IM 25g AIO build

[Llorgon]

The tank has seen better days. Since my large water change 2 weeks ago my duncan coral has been closed up. I tried feeding it and I got one head to take a LPS pellet, but didn't get it to open up. I have tried moving it and still no luck.


Also noticed that my two kenya trees have been really closed up the last few days so something is going on. The acans, favia, hammer and frogspawn are all doing well though.


I did my regular 5 gal water change yesterday and I'm hoping that will help the tank.


I tested the water and nothing out of the ordinary. Calibrated and rechecked salinity and it was still at 1.026. I've put in fresh carbon which hasn't helped either.



Any ideas on what could be going on?

[Llorgon]

Alright, been awhile since I posted an update. Work has kept me crazy busy!


Tank is doing alright? Not great, but not terrible.


For the most part the corals are doing well. I have 2 heads of my frogspawn that are looking very pale and not really opening up. The rest of them are big and happy though.


My one cyphastrea is dying. I'm not sure why. The other one in the same area as it has been growing. I have tried moving it around, but no luck with it so far.


Also been having troubles with my duncan. For the last month or so it hasn't been opening up. Just closed up one day and hasn't really been open since. I have tried to up my feeding of the corals more, but so far that hasn't helped.


Still fighting gha. If I keep up with my daily brushing of the rocks it seems to say in check somewhat, but I was away for the long weekend and I am still trying to catch up from that.


Still dosing vodka. Dosing 0.7ml/day. It's been working well to keep nutrients low although I think it needs to be lower since I still have lots of gha growing. I did pick up a bottle of waste away and did my test half dose last night. Hoping that can help things out.



I am low on CUC, which is probably at least part of the problem. Unfortunately there isn't anything available locally and nothing is shipping.


How does everyone manage nutrients? I feel I am really doing a poor job of it. I have filter socks that I change out weekly and do a 5 gallon water change every weekly and 10 gallon water change and sand vacuum every 2-3 weeks.

[Llorgon]

Been pretty busy lately and had a couple week long camping trips. Tank husbandry has suffered a bit.

Honestly the tank is pretty stagnant progress wise right now. Haven't found a good lfs around Kelowna that has a good supply of fish, corals, cuc. And with covid not many places are shipping. So no new corals and still in desperate need of more cuc.

Anyone have insight into Okanagan reef stores? I have also noticed a lot of frags from local reefers are much more expensive than on the coast.

Fish are all doing well, corals are not dying, but also not seeing much growth though. My Duncan has been closed up for months now. It's not dying and eats when I feed it, but little to no polyp extension.

Trying to fight back this gha. Seems to be a losing battle though. Been dosing vodka and waste away while doing weekly water changes.

Nutrients are low. nitrates 1.5ppm and phosphates 0.015.

I seem to always have this problem with gha. All 3 tanks I have had all ended up with huge gha problems. And nothing seems to ever eat it. Managed to get a couple turbo snails and they have no interest in it.

How can I beat this?!

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[hillegom]

Yes, its hard these days with covid to get a decent cuc.
A lawnmower blenny sure would eat it.
Try decreasing the light by an hr a day. What lights do you run?
Manual removal every day until you make a dent. Hard when you are working.
Google hydrogen peroxide as a cure. You have to use a syringe to spot the gha
But there was a limit. Check,but I think 10ml per gallon a daY?
Its a battle.
good luck

[Llorgon]

Originally Posted by hillegom

Yes, its hard these days with covid to get a decent cuc.
A lawnmower blenny sure would eat it.
Try decreasing the light by an hr a day. What lights do you run?
Manual removal every day until you make a dent. Hard when you are working.
Google hydrogen peroxide as a cure. You have to use a syringe to spot the gha
But there was a limit. Check,but I think 10ml per gallon a daY?
Its a battle.
good luck

I am fully stocked on this tank fish wise. So until I get my 75 gallon setup again(hopefully I can finish the stand soon) no new fish, but I will keep that in mind. Great suggestion.

I have radion xr30 LPS setting, 25%. Light comes on at 10am and off at 9pm.

I have been scrubbing the rocks every night. Seems to be helping the rocks. Today I took my scrapper and siphon to the back wall. Worked great.

I have tried the hydrogen peroxide. Spot treating it works great, but no luck on more than spot treating. Boiling ro/di water also works great for spot treating.

[LifeIsGreat]

How often do you vacuum the sand bed right to the bottom? If it isn't being done regularly and if the sand is less than 4 inches deep, the sand could be trapping a lot of detritus which is leaching nitrates and phosphates into the system and fueling the algae. Reading back in the tank's history the nitrates and phosphate were slowly climbing, then there was the algae outbreak, and now there is enough algae to bring the water-borne nitrate and phosphate to low levels, but they are still being added to the system and growing more algae.

If the sand hasn't been cleaned to the bottom in a while I would start with just a small section at a time per week, say 10% or less, so that the system isn't destabilized too much. Then after a couple months once the whole bed has been initially cleaned, start cleaning the whole thing every two weeks or so.

I don't know your tank or your methods; this is just a guess on my part so take it with a grain of salt. Anyone else want to chime in on this?

[Llorgon]

Right now I vacuum the sand bed once a week when I do my water change. At first I wasn't really doing it, then I started to do it every other week. Now for the past few months I do it weekly. And yes I do go down all the way to the bottom of the sand bed.

[Dash]

Hi Llorgon
I’ve been having a bit of a battle myself with green cyano that came in after my Vibrant treatment for bryopsis. I feel like I’m gaining some ground and it’s after I finally stopped the Vibrant (they claim it takes care of cyano but um, NO). It’s been several weeks of manual removal (blowing off the sheets and netting it out). I think you have to export it however you can out of the tank rather than have it recycled by CUC, chemicals etc. I even took some rocks out of the tank to brush off in a bucket. There were a couple of tuffs of some kind of turf alga that I couldn’t pull off so I scraped it off with an exacto knife. So yeah, a lot of elbow grease. I just spent an hour blowing the rocks with the turkey baster and now my thumb hurts haha. But the tank looks much better.
Anyway, good luck and stay with it. I really believe in vacuuming the sand too

[Llorgon]

Thought I should revive this thread since the tank is still going. This tank is my longest running tank, no other tanks made it past 7 ish months. I have definitely noticed that as time goes on the tank gets more stable.


I still have a bit of an algae issue, but nothing like before. I was able to get some snails and did a dose of fluxRx and it worked wonders. I also removed the rock on the left and replaced it with some live rock from an established system.



The original large frogspawn I had in the tank on the left slowly died for unknown reasons. I added a new one and it has been doing well. I moved the skeleton to the back of the tank and I can see some new small heads on it so it must not be completely dead!


The piece of liverock I got from the established tank had a rock flower anemone and some zoa's on it. Both have been doing well. I have added a couple hammers and frogspawns that are growing nicely and I am hoping to start a small euphyllia garden in the top left. Hoping to find some nicer ones since I seem to now be able to keep them alive!


On the right side of the tank, I have those staxx rocks that I made a bit too high. I have an unknown red sps that is doing really well near the top of the tank. I am thinking of adding some more encrusting corals to the structure, but I'm not sure what kind. I've tried a few cyphastrea that never take. So any suggestions on what would work are welcome!


The favia that literally did nothing for almost a year has finally started growing and spreading which is nice to see. The jedi mind trick I have in the back corner has also exploded in growth. I keep hoping that it is going to spread up the back wall, but so far it's going on the sand instead.

In the front I have started a little acan garden. Really like these corals. They grow decently well and I seem to be able to keep them alive. Although one of them hasn't been doing well and is down to one head. Maybe one day I can get most of the bottom covered in acans then I don't have to vacuum the sand!


The one part of the tank that still struggles with algae is the back wall. I've wanted to get a coral that will cover it, but all my attempts have failed so far. I tried some montipora and none of them took. Maybe I just need some gsp and trim it to stay on the back wall...


Stocking is still the 2 clowns and the royal gramma. They are all doing well and eating like pigs.


Right now, my main issue is aiptasia. I have been injecting them with lemon juice, but more keep coming up.

[Llorgon]

Here's a few shots of the tank today.

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