Timfish

Corals are manipulating the microbial processes in the water. (1) (2). To establish the microbiomes corals prefer faster adding easy corals like Sinularia species or Actinodiscus mushrooms or Xenia or Anthellia can be used and as teh system matures they can be removed and more desirable corals added.

Here's a DIY cannon you can build and hang several feet above your tank.

I'll get you more pics of the overflow on this system that's hidden in the middle of the tank in front of the tree. The drain is 3 inch PVC and the 2 returns go through the drain line. With holes drilled at both ends you can use all of them or just one or two. Getting rid of those huge overflow boxes gives you more room for aquascaping. You could in theory have the overflow located somewhere else and hid the plumbing to the existing openings.

I'd go ahead and start adding more corals. Corals promote microbbial processes beneficial to them so might as well keep adding them. I'd even go so far as adding animals that would be removed at a later date as more delecate species are added. As far as nitrogen goes, adding more fish provides urea and ammonia and nitrification occures in coral microbiomes so it seems unlikely corals might become difficient. We can't test for particulate or organic phosphorus but as long as inorganic phosphorus, PO4, is above .03 ppm corals shouldn't have issues with phosphorus deficiencies. Fig 4 from this paper "Phosphorus Cycling in Reef Organisms with Algal Simbionts" Fig 3 from this paper "Cotnext Dependant Effects of Nutrient Loading on Coral-Algal Mutualism."

Be sure to feed the mandarin a lot. You might try algae wafers with your urchin, your rock looks fairly white in the pics, it might not be getting enough to eat. https://premiumaquatics.com/products/v2o-foods-spirulina-8-oz-wafers.html

Just FYI, there's a lot of dogma that has built up in the reef hobby over the decades. The essential equipment needed to keep corals iwhat is needed to provide adequate lighting and water flow for the species in question. This can be accomplished with surprisingly inexpensive equipment. Dick Perrin, who near as I can determine was the first coral farmer in the US starting back in the 90s, raised hundreds of thousands of frags using 6500K MH and airlifts (as in no water pumps). This system here used tap water and just a single mag 9 pump and cheap black box LEDs of amazon with just an unlit sump, no skimmer, reactors or dosers. So the question seems to me to be will a MP40 give you the movement you want to see and that's something you'll have to answer. Keep in mind you can always add another if you like. Cost is certainly a consideration but having spares or redundant pumps is always a good idea as sooner or later pumps will fail.

I'd skip the astrea snails. Brittle stars are great for grabing food that's fallen in tight spots other scavengers can't get to. Larger hermits like thin stripe hermits from hte coast or the electric blue hermit (Calcinus spp.) are much better algae eaters. You definitely want to use an urchin or two. They are essential herbivores on reefs (the decline of Caribbean reefs can be directly tied to the dieoff of diadem urchins in '83) and have been essential for reef restorations. Urchins will scour rocks of algae doing a much better job of preventing algae form growing back than other herbivores. My favorites are the pink short spine from the Caribbean, tuxedo and royal. Diadem spp urchins are excellent herbivores but are a hazard because of their sharp spines. DOn't get any of the pencil urchins, they're not too particular about what the munch on.

Your welcome! If you're trying for designer corals keep in mind the prices reflect how hard it is to grow them and/or keep their colors. It's probably best to decide which corals you want first then find out what the environmental conditions are they are grwon under to develop those colors (and include tankmates) then match those conditions as closely as possible. When setting up your system start with coral species that are either sibling species or "easy" varieties of the same species you want to keep. Once they are doing wellyou can add the species you want and when they are doing well thenrehome the starter specimens as room is needed for the preffered ones.

To be honest I really hate the terms "SPS", "LPS" and "Softies" as they have no relavance for the husbandry requirements of corals and are very misleading causing many faulty assumptions on the part of aquarists. Take Purple Stylo, Stylopora pistellata, for example; it's one of the hardiest corals I've come across and I've seen it survive conditions that kill mushrooms, Sinularia and Sarcophyton octocorals and Frogspawn, chalice and plate corals. I'll get off my soapbox now. Kessils would be my first choice for a tank that size but there are inexpensive options of similar design. POPbloom is a chap brand that uses reflectors instead of lenses so there's no issue of lenses browning but the controller for programing it is obtuse to say the best so when I've used them I've used a sepperate timer. I use my own custom built fixtures a lot so I haven't kept up with all the marketing hype but there are fairly flat fixtures that will give good coverage. I'd look for a fixture that will give you around 150 PAR on the bottom of the sand when it's mounted at the hieght you want. You may not have it set that high but it'll ba able to provide the light some corals will need to maintain thier colors.

Welcome back! We're looking forward to seeing your system come together and develop in your build thread! Since people don't seem to notice if a tank is a simple rectangle or a fancier hexagon or curved shape when it's full of corals and fish, I'd go with just a basic tank and focus on the livestock. For a smaller tank like you have there a plenty of inexpensive options available on line. But since you did mention if money wasn't an issue I'd go with a curved tank from Aqua.Vim (I'd avoid acrylic as it's much harder to keep clean of algae than glass). For high end lights I'd stick with Kessil or some other LED light that uses glass lenses, I've seen the polycarbonate lenses even in the "high end" fixtures turn brown in just a few years and will avoid them if I can (some inexpensive LED fixtures use reflectors instead of lense which won't have the issue with browning). Our understanding of the biological processes has changed tremendously over the years and a lot of what I see promulgated on various forums unfortunately represents the dogma that's built up over the decades. One example being the old idea PO4 needed to be kept extremely low (.001 mg/l). In reality reefs are exposed to much higher levels as most of the ocean sits around .3 mg/l and the average reef sits around ~.1 mg/l. Research done with corals kept in aquaria has shown PO4 levels below .03 mg/l can cause phosphorus deficiencies in corals causing bleaching and even death. FOllowint the research showing how critical microbiomes for our physical and mental health and how critical they are for sustainable farming there have been huge advances on our understanding of their roles in coral health. So here's some links to a couple decades of research if you want to feel overwhelmed. (FYI, researchers for the most part reffer to Dissolved Organic Carbon as DOC, aquairst have renamed it "carbon dosing" but it's the same thing.) "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2BMEfQGjU Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7hsp0dENEA Microbial view of Coral Decline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAD26LGERj8 Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont https://youtu.be/DWItFGRQJL4 BActeria and Sponges https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oLDclO7UcM Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end) https://youtu.be/dGIPveFJ_0Q Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching https://youtu.be/oadKezUYkJE DNA Sequencing and the Reef Tank Microbiome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxVSmLhxUg Richard Ross What's up with phosphate" https://youtu.be/ZRIKW-9d2xI

Sorry to hear about his passing! 😢 Our condolences to his family!

You might check equipment leasing places to see if yuo can find a hydralic lift cart. A simple platform can be made with 2x4s if you find one but it doesn't have the hieght you need. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=hydralic+lift+cart&atb=v153-1&iax=images&ia=images

Definitely a coral that wants it's own tank. 😕

Yeah, most corals aren't very touchy, feely personality types. Your shrimp should have it's missing claw back as soon as it molts.

That's the easiest way. Another method would be keep the frag plug flush in sand and as the zoa polyps grow off the plug onto the sand they can be pulled off and glued to a plug. It's important they have actually grown onto sand so glue will have something to stick to. Glue rarely sticks to polyp tissue and polyps will usually float off in a few days. A third way is to sepreate the polyps and set them in a bowl of sand and once they grab ahold of some sand glue them to a frag plug.

I've got a set but they're an inexpensive set and will work well for pulling and pushing a big tank around but I wouldn't try lifting the entire weight of a tank with them. Straps under the tank would be how I would do it without a hydralic cart.

😀👍

I see you didn't learn anything from your old system!

They're expensive but get a captive raised one you can feed prepared foods. There have been exceptiona but most of the wild mandarins I've seen do well feeding off 'pods reproducing in a system have been larger systems, 90 - 100 gallons or larger.

If you'd just fed it more you could have had crab salad for lunch 😏

Sounds like it's time to start feeding it instead of letting it forage for dinner. :D

Looking good!

Dinner 😄

That's a really cool looking crab. It's left claw is definitely used for grabbing and crushing though and it's right claw doesn't have any "spoon" shape to it. Looks like your ID is right.

Just because they don't have a brain doesn't mean they don't have a social life and feelings. Look at what's been found with their cousins: