Arvin's 3rd reef tank

[Arvin R]

So I now have 3 reef tanks within 6 months of being in the hobby. I'm sure some of you know how that goes...lol

I got an Aquatop 24gal AIO cube on black friday from AC.

Not a huge fan of AIOs after my experience with this one but I do enjoy my rockwork layout in this the most out of my 3 tanks. (Aside from the rock at front left with 2 rock flower nems, one decided to move onto the bottom side of the rock so I had to prop it up sideways in order to see both). Anyone know a good way to get a rock nem to release from the rock it's attached to?

Had a mishap where the huge green bta I got from the last frag swap decided to climb up to the overflow weirs and it got shredded. So now instead of a huge green bta I have 1 large, 1 med, and 1 small green bta. After this happened I got an overflow protector/gaurd for IM aios that I had to slightly modify to work with my tank (glued 2 together vertically).

Current livestock:
2 phantom clowns
1 bangaii cardinal
1 yasha goby
1 pistol shrimp

I haven't seen my yasha goby or pistol shrimp come out of their burrow in awhile.

I'll update my other 2 tank journals over the next couple of days.

 

[Arvin R]

1-6-22: I was able to get the rock flower nem to release from the rock using the zip tie trick that I saw @H2OPlayar use for getting an rtba off his rockwork before. Finally able to get it laid out how I planned.

Still unsure of what corals I want and where to place them on this big rock tower. For now frags are just shoved into knooks and crannies to fill up the space.

1-7-22: Found this on my grandis palys today and got a bit freaked out...lol

Instantly pulled this frag and going to dip and isolate this frag in QT until I can be sure no eggs will hatch.

One of my rock flowers decided it likes it better in the sand bed. I've been trying to get this guy on a rock since I got him and he always moves back into the sand so I guess I'll leave him be.

Got a octospawn frag today from California Reef Co. Along with a couple SPS for my main tank.

Tank as it sits currently: (I ended up putting the grandis palys back in as I saw an aptasia on a new blue finger leather I got from someone today in my main and rushed to take care of that)

My frogspawn is having 2 new heads pop out. (Could only get a shot of one)

I'm starting to lose hope in my Pistol Shrimp and Yasha Goby. Still have yet to be seen. Coming on a week and a half I think now.

1-9-22: Horray! Saw my Yasha goby poke his head out of the burrow. Still no sign of the pistol shrimp but maybe there's hope yet! I have a very good amount of copepods in this tank. I'm wondering if that's their food supply while down in the burrow?

 

[Arvin R]

Finally felt it was enough time to know my original pistol shrimp didn't make it and I got a replacement and my Yasha Goby now has a friend and is comfortable coming out of the burrows. All is well again with this tank.

I had an outbreak of cyanos a couple weeks back and a round of chemiclean took care of that. I had to remove all the coral I had sitting at the front in the sand due to the pistol shrimp burying or moving them. Most got moved onto the rockwork on the left side of the tank and some got moved into my 45gal main tank.

I see pods everywhere which is good as I'd love to get a mandarin for this tank but will wait it out more and probably start adding more pods to cushion the population in preperations for a mandarin.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

You have a very cool thing there
Enjoy it
Tend it
Love it

 

[popper]

Wow. 3 tanks in suvh a short period!!! When are you going to assemble the 100g? LOL

 

[Arvin R]

Wow. 3 tanks in suvh a short period!!! When are you going to assemble the 100g? LOL

That's in the works. I'm finally done traveling for work so I have time at home base to get this project going. I'm going to build up the stand for it first and then assemble the tank on the stand (outside of course) then fill it up and let it hold water for a month+.

I'm also already in the works of a 4th tank (going to be my wife's learning tank as she is now interested in the hobby).

Once the 100G is up, I'll consolidate my 45 and 10g nano contents into the 100G tank. Going to keep my 24g cube as I'm really liking how that one turned out and want to see it grow out.

 

[Arvin R]

Got a sweet deal on a bunch of equipment + 32gal bio cube and a 24x24x36 stand. Listing said it came with a red sea led 50 but it actually came with a red sea led 90. Finally a light upgrade for my 24 gal cube!

My pistol shrimp has definitely moved a bunch of sand (Originally started as about 5 in sand bed is now might higher in some places due to displacement from his burrow. Tank is cruising along nicely with a few set backs on some of my euphylia. Still need an ATO but I top off every couple of days and evaporation wasn't bad as it was fully lidded. Now that it's open top an ATO is definitely a priority.

 

[Arvin R]

Quick update photo taken on the 1st of this month.

I got an outbreak of gha that is finally getting under control. It was mainly isolate to the back wall and most likely due to an issue of not enough flow as I still haven't had luck adding a power head in this tank. I tried the Nero 3 and it was too much flow for my lps corals. Going to try a hygger mini soon. My rbta severely shrunk, lost color, turned dark and is hiding in the back. It used to be about 4in open now it's about 1in on the rare occasion I see it open. Most days I can't even find it.

I added a tunez nano ato. My stock skimmer stopped working but I have a eshopps nano from another tank I broke down and will be installing it tomorrow in the middle chamber and moving my filtration to a filter rack in the first chamber.

The green toadstool in this tank is one from @keithschon and is doing great!

 

[Arvin R]

Got some shots of my Yasha goby and pistol shrimp. My RFAs are huge now. I need to get these photos on my pc and see if I can white balance them better. The phone can only do so much correction under the blues(more like purples) of my Reefled 90.

 

[Arvin R]

Made a bunch of zoa frags a couple weeks ago from another tank and decided to use this as their holding tank. They look like they're doing great unlike the 2 frags of orange setosa.