Piece of Paradise

[jparadise]

Hello Everyone,

 

Background:

I have kept multiple tanks over the years.  Started small and worked up to a 300 gallon FOWLR tank that was recently torn down due to selling my house.  For the time being, I am renting a small town house until we build a new house.  The wife said I could have a small tank....Game On.  I've always kept FOWLR tanks and have been really wanting to set up Reef Tank.  I have a feeling I will have a bunch of questions pertaining to reef keeping.  Now on to the good stuff.  Delivery is scheduled for today or tomorrow .  Plan is to get everything set up over the weekend.

 

 

Tank: IM Nuvo Fusion 10

Lighting: Ecotech Radion XR15w G4

Mount: RMS Single Radion Tank Mount

Circulation: Vortech MP10wQD; Innovative Marine Spin stream Nozzle

Auto Top Off: Tunze Osmolator Nano

Heater: Jager TruTemp 50w heater

Sand: 8-10 lbs Hawaiian Black Sand

Rock: 10-12 lbs Live Rock

 

Other Goodies 

 

Reeflink WiFi Controller

Vortech Battery Backup

IM Custom Caddy for Chemi Pure, Filter FLoss and Purigen

 

 

Future inhabitants

 

Mated pair of Black ICE Clownfish

Red Banded Pistol Shrimp

Hi FIn Red Banded Goby

Cleanup crew (snails and crabs)

 

Corals:

Mixture of SPS along the top rock work

MIxture of LPS through the middle

Mixture of Soft Corals, mushrooms and Zoas along the bottom.

 

 

Day 1 9/01/18

 

[specore]

Sounds awesome.  Look forward to seeing it progress. 

[Daniel91]

Cool! Looking forward to it.

[jparadise]

Does anyone use RO water from grocery stores.  I had a 150 gpd RODI system I sold with my 300 gallon tank.  I dont really want to purchase one for this small of a tank unless you guys think it would be best.  I've read mixed reviews 

[Nano Nano Boo Boo]

Some used distilled from store. I’ve seem such a big difference since getting my own. Check the forums, I got a nice one for $90. 

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome to the community @jparadise! 👋

 

Lots of people use RO water dispensers from grocery stores with success, but the mixed reviews are true. Most filtered water dispensers keep up with their maintenance to keep the TDS levels close to zero, but not all. A TDS meter might be worth investing in, or perhaps you could take a jug of water to an LFS and borrow theirs for a moment to verify?

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Can't wait to see it progress 

[specore]

20 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome to the community @jparadise! 👋

 

Lots of people use RO water dispensers from grocery stores with success, but the mixed reviews are true. Most filtered water dispensers keep up with their maintenance to keep the TDS levels close to zero, but not all. A TDS meter might be worth investing in, or perhaps you could take a jug of water to an LFS and borrow theirs for a moment to verify?

I agree on the TDS meter.  I will never trust anyone's RO water after a bad LFS experience.  I personally think a small RO/DI unit is a great investment even for a small tank.  All those trip lugging water to and from add up in both time and money. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

+1 to what specore said. I went with the ro buddy for water. I like it works good. It was inexpensive also and the replacement cartridges aren't all that expensive either.

[jparadise]

Everything was delivered today. Can’t wait to get this tank cycling. I’m hoping to have it up and running this weekend. The wife wants to get a new piece of furniture for this tank to sit on. Hopefully we can find some good deals tomorrow for Labor Day. 

[jparadise]

The wife loves hawaii. I went with 10lbs of Hawaiian Black Sand. Probably won’t need all of it. I want to keep a shallow sand bed in this tank. Also have 10lbs of AquaMaxx Eco Rock for the aquascape. The wife loves arches but I see that might be difficult in a tank this size. 

[Joevember]

I like the look of black sand beds.

Very aesthetic 👌👌

[jparadise]

Today was a long day. The wife finally found a rustic piece of furniture to place the tank on. After a few hours of setting everything up, the tank is running. 

 

Day 1 is in the books. 

 

After placing the sand bed and aquascape, the tank held 6.5 gallons of water. 

[jparadise]

Nothing excited going on since the tank is cycling. I did get a chance to clean up the equipment area. 

 

My my son really likes this tank since it is small and at his eye level. He has been checking it daily dosing micobacter and cleaning the glass for me.  

 

[jparadise]

I'm looking for suggestions for an ATO reservoir.  It needs to be able to fit into the area where you see the 1 gallon jugs.  What do you yall use with smaller tanks.  I've looked at 1 gallon wide mouth jugs, dosing reservoirs, just plain old storage container.    

[jparadise]

Week 1 test results

 

[jparadise]

Week 2 Test results. 

 

Im still dosing MicroBacter daily and running Poly filter. Ammonia and nitrite look ok.  Do you think it is ok to add fish next week. I plan to do a 50% water change at the end of the week and get our first fish next weekend if parameters look ok. 

[MrObscura]

For ato reservoir I use a 1 gallon bpa free food container from Walmart. Fits in my storage container and doesn't leach anything. 

 

If you ever decide to go with a different ato unit, or have issues with float switches. I highly recommend the ice cap ato. It's a dual optical unit with both overfill and dry alarms. And for 20 bucks more than float switch units it's a hell of a deal. 

 

Also, don't use plain ro water. Use distilled if need be. I know Walmarts reads 0 tds. I haven't used it but tested it just for future reference if I need water in a pinch. And as mentioned get a tds meter. Saved me from dumping 100tds water into my tank. 

[jparadise]

Thanks.

 

I went on a little spending spree and purchased a TDS Meter, RODI And misc. Supplies the other day.  Should be in sometime this week.

[MrObscura]

I've been using lfs rodi but will likely get an rodi unit soon. Between paying for water and the gas used to drive to the lfs they pay for themselves sooner rather than later. 

 

Speaking of miscellaneous supplies. For testing equipment, ATI is fine for basic ammonia , nitrite, nitrate but not for other tests. I have the red sea reef kit. And while it's fine for cal and mag which really just need to be in an ideal range it's far too hard to read and get consistent readings for alk, at least for me,  which is the single most important test. So, I reccomened the Hannah digital checker for alk. They are pricy though. That's why I'll use Hannah jusfor Alk. 

 

Oh and check out the ice so digital salinity reader. It's convenient as hell. 

 

As for adding fish. Well, I wouldnt use the microbacter.im not too familiar with it but I'm not a fan of any bacteria additive that involves regular dosing after the rank is established. It usually means they use a short lived bacteria strain that needs to be constantly reestablished. It's also for fresh and saltwater and marine bacteria are not the same species as fresh. Personally, I'd stop using it, dose pure anmonia and let the tank cycle naturally. You could add Dr Tim's bacteria, or a little live rock if you want, to speed it up. Eitherway the time to add fish is when ammonia and Nitrite read zero 24 hours after dosing 2ppm of ammonia. Then do waterchanges to get Nitrate under 5 and add fish. Fish are fine with a higher Nitrate level, but since you're planning a reef you might as well get them in check from the beginning.