DCNano14 - complete tank reboot...whatcha think?

[Subsea]

Keep feeding.  Chaeto will not overstrip.  Yes it will outcompete nuisance algae if nuisanc algae is not allowed to get out of hand.  

[NanoRox]

Thought I would post a quick pic update of the tank after the chaeto reactor has been up and running just short of a week.  

[NanoRox]

mMaintenance done.  water change made and first chaeto harvest.  

 

Quick observations:

1. GSP has closed for some reason.  couple polyps open but that's it.  Not sure why but I have read they do that sometimes.  will not worry about it

2. sexy shrimp have a bad habit of sitting and walking all over corals which causes them to close momentarily.  They particularly like my palys.

3. There is really almost no sign of algae anywhere.  diatom gone.  I cant help but wonder if I will lose some snails as a result.

 

Water Paramaters:

temp - 79.2

pH - 8.1

Sp. Gravity -  1.024

Nitrate - 0

Phosphate - 0 

Alk - 8.2 (raised to 8.6 after water change)

Ca - 485

Mg - 1410

 

**Adding first fish today.  getting something simple so will go with Royal Gramma and looking for a shrimp goby

 

[NanoRox]

Added my first fish.  Will stop at two.  

 

Meet Spike (Fire Goby) and Fancy (Mandarin).  

 

I don't have any concerns with Spike but I have developed some about Fancy.  She is supposedly trained to eat frozen food but I am going to still heavily feed and seed my tank with Pods each month.  I hope I can keep her healthy.  If not, she will have to go back. 

[NanoRox]

Spike has found a cave he now calls home.  He comes out and hovers by the entrance and darts in when he gets spooked (that's quite often at the moment).

 

I was not sure if fancy would eat amphipods but she does.  I have ordered 200 more in addition to the monthly copepods.  sadly she does not seem to be taking the frozen food as I was told.  I have tried eggs and mysis.  will keep trying. 

[Subsea]

Instead of buying pods, get a 5G bucket with an air pump and grow your pods.  Just feed them flake food to multiply.  Get a few small pieces of porous dry rock to leave in bucket with pods.   After Fancy depletes pods in display, bring in a fresh “pod hotel” and rotate out used rock to be recharged with pods in 5G bucket.

[NanoRox]

Sounds like a good idea (and cheaper) .  I will do that.  

 

Crazy how how my little hobby is turning into quite the production.  :-) 

[Subsea]

Reefer addiction.  You have been diagnosed.

[NanoRox]

Thanks to @Subsea I am setting up my copepod sanctuary.  Don't have a place for it really so it is going in the attic (which is temp controlled).  

 

My question is, can I breed copepods and amphipods In the same "tank".  If not I am going with copepods. hence the light for the phyto. 

 

BTW, total to set up...$24!

[Subsea]

Yes to amphipods and copepods together.  Not certain on how much good phyto is for the pod culture.  I would stick with flake food.  The pods in my unlit refugium do not get feed and they breed and multiply.

[NanoRox]

1 minute ago, Subsea said:

Yes to amphipods and copepods together.  Not certain on how much good phyto is for the pod culture.  I would stick with flake food.  The pods in my unlit refugium do not get feed and they breed and multiply.

OK...I just know the copepods eat phyto but then again they eat anything so I will follow your lead.   My cultures come in a couple days so will split some for my tank now and the rest goes into the Pod Paddock. 

[DaveFason]

Looking great! Be careful with the blue polyp cloves! 

[NanoRox]

38 minutes ago, DaveFason said:

Looking great! Be careful with the blue polyp cloves! 

Yeah I have hear they spread like a weed but so far it has not spread at all.  very slow in my experience so far. 

[NanoRox]

Well the tank is at the 4 month mark.  Everything seems to be running fairly smoothly.  I am having some challenges with alkalinity though.  It is NOT very stable.  It drops fairly considerably each week.  This last test was 7.1.  previous week was 7.5, the week prior was in low 8's.  I have been adding sodium bicarb per the BRS calculator but it still drops.  After this last result of 7.1, I have been a bit more aggressive increasing it over the past couple days.  I also increased my kalk in my ATO to 1 1/4  tsp per gallon of fresh RO/DI.  It is now sitting at 8.9.  pH has been solid at 8.1 for some time so I am not worried about that.  

 

One thing I did notice, and I think these are valuable observations for my continued education and that is as my alk has been dropping my calcium has been increasing.  I believe that is due to the corals inability to use the available calcium when the alk drops.  I also notice my paly's and one specific zoa appear to be very good visual indicators of alk.  as the alk dropped around 7.5 they started to close.  at 7.1 they closed completely and would not open.  as soon as I raised the alk back up to 8.9...boom...they opened right back up gain.  

 

Here is the 4 month tank pic  Fancy and spike hid when I tried to take the pic but they are still there.

[TechLobster]

Hey Duane,

 

Just wondering where you got that ATO container and what ATO unit you have in there? Looks like a great fit for the BC14 stand and I've been stuck trying to find something similar for a while now.

 

Its amazing how awesome your tank is already! Love the scape and coral placements.

[NanoRox]

8 minutes ago, TechLobster said:

Hey Duane,

 

Just wondering where you got that ATO container and what ATO unit you have in there? Looks like a great fit for the BC14 stand and I've been stuck trying to find something similar for a while now.

 

Here you go.  I use this.  fits perfectly and hold just over a gallon.   https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/space-saver-jug-thin-4-liter-1-05-gallon.html.    I also use the Hydrofill ATO.  I like it because the pump sits in my stand and not in the actual ATO container. I put the sensors in chamber 3.  https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auqa-gadget-titanium-hydrofill-ato-controller-innovative-marine.html

[DaveFason]

Looking great Duane. If you have time I would love to see a FTS with the light.

[NanoRox]

13 minutes ago, DaveFason said:

Looking great Duane. If you have time I would love to see a FTS with the light.

Ha, no prob Dave.  Will do that asap.  

[NanoRox]

The Acans are really showing out today!

[NanoRox]

As My aquarium approaches 5 months, I have learned many things.  I will list 10 in no particular order:

 

10 Things I have learned in the past 5 months

1.       Diatoms will happen and will eventually go away so just be patient

2.       Fresh liverock from the Gulf is fun…you never what will hitch a ride…even months later

3.       Chaeto Reactors are amazing

4.       14 gallons will only keep you happy for so long…must get a bigger tank

5.       Leave stuff alone…keep your hands out of the tank

6.       If a coral does not open for a day or two…don’t flip out…leave it alone

7.       You can absolutely keep a Mandarin in a 14g IF you start your own pod farm/source.  Otherwise it will be very expensive or it will starve…simple as that

8.       Biocubes’s IMO are poorly designed when compared to other nano tanks out there

9.       Sexy shrimp are cool BUT they limit the kind of fish you can get (lots of fish will eat them)

10.   Water changes, water changes, water changes

[NanoRox]

I am happy to report that my Pod farm is doing "swimmingly"  I am collecting pods every two days, straining in a 200 micron strain and adding to my display.  Fancy is very happy.

 

Almost all my pods are Tisbee pods so they are very small.  I capture them in two 16 oz clear plastic bottles, let the sediment settle and then strain.  Just before I strain I put a bright light up against the bottle and it looks like literally thousands of dust particles swimming about.  It's pretty cool.

 

I am going to seed a few thousand Apocalypse pods this week and see if they grow out as well.  They are a bit bigger and breed even faster from what I have read.  

 

5 month pics of the tank will be posted next week.  

[NanoRox]

5 month mark.  Everything doing well.  Fancy and Spike always hide when I take pics.  

[vlangel]

On 3/20/2018 at 6:12 PM, Duane Clark said:

As My aquarium approaches 5 months, I have learned many things.  I will list 10 in no particular order:

 

10 Things I have learned in the past 5 months

1.       Diatoms will happen and will eventually go away so just be patient

2.       Fresh liverock from the Gulf is fun…you never what will hitch a ride…even months later

3.       Chaeto Reactors are amazing

4.       14 gallons will only keep you happy for so long…must get a bigger tank

5.       Leave stuff alone…keep your hands out of the tank

6.       If a coral does not open for a day or two…don’t flip out…leave it alone

7.       You can absolutely keep a Mandarin in a 14g IF you start your own pod farm/source.  Otherwise it will be very expensive or it will starve…simple as that

8.       Biocubes’s IMO are poorly designed when compared to other nano tanks out there

9.       Sexy shrimp are cool BUT they limit the kind of fish you can get (lots of fish will eat them)

10.   Water changes, water changes, water changes

Good list to have learned.  I'd say you are a faster learner than most of us?.

[Subsea]

On 3/20/2018 at 5:12 PM, Duane Clark said:

As My aquarium approaches 5 months, I have learned many things.  I will list 10 in no particular order:

 

10 Things I have learned in the past 5 months

1.       Diatoms will happen and will eventually go away so just be patient

2.       Fresh liverock from the Gulf is fun…you never what will hitch a ride…even months later

3.       Chaeto Reactors are amazing

4.       14 gallons will only keep you happy for so long…must get a bigger tank

5.       Leave stuff alone…keep your hands out of the tank

6.       If a coral does not open for a day or two…don’t flip out…leave it alone

7.       You can absolutely keep a Mandarin in a 14g IF you start your own pod farm/source.  Otherwise it will be very expensive or it will starve…simple as that

8.       Biocubes’s IMO are poorly designed when compared to other nano tanks out there

9.       Sexy shrimp are cool BUT they limit the kind of fish you can get (lots of fish will eat them)

10.   Water changes, water changes, water changes

I agree with Vlangel, at five months old,  your tank is magnificent.  I am so glad that the pod farm is working for you.  Aside from phytoplankton, do you feed anything else.  

 

I thought  about your comment concerning  diver collected live rock, about how it could surprise you months later.   I got a large 20 lb rock in September.  In the last week I see micro red feather duster sprouting everywhere. I also see a dozen or so sprigs of Halymenia Elongata.

https://www.marineplantbook.com/marinebookhalymeniaelongata.htm

 

 

 

[NanoRox]

39 minutes ago, Subsea said:

I agree with Vlangel, at five months old,  your tank is magnificent.  I am so glad that the pod farm is working for you.  Aside from phytoplankton, do you feed anything else.  

 

I thought  about your comment concerning  diver collected live rock, about how it could surprise you months later.   I got a large 20 lb rock in September.  In the last week I see micro red feather duster sprouting everywhere. I also see a dozen or so sprigs of Halymenia Elongata.

https://www.marineplantbook.com/marinebookhalymeniaelongata.htm

 

 

 

Thanks @Subsea I really appreciate that.  You guys are very kind.  I only feed phyto in my display tank along with NOT being overly concerned with being too stingy when I feed my fish and corals (Reef Frenzy and Reef Roids).  I feed my pods in my pod farm 100% powdered spirulina.  

 

Regarding the Halymenia Elongata I had no idea what that was but I am also growing quite a bit of it.  I have been scraping it off my rocks. I suppose I should not be so eager to remove the macro algae I seem to be growing out.  I also have some bubble algae that I simply remove.  It's not the boogie man everyone seems to make it out to be.  In truth I try to follow your advice as much as I can with respect to "natural" system filtration etc. and I think it has lead to my early success.  There is only so much stability a 14g tank can achieve BUT the principles are sound regardless.