First Tank - Innovative Marine 14G Peninsula

[Jib]

I find zoanthids to be much smaller across the board in general. Its the Palys branch that are enourmous, ime.

I appreciate the thoughts. My expectations may not have been in check before purchasing. Everything has been a learning experience and I should have expected purchasing corals online would be no different. At any rate, I have more than enough to start a zoa / paly garden on my medium sized rock. I likely let a few grow out first before gluing them down to make sure I like them. Might have to start a small frag tank for things I don’t like as much or didn’t arrive as expected.

 

[Jib]

My noob coral buying spree continues. Stopped in at the LFS on Friday to re-stock on water and saw some frags of Xenia. They sell mostly corals out of their display tanks and this was a piece from one of them. Had a small one that was the perfect size for my tank for $10. I realize they can be invasive, so going to isolate it on a rock in the sandbed. I really am enjoying the movement that it adds to the tank. Apologies for the potato quality photos, using the Orphek lens kit for my phone but still doesn't cut as much blue as I'd like. I'll have to keep messing around with some filters the phone has.

Going to glue some Zoas down this weekend to try and get one of the frag racks out of the tank. Think I'm going to turn the arch into mostly Zoas, we'll see what I come up with...

I also seemed to have got the Dino issue under control. It took a few weeks, but here is what I did.

• Dosed NeoNitro / NeoPhos to get nutrients levels up
• Turned off white light, and reduced blue / violet intensity
• Dosed 1ml of hydrogen peroxide at night
• Dosed 1 ml of Microbacter 7 each morning

After talking to some folks, I think I'm going to continue dosing the MB7 periodically. My plan is for 10ml after my weekly water changes. The bottle I bought for the Dino fight was pretty big, so I have plenty left over.

Once my tank is looking more like a reef, going to finish the stocking. Thinking one more fish, and maybe some sexy shrimp. Not sure what other fish yet though....

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Tank is looking great and starting to get a great zoa collection.

 

[MichaelGee]

Tank looks awesome! Been in the hobby for only 15 years but I still am more drawn to corals that move in the flow than any SPS. Love it! Looking forward to the progress.

 

[Quokka]

Following! I'm jealous you're adding coral! Looking real good

 

[JayStro81]

Tank looks great. I'm looking to upgrade my little 5 gallon pico in my bedroom and I'm really considering this tank. I have the IM nuvo 40 in my living room and I love it. I'll probably be pulling the trigger on the 14 for my bedroom

 

[Quokka]

How is your tank doing? Any updates?

 

[Jib]

How is your tank doing? Any updates?

Had some stuff going on and the tank got seriously neglected. Didn't do any water changes or check parameters for a few months. Most of the corals survived, but definitely were not thriving.

Back on track now though. Started doing weekly water changes 3 weeks go. First 2 weeks did 30% changes, last week and moving forward will be 10%.

Looks like PO4 bottomed out and and am now trying to deal with a green cyno that is covering a lot of the rock work. Dosed NeoPhos to get it back up to .03. Also dealing with a bubble algae issue. Really seems to like to grow on frag plugs which is annoying to try and remove. Going to deal with the cyno first, then get serious about the bubble.

Got a new fish yesterday as well. Hoping the increased bioload will help keep nutrient levels up. Got a Royal Gramma from the LFS. Pretty small and found a cave in the rockwork I didn't know was there. Comes out for food and feeds aggressively. Otherwise don't see him too much yet.

Since I've been actively managing the tank corals are starting to puff back up and look pretty good. Was planning on making the arch all zoas, but starting to rethink that idea and may move them to the front left rock while they are all still on the plug.

The exception is the sinualria. Have been having trouble keeping it happy. Might try to move it to the back of the tank for gentler flow.

 

[Quokka]

Hey don't sweat it, I'm glad to see that your tank is still up. The ups and downs seem to just be part of the hobby that I'm learning to accept as I go on. Went through similar cyano issues a few months ago, you're doing good getting your nutrients up - just keep at it and maintain those levels for a while and the cyano should go away. Thanks for reminding me I should update my build thread soon too hah

 

[Jib]

So today I learned bubble algae can be more than just an eyesore. Woke up to one of the frag plugs I super glued to the arch rockwork laying polyp side down in the sand bad. Turns out, bubble algae was growing under it and to a point were it broke the super glue.

I had just mentioned yesterday I was considering moving the zoas all to the one rock and off of the arch. Maybe it was a sign...

Sorry for the potato quality photos. Running only blues to try and get rid of some cyno and the lens kit not really cutting it.

 

[MONTANTK]

Keep up the good work! Happy to see your persistence paying off!

 

[booth2010]

Following along, I think I may end up getting the same tank after all. Thanks for chiming in on my post earlier.

 

[Jib]

Had some BRS points to use so got a couple of goodies for the tank. Got one of the Neat Aquatics feeding doors and a Brine Shrimp Hatchery to mess around with. Really wanted to the feeding door for water tests. Have been checking my Phos frequently and its a pain to always take off the lid due to the drips of water coming off of it.

The shrimp hatchery has been fun. Just hatched my first batch and the fish seem to enjoy pecking around for the tiny shrimps. I doubt I'll do it that often, but I can see it being a Sunday thing. The hatcher itself is super simple to use.

Also got a Duncan for the tank. Was at one of my LFS' last week and they had two so picked one up. Has 4 heads for $35 so seemed like a good deal. Trying to get some things to add a little movement to the tank. First LPS so we'll see how it goes.

 

[Ianfaulk]

How's it going Jib? I just purchased one of these last Saturday, do you still have yours up and running?