15G Nano - starting vinegar dosing

[gogeta]

Water chemistry

alk - 8.9 (have slowlyly been lowering from 10

nitrate - 2.5

phosphate - 0.03

calcium - 400 (appears water changes arnt keeping up fully so will have to start dosing)

salinity - 35ppt

 

Feeding and supplementing

fish - frozen cube 1/4 per day

coral - reef roids 1/8 teaspoon every second day. Amminos .5ml every second day alternating to reef roids

alk - was adding 0.5 per day to keep up with demand and currently adding 0.25 per day to keep slowly lowering

 

[WV Reefer]

On 8/26/2017 at 0:09 AM, gogeta said:

Everything is growing in nicely.

 

 I like Michelle. 

[gogeta]

Maintenance

-10% water change

- syphon sand bed a little more than usual, it looks clean but just to be sure.

 

Update

- slowly dropping alk is going well. Currrntly sitting around 8.3

- have stopped dosing reef roids not sure how much. Beneficial it has been in an effort to keep nutrients on the lower side. See how corals respond.

- have dropped amino dosing back to twice per week. Still half the recommended daily dose.

- lost the star fish not sure if I've mentioned ed that yet or not.

 

This is by far becoming my favourite side of the tank.

 

 

[gogeta]

Playing around with an app on my phone as I don't have or who even know how to use a dlsr 

 

[gogeta]

Update

Temperatures have been getting too high. My return pump can't handle my smallest chiller (1/4hp) pumping down to it and back up. The return flow is far too slow. So from advice here I'm gonna try fans. Only drama is that means more evaporation. Currently I am doing manual top off which is at its limit where I'm just topping up in time before salinity gets too far out. So I have bought a few things online today which should be here by Friday.

 

- quad fan for cooling, this comes with attachment to mount to the side of the tank

- controller for heater and chiller to keep them coming on when necessary

- ato to deal with extra evaporation

 

and just for the sake of it current FTS

 

[gogeta]

Goodies arrived! All cheap equipment but for $100 total worth a try!

 

[TheBig053]

Cheap and Auto Top Off sounds pretty risky to me.... I like your style! 

[gogeta]

7 minutes ago, TheBig053 said:

Cheap and Auto Top Off sounds pretty risky to me.... I like your style! 

Haha always on the risky side of life

[mitten_reef]

love all those mini colonies - where are you to get "frags" that size?  

 

Tank looks great.  

[gogeta]

19 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

love all those mini colonies - where are you to get "frags" that size?  

 

Tank looks great.  

Thanks! I've got an lfs that lets me pretty much take a frag from any colony they have. When I say take I mean pay though. But most the frags are $10 each and about an inch when I get them. But they ask me how much of it I want and are really good. 

[gogeta]

Update

this is where the AIO starts to get troublesome with all the equipment hanging off it in view it starts to look unpleasant! Fortunately for me this won't be the case for too long. I've enjoyed having the little tank so instead of scrapping it when my big tank is up and running I'm going to do a little tank right. And have a new small tank custom made next year complete with sump so I don't have all the equipment smacking you in the face while trying to enjoy a tank.

 

so now to the equipment all in working great. The fans are cooling really quickly temp was getting up at around 27.8 within minutes has dropped .5

 

tidied up some of the cords but there's only so much I can do with it all.

 

 

 

 

 

[gogeta]

Maintenance

- 15% water change

- removed any detritus/unwanted algae from sand and rear chambers

- cleaned skimmer with vinegar

 

Water chemistry

alk - 8.6 (trying to keep it down around 8 but RSCP salt has a high alk so will look at changing once consumed)

nitrate - 1 (lowest has ever been, but I have reduced all coral feeding)

phos - <0.03 (just a feint dectection on saltier test kit)

salinity - 35ppt (this should stay dead on now with ato installed)

calcium - 400 with water change, seems coral is consuming more again. Will have to increase dosing from 5ml per day to 7.5 and see how that goes

magnesium - 1250 seems I am finally at the stage that my tank is consuming mag so will test more often and probably have to start dosing mag aswell

temp - 25C super happy with fans they cooled it right down. Glad I bought them thank you to @Lula_Mae for suggesting giving them a go instead of whacking my big a$$ chiller on.

 

 

[tunagirll]

I keep a fan as well, I usually set it up to run with a timer over the warmest part of the day. Evap is an issue but topping up twice a day takes care of that

[Lula_Mae]

16 hours ago, gogeta said:

Maintenance

- 15% water change

- removed any detritus/unwanted algae from sand and rear chambers

- cleaned skimmer with vinegar

 

Water chemistry

alk - 8.6 (trying to keep it down around 8 but RSCP salt has a high alk so will look at changing once consumed)

nitrate - 1 (lowest has ever been, but I have reduced all coral feeding)

phos - <0.03 (just a feint dectection on saltier test kit)

salinity - 35ppt (this should stay dead on now with ato installed)

calcium - 400 with water change, seems coral is consuming more again. Will have to increase dosing from 5ml per day to 7.5 and see how that goes

magnesium - 1250 seems I am finally at the stage that my tank is consuming mag so will test more often and probably have to start dosing mag aswell

temp - 25C super happy with fans they cooled it right down. Glad I bought them thank you to @Lula_Mae for suggesting giving them a go instead of whacking my big a$$ chiller on.

 

 

Glad the fans are working!  Also much cheaper on the utility bills lol.

[gogeta]

Just picked up a strawberry shortcake frag 3 x 1inch bodies for a steal at $30. Its browned out pretty bad but you can tell it is a strawberry shortcake. Hopefully I'll restore this acro to its glory! 

[gogeta]

[gogeta]

Well it looked brown under their lighting. . . Soon as it went in doesn't look brown at all

[Lula_Mae]

Looks pretty gorgie to me!

[VaporCountry]

Tank is looking great, ill be following.

 

What fan is that? Its starting to cool off here now but ill for sure need one in the spring.

[gogeta]

3 hours ago, VaporCountry said:

Tank is looking great, ill be following.

 

What fan is that? Its starting to cool off here now but ill for sure need one in the spring.

I don't think it has a brand just a cheap Chinese import lol.

 

on a side note I have ordered coral for the first time online because I couldn't be bothered the 2 hour drive to go get it.

(photos from seller)

 

this is is called an Aussie paradise

 

This is a red riding hood

 

[VaporCountry]

Hahaha nice, you are using a dedicated temperature controller correct? How do you like it?

 

Trying to decide if I wanna build a DIY temp controller or just go with a reef keeper lite or apex jr. I could build one for $40 and then get a $30 wifi app controlled four outlet power strip. 

 

BTW I really like those Red Riding hood frags, nice pick up!

[gogeta]

17 minutes ago, VaporCountry said:

Hahaha nice, you are using a dedicated temperature controller correct? How do you like it?

 

Trying to decide if I wanna build a DIY temp controller or just go with a reef keeper lite or apex jr. I could build one for $40 and then get a $30 wifi app controlled four outlet power strip. 

 

BTW I really like those Red Riding hood frags, nice pick up!

I always use an stc-1000 but it's very hard wired so you either have to be reasonable at wiring standard house cable or get someone to do it. I bought this one as something safe to have so I can keep my stc for my big tank.

 

I have never been a fan of the cost of Apex. The only benefit it has that I can't make out of various cheaper contorller systems is the warning stuff of sending you messages or emails or however it does it.

 

but for temp look at home brew temp controller's that's what the stc is and the one I'm using on the nano is called an ac-211. They are super accurate and work well. Can set to the desired temp and the allowance of how far temp gets before heater or chiller/fans kick on. It helps as an extra redundancy for their own thermostats Inbuilt in heaters and chillers which are sometimes not great. And allows the controller to use the same temp probe for both so there is no competing with each other from different temp readings. For $30 you really can't go wrong. 

 

[gogeta]

My millipora is lacking polyp extension lately and I'm curious whether it is my flame angel that is responsible any thoughts?

[gogeta]

Not tank related but had to share this for the animal lovers. My little sausage

 

 

Didnt really want a small dog but she's grown on me in cuteness 

[fishfreak0114]

She's too cute!  . One day I'd love to have a dachshund.