Freshwater Hobbyist expiriments with a SW Nano Reef

[Lingwendil]

My recommendation, is use dry rock for 75% or so of your rock, and then some pieces of live rock from an established system free of any known pests. I've found that you generally have higher success this way versus using all dry rock and bacteria starter products. If you can find an LFS that will sell you some live rock out of a sump, holding tank, or an older batch of good cured live rock it's usually better. In dry rock, look for something that feels lightweight for its size, and has a very rough and porous surface for increased surface area. Once the tank is cycled buy some nicer looking rock to mix in so you get more coralline algae and diversity. A good biologically diverse tank should start with the real stuff, but you will always have some loss during cycling, so be prepared to add more stuff as the tank settles in.

 

Back when I ran a whole fishroom (and a very successful side business in setup/maintenance) I found this was the best way to set up a successful display without as much nuisance algae and critters. Another good idea is to get a few handfuls of sand from an established system (detritus, copepods, mulm and all) to mix in with bulk dry sand to seed the sandbed. 20# of sand is a good starting point. 

 

Your choice of a 20 gallon long is probably one of the more common and easier to work with tank sizes and shapes, I love mine 

 

For lighting, I strongly suggest you go for something a bit better than those fixtures. They work, and will grow coral, but they have PAR hotspots, don't use LEDs that are very efficient, and they tend to burn out the lenses and drivers over time. Look for something that uses Luxeon or Cree LEDs if they will fit your budget. It will use less power, last longer, and give much better growth and coloration. There is always DIY too, but that's another subject 

[Lula_Mae]

8 hours ago, benstatic said:

Found this little gem in another thread.  My Freshwater API master kit (mostly Nitrogen cycling) - can be used for monitoring Saltwater - just use a different color chart:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Downloads.html#ammonia

 

Save myself $115 on Salifert or RedSea test kits - jeez those are outrageous.  If for some reason my API kit becomes inadequate or I feel is unreliable, I might replace with one of those.  If I get in to LPS / SPS corals - I will want a Ca, Mg, Si or other coral nutrient test kit for dosing.  But I don't need to get ahead of myself 

For just ammonia/nitrite/nitrates, API is fine to use.  For calcium phosphorus, alk, mag, etc. it's recommended to use Salifert or Red Sea.

 

7 hours ago, Lingwendil said:

My recommendation, is use dry rock for 75% or so of your rock, and then some pieces of live rock from an established system free of any known pests. I've found that you generally have higher success this way versus using all dry rock and bacteria starter products. If you can find an LFS that will sell you some live rock out of a sump, holding tank, or an older batch of good cured live rock it's usually better. In dry rock, look for something that feels lightweight for its size, and has a very rough and porous surface for increased surface area. Once the tank is cycled buy some nicer looking rock to mix in so you get more coralline algae and diversity. A good biologically diverse tank should start with the real stuff, but you will always have some loss during cycling, so be prepared to add more stuff as the tank settles in.

 

Back when I ran a whole fishroom (and a very successful side business in setup/maintenance) I found this was the best way to set up a successful display without as much nuisance algae and critters. Another good idea is to get a few handfuls of sand from an established system (detritus, copepods, mulm and all) to mix in with bulk dry sand to seed the sandbed. 20# of sand is a good starting point. 

 

Your choice of a 20 gallon long is probably one of the more common and easier to work with tank sizes and shapes, I love mine 

 

For lighting, I strongly suggest you go for something a bit better than those fixtures. They work, and will grow coral, but they have PAR hotspots, don't use LEDs that are very efficient, and they tend to burn out the lenses and drivers over time. Look for something that uses Luxeon or Cree LEDs if they will fit your budget. It will use less power, last longer, and give much better growth and coloration. There is always DIY too, but that's another subject 

Reef Cleaners is supposed to have very good, clean dry rock, and I've used Bulk Reef Supply's Reef Saver rock (if you go with their Pukani, treat it outside the tank first as it's got tons of dead organics).  And regarding lighting--if you're on a budget, that light can work while you research and decide what you want to drop your money on.  Lighting is by far the most expensive aspect of this hobby!

[benstatic]

Well, what is life without a few setbacks?

My RODI unit arrived.  Unfortunately the nut / connector between canister 1 and canister 2 is busted and leaking (a lot).  BRS is sending me a replacement nut - so I am happy about that, but now I am stuck on waiting to fill the tank and buy more dry + live rock until next week (assuming I can successfully repair the RODI unit).

 

My son has been hounding me about this tank and getting it filled.  Coaching patience to a 7 year old who has a tendency to run angry is no fun.  He is going to have to get patient here, there will be a lot more waiting around once the tank is full of water.  Here is the austere dry tank, with only half the rock I need:

 

I also bought a light.  After a little research on lingwendil's suggestion - I landed on a NanoBox Duo Plus Moonlight.  This seems like a well put together (and popular / successful) light.  The features on it are good, the size was right - I can get away with a single unit.  These are expensive lights comparatively speaking - but after being in the planted tank hobby - I understand lighting quality is something you have to pay for. 

If there were a good electronics supply store nearby my house, I would be interested in starting DIY lighting projects - that sounds like a fun hobby.  Maybe when I start building out a refugium, I'll play around with this.  I could swear that electronic stores where you could buy little circuit boards, and transistors used to be a thing...  I remember going to these with my dad when I was little - mid 80s..  I hate waiting for mail packages to arrive - especially from overseas and also very much dislike ebay and amazon as a matter of principal - what fun is waiting in the mail for something you want now?

 

I think to fill out the additional 10-12 lbs of rock I need - i'll talk to the fish store guy about this a bit, but I am thinking 4lbs live, 4 dry (so 4 / 16lbs live to dry ratio - or 20% live rock).  After I can validate a small amount of Nitrate can be cycled by the tank, I will add another ~4lbs of high quality rock for the creature factor, maybe some clean-up snails if there is available algae.

 

On the test kits - I probably will go buy a Ca, Mg test kit, maybe a Si - I need to research some of the corals I eventually want to play with.  I am excited to monitor available nutrition for these guys, and want to start understanding baseline levels in the salt mix, and what the live rock does to those levels as things cycle - start a little documentation and science tracking   

 

Now I am stuck - waiting on water..  heh - weird to wait for water.  

 

[benstatic]

I walked into the Ace and asked the guy if he had a 1/4 inch to 1/4 inch nipple . 

Oddly enough, he told me he had one - brass! 

I would rather avoid metals and alloys in my RODI unit.

I need something like that - I want to shortcut this silly BRS waiting period.  Will try HD later tonight.

 

Excited to start goofing around with water chemistry - want to measure the salt, how dry rock affects the measures, and then how the LR affects the measures.  I am a bit of a nerd up here, hobby keeping has allowed my to indulge my inner scientist.  I am going to go ahead and buy Salifert CA and MG test kits.  I already have the KH test kit for my freshwater setup - it should work fine.

 

otherwise.... bored.

 

[benstatic]

Looking at coral images online to pass my time.  I think I am going to have to convince my son that less is better in terms of numbers of colors.  I particularly like Green (many shades is fine - acid green!) to Purple.  I might be convinced every once and a while have a splash of volcano red somehwere - but it will have to tie back to either green or purple somewhere

Mixing textures, but keeping within similar colors, 

 

If only I still took LSD

 

Euphylla (hammer corals) - green and purple!

Favites - Honeycomb brain corals - green and purple

Birdsnests

Green / purple Palys and zoas

Green Duncans

What about tree shapes?  Leather corals, hand corals

 

I could look at pintrest all day.

 

All assumes of course I can be successful raising these things, but I have high hopes

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Sorry to hear about the setback, Ben. Hopefully you'll be able to fill the tank soon.

-Kamran

[Lingwendil]

Nice choice on the light!

 

Sounds like a good plan so far.

 

Looking forward to updates.

[benstatic]

I got impatient waiting for UPS (they do some weird things taking my parts to neighboring towns) - so went to 3 different hardware shops, and finally found one who carries nylon nipples that fit this RODI unit.  I am glad I did this on a Sunday - it takes forever to make RODI distilled water and would have taken many days during the workweek to fill the tank.

 

Tank is now full!  Refract-o-meters are cool devices btw.  The gravity sitting at 1.025

The tank is a bit of a cloudy mess from floating sand particles.  Most of it has settled, but still cloudy.  It will either settle over time, or get clear via water changes - I am not super anxious for it to clear up - at least not until I get a light (which is hopefully done?). 

 

There are two Koralia 425s sitting blowing lengthwise across the front / back of the tank, one positioned to disturb the water surface a bit.

Temperature is I think where I want it - at 80 degrees

 

I went out and also bought 5 lbs of live rock, so I should be sitting at ~15lbs dry, 5lbs live rock.  I checked this morning, there was some wiggling worm looking guy sticking out of a hole in the live rock - so that is exciting.  I can even hope it was a brittle star leg or something - but lets not get carried away!

 

I am anxious now to see it lit up for a few hours a day.  Will probably start with dimmed lighting for 6 hours daily and watch the tank cycle a bit, grow some bacteria, maybe a little bit of algae.  My first buy I think is going to be a blue leg crab.  Love the inverts.  Was talking to my LFS guy - evidently last time he ordered blue leg crabs, he received ~425 / 500 dead crabs, with none of the survivors having blue legs...  He is switching suppliers.

[benstatic]

My research today:

Nassarius snails are cool - don't eat algae, but eat food fallen on the sand bed.  I might not have a deep enough sand bed - its 1-1.5" deep.  The interwebs say they want a "Deep Sand Bed"- where I envision 6 inches required - or at least 2 or 3.

Trochus snails seem cool

Tuxedo / Pincushion urchin

Blue leg crabs

 

[Subsea]

I think that anything more than 2” has a better potential for sandbed problems.

[benstatic]

My tank looks like it is finished cycling:
Ammonia = 0

Nitrite = 0

Nitrate = 5

 

The little dead frag in the middle is LR rubble from the fish store - my son put it there to trick me in to thinking we had coral.

I have seen some long worm at night, also these guys - not sure what they are yet..  Tunicate or something?

 

Haven't messed with my nanobox picture settings yet - so things are more purple than maybe should be...

 

So what is next -
I know people hate on crabs cause they do battle with snails who are supposedly better janitors, but they are awesome.  You can't blame them cause they want to kick a little snail butt (besides, we have a bully as president now - my tank needs a bully to prove its American or something ).

So maybe 1 scarlet hermit, a cerith snail and a nerite - we shall see what the guys at the fish store have.  I don't want too many, my tank doesn't have much food growing in it, just a little algae and some diatoms, and the baby sprinkle of fish food I plan on throwing in 2X per week or so.

[Lingwendil]

I actually like hermits, but only small. They get a bit too destructive when they get large. I tend to give them away and replace them with tiny ones once they get too big. I have a blue leg that is a bulldozer and needs to go, he knocks over anything that isn't glued down, and is actively attacking snails now.

[Subsea]

2 hours ago, Lingwendil said:

I actually like hermits, but only small. They get a bit too destructive when they get large. I tend to give them away and replace them with tiny ones once they get too big. I have a blue leg that is a bulldozer and needs to go, he knocks over anything that isn't glued down, and is actively attacking snails now.

Sounds like nutrient export time.

[benstatic]

Its been a while since I updated this journal.. 
I am going to have to get better at photography and these pink / blue marine lighting schemes.  Will try to add photos later tonight.

 

After buying a few corals, I've had to rethink my aquascape - its hard to hang corals on vertical surfaces, I wanted better places to put coral that were lower in the tank, so spread out the rocks a bit.  I get timid with prying corals from their rocks / frags, and then slamming glue on their feet and squishing them back onto a rock.

 

I now have 4 corals - none of them are glued down for the moment:

1. Some Zoas on a single chunk of LR.  My wife almost had a panic attack when I told her about palytoxin.  Not sure she is better, but I am not dead yet, and not blind either.  She is terrified my son will wind up in the hospital or foaming at the mouth.  I read that the kinds I have might be safer - I just told her as long as he isn't taking a dremel to them he should be fine - but to be safe we should keep kids hands out of the tank.
2. A trumpet coral that still looks terrible (has been in my tank for almost 2 weeks now)
3. A frogspawn (branching euphylla that does not look like a hammer - so assume its a frogspawn)
4. A mushroom on a chunk of LR. 

For motile creatures -

• I have 1 astrea snail who has a mini feather duster in his cap - looks way cool
• 1 electric blue hermit.  That little turd just lives full time in the branches of my failing Trumpet / Candy Cane.  He is making me paranoid he is irritating this coral so much that it won't relax.  He doesn't seem to be eating it, but the coral doesn't appear to be happy.  This hermit molted last night, so I am hoping once his new skin hardens he starts adventuring out of the branches and help clean up the tank soon.  Maybe he will find a better roost.
• 2 Zebra Turbo snails to eat up the red hair algae that is now growing over a few of the rocks. 

Nutrient load is low - just 1 weekly feeding of the trumpet (brine shrimp at night) is all the nutrition I've been adding to my tank.  I should check nitrates again, and maybe do a phosphate test - I have yet to test phosphates as I am running RODI, I just assume its not there, but there is plenty of red hair algae now (new).  I am trying not to stress on it, and want to chalk it up to tank maturation and the fact the snails haven't gotten around to cleaning it up.  (They are busy scraping clean rocks that have no visible algae, maybe eating any coralline that exists on those).
Still doing 2X per week water changes, maybe 30% weekly.
I've also started 2 part dosing using Seachem products.  May go cheaper DIY products after I have some success with my LPS. 

The tank is eating through a lot of alkalinity, but not so much calcium.  I am expecting that to better balance as the tank matures a bit.

Am thinking through fish now...  but want my corals to settle a bit first, and maybe get some putty to better secure the corals I have.
Maybe a purple firefish  

[benstatic]

 

 

[benstatic]

This tank chugging along, 

now been up almost 3 months.

I went out and got a spotted mandarin - she eats frozen, and has gone through all the pods in my tank.

I have started feeding her daily, which has upped the nutrient load in my tank pretty well.  Still doing 2X per week water changes (5 - 15% per WC) to manage it - with a turkey baster rock and occasional sand blast during the process.

 

Now I have fuzzies on my rocks, but my snails stay well fed.

I've discovered a few new LR hitchhikers - which is pretty exciting

1) Some sort of crab (methinks Emerald) who hides in my tank where I can rarely see it - not sure if that will be good or bad in the long run, but I think I saw it eating algae the other day, so I am going to keep it around for now.

2) Some button polyps, green tentacles, green mouth, brown body.

 

I haven't really noticed much in the way of coralline algae yet, but I want to start seeing more of it before I start stocking more corals.  I just don't want algae to overrun anything - and there is a small chance of that where I am now.  

GSP is steadily spreading over the island I gave it.

My Pineapple favites looks like it is going through its first polyp division since I've bought it.  

Things seem to be going well.
Am starting to brainstorm what corals come next - plate corals, ricordea, acans all are something I am considering trying out.