14 gallon cube soft coral macroalgae only tank

Spare time · Apr 5, 2023

Greetings! I am putting together a 14 gallon cube in my department's building and I figured I'd share the thread here. Its going to be a soft coral only tank. I plan on having leathers/toadstools, mushrooms, and xenia. I also plan on adding macro algae. There will be no fish in this system. I'll be posting updates soon!

Gumbies R Us · Apr 6, 2023

Can't wait to see the updates!!!

Diastro · Apr 6, 2023

Following along, I need to see more macroalgae tanks.

Spare time · Apr 6, 2023

Diastro said:
Following along, I need to see more macroalgae tanks.

I'll be starting with xenia and a mushroom as well as pom pom gracilaria. I plan on adding blue hypnea too.

Spare time · Apr 6, 2023

My current equipment list:

Aqueon 14 gallon rimless cube
Sicce voyager nano
Seachem tidal 32
Finnex HPC 100w or 300w
Inkbird (to be bought later)
Two moani carib sea rocks (one more to be added later)
Kessil a80
Fl!pper float nano
Carib sea special grade sand
+ Bio Spira, Reef Enhance, Reef Energy, Red sea dipX (never tried this dip so I am curious)

Spare time · Apr 9, 2023

Here is the first picture! The tank is hazy from the sand. I will be adding another rock or two and a few corals Thursday! The stand is meant for fluval flex tanks.

19Mateo83 · Apr 14, 2023

How has this been progressing? I just set up one of these I built into an AIO. Just got it bubbling tonight.

Build Thread - 19Mateo83’s 5 & 14 gallon builds

After being out of the hobby for over a decade I decided to dip my toes back into the reef. I had been looking for a all glass rimless nano sized tank with integrated filter system. I stumbled upon the “glofish” brand tank (exactly the same as the marineland one) that met my criteria and it...

www.reef2reef.com

CreamCityCorals · Apr 18, 2023

Sweet. I think these are the hardest saltwater tanks to maintain in balance.

But, When they are going they are beautiful! Worth it for sure, I will follow along!!

Spare time · Apr 20, 2023

I just got some macroalgae from gulf coast ecosystems. I also now have 6 corals in total and a blue photosynthetic sponge. Here are some pics

Spare time · Apr 20, 2023

I'll be adding one more rock probably.

19Mateo83 · Apr 20, 2023

Looking good!

Diastro · Apr 20, 2023

Already coming together. I need to get my hands on that pink macroalgae. Keep it up!

Spare time · Apr 25, 2023

New coral addition! I also have an auto top off and safety shut off sensor coming in the mail as I will be away from the tank for quite a while.

Spare time · Oct 23, 2023

Update:

I was gone from the tank all summer, so the macro algae didn't make it, but the corals have grown a lot. I added another rock and more corals since then. Eventually I will replace the macroalgae, but for now I am letting my clean up crew deal with hair algae that took over this summer (there wasn't much of a clean up crew while I was gone). I can post some pictures if anyone is interested in seeing how the coral has grown. The toadstool has grown tremendously in such a small time frame.

Gumbies R Us · Oct 23, 2023

Spare time said:
Update:

I was gone from the tank all summer, so the macro algae didn't make it, but the corals have grown a lot. I added another rock and more corals since then. Eventually I will replace the macroalgae, but for now I am letting my clean up crew deal with hair algae that took over this summer (there wasn't much of a clean up crew while I was gone). I can post some pictures if anyone is interested in seeing how the coral has grown. The toadstool has grown tremendously in such a small time frame.

Sorry about the macro algae, but glad to see the coral is going good!

Spare time · Oct 23, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Sorry about the macro algae, but glad to see the coral is going good!

Eh it was a trial run. My guess is the tank ran low on nitrate and phosphate for a period, resulting in them dying but in turn raising nitrate and phosphate enough for the soft corals to maintain themselves.