Nick's 10 Gallons of Patience - New Fish!

[teenyreef]

Looks like my cycle is complete. Now, it's time for coral!

 

I am heading to Columbus, OH tomorrow afternoon (1.5 hours away) for an appointment, and there are plenty of shops there that carry coral. None of my LFSs carry corals, so I will probably be bringing back my first frag of SPS for this tank. I have decided to go fishless until I move to a larger tank, so I am going to take it slowly and see how it goes over the next few weeks.

 

Does any have any recommendations for what my first SPS coral should be? I understand that Acropora and Montipora are more difficult than others, such as Seriatopora, Pocillopora, and Stylophora. I really enjoy the look of Seriatopora, and I read that it is a decent beginner SPS.

 

I am definitely open to opinions!

Any of those three should be great, I'd decide just based on what they have and what looks best to you!

[Sharbuckle]

Congrats on the cycle being finished.

[nickkohrn]

Congrats on the cycle being finished.

 

 

Thanks! Now that I know it is finished, I am trying to restrain myself from getting a clownfish. Since it's a swimmer, it will fit in well with my pillared aquascape since there are relatively no hiding places for timid fish. I really want to see how my first few frags of SPS do without the extra nutrients in the water. Easier said than done since the tank has been up for a month without anything in it!

 

Also, I used dry rock from Walt Smith so I have had no die-off to feed algae. Therefore, I don't want a clean-up-crew yet because I have nothing for one to eat.

 

The struggle is real.

[nickkohrn]

I went to a couple of shops today while I was out of town. Unfortunately, both shops had know-it-all owners, which was pretty annoying. Sadly, their tanks were filled with Aiptasia, Bubble Algae, AEFW, and some fish that weren't doing so well (dying).

 

I did find one tank in the second shop that seemed to be free of all of the aforementioned. However, most of the corals were browned out and had tissue loss, which was "growth" according to the owner. It's a shame because he is very arrogant and has even done tanks for some YouTube celebrities and been on Tanked.

 

I ended up getting a frag of Pocillopora, which was sold to me browned-out, but for $15. I decided that if I am going to do an SPS tank, then I want to make sure that I am able to bring one back to health first.

 

On the ride home I noticed that it had some very bright green tips on the polyps while in the sunlight. I was pretty happy about that.

 

Here it is floating for temperature acclimation:

 

Here is the dip with Coral Rx, which only took 0.75 mL:

 

And here it is in the tank:

 

The polyp extension is great, and it is pretty fuzzy!

 

I am currently running my Radion at 30%, so I will leave it there for a few days and see how it does at about half-tank depth. I can't wait to see it colored-up!

 

I'll be placing my order for my alkalinity, magnesium, and calcium test kits tomorrow as well as B-ionic for dosing. I think my wife is starting to hate seeing the UPS truck though.

[teenyreef]

Nice job rescuing the pocillopora!

 

My wife has grown numb to the ups truck

[nickkohrn]

Nice job rescuing the pocillopora!

 

My wife has grown numb to the ups truck

 

Thanks! Unfortunately, there were still a TON of frags of Pocillopora and Seriatopora in the tank that looked awful. I'm hoping mine makes a recovery.

 

I love this:

[nickkohrn]

Just placed my order for Salifert test kits and the B-ionic two-part package. All I have left to order now is my VorTech Battery Back-Up, which should be in less than three weeks! After that I will be saving for the new Apex for a few months, and then that should be my full list of intended equipment! As I will be funning fishless, I don't plan on a skimmer until I get a bigger tank and add a fish or two.

 

It feels super good to be almost done with equipment buying because the next step is all CORALS!

[nickkohrn]

So after doing some research, I am very interested in running a ZEOvit system. Since I have a small tank, I am able to throw the media into a filter bag and place it in one of the back compartments. The media is designed to not have a flow of more than 100 gph, which is perfect because the return pump is rated at 92 gph. That takes the larger expense out of the equation, which is the reactor.

 

If I do run ZEOvit, then I shouldn't have a problem adding a Firefish to the tank because the ZEOvit system will retain the ultra-low nutrient levels in the tank while still providing plenty of nutrients to the corals.

 

Does anyone have experience with the ZEOvit system in a nano aquarium?

[MR.FEESH]

I've always wondered how people with nano tanks deal with accurate dosing--whether it's just things like spot dosing magnesium vs an entire system like ZEOvit.

 

A lot of the dosing guidelines for these things are like "1 drop per [x] gallons of water daily/weekly etc"...where [x] is like 4-100 times bigger than the volume of your nano tank. So how do you ensure proper and accurate dosing? Is there a good way to measure 1/8th of a drop for example? Measure consistently, leastwise.

 

The only possible contingency plan I can think of is doing the actual dosing addition into your water change supply which allows for you to make a bigger batch size than your display tank volume. But even then, I see the schedule "1 drop per 25 gallons daily" a lot in the ZEOvit guide. I can't imagine how you could get that to work, even using your water change supply-- especially given most people would only change 2-3 gallons of water in a 10 gallon tank, and once per week at that. You lose potency or frequency either way.

 

Maybe someone who has had success can chime in.

[nickkohrn]

I've always wondered how people with nano tanks deal with accurate dosing--whether it's just things like spot dosing magnesium vs an entire system like ZEOvit.

 

A lot of the dosing guidelines for these things are like "1 drop per [x] gallons of water daily/weekly etc"...where [x] is like 4-100 times bigger than the volume of your nano tank. So how do you ensure proper and accurate dosing? Is there a good way to measure 1/8th of a drop for example? Measure consistently, leastwise.

 

The only possible contingency plan I can think of is doing the actual dosing addition into your water change supply which allows for you to make a bigger batch size than your display tank volume. But even then, I see the schedule "1 drop per 25 gallons daily" a lot in the ZEOvit guide. I can't imagine how you could get that to work, even using your water change supply-- especially given most people would only change 2-3 gallons of water in a 10 gallon tank, and once per week at that. You lose potency or frequency either way.

 

Maybe someone who has had success can chime in.

I completely agree. I get my B-Ionic package for dosing calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium on Tuesday, and I'm hoping that it is easier than I think it will be with such a small tank.

[teenyreef]

Almost everything that you dose will also give directions of so many milliliters per so many gallons. I just do the math and then use a 1 ml syringe to measure it out.

 

If you have a product that calls for only one drop for multiple gallons, I'd say that's a bad choice for a pico tank

[MR.FEESH]

I completely agree. I get my B-Ionic package for dosing calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium on Tuesday, and I'm hoping that it is easier than I think it will be with such a small tank.

 

 

Almost everything that you dose will also give directions of so many milliliters per so many gallons. I just do the math and then use a 1 ml syringe to measure it out.

 

If you have a product that calls for only one drop for multiple gallons, I'd say that's a bad choice for a pico tank

 

 

This might be a dumb idea but maybe a different option would be to dilute the bottle of whatever it is you're adding [using something like distilled water] by a factor of whatever would adjust for a schedule more like 1 drop per 5-10 gallons? I guess it would depend on the diluted solution being well-mixed at the time of dosing but maybe that's an alternative if you're going by hand.

[teenyreef]

 

 

 

 

This might be a dumb idea but maybe a different option would be to dilute the bottle of whatever it is you're adding [using something like distilled water] by a factor of whatever would adjust for a schedule more like 1 drop per 5-10 gallons? I guess it would depend on the diluted solution being well-mixed at the time of dosing but maybe that's an alternative if you're going by hand.

You could almost certainly do that!

[nickkohrn]

Picked up a few frags this past Sunday from Tidal Gardens! I ended up getting a Montipora, Stylophora, Pocillopora, and a Pavona. They are beautiful and so colorful!

I can't seem to back away from my tank lately. I have definitely caught the bug!

Montipora


Stylophora


Pavona (foreground) & Pocillopora (background)


Below are a couple of videos of what the Stylophora and Pocillopora look like in the flow that I have sweeping the tank. Make sure to set the quality to 1080p. Otherwise, they are blurry.

 

[nickkohrn]

Ordered some Reef-Roids and a Salifert phosphate test kit. Now, I just need to order a clean-up crew because I don't have one since I have not had any algae as of yet. Hopefully the residual food will be able to keep a clean-up crew happy.

[nickkohrn]

Just ordered my clean-up crew from John at Reef Cleaners. What a great guy!

 

I have a few Dwarf Ceriths, a couple of Florida Ceriths, and a couple of Nerites. I'm hoping that there will be enough food for them between the feedings for my SPS frags. I will probably feed twice per week, so maybe I will drop a couple of small pellets into the tank for the snails if I see that the leftover Reef-Roids aren't satisfying them.

 

I guess that will be the trouble of running a fishless system; finding a balance between feeding and maintaining a low-nutrient system.

[MR.FEESH]

Just ordered my clean-up crew from John at Reef Cleaners. What a great guy!

 

I have a few Dwarf Ceriths, a couple of Florida Ceriths, and a couple of Nerites. I'm hoping that there will be enough food for them between the feedings for my SPS frags. I will probably feed twice per week, so maybe I will drop a couple of small pellets into the tank for the snails if I see that the leftover Reef-Roids aren't satisfying them.

 

I guess that will be the trouble of running a fishless system; finding a balance between feeding and maintaining a low-nutrient system.

 

When I had my filter feeder tank, I fed only small syringes of phytoplankton & zooplankton, and I never had any trouble with the snails' longevity. As far as typical CUCs go, it's crabs you have to watch out for imo...they can get pretty handsy when they're hungry Anyway, I'm sure as your tank matures it'll be much easier to tell what overfeeding and underfeeding looks like. When you're more in tune with how everyone looks day in and day out, it'll be pretty easy to see the results of small changes in husbandry (for better or worse).

[nickkohrn]

As far as typical CUCs go, it's crabs you have to watch out for imo...they can get pretty handsy when they're hungry

That's why I opted to not go the crab route. I am not sure what my feeding schedule will be as of yet, so I wanted to lessen the threat to other inhabitants.

 

I'm pretty excited to get some critters in the tank that are more mobile than my sedentary corals.

[nickkohrn]

Ugh, I came home from work and saw that my Tunze Osmolator nano must have gotten stuck on. The rear chamber had way more water in it than usual. I pulled it out and there was a piece of my rock that had somehow gotten stuck inside of the float sensor. It was so weird. Luckily, my salinity went from 1.026 to 1.025, which could have been way worse in such a small tank. I will probably end up purchasing their full-sized Osmolator since it has an optical sensor and the float sensor is the backup.

 

Lesson learned. Plan with redundancy and inspect your equipment regularly.

[teenyreef]

Ugh, I came home from work and saw that my Tunze Osmolator nano must have gotten stuck on. The rear chamber had way more water in it than usual. I pulled it out and there was a piece of my rock that had somehow gotten stuck inside of the float sensor. It was so weird. Luckily, my salinity went from 1.026 to 1.025, which could have been way worse in such a small tank. I will probably end up purchasing their full-sized Osmolator since it has an optical sensor and the float sensor is the backup.

 

Lesson learned. Plan with redundancy and inspect your equipment regularly.

I did the exact same thing in mine. I kept getting snails stuck in the float valve.

[nickkohrn]

Came home this evening and my Radion was off. The buttons are green. No matter what I do, I can't get it to turn on. I had to call EcoTech support the last time this happened. Sadly, they will be closed until Tuesday, I assume. I cannot return the light to BRS according to their policy. I'm really thinking about getting a Kassil a160w and contacting EcoTech and seeing if they will let me return the Radion and mount. I am so frustrated that I have to call support to have them reset the light remotely; not only once, but twice now.

[nickkohrn]

Now the light is on. It came on after messing with the barrel connector. This is intensely infuriating. I can't seem to understand how such an expensive piece of equipment can be so delicate and touchy.

[MR.FEESH]

Clearly they saw what you titled your thread and decided to put your patience to the test ^_^ hang in there my dude

[nickkohrn]

Clearly they saw what you titled your thread and decided to put your patience to the test ^_^ hang in there my dude

Haha yeah, no kidding! I'm just glad it came back on!

 

Now I can't stop drooling over all of these coral sales for the holiday! I'm trying so hard to not give in and make a purchase since I'm saving for the VorTech Battery Backup.

[SideCar_Falcon619]

your scape is amazing!