10 gallon nano softie tank?

MoshJosh · Jun 25, 2022

So this tank has gone through a few changes. . . probably not for the better. Think I sort of lost sight of my goal for this tank and got a bit obsessed with upgrading things. . . I changed the rock work. . . twice. Added corals. . . much faster than I should have. . . and yeah. . . things got off track. . . but I think I can fix it.

I took out the confused and too tall negative space aqua scape, and put back in a simple scape of the appropriate height. The scape is drilled for plugs so I can move the corals around as needed. I attached all the corals to frag plugs (all the corals not on islands), and placed them as best I could. I made a specific spot/rock for my Macro algae so they get some good light. . . .

PLAN: going to FINALLY upgrade one of my lights, currently have 1 marine light and 1 FRESH WATER light. . . will buy a second marine light on payday. Going to upgrade my powerhead, right now using a Sicce nano stream, which is fine, but no pulsing/wave making. . . MIGHT upgrade the filter, thinking a tidal 55 might give me more space for media. I could probably fit my media blocks into the 55 instead of the bag of media (which I don't love) that I have in the tidal 35.

Anyway, no pictures today, everything is angry from the move anyway. But picture soon. . .

Also, I found a xenia or anthelia growing on the bottom glass, pretty cool.

MoshJosh · Jul 10, 2022

So I went through a number of rock work changes, I’m pretty happy with how it looks now. I do plan on moving everything to a slightly bigger tank, and would like a little more height, maybe I’ll add a rock on the left side that’s a bit taller, but that can wait for later.

also had some issues with nutrients, think I removed more biological filtration than I thought when I change the rock work. Anyway, nothing died, fingers crossed, but was very unhappy for a little while. I did a few big water changes and added more bacteria and things seem to have leveled out, again fingers crossed. Snapped a picture of the tank with everything seeming content.

oh. . . added a nem. . . and a fish (after more research probably a bad idea in hindsight)

MoshJosh · Jul 27, 2022

Made a bunch of changes to the tank.

Made a 5 gallon bucket “sump” that sits above the tank.

Changed from LEDs to a T5 fixture running 1 coral plus and 1 blue plus. Looks very blue in pictures, less so in real life, still to blue for my tastes. I will probably switch to 2 coral plus in the future.

I fragged a piece of pavona and moved my unhappy bubble coral from my smaller tank over to this one.

added some hermits, astrea snails, and 2 emerald crabs (only wanted one, but this will do for now)

here it is, again looks less blue in person:

MoshJosh · Aug 13, 2022

A few updates on my build:

added more rock work (drilled for plugs)
Got more corals
-zoa,paly, goni, birds nest, monti digi, etc
Found out my blenny likes to eat sps
Re-homed my blenny and got a dottyback (so far so good with the aggression)
Added a “10k” LED strip I had lying around, running it 4 hours a day currently

and probably some other stuff I forgot

with LED

Without

Pkunk35 · Aug 13, 2022

I love that over the tank sump, you should detail that out in the thread, I never see over head sumps.

crazy tank! Very fun, thanks for sharing and following!

MoshJosh · Sep 5, 2022

So a few changes. . . and more to come in the future after my frag tank gets up and running.

I got more coral since the last time I posted, include 2 acros. Everything seems to be doing. . . Ok? I also moved a clam, scallop, and rock flower over to this tank temporarily.

My gonipora seems a bit angry, though I am thinking I need to move it to a lower flow area. Other corals are still recovering from my bicolor blenny. . . He started snacking on my sps so he had to go back to the fish store.

I took out a bunch of stuff and fragged it, namely my xenia, anthelia, greens star polyps, and my blue clove polyps

Anyway, forgive my rambling, here are some photos:

MoshJosh · Sep 9, 2022

Seems like it took FOREVER. . . But really wasn’t that long. . . My mushroom divided!!! The mushroom itself is tiny, but now I have 2 more even smaller ones!!!

also, my blue star polyps snuck there way over to the main rock. . . Uhoh!

Also also, there is some sort of feather duster living under my pavona frag plug. I couldn’t get a picture but it seems much bigger than the typical hitchhiker ones I see. . .

MoshJosh · Sep 19, 2022

So made a bunch of changes, even though I said I wasn’t going to… Anyway I sort of realized/decided I was feeding WAY TOO MUCH.

I thought I would be a clever clogs, and feed my coral awesome food every day, my filtration seemed to handle it OK, however, my corals didn’t look any better, maybe slightly worse, and I was growing pineapple sponges like crazy!!!

So I did a pretty big clean and cut back my feeding, then the tank somehow looked even uglier, so I did a big clean where I took out the rocks and scrubbed them to try and remove some of the sponges, though I didn’t get them all. There’s still some ugly spots in the tank, but overall it seems like it’s back on track, and the corals seem to be doing pretty good.

I haven’t taken a full shot in a while, but I’ll include some pictures below:

Duncan sprouting a new head

Digi and bird of paradise have been growing nicely

and my acro seems to be reviving after my blenny chewed on it/bacterial infection

Lavyathan · Nov 27, 2022

Love lower maintenance tanks! Curious on the blue star polyps, as I’m having troubles finding them online - is there a store you recommend, or do you personally sell/ship frags?

MoshJosh · Nov 27, 2022

Tidal gardens has some if I’m not mistaken, might be on sale still too.

they are very pretty, but I can see why some people avoid them, as under the right circumstances they seem to propagate and move very quickly. Individual parts will come off the rock, not sure if intentional or not, and get blown around until they set up shop somewhere else. Occasionally I’ve seen patches disappear, so I think there is something in my cleanup crew that munches on them from time to time, but I’m not sure.