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Nick's 30L Mixed Reef


Nixperience

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Nixperience

FTS 5/19/17:

NewTankMay19_zpsevltkhkk.jpg

 

5/14/17: 

NewTankMay14_zpsbuhnxxza.jpg

 

Being neglectful of my sump and observing lots of dead space in the water column of my cube, I decided to simplify. I have 40" of real estate that my wife will allow me to do my reefing and she no longer cares or bothers me about it, as long as I stay in my space. I knew I wanted to downgrade to an AIO since I don't keep on top of things if they are hidden away in a cabinet. I decided the Innovative Marine 30L would be the perfect fit for that space.

 

Once I decided on the 30L, I started looking at scapes and other members tanks and a few really inspired me.

Brad908's mangrove biotope was doing a lot of things I really wanted to do, but hadn't really seen anyone doing it. I really liked the concept of showing shore to lagoon to reef crest in one tank and he seemed to be achieving that the best that I've seen. 

Lawn's softy tank was also the direction I was leaning towards when I decided to make my tank change because I was tired of testing for calcium and kh and using saturated kalkwasser, gunking up all the equipment.   

Wawawang's scape is really cool and I love how he has the rock break the surface of the water and has plants growing on the surface. 

I'd like to do something that resembles a cross between brad908 and wawawang's tank, but with more softies like Lawn's tank. I will do some macros, but not quite as much as brad908 and no caulerpa. 

 

Basically, my goal is to cut down on water changes, equipment cleaning, and dosing. 

 

I broke down my tank and transferred the livestock to my old 11g with ac70 to make room for the new system. I have the stand, tank, dryrock, and new sand coming this week and I hope to get it wet and cycling by the weekend. 

 

Display: Innovative Marine Fusion 30L. 
Lighting: 1 AI Hydra 26HD and 1 Prime 
Heater: Sicce 200 watt 
Circulation: Stock return (for now) and 1 MP10, 1 rw-4, 1 koralia nano
Skimmer: Innovative Marine Ghost Midsize
Filtration: Floss and chemipure elite in right chamber, floss and chemipure blue in left chamber

Dosing: Kalkwasser in ato 
Controller: Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Lite

ATO: AutoAqua Smart ATO

 

Livestock

 

Fish: Ocellaris Clownfish (male)

         Black Ocellaris Clownfish (female)

         Royal Gramma

         Starry Blenny

         Coral Beauty

 

Inverts: Cleaner Shrimp

             Rose Bubbletip Anemone

             Maxi-mini Carpet Anemone

             4 Rock Flower Anemones

             Scarlet Red Hermit Crab

             Various Snails

 

Macros

& Plants: Red Mangroves

                Chaetomorpha

                Codium

                Dragons Breath

                Euchema

                Palm Caulerpa

                Red Grape

                Ulva 

                Halimeda

 

Corals: Hammer

             Duncan

             Red Monti Cap

             Montipora Undata

             Porites

             Meteor Shower

             Green Birdsnest

             Purple Tip Acropora

             Red Planet Acropora 

             Purple Gorgonian

             Rusty Gorgonian

             King Midas Zoas

             Assorted Ricordeas

             Blue Sympodium

             Red Mushroom

             Green Toadstool 

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Nixperience

This is what I had. I traded my stonies, except for a small hammer frag, into lfs for credit towards the new tank. 

4F1BF148-E2F3-407C-B69D-C8131178B4AD_zps

 

This is my temporary holding tank. 

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This is what my 3 foot area looks like now. 

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Nixperience

DF330395-B9A3-46CE-8F67-3CF4EE04D95B_zps

 

i did a sketch of what I want to do. Not sure how much open sand will be in the middle, but I'd like at least these proportions.10-12" space in the middle would be ideal. I figure the hill on the right will be the back reef side of the lagoon and the left hill will be the reef crest. The hill on the left will partially obstruct the powerhead to crest the lagoon atmosphere behind it. This might be too much to cram into 36".

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Nixperience

Now I'm thinking since I have 2 overflow compartments, I may as well save tank space and use the left compartment for media and grow the mangroves in the right compartment. I can plant them right in an intank media basket with chaeto in the roots. With chaeto in the mix, and all the display macros, I should have a hefty export of nutrients. 

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Nixperience

I'm having second thoughts about doing chaeto or anything in the media basket compartment. I think I'd like to minimize any chance of detritus buildup in the back chambers. I still want some mangroves, but they will probably go in the display and no chaeto. 

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2 minutes ago, Nixperience said:

I'm having second thoughts about doing chaeto or anything in the media basket compartment. I think I'd like to minimize any chance of detritus buildup in the back chambers. I still want some mangroves, but they will probably go in the display and no chaeto. 

I would def do the mangroves in the display vs in the back.  I don't think a shore to reef crest would make sense if you hid the mangroves.   I would leave the media chamber open for any additional filtration (like purigen or carbon) you may want to do in the future.

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Nixperience
21 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

I would def do the mangroves in the display vs in the back.  I don't think a shore to reef crest would make sense if you hid the mangroves.   I would leave the media chamber open for any additional filtration (like purigen or carbon) you may want to do in the future.

I agree

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Nixperience

CDA569B9-A6EF-47EB-A3DA-344ED88D56FB_zps

I did a better sketch of my vision based on the dry rock I've got so far. Let's see, by this weekend, how close I can get to my vision. I think if all fits right and with proper placement of the powerheads, I should have an calm varying flow coming across from the right side and a turbulent pulsing wave on the other side that the left crest island will block and create a lagoon like refuge. Stonies on the left and softies on the right. 

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I have a 30 also and yes things do accumulate in the back.........

 

Keep everything in the display that you want permanent.......get some intank baskets for the back and all should be good.

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I think this is gonna be awesome. Your plans and your sketches are great. Seems as though you have an understanding of natural reef structures and zones, plus a solid plan to emulate one. I can't wait to see the real thing!

 

I'm putting together some dry rocks for my new 30L right now too. My vision is taking me a bit longer than a weekend to create though, hah ;)

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Nixperience

Got my dry rock together. 

3B00B325-FE86-4EAA-8049-07D3559B706A_zps

 

the blue tape shows where the live rock from my holding tank will fill in. 

B02F1A68-20D1-4FCC-991C-1EA1E9F5BE0C_zps

 

this is the side view of the mountain. Koralia nano against the back bottom of the tank and mp10 on the front middle. 

ADABEEE4-C9F2-4E96-8EE4-BC65772605BD_zps

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Nixperience
13 minutes ago, samnaz said:

What kinda rock is that, and where is it from? It's different looking. 

 

When do you plan to add the live rock bits and pieces?

It's life rock from caribsea. It's actual mined dry rock, but its tinted and is supposed to have a spored bacteria on it. Probably a gimmick. I was going to get regular dry rock, but I figured I'd try this so my new setup won't look so noob. Tank should be in tomorrow and then I'll get it wet and put live rock and sand once I know it holds water. I've got about 15 lbs of live rock, but I don't think I'll fit it all. 

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Yeah, 15 lbs might be a bit too much considering you already have 20 in there. But if they're little pieces and bits of rubble, which based on your sketch looks like they will be, you could fit it all. I really like the look of that rock. I never considered Caribbsea rock, it's definitely way better looking than the bleach white flat plain dry rock I decided to go with because it's 3x cheaper. So I got 3x more rock than I really needed. It's nice to have options, variety and leftovers.

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Nixperience

Ya I usually get the plan stuff, but I wanted things to looks as good as possible right away. It should hide the initial diatom blooms better too. Things won't be exactly like the sketch, but the drawing helps to keep things in line. I've got a 3-4lb rock that's had a maxi living in it for almost 2 years, so I gotta fit that in there. I've also got a decent sized rock with a lot of ricordeas on it. I may say goodbye to my big toadstool because that's on a pretty big rock too. 

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Nixperience

Observations so far. I feel like the stock pump is fine. Plenty of flow from that, the rw-4, and mp10. I feel like the water level could maybe be 1/4" higher. Maybe intank media baskets will help that? I don't want to use my old tunze 9001 because I don't want it in the return chamber where the water level will fluctuate. I think I may wait and save for the IM ghost skimmer. Media baskets first though. Ugh, another $120 for those. 

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Nixperience
17 minutes ago, pal said:

Looks like a good start. I have this tank and love it. If you want to raise the water level in the display ,intank sells some  surface skimmer acrylic deal that attaches to the over flow slots.

Oh thanks! That's all it takes?

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55 minutes ago, Nixperience said:

Observations so far. I feel like the stock pump is fine. Plenty of flow from that, the rw-4, and mp10. I feel like the water level could maybe be 1/4" higher. Maybe intank media baskets will help that? I don't want to use my old tunze 9001 because I don't want it in the return chamber where the water level will fluctuate. I think I may wait and save for the IM ghost skimmer. Media baskets first though. Ugh, another $120 for those. 

 

Well stock pump sucks.............I switched to a sicce 2.0.......Ghost skimmer well running one but its lame........and yes water level is low for some reason and the Intank baskets wont solve the issue I run those to.

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Nixperience
10 minutes ago, spectra said:

 

Well stock pump sucks.............I switched to a sicce 2.0.......Ghost skimmer well running one but its lame........and yes water level is low for some reason and the Intank baskets wont solve the issue I run those to.

All nano skimmers are lame unless you get a hob, but I only have 2" from the wall. I've got so much flow, the stock pump is good for now. I have other things I have to buy first. 

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