ReefTaco's Waterbox Mini Peninsula 25 Gallon

[ReefTaco]

Hello fellow reefers

 

well here is my belated tank journal for my waterbox mini peninsula 25 gallon. i recently upgraded from a pico Fluval Evo 5 gallon, and i have made much progress. i have documented most of my progress, so this will be a photo heavy journal. I would like to invite you fellow reefers to join me in my reef keeping journey.

 

Equitment

• Tank: Waterbox Mini Peninsula 25 gallon 23.6"×15.7"×15.7"
• Return pump: Sicce syncra silent 1.0 - 251GPH
• Lighting: AI Prime 16 HD
• Filtration: intank Floss holder, 4oz of carbon/GFO, 24oz of MarinePure Bio gems 
• Skimmer: Icecap K1 nano
• Circulation: Sicce nano 1000 and Hydor 425 nano
• Temperature control: inkbird ITC 308A WIFI, and TP link kasa wifi outlets
• Heater: Aqueon pro 150 Watt heater

 

Livestock:

Fish

• Green Clown Goby
• Blue Neon Goby x2
• Watchman Goby
• Midas Blenny
• Bengal Cardinal x2

Invertebrate 

• Sexy shrimp X 11
• porcalien crab X 1
• Scarlet hermits X 4
• blue legged hermits X 7
• nassarius snail X 2
• Astrea Turbo snail X 10
• Mexican Turbo snail X 1

Coral

• Discosoma Mushroom X 7
• Rhodactis Mushroom X 8
• Yuma Ricordea X 2
• Florida Ricordea X 5
• Zoanthids X 10
• Palythoa X 7
• Green star polyps
• Chalice X 3
• Blue trumpet, Caulastrea curvata 
• Micromussa X 9
• Duncan, Duncanopsammia
• Green singularia Leather
• Green Toadstool Leather
• Green long polyp toadstool
• Rock Flower Anemone X 7
• Montipora x6
• Favia x5

 

 

the X for corals mean different species 

and the X for inverts is multiples of the same species

 

FTS 01/17/2022

 

[ReefTaco]

Photo dump coming soon to get you guys caught up. 

[ReefTaco]

so in the beginning of January of 2022 i got a great deal on a waterbox mini peninsula 25 i just couldnt pass up 

once i got the tank i got to work on getting equipment for the tank, get a stand as i didnt trust my current cabinet to support the weight and get started on a new aquascape. 

 

 

 

i decided to make my own stand but keep my current cabinet. so i designed the stand to overlay the cabinet using 2x10s its a very simple design actually. 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Good luck with the new set up. Following.

[ReefTaco]

once i got the stand made i got started right away with the aquascape. i got so coral limestone from my backyard and with a hammer chisel and epoxy i got to work. i also bought a couple piece of tonga branch rock to add to the aesthetic 

 

 

this is almost the final draft. i figured i would have to take out rock or swap rocks for teh current rock in my 5 gallon. 

[ReefTaco]

after the stand was made and painted and the aquascape constructed i got started right away with filling the tank with water and starting the cycle

 

 

after cycling for a couple of days i put some CUC 

 

 

in the mean time i was on the search for a lid and i decided to make my own. i used a sheet of 3/8 acrylic and a sippy cup for a feeder cup 

 

[ReefTaco]

after cycling for a week i did the transfer from the 5 gallon over to the new tank 

 

 

after the transfer was complete i was quite surprised by the amount of coral in my 5 gallon. the 25 gallon was practically full already 😅

 

 

[ReefTaco]

well after a couple after the transfer the corals where getting used to the tank and new lights. 

shortly after i got some new corals

 

i got an amazing deal from a local reefer on a green toadstool leather

 

 

 

 

 

i also got a killer deal on a white zombie paly

[ReefTaco]

the tank has been chugging along nicely i added new fish. a neon blue goby, a midas blenny and bengal cardinal

 

 

 

 

 

[ReefTaco]

week passes and i get into some local reefing clubs and boy is it great. i forget how helpful reefers are and its always a pleasure to buy corals from other hobbyists. i picked up some rasta zoas, and won a rainbow acan in a club raffle and got a free piece of red montipora

 

 

rasta zoas

 

 

rainbow acan micomussa

 

red montipora

[ReefTaco]

the waterbox mini 25 has been settling nicely. i upgraded the return pump to a sicce 1.0 and added a skimmer after month of setting up 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ReefTaco]

only a couple of days after putting the skimmer its doing its job very very well. i highly recommend the icecap k1 nano skimmer 

 

 

i bought a jawbreaker mushroom for a really good deal from a local reefer 

 

[ReefTaco]

tanks been chugging along seems like every week ive been picking up corals lol every since ive found local groups of reefs there are just so many cheap coral deals lol 

 

got another green and purple acan/micromussa 

 

i won another coral raffle a chunky piece of raja rampage chalice 

 

got a free chunck of purple montipora from a local reefer 

[ReefTaco]

well another week went by everyone has been doing great and then guess what i got more new corals from locals lol 

 

got a deal on a long polyp toadstool leather, ive been on the hunt for a weeping willow but they are hard to come by 

 

got some sunny D zoas 

 

 

some mind blown palys 

 

also got a keylime mango chalice

 

finally a little rainbow florida ricordea 

[ReefTaco]

another week and some more corals 😅

 

got some gobstoppers zoas and necular green palys in the back ground 

 

i cant find an id for these palys 

 

one of my coworkers that is also a reefer gave me some half deal acans and then i got more from a local reefer lol acan/micromussa garden is in full swing 

 

one of the micromussas i picked up for a good deal 

[ReefTaco]

well i learned a lesson today. always research you animals and corals. my firefish committed harakiri and jumped the tank i figured since its a dart fish and the midas blenny was a different species i thought they could coexists, since they are peaceful fish. i was wrong and midas blennies are known to go after firefish 😥

 

 

in the mean time i got some more zoas and going to make a zoa garden on the tonga branch and doing a mini paly garden on the old rocks on the right side of the tank 

 

i think i have a problem. looks like a baby bobbit worm 😬

[ReefTaco]

well after a couple of days i decided on a new fish i got a little watchman goby 

 

 

 

jawbreaker is getting bigger 

 

i got come orange clove polyps 

 

my black widow yuma is not doing well and im trying to revive it 

 

 

in other news my raja chalice is not a very friendly coral 

[debbeach13]

Sorry about the fish jumping. The tank is really filling up and looks great.

[Merthynia]

On 4/12/2022 at 10:17 PM, Instant_taco said:

i think i have a problem. looks like a baby bobbit worm 😬

Came here while searching for Eunice worms myself. I just discovered a small one in my sand bed up against the glass tonight. I managed to get it out after accidentally chopping it in thirds. Did you happen to catch yours? Mine for sure had at least 4 if not 5 little antenna at it’s mouth and they move INCREDIBLY fast in the sand. 

[ReefTaco]

3 hours ago, Merthynia said:

Came here while searching for Eunice worms myself. I just discovered a small one in my sand bed up against the glass tonight. I managed to get it out after accidentally chopping it in thirds. Did you happen to catch yours? Mine for sure had at least 4 if not 5 little antenna at it’s mouth and they move INCREDIBLY fast in the sand. 

It was definitely some type of eunice worm(Bobbitt family). I've found more then one but they've all been tiny so far. I check every night. I'm make a worm trap to see if I can catch more. Luckily my tank is small so if there is a big one there's not many places to hide.

[Merthynia]

2 minutes ago, Instant_taco said:

It was definitely some type of eunice worm(Bobbitt family). I've found more then one but they've all been tiny so far. I check every night. I'm make a worm trap to see if I can catch more. Luckily my tank is small so if there is a big one there's not many places to hide.

Truly the stuff of my nightmares. This was in my IM 30L and I have an unfortunately large array of areas for them to hide. I saw one other incredibly tiny one, but I could not get it out of the sandbed due to it's tiny size and how fast they move. I'll keep my fingers crossed that your worm trap works well!

[ReefTaco]

a simple trap like this does wonders

Bobbitt worms are no fun. I'm thinking since I've found more then one on the small size. I think i have a tiny variety of Eunice worms. Either way they gotta to go. 

[Merthynia]

That seems pretty straight forward. I’m going to get this set up this week and I’ll report back hopefully soon!

[ReefTaco]

It's been a long while since I've been active on here some I'm just gonna do a huge photo dump and is anyone has a question just ask ☺️. The tank is been on auto pilot for the last couple of months. I finally dialed in my tank after I discovered my nutrients were bottoming out. I now dose No3 and Po4 and I set up a small X1 Bluetooth dose to dose Tropic marine AllForReef. Talk about a game changer. The tank exploded with growth and everything is doing great.