Dueling Dragons Reef - Waterbox 180.5 + 2x 40g Breeder Build

[SaltwaterScoop]

Finished the aquascapes for the 40 gallons! I'll soak and rinse the rock this week and add it next weekend. I used the same method as the main tank: attached rocks with super glue then secured the rocks with e-marco-400 then covered the e-marco joints with super glue + rock dust.

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

Went to the LFS yesterday...their main display tank popped a seam and they had to emergency move all of their fish and coral. They ending up putting a lot of the corals and fish up for sale. They didn't have any sand sifting gobies, but I was able to purchase a Lemon Wrasse that was in their main display and super acclimated to people/other tankmates. They also had a really personable Mimic Chocolate Tang that was significantly smaller than my Sailfin so I decided to give that a try. I also picked up another torch, frogspawn, and 3 zoa frags. Both fish were eating seconds after being introduced to the tank and no serious aggression between any fish so far.

Sailfin Tang

Scribbled Anthias

Mimic Chocolate Tang Half Black Mimic Tang

Lemon Wrasse

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

Here's an updated FTS:

I'm letting the cyano work itself out lol

 

[Petcrazyson]

Real nice H. Leucoxanthus

 

[Petcrazyson]

Went to the LFS yesterday...their main display tank popped a seam and they had to emergency move all of their fish and coral. They ending up putting a lot of the corals and fish up for sale. They didn't have any sand sifting gobies, but I was able to purchase a Lemon Wrasse that was in their main display and super acclimated to people/other tankmates. They also had a really personable Mimic Chocolate Tang that was significantly smaller than my Sailfin so I decided to give that a try. I also picked up another torch, frogspawn, and 3 zoa frags. Both fish were eating seconds after being introduced to the tank and no serious aggression between any fish so far.

Sailfin Tang

Scribbled Anthias

Mimic Chocolate Tang

Lemon Wrasse

Honestly don’t think that’s a Chocolate tang. It looks more like a Half Black Mimic Tang. You can see the difference between the face of each, with your tang being a lot more flat and the blue on its tail. These stay even smaller than the Chocolate as well

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

Honestly don’t think that’s a Chocolate tang. It looks more like a Half Black Mimic Tang. You can see the difference between the face of each, with your tang being a lot more flat and the blue on its tail. These stay even smaller than the Chocolate as well

I was hoping someone might provide an alternative ID. When I googled mimic chocolate tang at the pet store, I was thinking it didn't look right. I think you nailed it! I'm glad it'll be smaller too. Thanks for the ID correction!

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

The 40 Gallon Breeders have Aquascapes!

3 Tank FTS

Left 40 Gallon

Right 40 Gallon

I'm really digging the TopLids standard lid

The fish appreciate the feeding door

Clowns waiting patiently

Posing for food

The Torch Rock

Starting a Zoa Garden to the right of the Torches

Random Full Tank Shots

 

[Petcrazyson]

How’s the 180 bud!? Whats the progress on the 40’s? They maturing? How are all the fish?

 

[hans4811]

Wow, that’s just stunning and an engineering feat ! You got a real knack for the aquascaping, love all 3 ! Wish you were a stick head, so many mounting options in those tanks for some acros ! lol

Talk about thinking ‘outside the box’ … pun intended.

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

How’s the 180 bud!? Whats the progress on the 40’s? They maturing? How are all the fish?

It's doing good! The 40s are maturing nicely I'll need to get some updated pics of them soon. Fish are all much fatter and hopefully happier lol ... I've also added a few

Wow, that’s just stunning and an engineering feat ! You got a real knack for the aquascaping, love all 3 ! Wish you were a stick head, so many mounting options in those tanks for some acros ! lol

Talk about thinking ‘outside the box’ … pun intended.

Thank you! I'll try some more SPS down the line. I recently picked up a rainbow monti, and I have a small Anacropora frag in there so that counts, right?

---

I started getting a Red Planaria outbreak in the display. My LFS had an outbreak in their Zoa tank, and I didn't listen to my own advice and introduced a Zoa frag without dipping. I ended up picking up a Melanurus Wrasse to help out. He has done a number on the flat worms. I do see a few here and there but it's way better. My LFS had a large shipment of Blue-spotted Jawfish so I decided to give one a try. He's already created his den and eating frozen mysis and my auto feeder food. I may move him to one of the 40s if the main display is too warm. I'm currently keeping it at 77...is that too warm for him?

Here are some updated pics:

Blue-spotted Jawfish

Very Full Melanurus Wrasse

Scribbled Anthia

Lemon Wrasse

Chocolate Mimic Tang

Sailfin Tang

Full Tank Shot - Can you spot the jawfish?

 

[Petcrazyson]

It's doing good! The 40s are maturing nicely I'll need to get some updated pics of them soon. Fish are all much fatter and hopefully happier lol ... I've also added a few

Thank you! I'll try some more SPS down the line. I recently picked up a rainbow monti, and I have a small Anacropora frag in there so that counts, right?

---

I started getting a Red Planaria outbreak in the display. My LFS had an outbreak in their Zoa tank, and I didn't listen to my own advice and introduced a Zoa frag without dipping. I ended up picking up a Melanurus Wrasse to help out. He has done a number on the flat worms. I do see a few here and there but it's way better. My LFS had a large shipment of Blue-spotted Jawfish so I decided to give one a try. He's already created his den and eating frozen mysis and my auto feeder food. I may move him to one of the 40s if the main display is too warm. I'm currently keeping it at 77...is that too warm for him?

Here are some updated pics:

Blue-spotted Jawfish

Very Full Melanurus Wrasse

Scribbled Anthia

Lemon Wrasse

Chocolate Mimic Tang

Sailfin Tang

Full Tank Shot

Looking really nice my friend!

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

I had some issues awhile back with a few frags so I decided to do an ICP test and found out I have elevated tin in this system. I am thinking the plumbing I added for the 40s is causing this so I've been doing weekly water changes. All of the frags seem to be much happier now. I'm finally seeing some growth and better coloration. I'll send out another ICP soon and post my results. I'm also dosing trace elements now too!

Reef2Reef user @abc123 custom made me some amazing brackets for my Radion Mounts to mount my new 48" AI Blade Glow over the main tank. I've had the light up for a month, and I love it!

I've also added a few new critters. I added a small Papuan Toby Puffer to the left 40 gallon (he's very friendly) and 2 cleaner shrimp to the right 40 gallon. I was also temporarily housing a Blue Throat Trigger (Walter) in the right 40 and he finally graduated to the main tank. He is now full of personality. All of the existing fish are doing great!

Main Tank

Left 40 / Main

Right 40 / Main

Left 40

Right 40

Sailfin and Mimic Tang

Melanarus Wrasse

Walter

Walter Flexing

Bubble

Hammer

Octo

Sinularia

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

Do y'all think it would be possible to mix Zoas and Acans here?

 

[JoJosReef]

LOVE your tank! That setup is so versatile.

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

LOVE your tank! That setup is so versatile.

Thank you! I wanted to be able to keep things in the 40s that I couldn't keep in the main tank so now I have a toby puffer next to my reef lol

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

Tale of Tank Battles

It’s been a while since my last update, but I’ve been battling a few things with the tank. I ended up winning the battle with the elevated tin levels. It ended up being either tin foil from frozen food or an old piece of green tubing in my sump.

From:

To:

I ended up doing multiple large water changes over a few months and bottoming out my nutrients which started my next major issue…dreaded DINOS. I also started following the Reef Moonshiners method at this time and doing monthly ICPs for corrective dosing since I needed to halt water changes.

I purchased a microscope and identified the dinos as Large Cell Amphidinium (LCA) ~Jan 2024:


My “lab” :

This type of dino isn’t particularly toxic but burrows in the sand at night so they are incredibly difficult to eliminate. My protocol for fighting the dinos was to raise nutrients, dose silicates, dose live phyto + copepods, and dose microbactr7. I kept my nitrates around ~20 and my phosphates around 0.1.

Started seeing some progress here after elevating nutrients…lots of cyano ~Feb 2024:


After a few major diatom blooms, it took about 3 months to stop seeing LCA dinos on my microscope slide samples. I am hopeful that this battle might be over.


Fishy Farewells

We ended up losing a few fish and rehoming others during all of this. My Blue Throat Trigger, Walter, ended up having a blockage that ruptured. He was doing great and my favorite fish in the tank so this was devasting. He was always front and center and ate everything in sight. The blockage showed up as a bump near his bottom and grew for months until it ruptured one night while he was sleeping. At the time I was auto feeding reef jerky which consists of freeze dried foods that he regularly gobbled up, and I think this is what caused his blockage (I am no longer feeding this type of food). Our Blue-spotted jawfish did awesome for 6 months then randomly stopped eating and passed so I’m not sure what happened. We ended up rehoming our melanurus and lemon wrasses due to aggression issues and to make room for inhabitants we were growing out in the left 40 gallon for a few months (more on this later). All of the existing fish are doing great and growing nicely!

Smooth Sailing Ahead?

I’ve been having a lot of success with the Reef Moonshiners method. I also added a CO2 scrubber to my skimmer to maintain the tank’s pH at 8.4 vs 8.2. I have to replace the media every 3 weeks but I bought 5 gallons of soda lime so I’m stocked up. Coral growth and coloration are the main improvements I’ve noticed.

“New” Fish

We visited World Wide Corals back in October 2023!

We got a pair of Blue Star Leopard Wrasse while we were there. They were eating prepared foods and already bonded so we jumped on them. We kept them in our left 40 gallon with our Toby Puffer until we could rehome our melanurus wrasse who tried to murder them…they are now in the main tank and there’s 0 aggression between all the other tankmates. We’ve had them in the main tank for a few months. They group up with our diamond goby to help clean the sand bed. We call them the Salamanca twins and the goby’s name is Hector.

I also ended up hanging all the lights.

May 2024 FTS

Left Rock

Storm pair

Sailfin Tang

Mimic Tang

Elusive Green Mandarin

Feeding Frenzy

Zoas

Hammer

Octospawn

Happy Reefing!

 

[NotReefsafe]

Great progress! In love with your leopard wrasses! Are you dosing any pods? How are you keeping them fed?

As for the jawfish, were you aware they require slightly cooler temperatures? This is likely what caused its demise

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

Great progress! In love with your leopard wrasses! Are you dosing any pods? How are you keeping them fed?

As for the jawfish, were you aware they require slightly cooler temperatures? This is likely what caused its demise

Thanks! They were eating frozen when we bought them, but I've been dosing/replenishing pods with Dinkins' Snacklebox and Reef Nutrition's Tigger-Pods. They actually do a really good job competing for food!

Here's a video of everyone eating I took today:


I did read about the jawfish's temperature requirements, and I was running the tank at 76 when we lost him.

 

[SaltwaterScoop]

I posted this in the wrasse lovers thread. I caught our Blue Star Leopard Wrasse Pair waking up and popping out of the sand!