- We're gonna teach you how to build a softy tank.
Why? Soft corals come in some amazing colors and shapes.
Some of them are inexpensive and grow really fast.
They require low lights and low flow,
so you don't need to buy expensive gear.
And once they grow out, your tank will look
like a lush underwater tropical rainforest.
Don't forget, we are building five unique habitats
for this Innovative Marine 40 Tank.
To see the gear we are using, how to set everything up,
and the other habitats we've built,
check the playlist link below.
There are hundreds of species of soft coral,
all of which are located in the order Alcyonacea.
But, taxonomically speaking, the following two corals
are technically not soft corals.
We are going to include Zoanthids and Corallimorphs
because they share a lot of similar characteristics.
Broadly speaking, all of the above corals are distinct
from stony corals because they do not secrete
a calcium carbonate skeleton.
They are mainly comprised of soft tissue
and calcium-based sclereides, which give them structure.
Here is a list of just some of the soft corals
you will commonly come across in this hobby.
Gorgonians, Ricordea mushrooms, Zoanthids and Polyphyllas,
Star polyps, Leathers, Zinnias, Discosomas, Clove polyps,
Rhodactis mushrooms, and Nephthea.
Worldwide Corals supply the majority of the soft corals
you're gonna find in our tank here.
And, as always, when they arrive,
we temperature-acclimated them, drip-acclimated them,
and dipped them before putting them
in our water box break system.
Soft coral tanks are great for beginners
because they're easy to care for.
They do well in higher-nutrient systems,
and they grow quickly to fill your tank.
But softy tanks are also a great option for season reefers
who just want a low-maintenance system.
A low par range of 25 to 75 par works well
for this style of tank.
And you may not even need to buy a wave maker
because the return pump might provide enough flow by itself.
One quick note of caution, some soft corals can secrete
a toxin from their tissues,
so I always find it's a really good idea
to run some activated carbon at all time.
Also, if adding Zoanthids and Polyphyllas to your system,
be sure to always wear safety goggles, a mask, and gloves
anytime you handle them, because they can secrete
the highly toxic Palytoxin.
We chose to keep the CaribSea special grade sand
from our previous system, since it's already been cycled.
But since this tank will be a low flow system,
you could get away with Fiji Pink, which has
slightly smaller grain sizes.
But I would definitely recommend staying away
from sugar fine sand as we are gonna be putting a lot
of these soft corals directly onto the sand bed itself,
and we don't want that really fine sand to be blown around
and cover up our corals.
I probably use somewhere around 10 to 15 pounds
of that CaribSea special grade sand,
and my goal was to create a less than one inch deep sand bed
throughout the tank.
This time I did evenly spread it around, but you could
taper it from front to back, as that slight difference
in height does give a greater sense of depth,
especially in a smaller tank like this IM 40.
I'm not gonna sugarcoat it for you,
I really struggled building the aqua scape for this habitat.
I looked at a lot of fully-developed soft coral tanks,
and I asked myself the question, what type of aqua scape
would get me to that goal in one year?
I also knew that I needed a lot more empty sand space
than most of my other tanks, because a lot of these
soft corals are gonna be placed directly on the sand bed
or on a small rock island.
For this build, the flow pattern was not nearly as big
of a consideration, as low flow throughout is sufficient.
So I was able to place the rocks along the back wall,
not really worrying about the flow behind them.
I just used about four pieces of pre-cycled
CaribSea life rock, maybe around 15 pounds total.
And I actually built the scape a little backwards
from how I usually do it.
Rather than just start with the aqua scape first, I added in
some of my larger coral pieces
before starting the aqua scape.
I figured it would be easier for me to figure out
where those larger pieces went first,
and then build the aqua scape around them, filling it in
later with the smaller, soft corals that I have.
I'm not thrilled with it but I think it will provide
enough habitat for the corals to grow into.
My initial overall goal was to stack the pieces of rock
from left to right, high to low, with some small pieces
in the front right.
I was going for some sort of mountainous volcanic
runoff field, but at the end of the day,
it just looks like one large chunk of rock.
So instead, to give it a little more depth,
I created a couple peninsulas running off of that main rock,
from back to front.
To accomplish this, I used an already created zoa garden
and a Rhodactis mushroom rock that I already had.
I used Tropic Marin pro reef salt for all my tanks.
I primarily like it for two main reasons.
Number one, it mixes clear, so during storage
it doesn't coat my 50-gallon drum with a brown residue.
And number two, it provides a good level of consistency
between my frag system and my display tank.
So anytime I need to move livestock or corals,
it's less of a shock to their system.
Since I use pre-cycled reef rock and sand,
I didn't need to add any ammonium chloride
or beneficial bacteria to cycle it.
For this softy tank, here are the ideal parameters
I'm going for.
77 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit, a salinity of 1.025,
pH as high as possible, but hopefully above 8.0,
nitrate 3 to 5 parts per million,
phosphate 0.05 to 0.1 parts per million,
alkalinity 9dKH, and calcium 415 to 425.
But to be honest, I'm not stressing about
these numbers very much.
As long as I can keep them in the ballpark
and somewhat consistent, I am confident that my soft corals
will thrive in this system.
The wonderful thing about softy tanks
is they don't need fancy lights.
In fact, one AI Prime 16 HD is all you will need
for this system.
I mounted it with the 12-inch flex arm
and just put it smack dab in the middle of the tank.
I always set up my LED lights using the Kelvin option.
How I do this is I set the intensity to around 40%.
Then, I adjust the Kelvin until I'm happy where it looks.
I personally prefer a Kelvin at around 10,000 degrees
because I don't like overly blue tanks.
For this IM 40 softy tank, 11,500 Kelvin
seem to hit that sweet spot for me.
Once the Kelvin's decided, then I adjust the intensity
until I get my ideal par range, which for me was about
30 to 40 par in the corners, and no more than 75 par
at the top of the aqua scape.
At the end of the day, I achieved all of this
with an intensity of 34%.
And for all of you who are curious,
here is the schedule I'm running.
Sunrise starts at 7:00 AM, a slow ramp to full intensity
from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM.
And remember, full intensity for this system
is actually 34%.
And then I slow ramp down until lights out at 8:00 PM.
Since I had the power head, I decided to use it.
I'm using the CJ Extreme SDC power head.
It is set to impulse mode between zero and 40% max.
It creates a gentle pulsing motion throughout the tank.
I have the Mighty Jet DC return pump set at 1.2.
For filtration I'm using a filter sock on one side
and the acrylic caddy on the other.
And in that caddy, I am using fiber filter balls,
a small baggy of high-capacity GFO,
and a small baggy of ROX 0.8 carbon.
When Worldwide Corals asked us what corals we wanted
for this build, we said, "Send us a good mixture
of soft corals, nothing high-end or super expensive,
but a good representation of what hobbyists will be able
to find when looking to build a tank of their own."
They sent us a great mix of Leathers, mushrooms, Zoas,
Clove polyps, GSP, and Nephthea, to name a few.
A softy tank will not fill up overnight,
so just buy one or two new corals, as your budget allows,
and then watch the softies grow out over the first year
into that lush underwater tropical rainforest
we talked about.
When it came to coral placement strategy,
I started by spacing out some of the pieces I knew
would grow up and out quickly over the course of a year,
especially the Toadstool, Nephthea, and Sinularia.
I know how big they can get,
and they can get ridiculously large.
So I put them on the back wall of the aquarium,
so as they grow, they won't block out the light
and shadow the rest of the tank.
Next, I placed my two larger pieces, the Zoanthid garden
and the Rhodactis mushroom rock, where I wanted them.
From there it was just a mix of finding what I thought
was a good spot for each one of those corals.
I placed the smaller corals towards the front
and the larger corals towards the back,
because if you do it in reverse, then the larger corals
block out your view of the smaller corals behind them.
I also gave plenty of space to my Mushroom corals
because some of them will give nasty stings
to their neighbors.
I kept my Zoanthids and GSP on their own islands.
That way they don't quickly grow onto the main aqua scape
and overtake the other corals that are already there.
Do note that with this kind of aqua scape, and since so many
of the pieces are placed directly on the sand,
they will be moved around from time to time
as they grow out and just for my preferences.
If you decide to go with similar corals for your softy tank,
don't be surprised when it grows out super quickly
and you have to create frags to give away to your friends.
Since this softy tank had already housed the Euphylia
and Fimbriaphyllia tank, I already had a small
cleanup crew added, namely some small conches, hermit crabs,
(indistinct), and Astraea snails.
I also have a pistol shrimp and a sands ifting goby
from the previous build, but I would definitely recommend
against getting a sand sifting goby.
I just know from experience that as my sand sifter
settles in, he or she is going to cover all of my corals
on the sand bed with a layer of sand,
and I'm gonna have to be constantly going in
and cleaning them off.
When it comes to fish, this softy system is absolutely
perfect for a whole bunch of small fish that like
to hang out in the water column because there's just
a lot of open space in this build.
We'll link to our top 10 beginner fish videos
in the description below.
The biggest problem you're going to run into
with a softy tank is overcrowding.
Your corals are gonna grow so fast
that you'll be watching videos very shortly
on how to frag soft corals.
You may even end up having so many pieces that you'll have
a side-hustle selling some of these to pay for your hobby.
One nice thing about soft corals is you most likely
won't need to feed them very often.
Although I do dose the tank about every other day
with Red Sea AB Plus, and I do broadcast feed the tank
with some fine coral foods about once a week.
It's usually a mix of phytoplankton, Reef Chili,
and Brightwell's coralaminos.
How I like to do it is I turn off the return pump
but I leave the wave maker on, I pour in that mixture,
let it circulate around for about 20 minutes,
and then I flip the return pump back on so that all of that
extra food gets filtered out by the mechanical filtration.
This is gonna be a low maintenance tank for me,
so hopefully I'll only have to do water changes
every other week.
As long as you change your mechanical filtration
and your carbon frequently,
you shouldn't need to add a reactor or a protein skimmer.
But if you do end up stocking it heavily with fish,
you may have to add those things over time.
I am dosing a small amount of Tropic Marin All-For-Reef
via a BRS doser, but honestly, you don't need to do that.
I would just test for your calcium
and your alkalinity every week,
and then just hand dose a small amount as needed.
In six months to a year's time, this softy tank
is going to be stunning.
But what changes might you need to make if you wanna add in
some Frogspawn, Hammer, and torch corals?
Well, click the playlist right here
and I'll show you exactly how to do that.
And as always, everyone, thanks for watching. Happy reefing.
Be well. We'll see you next time.
(soft music)