josh4107's 33long rimless AI SOL Apex jr MP10 powered tizank

January 9, 2012

hello nano-reef! this is going to be my first tank thread and i am looking forward to documenting my progress with this tank! i got a custom 33 gallon long rimless with starfire glass from greatlakesaquariums.com. they also built the stand and the sump. i plan on eventually creating a mixed reef with emphasis on sps and lps. please feel free to leave me some comments on what you guys think as this project progresses. im not too great with taking pictures yet so youll have to excuse my crappy pics but hopefully they will get better in the future. anyway here goes nothing! tank was started 1/4/12

Tank dimensions: 36 long by 18 wide by 12 high rimless starfire glass made by greatlakesaquariums.com

sump: 30 long by 12 wide by 18 high custom made by greatlakesaquariums.com with refugium & ato compartment

skimmer: asm mini-g

lighting: 2 ai sol super blues

stand: 36 high by 18 wide by 36 long made by greatlakesaquariums.com

here are a few crappy cell phone pics youll have to excuse the quality of pics for now

FTS

here is a pic with the stand, please excuse the flash! both sides have doors for access to sump as well as doors in the front of the stand

here are some pics of sump

fuge

skimmer

return pump and ato sensor. ato reservoir is on the right

ai sol super blues!

and a few more shots i took

let me know what you guys think and i look forward to sharing my experiences with this tank with all of nano-reef!

January 9, 2012

I will be adding an apex Jr controller with a temp and ph probe in a week or so. I also got the live rock from premium aquatics and the rock is great. Also got the live sand from there as well. I'm currently running a 12 gallon nano cube that I've had up and running for 5+ years now and plan on moving all my corals from that tank into the 33 gallon once it is cycled and ready to go.

What do you guys think so far? I know the pics are kinda crappy but hopefully I can get some better ones soon.

Also sorry I double posted the tank thread don't really know how that happened and I can't figure out how to delete one of them :/

January 9, 2012

Don't everyone comment at once or anything lol. I'll o some water tests later tonight and see how my cycle is coming along and post my results. Should I start doing small water changes like 10% every week or just let it sit for a few weeks? I know there are plenty of opinions on this so feel free to let me know what u all think.

January 10, 2012

Got my apex Jr controller in the mail today and a tunze silence return pump. Will set it all up tonight and post pics

January 11, 2012

Photo dump from my 12 gallon! these r waiting to be moved to the new tank whenever its ready

probably my favorite new picture first. pic of my clam where my phone camera couldnt quite capture the blue!

top down shots

maybe my favorite coral i have, my war coral. frag came with 1 eye. now has like 30

muh lil cans

blue ricordea clan

blue tort

green cap and lil orange cap

purple deaths

January 11, 2012

You have a nice little set up!

January 11, 2012

You have a nice little set up!

Thanks paleo! Can't wait for it to cycle. Starting to see a diatom bloom now, its day 7 of the cycle. Also found a scarlet legged hermit in my sump today that hitch hiked on my live rock. Also seeing plenty copepods on the glass. I need to test my water again and check my trates and trites. I'll post what I get later

January 22, 2012

Tank is coming along nicely, had my diatom bloom after about a week. Ammonia and nitrites have been 0 for about a week. Think I had a short cycle due to using cured live rock and live sand. Got a cleanup crew from reefcleaners on Thursday and everything is doing good. Also moved a few zoas and palys from my 12 gallon over and they are doing great as well. Will post pics soon

January 26, 2012

tank is still coming along smoothly. my cycle was pretty short, about two weeks. I think it was because i used cured live rock and live sand. I've been testing my params with hanna meters and salifert test kits and everything is looking pretty good. I've added 3 fish, two clown fish and a flame hawk fish. theyve been in the tank for a little over a week and all seem to be doing fine. Also have been slowly adding hardy corals from my 12 gallon. Mainly zoas and palys along with some ricordea and some blue cloves I got from Shane (coraltastic) that browned out under my halide, I think I shocked them with my light and they are already turning back to the awesome blue color they originally were. Ive also gotten some corals that im storing in my 12 gallon until this tank is ready to handle sps. Got a ora hawkins, ora pearlberry, ora green sytlo, ora german blue polpy digi, and a limelite green slimer from harrysfrags.com for some really great prices. Will probably go slow with the sps and wait 2-4 more weeks until i try out some of the more hardy ones before I go ahead and add everything. Will probably add my acans and a few other frags in the near future as well... Hopefully ill get some pictures up tomorrow or Friday. Also have been trying to get my neptune apex jr controller dialed in. Its pretty complicated but is very cool to say the least.

January 26, 2012

Looks Great! I too am finishing up a cycle and oddly enough will be adding 2 Clowns and a

Flame Hawk ( My Fav Fish) to my tank shortly in addition to a Reef Cleaners package. I used Premium Aquatics Cured Manado LR and my cycle has been fast but I'm triple checking everything before I throw in livestock of any sort. Sounds like we have a very similar setup except mines a 22g CAD AIO with a 45w CAD LED but I am planning on a AI SOl Blue ASAP!!! :-) I'm tuned in...looks good!

January 27, 2012

Looks Great! I too am finishing up a cycle and oddly enough will be adding 2 Clowns and a
Flame Hawk ( My Fav Fish) to my tank shortly in addition to a Reef Cleaners package. I used Premium Aquatics Cured Manado LR and my cycle has been fast but I'm triple checking everything before I throw in livestock of any sort. Sounds like we have a very similar setup except mines a 22g CAD AIO with a 45w CAD LED but I am planning on a AI SOl Blue ASAP!!! :-) I'm tuned in...looks good!

Thanks! Its pretty cool we have the same taste in fish and ordered our CUC and live rock from the same places. I guess great minds think alike haha. I tried to check out your tank thread but since its on your local forum i couldnt check out the pics unless i registered and i was too lazy to do that haha. I dont blame you for waiting to add your fish. Patience is a key in this hobby but its pretty obviously it probably isnt one of my strongest attributes. I am going to wait a few more weeks to start adding my sps from my 12 gallon though. Hopefully everything will transfer smoothly and I wont lose anything but you never know. Good luck with your tank by the way!

January 27, 2012

Very nice. Slow down though! Ah who am I kidding, I rush too. But I would recommend an extra water change or two to help compensate for the sudden spike in bioload; your tank cycled with a very small bioload, adding multiple fish and a cuc might cause a second cycle.

January 27, 2012

Very nice. Slow down though! Ah who am I kidding, I rush too. But I would recommend an extra water change or two to help compensate for the sudden spike in bioload; your tank cycled with a very small bioload, adding multiple fish and a cuc might cause a second cycle.

I will admit im not very good at waiting! I have done two water changes already an 8 gallon change on the 14th and a 7 gallon WC on the 21st. I will do another one this saturday, the 28th as well probably another 7 gallon change. Everything seems to be doing great at the moment but i dont plan on adding anything else besides maybe a few more ricordea for at least 2-3 weeks. tested my nitrates a couple of hours ago and they were between 10-25 ppm with a salifert test. also have noticed a huge pod explosion on my glass in the last week or so, they are everywhere. but thanks for the advice, i do plan on going slower in the next few weeks and let the tank settle in for a little while and go from there

January 30, 2012

Took some decent pics today of some corals in my 12 gallon that are waiting to be transferred into the 33 once its ready. everything in the 12 is doing great right now. please excuse all the frag plugs and the fact i took these pics with a droid phone...

limelite green slimer from harrysfrags.com

couple shots of my acans. in the second one you can see a few new heads

ora green stylo from harrysfrags.com

blue tort i got from shane (coraltastic) a while ago

tri-color valida

ora hawkins from harrysfrags.com

couple shots of ora pearlberry from harrysfrags.com

shrooms

February 2, 2012

man those fixtures are BRIGHT!! nice tank! i really like the scape you went with, alot of open space

February 2, 2012

man those fixtures are BRIGHT!! nice tank! i really like the scape you went with, alot of open space

Yea the AI's are pretty bright but i need to get a good camera so i can take better pics of the tank to show how it really looks. Yea im a fan of the minimal scapes as well. cant stand just a big ol pile of rocks in a tank! and i think it makes the tank look bigger than it really it is too. thanks for the comment!

February 2, 2012

Looks good. I especially like that clam.

February 3, 2012

Looks good. I especially like that clam.

Thanks ethan! hopefully ill be able to move him to the 33 in a few weeks if everything goes well!

took a few pictures tonight of the new 33. been having some algae problems recently, mostly diatoms and some macro algae is popping up everywhere on my rocks. mainly red turf algae and caulpera. i need to find something (inverts or a fish) to take care of it. my Ph is also pretty low according to my ph probe. it stays around 7.6 but when i tested it with a seachem test kit it was around 8.0 but that is still pretty low. plan on doing a large water change this weekend and if im still having issues in a week or so ill try to find some solutions. the tank is still only about a month old.

anyway heres a couple pics i snapped earlier.

red hawk fish. finally getting used to the tank and eating more

the clowns

ricordea garden

one of the two chitons

hawk and ricordea

ill try to get a FTS sometime soon!

February 25, 2012

hey guys havent done an update in a few weeks. figured id share a few pics too. everythings going pretty well. pretty much diatom and algae free now in the 33. still nervous to move everything from my 12 gallon though. Ive moved all my z's and p's and my acan. also have some ricordea in there. also moved the german blue polyp monti, undata, and pearlberry a couple weeks ago...the montis are doing fine but the pearlberry is doing just ok... my Ph has been swinging a lot lately from like 7.8-8.00 on an average day and when i opened a lot of windows yesterday when it was nice it went all the way up to 8.25. today it went all the way back down to 7.8. I've got to find a way to stablize it before I put all of my nice sps corals in there. been thinking of dosing kalk in my ATO water but still not sure...

Anyway here are some pics...

First is a pic from a couple weeks ago before i added the monti's or pearlberry. ill get some new pics this weekend maybe of the 33.

The rest of these are from my 12 gallon. The first three are a few new corals I picked up this week. These are going to be the last corals I pick up for a while, Im going to have a hard time fitting everything I have in the 33 as it is haha.

First is the infamous GARF bonsai

Second is a small frag of probably my favorite coral out there, a montipora setosa

and an awesome superman montipora

stuff has been growing in my 12 gallon, figured id show some comparison pics from like 3-4 weeks ago to now. not amazing growth or anything but pretty good i think for a 12 gallon crammed full.

first is the hawkins from about 3-4 weeks ago

and now

tri color a few weeks ago

and today

and this is the green slimer a few weeks

and now, its starting to form a second branch

Thanks for looking, I promise to start taking more pics of the 33 instead of all these of my 12 gallon haha

October 29, 2013

havent hopped on nano-reef in a LONG time! decided to get on here and do an update on this tank! she is still running with a few adjustments. went to bare bottom and changed the skimmer to an octopus nw 110. also added a brs dual reactor with carbon and gfo. anyway i guess ill let some pics do the talking! sorry in advance for crappy iphone pics...

sorry for the terrible FTS from panorama iphone pic. its the best i could do

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rainbow nem that recently go sucked in a powerhead. is recovering and should be fine with time

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