kalmanb0y's AIO 12g Long

[kalmanb0y]

Hello all, I'm a new reefer who recently set up my first reef tank. It's a Mr. Aqua 12 Gallon Long with a DIY section made from 1/4" black acrylic.

 

Equipment

Mr. Aqua 12g Long (Low Iron) with DIY AIO Insert

2x AI Prime 16 HDs

Cobalt Aquatics Neo Therm

Sicce Micraplus 158gph

Ecotech Vortech MP10WQD

Innovative Marine ChaetoMax 18w

 

Additives

Tropic Marin Pro Reef

Tropic Marin All-for-Reef

 

Rock/Sand

Caribsea Special Grade

Marco Rocks Reef Saver

 

Test Kits

Hanna Salinity Tester

Hanna Alkalinity Colorimeter

 

Fish

Ocellaris Clownfish (Jadeveon)

Royal Gramma

Firefish

 

Invertebrates

Fire Shrimp #1

2x Halloween Hermit Crabs

Fire Shrimp #2

3x Trochus Snails

 

Summer 2020

Bought the tank and all of the equipment, but then had construction in my room and had to postpone setting up the tank. One of the two AI Primes, had a malfunctioning Royal Blue channel, which would only run at max 5%, so I contacted AI support and they were very helpful and I got a new working light. I also worked on dremeling the rocks so that they would fit in the tank and I could clean around them. After the rocks were the right shape, I put them in a bucket of heated saltwater and added bacteria and some food.

 

 

Winter 2020

I cut the acrylic to size using the laser, cemented the pieces together, and siliconed them into place. I know silicone really isn't ideal for bonding to acrylic, but there isn't really any pressure so I'm not very worried. I also got my first fish, a clownfish, Jadeveon (after Jadeveon Clowney), and got my first tester corals, some zoas and a garf bonsai.

 

 

January 2021

I got some chaeto from my LFS, and gave it a dip in RO water to knock off any bristle worms. I got a fire shrimp and two halloween hermit crabs, but the crabs were not great algae eaters, were very large, and knocked corals off of the rocks. Then the bag (a disposable tea filter, stupid, I know) that held the carbon tore and sprayed tiny pellets into the return pump which sprayed them all over the tank. I drained the aquarium, cleaned the inside, and replaced all of the sand. The rocks had some hair algae, so I gave them a quick dip in peroxide. After this, the fire shrimp passed away, and one hermit crab also died. I got two new fish, a royal gramma and a firefish, and a new fire shrimp. The next day the clownfish jumped out of the tank. Later on my chaeto stopped growing and started dying, which caused a bacterial bloom. I started dosing iron, which stopped the bacterial bloom, but the chaeto never really grew any more. I ordered an LPS frag pack from Yourreef, which I am very happy with. 

 

 

February 2021

I caught the surviving crab and spot fed him to make sure he didn't end up like the first one. I put him in a tupperware, but this was a mistake, as this totally messed up the flow in the area right beside the sump, which caused 4 of my corals to develop brown jelly and die within literally a few hours. The next day I gave the remaining crab to a local reef store. A few days later a cyphastrea I really liked just barely touched the acro and lost alot of its flesh. When I tried to prune the chaeto, I also took the old carbon bag (now an unbleached cotton spice bag) out and put them in the same bowl, this carbon bag also tore and spilled carbon all into the chaeto. I would never had been able to get all of it out so I just chucked the chaeto. This also helped deal with the dino problem, as it helped raise the nitrate levels a bit and gave hair algae an edge. Now I had sme hair algae, so I got three trochus snails to help. The area they clean ends up very clean, but the area is also very small, so manual removing algae is more effective.