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Innovative Marine 40-EXT (1 Viewer)

The UV helped get the tank to finally swing into a nice positive side of things now. The sand stays mostly clean and everything is seemingly happy.

Not to much of changes other than some livestock. Here is the list of what currently resides in the tank:
Pair of mandarins
Yellow assessor basset
Aiptasia eating filefish (that doesn't eat Aiptasia)
Court jester goby
Fire shrimp
Tuxedo urchin
Sand sifting starfish
Conch snail
Two Nassarius snail
A few other various snails and hermits

Have a few different mushroom corals, a stylo and two rock nems. I also just added some piece of something that was in my main tank that never really did much. Interested to see if it starts growing or bleach out.

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Everytime I think I have the Aiptasia gone, I find a new head or two. Guess I am in the maintenance stage for that. Thought the filefish would take care of new heads but guess not. It spends most of its time surfing the glass so maybe I should just put it in the big tank.

Would like to find a nice chunk of GSP and start growing out an island. Trying to find a way to dress it up without having to deal with water chemistry.
 
I bought the pair of them from BIOTA. Mostly with the thought that they would already be eating pellets. I just wanted to have the higher chances of success.

I throw pods in occasionally but they eat frozen, mostly brine shrimp. I would say them eating, entertain me the most of all my fish. I use a pellet feeder when I travel. Occasionally I will do pellets but otherwise it is frozen twice a day.

So the UV is a non issue as far as pods are concerned.
 
Starting to add a few things. Bought a few things from people here and moved a couple things from my big tank. Finally found some ceramic skulls. Going to try and grow out a mummy eye over the entire thing. Mummy eye broke into two so I am just going to try and do two skulls and hope one works out. Not sure if they are long term additions to this tank or just for the time being. At least it gives me something colorful in the tank.

Will try two different lighting shots.
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Skull idea is 🔥🔥🔥. I did a chalice over a huge shell long long ago. Was such a huge conversation piece for the non reefers.
 
These are rather small (3.5" x 4.5" x 3" high). I have been debating this for awhile and it took me awhile to find a ceramic one. Edges were a little sharp from the mold but I just hit all the edges with a file. They are actually advertised as a freshwater betta home. Pretty happy with the size. Much bigger and i would have room for them anywhere.
 
I wonder if the skull will just get a full head of hair or complete with beard 😄
 
Just realized the tank has been wet for a year now! I have not done too much with corals until this last few months. Just looking back the skulls have only been in there about 6 weeks and already showing some good growth. I just peppered the flat rock with some acan frags. It will be interesting to see if the get blasted with too much light. So far they look to be getting nice and puffy but they have only been in there two days.
 
Looks great! I like the scape a lot, and your equipment section is well-organized.
 
Some unfortunate news, I had one of the mandarins jump from the tank last night. I am rather disappointed by this. I bought the pair from Biota for over a year ago and both have been eating frozen and the pellets. I figured since these were not going to have a primary diet of pods that having them together in this tank would be fine. At this point they, or the remaining one, is about 1.5 - 2 inches long.

Here comes the question, should I try and find a replacement to try and keep a pair? I am weary of buying a wild caught one because I would need to train it to eat what I have been providing. I am open to this idea if I can find one that eats at a store. Finding one of similar size that is captive bred is also going to be difficult. The only place I see the option to buy specific male/female captive bred (currently available) is dr reef quarantined fish. My guess is this is going to be rather small, probably under 1 inch.

Yes, there is a lid, however it does have a small gap around the edges. Last night is appears as if the lid was slid to the back and there was almost an inch gap near the front of the tank. I usually center the lid, just must have missed it last night after feeding.
 
Guess it's the end of this thread and I will have to make something new. Yesterday I spent the day upgrading the tank to a IM 40-gallon EXT. Water needs to clear up a bit more since I added new sand. Also need to add in a small pump to get my UV back online since I removed the 'T' I had on the return pump. So far so good after about 12 hours of running.
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Decided to just rename this thread instead of starting a new one. Didn't know I could do that so I guess it makes it easier. Not much changed since I changed the tank. I added a branching structure but in my most recent picture it is mostly blocked by other rockwork. Might try and take some better photos but here is the current view of the tank.1000005890.jpg

Tiny tidbits of details from previous post(s):
I did end up pairing up my mandarin with a wild caught one. She was a little bit smaller but not too far behind on size. They have both been feeding well from frozen and pellets.

Other than that, my livestock did not change. I tried adding a small McCosker's wrasse but it found it's way through the 1/4" mesh lid. Looking to find another wrasse to add, but not in any hurry. Will likely try something different.
 
So sad on the wrasse. Mine did the exact same thing. So sad, he was so pretty :/
 
I don’t know what is up with mcKosker’s if there is a tiny gap they will find it. I now have a custom lid from ClearView Lids but before when I had the original Waterbox lids they had a tiny gap …
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I havent tried another one after the two loses. Plus my 5 wrasses are pretty established now so some one is going to get beat the sh out of them if I add one now … regardless of the peace keeper box
 
Only because I saw mention in @Jjdurrant thread about a skull. I have not taken the time to update my smaller tank pictures yet but here is my skull update.

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Its coming along. Sure is a slow process. Started this last January.

Rest of the tank pretty much looks the same.
 
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Could be just me but when I click on the attachment, the link is broken
 
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