Nick's 30L Mixed Reef

[Nixperience]

I was so unhappy with the composite, I went out and got wood and redid the exterior wrap and painted it. Just a few tiny holes I missed filling. 

[Lula_Mae]

Catching up on tank threads, sorry about the clown drama but tank is looking good!  And what a great deal on those frags!

[Nixperience]

4 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Catching up on tank threads, sorry about the clown drama but tank is looking good!  And what a great deal on those frags!

Thanks. Ya there’s a local reefer who has a ton of frags he sells cheap and he has a ton of huge tanks. I just have to dip because he does have some pests, but the prices are worth it. Another reefer is giving me a Sunset Monti this week for free because he’s killing it. I’ll take it ?

[Nixperience]

It’s done. Not all the lights are mounted in it yet. I’ll be getting my other Prime back later this week and the t5 retrokit probably next week. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I know the lighting will definitely be better and more filled in for sure. I think the only way I would truly like it is if it was wired to the ceiling. I think it’s the mounting system I don’t like ?

[Christopher Marks]

I think it looks pretty good! If you can paint the hanging brackets and arms to be the same color as the wall it might blend in a little better.

[Nixperience]

3 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

I think it looks pretty good! If you can paint the hanging brackets and arms to be the same color as the wall it might blend in a little better.

Thanks. Fingers crossed I still have some of the paint left. Maybe I can add another inch of wood to the top to hide a little bit more of the mounting too. 

[Nixperience]

Probably the best iPhone coral photo I’ve taken. Juicy acan. 

[Nixperience]

So this is what the wife approves. It’s my best option until I can afford to buy a quad from @DaveFason. 

[WV Reefer]

9 minutes ago, Nixperience said:

So this is what he wife approves. It’s my best option until I can afford to buy a quad from @DaveFason. 

I kind of agree with the wife...... looks much nicer this way. 

[jack1978]

3 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

I kind of agree with the wife...... looks much nicer this way. 

I second that.

 

[Nixperience]

Picked up a nice favia frag. I couldn’t pass up this coloring. 

[WV Reefer]

9 minutes ago, Nixperience said:

Picked up a nice favia frag. I couldn’t pass up this coloring. 

 

Nice!

[Nixperience]

I don’t understand. I tested my parameters and my nitrates are through the roof. Over 140 ppm. Hanna ultra low phos is .028

Ca is 400ppm

Kh is 9dkh

Mg is 1420ppm

 

i just set up the chaeto reactor about 2 weeks ago and it’s growing. The only thing I can think of is when I rescaped, I must’ve had some die off. Time for a water change. 

[teenyreef]

That's a little scary! How's it going now? 

[Nixperience]

20 hours ago, teenyreef said:

That's a little scary! How's it going now? 

It’s coming down. I think I rustled up a lot of stuff during the rescape, but the chaeto has filled the reactor now and it seems to be doing its job. I’ll test again in a day or 2 since I’ll be due to harvest. Also, my stock return pump died on Friday and I had to order a new one that came on Sunday. I got the sicce Syncra Silent 2.0 and it is great. 

[teenyreef]

Whew! 

[Nixperience]

Tested nitrates today and they are around 20ppm. So I guess the chaeto reactor is doing its job. All the corals are doing great except for the first time in over a year, my yumas don’t look happy. 

[LeeJiYoung]

On 26/4/2017 at 2:21 AM, Nixperience said:

FTS 5/19/17:

 

5/14/17: 

 

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 

Did you have any salt creeps problem with the rock extruded out of water surface ? And also, how did you keep the air plants alive ?  It would be nice to hear some advice from you, thanks. 

[mitten_reef]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:48 PM, Nixperience said:

It’s coming down. I think I rustled up a lot of stuff during the rescape, but the chaeto has filled the reactor now and it seems to be doing its job. I’ll test again in a day or 2 since I’ll be due to harvest. Also, my stock return pump died on Friday and I had to order a new one that came on Sunday. I got the sicce Syncra Silent 2.0 and it is great. 

How is the syncra 2.0 working out?  Does the 3/8” connection/adapter come standard?  I was gonna run two return pumps, one for each nozzle, but now interested in how yours working out. 

[Nixperience]

On 3/6/2018 at 10:18 PM, LeeJiYoung said:

Did you have any salt creeps problem with the rock extruded out of water surface ? And also, how did you keep the air plants alive ?  It would be nice to hear some advice from you, thanks. 

I didn’t have any salt creep, but the plants did die after a few months. 

[Nixperience]

On 3/6/2018 at 10:32 PM, micoastreefing said:

How is the syncra 2.0 working out?  Does the 3/8” connection/adapter come standard?  I was gonna run two return pumps, one for each nozzle, but now interested in how yours working out. 

It works great. I had to get a threaded 3/4-1/2” reducer at Home Depot and that’s it. Not much bigger than the stock pump. I haven’t noticed much difference in water turnover though. 

[mitten_reef]

8 minutes ago, Nixperience said:

It works great. I had to get a threaded 3/4-1/2” reducer at Home Depot and that’s it. Not much bigger than the stock pump. I haven’t noticed much difference in water turnover though. 

Hmm, wonder if I can find the reducer that would fit my ~600 gph Tunze return pump. It’s roughly the same flow rate as syncra 2.0. That’s a good idea, I’ll look into that. 

Also good to know that turnover is not significantly increased, well afterall, the stock pump is almost 500gph. 

[LeeJiYoung]

22 hours ago, Nixperience said:

 but the plants did die after a few months. 

Did you give them fresh water often ? 

[Nixperience]

So I’ve been out for about 3 years and decided to get back in smaller than I’ve done. I still had my 4.3 gallon frag tank that I used as a quarantine tank and decided to fill her up!

 

And here it is here:

Nick’s 4.3g Pico