B's Mini Reef Bro Utopia

[jbb]

Baby toad is starting to open up. I might move him to the left side though , the cloves seem to be irritating him a bit. 

 

[kimdawg]

Awesome little tank.  I like the way you molded your rock to the back wall.  It gives the appearance that it is much bigger than it really is.  The great thing about tiny tanks is you really have to think about each coral you put in there.

[jbb]

9 hours ago, kimdawg said:

Awesome little tank.  I like the way you molded your rock to the back wall.  It gives the appearance that it is much bigger than it really is.  The great thing about tiny tanks is you really have to think about each coral you put in there.

The rocks are from @NanoRox , they were made specifically for this tank. 

 

https://nanorox.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fminitank-bikini-bottoms

 

 

[NanoRox]

6 minutes ago, jbb_00 said:

The rocks are from @NanoRox , they were made specifically for this tank. 

 

https://nanorox.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fminitank-bikini-bottoms

 

 

and now available on www.nanorox.com!  🙂 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

14 hours ago, jbb_00 said:

Baby toad is starting to open up. I might move him to the left side though , the cloves seem to be irritating him a bit. 

 

Looks good jbb

[jbb]

3 hours ago, NanoRox said:

and now available on www.nanorox.com!  🙂 

They are indeed, product link provided above. 

 

 

https://nanorox.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fminitank-bikini-bottoms

[jbb]

My brother in law thinks he is a comedian. 

 

He says 

 

"Dang that is a big tank!"

 

[jack1978]

25 minutes ago, jbb_00 said:

My brother in law thinks he is a comedian. 

 

He says 

 

"Dang that is a big tank!"

 

Wait ........ someone said, "Yes" ? 

[jbb]

31 minutes ago, jack1978 said:

 

🙄

[jbb]

[WV Reefer]

44 minutes ago, jbb_00 said:

Looks great. 😊

 

mine is still empty. 😬

[jbb]

3 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Looks great. 😊

 

mine is still empty. 😬

@jack1978 must be helping you set it up 

[ECLS Reefer]

33 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Looks great. 😊

 

mine is still empty. 😬

The orb took precedence. 

1 hour ago, jbb_00 said:

It does look nice in there, all cozy.

[jbb]

13 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

The orb took precedence. 

It does look nice in there, all cozy.

Honestly this might be going away . I really like it and it is the easiest tank I've ever had,  but I want a yasha goby or flaming prawn. I might swap this for my UNS 3gal that was gonna be my contest tank but never happened . 

 

I have everything I need to run the 3g so it would be quick to start up. Just need to decide what I want to do.  

[debbeach13]

So dam cute! It has been awhile since you updated. I was wondering if the tank was taken down. An upgrade for a fish is completely understandable and since you have everything you should do it. I love the polyps on the right. I have some but they are the slowest growers in my tank.

[jbb]

42 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

So dam cute! It has been awhile since you updated. I was wondering if the tank was taken down. An upgrade for a fish is completely understandable and since you have everything you should do it. I love the polyps on the right. I have some but they are the slowest growers in my tank.

Thanks 

 

Weird that they grow slow for you, mine have exploded in this tank and my 65 .  The fish thing I could always do in my bigger system but tiny fish like that seem to vanish in big tanks.  It's a dream for now , but who knows what might happen.  

[Christopher Marks]

On 1/17/2020 at 8:39 AM, jbb_00 said:

Holy moly! This little tank continues to blow me away. The modifications you made to the system to make it sustainable are so clever, I'm glad you've kept it going to prove it out.

 

What has your maintenance routine been like over the past few months?

[jbb]

43 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Holy moly! This little tank continues to blow me away. The modifications you made to the system to make it sustainable are so clever, I'm glad you've kept it going to prove it out.

 

What has your maintenance routine been like over the past few months?

Thanks CM , means a lot coming from you. 

 

 

The mods were / are a must for any long term success with this tank. In freshwater setups you can probably get away without them but not with a reef. 

 

The flow mod was better with my previous version as the ID of the soft tubing was larger which allowed for higher flow rates in the display.  The ID of the rigid tubing is so small that it restricts flow quite a bit. I might up the size of the tubing soon. 

 

I recently modified the light to turn on at 100% brightness.  This proved to be a major mistake.  The tank temp jumped 8* in less than 2 hours. I immediately reversed the mod and put it back to stock. 

 

In the beginning I was running my Nanobox Tide at very low settings.  The Tide fits perfectly into the canopy and looked amazing.  One day out of nowhere the light went out. Apparently the bluefish went out and now I cant use the light. I talked to Dave and seems this has happened to a few people all around the same time . We both reached out to Spencer but he will not reply to either of us.  Since the crash of the Tide my coral have lost a ton of color. The tones are very muted in comparison.  I want to run my tide again but my lack of faith in any support from Bluefish has me very hesitant to purchase a new controller.  I probably will though because it's the only way to use the light. 

 

 

Maintenance has been crazy simple.  

 

2qt ATO container still has about 2 inches of water left in it since it was filled Oct 5, 2019. I will probably refill it this weekend (walmart distilled water) The canopy has helped with evap a great deal.  

 

With only coral and snails in the tank I only feed once per week. I mix a very small amount of whatever coral food I happen to have and fill a 1ml syringe and target feed the tank on Saturday night.  Then I do ~90% water change on Sunday.  During the water change I take out the filter pad and rinse in old tank water then clean saltwater and put back into the sump. 

 

That's it, the entire process takes about 5 minutes.  

[Christopher Marks]

I love it, not a bad routine at all.

 

Sorry to hear about the light controller though, that really sucks! Is it possible or practical to modify the light to use a new controller or driver? My PicoPro light has manual dials to set the brightness of each channel and it's plugged into an old school mechanical timer. Maybe you could get yours back online in a similar way without spending too much?

[jbb]

28 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

I love it, not a bad routine at all.

 

Sorry to hear about the light controller though, that really sucks! Is it possible or practical to modify the light to use a new controller or driver? My PicoPro light has manual dials to set the brightness of each channel and it's plugged into an old school mechanical timer. Maybe you could get yours back online in a similar way without spending too much?

I honestly have no idea if that is possible. 

 

 

I'm a bit disappointed in the entire way it was handled.  When I spoke to Dave he said the other people had to buy a completely new bluefish mini.  Its $100 I think for the new unit . Dave said he has no clue what happened to the units that went out but they all had the same symptoms and all around the same time. I just find it odd that it happened to multiple users and no one can say why and then Bluefish just goes completely MIA when questioned about it.  No response in over a month.  

[kimberbee]

4 hours ago, jbb_00 said:

I honestly have no idea if that is possible. 

 

 

I'm a bit disappointed in the entire way it was handled.  When I spoke to Dave he said the other people had to buy a completely new bluefish mini.  Its $100 I think for the new unit . Dave said he has no clue what happened to the units that went out but they all had the same symptoms and all around the same time. I just find it odd that it happened to multiple users and no one can say why and then Bluefish just goes completely MIA when questioned about it.  No response in over a month.  

Wonder if all the units were the same age.

 

I had to replace my Bluefish a few months ago. The $100 hurt, but not as bad as buying a whole new light would have been. 

[jbb]

4 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

Wonder if all the units were the same age.

 

I had to replace my Bluefish a few months ago. The $100 hurt, but not as bad as buying a whole new light would have been. 

I have wondered the same thing,  but when no one will reply I dont think we will ever know.  I will most likely bite the bullet and buy it but it just sucks because I've barely even used that thing. 

 

It almost acts like an update was pushed through and bricked it . 

[Reefkid88]

I have a mini for sale,$50 shipped !!! Just PM me if you want it and I can get it shipped out to you. 

[jbb]

58 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

I have a mini for sale,$50 shipped !!! Just PM me if you want it and I can get it shipped out to you. 

How old is it ? It seems some of the older ones are the problem childs 

[Reefkid88]

That I don't really know. The only issue I had was my wifi signal was not strong enough in my bedroom so I got a Storm X. Everything that uses wifi signal is TRASH just in my room -__-  out in the living room it works wonders.