IM 25g AIO build

[bauder1986]

Originally Posted by Llorgon

Ya I had that thought too when setting the tank up. Unfortunately no matter where I set it up after all the furniture is in it will be near a window. I try not to have the blinds open for long periods of time. Mostly for taking pictures since then they don't turn out so blue.


In the summer I will probably have to put some cardboard in the window to keep light off it.

Pick up a roll of window tint. Either Tint the window the tank is near by or tint the glass on the tank thats directly facing the window.

[Llorgon]

Hey, that's a good idea! I will look for that for the summer!


Can you get it at home depot?

[Llorgon]

Been awhile since I did a update. Still have high nutrients, but I have been slowly lowering them.

I did my first online coral order from fragbox. I ordered a trumpet coral, pink acan, favia and cyphastrea. All arrived in good condition except the trumpet. I think they will be sending a replacement.

For the most part corals have been doing well. The Kenya tree is dropping branches like crazy. Been selling them as I can. My Duncan is showing some new heads starting. Unfortunately I lost the small surviving piece of forest fire digi.

Fish are all doing well. I've started working on my 75g so I can get the yellow Tang out of the small tank. Ran into a issue though when I noticed the 75g stand was compromised. So yay building a new stand...

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[gregzz4]

Great pics Llorin but they are MASSIVE and go off the page, even on my desktop PC

Post before and after shots of your stand !!

[Llorgon]

It's been a busy few weeks, but I finally have time to update on the tank.


Fish are doing well. All eating like pigs!


Corals doing well as well. Duncan has new heads, frogspawn is getting bigger, the new acan I bought a few weeks ago has a new head. A cyphastrea I had in my 75 gallon which I thought died in the original move has come back. I see green and 3 red spots!


On the bad side. The algae has been getting worse. Due to high nutrients and a bit of neglect the last few weeks. This weekend I was able to do a bigger clean. I did a 10 gal water change, cleaned the sand, scrubbed rocks in the tank as best I could, removed rocks/old snail shells that were covered in algae and scrubbed them with peroxide to really kill the algae.


Over the last week I have been experimenting with vodka dosing in an attempt to lower nitrates and phosphates. I have yet to see a decrease, but I am hoping it comes soon!

[Llorgon]

I think I cut my dosage to the "maintenance level" for vodka dosing a bit to soon. When testing with salifert phosphate test kit since I ran out of reagent for my hanna it was reading 0 and my nitrate test read 0.


Testing last night after getting more reagent my phosphate is still at 0.046ppm and nitrate using the red sea test kit is at around 1.5ppm


Going to up my vodka dosing from 0.6ml/day to 0.7ml/day and see if phosphate starts to come down a bit more.

[Llorgon]

Alright. More giant picture time!

Tank is doing well minus hair algae. It's always hair algae! Someone help me get rid of the hair algae.

All the fish are doing well and always hungry.

Corals seem to be doing well. I had one coral that I thought was dead make a comeback which I am happy about. Seeing some new growth on my acans, Duncan, hammer and frogspawn. I sold my Kenya tree as it was dropping branches everywhere and taking over the tank. Now I have room for more corals!

I have got my nitrate and phosphate under control. They both read 0 on my last test. I don't think it's true 0 as algae is still growing. I would like to have a bit of nitrate and phosphate so I guess the vodka dosing is still a bit of a balancing act to find what's right for the tank.



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[Llorgon]

Anyone have any tips on getting these corals going?

The first two I got in early Feb and I haven't been seeing any growth.

The acan I have had for a year now and it just won't grow. The other 2 acans I have are growing perfectly fine. But this guy always looks unhappy.

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[Llorgon]

How's everyone enjoying their quarantine? Not a whole lot is different for me. I already worked from home. Except now I don't go to the gym after work. Or able to do anything on the weekends.... My wife wasn't taking the whole no gym thing well so she bought a Bowflex for the garage. I must say it's very different from dumbbells.

Anyways back to the tank. Things are pretty stable right now. I seem to have my nutrients under control. With dosing 0.55ml vodka a day nitrate is at 1.5ppm and phosphate at 0.009ppm. I wouldn't mind getting nitrates to be 5 ppm, but I will leave it as is for now since everything looks happy.

Unfortunately I'm still getting gha on the rocks. Winning in some spots and losing in others. I have been picking it out by hand and using a stiff brush on the rocks as well. But it's hard to get into all those little crevices.

Still trying to find some more cuc, but it's been difficult due to things shutting down. I can order from Ontario, but they are getting hit hard with the virus so I would rather not have things shipped across country.

Fish are all doing well. Never much to report with them.

Corals doing well. I moved my cyphastrea do a higher light and flow part of the tank, but it got knocked down by a snail and burned the favia a bit. Moved it back to a safer spot after that and the favia has recovered surprisingly quickly. I've also started feeding the corals with lps pellets every Friday.

I've moved my water changes to once ever other week. Doing weekly was raising my alk and Cal a bunch. All was at 10.2 and Cal at 500. After 2 weeks they are down to 9.6 and 480. So at least thing are growing!

What does everyone use for calcium testing? I have salifert test kit which I find to be kind of annoying. I also have Hanna calcium test kit which I can never get consistent results.

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[Llorgon]

Been awhile since I updated on the tank. Tank is doing ok, going through a bit of a rough patch I think.



Fish are doing well and eating as always. The larger clown has started to host in the frogspawn which is cool to watch.


Corals are ok. My frogspawn has 2 heads that aren't looking great, but the rest of it is big and seems fine. My duncan coral has been closed up since Sunday afternoon about an hour after I did a 10 gal water change on the tank.

Acans are doing well including the one that was always a little deflated. It is now big and has feeding tentacles out!

The cyphastrea isn't doing great, but the one near it seems to be growing fine.


Still battling gha. I think I have got my nutrients under control using vodka dosing.


I tested my water last night, 2 days after my last water change.

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0.5
Phosphate: 0.018
Alkalinity: 9.5
Calcium: 435
Magnesium: 1470

I added some calcium last night and will test again today to see where calcium is at.