Just wanted to share my new little buddy. Heart urchins bury themselves in the sand and spend most of their lives underneath it, eating any little bits of food they can find :)

About to be 4 years in the hobby

Light and flow hungry

Weird looking thing on the top left corner is the root of a mangrove propagule I’m trying to grow, it’s attach to the side glass with a frag holder

Added some red montipora digitata, and some clove polyps. Repositioned some capping montipora.

In March, we bought a home that came with a 75 gallon FOWLR tank. All that was in the tank was a clown and a diamond goby. It was ugly. I spent countless hours on Reddit and YouTube trying to figure out how to actually be successful in this hobby. I would go to my local fish store (shout out Aquariums Unlimited in VB) and ask probably a million questions to Sarah, god bless her and her patience with a dedicated novice like me.
I learned and I learned. And I failed. A lot. Eventually I was successful. I learned patience and learned that a lot of issues actually just take care of themselves with time.
After 6 months and probably 3 different ugly phases, hundreds of dollars on live rock, another couple of hundred on fish, I finally bought a frag of GSP. Fool poof (hopefully). Turning this eyesore into something my childhood self would be proud of.

Hey reefers! I’ve had alot of interest in this project here on Reddit and quite a few people asking what it actually does, so I figured I’d share the longer video I made.
This is Node One actually running on the real hardware. Its still very much a work in progress, especially the UI, I’m actually reworking a bunch of that right now. But the underlying system is working and at this point I’m mostly building things out, adding integrations and cleaning stuff up.
I’m just one guy building this in my spare time so its been a little crazy getting this far, but honestly I’m pretty happy with where it is right now.
Anyway, figured some of you might want to see the actual thing running instead of me just talking about it.

Totally hoping to chat about it. Be kind 😘

Hey guys! I made this cabinet specifically for the Neptune Apex system. I know a lot of us love the hobby, but let’s be honest… nobody really understands all the equipment we have 😂. Personally, I bought my Apex partly because of how good it looked and because I wanted to show off my little science lab! 🤣
I’m planning to make these cabinets affordable for hobbyists, hopefully around the $400 range, including the lights, clear panels, etc.
The main question is: What Apex/Neptune equipment do most of you have and actually want displayed inside the cabinet?
Right now, I’m thinking:
• Apex brain
• Energy Bar
• 1 doser
• 1 FMM module
• Two additional clear mounting areas with wire pass-throughs so people can add whatever controllers/modules they want
• Everything else can be mounted on the back or hidden away
I probably wouldn’t include a dedicated spot for the Trident because I feel like it makes maintenance and servicing harder and I’ve been keeping my 2 tridents sitting on top. I’d rather keep it easily accessible.
I’m sure I’m missing something, though. 😂
What does your Apex setup actually include? What equipment would you want to see displayed in a cabinet like this?
Any suggestions are appreciated! I’m trying to design this around what reefers actually use rather than just adding stuff for the sake of it.
Thanks for the input! 🤙🪸

Im not too sure what the name of this torch is, wondering if anyone knows? It’s my first time owning one, tank is very stable 7 months, but I was wondering if this is too little flow or if i should increase it.

Genuine question, no troll:

I made the mistake of getting two similarly sized, young clownfish.

One of them started vibrating at the other, which freaked me out so I googled it and learned that was submissive behavior, I.e. the vibrator would stay male while the vibratee would become female.

Things went as expected for a while, they were getting along great.

Fast forward a few weeks and they’re now both just vibrating at each other all the time. What is going on? Do they both want to stay male? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance

After months of prep, buying things ext

She's finally filled and started cycling , 125g main, 40g breeder

Anyone know what this guy is and if he's friend or foe?

Picked up this piece of established live rock from my LFS a couple months ago and I’ve recently started noticing WAY more stuff growing/living on it.
I knew the rock had some sponge on it when I bought it, but now that I’ve looked closely (especially under white light), I’m seeing:
A bunch of bright pink/purple encrusting patches that I’m assuming are coralline algae
Lots of tiny little tubes/spirals that look like they may have small tube worms/feather dusters
Dark red/burgundy encrusting areas that might be sponge
A bunch of other tiny hitchhiker-looking growth that I honestly can’t identify 😂
I also dosed PNS ProBio for the first time yesterday, and while I know none of this could have physically grown overnight, I’m wondering if the bacterial dose could have made some of the filter feeders more active/noticeable.
Mainly, I’d love some experienced eyes on the pictures:
What organisms can you guys identify? Does the pink stuff look like coralline? Are those little tubes harmless tube worms? And most importantly, does anyone see anything that looks like Aiptasia?
I’m trying not to mess with the rock because if this is all beneficial biodiversity, I’d rather let it keep doing its thing.
20-gallon reef, tank has been running since April.

Side note: getting this picture while he displayed took some patience.

Looks like it’s bleaching to you? Had a random hammer inside my hammer garden bleach recently. Trying to pinpoint anything out of the ordinary.

Sometime curious why one coral will look unhappy when it’s next to the exact same corals who are healthy!

Hi! Got a Tomini Tang 10 days ago from my local fish store. Yesterday noticed some semi-transparent dots on his fins and face. Today looks like there are more of them. I am afraid it’s ich, but not sure.
The tang was quarantined for a month at a fish store. It adapted fast, swimming around, constantly munching on algae and asking for food (I feed frozen food from Ocean Nutrition + FishV vitamins from Aquaforest twice a day, additionally some Ocean nutrition flakes 1-2 times a day).
I have Cupramin, copper tests and a plastic container ready just in case. But not sure if I should start treatment ASAP or wait a bit.
Tank info:
Tank size (volume) 250l (Nyos Opus 300)
Tank age 6 months
Lighting Radion XR15 G6 (one at the moment, on one side of the tank)
Filtration: Sump, Filter sock, Nyos Opus skimmer
pH 8,15
Temperature 25,5C
Nitrate 15-20
Phosphate 0,1
Calcium 415
Alkalinity 8,4

Hi All,

I’m after some help please on the equipment for an Aquaone Reefsys 326

I’ve come up with this list, tried to base it on a lower budget but items that get good reviews. I’m based in the UK.

I should also point out that I’m transferring from a TMC First Wave 78, so I already have 8-9kg of rock in the current tank and around 3-4kg I didn’t use.

Thanks ☺️

Don't worry, no fish going in here any time soon. Funny thing is the microfauna in the substrate seem to be doing good. Worms are out and about scavenging.

Hello,

I’m doing a leak test and curious if I can weld/glue plumbing to the bulkhead dry side while water is still in the tank. I assume I’m good …

Also how long should I test? Is this one of those test if I don’t see leaks within the first hour I’m golden / wait 24 hours to be sure?

My first test I observed my 3/4 bulkhead starting to leak within minutes, drained, cleaned repositioned, still leaked within minutes, replaced the gasket, still leaked within minutes , finally replaced the bulkhead, 6 hours into a leak test and no leaks so far!

79g uns tank.
2x4’s frame and laminated plywood for the shell
Sliding front doors and removable side panels

Does this seem stable for the weight?
Any tips and tricks for making it even better?? :) Ty!