Tale of Three Tanks (inland_reef)

[inland_reef]

@banasophia recommended I should create a journal on here. So… here we go! 😊

Hello! My name is Tyler (aka inland_reef).

 

The ‘Tale of Three Tanks’ began with the purchase of a used 28 gallon Nanocube on April 9, 2018 (Just rounded out the 1 year mark!). Like everyone else on this forum, I got addicted to saltwater aquariums 😂 This journal will talk about the evolution of my tanks, their setup specs and my ideas for future plans.  While you're here, enjoy some eye candy of my current setups below. 

 

Ill try to make this a picture heavy journal, but you can see more pictures of my tanks on my Instagram page @inland_reef . I post daily updates there.

 

 

[WV Reefer]

5 minutes ago, inland_reef said:

@banasophia recommended I should create a journal on here. So… here we go! 😊

Hello! My name is Tyler (aka inland_reef).

 

The ‘Tale of Three Tanks’ began with the purchase of a used 28 gallon Nanocube on April 9, 2018 (Just rounded out the 1 year mark!). Like everyone else on this forum, I got addicted to saltwater aquariums 😂 This journal will talk about the evolution of my tanks, their setup specs and my ideas for future plans.  While you're here, enjoy some eye candy of my current setups below. 

 

Ill try to make this a picture heavy journal, but you can see more pictures of my tanks on my Instagram page @inland_reef . I post daily updates there.

 

 

 

Looks great! I always enjoy your Instagram posts. 😊

[inland_reef]

28 Gal Nanocube: The Mixed Reef

• Setup: April 9, 2018
• Lighting: Kessil A160 with Spectral controller. 12 hour light period with a 3 hour ramp up/down.  Max Intensity is 50% and Max Color is 10%. Light is 7.5 inches above water line.
• Filtration: Intank Media basket. Top section is filter floss, middle section is a bag of Chemi-Pure Blue, & bottom section is empty
• Flow: Two stock return pumps with VCA Random Flow Generators. In the display, three 240gph Hydor Koralia Nano circulation pumps.
• ATO: Smart Micro ATO with a 5 gal Petco tank as the reservoir. I have egg crate at the bottom of the tank to keep the pump from sucking up undissolved Kalk.
• Dosing: Kalkwasser dosed through the ATO.  I am mixing 2 tsps per gal of water.
• Testing: I tested the Nitrogen cycle when I first started this tank but I haven’t run a water test since.  Not the best practice, but I keep a close eye on my tank day in and day out. I dont chase numbers! I just try to keep a stable tank through weekly water changes.
• 

 

29 Gal Petco Tank: The Anemone and Shroom Tank

• Setup: October 20, 2018
• Lighting: 2 Ai Prime HD. Ill post the light schedule below. Light is 8 inches above water line.
• 
• Filtration: SunSun 302b Canister Filter with three trays.  Tray one holds a filter pad and two filter floss pads. Tray two has a Chemi-Pure Blue bag and an extra bag of carbon (I like the water crystal clear).  Tray three holds bio-media. 
• Flow: SunSun Canister filter return. 2 MP10QD on Reef Crest mode with night mode. I have covered the wet sides with 3D printed anemone guards. The foam covers that are offered by ecotech get so clogged with junk quickly. 
• ATO: Smart Micro ATO with a 5 gal Petco tank as the reservoir. I have egg crate at the bottom of the tank to keep the pump from sucking up undissolved Kalk.
• Dosing: Kalkwasser dosed through the ATO.  I am mixing 2 tsps per gal of water.
• Testing: I never tested the Nitrogen cycle when I first started this tank and still haven’t. I dont chase numbers! I just try to keep a stable tank through weekly water changes.
• 

 

3 Gal Pico Tank: Macro Tank

• Setup: January 12, 2019 (still haven’t done a water change)
• Lighting: SUNLIGHT!!! And a lamp with an Ikea plant grow lightbulb (white and red leds).
• Filtration: Macros and Mangroves! I have a bag of Chemipure Blue hanging from a magnet next to the circulation pump. I was trying to hide it as best I could. 
• Flow: Two no name small circulation pumps. I think they are the 80gph version. 
• ATO: Smart Micro ATO with a 5 gal Home Depot paint bucket as the reservoir. I drilled holes in the lid for the chord and pipe to come out. Thinking of changing my other reservoirs to this option because the cover creates an almost perfect seal. I have egg crate at the bottom of the tank to keep the pump from sucking up undissolved Kalk.
• Dosing: Kalkwasser dosed through the ATO.  I am mixing 2 tsps per gal of water.
• Testing: This tank has green water! If I tested this tank, the test kits would probably break haha.  But everything is happy and that’s what really matters.
• 

 

[inland_reef]

18 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

Looks great! I always enjoy your Instagram posts. 😊

Thank you 👍  Love your long and dirty tank!

[Ratvan]

I love that windowsill tank, it is beautiful. Almost certain that is saved on insta

[inland_reef]

@Ratvan Thank you! It’s become my favorite tank. Macros take me back to my freshwater aquascaping days. I got some cool plans to scale that tank up in the near future and bring more gorgonians into the layout

[Tigahboy]

Awesome tanks!  Also love that macro tank.  Will be following along on IG as well. 

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, inland_reef said:

@Ratvan Thank you! It’s become my favorite tank. Macros take me back to my freshwater aquascaping days. I got some cool plans to scale that tank up in the near future and bring more gorgonians into the layout

Ditto. Excited to see what you do

[banasophia]

Ahhh... how did I miss the notification when you started this!? So excited to learn more about your tanks!!! 🤗

[inland_reef]

On 4/21/2019 at 12:16 AM, banasophia said:

Ahhh... how did I miss the notification when you started this!? So excited to learn more about your tanks!!! 🤗

Hey! Glad you found this. There’s like a million of these journals on here. Gonna try and write another update this weekend. Well more of a from the beginning...gonna work my way to real-time. Keep your eyes peeled. 👍🏻

[banasophia]

On 4/25/2019 at 7:52 PM, inland_reef said:

Hey! Glad you found this. There’s like a million of these journals on here. Gonna try and write another update this weekend. Well more of a from the beginning...gonna work my way to real-time. Keep your eyes peeled. 👍🏻

👀 eyes are peeled. Love all the info you’ve posted so far!

 

If it seems overwhelming to post all the history, you could always just start with real time. I love to read the history too, personally, but just picking now as your starting point is awesome and less work. I think I did that in the beginning and then went back and edited my original posts to add more history and details later on.  🤗

[inland_reef]

Alright so sucky news... I’ve been dealing with zoa eating nudibranchs!!!! They have wiped out 2/3rds of all my zoas. Have no idea how they got in my tank. Just frustrating to see hundreds of dollars worth of corals get mowed down by these surprisingly beautiful beasts. I tore apart my rock work and cut out all the dead zoas. I currently don’t have any zoas attached to my main rock work so I can dip the ones that are still left. I’m dipping every 3 days to hopefully kill any eggs that were laid and have some zoas survive this apocalypse. 

 

With the massive rock work change, I have made tons more room for euphyllia, which my clownfish pair love to think they are nems 😂. When I was trying to figure out what to do with the situation above at the LFS (do I get a wrasse/will that even help), I spotted these!!!!

I’d say this made up for everything! And I got a steal on the gold tipped frogspawn. I think I’m starting to transition this tank from a complete mixed reef to just LPS. Loving the growth from the acans, my elegance and the hammers.

 

Heres some pictures of the tanks to round out this post. Enjoy!

 

[WV Reefer]

10 minutes ago, inland_reef said:

Alright so sucky news... I’ve been dealing with zoa eating nudibranchs!!!! They have wiped out 2/3rds of all my zoas. Have no idea how they got in my tank. Just frustrating to see hundreds of dollars worth of corals get mowed down by these surprisingly beautiful beasts. I tore apart my rock work and cut out all the dead zoas. I currently don’t have any zoas attached to my main rock work so I can dip the ones that are still left. I’m dipping every 3 days to hopefully kill any eggs that were laid and have some zoas survive this apocalypse. 

 

With the massive rock work change, I have made tons more room for euphyllia, which my clownfish pair love to think they are nems 😂. When I was trying to figure out what to do with the situation above at the LFS (do I get a wrasse/will that even help), I spotted these!!!!

I’d say this made up for everything! And I got a steal on the gold tipped frogspawn. I think I’m starting to transition this tank from a complete mixed reef to just LPS. Loving the growth from the acans, my elegance and the hammers.

 

Heres some pictures of the tanks to round out this post. Enjoy!

 

 

Sorry to hear about the carnage.

Looks great in there though. 😊

[inland_reef]

Thanks @WV Reefer.  So as I’m looking at the tank on my day off, I’m contemplating getting rid of the birdsnest and stick corals and transitioning to all hammers and frogspawn up top. The birdsnest especially are growing in a way that’s blocking the lower section to not get light. So from the top it looks great. From front on, it’s like half white, half colorful polyps. What do ya think? Should I keep the mixed reef or mix it up? 

[WV Reefer]

24 minutes ago, inland_reef said:

Thanks @WV Reefer.  So as I’m looking at the tank on my day off, I’m contemplating getting rid of the birdsnest and stick corals and transitioning to all hammers and frogspawn up top. The birdsnest especially are growing in a way that’s blocking the lower section to not get light. So from the top it looks great. From front on, it’s like half white, half colorful polyps. What do ya think? Should I keep the mixed reef or mix it up? 

 

I’m always down for mixing it up. 😀

[inland_reef]

Hmm might have to mix it up a little! There is a local LFS here that is selling yellow branch with purple top hammers for 5 dollars a head. So I might grab a few of those! And I have my eyes on a few more euphyllia as well (hoping they’ll frag some in their display tanks for me 😀)

[ChristopherDido]

Tanks look good! That nanocube setup, the building behind the windowsill tank and your name all seem very familiar ... STL resident? 

[inland_reef]

I am an STL resident! Yea that building behind my windowsill tank is the Karpeles museum that burned down a few months ago. That was a scary night cause my apartment is like 15 feet away from that building. Didn’t know if the fire was gonna jump over but luckily that day there was no wind. 

[Tigahboy]

Sorry to hear about the nudis.  I hate those.  But tank is still looking hot!

 

 

[inland_reef]

After chatting with @WV Reefer and a few other people on Instagram I talk with daily, I traded in my sticks (birdsnest, pocillipora, a couple acros, etc.). I was getting tired of seeing great growth on top shading out tons of dead skeleton below. So took a little trip to the LFS where I had bought the gold frogspawn from in the last post. I was hoping the other frag would still be there (although it had been almost a week since I had been there so my chances weren’t very high). To my surprise, it was still there sitting on the frag rack just waiting for someone to appreciate it’s beauty (aka me 😀). They took all my sticks, held them overnight to make sure nothing was wrong with them. I came back the next day to use the credit to buy my second gold frogspawn!!! The LPS dominated tank has begun... sort of. I’m keeping a few ricordia mushrooms, a couple gorgonians, my two favorite toadstools, and my all time favorite sps, montipora setosa in the tank. The rest will be LPS species. I snagged a couple other LPS including one blue/green splatter wall hammer, a neon green frogspawn, a single head of what looks to be a green hammer but it’s bleached out, and a couple heads of yellow with purple tipped hammer (the store is selling them for $5 a head!). That deal is helping fill my tank for sure. I moved the palys that survived the zoa apocalypse to another tank and opened up some more sand bed for my elegance coral. Okay enough words: picture time😉. Enjoy! 

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, inland_reef said:

After chatting with @WV Reefer and a few other people on Instagram I talk with daily, I traded in my sticks (birdsnest, pocillipora, a couple acros, etc.). I was getting tired of seeing great growth on top shading out tons of dead skeleton below. So took a little trip to the LFS where I had bought the gold frogspawn from in the last post. I was hoping the other frag would still be there (although it had been almost a week since I had been there so my chances weren’t very high). To my surprise, it was still there sitting on the frag rack just waiting for someone to appreciate it’s beauty (aka me 😀). They took all my sticks, held them overnight to make sure nothing was wrong with them. I came back the next day to use the credit to buy my second gold frogspawn!!! The LPS dominated tank has begun... sort of. I’m keeping a few ricordia mushrooms, a couple gorgonians, my two favorite toadstools, and my all time favorite sps, montipora setosa in the tank. The rest will be LPS species. I snagged a couple other LPS including one blue/green splatter wall hammer, a neon green frogspawn, a single head of what looks to be a green hammer but it’s bleached out, and a couple heads of yellow with purple tipped hammer (the store is selling them for $5 a head!). That deal is helping fill my tank for sure. I moved the palys that survived the zoa apocalypse to another tank and opened up some more sand bed for my elegance coral. Okay enough words: picture time😉. Enjoy! 

 

Yes!! 

[inland_reef]

Last night I notice something weird in my macro tank. One of my feather dusters had vacated his tube and decided to go for a hike. Never seen this before so I’m just kind of sitting here like a kid on Christmas in awe that it’s just doing little ab crunches and wiggling it’s way around the tank. 

 

[Tigahboy]

It's both gross and cool at the same time.  

[WV Reefer]

13 minutes ago, inland_reef said:

Last night I notice something weird in my macro tank. One of my feather dusters had vacated his tube and decided to go for a hike. Never seen this before so I’m just kind of sitting here like a kid on Christmas in awe that it’s just doing little ab crunches and wiggling it’s way around the tank. 

 

 

Hopefully it will be ok. They are so creepy out of the tube. 

[Ratvan]

I want to see it moving