Muraki's Mr. Aqua 22 Long

[Name Changer]

Yeh im gonna go with some rock anemones too.

Do you have any pics of how you've done the pipe in the drain line?

[Muraki]

Yeh im gonna go with some rock anemones too.

Do you have any pics of how you've done the pipe in the drain line?

I can attempt to make some. But it would be tough. I basically drilled holes that were 1/16" smaller then the diameter of the vinyl tubing that I was inserting down. I would have it go about 10" down the drain tube. That way just the pressure would hold the tube into place.

[D Z]

Awesome setup you have going. I'm considering something similar and was wondering what you take was on the double Nanobox tides. I know you switched to the 6 puck, 36" fixture, but was it out of necessity? I am not planning on any really high light coral, mostly LPS and softies. Would the double tides work long term? From the pics it didn't seem like you had dark spots, but the photo may not have showed the full picture.

[Muraki]

Awesome setup you have going. I'm considering something similar and was wondering what you take was on the double Nanobox tides. I know you switched to the 6 puck, 36" fixture, but was it out of necessity? I am not planning on any really high light coral, mostly LPS and softies. Would the double tides work long term? From the pics it didn't seem like you had dark spots, but the photo may not have showed the full picture.

 

If centered properly the number of dark spots with the dual tides shouldn't be an issue specially if you crank the lights output up near max. Just have to be creative with the rock work. I had that one piece to the very left of the tank that was completely shaded on its far left side. Overall I don't think it would be an issue. My fluval Spec V has the older version of the tide running almost at 100% output 8 hours a day and it seems to be handling it very well. The newer versions should stay even cooler running at the higher outputs. So can it work long term? I would say yes to that.

I only switched because I prefer the look of the 3ft light over the 2 separate tides.

Re-posting image for reference:

[Muraki]

No real changes on the tank. Have only done one water change since the tank has been up and running, that was about a month ago. I tested my water myself, and took it to a LFS to have them test as well. They have matching if not very similar numbers.

 

Salinity: 1.026

PH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 0

Phosphates: 0

KH: 7

Calcium: 420

Magnesium: 1200

 

On the other hand, I still have flatworm/ Brown Acoels. The population has appeared to gone down or flat lined. My Dino problem has completely gone away with a 4-5 day black out and a filter sock during the blackout. Still procrastinating on buying more coral. But all in all, the tank appears to be healthy and looks great. Also removed all frags off the sand bed.

[rickztahone]

I signed up in this forum with the sole purpose of telling you what a great build this is. I had also been looking at a Mr. Aqua 12g for a long time with this type of layout in mind. However, I never went through with it and a few days ago a deal came up on a low iron 22g and I actually ended up buying two. Went to google to search for ideas and came across your thread immediately. Read the whole thing and was inspired.

Thank you for the build thread

 

I plan on doing something similar but with a BA overflow instead of bulkheads. I like keeping all visible things out of the tank but really like how you set yours up. Almost did the same thing as you but was concerned about the possible noise that comes from the bulkheads in your configuration? Additionally, I would be super scared of drilling so close to the top of the tank. Must have been nerve racking for you.

 

Keep the updates coming and thanks again for sharing.

[Muraki]

I signed up in this forum with the sole purpose of telling you what a great build this is. I had also been looking at a Mr. Aqua 12g for a long time with this type of layout in mind. However, I never went through with it and a few days ago a deal came up on a low iron 22g and I actually ended up buying two. Went to google to search for ideas and came across your thread immediately. Read the whole thing and was inspired.

Thank you for the build thread

 

I plan on doing something similar but with a BA overflow instead of bulkheads. I like keeping all visible things out of the tank but really like how you set yours up. Almost did the same thing as you but was concerned about the possible noise that comes from the bulkheads in your configuration? Additionally, I would be super scared of drilling so close to the top of the tank. Must have been nerve racking for you.

 

Keep the updates coming and thanks again for sharing.

 

Thanks for the reply! As long as the tubes I have going into my bulkhead feeding it air doesn't clog with salt, it remains quiet for me, even at Max flow. But I know I have to clean the tubes out if I begin to get a gurgling noise. And the glass held up very well drilling so close. Take a look at a few other builds, I even linked the build I followed to start my setup. I think Scorched was the first one to create this setup on the 3ft tanks.

 

 

 

Opinions?

On a side note. I think I might try to turn off my protein skimmer to see how much of a difference it was making. Currently my nitrates are still reading 0, and I feed reef frenzy every single day. Not pulling that much gunk out with the skimmer like I did at the beginning. Had to clean my skimmer once a week before, now down to cleaning it once every 3 weeks.

 

As for new tank mates, still nothing new. Just letting the tank mature with what is in it. I want more though! Looking to order about 10-15 sexy shrimp and a velvet Nudibranch eventually. Basically enough sexy shrimp to get free shipping from Live aquaria.

[rickztahone]

 

Thanks for the reply! As long as the tubes I have going into my bulkhead feeding it air doesn't clog with salt, it remains quiet for me, even at Max flow. But I know I have to clean the tubes out if I begin to get a gurgling noise. And the glass held up very well drilling so close. Take a look at a few other builds, I even linked the build I followed to start my setup. I think Scorched was the first one to create this setup on the 3ft tanks.

 

 

 

Opinions?

On a side note. I think I might try to turn off my protein skimmer to see how much of a difference it was making. Currently my nitrates are still reading 0, and I feed reef frenzy every single day. Not pulling that much gunk out with the skimmer like I did at the beginning. Had to clean my skimmer once a week before, now down to cleaning it once every 3 weeks.

 

As for new tank mates, still nothing new. Just letting the tank mature with what is in it. I want more though! Looking to order about 10-15 sexy shrimp and a velvet Nudibranch eventually. Basically enough sexy shrimp to get free shipping from Live aquaria.

Cool, thanks for the information. I am not sure who Scortched is, but I will try to go find the thread. Thank you.

[Muraki]

Cool, thanks for the information. I am not sure who Scortched is, but I will try to go find the thread. Thank you.

 

His thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/296235-3-foot-office-nano-tank-video/

[rickztahone]

 

His thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/296235-3-foot-office-nano-tank-video/

TFS. I remember seeing his video on YT. In fact, he was one of the earlier inspirations for me to have a SW tank rather than a fully planted tank which I was also thinking of doing with this tank. After a fully planted 55g though, I thought that I would take a break from planted and try SW

[_beto]

a few days ago a deal came up on a low iron 22g and I actually ended up buying two.

 

 

Hi, mind sharing the site were you got them? I've been looking for one, but marinedepot.com is currently out... Thanks in advanced.

[rickztahone]

Hi, mind sharing the site were you got them? I've been looking for one, but marinedepot.com is currently out... Thanks in advanced.

I got them from a friend that can get them locally. It isn't from a website however, it's a personal thing

[Bambi13]

Awesome build !!

[Themerchant]

very nice tank and setup!

[Muraki]

Update on water Chemistry.

Feeding daily.

 

Salinity: 1.026

PH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 0

KH: 8.5

Calcium: 480

Magnesium: 1200

 

Made a new purchase and added a Neon Goby to the fish stock, also captive bred. 3 days in, he has already found his "Space" and comes to the front of the tank anytime anyone comes by the tank. Looking for a name, so far all the rest of the fish are named after a candy, I can't think of any fun blue candy names.... Help? I'm thinking of getting a second Neon Goby, possibly the yellow striped, and naming them Twix left and right.

 

I butchered the Caulerpa garden in the display and replanted a fresh batch to regrow out. My two clowns were not pleased, but oh well. Also gave away about 5 gallons worth of Chaeto that was mixed with other macro to some place that was willing to do a dip to rid the macro of the brown acoels (flatworms) I have. If anyone needs Chaeto down the road and is willing to dip the macro, pay for shipping and you can have some when I am ready to clean out the fuge. Been debating to use Flatworm Exit to get them out of my tank, but the population has remained steady and has not come close to taking the tank over. I have 30 gallons of Saltwater prepped and ready if I ever decide to go that route. Anyone else have experience going this route? How do corals handle the FWE? Fish?

 

Other than that, I plan on making the dive into some SPS and LPS corals, have only had softies in the tank until 3 days ago. After I get some pictures, or if you can go of older pictures, I can use some ideas as to what to get and where to place it.

[Muraki]

Small photo dump, Sorry for the poor lighting, Odd part of the day for the light schedule. Also been struggling on trying to figure out what has been my issue on attempting to keep sps. I dosed my tank slowly through a 2 week time frame to raise KH. I might need to get more test kits to test for more. Softies and LPS have been issue free. I also might not be allowing for the enough transition for lighting, but not sure yet.

 

The Nudi's and Clam arrived just yesterday from LiveAquaria, they packed everything very well, and I had no issues acclimating everything. Nudi's were dripped for about 3 hours, clam for about 2 hours. Same with the Orange Sea star, it did not look that happy at first when I put it in the tank, so I gave it more time in my refugium overnight, in which it appears to be fully recovered.

 

On a side note, I do not run a skimmer anymore. The refugium alone has been keeping my Nitrates at 0.

 

Salinity: 1.026

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 0

KH: 10

Calcium: 480

Magnesium: 1200

 

Dottyback aka skittles with Cleaner shrimp in the background

 

Gorgonia, GSP (Started as a quarter size piece)

 

FTS, Nemo and Oreo always hanging out in the Caulerpa. Trying to get my wife to let me rename her clownfish with no luck.

[ReefWeeds]

I missed a lot! The scape looks AWESOME!

[Muraki]

Long overdue update. FYI, I still consider myself a rookie in the reefing hobby. I have bad habits, i'll admit it.

 

6 Fish

Original CUC from tank start up

 

Salinity: 1.026

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 0

KH: 9

Calcium: 440

Magnesium: 1250

 

4 Months without a water change and counting. Personal experiment.

 

History:

Haven't updated much with new corals. Lost some of the LPS corals from unstable water parameters in my previous posts. I now dose 2 part and parameters remain stable. The above is where I keep the parameters with minimal swings. I made the mistake of trusting the numbers on the red sea coral pro salt. Not once did I ever see the numbers they promised. So water changes would always create a swing in my tank since I did not dose/test back then. I was also occupied in a time consuming project of renovating a house with only 2 people, so I did not purchase anything new after the coral loses. Just concentrated on stability for months before any more purchases.

 

Changes:

Since dosing 2 part, I have just began on trying sps and lps corals, so very few in my tank and only frags. I purchased a Green Mandarin back in June 2016. Took the time to train him to eat frozen. Now happily eating reef frenzy. I have also not done a water change on the tank since September. I top off with freshwater daily and manually dose daily. I recently got a Monti back in November, that is now fully encrusting the plug, an acro 3 weeks ago that is beginning to encrust, a plate coral that was the size of a nickel that is the size of a half dollar now. I began dosing and once parameters were stable, the plate coral was the first piece that I used to "test" my tank out. Also have a bird nest, but that has been moved into the sump for heal time since apparently I have sexy shrimp that has a taste for it. I have had to manually control some of the soft coral growth by removing the rock and taking a toothbrush in the sink to it for removal, otherwise chemical warfare creates havoc in my tank. Sadly whenever I frag the soft corals or the release polyps, they end up in the trash since I am not motivated to ship.

 

Pests:

Flatworm issue is basically non existent now. I still have them, but only in my sump and in small numbers. I assume between my Goby and Mandarin, the display remains clear of them. Vermatid snails, Still there but not actively controlling them. I remove them when and if I remove rock for maintenance. Digitate Hydroids. Surprisingly enough, something is clearing them out of the display as well, not sure who, but my sump is full of them.

 

Algae Annoyance:

I do get this light brown film hair like algae on the glass and minimal on rock. Also likes to grow on other macro algae. Easy clean up and removal with an algae scraper or tooth brush, finger works too. This began to appear once I increased the intensity of my light. This algae does not appear in my sump.

Hair like fuzz on the rocks, potentially is GHA in the growing faze, but never reaches more than 2mm tall before someone mows it down.

 

In the sump, I do have GHA, but the Chaeto and Caulerpa out compete it and the GHA is minimal and is easily removed manually. Normally grows on the Coraline algae on the glass. I also have turf algae growing in the highest flow areas, I let it be and keep it trimmed since I like it.

 

Cyano grows in the sand but takes a long time to get to a point I have to do anything about it. I normally siphon it thru a filter sock to remove the cyano from the tank. The sand I get in the filter sock is cleaned with water from the sink, air dried, and added back to the display.

 

Maintenance:

- Feed reef frenzy daily and generously

- Manually dose daily

- Test KH and Ca once a week (Salifert)

- Test KH and Ca every 2 days with API for reference (They are so fast and cheap)

- Test Mg once a week (Salifert)

- Top off every 1-2 days. Roughly 1 gallon of water per top off

- Prune algae when I feel like it or goes somewhere I don't want it.

- Scrape/clean glass every other day.

- Thorough scraping with razor once a month

- Remove unwanted soft corals once a month

- Remove traces of Cyano and other unwanted algae once a month or less

- Sand bed is normally every 1-2 months leave most of the work to my cucumber.

- Change filter sock once a week / Wash the old one.

 

Maintenance takes less than 20 minutes a day since I have been keeping up with it.

 

 

Pictures: Note chaeto in the back left of the tank, Mandarin hunting ground.

 

 

This was a nickel not long ago. Can see a tad of the brown film algae on the left of the rock.

 

Monti purchased on thanksgiving. Encrusting nicely, I did get monti eating nudi's from this frag. Acro is a few weeks old and you can see the new growth beginning to encrust the frag.

 

 

Birdsnest recovering in sump from sexy shrimp brutality

 

My soup:

 

 

 

"Oreo and Nemo" Oreo is a dick and bites the hand that feeds him.

 

 

This started as a quarter size

 

Please excuse the cucumbers lovely sand pile.....^

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ninjamyst]

nice "soup" =)

[Scorched]

Happy to see this tank is still up. Once you are confident and diligent with your maintenance plan I hope to see this tank filled up with more corals again.

[Muraki]

nice "soup" =)

 

Should have saw it before I cut it in half 2 months ago. The butchering also made some of my Caulerpa go sexual

May 18th 2016

 

 

 

 

Happy to see this tank is still up. Once you are confident and diligent with your maintenance plan I hope to see this tank filled up with more corals again.

 

Thanks! Currently adding a frag every 2 weeks or so. Started back in December. Would get more at once, but current situations and budget doesn't allow for it with the threat of the company I work for being sold.

[WV Reefer]

I think it looks nice.

 

Also, cucumbers have the coolest poop.

[Muraki]

Recommend a Doser please! I'll create a Poll once I have a few to list.

 

Think I am ready to get a doser, looking for something to dose Alk, Ca, and Mg. Would like something with its own controller. I'm not a penny pincher, but I don't want to break the bank either. Currently been manually dosing 2-part.

[pal]

I have been using a kamoer dosing pump for six months now with no problems. If I had extra money I would have gone with the GHL

[Funkateer_1]

I bought one of the first Vertex DC Libras when they were released. Build quality is top notch, has a massive touchscreen and a breeze to program. Beaten it to hell over the years and still works great. Worth every cent IME.