New 40 gallon breeder saltwater build

Really nice selection of fish man! I love the Tomini Tang. I plan on either getting one of those or an Atlantic Blue tang here in the future! You should update it with a new picture of the coral when its opened and a full tank shot!

 

Ah yes a tang in a 40. I trust you are returning it in a few weeks? Have fun catching it.

 

Ah yes a tang in a 40. I trust you are returning it in a few weeks? Have fun catching it.

He's seemed fine so far and the people at the store recommended it. I will always view returning it as an option but so far he seems happy and healthy.
So I know I'm reaching my capacity stocking-wise but my tank still has a few problems I'd like to address: hair algae and pest snails (which I've identified as sundial snails). I know a lawnmower blenny would be helpful with the algae and a melanurus wrasse would be helpful with the snails, but those in conjunction with a cardinalfish would make my tank overstocked. It's already pretty full. I've done some research and am going to try treating the hair algae through GFO, getting snails like turbo + margarita, spot treating H202, water changes every week, and the possibility of a refugium.
But with the snails I think they'll be hard to eliminate through just picking them out. Would half a dozen more bumblebee snails take care of the problem? Any advice welcome.

Also I removed the coral since it wasn't doing so well. I don't think it was so much a problem in the tank as manhandling and being knocked off by the fish/inverts. I set it on a rock but it fell off into the substrate more than once. Then when I was trying to pick it up with a net it broke and a worker at the lfs told me it would release a toxin so I took it out. What methods do people use for making their corals stay put (gluing, tying, etc)?

The tank has been good otherwise, just a few astreas got knocked off and taken advantage of by the hermits. Other than that everyone new has looked good (wrasse, tang, etc) but the tang hasn't eaten any algae like I was told they would. I will try to get some pics soon and will try again with the corals with my next trip to lfs.

 

So I got something new last night but forgot to get a good pic and now the lights are off. I'm trying again with the corals, this time I got a tree coral frag. And since getting knocked off the live rock is what I think caused the problem with my last coral (zoanthid frag), so this time we got a little cheap tube of aquarium glue (much cheaper than the epoxy) and glued the plug onto the rock. More of the plug is showing than I would've liked (it doesn't look very natural) but I'm hoping it'll do well and grow out more.

Some bad news is that the wrasse has gone missing for a while now, and my last emerald crab died yesterday, along with a few snails over the past few weeks. But we did a water change before putting the coral in yesterday so hopefully that will help things.

I'll put in some pictures soon, the tank is looking pretty good, the royal gramma and tang have been doing well, had no problems so far. The anemone is also hanging on, and recently moved itself up onto the top of a rock and is getting some light. It doesn't look much like an anemone anymore, but I can see some new tentacles growing in. I'm surprised it's alive at this point since it hasn't had anything to eat in months; the shrimp steal anything we give to it.

 

Okay I've got the photos!

 

Got some new stuff a couple days ago: a new coral (clavularia ? maybe, I can't remember the name but the store workers said it was easy), a replacement sixline wrasse (fingers crossed on this one), and two emerald crabs. The tank is doing well, with the exception of a lot of hair algae. I am hoping the emerald crabs will help with that. I also got rid of the anemone finally the other day, during a water change. The tree coral has grown a lot, and is doing very well! Taking the live rock out and gluing the bottom of corals to it seems to work out well for me. Also the royal gramma has been bullying the wrasse a bit and the clownfish have been territorial too, hopefully this will go away soon enough.
Here are some pictures:

 

Hi everyone,

I’m sorry to say we will be closing this tank down. I have two larger tanks and the maintenance is very hard to keep up with, plus with the new school year coming around we have decided to take a step back so we can concentrate on more important things. So I’m going to be leaving the hobby at least for a while. Thanks so much to everyone for their advice and support! I learned so much on here.