Mrs K's 40 Breeder - 1 year of reefing 😍

[MrsK]

Upgrading my 20 gallon high to a 40 Breeder because the 20 started a slow leak.

Never made a thread for the 20 gallon so I'll start with some background.

My husband was looking in the free section of Craigslist on 11/28 and there it was: 20 gallons with live rock, t5 lighting, water, hydrometer (which I never used), heater, and HOB filtration. 

I decided that I would take the crushed coral substrate out and replace with live sand. The picture is right after the water cleared. I ended up changing the scape because the rocks were too close to the glass on the left.

I added my first fish after the mini cycle caused by changing substrate. 2 Black Ocellaris Clowns; one much larger than the other. Sadly, the little guy didn't make it for long and I decided that I would have to QT any more fish.

On 12/31, I brought home my first corals: A purple tipped frogspawn, an orange and purple Ricordea Florida, a small colony of Twizzlers zoas and some Radioactive Dragon Eyes.

I added a green Rhodactis mushroom rock, Yellow/green candy cane, a red and orange acan lord, a Darth Mail polyp, an Eagle Eye polyp (freebie), and a few polyps of Radioactive Dragon Eyes (freebie) on January 20th.

On 02/04, I picked up a green and blue acan lord and a pink and purple Ricordea Yuma. I also got a small Mocha Ocellaris and into the QT he went.

As I said earlier, my 20 gallon started leaking on February 11th so I decided to upgrade to a 40 Breeder with a 10 gallon DIY refuge/sump.

This is the beginning of my journey.

 Checking for leaks.

[Christopher Marks]

How cool to have found a FREE nano reef! What luck it would spring a leak though, sometimes fate decides to upgrade aquariums  

 

Looking forward to seeing how your new nano reef progresses @MrsK!

[MrsK]

A sad update:

Filled the tank with new salt water. Checked parameters- All good

Transferred rocks, inverts and coral into 40 gallon.

My clowns stayed in the QT during the transfer so that they weren't stressed while things were getting moved about.

Every thing was looking good, albeit a bit cloudy.

The next morning, the tank was still cloudy but everything looked ok. Zoas were closed still but I figured that they were just pissed. I went off to work thinking that I'd come home to a happy tank.

I did not come home to a happy tank ☹

My frogspawn was melting and the candy cane was receding.

Salinity : 1.026

Ammonia : 0

Nitrite : 0

Nitrate : 2.5

Alk : 10.6, a bit high, I know

Calc : 420

Mag : 1260

 

I thought it was a lighting or flow issue at first so I moved the frogspawn and candy cane to different locations. They got worse and worse. I changed the filter floss and added carbon. No change by the next morning. Frogspawn is only a skeleton at this point.

The candy cane was continuing to either. Shrooms and Rics were wilting. Zoas tightly closed. Parameters checked again, still no Ammonia or Nitrite. Nitrate stable. Hermit, emerald crab, snails all accounted for.

Water still cloudy...searched a bit and thought it may be a bacteria bloom, but I couldn't find anyone that had a full tank crash.

When I got home today, my water was less cloudy but everything was on the decline. I did find that my 2 turbo snails were upside-down on the substrate but still moving. I placed them back on the rocks, only to find out that they had died. The water was smelly so I did a water change approx 10%. Going to do a larger one tomorrow. I'm pretty devastated.

Another odd occurrence, bristle worms are everywhere. Some the size of a grain of rice and some a couple inches long, all over the substrate. At first I thought the big one was dead so I went to fish it out and it curled into a ball. When I took my hand away it started to wiggle and little tiny ones appeared next to it...

Fingers crossed that my Zoas don't kick the bucket.

[MrsK]

All parameters have stayed stable and my clowns were moved in to their new home. I believe that they have paired because they never leave each others side. My zoas are still closed, with the exception of one eagle eye polyp. It does not open as much as before. I'm going to dip the others that are still on their plugs today. I hope this helps them not be pissed off anymore

[Pjanssen]

What did you do about all of he bristle worms? They could be irritating your Zoas. Glad things in general turned around for you 

[MrsK]

 

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

What did you do about all of he bristle worms? They could be irritating your Zoas. Glad things in general turned around for you 

I haven't seen another bristleworm since they came to the surface of the substrate and died. I then sucked them out with my turkey baster.

[MrsK]

Everything seems to be stabilizing well. 

Got my beautiful Nanobox Hybrid from @DaveFason and hung it this weekend. 

This shot is with T5s only. I can't wait for my corals to acclimate so I can see what this baby can really do 

 

 

[DaveFason]

Looking great! 

-Dave

[MrsK]

I still can't believe I won! The frags I bought plus my beautiful ROYGBIV came in today. It's such an honor that @Legendary Corals chose my name! I'll post pics when the lights are on tomorrow ?

[MrsK]

Sad update: My red legged hermit ate my ROYGBIV. Came home from work yesterday and he was happily munching away. He has been permanently banished to the sump. I'm devastated 😭

[MrsK]

I've been adding corals sporadically since my last post. I got a new Frogspawn to replace the one I lost in the move. I got a cool random frag pack during the @World Wide Corals Reef2Reef sale last month, which included my first SPS, a green Birds Nest. I've become pretty attached to the frag and have decided that I'll probably be getting some more SPS in the future. I love watching the little polyps swaying in the current 😍

I'm pretty sure that I'm battling cyano at the moment. It's in the first picture and the one with the fish. If anyone can confirm this, that would be great.

Here's a few photos taken with my crappy phone. Enjoy and thanks for looking.

[DaveFason]

Great to see an update. If you want more SPS try easier types like more birdsnest and montis. The tank is still very new! 

 

-Dave

[MrsK]

@DaveFason

I'll be waiting for awhile before I get any more SPS.

[MrsK]

After getting multiple responses to my question of which algae was plaguing my tank, it was decided that I was fighting Dinos.

I promptly blasted as many pieces into the water column and sucked out as much stuck to rocks as possible.

I added an airstone and started to cover my tank. The original idea didn't work, bed sheets, so I got out the restaurant size tin foil.

 

Before:

 

72 hours later:

 

Other than the blackout, I dosed H2O2 @ 1 mL per 10 gallons water volume (4.5 mL) twice daily. I felt that I needed to be aggressive with the treatment and thankfully it paid  off. I was terrified that I would uncover the tank and everything would be dead but this morning when I woke up everything looked fine.

 

I don't plan to make any changes to the tank for awhile, other than adding the coral beauty that I have in my QT right now.

[Lula_Mae]

32 minutes ago, MrsK said:

After getting multiple responses to my question of which algae was plaguing my tank, it was decided that I was fighting Dinos.

I promptly blasted as many pieces into the water column and sucked out as much stuck to rocks as possible.

I added an airstone and started to cover my tank. The original idea didn't work, bed sheets, so I got out the restaurant size tin foil.

 

Before:

 

72 hours later:

 

Other than the blackout, I dosed H2O2 @ 1 mL per 10 gallons water volume (4.5 mL) twice daily. I felt that I needed to be aggressive with the treatment and thankfully it paid  off. I was terrified that I would uncover the tank and everything would be dead but this morning when I woke up everything looked fine.

 

I don't plan to make any changes to the tank for awhile, other than adding the coral beauty that I have in my QT right now.

Keep an eye out that they don't come back.  I've had them coming back in my tank with them and it's very annoying lol.

[MrsK]

Thanks for the advice @Lula_Mae. Fingers crossed 🤞

[teenyreef]

Just caught up on your thread! I was really sorry to hear about the ROYGIV zoa 😞

 

Fingers crossed your dinos don't come back. But it seems to be pretty common. A lot of people have posted that they had to do multiple blackouts before they were gone for good. Be persistent and don't get discouraged!

[MrsK]

1 week with no dino reoccurrence 🙈

[MrsK]

Week #2 without dinos.

 

Discovered a couple new things in the tank today.

A limpet on the front glass and some tiny baby Cerith snails on the glass and sandbed. I couldn't get pictures because my camera doesn't have a macro setting. Super cute little guys though.

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, MrsK said:

Week #2 without dinos.

 

Discovered a couple new things in the tank today.

A limpet on the front glass and some tiny baby Cerith snails on the glass and sandbed. I couldn't get pictures because my camera doesn't have a macro setting. Super cute little guys though.

Long ago, a member here used magnifying lenses, a jeweller's loupe, and a basic point and shoot camera to great effect for macros. That might be something you could play with. 

[MrsK]

5 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Long ago, a member here used magnifying lenses, a jeweller's loupe, and a basic point and shoot camera to great effect for macros. That might be something you could play with. 

I was just looking on Amazon my favorite place to shop (other than the LFS) and they have some neat little lenses that you can buy for your cell phone. I might try one of those.

[MrsK]

Got my Aqamai KPM yesterday. So far the app is driving me crazy but I expected this after reading reviews of the KPS. I'm normally pretty tech savvy but I think it will take some more tinkering to figure it out. (I've read pretty much everything out there about the app and watched all the videos too)

 

The unit itself is compact and runs super quiet. I can't compare it to any wavemakers, like Ecotech, but this little thing is powerful! My previous power heads were an Aqueon 500 and a small Hydor, can't remember the name right now.

 

I'll review more after I get the app figured out.

 

[A Little Blue]

Try to follow Aqamai vid instruction. Yes, setup is very frustrating and varies between devices, home network/firewall/WiFi and mobil network setups. They need to FIX IT.  

[MrsK]

Yikes, it's been awhile without an update! Still no return of the Dinos!!

 

The tank has been on autopilot for the last few months. It went through an ugly stage with hair algae and some slimy brown algae. Currently working to control a bubble algae outbreak, got two emerald crabs that are eating it up. The owner of the reef store I've been going to said that only the male crabs eat the algae so he sexed two and I brought them home. I had a month or so where I just was lazy with water changes so my corals weren't very happy.

Finally got some renewed vigor to make my little ocean box pretty again. Did a deep cleaning of the sump and tank...yuck!

My little tiny town is finally getting a LFS! I've had to travel over 100 miles to the closest store since getting the 20 gallon.

I  got my KPM dialed in to keep the flow random enough and strong enough. My acans are sprouting a bunch of new heads, my RFAs are fat and happy, and my frogspawn and hammer have doubled in size. Not too sure why, but my zoas are 

Now I just need some new corals and maybe a fish or two. My coral beauty died mysteriously last month and I was pretty upset because I had her in QT for 6 weeks before transferring to the DT...

 

Hoping to get an orange filter for my phone so I can start taking some pics and videos.

Thanks for checking out my journal 😁

[MrsK]

Just some pics to document the state of controlled chaos

This is Blenjamin. He's in QT. I also got a Flame Angel but he/she died mysteriously 2 days after bringing home.

Left side of the tank with the PolypLab lens kit