Hi everyone! My office 10g reef tank in Irvine

[JojosReef]

Been lurking here for a while, mostly checking out the buying/selling side, but figure I'd go ahead and get started with my new office tank.



Tank: Innovative Marine Fusion 10g AIO cube
Rock/Sand: Tampa Bay Saltwater Premium nano rocks and gulf sand
Water: LFS bought, made from RODI + Red Sea Coral Pro
Filtration: Intank Media basket chamber 1, floss, BRS GAC, Purigen, Phosguard as needed, seachem mmatrix (currently being seeded in 1st tank with Microbacter7)
Flow: Stock mightyjet 326gph, with VCA adapter/Y-adapter/2x 0.25in RFG with extra locline for positioning
Lighting: AI Prime 16 HD
Skimmer: none
UV: AquaShield 10W univeral with pump im chamber 2
Temp control: Aqueon 100w 78F preset in return chamber and a USB fan attached to gooseneck light mount, controlled by Inkbird set to 77F +/- 1
Testing: all Red Sea kits (lesson: Get a reliable kit from the get-go), considering a Hanna for phosphates

Stocking plan (* for sure):
1. See what hitchhikers arrive with the TBS rock
2. 1x tailspot blenny*
3. 3x sexy shrimp*
4. 1x spotted Porcelain anemone crab*
5. 1x Peppermint shrimp*
6. 1x Skunk or fire cleaner shrimp
7. 1x Pompom crab*
8. 5x astrea snails*
9. 10x dwarf cerith snails*
10. 5x trochus snails
11. 1x Nassarius vibex*
12. 1x fighting conch*
13. 5x FL ceriths*
14. Feather duster
15. Assorted snails (e.g. bumblebees, periwinkles, money cowrie, etc.)
16. Red macros (e.g. flat branch gracilaria, dragon's breath, etc.)
17. Green macros (e.g. mermaid's fan, shaving brush, codium, etc.)
18. 3+ rock flower anemones*
19. 1x trachy*
20. Golden octospawn*
21. Other Euphyllia
22. 1x branching GSP*
23. 1x orange fungia plate*
24. 1x crocea clam
25. 1x red or green monti cap
26. 1x Duncan
27. 1x Mocha occelaris clownpig (OR)
28. 1x Green dragonet (to be fed liquid food from RUSalty or Reef Nutrition)
29. 1x BTA (if getting a clown)
30. Other LPS/easy SPS

Very invert heavy with an RFA focus. Will learn as I go regarding how much of this fits in a 10g...

 

[madatom]

Welcome!

Looks like a pretty heavy stocking plan. The IM10 might be too small for all those inverts … they might fight each other for hiding space.

But I suspect you’re slowly adding animals in.


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[sorinwilcox]

That looks awesome! I can't wait to see how you fit that livestock in that tank! It is going to be beautiful!

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[JojosReef]

Two more angles of the current setup. It is getting wet on Thursday the 13th. Gotta learn how to set up the AI Prime by then!

 

[JojosReef]

Welcome!

Looks like a pretty heavy stocking plan. The IM10 might be too small for all those inverts … they might fight each other for hiding space.

But I suspect you’re slowly adding animals in.


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Yes, will end up scaling back. Priority will be the sexy shrimp and pom pom crab. Maybe a cleaner, maybe not. Was also looking into a Pederson (sp?), but they are hard to find.

For snails, will likely go big in the beginning to keep algae under control and start to transfer to my home tank as things stabilize. Sound about right? No hermits in this tank. I have one naughty hermit in my home tank and it JUST manages to stay in my good graces without getting sent to the LFS.

Most likely will stick with just the tailspot blenny, but keep toying with the idea of a clown/BTA or trying to get a trained dragonet...

 

[madatom]

Yes, will end up scaling back. Priority will be the sexy shrimp and pom pom crab. Maybe a cleaner, maybe not. Was also looking into a Pederson (sp?), but they are hard to find.

For snails, will likely go big in the beginning to keep algae under control and start to transfer to my home tank as things stabilize. Sound about right? No hermits in this tank. I have one naughty hermit in my home tank and it JUST manages to stay in my good graces without getting sent to the LFS.

Most likely will stick with just the tailspot blenny, but keep toying with the idea of a clown/BTA or trying to get a trained dragonet...

Actually you don’t want too many snails at first. They’ll starve and die if you don’t have any algae for them.

If you get a clown, I’d suggest one instead of a pair. Cause they might get aggressive and kill everything else in the tank, and with it so small, there’s no place to hide.


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[JojosReef]

Been a while, but this tank has proceeded nicely. Still a few worms I'd like to take care of (sneaky Eunice!).

Attached Jan setup photo and current photo.

This tank is almost full. I may get another RFA and maybe a frogspawn head for my Fimbriaphyllia island.

Deceased:
Trachy (my most expensive coral)
Purple stylo (rogue sexy shrimp)
2x Hitchhiker corals
Purple RFA
White RFA
Blue (red) porcelain crab
2x (rogue) sexy shrimp
Money cowrie
Bumble bee snail
Blue hypnea (hoping for a comeback out of nowhere)
Mermaid fan

Current Tank Inhabitants:

Fish:
Tailspot Blenny
Exquisite Firefish

Inverts:
Spotted anemone crab
Green porcelain crab
Pom pom-less Pom Pom crab
Sexy shrimp
Crocea clam
4x RFAs
Ceriths
Nerites
Astraeas
Periwinkles
1x Nassarius vibex

Macros:
Brotycladia
Galaxaura
Codium (long, I think)
Gracilaria hayi (pom pom)
Pencil cap

Corals:
Green tip torch
Purple tip hammer
Gold octospawn
9 types of zoas/palys (only ones I know are: dragon eyes, warrior shields, firecrackers and hot toddy)
Mango cloves
Mint potato chip pavona
Rainbow microfavia
Golden gorgonian

Hitchhikers:
Gorilla crab (safe in the AIO chambers for now)
Possibly a pistol-type shrimp
Loads of worms
Interesting sponges and tunicates
Fans (also worms, but pretty)
Curlique nem
Cup corals
Some leptastrea type coral
A couple of Aiptasia I'm working on


Thanks everyone that's been helping with my tank, whether freebies, great deals or advice!

 

[Gedxin]

Looking good! How happy are you with the live rock? I'm debating on waiting for KP aquatics stock or just buying TBS.

 

[Dugggyfresh]

Looking good! How happy are you with the live rock? I'm debating on waiting for KP aquatics stock or just buying TBS.

I have bought gulf live rock from gulfliverock.com and wow it’s good stuff! All the rocks were thick with purple coraline / bivalves / sponges and macro no bad worms but I did get a mantis lol

 

[Gedxin]

I have bought gulf live rock from gulfliverock.com and wow it’s good stuff! All the rocks were thick with purple coraline / bivalves / sponges and macro no bad worms but I did get a mantis lol

Any aptasia?

 

[JojosReef]

Looking good! How happy are you with the live rock? I'm debating on waiting for KP aquatics stock or just buying TBS.

TLDR, happy with TBS, but considering KP or other for future tanks.

Happy with the rocks, but I would probably do a high salinity treatment next time. The Eunice worms are starting to bother me--they might be to blame for some snail losses, but I suspect they are mostly detritovores--still, very freaky (attached). I've also read a few too many reports about cirolanid isopods from recent TBS shipments--I found one that I pegged as a spheromatid, but could always have been a mistaken ID.

Overall, the Dorvilleidae worms, spaghetti worms and such seem to be extremely beneficial.

I don't know if you've seen my R2R posts about GHA, but I moved some of the extra rocks into my home Evo that was a GHA garden, and just having the new rocks, adding some snails and leaving things alone (I went in once or twice with a heavy toothbrush scrub), it all receded over a month.

I also got sand from TBS, and I think that helps as well. I sifted through the sand to remove bristle worms, lancelets (thought they were bad, but apparently not) and any other weird critters, and that sand has been amazingly resistant to GHA (added some to my Evo, where the CaribSea livesand had thick mats of GHA growing on it).

I may consider KP or gulfliverock in a future tank (my dream in a few years is a bigger tank for tangs).

In the end, I think the upfront cost of the gulf rocks beats the costs of constantly treating your tank for nuisance algae (note: I still have to deal with bubble algae in my office tank, which came in on a frag, but can't have everything I guess).

Re: aiptasia, my rocks came with a few curlique type nems/cup corals. There were a couple of Aiptasia-like nems that I just superglued over. I have one persistent aiptasia that is suspect from a frag.

 

[Gedxin]

TLDR, happy with TBS, but considering KP or other for future tanks.

Happy with the rocks, but I would probably do a high salinity treatment next time. The Eunice worms are starting to bother me--they might be to blame for some snail losses, but I suspect they are mostly detritovores--still, very freaky (attached). I've also read a few too many reports about cirolanid isopods from recent TBS shipments--I found one that I pegged as a spheromatid, but could always have been a mistaken ID.

Overall, the Dorvilleidae worms, spaghetti worms and such seem to be extremely beneficial.

I don't know if you've seen my R2R posts about GHA, but I moved some of the extra rocks into my home Evo that was a GHA garden, and just having the new rocks, adding some snails and leaving things alone (I went in once or twice with a heavy toothbrush scrub), it all receded over a month.

I also got sand from TBS, and I think that helps as well. I sifted through the sand to remove bristle worms, lancelets (thought they were bad, but apparently not) and any other weird critters, and that sand has been amazingly resistant to GHA (added some to my Evo, where the CaribSea livesand had thick mats of GHA growing on it).

I may consider KP or gulfliverock in a future tank (my dream in a few years is a bigger tank for tangs).

In the end, I think the upfront cost of the gulf rocks beats the costs of constantly treating your tank for nuisance algae (note: I still have to deal with bubble algae in my office tank, which came in on a frag, but can't have everything I guess).

Re: aiptasia, my rocks came with a few curlique type nems/cup corals. There were a couple of Aiptasia-like nems that I just superglued over. I have one persistent aiptasia that is suspect from a frag.

Thanks for the thorough response! I think I will continue to wait for stock on KP rock. Crossing fingers it's not too far off!

 

[Dugggyfresh]

Any aptasia?

Yes I got aptasia with it as well just 2-3 and a curlyque anemone , my copperband ate it all though lol