DIY 20L (upgraded from 12g NC)

[avbarr11]

Upgraded to a 20 long from my 12G NC.

 

Parameters

Salinity: 1.025G

Temperature: 78F

PH: 8.4

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: 10ppm

Phosphates: 0ppm

Calc: 380ppm

Mag: 1450ppm

Alk: 11dKH

 

Hardware:

- 20g Long from petco

- 10g DIY sump/refugium

- Coralife 125G super skimmer

- Rio 12? return pump (can't remember the model)

- Glass Holes 700gph overflow

- Koralia nano 425 powerhead

- Maxijet 900 as powerhead (for the time being)

 

DIY LED Lighting

- two 1.4" x 24" heatsinks

- 2 meanwell 60-27D drivers and one meanwell 60-48D driver

- LEDS: 10 RB, 6 CW, 2 OCW, 2 TV

- 120 degree optics sitting right over the tank (3" from the water)

 

Coral:

- Monti caps, orange and sunset

- various zoanthids/palys

- Green trumpet coral and candy canes

- Mushrooms

- Orange yuma

- one lone ricordia

- Birdsnest

- Pocillipora

- Frogspawn

- Wellsophyllia brain

 

Fish and Inverts

- Ocellaris clown pair (Peach and Mario)

- Emerald crab (King George) - soon to be banished to the fuge

- Two Porcelain crabs (Julius Caesar and Mr. White)

- Squamosa clam (Clarence)

 

FTS 10/3/2012, soon after the move from the 12G nc

 

FTS 5/5/12

 

 

The water is clearing around my initial crappy rock work 3/24/12

 

 

King George is hiding under the purple mushroom

[avbarr11]

Ergh.. this has been the weekend of unhappy corals My green yuma has been in the dog house most of the week in the hopes that it would attach to a piece of rubble. And by dog house I mean a container with some mesh over it. It didn't attach to anything but instead decided to squeeze between all the rubble pieces, guts smooshed up against the glass until I finally just released it back into the tank this morning to try the "let it float around till it gets tired and attaches" method. Hopefully it will stop oozing slime now and my other corals will cheer up.

 

I also checked my water parameters today with unpleasant results... ammonia at .25ppm and nitrates in the 5-10 range :/ so I did a quick 20% water change and hopefully that will help.

 

This has also been the weekend of improving my filtration system. I removed two of the three stock sponges and the media bag full of those hollow cylinders (their purpose is unclear) and added 5oz of chemipure elite and filter floss in abundance, then threw one of the stock sponges on top to catch big debris and pods, etc. I have plans to put chaeto in the second section when i have the money and have researched lighting mods. Hopefully the improved filtration will make the corals happy, it's certainly cleared up the water!

[Pippin]

I actually kinda liked your "crappy rock work". It looked different. I hope your parameters get in order. You should add a fish when they do

[Bakenn]

Nice looking tank, keep it up!

[avbarr11]

I actually kinda liked your "crappy rock work". It looked different. I hope your parameters get in order. You should add a fish when they do

 

Thanks Pippin What I didn't like about that rock work was that it felt too busy, and I decided to just stick with a tried and true look for my first tank. I'll definitely try for something interesting in my next tank though, I kinda like the lopsided look in longer tanks where you have a lot going on in one corner and lots of open space at the other end of the tank. Also I'd love to get some fish soon! As soon as I feel comfortable that my tank is stable

 

 

Nice looking tank, keep it up!

 

Thanks Bakenn!

[avbarr11]

So I did another water test today and my parameters are looking a lot better..whew! My ammonia is back down but my nitrates are still above 0. I'll be getting some chaeto soon so hopefully that will help! I've also got a big diatom bloom going on, so hopefully the chaeto will lessen that too. The corals all look much happier now. The yuma has settled down in the sand between two perfectly eligible rocks, but at least it seems content. This weekend I'm going to go check out a different LFS and may end up getting more members for my CUC, and maybe some more coral...

[avbarr11]

NEW STUFF NEW STUFF!!!! I visited yourreef yesterday and fell in love with their coral colors, their prices, and a little clown fish that was all excited to see me! She's my very first fish: a semi naked TR ocellaris clown, and although I've never found the naked/semi naked clowns to be very attractive she just called out to me She's got dots on her cheeks and a little white blip on the top of her tail, and she's got a ton of personality. When I got her home and into my tank she spent the evening zipping around, and seemed completely unphased by my lights going off or me moving around the tank as I made dinner. She took some mysis shrimp straight from the tweezers, and can you tell I'm smitten?

 

This is probably the best shot I have of her.. a point and shoot just can't keep up.

 

Also, not to be overshadowed by the new clown are these three beauties I got for ridiculously cheap (what with the mother's day sale and all)

 

[Incubus_doubled]

Its looking good , fan of the nanocube since thats what i got too... Makes me happy everytime i see someone post on the 12gl....? How u get the rapidled fit into the hood, did you had to mod it(cut alot) to make it fit?

[avbarr11]

Its looking good , fan of the nanocube since thats what i got too... Makes me happy everytime i see someone post on the 12gl....? How u get the rapidled fit into the hood, did you had to mod it(cut alot) to make it fit?

 

Hrm it doesn't quite fit You know that clear plastic cover that fits over the pc lighting? I'm using that as a tray (disconnected from the hood) and all I did was add some little rubber feet to the led heatsink and it sits right on there. That plastic cover is the perfect size to sit right on the tank. The setup I have with cables, skimmer cup, and the fans I attached in random places makes the hood sit about a half an inch off the tank and its a little crooked, but it doesn't bother me. This guy modded a 10" by 5" into his hood with some nice bracers. I might have done that if I wasn't enjoying apartment living where the biggest(only) power tool I have is a corded drill. Oh and my two meanwell drivers hang down the back of my tank... I couldn't fit those under the hood, and wouldn't recommend it anyways.

[Incubus_doubled]

Hrm it doesn't quite fit You know that clear plastic cover that fits over the pc lighting? I'm using that as a tray (disconnected from the hood) and all I did was add some little rubber feet to the led heatsink and it sits right on there. That plastic cover is the perfect size to sit right on the tank. The setup I have with cables, skimmer cup, and the fans I attached in random places makes the hood sit about a half an inch off the tank and its a little crooked, but it doesn't bother me. This guy modded a 10" by 5" into his hood with some nice bracers. I might have done that if I wasn't enjoying apartment living where the biggest(only) power tool I have is a corded drill. Oh and my two meanwell drivers hang down the back of my tank... I couldn't fit those under the hood, and wouldn't recommend it anyways.

 

haha nice, yeah i was scratching my head trying to figure out how it was done...

what type of skimmer do you have and also which chamber do you have it in? i had a bio cube skimmer and had it on the 1st chamber but piece of crap only works once in a while had to adjusted all the time. There's not lot of skimmers out there that are that small to fit the nano tank. My next future plan is probably replace my hood and swap out with a ledtric full spectrum(which hopefully i'll be ordering this week) that way i can have access to a HOB skimmer or something that might stick out that i don't mind. but with the hood, like i said makes it really hard to close and have something small in there.

[avbarr11]

haha nice, yeah i was scratching my head trying to figure out how it was done...

what type of skimmer do you have and also which chamber do you have it in? i had a bio cube skimmer and had it on the 1st chamber but piece of crap only works once in a while had to adjusted all the time. There's not lot of skimmers out there that are that small to fit the nano tank. My next future plan is probably replace my hood and swap out with a ledtric full spectrum(which hopefully i'll be ordering this week) that way i can have access to a HOB skimmer or something that might stick out that i don't mind. but with the hood, like i said makes it really hard to close and have something small in there.

 

I think my skimmer is the biocube one too, I got it second hand with my tank. It's pretty sucky though, I'm not really sure it does anything I have it crammed into my third chamber along with the heater and pump. Where would you sit the intake to the HOB filter? In the second chamber maybe? If you're going to do that you should go big, get an AC70 or something, and have a sweet fuge

[avbarr11]

I had some diy fun last weekend and built a fuge light This is a pretty common build, and I gotta tell ya, it's one of my favorite diy projects ever! The design is so simple and cheap and easy, but the result looks really slick

 

Peeling the black stuff off the back of my NC was probably one of the most satisfying thing ever.

 

It looks so good!

 

One 1.5" access box, one weatherproof light fixture, one cheap extension cord. Solder together, paint the access box white, fit the light fixture into the bottom of the access box (it fits perfectly) and you're done!

And here it is, velcro'd to the back of my cube and tucked into my birdsnest of cords.

[mikeawesome]

looks good, hwat are you going to put in the fuge?

[Incubus_doubled]

sweet, i like the diy light, i would suggest getting an InTank Mediabasket (http://mediabaskets.com/) for your 1st chamber, that way you can clear up 2nd chamber for your fuge... not to mention it keeps everything more organized, but your set up is looking great

 

is that a roll of quaters in the corner pic, laundry day? lol

[avbarr11]

looks good, hwat are you going to put in the fuge?

 

I've got some chaeto in there right now, about a golfball sized amount. I'll probably keep it that way until I have a true fuge/sump. Unless there's something I just have to add??

 

sweet, i like the diy light, i would suggest getting an InTank Mediabasket (http://mediabaskets.com/) for your 1st chamber, that way you can clear up 2nd chamber for your fuge... not to mention it keeps everything more organized, but your set up is looking great

 

is that a roll of quaters in the corner pic, laundry day? lol

 

Man I would loooove one of those media baskets, but I am just too cheap right now. I'm debating building my own but the way I see it is that any $30 I spend on extras for the tank is $30 I could spend on corals I've kind of wedged my chemipure and filter floss between two stock sponges in the first chamber so the second is all free Now I'm waiting for the chaeto to go crazy!

[avbarr11]

Nothing much has happened recently with the tank. Peach is still as active as ever and loves mysis shrimp so much I've poked her in the head by accident while trying to get the tweezers of food in the water. The montipora loves his spot up near the LEDs and is growing in some interesting shapes (great!), but is much less obscene about his happiness than the green hairy mushroom, which is easily three times the size it used to be and is slowly taking over the bottom of my tank. It much prefers its life as a sand dweller over my attempts to get it to stick to a piece of rubble. Whatever mushroom! Just don't start eating your tank mates. The little ball of chaeto is doing its job nicely and the diatoms have decreased However the xenia is melting Originally I thought Peach was eating it but I haven't caught her at it, so now I'm thinking it's either complaining about the twice-weekly 20% water changes I started doing after adding the fish, or its just being xenia and melting for little or no reason. I cut my water changes back to once a week, and we'll see if it cheers up. Anyways I didn't plan on anthropomorphising my tank inhabitants for you when I started writing this blurb. I really just wanted to post some picture updates. Enjoy!

 

FTS

 

FTS

 

My purple mushroom is slowly being consumed by hair algae.

 

 

The hapless xenia

 

My favorite tank shot.

[Incubus_doubled]

looks good, Wow! im impressed by the size of that green mushroom, where did you get that?

so jealous... me want one... hahaha

 

sucks about the xenia, i heard some ppl do good with it and some don't...

what are your parameters? how many times are you feeding?

[avbarr11]

looks good, Wow! im impressed by the size of that green mushroom, where did you get that?

so jealous... me want one... hahaha

 

sucks about the xenia, i heard some ppl do good with it and some don't...

what are your parameters? how many times are you feeding?

 

Thanks! Yea that green mushroom has exploded! I got it from a local LFS near me for like 10 bucks, and it was much smaller and sadder. I think it's called a "Hairy mushroom" or maybe a "Fuzzy mushroom". From what I've read it seems they have a tendency to get huge which I love right now, since my tank is still so young. I'll probably have to hack it back eventually though

 

My ammonia, nitrites, nitrates are all 0, and I keep my salinity around 1.024 ~ 1.025. I'm probably going to get so much #### for this, but I actually don't have test kits for calcium, phosphates, etc because I'm super cheap and I haven't had a problem that would suggest I need to test for those. Let the slaughter begin lol! I feed Peach the clownfish mysis shrimp twice a day by tweezers, so not a lot ends up in the tank, and I don't dose with anything else.

 

Also, my friend came by yesterday with his DSLR and his quality post-processing skills and took some photos that actually manage to show off these colors! Here are some more pictures of all the same stuff I've posted above

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EEP! I've gotta start cleaning up my photos..

[avbarr11]

I just finally got to go out on Saturday and throw some more money into my tank! I bought some phytofeast for my corals, my very first acropora that's a beautiful shade of green, and a big bunch of pink and green tipped frogspawn! Here's to hoping Peach will be willing to host it now...

 

I've also cranked the heat up about 4 degrees to get it to an average temp of 77 degrees, and hopefully this and feeding will encourage my corals to grow.. nothing much has been happening lately.

 

I also got a whole bunch of snails and a couple hermits from reefcleaners, and there should be some macros on their way to me in the mail this week Oh how I love to spend my money on this hobby!

 

Pictures to come soon, I'll be borrowing my friend's old camera this week to get some good shots of the new stuff and a nice FTS.

[Incubus_doubled]

sweet, can't wait...

yup, this hobby would do that... make you go and spend money

 

BTW what part of cali you live... since you mention you had to raise the temp on your heater... very hot where i'm at(socal)

[avbarr11]

sweet, can't wait...

yup, this hobby would do that... make you go and spend money

 

BTW what part of cali you live... since you mention you had to raise the temp on your heater... very hot where i'm at(socal)

 

I'm in Davis, which gets pretty hot, which is what the air conditioning is for I haven't had any overheating problems yet, but it can get pretty cold here at night, hence the heater boost.

[avbarr11]

New addition!

 

 

 

EEP!

 

Also, other photos as promised. These ones I took and post-processed while borrowing my friend's sweet camera.

 

Very first acropora It's color is actually that awesome!

 

Got some frogspawn too in the hopes that Peach will host it. So far, no luck but I'm not worried.

 

Peach! <3

 

FTS

 

but the FTS is out of date now, because I just got my macro algaes from keydiver today, which are wonderful!

Got some blue ochtodes, red titan, and red grape macros and they're wonderful

[gena]

Very nice NC12. Peach (love the name) is a beauty!!!!!! That frogspawn is to-die-for!!!!! And I love the green hairy mushroom!!!!!!

 

How are your clowns getting along?

[avbarr11]

Thanks Gena! Peach is as friendly and energy filled as she is cute Mario (i think its official) is in a quarantine tank right now so they haven't met yet I can't wait!!!

[avbarr11]

Real quick update, i need to get another FTS on here. I moved mario to my display and the two have paired up just fine . Awkwardly, i think Mario's the more dominant of the two, but I still see him/her doing some shimmying so I'm not sure how they're going to gender. Mario's also taken to hosting the frogspawn which is perfect! All the corals are doing well except for one hitchhiker zoa that was too close to the frogspawn and got stung, but it's in recovery. I think i'm fully stocked for now and want to let everything grow out a bit while i work on improving my parameters and water quality. It's taking me a long time to acquire all the correct test kits and corrective dosers. I think my cleanup crew might be a little heavy right now too, as I've had a hermit and a snail die, and the tank is spotless! When my work pico is done cycling i'm going to move some of the snails over to that. I threw some in the fuge too so hopefully they'll clean that up as its a complete mess back there! Gotta get rid of some of that chaeto, but I'm hoping not to have to sell it yet since I want to add some to my work pico.