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Nano Addict's 20g Fusion - Retired February 2021


Nano_Addict

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myarmolich
2 hours ago, Nano_Addict said:

Well the thought was, if i'm gonna go for the MP, I wanted the MP10wQD at the very least I'd like the QD version.  I've been scouting the marketplaces but most are around 180-200... which at that point is almost worth going for new.  If the Jaebo works, it would be a solid substitute for the MP until I can afford one.  Ahhh the struggles :D

 

That was definitely the goal!  I have to say my inspiration to get this tank was @uwdanno 's thread and TOTM feature.  He's absolutely killing it with this tank.

 

Still thinking I need to bust up the left rock a bit to make it fit the space a little better.

 

haha i get that. Im a big functionality person so the thought of the QD didnt even occur to me. The jebao pumps are pretty cool, I started with a WP-10 before upgrading. The only caveat is they really slow down if you do not clean them religiously. other than that theyre a great starter pump/saltwater mixing pump

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Nano_Addict

Made a few tweaks to the scape this week and put the corals in their close to final locations, pictures soon! 

 

Also, the Nano Box should be here today!!  Does anyone have any input on what levels to start the light out on?  Right now I'm running a Current USA Orbit LED and I don't want to fry the coral with this new light.  

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Nano_Addict

Light arrived Friday and I was able to get it up over the tank this weekend!  Still playing with the settings, but the build quality is awesome and setup was a breeze.

 

A few pictures (sorry for the ultra blue cell phone pic, trying to get ahold of a DSLR to take some actual photos eventually.)

 

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  • 1 month later...
Nano_Addict

It's been a while since I've updated this thread.  But there have been a few developments!

 

Recently purchased a Red Banded Hi-Fin Goby and pistol shrimp combo, shrimp is doing great... but I haven't seen the goby in a week :(  I'm begging to fear the worst.  The clowns harassed the poor guy non-stop when I first put him in the tank and I'm afraid that harassment may have continued and led to his demise.

 

I'm also still having nitrate issues, even with reduced feeding and increased water changes my nitrates have been staying around 25... far to high for my liking.  It may be time for drastic measures.  I see a cheato reactor in my future!  Any and all other recommendations are welcome!

 

The nano box has been great, still working on dialing in the settings as well as ramping up the intensity, but it's been a great product thus far B)

 

I've really been slacking on quality photos of the tank.  I did manage to get my hands on a DSLR and I'm hoping to take a few quality pictures of the tank this weekend.

 

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  • 2 months later...

How's the tank coming along?  Were you able to resolve the high nitrates?  Would love to see updated pictures now that you've had some time with the tank. 

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This summer has been a crazy busy one.  A couple vacations and then wedding preparations have taken up most of my free time, but I have been able to keep up on regular water changes.  I think I've only added 1 or 2 pieces of coral since I got the tank up and running, a beautiful pink acan with a rainbow center and a red/green favia. I've tried adding a couple fish into the tank to complement the clowns but haven't had any luck.  The high fin red stripe goby somehow managed to jump out even with the tank screen and an awesome jawfish that appeared to be thriving for three weeks turned up dead one day :( which was very frustrating.

 

But you're right, it's time for a nice update to this thread.  Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to try to get some good photos of the tank and it's inhabitants, and more importantly do some testing to figure out where the levels are at!  

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  • 4 months later...

Well, so much for that update back in September...  I hate taking pictures with my cell phone because they do absolutely no justice to the actual colors in the tank, but I figured an update was more important. 

 

Right after posting back in september I had a almost crash on the tank.  Managed to only lose a few zoas, but it definitely set everything back a couple months.  Luckily everything has recovered and he tank is still chugging along.  I think I caused the mini-crash by getting overly aggressive with my stand stiring without performing a water change right after.

 

Anyway, in positive news, I've finally glued down some corals over the past few months, allowing them to start encrusting. You can see the two favias in the right center.   I've also added a chaeto reactor to the setup to help with organics and hopefully allow me to feed the tank and corals a bit more.  Another new addition is a six line wrasse, such a cool and active fish!  I also just picked up the hammer coral in the middle this past weekend.  Letting it settle and for a bit and looking for the best place to mount it.

 

The overarching goal is to fill the top of the right side rocks with varying kinds sps, I've just been too hesitant to purchase any after the almost crash this past fall.  Hopefully this spring!

 

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  • Nano_Addict changed the title to Nano Addict's 20g Fusion

Looking good!  I love 10 gallons.  With the right scape and livestock, it's actually quite big.  Great work!

 

I hate taking pics with my iphone as well.  I tried taking pictures with the "Aquarium Cam" app and that was a little better.  Although, it removed the blue hue, the pics looked so grainy.  Now I just turn off all the blues on my Radion and take pictures with the regular iphone camera and the pics turn out  a lot better.  Not sure if you can turn off the blues easily on your nanobox.

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Another tip is to take a pill bottle and cut it vertically and take pictures with the bottle between your iphone and tank.  It's super easy and pretty effective. 

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16 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

Another tip is to take a pill bottle and cut it vertically and take pictures with the bottle between your iphone and tank.  It's super easy and pretty effective. 

That is a good trick.  I've been meaning to pick up some orange filters from amazon, but just haven't gotten to it yet.  I'm sure a newer phone (i'm on an iPhone 6) would also help!

 

22 hours ago, reefrook said:

Looking good!  I love 10 gallons.  With the right scape and livestock, it's actually quite big.  Great work!

 

I hate taking pics with my iphone as well.  I tried taking pictures with the "Aquarium Cam" app and that was a little better.  Although, it removed the blue hue, the pics looked so grainy.  Now I just turn off all the blues on my Radion and take pictures with the regular iphone camera and the pics turn out  a lot better.  Not sure if you can turn off the blues easily on your nanobox.

It's actually the IM 20, but I know what you mean.  This tank is just the right size and amount of maintenance for me.  Overall i'm really happy with the scape in the tank.  However, I keep toying with the idea of reducing the size of the left rock.  It's one giant piece, but I think if I broke it in half it would give me a much more open islandy feel.  It would also help with some of the shading I get on that side of the tank.  I've mostly held off because I have a pom pom crab who seems to enjoy living in that rock and I didn't feel like disturbing it too much!  

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  • 3 months later...
Nano_Addict

Summer update!  I've been hobbled for the past couple months with a torn ACL.  However, that has given me plenty of time to think about and upgrade the tank.

 

Since the last post I've started dosing 2-part and installed two BRS dosers.  The results really speak for themselves, the parameters are rock solid every time I test. I also upgraded my power supply to an apex, just to have some added piece of mind when it comes to the heater, the dosing schedule and any power failures while away from home.

 

I've also added my first SPS to the tank!  To test the waters I picked up a free frag of birds nest and a $5 chuck of red Monti Cap my LFS had.  Both started growing like crazy. After another month or so I snagged a Acro/Monti frag pack from AquaSD.  A couple of the Montis were bleached from transport, but everything else looked great and is already encrusting.

 

Finally, I just completed a rescape of the left side of the tank.  Throughout the past year, I've never been happy with the one huge piece of rock on that side.  I felt that it overpowered the entire side of the tank and left me with a lot of unusable space due to the large amounts of shadowing it created.  SO, I busted out the rock hammer and broke up!  I ended up using a bunch of rubble and super gluing it together to create a more appropriately sized island for that side of the tank.

 

FTS with the new island in place.  Once things settle down from the rescape, I plan to glue the frags on the rack to the new island.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Nano_Addict

Quick update with a few more photos.   Picked up a couple additional frags and spent some time getting the frags I had glued into place on the new island. Enjoy

 

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New Orange Sestosa frag

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Lemon shortcake something or other? Has some great coloration.

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Top of the SPS rock.  The two pieces on the left are still showing some stress from being shipped, but are slowly starting to get their color back.

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Red monti growing like a weed.

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  • 1 month later...

Simply beautiful. I do not know if you are still around but how is that light? I have a 20g high cycling right now and I am debating on getting the same light you have. Its either that or the AI Prime HD. I am new to the hobby and do not know much about coral. I would love to have hard corals however. 

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Yep, tank is still chugging along, definitely need some update pictures.

 

I love the Nanobox.  One of the main reasons I went for this light over the AI Prime was the fact that it has two LED pucks.  With the length of this tank, I thought the additional puck would help disperse the light across the tank better.

 

I assume by hard corals you mean SPS (small polyp stony, like montipora)?  If that's the case this light should definitely do the trick for you.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/10/2018 at 8:53 AM, Nano_Addict said:

Yep, tank is still chugging along, definitely need some update pictures.

 

I love the Nanobox.  One of the main reasons I went for this light over the AI Prime was the fact that it has two LED pucks.  With the length of this tank, I thought the additional puck would help disperse the light across the tank better.

 

I assume by hard corals you mean SPS (small polyp stony, like montipora)?  If that's the case this light should definitely do the trick for you.

Hey Nano - love your tank! I am about to bite the bullet on a nanobox duo for my 20g fusion and was wondering which gooseneck you went with? I am thinking 15" for more options but not sure . It looks like yours is right where I would like mine to be positioned. Thanks!

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On 9/28/2018 at 3:21 PM, soggytoes said:

Hey Nano - love your tank! I am about to bite the bullet on a nanobox duo for my 20g fusion and was wondering which gooseneck you went with? I am thinking 15" for more options but not sure . It looks like yours is right where I would like mine to be positioned. Thanks!

Hey!  You won't be disappointed with the light!  I went with the 15 inch neck.  I'm currently toying with the idea of raising it up a little.  Right now I get some shadowing since my main rock structures are either side of the center of the tank.

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  • 2 weeks later...

October update!

 

The tank survived hurricane Michael yesterday, which came along with a super fun 20 hour power outage.  Luckily I was prepared and had a battery powered air stone on hand as well as a small 1000 watt generator for when the rain stopped.  After the power came back on I tested some of the levels everything and it looks like I'm in the clear.  Going to keep a close eye on it for the next few days to make sure I don't get any ammonia or nitrite spikes... might toss some chemipure in the back chambers just to be safe.

 

Now for some updates!  This summer I took advantage of the frag sale @teenyreef was having.  Since he's not too far from my neck of the woods, I was able to check out his tanks in person and as expected they don't disappoint!  Additionally his frags were ridiculously generous for the price!  Picked up a bubblegum monti, Green Monti Cap, Electric Myagi Tort, Elk-horn Acro, and a Blue Kenya tree.  Then he tossed in some GSP just for the heck of it!  Awesome seller with awesome tanks, can't wait until he has more frags so I can make another trip.

 

Unfortunately, not all the news has been positive as I've had a few fish and coral losses.  First the fish... I lost one of my clowns when he decided to take a swim into the back chambers while I was out of town for the weekend.  He was alive when I got home, but he only lasted about another day.  Additionally, during another weekend out of town my randalli goby went missing without a trace.  As of right now the fish list includes just the one clown and the sixline wrasse.  I'm in the market for another fish, but I can't decide on what to get.  The coral losses include a few acros (luckily nothing too expensive).  I'm attributing some of the losses to lack of light.  I took a look at the nanobox preset settings and realized I was running my lights wayyyyy too low.  Over the past month i've been slowly increasing the levels to get to the SPS+ setting.  Hopefully that helps.

 

Time for some pictures!  I think I'm getting better with the pictures, but it's just difficult to get a great photo when all you have is an iPhone.

 

FTS

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Left "island".  This is becoming my favorite area of the tank.  Once the corals fill in, I think this is going to look awesome.

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Bubblegum monti and the myagi tort.  Both growing like crazy and starting to encrust onto the rock structure.

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Didn't see the sixline until I was editing this photo.  Derp! lol.

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Side view of the tank.  The red monti is starting to get close to the Elkhorn and the red monti is definitely winning.  Anyone know how to slow the monti's growth or "encourage" it to grow elsewhere?

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I thought this shot of the GSP looked cool

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Cheers!

 

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10 hours ago, soggytoes said:

coolest looking gsp ever! Glad you and yours made it through the storm okay!

It definitely grows like a weed, which is why I have is isolated on the sand.  There's no question it's a cool looking coral though!

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Your tank looks great.  I can see why you like the left side island.  It already looks fabulous.  Its nice that you still have room on the right side however.

 

As far as restocking fish, blennies are such a fun fish and your tank looks to have nice hidey holes for a blenny to feel secure.  Anyway its a thought.

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You'll be really happy with the water flow of this setup as well. The two power heads will add some really nice non linear flow - perfect for happy corals. 

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2 hours ago, uwdanno said:

You'll be really happy with the water flow of this setup as well. The two power heads will add some really nice non linear flow - perfect for happy corals. 

Definitely can't argue with that! I also added the spin streams to help mix things up even more. 

 

However, over the past few months I have been experiencing some heat issues in the tank, which I think boil down to the number of pumps running on it.  I've been debating swapping the powerheads out for an ecotech MP-10, but my budget hasn't allowed for that as of yet.

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2 hours ago, vlangel said:

Your tank looks great.  I can see why you like the left side island.  It already looks fabulous.  Its nice that you still have room on the right side however.

 

As far as restocking fish, blennies are such a fun fish and your tank looks to have nice hidey holes for a blenny to feel secure.  Anyway its a thought.

Thanks!  Redoing the left rockwork this spring gave this tank a new life.  It really opened up the aquascape and gave me a lot more usable space.

 

Any particular blenny you'd recommend?  In the past I had a tailspot, which I'll admit was a pretty awesome fish to watch.

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On 10/15/2018 at 1:49 PM, vlangel said:

Since you have a airline and a clown I think a sturdier Blenny would be best.  Maybe a linear blenny or one of the other combtooth blennies.

I'll take a look into those.  Maybe see what the LFS has this weekend!

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  • Nano_Addict changed the title to Nano Addict's 20g Fusion - Retired February 2021

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