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Innovative Marine Aquariums

New tank journal (with old tank info too)


dchisenh

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It's been a long time since I've been back here to Nano-Reef.  I broke down and sold all the livestock from my old nano cube featured below when I moved several years ago and have started a new tank a few times but had to keep redoing things because of moves or hurricanes, I never bothered to update things here.  I've got a bit of stability for now and am restarting my tank with updated equipment.  It's still in the ugly duckling startup phase,  so I'll add pictures once it stabilizes and looks presentable!

 

Tank: Exo Terra Turtle Tank 18 x 18 x 12 

Light: AI Prime HD running David Saxby's settings

Flow: Vortech MP10 with one of those acrylic half shields so it can be placed higher in the tank and not draw air from the surface

Skimmer: Aqua-C Remora Nano

Additional Filtration: AquaClear 20 with an aftermarket surface skimmer intake box, currently empty but will be used for carbon or other filtration as needed or converted into a small refugium in the future

Heater: Cobalt Aquatics 100w Neo-Therm (crazy accurate and the best heater I've ever had!)

Top-off/additives: Homemade float switch with DIY snail guard running a Tom's Aqualifter pump with inline filter drawing from a DIY kalk top off container fed by float valve connected RO/DI unit.  The kalk reservoir is sitting on a surplus magnetic stirring hot plate set to spin a stir bar periodically, heat is off for now.  

Rock: Since the days of air shipped Walt Smith Premium Fiji are over, this tank is using old rock from a previous tank that has been scrubbed, soaked and used as my base along with a few pieces of new Marco-rock and two small pieces of LR from a LFS.  It turned out better than I expected, but I still miss the good stuff.

 

Current Livestock:

 

Corals: 

Small frag of Green Star Polyps (GSP) from LFS

4 individual Ricordea florida (blue, orange, fluorescent green and fluorescent green and purple) from KP Aquatics

A few small individual blue and green zoanthids from KP Aquatics

 

Fish:

1 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)

1 Green-banded Goby (Tigrigobius multifasciatus)

 

Inverts:

1 Blood Red Fire Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata debelius)

3 Scarlet Reef Hermits (Paguristes cadenati)

2 Banded Trochus Snails (Trochus sp.)

Small handful of Cerith snails

Some small brittlestars and assorted micro-fauna from LFS live rock and KP Aquatics chaeto/toadstool algae

 

Macroalgae:

Chaetomorpha and Toadstool algae from KP Aquatics in main display tank, for now

 

My goal for this tank is to be relatively low maintenance and slowly stocked as cheaply as possible.  I'm mainly shooting for ricordea, a few zoanthids, Xenia, maybe a photosynthetic gorgonian or two, some soft corals like neon green Sinularia, Capnella, Nepthea, or something along those lines for height/movement/color, a few Hardy SPS (mostly Montipora, Seriatopora, and the hardiest of Acropora) at the top/center of the tank.  Might end up getting a sharknose goby (Elacatinus evelynae) at some point too.  

 

Currently running this tank bare bottom, which is a first for me, to see how I like it.  It's easier to add sand later than remove it, at least that's the thought.  Also, I'm sure many of you are wondering what's up with using a turtle tank?  Well, a few years ago when I was looking to upgrade the acrylic cube highlighted below (scratches got too bad to fix, plumbing was too damaged from moves to reuse), I was looking at glass cube tanks.  As I'm sure y'all know they can get quite pricy in the 18 x 18 x whatever range, so when I stumbled across this tank for sale on Amazon at a seriously low price, I think it was around $20-25 or so because someone was trying to get rid of the old-style tank with straight sloping sides, I had to take a chance on it.  I've used it for years now and it has worked great!  The high back wall is a little annoying (the AquaClear has trouble priming itself sometimes), but not a deal breaker.  At some point I may upgrade to a plain 18 x 18 x 18 cube or maybe one of those 25 gallon lagoons a lot of people are using (I like those dimensions), but for now this suits me just fine! 

 

I'm leaving up my original thread info from my earlier tank in case folks want to see how thinks changed over time, but will be updating this main post and all posts after the old ones for this new tank.  

 

I'm glad to be back!😀

 

-Dan

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

*Old, previous tank info below:

 

Well, I figured I might as well post a few pics of my tank and setup.

 

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Well, I'm not sure if I did that correctly, but I guess I'll see in a sec. That's my tank as of yesterday. Equipment list:

 

20" 70watt Sunpod w/ AB 20k bulb

Euro-reef something-or-other skimmer from a previous tank

Mag 9.5 return split through a SQWD and directed to loc-line returns in the top corners of my tank

10g AGA sump with drop-in tank dividers to reduce bubbles

9watt UV from nanotuners

Currently, some chaetomorpha and a bit of calerpa in the refugium section of the sump along with a mangrove I grabbed from the boathouse at work

 

The tank itself was ordered from Scott at Aquatic Systems Design about a year and a half ago. Great guy to work with and he did a great job on the tank. It is 20" long x 20" wide x 12" tall and has eurobracing around the top. The back panel is black acrylic and there is an attached overflow box with a small dual-nozzle standpipe. Here are the shots sent to me by Scott before he shipped the tank to me. The white pvc pipe are the returns that sit on the top of the bracing, they have been painted black, along with the standpipe.

 

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Well, if I posted these images correctly, I'll work on taking a few pics of the sump and the whole setup.

 

-Dan

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It looks like I did it correctly. Here's a few more shots of the sump and the whole tank.

 

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And, here's a whole tank/stand shot...along with my dog, Duke, who constantly tries to get in the middle of everything.

 

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Seriously, no comments?!

 

That is a great looking tank! The sps, the featherduster worms, the gorgonian...all in a sleek but unusual package. I love it. And it's good to see that light fixture is working out for you...I have the same one on a ten gallon and I had wondered how good it would be for sps.

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Really nice looking set-up. How long have the corals been under the 70wt? I have one myself for a ricordia tank but was wondering if I should eventually upgrade to a 150.

Edited by flricordia
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Thanks for the complements Rene and Flricordia. :D

 

This tank was planned to be mostly a SPS tank, with good flow, lighting, water quality, etc. So far, my SPS are doing great under the 70 watt Sunpod. I went with a 70 watt over a 150 watt due to both heat and money (the additional electricity cost here in Florida is a killer). The tank is short and the rock work props the corals up another few inches, so there is ample penetration. It doesn't have as large of a light dispersal pattern as I had hoped, so the very front of the tank doesn't get too much light, but it's enough for some LPS and my gorgonian, in spots. The featherdusters are also helping to fill in the gaps under shaded overhangs. They'll be joined by perhaps a few sun corals or something else non-photosynthetic. Also, I know eventually the featherdusters are likely to waste away, but I'll enjoy them while they're here. The gorgonian is photosynthetic (and was quite a bargain from a local fish place), so he should be alright for quite awhile.

 

The whole tank gets fed some frozen cyclopeeze and a small portion of a cube of frozen mysis once (occasionally twice) a day. The fish love it and the corals are grabbing some cyclopeeze when the flow dosen't blow it out of their grip and the cleaner shrimp doesn't rob them.

 

So, nutrient input is moderate, light is ample in the center of the tank, adequate towards the outer portions, flow is strong, but random due to the Mag9.5 return through the SQWD, alternating from the right nozzles to the left ones. Consequently, my corals are all doing great. Some LFS brownouts are coloring up nicely and a few choice corals from ReeferMadness are doing great. Most corals haven't been in there for very long, but judging by polyp extention, growth, encrustation, and revival of or maintenance of coloration, I believe the 70 watt Sunpod, along with the AB 20k bulb, suits my needs well.

 

Flricordia, your 20 cube looks like it might be taller than my tank, but I think the 70 watter would likely do well for you too, since it appears you have lower light loving shrooms and palys (along with a sizeable chunk of xenia), towards the bottom of your tank, at least in your march 5th tank shot, anyway. I've got a few spots picked out in my tank that some ricordia will eventually be placed, though your tank being ricrodia dominated does look awesome!

 

-Dan

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Hmm...Sure is easy to get knocked off the first page lately.

 

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention I'm switching out the current fuge light (a modified lamp from Lowes with a 27 watt 6500k "mini-quad" light) with one of the 19watt 5100k screw-in compacts with a built in weatherproof reflector. Essentially, the weather is warming up here in FL and the current fixture is generating too much heat, so this looks like a decent replacement, at least from Melev's webpage. The bulb should get here sometime later in the week, I'd think.

 

-Dan

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bubbles3660

This is a gorgeous tank. Sometimes I look at sps and I think, "Feh. Why all the fuss"? But your MH really makes them pop (with only 70W?!). And the chromis is a perfect accent. The whole thing has a very authentic and natural reef look. Amazing. Hat's off.

 

 

--bubbles

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Thanks for the complements Jason and Bubbles!

 

I really like the size and shape of the tank, Jason. I think you will too. It's a great footprint to create depth and visual balance. When you choose lighting, remember that the 12" height will really open up your options. T-5 or a 70w MH will most likely suit whatever you want to throw in there. The thing that I think most people forget when they're planning the equipment for their tank is that what makes corals (and most critters, for that matter) thrive, is consistency. People have been putting too much emphasis on lighting, to the extent that it is wasteful, and not enough on water quality, stability, and the whole "reef" package. I'm glad bubbles got what I was trying to do; create a balanced, "natural" looking reef (at least as natural as I can). Thanks for the comments!

 

-Dan

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Thanks for the complements Jason and Bubbles!

 

I really like the size and shape of the tank, Jason. I think you will too. It's a great footprint to create depth and visual balance. When you choose lighting, remember that the 12" height will really open up your options. T-5 or a 70w MH will most likely suit whatever you want to throw in there. The thing that I think most people forget when they're planning the equipment for their tank is that what makes corals (and most critters, for that matter) thrive, is consistency. People have been putting too much emphasis on lighting, to the extent that it is wasteful, and not enough on water quality, stability, and the whole "reef" package. I'm glad bubbles got what I was trying to do; create a balanced, "natural" looking reef (at least as natural as I can). Thanks for the comments!

 

-Dan

 

Totally agree, I was going to throw a 150 watt pendant over it. Build plans were here, but its been put on hold for now.

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Finally a tank with character instead of the typical pile of rocks with crap shoved into every open hole available. Good job, ill be watching this one.

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Finally a tank with character instead of the typical pile of rocks with crap shoved into every open hole available. Good job, ill be watching this one.

 

Yep, and whats sad is that this is a 20 gallon cube tank, and most of the large tanks you see have worse aquascaping, even though they have 5-6 times more room to work with. Great job.

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Thanks everyone! :)

 

Vic is correct, it's basically a durso with 2 inlets. Imagine a PVC pipe with a 4-way section sitting on top, the bottom hole goes on the pipe itself, the top hole gets a plug (with a small hole drilled in the center), and the two side holes get two 90 degree elbows which face down. It's whisper quiet and works great. I'm not sure how Scott came up with the idea when he was putting the original plumbing together for me, but it was a stroke of genius. Unfortunately, my coffee hasn't quite kicked in yet so I'm pretty tired, so my description is anything but genius. Hopefully it makes some sense.

 

I'll try to get some newer pics when one of my friends gets back from vacation. He's got an awesome camera and has written some articles for TFH, in which he took some sweet photos for it. So, I hope he can do the same for my tank. B)

 

-Dan

Edited by dchisenh
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