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Hi everyone. I've decided to participate in the 365 day challenge in NR. 🙂 Background: This tank is actually 4 years and ~3 months-old, However, it was always used as a halfway tank of sorts - meaning, I rotate livestock in this tank pretty often before moving the animals to other tanks. It was always treated as a 'spare' tank, and sometimes a hospital tank. For the past 1 year++, it was run exclusively as a FOWLR. But I've decided to strip it down and convert it to a full reef tank. So this will be a reboot. Even though the rocks are very old, everything else (except a few existing fish and inverts) will be entirely new. 🙂 Theme/Concept: 'Tropical Jungle'. I live in the tropics and I'm drawing inspiration from local places I've visited throughout my life. The real jungle is dense but beautiful. For this tank, I'll be using different types of corals and macros to fit the 'jungle' theme. For example: 'Flowers' = Clove polyps/Xenia 'Mushrooms' = Mushrooms 'Grass' = GSP 'Trees' = Green Torch/Green Leather Corals 'Bushes/Undergrowth' = Various types of Macro (Caulerpa/Chaeto/Galaxaura/Halimeda etc.) Specifications: 10G cube tank with built-in mini sump at the back of the tank Rimless 8mm Crystal White Glass Equipment: 500 L/Hr Astro Return Pump Sobo Mini Wavemaker (4000 L/Hr) 1x PAR 38 LED (36W) ' 1x Aquazonic LED (17W) Rocks & Sand: ~3.5 kg of cured, mature LR (>4-years-old) ~3kg of coarse aragonite sand (brand new) Salt: Fritz RPM Media: Filter Floss Activated Carbon Coral Stones (in zipped up mesh bags) RowaPhos Fish: Bicolor Blenny (Dusky) Occy Clownfish (Pisces) Inverts: 2x Turban Snails 1x Pink Legged Hermit Crab (Derp) Corals: Red/Green Favites Purple Encrusting Montipora Green Encrusting Montipora Red Pavona John Deere Leptastrea Green Leptastrea Duncan Coral Red People Eater Zoanthids Green Zoanthids Green-skirted Purple Zoanthids Orange-skirted Red Zoanthids Rainbow Implosion Palythoa Red Acan *Unknown Acans/Blastos Pom Pom Xenia Green Torch Coral Red Fungia Orange Rhodactis Mushroom Teal Green Discosoma Mushroom Bullseye Rhodactis Mushroom Green Kenya Tree Brown Toadstool Leather Coral Alien Pox Cyphastrea Macroalgae: Leaf Caulerpa Blade Caulerpa Chaeto *TBA: Livestock: Assorted Corals 2x Turban Snails Assorted Macroalgae 1x Cleaner/Fire Shrimp Equipment: 1x Cooling Fan 1x Thermometer 1x Mini-Skimmer (*Only if necessary, otherwise this will be a skimmerless system) The tank is currently located downstairs, in my library/art room. The present water temp. spikes up to 31.5'C on very hot days, which makes it unsuitable to host any coral atm. So, for now, I'll refrain from adding any corals until I can purchase a new mini fan. Macroalgae can survive in this heat however, so I'll be adding macro first to the tank. Today morning, I stripped down the tank, drained/emptied it and tossed out the old LS. Here's my condiment pic: And here's how the tank looked like this morning: I even drained the sump chambers at the back of the tank, and removed the remaining water using kitchen towels. My livestock and LR was kept soaked in a separate container while I did this: FTS 1/3/2020:

I've had this hermit crab since November, sold to me listed as a blue leg from Petco. Obviously it isn't a blue leg, and it has grown 4x its size within 6 months. The other two hermit crabs I bought with it seemed to have disappeared within 2 weeks, so I assume it's aggressive. Thankfully it hasn't killed any of my snails yet. I've looked for hours trying to figure out what kind it is. It's like a mix between a zebra, thinstripe, and yellow tip. Any ideas?

This little fellow was sold as a blue-leg in a batch of blue-legs, however it seems to mostly be nocturnal and hides with its' shell-facing out in rock-crevices during the day. Its' growth rate has been alarming compared to the other hermits in the tank and as its' gotten bigger it certainly-doesn't resemble them much either. It has kind of yellow, off-brown-green (bronze?) stripes on white-legs with a mottled white-body and spotted-claw, and bright-orange antennae. It doesn't really look similar to any species I'm familiar with. So far I can't say I've noticed any signs of it being a bad crab for the system, but some snails have seemingly-been thinned out (hard to tell for certain) and I have been having issues with a few corals (and I like to know what's in my tank anyway >_<).

Can anyone tell me what the hell this is on my hermit?! I just spotted it .

Hi, recently bought a hermit crab for my tank (no corals, build journal yet to be posted). It was in the non-reef safe tank of the lfs, but I have some doubts. Mainly because it was listed as a hairy hermit and there’s no resemblance to hairy hermit crabs. Instead he looks like a large electric blue with orange striped legs instead of blue and blue eye stalks. His claws are symmetrical. A quick pass on google search showed he might be from Hawaii and he was in the Calcinus sp. genus. He’s in a large nassarius shell, so he’s definitely not a dwarf hermit. Anyone know what species he is or have any experience with this type of hermit? I’m not planning on getting rid of him if he is not reef safe, but curious to know if I just paid $15 for a hermit that should’ve been $4 😛.

Hey guys, I have a few questions about hermit crabs. Please don’t judge me, I just need information please. I have 4 hermit crabs, I’ve had them for around 2-3 weeks and I love them so much. I’ve been reading information about them and I’ve come across some pages that say they need to molt into new shells, and that the tank keeper needs to buy shells and put them inside the tank. Can somebody give me some more information on this? If I do need to buy some shells, can anyone tell me a good place to buy them, and how many I should buy for 4 hermit crabs? 2 of them are pretty large, and 2 of them are much smaller. Thanks in advance.

Looking for a good chunk of coral that's littered with these guys to place in my 20 gallon. Will need to know what you feed them, the coloration on them, in which coral they're residing in, and how long they've been in your system (Pictures are highly appreciated). Local is preferred, shipping isn't out of the question.

Hello, I noticed today that one of my chromis is missing. I checked all the caves and even took the rocks out and I could not find him. I looked at the floor, back of the cabinet and the back of the JBJ nano. its not there. I'm afraid that it dies and was consumed by my cleaners. My question is do you think 6 hermit crabs, 1 damsel, 2 clowns, 1 fire shrimp and 3 turbo snails can devour a small fish within 24 hrs?