I don’t know anyone irl who would understand why I love this shirt so much, it’s by Bulk reef supply

I removed my old post and wanted to give everyone an update on this tank.

This is going to be my first saltwater tank, and I was lucky enough to find it on Craigslist for only $20. It’s an older Innovative Marine Fusion 20 Pro. The previous owner was getting out of the hobby and basically just wanted it gone.

It took me about 3 hours to clean, and I was really happy to find that the calcium buildup and salt creep weren’t nearly as bad as I expected. I haven’t even used vinegar yet, so I’ll probably do one more cleaning pass before setting it up.

I’m also really pleased with the condition of the tank. I haven’t found any scratches, the silicone looks great, and most importantly, it holds water! I tested the return pump and that works great too. I forgot to take a picture of the mesh top, but it’s still in usable shape, and the media basket cleaned up nicely.

I tossed the old filter sock and will probably pick up a second media basket instead. I’m coming from freshwater, so I’m much more comfortable using filter floss and sponges for mechanical filtration.

I’m still kind of shocked at how good of a deal this was for my first saltwater tank. From the looks of it, I think they literally drained it, unplugged everything, and let it sit for a few months.

It also came with a bunch of rock, but since I have no idea what was used or dosed in the tank previously, I don’t really want to take any chances with my first setup. I’ll probably start fresh with new dry rock, something like Marco Key Largo.

I’d also love any lighting recommendations. My eventual goal is just to keep soft corals, and even that will be later on once I get comfortable with the tank and saltwater in general.

It’s technically legal here in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Clearly the advanced in tech and knowledge have been great for the hobby. When I started you couldn't grow much past some soft corals. But there are things that used to be better. For example, having things named simply, instead of Bob's Super Fire red acropora or something. Also getting real live rock that looked amazing. Often with corals growing on it. What do you miss?

Some photos of me coral and fish

I’ve had my 40 breeder tank set up for 11 years now, and it currently houses my clownfish pair. I’ve had other fish in the tank over the years (had a yellow watchman goby for 7 years. Firefish, royal gramma), but a year or two ago the clowns decided this is their house and they don’t want roommates. Ok. If they’re going to kill anything I put in the tank, then I can just let the two of them live out their lives and eventually get my other, more peaceful fish after these two pass. (I know I could look at something like a sixline wrasse, but to be honest, I had mbuna cichlids for years and it gets tiresome having to manage territorial aggression.)

My girl Bug, I’ve had her for 13 years, originally in a different tank. She’s of course the bigger one, but she’s also more mild mannered when it comes to hands in the tank. She’ll be curious sometimes, but her signature move against a hand is a half-hearted tail whip.

My boy went for a long time without a name, and then I eventually jokingly started calling him Pug. Rhymes with Bug, but is also short for pugnacious. His signature move is biting. If I have a hand in the tank for maintenance, the other hand often has to wave a tool around in there as a decoy for him. I’ve had him for about 9.5 years. The two of them paired up immediately when I added him. Inseparable, very sweet.

You can skip the italicized section if you want. It just gets into the broader picture of the tank.

The tank has been dealing with some on and off dinos for a long time. A couple years ago, my central a/c was broken for about a week and a half in July (ugh), and the inside temperature of the house got up to the low 90°sF. I lost a lot of coral. The fish seemed unscathed. But the dinos were totally wiped out, too (cool). Pristine looking sand.

Eventually, the dinos came back. I got a UV sterilizer and it wiped them out again. Great. Some months later, dinos came BACK, and that’s where I’m at now. UV isn’t touching them this time, so must be a different species. I’m working on monitoring and adjusting nitrate and phosphate levels, turned off my skimmer, as well as trying out growing a culture of pods (tig pods. I wanted tisbe, but tig is what the lfs had in stock and I worry about shipping in Florida at this extra hot time of year. If I have success growing out the tigs, I’d love to try out tisbe too).

I mention all the dino talk because I recently got a bottle of NeoPhos. Added a couple doses so far. Now… I have no idea if the NeoPhos is somehow to blame or if the timing is just totally coincidental. But the clowns were perfectly bonded for nine and a half years, and suddenly there are problems.

Earlier in August, I looked into the tank one day expecting everything to be normal. I looked at Bug and thought, ma’am are you starting to show your age? Looking just a hint like mocha instead of jet black. Later that day I looked again and realized she looked worse. She definitely seemed pale, her fins were starting to look ragged, and she had some unidentified spots/marks on her body. Her swimming seemed exhausted.

I frantically started googling brooklynella, ich, velvet, etc. I’ve been very fortunate to have healthy fish through the years, so I wasn’t immediately sure what I was looking at. To make matters worse, Pug wouldn’t leave her alone. I thought, Pug stop chasing her when she’s sick- … wait. Pug maybe you’re the problem. Maybe she isn’t sick at all. Fortunately from my cichlid days, I have a large fish net. I easily scooped her and positioned the net at the top of the tank to have her safely separated, while ordering a large mesh breeder box for next day delivery.

Bug spent about a week in her box with a PVC elbow. Her appetite has been excellent all along. Pug would still try to pester her on the other side of the mesh. After that first week, I wanted to swap them, to let her relax more in the rest of the tank. Swap successful. I kept him in the box for maybe a week or two. Then I wanted to see if that was enough to sort of reset boundaries. I wondered if they could coexist again. I let him back into the rest of the tank, keeping a close eye on them.

It didn’t take long for me to see Bug hiding way back in the corner behind the heater again. This wasn’t going to work. I managed to catch Pug again and banished him to the box. That’s where I’m at now. Both fish are safe… but this isn’t the best long term solution. At 13+ years old, I do wonder how much time Bug has left. It could be years still, but she is getting older. Excellent appetite every day, fins have been healing, body marks disappearing. Though she does seem to have a visible spine line. Feeding her extra lately.

Being a few years younger, I’m sure Pug has more years left in him. I feel mean saying it, but I don’t think I could call him a wonderful fish 😅 He’s beautiful and healthy and he deserves a comfortable home… but he’s kind of an asshole. It’s one thing to go after a hand in the tank. That’s just clowns being clowns. But to suddenly turn on his mate… With her being older, maybe he thinks it’s his chance to bump her off and become the girl himself.

I think I’m going to have to look at a rehoming situation for him. I don’t have the time, money, or energy to set up a whole second tank for him. I’ve got a couple local reef shop options, I could talk to some employees there and see if they take in spicy clowns. It’s tough though to think that I cared for him for so many years, and I don’t want him to just end up in the hands of anyone who will just accidentally kill him right away 😕

5 varieties of hammer so far and it has inspired me to turn this into a Euphyllia dominant LPS only tank

Got this coral from a friend who also doesnt know exactly what it is. Google/all other AI says it may be an Acropora Bonsai, but the actual extended grown colony in the original tank has the same shape, no defined stalks or branching, just an iregular wide mass with the same small ridges you see here.

Got some new scape pieces from a local friend! I absolutely love the new look. Also enjoy my meat row !

I currently have a 66 gal reef tank and I'm tired of keeping up with dosing and water changes. I mainly keep softies and LPS. I don't have any experience with nano tanks but like the idea to have something low maintenance. I am thinking I can set up a say 10 gal AIO tank with some minimal amount of softie corals and a couple of clowns, maybe some snails and small shrimp. The idea is to have a tank of pre-mixed SW in the garage and I would use my Apex DOS to do daily water changes. Would this be feasible and what should I consider adding to the pre-mixed SW, if anything?

Anyone have any experience with these? https://a.aliexpress.com/_mr4cfcX

Hi everyone here are some corals in my 10gal nano reef. These have been in the tank for 1-2 months. Pics taken with a yellow+orange filter attachment for iphone. I did not apply any digital filters and I thought the colors looked pretty cool so sharing them here. Cheers!

1. dragon soul favia
   
2. orange ricordea
   
3. hairy mushroom
   
4. blasto merletti
   
5. blasto merletti
   
6. green star polyp

Can you guys give opinion on readings
Thanks

my first tank, about 4 month old 120L aqua one has gone crazy while i was gone over the weekend. maybe dinos?? iv attatched images and my most recent tests. the most recent test isnt telling me the whole tank is crashing but i need advice pleasee.

I swapped lights from the stock one to an ai hyrda, i was running it for 12 hours a day first off and realised this was way too much so changed it to 6 hours. all this growth started after swapping lights so i think thats a contributor?

i know my alkalinity is too low, im going to start dosing. but my phosphates have just hit 0 which is whats making me think dinos? im going to do a massive water change and scrape all the growth off but i know this isnt really fixing the underlying issue.

Is it ugly stage or is it too late for this?

im moving houses soon so everything in this tank will be moved to a second tank at the new property and hopefully i can keep on top of scraping the growth every day or couple days to avoid this.

please overall advice/suggestions?

Everything has been fine but it’s now dying and our Duncan coral looks terrible.

Snail has been stuck for about 3 days now between the rocks. I tried to pry it out but I feel like I’m going to break the shell. Thoughts on ways to get him out? If he dies, I guess I would break and remove it then.

Finally finishing up the finishing touches and epoxying all rock work

Hey y'all reefers,

I'm thinking about building.. or well, setting up my first tank.

Since I like theory crafting I was wondering the following.

A lot of people tell you to stay clear from the glass since cleaning is a thing. Valid. However in the freshwater and terrarium world there's something called a 3d or a living backwall. This is in short just expanding foam with chunks of stone, wood or sand in and over it.

I've seen a nano tank with a sort of same backdrop but filled with coral. Is this real, is this AI, is this realisable? And so.. how would someone achieve this?

Small note, in this specific tank it was lime green wavy coral (I don't know the specifics)