Tanked_kiwi's Aquanano 40 - DIY Heavy!

[tanked_kiwi]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm pretty new here and to reefing in general. This is my first venture into this hobby after a short break from planted tanks. Loving it so far!

 

This is all very much a work in progress, being my first nano reef, after originally setting it up I have found a load of things I want to change... so I'll be keeping this thread somewhat up to date with my progress.

 

Without further rambling..

 

Start Date 17 March 2014

 

Equipment

Aquanano 40

DIY Cabinet

DIY LED light with Lumia 5.2, diy acrylic enclosure and diy stand

DIY media basket

Eheim Compact 600 (was 1000 originally) return pump Jebao DC2000

Eheim 50w + Aqua One 100w Heaters

Tunze 6015 Powerhead

Reef Angel Controller with diy ethernet and dimming expansions

Remote 12L ATO resevoir with Eheim compact 1000 Ebay Dosing Pump with Kalkwasser

5-7kg? Live rock

 

Livestock

2 emo nemos (black clownfish) - Added 4th May 2014

1 Firefish Goby - Added 20th July - MIA

2 Button Polyp? Frags - Added 6th July '14

 

Current FTS 8 June 2015

 

FTS 22 May 2015

[tanked_kiwi]

Build Pics

 

Cabinet:

 

 

 

Rear chamber with extra baffle before return:

 

First Setup:

 

Diy light housing:

 

Lumia 5.2:

 

Light build:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diy Media Basket:

 

First Bare FTS:

 

 

Some recent FTS (sorry about all the crap photos - shaky hands + phone camera = FAIL photos)

 

 

 

Other Pics:

 

 

 

 

[Addinali]

Very good looking. Love the lighting.

[nismo_sky32]

Nice tank! Following along. Love all the diy you've done

[tanked_kiwi]

Thanks guys

 

Currently getting everything together to sump it. I plan to move everything into a spare tank I have for a week while I drill the tank. Heres some pics of the internal and external overflow boxes I made:

 

 

 

This will be a herbie setup. Just waiting on plumbing to arrive and I should be into it!

[tanked_kiwi]

So I've been flat out with work lately but have managed to drill the tank and install my "temporary" sump.

First test setup to make sure my overflow boxes worked... SUCCESS!



Unfortunately I broke my phone which had all the photos of the drilling process on it but here it is in action

 

Under tank plumbing and temporary sump, complete with very messy wiring



And a dirty glass FTS



The herbie works a treat have only adjusted once since I set it up 6 weeks ago and its dead silent!

[tanked_kiwi]

I had planned on having the tank half full of coral by now... but I had a slight mishap with a brass fitting finding its way into my waterchange drum. I saw it before using the water and thought it'd be ok since it was only in there 24hrs. I thought wrong. As soon as I changed the water I knew straight away, the corals looked strange.Seems to be on the mend, that was about a month ago and I've been running cuprisorb ever since. Only lost the Pulsing Xenia, snail is doing fine.

 

I also had a hair algae/diatom problem that got worse the more I changed water, after checking the RODI unit and finding the DI resin to be increasing tds from the RO membrane, I replaced all prefilters and DI resin and the algae is nearly gone!

 

Let me know what you think and stay tuned, I'll start stocking soon.

[EL CHUPACABRA]

Diatoms and hair algae are a normal part of a tank in its infancy. You have some fresh white rock and a killer light, so there is lots of light bouncing around in there fueling the algae growth, also there is hardly anything taking up nutrients. In 3 months, the tank will be much better, in 6 even better, and after a year it will be great. Personally, I let hair algae and diatoms go crazy in immature tanks and leave it alone, if it gets so bad as to smother a coral/rock completely, I carefully pop it out, rub it down with a tooth brush, pour some 3% hydrogen peroxide on where it was growing before I brushed it off (still out of the water), run it under tap water and throw it back in the tank. Works every time for me, this way you export the nutrients the hair algae consumed making itself, and then eradicate the growing site. It takes time for the millions of little critters to become established in your tank. These microscopic organisms will consume the nutrients, hair algae and diatoms when the tank reaches homeostasis and will find their balance, water changes may just be fueling the nutrients for the algae.

 

To speed this along: You can often find a tank that you think looks kick ass at your local reeding club or LFS, ask them to take out some of their macro algae (cheato, etc...) in a bag half full of salt water, and shake the heck out of it. Return the algae and then quickly take the cloudy water home and dump half in your tank and half in your sump. Also talk them into selling you, or gifting you, a small rock that is covered in coralline algae and a couple of tablespoons of live aragonite sand. Pulverize the sand into dust in a mortar and pestle, then take the coralline algae rock and scrape off all the coralline algae into the aragonite dust. Dump this mix into the display, it will turn cloudy but dissipate shortly. This is the equivalent to purple up and will jump start your coralline which will prevent "nuisance algae" if there is such a thing.

 

I find Astraea snails also work well and they behave graciously over their lifetime. Brass is very corrosive resistant to salt water that's why they use it on sea boats and 24 hours is not a long exposure time. I wonder if the brass fitting was the problem? It is normal for this age of tank to have the diatom bloom at this stage, it is part of cycling, and fresh nutrients from salt water. You are on the right track with the rodi.

 

Are you testing your water? Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are important at first, they should easily be kept at zero in a well designed tank like yours, those millions of micro critters will do that. Then as your skill advance and you wish to keep LPS and sps, zero to low po4, and maintaining the proper balance of magnesium, alkalinity and calcium will take you to the big leagues. And Salinity, you always have to stay on top of salinity (calibrated refractometer only)... Don't guess or go on hunches, test your water and use evidence to guide your path. If something is off, test. If a test is off, retest, if you get the same result, come up with a plan and then react gradually. Saltwater tanks do not like big parameter swings even if that is from bad to good. Try to keep your water consistent, and if you need to change do it slowly.

 

You DIY skill are killer and the tank is looking great! I dig the clean lines and needed skills to produce the quality work. Respect. You are clearly well researched and on the right track. Herbie was a good choice for you. Maybe pop that caprisorb out, if it absorbed something it has it by now and you don't want it to leached back. Carbon is a great water polisher too. But all of those things are unnecessary, you just need live rock, good lighting/flow and consistent parameters to reef successfully like the ocean. Maybe cram as much live rock as you can in that sump, but I would worry about another cycle starting. I guess you could run it separate from the display with a power head for a couple months and then kick the return pump back on. If you choose to paint the plumbing for aesthetics, krylon fusion spray paint is tried and true in submerged reef applications (let it cure 24 hours in warm / sunny area first). Your fire fish is also known as a dart fish which means if it gets spooked it will dart away even jumping out of the water, I know you have a lid but it can get through that edge and go carpet surfing to its death. A tight fitting lid is the only way to safely/responsibly keep them long term as they love to commit suicide. And finally dat gsp is best confined to an island if you plan on having other coral as it is known to take over entire tanks. Since you are bare bottom it will grow on glass but you can razor blade it off before it hits your main rock rock and trade the frags for coral at the lfs or locals. Xenia will do that too. Or go for the covered look, just a heads up.

 

I rarely talk on here outside my thread these days but you asked what I thought. Hopefully this helps you. All and all I think you got it. PM me if you ever have questions or want a frag of my corals.

 

CHUPA CHUPA

 

Ps I looked back through your photos. Is that submerged duct tape!?! Metallic tape in highly corrosive saltwater!?! Are you kidding me, after all the hard work of drilling the tank and making those clean overflows and dat light yo and then you duct tape your reef tank. I had you all wrong... And is that a float switch held on by duct tape. What happens when that fails? A flood or dose overload? I know you can do better, you proved that on every other project you built. Duct tape!?!

[tanked_kiwi]

First, let me say thank you very much for the detailed reply! Your constructive feedback and helpful info is taken on board. Thanks again I really appreciate it!

 

Ok I will try to clarify a couple things and i also have a couple of questions.

 

 

Diatoms and hair algae are a normal part of a tank in its infancy. You have some fresh white rock and a killer light, so there is lots of light bouncing around in there fueling the algae growth, also there is hardly anything taking up nutrients. In 3 months, the tank will be much better, in 6 even better, and after a year it will be great. Personally, I let hair algae and diatoms go crazy in immature tanks and leave it alone, if it gets so bad as to smother a coral/rock completely, I carefully pop it out, rub it down with a tooth brush, pour some 3% hydrogen peroxide on where it was growing before I brushed it off (still out of the water), run it under tap water and throw it back in the tank. Works every time for me, this way you export the nutrients the hair algae consumed making itself, and then eradicate the growing site. It takes time for the millions of little critters to become established in your tank. These microscopic organisms will consume the nutrients, hair algae and diatoms when the tank reaches homeostasis and will find their balance, water changes may just be fueling the nutrients for the algae.

 

I do realize this is normal. The part that confuses me is the timing of it all. Everywhere I read that diatoms and hair algae are expected on new tanks straight after the cycle. Once my tank cycled I never got any of this, but I did get a thick green coating covering the rock and glass that was almost like green diatoms? (same fluffy texture that wipes straight off). I let this do its thing and sure enough it disappeared, with the help of 2 Astrea snails. For 3 months after the tank looked pristine. It was only about a month ago that the diatoms and hair algae hit, and as you say, my excessive water changes were fueling it. This is what prompted me to check and change the DI resin. I had thought the DI resin being expired had caused it, but I could be totally wrong and it was just pure coincidence. What do you think? Is it normal for diatoms/hair algae to hit well after the cycle?

 

 

To speed this along: You can often find a tank that you think looks kick ass at your local reeding club or LFS, ask them to take out some of their macro algae (cheato, etc...) in a bag half full of salt water, and shake the heck out of it. Return the algae and then quickly take the cloudy water home and dump half in your tank and half in your sump. Also talk them into selling you, or gifting you, a small rock that is covered in coralline algae and a couple of tablespoons of live aragonite sand. Pulverize the sand into dust in a mortar and pestle, then take the coralline algae rock and scrape off all the coralline algae into the aragonite dust. Dump this mix into the display, it will turn cloudy but dissipate shortly. This is the equivalent to purple up and will jump start your coralline which will prevent "nuisance algae" if there is such a thing.

 

This is something I might well try, thanks for the tip. I did buy a couple of frags from my LFS which have a small bit of rock covered in coralline. It is spreading but much slower than I'd like. Macro algae is something I've been looking into for the sump, but being in NZ with our tight bio security laws means getting such macro algae is difficult. Cheato for example is illegal, I think we have some form of calpura algae, would this be any good?

 

 

I find Astraea snails also work well and they behave graciously over their lifetime. Brass is very corrosive resistant to salt water that's why they use it on sea boats and 24 hours is not a long exposure time. I wonder if the brass fitting was the problem? It is normal for this age of tank to have the diatom bloom at this stage, it is part of cycling, and fresh nutrients from salt water. You are on the right track with the rodi.

 

I have 1 Astrea snail, which does a great job and is about the only species of snail we can get here. I lost the other one when, for whatever reason, he climbed out of the tank. Must get another couple.

 

As for the brass fitting, I'm 99% sure that's what caused it. As soon as I changed the water the corals all closed up. Within an hour My pulsing xenia was bleached almost white and shriveled up, the GSP retracted in a strange way, not the usual way it does when the lights are out. The snail was also nearly completely out of the water. It was extremely late so I left it for the night and did 4 consecutive 25% water changes the next and started running cuprisorb. The snail is now fine, GSP looking good although smaller than it was before and the pulsing xenia never made it.

 

It was after this that the diatom/hair algae problem started, so I'm not entirely sure what was causing it. Mini-cycle perhaps?

 

 

Are you testing your water? Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are important at first, they should easily be kept at zero in a well designed tank like yours, those millions of micro critters will do that. Then as your skill advance and you wish to keep LPS and sps, zero to low po4, and maintaining the proper balance of magnesium, alkalinity and calcium will take you to the big leagues. And Salinity, you always have to stay on top of salinity (calibrated refractometer only)... Don't guess or go on hunches, test your water and use evidence to guide your path. If something is off, test. If a test is off, retest, if you get the same result, come up with a plan and then react gradually. Saltwater tanks do not like big parameter swings even if that is from bad to good. Try to keep your water consistent, and if you need to change do it slowly.

 

I have to admit, I'm not the best at testing consistently. I check salinity every week when I do a water change with a calibrated (pinpoint solution) refractometer and its always spot on at 1.026. I checked ammonia, nitrites and nitrates regiously during the cycle and after, until about a month after my last fish addition. I also checked levels again after the brass fitting incident, and since the cycle finished all levels have been zero. I change 25L(6.5gal) of water every sunday and test every now and then. I havent got a good po4 test yet or calcium, mag, alk either. This is something I need to get onto...

 

 

You DIY skill are killer and the tank is looking great! I dig the clean lines and needed skills to produce the quality work. Respect. You are clearly well researched and on the right track. Herbie was a good choice for you. Maybe pop that caprisorb out, if it absorbed something it has it by now and you don't want it to leached back. Carbon is a great water polisher too. But all of those things are unnecessary, you just need live rock, good lighting/flow and consistent parameters to reef successfully like the ocean. Maybe cram as much live rock as you can in that sump, but I would worry about another cycle starting. I guess you could run it separate from the display with a power head for a couple months and then kick the return pump back on. If you choose to paint the plumbing for aesthetics, krylon fusion spray paint is tried and true in submerged reef applications (let it cure 24 hours in warm / sunny area first). Your fire fish is also known as a dart fish which means if it gets spooked it will dart away even jumping out of the water, I know you have a lid but it can get through that edge and go carpet surfing to its death. A tight fitting lid is the only way to safely/responsibly keep them long term as they love to commit suicide. And finally dat gsp is best confined to an island if you plan on having other coral as it is known to take over entire tanks. Since you are bare bottom it will grow on glass but you can razor blade it off before it hits your main rock rock and trade the frags for coral at the lfs or locals. Xenia will do that too. Or go for the covered look, just a heads up.

 

Thanks for the compliments!! I am going for the clean uncluttered look, and still have quite a bit to do, but its getting there!

 

I am aware of the firefish being a known jumper. I had the lid on at first and was considering getting a tighter fitting glass lid made BUT I just cannot stand the look of the tank with the lid on. It looks ok, but when the drips form on the glass from condensation, it splits the LED colours up and I end up with a rainbow effect. You can see this in a previous photo further up. Now that he's settled in, he doesn't seem to freak out much and frankly, its a risk I'm willing to take.

 

I am going to look into using part of the sump as a fuge, if I can get some macro algae. I will be putting some more rock in there either way, I'll try to add small amounts at a time.

 

The plumbing won't be getting painted. I have yet to make some lids for the overflow boxes, that will hide the plumbing from the top and also stop light/algae growing in the overflows.

 

Thanks for the tip on the GSP, I will keep an eye on it.

 

 

I rarely talk on here outside my thread these days but you asked what I thought. Hopefully this helps you. All and all I think you got it. PM me if you ever have questions or want a frag of my corals.

CHUPA CHUPA

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. Your info is very helpful indeed. I hope to hear more from you soon. I wish I could get some frags from you, but I suspect you're a long way away in a different country!

 

 

Ps I looked back through your photos. Is that submerged duct tape!?! Metallic tape in highly corrosive saltwater!?! Are you kidding me, after all the hard work of drilling the tank and making those clean overflows and dat light yo and then you duct tape your reef tank. I had you all wrong... And is that a float switch held on by duct tape. What happens when that fails? A flood or dose overload? I know you can do better, you proved that on every other project you built. Duct tape!?!

 

Not quite. I suspect you're thinking of the silver aluminium stuff? This is plastic waterproof scotch tape which I assumed (perhaps wrongfully) would be fine. Regardless, it is shockingly rough and ugly but is a temporary fix until I get a sump built. I have dropped the water level in the sump so its no longer under water. It is only there to block the handle holes in that container in case of splashing etc. The float switch is most definitely not held on by duct tape, I would never do something that bad! Here is a pic showing the bracket I made, which is height adjustable.

 

 

 

The float switch is hooked up to my reef angel controller. It only allows it to run the ato pump once every hour, and for a maximum time of 10 seconds. If it were to stick on, I have to manually clear it on the controller before it will continue working.

 

Hope this clears a few things up. I will try to get the new sump in asap.

 

Thanks again.

[tanked_kiwi]

Its been a while, thought an update might be in order. The tank hasn't had the most attention over the last couple of months, but it seems to be chugging along just nicely.

 

I finally have a real sump, just waiting on my return baffles to dry. Also have a skimmer and some goodies for the controller on the way. I'll post some pictures when they get here.

[tanked_kiwi]

Current FTS

 

 

Hammer

 

Plays

 

New zoas

 

 

 

New Frogspawn

 

New mushrooms

 

 

Hermit

[tanked_kiwi]

So, time for another update. I have my new sump in, complete with Bubble Magus Nac QQ skimmer. Great wee skimmer for the price. Its my first skimmer but its near silent and its pulling cr*p outta the tank. Winning. I also upgraded the return pump to a Jebao DC2000, mainly due to some split insulation on the ehiem. This pump is AWESOME! Dead silent, a slight whine that I cant hear a meter from the tank.

 

I also have a few new frags

 

Green Hydnophora

 

Mint Candy Cane

 

Bali Slimer

 

And this rock covered in blue mushrooms

 

 

And finally, a current FTS

 

Cheers!

 

[ReeferBoo]

Great little nano you've got there man, nice DIY skills too!

[tanked_kiwi]

Thanks man!

[tanked_kiwi]

A couple days ago I noticed some zoas closed up and looking a little sad. Thought it may have been from the increase in light since I've bumped it up 5% over the last week. Had a closer look tonight and it looks like zoa pox, I think.

 

 

 

 

I had also noticed a tiny Aiptasia on 1 of my new zoa frags the other day, went to pull the frag tonight to cut it out and its moved onto my rock. Double

 

Middle of the pic

 

 

 

Need to work out how Im going to treat the zoa pox, I cant remove the rock since all my rock is epoxied together. I'm thinking i'll take a blow torch to the aiptasia if I have to take the rock out.

[dropped]

Looking good, where have you been getting your live stock?

[tanked_kiwi]

Looking good, where have you been getting your live stock?

Pretty much entirely from members of a local Facebook group. The clowns and hermit came from a LFS.

[dropped]

Ahh perfect, i think ill be doing the same, and not buy from the LFS, mainly due to the fact they have a crap selection.

 

can i ask how much the hermit was?

[tanked_kiwi]

Yea that's the main reason for me too, prices are similar but the selection is far better. Where abouts in NZ are you? Check out NZ reef junkies and NZ frag and coral swap on Facebook if you haven't already.

 

The hermit was $40.

[atrox]

40$ for a hermit, am I missing something?

[dropped]

40$ for a hermit, am I missing something?

Because .... New Zealand

[tanked_kiwi]

40$ for a hermit, am I missing something?

 

Because .... New Zealand

Yep, exactly! Gotta envy those US prices eh

[dropped]

Yea that's the main reason for me too, prices are similar but the selection is far better. Where abouts in NZ are you? Check out NZ reef junkies and NZ frag and coral swap on Facebook if you haven't already.

 

The hermit was $40.

 

Managed to join the NZ frag group, but cannot find the Reef junkies one.

[pgrVII]

Your tank is well done kiwi,the lights are really awesome.

Looks like you have a boxer dog aside from the tank?

[tanked_kiwi]

Managed to join the NZ frag group, but cannot find the Reef junkies one.

I'll grab you a link for it, it's the better 1 of the 2

Your tank is well done kiwi,the lights are really awesome.

Looks like you have a boxer dog aside from the tank?

Cheers! I am really pleased with the light, everything I put under it seems to colour up nicely.

 

Yep, that's Keisha, she's me best mate! Do you have a boxer?