curryfire Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 Hello All, This is my Journal on my new Fusion 30L build. I've had this tank for a few years and am now in the process of getting it setup again. I had lurked around the site for a few years and jumped into the hobby in 2016. I had the tank running for almost a year when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston and our house got flooded (10"). The tank crashed and I lost some of my equipment. At that point, I only had a few softies in the tank as well as 2 clowns, 1 wrasse, and a gramma. Just as my house rebuild was done, I got a new opportunity through work and moved to Lousisana. Now that we've settled into the house, I'm ready to get the tank up and running again. Last time I ran the tank, I was very new to the hobby and just "winging it". This time, I'm gonna try to be more paitent and systematic to my approach (gonna be hard to not make impulse purchases at LFS). Equipment Tank: Fusion 30L Protien Skimmer: Reef Octopus BH50 GFO Reactor: Reef Octopus OCT-MF300B Carbon Reactor: Innovative Marine MiniMax Pro Midsize Heater: Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm 150 Return Pump: Mighty Jet DC 538 GPH Powerhead: ECOTech MP10 Wireless ATO: Neptune Systems ATK Automatic Top Off ATO Kit Controller: Neptune Systems APEX Fusion with WXM Module fo Ecotech Marine Lights: (2) Nanbox Reef Duo Plus M Refugium Light: JBJ Nano-Glow 4-LED Filter Baskets: Custom Caddy Midsize Nozzles: (2) Spin Streams RO/DI: BRS 75GPD 4 Stage I cleaned and leak tested the tank last weekend. I also re-cleaned all the equipment i was able to salvage post-Hurricane. I setup all the equipment last night, added my soaked BRS dry pukani rock and Caribsea Dry Aragonite. I'm using filter floss on top of my filter baskets and one will be setup as a refugium. The Carbon, GFO, and Skimmer are all filled but off. Now that the tank is filled, I'm waiting on my order from Algae Barn so that I can get my cycle going. I attached a quick pic from my iphone. It was late at ngiht and I was bone tired. I'll take some more pics soon. Thanks, Curryfire 1 Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted November 6, 2018 Author Share Posted November 6, 2018 I'm waiting on my holder to come in before I attached the PH, ORP, Temp, and Sailinity probes. -Curryfire Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted November 10, 2018 Author Share Posted November 10, 2018 Hello All, Some updates and Pictures.... i added 2oz of Fritz Aquatics Turbo Start and 5 marinepure blocks (bottom of filter Baskets) last Thursday. I used 2tsp of crushed fish pellets for food. I did water testing last night and found my ammonia levels near zero and my nitrates and nitrites spiking. I should get the pods, phyto, and chaeto shipment from algae barn later this week. Plan is to keep adding phyto and fishfood for two more weeks before doing a water change in prep for adding CUC. I will start adding livestock and Corals very slowly over a couple of months after that. I’m running my lights on a 5 hour cycle for now. I will probably increase that slowly to 9 hours once the pods have been added, as well as start the refugium light on its night schedule. I started my Carbon filter to help clear out the water. The GFO filter and skimmer are still off for now. I’m still evaluating the rockscaping at this point. -Curryfire 1 Quote Link to comment
Egalindo2240 Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 I also just started up a 30l fusion. I love this tank . Thanks for posting . This gives me some great ideas for equipment ! Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted November 11, 2018 Author Share Posted November 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Egalindo2240 said: I also just started up a 30l fusion. I love this tank . Thanks for posting . This gives me some great ideas for equipment ! No Prob. My only suggestion would be to get a smaller skimmer. The one I have is very snug. I can’t use the bracket that it comes with and have it sitting on a cut cube of marinepure. It makes for a tight fit for tubing to get to both return outlets. -Curryfire 1 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted November 11, 2018 Share Posted November 11, 2018 Woohoo one more 30L! Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 3, 2018 Author Share Posted December 3, 2018 Hey All, Quick Update. I added the Fritz Turbo Start 3 weeks back and the chaeto and pods a week later. My Chaeto turned into mush within two weeks and I didn’t see any pods at all. I thought it was all for not. I broke down and replaced my reef octopus skimmer with a cad lights pls-50 because I hated the way the old one fit. It got here just in time for a huge diatom outbreak. After turning on the skimmer and GFO, it all cleared out in 3 days. Today when I got home, I saw tons of Pods crawling all over the glass on the algae that started growing. My parameters show that the tank is now cycled. I’ll do a 30% water change later this week and then it’s time to start stocking. I’m gonna start with a CUC of 5 Trochus and 5 Nassarius snails. I’ll look to add fish a week after while doing a 20% water change every two weeks. I’ll also order some more chaeto and hope it doesn’t die this time. Any one have any thoughts on why that happened? attached pics: new skimmer (works like a champ) pods (white specs, IPhone photo) -Curryfire Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 8, 2018 Author Share Posted December 8, 2018 Hello All, I finally got corals, CUC, and fish in the tank. My hair algae problem is also going away. The snails have been working at it, which was a surprise for me as I did know they did that. I’ll keep the corals on the plugs for a while till I decide on a final place for them. -Curryfire 3 Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 Hey All, im running into a issue that I’m working through. A few days after I added all the live stock, my water started to get very cloudy. I figured that it was just a algae or bacteria bloom, so I changed out my GFO and reduced my light cycle and planned on riding it out. The next day, it got really bad and the fish were hanging out at the top and gasping for air. I raised the return jets on the tank to start aerating the water. The fish are doing way better after a two days and back to normal activity. The cloudiness is not going away. I got a IM AquaClear UV sterilizer that I installed today. I hope this works.... Attached are some pics from today. -Curryfire 1 Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 Hey, UV Sterilizer has been very effective. After 12 hrs of running, I’m at almost back to normal water clarity. -Curryfire 3 Quote Link to comment
Tuan’s Reef Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 Nice tank. The IM drop-in UV works great! Been using it on mine for about 1 week. I’m wondering how long I should keep it running though Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 24 minutes ago, Tuan’s Reef said: Nice tank. The IM drop-in UV works great! Been using it on mine for about 1 week. I’m wondering how long I should keep it running though I’ve been wondering the same thing. I think I will run it 24/7 for at least a week. After that, I think I’ll time it to my refugium light and run it 12 hrs/day at night. -Curryfire Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 Have a 30l as well...fun little tank. Your set up is looking good so far. In regards to chaeto, your tank may be too clean right now and it's dying off...or it's not getting enough light. Any plans to add another power head to the left side? I'm running two mp10s on mine and it works pretty well. I do have majority SPS though. Quote Link to comment
specore Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 Seems to be a lot going on for such a young tank. Skimmer, GFO, UV, and chaeto is a lot of filtration for a brand new tank with liuttle to no bioload. I would guess the skimmer and GFO contributed to the demise of you chaeto. Also the cloudiness is usually a bacteria bloom which is pretty common for new tanks and would have cleared up in short order with or without the UV. Love the stand and the scape btw 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 36 minutes ago, DreC80 said: Have a 30l as well...fun little tank. Your set up is looking good so far. In regards to chaeto, your tank may be too clean right now and it's dying off...or it's not getting enough light. Any plans to add another power head to the left side? I'm running two mp10s on mine and it works pretty well. I do have majority SPS though. That’s what I was thing as well, gonna wait a while to add chaeto. No plans right now for another power head, usually run mine at 50% on reef crest mode. What was your thinking on having two? I felt that the thank was too small to have two. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 I used two because I happened to have them laying around from other tanks. I guess it all depends on what you plan on keeping and future growth potentially slowing down flow. I have a bb tank and run each pump at 50% on reefcrest. So far the results have been pretty good. My left side pump is closer to the back wall and right side is closer to the front glass. Here's a fts for reference. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
specore Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 I run two as well. Think they have a tough time pushing flow all the way across the 36 inch tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 Thanks for the feedback. I think I will need to re-evaluate as the tank starts to fill out. I could see where I need two once that happens. -Curryfire Quote Link to comment
curryfire Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 Hey All, After 36hrs of UV, the tank is clearer that before the bacteria bloom. I’ve now set it up on a 10hr cycle on the Apex. -Curryfire Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 On 12/15/2018 at 11:33 AM, DreC80 said: I used two because I happened to have them laying around from other tanks. I guess it all depends on what you plan on keeping and future growth potentially slowing down flow. I have a bb tank and run each pump at 50% on reefcrest. So far the results have been pretty good. My left side pump is closer to the back wall and right side is closer to the front glass. Here's a fts for reference. 2 hours ago, curryfire said: Hey All, After 36hrs of UV, the tank is clearer that before the bacteria bloom. I’ve now set it up on a 10hr cycle on the Apex. -Curryfire Both tanks looking real nice 👍 two more for the 30 L. Quote Link to comment
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