Vicorhe's 40 gallon breeder AIO

Hello all! Been lurking on this forum for a couple of years. It's about time I start a tank thread. However.... I'm out of the country and will be back in exactly one month (9/13).... Hope I stay committed to this thread.

So here's my tank so far： (Current FTS)




Tank info:
- mixed reef: Zoas, Rics, Euphyllia, and Sticks
- display portion of the AIO is about 30 Gallons (26L*18W*16H)
- filter portion of the AIO is about 10 Gallons (9L*18W*16*)
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My College nano is currently running; I will eventually move all the live stock from the nano to this tank.

Info about the nano:
- ~11g rimless tank
- pretty crammed with all the rock work and coral and fish
- most of the corals are great, the few that aren't are dying to neglect: coral placement->coral warfare, red slime, other corals over shadowing
- 2 clownfish.........
- I know this bad but I took down my larger tank earlier this year and didn't want to get rid of the clowns; I've had them for years
- Which is why I need an upgrade, they have been crammed in this tank since January
- They are doing great as of now though
- tank has been someone neglected in terms of regular glass and sand bed cleaning: All 4 sides of glass is full of coralline algae, some sand and coral is covered with red slime algae
- Rock is reef saver rock from bulk reef supplies -> weren't cured for leaking phosphates, so the rock has some pest algae growing in the nooks and crannies
- Finally aptasia, Before I left out of the country I had a few smaller ones and LARGE one!!!!!!

TLDR - Should I all live rock and corals to new tank even with all the aptasia and pest algae present in the current setup?



My main goal for the 40G is for it fully cycled and healthy by the time Reef A Palooza comes along (November 19).


What should I do?
- Run the nano separately and deal with the pests - water changes and peppermint shrimp; cycle the 40 G with bacteria.
- Move everything into the 40 and handle the pests and algae in the 40, fix everything before reef a palooza comes.
- Any other suggestions?


Thanks!!!!!

Here's a picture of the 11g in January when I kept up with glass cleaning:



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Here's one two days ago, glass is covered with algae so my uncle could only take a top down photo:



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Very nice tank! What are you going to do with the Aiptasia? I like the colors better in the photo I'm quoting.

- C. Smith

Thank you for the complement smith! I forgot the bulb combination but I remember there being a ATI blue plus for sure, just can't remember the second one. The tank mostly has common coral, the red patches are either red cyno or red macro algae, they each take up half of the red in the picture

As far as the aptasia goes; I was thinking of using aptasia-x on all the ones I see; after that I'll add in several peppermint shrimp to take care of the rest.

In my older living room tank(taken down before christmas last year), I tried all sorts of methods: peppermint shrimp , aptasia eating filefish, concentrated kalkwassar, aptasia-x , and even this -(WARNing CRinge worthy and loud audio)----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67BV1wHHzU

Kalkwasser, aptasia-x, and aptasia zapper had similar results -> while killing the few I could target, there were many more and I couldn't keep up with the rest of the aptasia multiplying.

The filefish I got was a complete miss, it never touched the aptasia at all, but I decided to keep this odd looking fish until one day I came back from college to see a couple of bones sucked in my wp-40 and bones scattered over the sandbed........

I had around 5 I the first batch of peppermint shrimp, keep in my my tank was 140g, so I lost all of them in almost the first day.
I got the second batch in reefapalooza one year, this time I got 12, but eventually all I could see was one. I think was this one peppermint that took care of all my aptasia!!!!!!!

PS, the 140g living room tank was the first time I encountered aptasia, I got it from some live rock I purchased on through this forum......(never again)

In the nano the aptasia probably came from frag plugs..........

- Victor

Little update->

Here in China asking uncles for favors
My uncle owns a construction company - had them grab some spare wood to make a simple stand. Maybe dirty but just needs a sanding and paint job . Any suggestions On which type of paint? Thinking of white.

Also thank you Wally for the light
Radion xr15w pro G3

-victor



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API Blue Plus? You have some good lighting. I've never owned peppermint shrimp, but they seem very effective at eradicating Aiptasia. I've heard of some people using a laser to eliminate their Aiptasia... crazy stuff man!
Thanks for providing me with a brief history of your Aiptasia struggle. It was very interesting to read.

- C. Smith

It's a pleasure! I'll get the other bulb when I'm back. Lasers too dangerous .

-Victor


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So I'm finally back in the states! Been waiting to put in the acrylic sheets. Will get silicon soon! -Victor


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Here are some pics!


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current fish tank shot!
-Victor


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Wow I love the idea of an in tank sump! I've never seen this before, did you have the acrylic pieces cut online?

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Hey Scott!
When I was in China I found a shop that makes signs with acrylic; I had them custom cut and drill acrylic sheets, I also had them make a media rack.
-Victor


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Very nice idea. Love it

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Welding sheets on.
-Victor


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What technique did you use to weld the sheets? And what are the sheets made out of? :wavey:

- C. Smith

The sheets are cell cast acrylic. I used weld-on (4) the liquid one to weld the sheets together. Not much technique, just a triangular right angle ruler for measurements, tap and lotion bottles to hold the sheets perpendicular to the large sheet, and the clamp to also keep the sheets steady while applying weld on.

-Victor


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Update on the 11g:
After being apart for three months with the tank, the tank has been overrun by aptasia and red cyno. This was expected as there were no water changes done during this time(I instructed my uncle not to mess with the tank) and with about 8 gallons of water volume, two clown fishes is a high bioload. Though things seemed bad, a few corals thrived, a couple died under the cyno, the rest were barely alive and struggling. I decided to relocate all the corals I could get out of the tank in a temporary tank that will stay until the 40g is cycled. Since i glued all my rock into one structure I scrapped off as many coral from that rock as possible and let that rock dry out. Most of the aptasia. I also have a smaller rock with some Rics and yumas on it; I put it with the coral in the temp tank. There are a couple of significantly sized aptasia in this rock so I plan to drill and shatter this rock to harvest the Rics and yumas. The temp tank consists of a ecoxotic pro module 18watt led fixture, a heater, and a Maxine's for flow. Filtration would be daily water changes and maybe a skimmer once it is clean. So far nothing has died after moving into the temp tank.


The following is a pic of my first coral. Back then I had a jbj picotope. I went to the local fish store to get some advice---"use our fish tank water and pour in half a bottle of bacteria(microbactor7);you should be ready to get fish and coral in two days". And as suggested I went two days later to pick up two corals, a zoa rock and torch coral. I forgot the original color of the Zoas, the entire colony of Zoas melted within the first two days, I thought the zoa rock was dead; but two my surprise I noticed one polyp was alive a week or two later. The torches coral slowly died in the span of a month. This is the story of my first coral. Since then the one polyp grew into a mini colony, then died down to couple and repeat. 5 more tank transfers later- here it is. It was one of the corals to thrive during the three months; 9polyps to currently maybe 30?

-Victor


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Everything is still pissed from the transfer..........


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