Red Sea Max Nano upgrade

[A Little Blue]

Sounds good. My LFStores aren’t bad but you have to look really closely b4 getting anything from those guys. I have a separate tank where I keep my new, questionable additions. Australian waters have one of the most beautiful corals around. Highly priced here in US. Lucky you. I would like some acros as well but I don’t think that I am ready. My next coral will be WWC Grafting Montipora. I’m also considering pink bubble tip anemone (not a coral lol) but I need to figure out how to keep it stationary without moving & stinging my corals. It’s a risk that I’m not sure that I want to take. 

 

[Metatrone-oz]

That's a beautiful idea to get that bi-colour monti. Are they growing in a spiral or rather covering rocks?

I have a tiny anemone from my old tank at the moment. Just started moving a bit. I let it be for now. Just need to get that guard piece on my MP10 to avoid drama :).

If it bothers other corals, i'll remove it I think.

[A Little Blue]

It’s a Capricornus so spiral. Definitely get that sponge like cover. If I was going to get one, it would be the smallest one I could find. Easier to keep it contained and less demage if it decides to wander around. Hopefully it will settle b4 you get pricey acros. I would say that getting anemone b4 getting any corals is a good rule to fallow. Less headaches and less costly. Once it settles, you should be fine. At least for a while. I have MP10 for detritus control at the bottom of my tank and that’s my other concern.  

[Metatrone-oz]

Yes, I'm not sure I will keep. So tiny too, so not beneficial for my clowns. They actually seem to be rather interested in hosting my hammers at the moment. They sleep there.

I'm using this to prevent any drama with the MP vs Anemone moving: http://www.aquacave.com/vortech-mp10-pump-foam-guard-three-pack.html

 

The only thing is; it's collecting a lot of the stuff floating in the tank and you also need to increase the MP 10 power to compensate for the flow loss with the guard on. But it brings some peace of mind

[A Little Blue]

Thanks for the link. That’s exactly what I had in mind. Price isn't bad either. True, they become a detritus traps if left unattended/replaced or cleaned for extended period of time. But that’s still better then mini, nuclear bomb after unintentional, suicidal blander experience. 

 

Yeah, I know,  tinny anemone isn’t much of use regarding symbiotic experience they might have with Clownfish. But since you already have one, you might as well give it a shot. You might learn to love it. Lol 

 

Keep us posted on the progress and tweaks to your system.  

 

Good stuff. ?

[Metatrone-oz]

Some updates as I'm hitting the 6 weeks mark.

 

My livestock has evolved a fair bit with the current list of fish:

- 2 Clowns

- 2 Bengalis

- 1 Coral Beauty

- 1 LT Wrasse

- 1 Assessor

- 1 Hog fish

- 1 Bi-colour Blenny

 

I had to remove the Dotty-back due to its aggressiveness, so I brought it back to my LFS for a new house.

I understand that it feels like a big bio-load for such small tank. After many discussion with the biologists from my LFS, we agreed that the fact those fishes are small size specimens and will be fine in term of space and cohabitation with one another. Also the incredible nutrient processing from the refugium allows the tank to have amazing numbers and a great chemistry balance of the water.

 

Last reading on my water testing without any water changes so far since filling the tank:

- Nitrate: 0

- Phosphate: 0

- KH: 10

- PH: 8.2

- Calcium: 440

- Magnesium: 1400

 

Those numbers have been consistent from the start and I'm amazed so far. I'm dosing the Aquaforest 1.2.3 component  + Coral Essentials Aminos+vitamins solution.

 

I've added more corals after finding a Fuego acropora and a yellow one called Pikachu :D.

So I'm working toward the structure I envision for the tank now with the coral placement.

Photo for illustrations (iphone, so not so great and showing the colours best) and a quick video:

 

 

 

[A Little Blue]

InkBird works great. 

Thank you for that recommendation. 

And your tank is getting busy quite fast. Lol

 

[Metatrone-oz]

5 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

InkBird works great. 

Thank you for that recommendation. 

And your tank is getting busy quite fast. Lol

 

Glad you like it. Easy to use and reliable.

What's the next thing for you?

[A Little Blue]

9 minutes ago, Metatrone-oz said:

Glad you like it. Easy to use and reliable.

What's the next thing for you?

I’m on a much slower path. I think it would freak me out to keep up with you. 

I am simply not that confident in what I created. At the moment, I added few easy SPS frags yo test the water and one larger Acro colony. They seem to be doing fine so far. Other than that ....... not much, some tweaking with flow and doser calibration. It was off by a lot. I guess it comes with the price. Got some RFG nozzles coming tomorrow that you might like. Nice, random flow and I am sure they make those for your tank as well. 

But your tank seems to have plenty of flow already so IDK....

As to your stocking well, I have faith that your algae reactor can easily handle it. 

[Metatrone-oz]

There is no good or bad way to approach the tank stocking. You are wise to go slow and go with what you're comfortable with :).

The Mp10 in my tank (reef crest setting 90% power) is doing a good job complementing the flow from the return pump. I'm monitoring if all the sps are getting a good amount wherever they are positioned in the tank while making sure it reaches the lower part and blowing the sand a bit. I have a bit of algae on the sand that I'm letting go away from the cuc eventually (I don't want to vacuum it just yet). I'm guessing it's to be expected in a young tank like mine.

 

How often do you test your water parameters?

[A Little Blue]

1 hour ago, Metatrone-oz said:

There is no good or bad way to approach the tank stocking. You are wise to go slow and go with what you're comfortable with :).

The Mp10 in my tank (reef crest setting 90% power) is doing a good job complementing the flow from the return pump. I'm monitoring if all the sps are getting a good amount wherever they are positioned in the tank while making sure it reaches the lower part and blowing the sand a bit. I have a bit of algae on the sand that I'm letting go away from the cuc eventually (I don't want to vacuum it just yet). I'm guessing it's to be expected in a young tank like mine.

 

How often do you test your water parameters?

Some algae on the the sandbed in a young tank is very common. 

Detritus settlement over sand is normal. 

And regardless how much you try, it can’t be avoided (that’s why I do bare bottom).  Your CUC shall clean most of it in no time, and your reactor should make it more difficult to thrive. 

Flow (IMO) is extremely important and often grossly underestimated. Huge part of healthy aquarium. And not just strength of the flow but coverage and randomness of directionality. You’re right to minimize dead zones if possible. 

I’m maxing out my return pump at mid-400gph + run my Aquamai KPS at 90% on various modes (idling after sunset in night mode) and mp10 (bottom) at %20 for detritus. All in all, a lot of flow but random flow patterns, strength at different times of the day. 

Ok, enough about that. Lol

 

I tested often at the beginning, after moving my tank. I got lucky. Went thru mini-cycle but that’s about it. Tank stabilized around Ca 420, KH 9.5-9.8, Mg 1360-1380 and salinity at 1.025-26. Then every other week without much change. With addition of more SPS/LPS I honestly don’t know. I’ll check tomorrow as I might start doing it a whole lot more often while dosing. I planned to start dosing over next weeken but it will start tonight, right after midnight. 

It is a 4 part “Triton” dosing which I am curious to explore. 

Are your water parameters stable? Did you have to make some dosing adjustments yet? 

 

[Metatrone-oz]

1 hour ago, A Little Blue said:

Some algae on the the sandbed in a young tank is very common. 

Detritus settlement over sand is normal. 

And regardless how much you try, it can’t be avoided (that’s why I do bare bottom).  Your CUC shall clean most of it in no time, and your reactor should make it more difficult to thrive. 

Flow (IMO) is extremely important and often grossly underestimated. Huge part of healthy aquarium. And not just strength of the flow but coverage and randomness of directionality. You’re right to minimize dead zones if possible. 

I’m maxing out my return pump at mid-400gph + run my Aquamai KPS at 90% on various modes (idling after sunset in night mode) and mp10 (bottom) at %20 for detritus. All in all, a lot of flow but random flow patterns, strength at different times of the day. 

Ok, enough about that. Lol

 

I tested often at the beginning, after moving my tank. I got lucky. Went thru mini-cycle but that’s about it. Tank stabilized around Ca 420, KH 9.5-9.8, Mg 1360-1380 and salinity at 1.025-26. Then every other week without much change. With addition of more SPS/LPS I honestly don’t know. I’ll check tomorrow as I might start doing it a whole lot more often while dosing. I planned to start dosing over next weeken but it will start tonight, right after midnight. 

It is a 4 part “Triton” dosing which I am curious to explore. 

Are your water parameters stable? Did you have to make some dosing adjustments yet? 

 

So far with any water change since getting the new tank wet, my parameters have been stable and even improved since I started dosing the Aquaforest 1.2.3 components 3 weeks ago. It seems to be very much stable and I do full testing at my LFS once a week. I'll keep monitoring closely the different levels to see if I need to adjust any part of the dosing.

I have the glass of the tank getting covered with a brown film everyday that would indicate a slight overdosing of my aminos. I might revise this if it doesn't improve with the addition of the new corals. 

 

Do you do the water testing yourself or you're using your LFS?

[A Little Blue]

2 minutes ago, Metatrone-oz said:

So far with any water change since getting the new tank wet, my parameters have been stable and even improved since I started dosing the Aquaforest 1.2.3 components 3 weeks ago. It seems to be very much stable and I do full testing at my LFS once a week. I'll keep monitoring closely the different levels to see if I need to adjust any part of the dosing.

I have the glass of the tank getting covered with a brown film everyday that would indicate a slight overdosing of my aminos. I might revise this if it doesn't improve with the addition of the new corals. 

 

Do you do the water testing yourself or you're using your LFS?

I test water myself. Using Red Sea Pro (very easy and affordable). I also have Hanna test kits but those are pain in the neck and regents are pricey. Ca, KH and Mg kit from Red Sea costs like $50 and is well worth it. IMHO 

Well, you added several fish in short period of time. Perhaps your bacteria is trying to catch up with extra bioload.....  I do aminos as well. But at very moderate levels. At least your system is not sterile. 

My fish get fed twice a day on most days and corals twice a week. Strangely, I haven’t clean my glass in over a month and I haven’t got an algae in my display since I have set this up. My CUC is starving for sure. 

 

 

[Metatrone-oz]

18 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

I test water myself. Using Red Sea Pro (very easy and affordable). I also have Hanna test kits but those are pain in the neck and regents are pricey. Ca, KH and Mg kit from Red Sea costs like $50 and is well worth it. IMHO 

Well, you added several fish in short period of time. Perhaps your bacteria is trying to catch up with extra bioload.....  I do aminos as well. But at very moderate levels. At least your system is not sterile. 

My fish get fed twice a day on most days and corals twice a week. Strangely, I haven’t clean my glass in over a month and I haven’t got an algae in my display since I have set this up. My CUC is starving for sure. 

 

 

I think you have a much better pricing than we have here in Australia for any products... everything is ridiculously expensive here. My LFS is really kind and charges me only for the Hannah regent and Magnesium test ($2 + $2) so it's still better value with them. Also I trust the quality of their tests much more than my own when I used to do it.

It's interesting that you're feeding more often than I do and get less issues with the glass being dirty. I feed once a day a mix of pellets and frozen mysis. I'm supposed to over feed the tank to raise the nutrient levels, but it still feels wrong to me.

What do you have as a CUC? I have 2 hermits, 2 nassarius snails, 1 astraea and 2 turbos... and yet that glass and sand are dirty :D.

[A Little Blue]

2 hours ago, Metatrone-oz said:

I think you have a much better pricing than we have here in Australia for any products... everything is ridiculously expensive here. My LFS is really kind and charges me only for the Hannah regent and Magnesium test ($2 + $2) so it's still better value with them. Also I trust the quality of their tests much more than my own when I used to do it.

It's interesting that you're feeding more often than I do and get less issues with the glass being dirty. I feed once a day a mix of pellets and frozen mysis. I'm supposed to over feed the tank to raise the nutrient levels, but it still feels wrong to me.

What do you have as a CUC? I have 2 hermits, 2 nassarius snails, 1 astraea and 2 turbos... and yet that glass and sand are dirty :D.

Not a bad deal from your LFS on the tests. Still, Red Sea is super easy and comes with bunch of regents. But I can’t make you do it. Lol

Tested my parameters. I had a little issue with the doser at first. Remember when I said that I need to recalibrate it? Exactly, it dumped unequal doses which caused some imbalance (all good now). 

KH 11.2, Mg 1340 and Ca 430.

I feed my fish Coral Frenzy 0.5mm pellets and my corals also with Coral Frenzy (reg.). 

My CUC is a lot smaller then what it used to be. I had 4-5 Emeralds but moved them to the fuge (quarantine tank), same with reg. Hermits and my giant Turbo. All I have at the moment is 3 Halloween crabs, couple blue leg crabs, handful of Astraea, few smaller Turbos. Sexy shrimp and Skunk shrimp aren’t really part of the CUC but they do their part. I blow detritus off the rocks with oversized syringe twice a week & do 3gal water change every week and a half and that’s it. 

 

[Underwaterconnection]

On 3/20/2018 at 8:54 PM, Metatrone-oz said:

I'm starting a new thread as I'm in the process to upgrade my Fluval Edge 12G (with MarinePac 30 to a Red Sea Max Nano).

 

I've set up the new tank with:

- Standard equipment that comes with it

- Mp 10

- 150W heater

- Tunze Osmolator nano ato (instead of the supplied one)

- Dry rock

- Fiji Pink live sand

- 15 Marine pure balls at the bottom of the sump.

 

I'm doing the Doctor Tim One and Only cycling process with ammonia dosing (3 days in)

I'm not transferring water or rock from my old tank as I don't want to bring any bad stuff over.

 

The return pump is quite silent so far (despite the bad reputation of it), I'm just wondering if there is an option to change the power of it or if it's one speed only.

The skimmer is quite loud at the moment, so I'm going to see if it gets better after the breaking phase.

 

This tank will have a mix LPS at the bottom from my previous tank, and SPS at the top.

The AI prime HD is currently set up with the Dans Reef Respiration V3 SPS cycle

 

I'm doing some research about the benefit of getting a cheato reactor down the track.

Could u post your .aip please.

[Metatrone-oz]

7 minutes ago, Underwaterconnection said:

Could u post your .aip please.

I'm running this set up now: 

 

.aip here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jJ_8_xGtIO0PGHVmsZ1MBTLasG6AyczI/view?usp=sharing

[Underwaterconnection]

Thank you. Beautiful tank btw.

[Metatrone-oz]

Short update on this build.

I've ended up replacing the RDSM skimmer with the Tunze DC9001 after getting so annoyed with the noise of the stock skimmer. Great investment so far as it's quiet and the tank in my bedroom is almost silent now.

I've been battling with a few chemistry issues with mt water chemistry with Calcium spikes (likely due to the residue at the bottom of my calcium dosing bottle). so I had to do my first water change (40%) a couple of weeks ago first the first time since the tank has been wet.

With those issues, i had all my chaeto dying so I had to empty and clean the reactor ans start fresh with new chaeto again.

I've had issues keeping monti frags at this stage and a couple of sps weren't doing great.

I've added a couple more pieces.

Pics for update:

[Jeff Hood]

Very nice @Metatrone-oz.  I used your algae reactor idea to build my own.  My Red Sea Max nano is still cycling so no real life as of yet.  I’ve never had an all in one tank so still getting use to the compact equipment with no real sump.  The skimmer is a little tricky so far.  Lots of micro bubbles.  Hoping this gets better as the water ages and cycles. 

     Enjoying following your build. 

[Metatrone-oz]

10 hours ago, Jeff Hood said:

Very nice @Metatrone-oz.  I used your algae reactor idea to build my own.  My Red Sea Max nano is still cycling so no real life as of yet.  I’ve never had an all in one tank so still getting use to the compact equipment with no real sump.  The skimmer is a little tricky so far.  Lots of micro bubbles.  Hoping this gets better as the water ages and cycles. 

     Enjoying following your build. 

Thank you Jeff.

If you can't get a satisfactory result with the stock skimmer, the Tunze DC9001 is a great replacement. It's a lot quieter and smaller. I'm just assessing the effectiveness of it still.

Feel free to ask any question if it helps you with you build 🙂

[Reefscape]

@Metatrone-ozAny updates on the tank? Love your setup!

[7TCHEVE]

On 4/2/2018 at 8:28 PM, Metatrone-oz said:

I've transferred my corals over from my old tank and add a few fish from someone's else shutdown tank:

- 2 clowns

- 1 bi colour blenny

- 1 false royal gramma

 

I've also added a few sps frags (birsdnest, batavia and a strawberry shortcake one) to see how they do so far in the freshly cycled tank (so far so good, with a nice polyp extension).

 

I've almost completed the build of my chaeto reactor and i will hopefully post some details of the build. I went for a large reactor (5litre Octopuss BR140). Sorted all the plumbing and have it running without the led or chaeto on it (waiting for the led delivery). This reactor is huge for the size of the tank and I'm excited to see the output of it.

 

Thank you for the tips for the skimmer, I'll surely try those as it's still quite loud right now. Although, the return pump for the reactor is close to it now, so I hope it doesn't interfere with the skimmer pump too much.

 

A few pics for the update:

 

Love your setup!  My Red Sea Max Nano arrives Wed.  Can't wait.  I like your rock, a lot.  Where did you purchase? 

[Metatrone-oz]

On 1/22/2019 at 10:36 AM, 7TCHEVE said:

Love your setup!  My Red Sea Max Nano arrives Wed.  Can't wait.  I like your rock, a lot.  Where did you purchase? 

Thank you. I've built my rock structure using rocks and epoxy glue. 

[Metatrone-oz]

Quick update on the tank.

I haven't been able to work much on it. Lost a couple of SPS corals so I changed a couple of things in term of placement, MP10 set up and changed my lighting schedule using the latest Saxby preset.

I've been dealing with a few dosing problem with my KH spiking, so I'm getting it all under control now. 

I've changed and added a new main piece of coral at top with a full Millepora colony (came with a hosting goby and a couple of coral crabs also).

 

A few pics: