Gavin's IM 25

[Gsepanik]

Hey all! Been meaning to start a thread on here but got busy with life. Anyway, I had an IM10 SPS tank in highschool and sold everything (idiot move) when I moved to Colorado for college, thinking that I wouldn't set up another tank until I had my own House. That lasted for about 3 years and here I am rebuying everything that I once had, at much higher prices, in order to set this reef up. It has been cycled and has its first first and a mushroom coral (mainly for the coralline on the frag disc, not a big softie guy), but I have not taken updated photos yet. I will take more photos when I get home from school and work tonight if I feel up to it. My plans for this tank are everchanging, and I am unsure if I want to commit to another SPS dominated nano yet, but I'm sure it will happen eventually. For now I am planning on picking up a birdsnest at a local swap this weekend to use as a canary SPS so to speak, as well as nice encrusting coral for my lower rocks and a few zoanthids for the edges of the tank.

Equipment:
- Tank: IM 25 Lagoon
- Stand: custom built stand
- Lighting: noopsyche k7 pro (the bigger one lol, unsure on name at them moment)
- ATO: amazon cheapo and a 5 gallon home depot bucket resevoir
- Skimmer: Leaning icecap. Despite their low build quality I hear that they are little skimmate monsters
-Heaters: 2 75w heaters (take one out for water changes when needed), planning on getting an Inkbird shortly
- RODI: ROBuddy 50GPD
- FIltration: Running a filter sock on one side and a media caddy on the other. Have another media caddy in my closet that I may modify to run floss on top with chaeto in the bottom 2 chambers
- Media: Running carbon and GFO when needed
-Test Kits: using ATI (i know i know not great) for Nitrate and salifert for everything else
- 2 Bio bricks
-Return Pump: standard IM return pump
- Powerhead: Sicce nano

Fish Plans
- one mocha misbar clownfish (current resident)
- one wyoming white clownfish (current resident)
- either a smaller blenny or a small goby (future)
-Small wrasse (future)
- Naso tang ;]

Coral Plans
Current:
- Mushroom coral (got it for 5$ at LFS and mainly wanted the disc cause it has pink and purple coralline all over it)

- 5 unknown zoa varieties

-some weird blue encrusting coral from lfs, maybe psammocora 

- war coral favites

- jack o lantern lepto

- orange setosa

- green acan 

- green birdsnest 
Future:
- Red Dragon acro (have always loved the growth pattern)
- 2 plating acros with complimentary colors
-1 fuzzy milli (love fluffy sticks)
- Acan garden along one side of my tank where there is less light (2-3 decent colonies for my size tank)
- Zoa garden on base of rock
- 1 large encrusting coral (leaning favites)
-1 coral or anemone that provides decent movement in the water column on the peak of the smaller bommie

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will post updated photos with the new coral additions later this week

[Gsepanik]

Dealing with some diatoms right now but got the new additions into the tank. Here are some photos (still waiting to order some gel filters for the camera so some of the colars are a bit washed out):

 

[Gsepanik]

[Gsepanik]

Can't wait until the tank matures a bit and I can grab some acro frags. Right now I'm just waiting for some of the new frags to color up a bit and show some stable growth. I also want to grab a skimmer and get a little refugium going in the next month or so, so that I can grab another fish and feed a bit heavier while maintaining desirable nitrate levels. 

[WV Reefer]

2 hours ago, Gsepanik said:

Everything looks good so far. 😊

[Fish out of Water]

Off to a good start. Love the war coral pic. Following along since we have same set up. 

[Gsepanik]

17 minutes ago, Fish out of Water said:

Off to a good start. Love the war coral pic. Following along since we have same set up. 

Do you have a thread going? 

[Gsepanik]

some photos under the night blues. I hope my lepto colors up. I was inadvertently very rough with it trying to cut the stem off of the frag plug. It may or may not have shot across the room and hit the wall 😬
 

[debbeach13]

Welcome to NR and back to reefing. Everything looks great so far.

[Gsepanik]

5 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Welcome to NR and back to reefing. Everything looks great so far.

Thank you! 

[Gsepanik]

Hard to see in the photo but I think I am dealing with a bacterial bloom (cloudiness), gonna test some parameters and get some water mixing for a water change tonight

I also adjusted my return nozzles to create more surface agitation to keep the oxygen levels up.

[Gsepanik]

Otherwise nothing seems too pissed off but I am missing my 2 hermits. Maybe they died and caused this bloom? Maybe the bloom caused their death? Or hopefully they are just in some nooks eating algae.

[Fish out of Water]

I am betting your biological capacity is still building up. Leaving enough nutrients on the table for a slight bloom. Sounds like you're headed in the right direction. Interested in what your parameters look like. New tanks are always fun to figure out.

[Gsepanik]

25 minutes ago, Fish out of Water said:

I am betting your biological capacity is still building up. Leaving enough nutrients on the table for a slight bloom. Sounds like you're headed in the right direction. Interested in what your parameters look like. New tanks are always fun to figure out.

Just ran a quick test:

Ammonia: Between 0 and .25 ATI (closer to 0), seachem alert badge still says that its 0 

Nitrate: 10-15 ATI 

PH: 7.8 ATI 

So nothing crazy out of wack, I think it's just my tank figuring its stuff out. I also got a diatom bloom which is to be expected with a new tank. I am going out of town from Friday until Tuesday, which I am a bit concerned about. Overall as long as my ATO doesn't fail and I get this water change done tomorrow I'm sure everything will be fine. I'm hoping that I come back to some hair algae or something fun so I have an excuse to get my hands wet and bolster my CUC lol.

[Gsepanik]

So I did find one dead Hermit Crab this morning, which is unfortunate. It seemed like from the mount of decay he must've died yesterday or the day before. My cloudy water has cleared up in its own, but I am still going to do my weekly water change Wednesday and run some tests beforehand. I've been changing about 4 gallons per week, and ever since I spiked ammonia to start the cycle, and the initial nitrate spike of 120, my nitrated have stayed below 25. I sort of rushed my cycling process along, but so far my tank has stayed relatively stable.

[Gsepanik]

During the prep for my water change I finished construction of my custom HDPE Auto Top Off reservoir vIII. I figured I’d post a pic to inspire others to be creative and inventive. I find that it takes frequent practice to be able to construct such beautiful, functional pieces of reef equipment so I do not want to discourage anyone. Either way I promise you with enough practice and ingenuity you too could create something as unique and beautiful as this:

 

I will be selling them at reef stock Denver for 50$ each. They consist of a custom bucket and a lid with a singular hole in it. I am a one man team so creations like this take many hours of R&D, thus the price tag. 

[Gsepanik]

Completed the water change today and grabbed some new additions for my CUC. Looks like most of the cloudiness has cleared up and been replaced with an aggressive diatom bloom. Will test basic parameters tonight. For now let me introduce you to Checo, the Mexican Minister of Algae Defense (MMAD): 

 

yes his name is a formula one reference.

I also had to glue down all my frags in order to stop Checo from moving them into the sand for better cleaning access. Otherwise I grabbed 4 dwarf ceriths  and 2 Nass. 

[Gsepanik]

Just got home from a little trip down to Dallas. Everything seems alive and well in the tank except for my acan which seems a little upset. Somehow a zoanthid frag also got moved off of its frag plug, so that needs to get glued to some rock. I also spotted a bit of bubble algae on a frag. Should I do a hydrogen peroxide dip on the zoanthid frag it’s on?

 

 

[Gsepanik]

grumpy acan. Interested in where my parameters are at. Will update. 

[Gsepanik]

Ammonia: 0 (api)

nitrate: 0

ph : 8 

salinity: 1.024 (accidentally left ato on and pulled my media caddy and filter sock so it should go back up after some evap )

no phosphate test yet, will test Ca Alk and Mg after 4 gallon water change tonight. 

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Gsepanik
Typo

[Fish out of Water]

I despise bubble algae, so I would be dipping it. Once that algae gets a foothold, it is a pain to get out.

[Gsepanik]

I dipped it during my water change but I think I may have dipped it too long or perhaps had too strong a concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Otherwise everything else is happy once again. Moved some of the zoa frags to the rock work and my acan is fully open again.

here’s the frag I dipped, I don’t think it’ll make it: 

[Gsepanik]

No real updates on the tank. Everything is going well and the coral I dipped has recovered. I’m having trouble with low nutrients as my tank is fairly sterile still. I feed pellets everyday and a few fall to the Sandbed. I also feed 1-2 cubes frozen everyweek but still have 0 nitrates 0 ammonia. I’m considering adding a small blenny in order to get my nitrates up to 5-10. I also have a skimmer coming in a couple weeks but I’m unsure if I will need it quite yet. Opinions? Should I just wait for my tank to mature a little bit, feed heavily, or add a third fish to increase nutrient availability ?  

[sapling]

well sounds like its been a minute since any additions fish stocking wise, from your test results Id imagine would be safe to consider your third fish here. was there a blenny you want that you had in mind? 

 

I'm sure the clownfish would also appreciate being fed more haha, so they won't be against that decision,

[Gsepanik]

On 12/5/2022 at 5:54 PM, sapling said:

well sounds like its been a minute since any additions fish stocking wise, from your test results Id imagine would be safe to consider your third fish here. was there a blenny you want that you had in mind? 

 

I'm sure the clownfish would also appreciate being fed more haha, so they won't be against that decision,

I ended up adding a tiny little lawnmower blenny, and right after I did I started getting some algae growth to feed him lol. Couldn’t have worked out any better. Tested today and my nitrates are 0 again, so more frozen food going in later.