1st Marine Reef IM20 Fusion - May 2020 UPDATE

[fishfreak0114]

Polyclad flatworm?

[Lugmos12]

Removed the flatworm. I haven't see any others.

 

I moved some corals around to adjust for better flow.

I am slowly going to take the sand out of the tank since it is messy. If anybody knows of any sand that you recommend, please let me know.

 

 

 

[StephLionfish]

It looks fantastic! 

[Lugmos12]

12 hours ago, StephLionfish said:

It looks fantastic! 

Thanks! I've done so many changes since I started with rockscape and placements of corals that everyday I'm afraid I'll wake up to a crashed tank

[StephLionfish]

Been there, done that! Removed some of my rubble bc they were covered in bubble algae and immediately had a NASTY outbreak of cyano. 

Your Euphyllias are gorgeous. Are they all locally bought?

 

[Lugmos12]

On 4/8/2018 at 1:07 PM, StephLionfish said:

Been there, done that! Removed some of my rubble bc they were covered in bubble algae and immediately had a NASTY outbreak of cyano. 

Your Euphyllias are gorgeous. Are they all locally bought?

 

One I brought from TSM Corals - the torch I believe. Others I bought from reefers in the area.

 

[Lugmos12]

I added a scarlet cleaner shrimp this week but I rarely see him venture out to explore the tank.

[Lugmos12]

Front and back FTS:

 

[Lugmos12]

Anyone have any idea of my current stocklist:

1 cleaner shrimp

1 nassarius snail

2 ocellaris clowns

1 green BTA

 

 

could I add another cleaner shrimp? I know I can't add another fish.

I removed the dottyback because it began to attack ALL my snails.

[Christopher Marks]

In a tank this size I would avoid adding a second cleaner shrimp. They can grow fairly large, but they also get quite aggressive about stealing food from coral and fish when working together as a team. Feeding time could become a bit of a headache.

[Lugmos12]

1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

In a tank this size I would avoid adding a second cleaner shrimp. They can grow fairly large, but they also get quite aggressive about stealing food from coral and fish when working together as a team. Feeding time could become a bit of a headache.

I'm gonna add snails back into the tank?

 

I also forgot to say I have an emerald crab too. Would adding another emerald crab be a bad idea?

[Lugmos12]

No more hair algae.

I have a ton of sponges growing in the tank - not sure if this will cause problems in the future.

 

My next step is to add a Yellow Fiji Leather for some color in the tank.

 

I think I am sticking to just soft corals and euphylia.

[Lugmos12]

Dealing with some heat issues. Probably due to location (small room, little air circulation). Thinking of using small clip on fan. 

[Lugmos12]

UPDATES:

 

 

Tank is now 11 months old. It is doing great.

I upgraded from Jebao SW2 to a Aqamai KPS; the Jeabo began having issues 2-3 months after I purchased it. It is now solely used to mix salwater during water changes.

 

Had a minor setback in mid to late May when the Montipora Setosa started to bleach. The bleaching has stopped. I found a HUGE polyclad worm in the tank yesterday. This is the second one I found. The first was tiny. I had been losing snails over the past few months and I'm wondering if this polyclad had anything to do with that.

 

On to better news:

GSP is really taking off right now.

The GBTA is doing great and I think it's grown. It looks happy based on the fact that it hasn't lost its bubbles AND it has not moved AT ALL since I placed it in the tank.

The Pocillopora Damicornis is also growing big. It's about 6x in size and I now have two frags growing from the original.

The frogspawn how has two heads. The purple tipe hammer has three and the torch is still just one, which makes me think it's a wall and not the branching type.

 

Down below is a picture of the tank as of today, the 4" polyclad worm, another critter I found which I believe is a copepod (is it not?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lugmos12]

So far the clowns have ignored the BTA. But today I saw the female clown plunge her head into the anemone a few times.

[Lugmos12]

Tank turned 1 year on July 6th, 2018.

 

I've put this tank through A LOT of changes in a short period of time. I will say that, except for a 3 week period, I've kept up with weekly water changes. I do test periodically but I usually keep a close eye on the corals. I only lost 1 coral (a red montipora setosa) that bleached after I did not conduct water changes for 3 weeks.

 

A lot of lessons learned.

 

Just to sum a few things I wish I did:

taken my time planning out a rockscape before adding corals

never buying the Jebao SW2 (it sucks)

bought a paired Ocellaris pair instead of the generic Petco clowns

 

I believe my ideal tank is a 20 gallon penisular - but that will have to wait a while.

 

Tried and died:

a conch

a red sea star

 

Livestock that disappeared:

a green chromis

snails

 

Troopers:

hermit crabs

ocellaris clowns

Euphylia

GSP

Xenia

green BTA

utter chaos palys

green toadstool leather

 

for it's 1 year anniversary I bought an AI Prime HD (on sale); the Current USA Orbit light on my tank currently sits very close to the water and I don't like it there - it gets in the way when fidgeting inside the tank.

 

Future Plans:

• an ATO as well to give the tank more stability.
• add a fiji toadstool leather

 

Thank to everyone in this community who responded to my questions and concerns. It is much appreciated 😜

 

 

 

 

[Lugmos12]

Added an AI Prime HD. Still playing with the settings.

[Lugmos12]

I have a little red slime (cyanobacteria) outbreak which I believe is a result of overfeeding 😕

[Lugmos12]

It's not red slime. It's some kind of brown/green algae. I don't think it's hair algae. I've decreased the light intensity to see if that helps. I'm pretty sure i'm not overfeeding.

[McCune]

How did you like the current orbit that is what I am going to use on my Fluval Evo. Want a low tech light that is not to intense only doing low light stuff in my tank 

[Lugmos12]

20 hours ago, McCune said:

How did you like the current orbit that is what I am going to use on my Fluval Evo. Want a low tech light that is not to intense only doing low light stuff in my tank 

It worked fine for the time that I had it but I found the lack of customization annoying. The AI Prime HD is much better to work with.

[WV Reefer]

Any more flatworm updates? I think I spotted a giant one in my 75 Gallon and am trying to plan a course of action. I don’t know if I should try to trap it or just wait and try to catch it while it’s committing a murder. 🤔

 

 

[Lugmos12]

10 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Any more flatworm updates? I think I spotted a giant one in my 75 Gallon and am trying to plan a course of action. I don’t know if I should try to trap it or just wait and try to catch it while it’s committing a murder. 🤔

 

 

I haven't seen any others. I caught mine by accident after lights off. They HATE light so wait for lights offs and a flashlights to look around the tank.

[WV Reefer]

15 minutes ago, Lugmos12 said:

I haven't seen any others. I caught mine by accident after lights off. They HATE light so wait for lights offs and a flashlights to look around the tank.

That’s good to hear. I keep reading that it’s rare to have a bunch of them because they are so large. I’m hoping to ambush mine! ??

[Lugmos12]

On 9/10/2018 at 9:04 PM, WV Reefer said:

That’s good to hear. I keep reading that it’s rare to have a bunch of them because they are so large. I’m hoping to ambush mine! ??

The first two I found were small. The biggest one must have been about 3-4 inches. I have no idea how it got in the tank or for how long it was there.