BaristaBob's Mini M | Acropora photos

[BaristaBob]

(8/6/2018)

IMG_0513 by Barista Bob, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

Hey guys,

I have been running this tank for about a month, and thought I would start a journal to document all the changes. I'll get some better pictures soon, my coworker is letting my borrow one of those new mirrorless sony dslr's.

 

Equipment:

ADA Mini M (5.5 US gallons)

Nanobox Tide

Koralia Nano 240

Aquaclear 20

Pico Systems Aquaclear overflow box

25w Neotherm

 

 

 

[1967type1]

I like the over hang!

[BaristaBob]

27 minutes ago, 1967type1 said:

I like the over hang!

Thanks man! Thinking about moving it more to the left and putting an island underneath it. Or I might make another overhang to cove the overflow box. Decisions, Decisions ?‍♂️ 

[1967type1]

26 minutes ago, BaristaBob said:

Thanks man! Thinking about moving it more to the left and putting an island underneath it. Or I might make another overhang to cove the overflow box. Decisions, Decisions ?‍♂️ 

I like the little island rock. Still keeps the scape open but more places to put coral.

[banasophia]

Yes, I love that rock with the overhang! And you can always add an island or put things on the sandbed, depending on the corals you acquire.

 

You may have already tried this, or maybe it won’t work with your return flow, but what about putting your Koralia over on the right, so it blends in with the overflow box, or positioned behind your rock, to open up the space on the left a little more for your corals? 

[Lula_Mae]

That overhang is awesome!  And 5.5's are the best.

[BaristaBob]

16 hours ago, banasophia said:

Yes, I love that rock with the overhang! And you can always add an island or put things on the sandbed, depending on the corals you acquire.

 

You may have already tried this, or maybe it won’t work with your return flow, but what about putting your Koralia over on the right, so it blends in with the overflow box, or positioned behind your rock, to open up the space on the left a little more for your corals? 

The koralia is temporary for right now, thinking about a mp10. Unfortunately, the heater is behind the overflow box, so I can't but it behind there. Maybe I'll throw it in front of the overflow box if it will fit.

 

I'm also toying with the idea of building a 20L sump with a refugium to hold a mantis shrimp. I'm not a big fan of all the equipment showing in the tank. I was originally going to do that, but a friend swayed me otherwise. I really don't want to risk an overflow with one of those boxes, seeing as i can't drill the tank (its 5mm thick), but the stability is a big plus factor. ALSO I WANT A MANTIS SHRIMP. No really, I kept a couple in the past, but they died pretty quick. Thinking it may have been due to dry rock leaking too many phosphates into the water.

 

I know it may be overkill, but having that sump would allow me to hid all equipment besides the overflow box and return output. If anyone has a really detailed guide to sumps that would be awesome because I have no idea where to start. 

[BaristaBob]

image by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Got a joe the coral today! Tip is a little bleached, hopefully I can bring this sucker back. Polyp extension looks nice though.

[BaristaBob]

Thinking about adding a fish as of late. I am thinking about a tracey damsel, seeing as they stay pretty small. I really wanted a clown goby, but I am adding a bunch more sps pretty soon, and I don't want to risk the small sps colonies to get stressed out. Do you guys think a damsel is pushing it? It would be the only fish in the tank. If not, maybe a mantis. (g wennerae). I just don't want the tank or my fingers to get smashed lol.

[BaristaBob]

Got a green slimer, and green goblin today!

image by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

image by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

[Kdrof]

Bob,

First - Your tank is looking good. I really like your scape. Keeping the scape as is would look fine or adding a small little island off to the side could look good as well.

 

Regarding the sump.. I have had several sumps. My last sump was a pre-made acrylic sump by eshoppes which had all compartments/chambers in place and made it very easy. I also had a glass-holes overflow but had to drill the tank and use their kit with their bulkheads, overflow and miscellaneous parts included. I am not a pro at drilling tanks and had my LFS give me a hand with it as they commonly drill tanks for their store. They drilled the hole for the overflow and a return nozzle on the other side.

 

You can also check out or see if you can find some of the Red Sea sumps from other complete tank setups. Most of those tanks include sumps and they are normally nicely sized and pretty functional. Someone may be upgrading or selling those. You can also build your own, with a cheap tank and add acrylic and tank glue to build the chambers, but that takes a decent amount of planning, etc.. I normally have an initial chamber for the inlet with a filter sock and some filtration (skimmer, reactors etc.). Then you can throw in a refugium if wanted and potentially place your shrimp in there? Then lastly an area for your heater, ATO, probes and return pumps. A lot of times the first chamber baffle will be all the way down so water flows over into the next section, then through another baffle that is off the sump bottom to allow for the removal of micro bubbles.

 

Obviously, this is a pretty large topic that is done many different ways. I am sorry, I do not have any links with a ton of info on sumps and maybe others can chime in. For the most part, I learned through watching videos and reading builds to see what is common and what function I wanted. I recommend looking at pre-made sumps and some of the included sumps in some of red sea tanks or elos tanks to get some good ideas and start to plan accordingly. If you cannot drill your tank, my first tank many many many years ago had a siphon based overflow but I did not really trust it and was slightly sketchy and a pain to start the flow after maintenance.

 

Anyhow - I will look around for some info for you, trying to just give you some info from my personal experience.

[BaristaBob]

 

23 hours ago, Kdrof said:

Bob,

First - Your tank is looking good. I really like your scape. Keeping the scape as is would look fine or adding a small little island off to the side could look good as well.

 

Regarding the sump.. I have had several sumps. My last sump was a pre-made acrylic sump by eshoppes which had all compartments/chambers in place and made it very easy. I also had a glass-holes overflow but had to drill the tank and use their kit with their bulkheads, overflow and miscellaneous parts included. I am not a pro at drilling tanks and had my LFS give me a hand with it as they commonly drill tanks for their store. They drilled the hole for the overflow and a return nozzle on the other side.

 

You can also check out or see if you can find some of the Red Sea sumps from other complete tank setups. Most of those tanks include sumps and they are normally nicely sized and pretty functional. Someone may be upgrading or selling those. You can also build your own, with a cheap tank and add acrylic and tank glue to build the chambers, but that takes a decent amount of planning, etc.. I normally have an initial chamber for the inlet with a filter sock and some filtration (skimmer, reactors etc.). Then you can throw in a refugium if wanted and potentially place your shrimp in there? Then lastly an area for your heater, ATO, probes and return pumps. A lot of times the first chamber baffle will be all the way down so water flows over into the next section, then through another baffle that is off the sump bottom to allow for the removal of micro bubbles.

 

Obviously, this is a pretty large topic that is done many different ways. I am sorry, I do not have any links with a ton of info on sumps and maybe others can chime in. For the most part, I learned through watching videos and reading builds to see what is common and what function I wanted. I recommend looking at pre-made sumps and some of the included sumps in some of red sea tanks or elos tanks to get some good ideas and start to plan accordingly. If you cannot drill your tank, my first tank many many many years ago had a siphon based overflow but I did not really trust it and was slightly sketchy and a pain to start the flow after maintenance.

 

Anyhow - I will look around for some info for you, trying to just give you some info from my personal experience.

Thanks for the help! I think I am going to upgrade to the red sea nano in a few months. I'm gonna put the sump idea on the back burner for now.

 

Anyways, I did a 30% waterchange today, and added a half inch springeri damsel. It seriously looks like a bug in my tank hahahha. It's nice that he also eats flatworms in case my dip doesn't get rid of them. I also got a green capricornis with blue polyps. Took him off the plug and put hit on the overhang.

 

Polyp extension is looking great with all the sps. I'm just afraid of adding random frags at this point because of virus's. Im thinking about setting up a tiny qt tank. Like 1 gallon with a par30 over it, just so I can observe before they go into the main tank.

 

The hammer is also sprouting some new hammer tentacles. It's getting nice and plump.

 

I'm headed back to the fish store tomorrow to grab a smart ato, and some more tests. I still have plenty left, but they are over three years old at this point, so I don't know how accurate they are.

[BaristaBob]

Update!

I've done alot with the tank in the past 7 days.

Things added:

Smart ATO

Reef Roids

4 new sps frags

Another Koralia nano 240

Things gone:

My poor damsel jumped the first night I got it.

Decided I am done with fish, as I am not putting a lid on.

 

So I have decided that two 1g water changes a week is my schedule. On saturdays, I scrape glass, clean sandbed, and turkey baste the rocks. I got a smart wave controller for the Koralia's, but the clicking noise is no bueno. Gonna grab an mp10 pretty soon.

 

Corals are looking great. One of the sps frags I got had some RTN, but looks like it could bounce back.

 

My boss let me borrow his sony 6000, so I got some good pictures.

 

Picture dump time:

 

FTS (6/7/18)

DSC03113 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Joe the Coral

DSC03117 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

I love seeing the blue tips.

 

Green Slimer

DSC03123 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Banana Acro

DSC03119 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Gauntlet Acro

DSC03118 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Brown monti with blue polyps, and Mardi gras monti

DSC03115 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Green Goblin

DSC03116 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

Hammer

DSC03120 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

WOW this has grown so much.

 

Another fts (closer)

DSC03114 by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

 

[Kdrof]

Lookin good Bob. The Smart ATO is awesome isnt it? I had got mine and absolutely love its size. Your tank will look awesome when it fills in!

[Lula_Mae]

 Sorry about the fish.  If you'd like some movement, look into an anemone shrimp like the Pederson's. Mine is one of my favorite reef critters ever. My husband calls him "Superman shrimp" because of the way he'll go sailing across the tank, arms outstretched, just like Superman when he flies.   He was in my 5.5 I just took down for almost a year, though sadly they aren't known to live much longer than that. 

[Utahpico]

Looks good! I just setup the same tank last night, mixed reef. I want to add more sps like you now. 

[BaristaBob]

18 hours ago, Utahpico said:

Looks good! I just setup the same tank last night, mixed reef. I want to add more sps like you now. 

Awesome man! We should have a grow out contest 😋 Did you start a journal?

[BaristaBob]

On 6/9/2018 at 3:30 AM, Lula_Mae said:

 Sorry about the fish.  If you'd like some movement, look into an anemone shrimp like the Pederson's. Mine is one of my favorite reef critters ever. My husband calls him "Superman shrimp" because of the way he'll go sailing across the tank, arms outstretched, just like Superman when he flies.   He was in my 5.5 I just took down for almost a year, though sadly they aren't known to live much longer than that. 

That's a great idea! I'm thinking about sexy shrimp, but I will have to order them from my lfs. I'm going today to pickup some salt water (I just don't want to make it right now 😅)

 

If I see a Peterson's though, I will definitely pick it up.

[BaristaBob]

On 6/8/2018 at 6:06 PM, Kdrof said:

Lookin good Bob. The Smart ATO is awesome isnt it? I had got mine and absolutely love its size. Your tank will look awesome when it fills in!

The smart ATO makes life soooo much easier. I don't have to worry about evap when I'm at work now. Its was a solid investment.

 

I can't wait for the tank to fill in. I'm gonna get a couple more sps to put on the back part of the overhang. And maybe another monti to put on the base. Watching the joe grow is super freaking satisfying. 

 

[BaristaBob]

OMG!

 

So I decided to take the sandbed out because I thought it was leaking nutrients into the water. I took the main rock out and put it in a bucket of saltwater with a power head, and started to take the sand out.

 

With my first scoop, I PULLED OUT A RUSTY GOD DAMN NAIL. I have no idea how it got in there. I sifted the sand before I put it in, and even sifted it before I filled my tank up.

 

I think it may have been my neices, as they are very young, and love to throw seashells in my tank. No longer are they allowed to be near my tank without someone watching.

 

As I pulled the main rock out of the bucket, the putty broke. FML so my main rock is now in 2 pieces, so I decided to make a new aquascape.

 

I am really loving this barebottom look, plus it will be way easier to clean. 

 

Maybe my damsel jumped out because the copper was too high? Who even tests for copper? I am surprised my acro's didn't die from the copper intoxication. Anyways, it looks sooo much better. Very happy with the outcome.

 

image by Bob Scholz, on Flickr

[Lula_Mae]

8 hours ago, BaristaBob said:

That's a great idea! I'm thinking about sexy shrimp, but I will have to order them from my lfs. I'm going today to pickup some salt water (I just don't want to make it right now 😅)

 

If I see a Peterson's though, I will definitely pick it up.

Keep an eye on the sexies as they've been known to nibble on polyps, especially zoas.  Glad you found that nail before it caused major issues!

[el_ote]

Was it a copper nail? I've read many posts about rusting items in the tank and people say that it's basically just free gfo so I assumed it not to be too big an issue. I don't claim to know the science, but I think you may be ok. Tanks looking real good!

[BaristaBob]

20 hours ago, el_ote said:

Was it a copper nail? I've read many posts about rusting items in the tank and people say that it's basically just free gfo so I assumed it not to be too big an issue. I don't claim to know the science, but I think you may be ok. Tanks looking real good!

Honestly, I'm not sure.  Corals are looking fine now, actually better polyp extension then I have seen in a while, and I'm sure it will only get better!

[BaristaBob]

So the GG died of rtn. I was kind of expecting it to.

 

What do you guys think of taking the HOB off? I'm really not a fan of the aesthetic. Maybe just run it when phosphates are high? There is no bioload except for 2 snails.

[BaristaBob]

Idea for filtration:

 

I am looking at all these "dirty sps aquariums". Specifically constant low nutrients, not extremely clean water.

 

1.  Take HOB off

2. Run MP10 @ 600 gph reef crest for 2 days

3.  Attatch HOB run carbon & filterfloss to pick up all detrius for 1 day

4. Repeat

 

Also using triton method and dosing everyday, eventually getting an autodose.

 

I think it will work well, but maybe can get some constructive thoughts to it