I thought that feeding raises both nitrate and phosphate but it seems like my phosphate is much higher than my nitrate. Could just be the dry rock, I'm not too sure.

This is how the tank sits today! The breeder box on the side is for my mushrooms. Hopefully, I get to take it off soon, it's such an eyesore.

Since changing to the AI prime and using Saxby's schedule, a lot of algae have started to come up. I started using the acclimation mode but for some reason, I just feel like it's not doing its job. I instead manually lowered it down to half-power and the algae seems to be much more manageable now.




Some new corals I picked up from Aquasd. The yellow and pink Alveoporas are still new so they've yet to fully open. All of my other Alves and Gonis have opened up, that's why I pulled the trigger on these 2. I also got one more Duncan, I mean... just look at the color! He's still slowly opening up, not fully opened yet. Lastly, I seem to never have enough mushrooms. There are just so many colors and variations that are just too nice. The blue Yuma is just so unique, it has blotches of green and yellow and I can't wait for him to get bigger. The yellow and purple Florida Ricordea has 3 heads and it seems like it wants to split (it keeps curling in the middle area). Ill try to document it every day and hopefully he'll split soon.


These are corals that I got from a hobbyist. I wasn't planning on doing sps but there is a spot in the middle near the surface that has a ton of light and flow and I couldn't think of any lps or softies that would appreciate that spot. And just as my luck would have it, a local hobbyist posted beach bum montis and I thought that would be a perfect coral for it. I've read mixed suggestions on lighting intensity for this coral so I'll monitor him and move him if needed. Originally, I was only going to buy mushrooms and the Monti from him but he was also selling this frogspawn and I couldn't pass it up. He also gave me a small frag of birds nest to try out. It seems pretty happy so far so let's hope it stays that way!


Now onto the bad stuff. The mushroom in the middle was getting constantly harassed by the clownfish and even after putting it in a glass cup, the clownfish would go in there and mess with it too. That's why I had to set up this breeder box to hold the mushrooms. The loose mushroom on the right was given to me by the hobbyist so I put him in the breeder box to take hold of the plug. However, after a few days, it started melting away. Not too sure if the melting also affected the mushroom in the middle but the next day, the middle mushroom started to melt too. As of today, I've taken both out because they practically turned into mush and I didn't want it to spread onto the other mushroom. The Discosoma is still doing well, I'm just waiting for him to grab hold of the plug so then I can move him into the tank.

I seem to not have the best luck with loose mushrooms. Not too sure what I'm doing wrong, but hopefully the Discosoma survives.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update!
The tank will be 1 month old in 6 days and I can't believe it. You can research all you want but you'll gain the most knowledge when you actually have a tank yourself. Coral addiction is real and I somehow managed to fill half of the tank with corals already. I'm still being financially responsible and the corals you see are either from hobbyists in my area or from a sale at Aquasd. But, for now, I'll stop purchasing new corals and see how these play out (at least I hope to...). So far, I've killed 2 mushrooms and my clownfish killed 2 mushrooms. We'll get into that later on.

Since my last update, my phosphate has been bouncing between 0.1 - 0.3. It mostly bounces whenever I feed which is understandable. Nitrate is still low at around 3-5ppm, not too sure if this is normal or not. I thought that feeding raises both nitrate and phosphate but it seems like my phosphate is much higher than my nitrate. Could just be the dry rock, I'm not too sure.

This is how the tank sits today! The breeder box on the side is for my mushrooms. Hopefully, I get to take it off soon, it's such an eyesore.

Since changing to the AI prime and using Saxby's schedule, a lot of algae have started to come up. I started using the acclimation mode but for some reason, I just feel like it's not doing its job. I instead manually lowered it down to half-power and the algae seems to be much more manageable now.




Some new corals I picked up from Aquasd. The yellow and pink Alveoporas are still new so they've yet to fully open. All of my other Alves and Gonis have opened up, that's why I pulled the trigger on these 2. I also got one more Duncan, I mean... just look at the color! He's still slowly opening up, not fully opened yet. Lastly, I seem to never have enough mushrooms. There are just so many colors and variations that are just too nice. The blue Yuma is just so unique, it has blotches of green and yellow and I can't wait for him to get bigger. The yellow and purple Florida Ricordea has 3 heads and it seems like it wants to split (it keeps curling in the middle area). Ill try to document it every day and hopefully he'll split soon.


These are corals that I got from a hobbyist. I wasn't planning on doing sps but there is a spot in the middle near the surface that has a ton of light and flow and I couldn't think of any lps or softies that would appreciate that spot. And just as my luck would have it, a local hobbyist posted beach bum montis and I thought that would be a perfect coral for it. I've read mixed suggestions on lighting intensity for this coral so I'll monitor him and move him if needed. Originally, I was only going to buy mushrooms and the Monti from him but he was also selling this frogspawn and I couldn't pass it up. He also gave me a small frag of birds nest to try out. It seems pretty happy so far so let's hope it stays that way!


Now onto the bad stuff. The mushroom in the middle was getting constantly harassed by the clownfish and even after putting it in a glass cup, the clownfish would go in there and mess with it too. That's why I had to set up this breeder box to hold the mushrooms. The loose mushroom on the right was given to me by the hobbyist so I put him in the breeder box to take hold of the plug. However, after a few days, it started melting away. Not too sure if the melting also affected the mushroom in the middle but the next day, the middle mushroom started to melt too. As of today, I've taken both out because they practically turned into mush and I didn't want it to spread onto the other mushroom. The Discosoma is still doing well, I'm just waiting for him to grab hold of the plug so then I can move him into the tank.

I seem to not have the best luck with loose mushrooms. Not too sure what I'm doing wrong, but hopefully the Discosoma survives.

Tank is doing great!

 

[Prooda]

Tank is doing great!

Thank you!

 

[Prooda]

Update!

The tank is now about 1.5 months old and I'm definitely seeing a lot more algae. Nothing too crazy and nothing too concerning. The sand bed in the front definitely has less algae than the back area so I think flow is playing a huge part in keeping algae off the sand.

Fireworks clove is now settled in and is throwing out more polyps. Mushrooms are growing and I can definitely see a size difference when I look back at previous pictures. Most of the corals are happy with some exceptions. The first hammer I got still looks unhappy but I purchased another one and that one looks a lot better. Maybe the first one I got was just a weak one. Hopefully, it'll recover. My track record for loose mushrooms is still bad, currently losing another one right now. I'm having a hard time keeping Ricordea Florida but my Yumas are doing phenomenal. My Alveoporas are extended and happy while my Goniopora seems to be closed most of the time.

Current tank parameters
Nitrate: 3-5ppm
Phosphate: 0.20 - 0.40 (I want to lower this number but corals are happy so I won't try to mess with it too much)
Dkh: 8.3

I have a calcium test but haven't found the need to test it yet and I also need to buy a magnesium test too since I have more Euphyllias in the tank now.

Some pics of what the tank currently looks like at the moment!


I also picked up this Tailspot Blenny. Their personally is just too funny to not have in the tank. He hides in the rock work and pokes his head out to watch the clowns most of the time


Some new corals I picked up. That octospawn have a huge bubble (which I think means that its splitting?). Looks a little funky right now but I really love frog/octo spawns


So did my first cutting on a mushroom! I've been having a hard time with getting this one to stick onto a rock and after seeing people recommending rubberbanding it onto a rock, I gave it a shot. Well, the rubberband was basically tearing it apart so I decided to take it out and cut it clean and buy some rubble instead. The left pic was the first day of the cut, the second pic is a week later. Looks like it's healing well!

Also a teaser of another project I'm working on

 

[Prooda]

Update!

The tank is now 2 months old and everything is going well so far!

Things that are going well: GHA is slowing down and with the addition of the tailspot blenny, he is taking down the GHA pretty quickly. The mushroom that I cut is now completely healed and is doing great! The clowns also started to try and host the Duncan which was to be expected and the Duncan didn't seem to mind, so that's good news. I'm also seeing some pineapple sponges around the tank which I heard is a good sign and that the tank is maturing well? Dots of coralline algae are also starting to pop up around the rocks which is another good sign. Bird nest/bird of paradise are both growing and the colors are looking great. The phoenix flame montipora is still doing amazing and the colors are just beautiful. The beach bum however is getting washed out. I think I need to move him to a lower light spot. Everything seems to be thriving and not just surviving.

Things that are not going so well: I'm currently dealing with algae issues with the sand and with 2 Nassarius snails, I don't think they are turning over the sand quick enough. I'm thinking of getting a conch in there to see if that would help. The bubble on the frogspawn was popped 2 days ago and now it looks very unhappy. It was doing very well before the bubble popped. I'm hoping that it'll recover within the next week. The hammers also seem to be the same, haven't improved much. But other than that, no complaints!

I'm thinking of adding more encrusting montiporas in the higher area of the rock work and I still don't know what to put in the back. The corals that are placed in the back won't be able to be seen from the front but I enjoy looking at the tank from above too so I don't mind adding more corals back there. The AIO portion will also be getting a revamp soon. I'm hoping to transfer everything to another tank to redo that portion.

All parameters have been stable except for phosphate. I'm still doing weekly 70% water changes to keep up with phosphate export. Hopefully, it will start to lower down soon.

 

[Prooda]

3 Months Update!

The tank had a major change this month. I felt like the tank wasn't getting adequate flow with the previous aquascape. Although the aquascape was nice and very much like a freshwater aquascape, it was suitable for corals. There was too much hardscape and there were barely any places to put corals (at least suitable for corals). So I had to do a little rescape and now I just have to wait and see how the corals react.

The pair of clowns were also taken out to help cycle another tank I have going on, so right now there is only the tailspot blenny in the tank. Since the bioload is much lower now, I've been feeding the corals more heavily than before to keep up with nutrients and not bottom out (Once every 2 days with tdo chroma).

Some pros for this month:
-Phosphate level is now sitting steady at 0.15-0.17
-Found a bunch of copepods at night (I did not dose any copepods to the tank so this was nice to see)
-Corals are still thriving and getting their colors back. I think they are starting to settle in
-Algae is getting under control
-Missed 1 water change because of Christmas but the tank was completely fine which is a good sign
Some cons for this month:
No cons except for flow! Tank has been pretty hands off for the most part. I clean the glass once a week when I do water changes. Just some film algae but nothing major

This Alveopora is insane, my phone just can't capture how crazy it looks in real life

This blasto is also a beauty. I'm glad I was able to get a frag of this. Just stunning

The montiporas are just doing better and better each day. Finally moved the beach bum and it's starting to get its color back and the phoenix flame monti is just getting a deeper red and it seems like it's adapting very well. I see a tiny tiny tiny growth on it. Beach bum however is still adapting to its new placement

Also picked up this Montipora cap and I can definitely see growth on it compared to the other montis

This is where I'm having flow issues. The RFG is doing its work and its spreading out the flow but I think my return pump is too weak to push the flow all the way through the tank. As you can see, there are many deadspots in the tank. Maybe 1/3 of the tank are getting little to no flow. The yellow line spot is where a little bit of flow gets bounced back from the glass.

I tried out 2 nano wavemakers and they were both way too powerful for my tank. Because of the dimensions of the tank, I only have 7" of depth to play with and the sand already takes up about an inch of it. I've also tried the 2 RFG route and that was weaker than 1 RFG so I don't really know where to go from here. Most of the algae are in the dead spots too so I need to figure this out asap!

I've come to 3 possible answers for flow (ranked from the most favorable to I don't want to do this at all)

Option #1 Go bare bottom and add a wave maker (with sand, the wavemaker just stirs everything up)
Option #2 Take out the filter section and add a gyre to the right side of the tank
Option #3 turn this into a mushroom/softie tank

If anyone has any suggestions on how they would fix the flow, please let me know. I've been trying to figure out this issue since the tank started. The rescape helped with the flow but I didn't expect it to help by such little amount.