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Pod Your Reef

CAD 12g Reboot


pmemmer

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Current FTS, 8-14-16

 

28703207420_303c808bde_z.jpgFTS 8-14-16 by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

 

 

 

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After a break from reef-keeping for about 18 months (had to break down my previous tank for a move), I'm finally getting going again... dug the 12g Cadlights AIO out of the basement, and am getting it cleaned up and ready to go. Will be using a Nanobox Mini Tide for lighting, and probably an MP10 for additional flow. In the meantime, it's time to build a stand...

 

19978683614_1560892b80_z.jpgstand progress 1 by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

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  • 3 weeks later...

This one is going to be fun, I hope... there was a tank I admired greatly on here a few years ago, I can't find it now... a pico where the owner basically soft-cycled some sealifeinc.net (now kpaquatics) uncured rock, watched all the goodies come to life, and did little else. It was awesome. I've used sealifeinc rock in all three of my previous tanks, and have had some terrific stuff, from corals to macros to etc. My plan here is to do the same basic thing... get some really gooey live rock overnight shipped, try to keep as much stuff alive as possible, and then eventually a fish or two, and some softies/LPS.

 

Room painted, tank in place and ready for some water!

 

21207111691_ce70a8543b_b.jpgalmost there... by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's alive! 11 pounds of very fresh live rock from kpaquatics... a little too much for the tank, I think, but I'll see when I get around to actually trying to aquascape (hopefully this weekend).

 

21447953146_89fb679bfd_b.jpglive rock by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

 

Rock has its share of alienz... a really nice emerald crab who I'm hoping will survive the soft-cycle, and then this guy (any ideas???):

 

21286373858_c3b877d52f_b.jpgalien by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

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After a solid week of daily 50% water changes, I seem to have hit at least a little lull... ammonia down to 0, nitrite and nitrate also at 0... some green starting to form on the rocks. Might be nearly CUC time! Going to give it a couple more days though, just in case something spikes.

 

In the meantime, some pics... new FTS, sand added (my first tank with black sand, so that's fun):

 

21475810230_80597f3ef6_k.jpgfts 9-23-15 by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

 

And a cool filter feeder of some sort, who my children have named "Nozzle." You know you have a 9-yr-old in the house when your random tunicates have names. So far, we have Nozzle, and "Yozzle" (a yellow critter similar to Nozzle), and "Grozzle" (a translucent gray critter who, you guessed it, also looks like a nozzle).

 

21476906029_9b5053db74_k.jpgnozzle by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

 

One thing I am wondering about with this tank is flow. I'm running the stock pump, and also a Koralia Nano, but I'm getting barely any surface action. I originally planned to use an old MP10 I had on hand, but it's way too loud for the living room... sounds like a truck. The Nano is silent, but not powerful enough I think. May need a subtle upgrade on that front...

 

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Welcome back :) Black sand does look nice in there.

 

For surface agitation, you could point the Koralia upward somewhat. As you might remember, I use the Hydor rotating thing-a-ma-bob and I have it pointed about 30 degrees upward.

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Welcome back :) Black sand does look nice in there.

 

For surface agitation, you could point the Koralia upward somewhat. As you might remember, I use the Hydor rotating thing-a-ma-bob and I have it pointed about 30 degrees upward.

 

I've thought about getting one of those thing-a-ma-bobs... have you found that it makes a big difference?

 

JR!, thanks for the offer. If I decide to go that route I'll shoot you a note.

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I've thought about getting one of those thing-a-ma-bobs... have you found that it makes a big difference?

 

 

I've been using it since day 1 and it does a good job of providing chaotic flow and breaking up the water surface every 15 seconds or so. My system runs with just a little Tunze 210 gph return pump with no additional water motion. As long as I keep the pump and rotating head operating efficiently (monthly cleanings) then it's enough flow in these small tanks for the vast majority of corals (the exception being high-velocity loving Acros, perhaps).

 

For a little while I had installed a Korallia Nano, but the additonal flow started to deform LPS tissue (would have eventually stripped it off the skeleton) and the mushies were not happy campers, either. Was fine for the SPS, of course. Since I didn't want to try and relocate the SPS/Mushies to least flow areas (may or may not have worked), I decided just to stay with the single return pump (250 gph stock one at the time). I'm also a fan of having the least amount of equipment visible in a tank as possible...

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I'll give it a try... the price is certainly right for the thing. And yes, if it works well enough that I could keep the Nano out of the tank, I'd love it... having just the one powerhead in there isn't too awful, but no powerheads visible would be better!

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To get this to work with just the single return pump I had to pay attention to potential flow obstructions. I found it best to have a circular flow effect going on around the outside of a centralize rockwork. If the flow were to be largely obstructed, that's when you would possibly need an additional powerhead (depending on what you are trying to keep).

 

Anyway, following along :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah, it's a drag. He seemed perfectly healthy when I brought him home, but after three days he stopped eating, started having difficulty breathing, etc.

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  • 8 months later...

Tank is doing very well... haven't posted in a long while (because life), but after a long and intentionally slow start I added a couple corals a while back, and a couple more this week... the Darth Mauls grew from three polyps to a nice small colony, and the duncans started out as two heads. The blue cloves and the nuclear greens are new. There's also some GSP elsewhere, which hopefully will take over the back wall one of these days.

 

27782701953_b1525ffbc9_h.jpgfrags by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

 

Also have this live rock hitchhiker that has grown from a single polyp on the rock. Hard to tell in the photo, but it's very bright green that glows nicely in the actinics. Any ideas what it is? (not the little bit of star coral lurking in the background... the larger critter)

 

28365282646_12b53554f9_b.jpghitchhiker by Phil Memmer, on Flickr

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  • 3 weeks later...

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