Ant's 6g Shallow v2.0- June Update

[antsypants]

Hey Nano-Reef! Some of you might remember me and this tank from a couple years back. It used to be a zoa/macroalgae tank but when I was away for school something hit my zoas and I lost pretty much everything in the tank. I was disappointed with the losses and decided it'd be best to shut the tank down. I took a step away from the hobby but now that I'm home for a bit, I developed an itch to set the tank back up. Soooo... here we go again! 

 

If you want to check out how the tank used to look, here's the old thread: https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/359270-ants-75g-shallow-revival-time/

 

Current FTS: (6/9/19)

 

Build Info

Spoiler

Tank: AIO Glass, custom made; 17 in. x 13.5 in. x 7 in. = 6 gal total

Filtration: Modified QQ1 Bubble Magus Nano Skimmer, Sponge Inserts, Chemipure Blue behind false acrylic wall insert

    3-4 lbs Marco Foundation Rocks

    1/2 in. Caribsea Oolite Sand

Light: Nanobox Mini w/ Blufish Controller

Heater: 50W Boxtech 

Flow: MP10 powerhead, Rio180 return pump

 

 

Livestock

Spoiler

Fish:

1x Yasha Goby

 

Inverts:

2x Nano Conch

2x Cerith Snail

1x Limpet

1x Nassarius Snail

1x Candy Pistol Shrimp

 

Coral:

-Zoas

-Mushrooms

 

FTS Archive

Spoiler

4/2019

 

6/2019

 

I'll try to update with pictures weekly once things get rolling but if you're curious about something or just want to see how the tank looks, let me know and I'd be happy to oblige. I'm grateful as always for this site that lets me record and document my progress as well as the support and wealth of knowledge this community provides. I hope that with this new tank, I can start to contribute information again with my own experiences so please don't hesitate to leave questions, comments, and tell me what you think!

 

Thanks for checking my tank out,

-Anthony

 

[antsypants]

Quick recap as the very beginnings of this tank was covered in the old journal-

 

I started cycling around the beginning of April using Dr. Tim's One and Only. Not much happened for the first few weeks, but I was relieved once I saw some diatoms forming- started to worry that the bottle had expired or something. Anyways, I decided to blast the lights in hopes of growing the diatoms quicker so they burn out their silicate source sooner, and a couple days later, threw in a couple nano conches to clean up my rocks. They've been doing a great job so far, but I'll probably add one or two ceriths in a few days to start cleaning the sandbed. 

 

There's also a couple bleached mushrooms in there too, I just threw them in to see if they'll do better in this tank and if they start looking better, I'll take it as a sign that the tank's ready for some coral. 

 

I'll probably give the tank another week or so to truly finish cycling. I don't have a reliable way to dose ammonia and check if the tank can process 2ppm ammonia in 24 hrs so I'll just play it safe and wait a bit. 

 

Couple pics of the tank:

 

 

More to come soon!

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Great to have you back @antsypants! This is such a neat AIO tank, there really aren't many shallow reef tanks under 20 gallons it feels like.

 

Looking forward to seeing your SPS nano reef come to life, keep up the good work!

[Reefkid88]

Yeah,NB leds,shallow tank,lagoon look type of rock and a sps tank yeahhh I'm pretty sold !!!! Tank looks amazing,definitely looking forward to it progressing. 

[antsypants]

9 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Great to have you back @antsypants! This is such a neat AIO tank, there really aren't many shallow reef tanks under 20 gallons it feels like.

 

Looking forward to seeing your SPS nano reef come to life, keep up the good work!

Thank you! Truth be told the original dimensions for this tank were scaled up, bringing total volume to around 20-22 gallons but I'm happy with the size I ended up with :) If I ever want to upgrade though...

 

Anyways, looking forward to how this tank's second run goes too!

 

1 hour ago, Reefkid88 said:

Yeah,NB leds,shallow tank,lagoon look type of rock and a sps tank yeahhh I'm pretty sold !!!! Tank looks amazing,definitely looking forward to it progressing. 

Ahh yep love the look of shallow tanks, glad you do too! Thank you :)

 

Also small update, had some time today to pick up a couple ceriths. Got a mini brittle star and a limpet too for freeee (pictured below). The nano conches have made quick work of the diatoms on my rock so hoping the ceriths can finish the job on the sand. Once I start adding things that need feeding and build up some waste, I'll add one nassarius snail to round out the CUC. Stocking the CUC light this time around as I've made the mistake of adding too many members at once without a sufficient food source before because of online recommendations (3 nass snails in a 3 gallon tank is overkill don't do what I did) 

 

[pricewayne]

&& following - this is super neat.

[antsypants]

19 hours ago, pricewayne said:

&& following - this is super neat.

thank you and welcome aboard! 

 

Pretty sure the tank's done cycling, checked my params today: ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrates 10. Did a 70-80% water change and checked the other parameters an hour after. Ca 360 Alk 9.9 Mag 1200. Weird that my levels are lower than the water that I use which is from a LFS. Nothing in the tank is using them up as I've no stony corals atm. Anyone notice something similar during their cycles or has a theory? Might start mixing my own water just to be extra sure.

 

I dosed the appropriate amounts to get my levels a bit higher, won't be chasing numbers but I want to know how close to the suggested range I can consistently keep my levels at. Will test again tomorrow to see how much my levels were raised and then again next week to see if they've dropped again despite not having anything in the tank that would be using them. 

 

Lastly, I know I want to eventually get some SPS going but zoas have always been my favorite so that's where I'm probably starting. I usually RO dip frags but to really prevent pests and algae, I want to try something stronger. Any suggestions? Also which dips would be good for SPS to prevent AEFW and red bugs? Any help is appreciated!

 

 

 

[antsypants]

So my sandbed has started forming a thin layer on top, kind of like a crust. I looked up what it might be and I think it's most likely early marine diagenesis in which excess alk and ca precipitate on CaCO3 surfaces (like sand). I've definitely been experimenting with dosing 2-part to get a feel for how the levels might swing but I think I should stop that 😅 I'm planning to get some live sand from another tank to help build up the infauna community and hopefully aerate the bed enough to prevent this clumping. Also picked up one nass snail today to help turn over the substrate. 

 

 

 

 

edit: does anyone know a good, free photo hosting site? photobuckets been getting on my nerves with these subscription advertisements and watermarks...

[billygoat]

11 hours ago, antsypants said:

edit: does anyone know a good, free photo hosting site? photobuckets been getting on my nerves with these subscription advertisements and watermarks...

Not sure about good photo hosting these days, but if you'd like you can just drag pictures into the text box right here on N-R and they will upload that way ^^

 

Nice little tank by the way!

[Lingwendil]

Cool, are the original listed dimensions accurate? I've been thinking of a sub 20 gallon shallow of some sort (for a freshwater build...) and don't know if I want long or squat.

[antsypants]

10 hours ago, billygoat said:

Not sure about good photo hosting these days, but if you'd like you can just drag pictures into the text box right here on N-R and they will upload that way ^^

 

Nice little tank by the way!

Oh really? I'll try that next time I have photos to post. Thanks!

 

9 hours ago, Lingwendil said:

Cool, are the original listed dimensions accurate? I've been thinking of a sub 20 gallon shallow of some sort (for a freshwater build...) and don't know if I want long or squat.

Ok, so I went and measured the tank since the original dimensions are from the first blueprints I drew up for the tank aaand yeah, I'm way off haha! The actual dimensions are 17x13.5x7 in. Making my tank 6 gallons! Gotta change the build title now... guess the dimensions were a little lost in translation when I was cutting the glass for the tank?? Thanks for catching my mistake!

[antsypants]

Bit of an update for the tank- finally has coral in it! I'm just going to be building my zoa collection back up for these first couple months, going to try to get some old favorites back that I lost in the crash as well as some new morphs I never had the chance to try or find. Everything else has been going well for the most part so I'll just get on with the pics of the new arrivals :) 

 

Lazer Lemons

 

King Midas

 

Scrambled Egg

 

Electric Oompa Loompa

 

I also got a Pink Diamond frag but I kinda messed it up pretty bad trying to get it off the frag plug..but I guess mistakes are inevitable. It might pull through though so I'll keep monitoring it.

 

Anyways, It's not much but I'm happy to finally be getting back into things. Aquaculture is pretty important to me so most if not all of my livestock are going to be sourced from local reefers. I'm planning to let these guys chill on the frag plugs for a couple weeks or so before mounting them to the rock. Also I was mostly messing around with macro shots on my phone today so I didn't take an FTS. Will have one up soon, hopefully!

 

[Justind823]

Looks like you lost a gallon since I last stopped in! 😉

 

Nice additions and good for you on sticking to aquacultured coral

[antsypants]

1 hour ago, Justind823 said:

Looks like you lost a gallon since I last stopped in! 😉

 

Nice additions and good for you on sticking to aquacultured coral

Hahaha yes I did, I remeasured the tank and realized I was initially off by a bit. Went through an identity crisis but all good now 😅

 

And thanks! Hoping to get more soon 

[antsypants]

Quick update, had a chance to visit the coral farmers show in san diego this weekend, picked up more zoas haha. Lots of morphs that have been on my wishlist for awhile (Why did nobody tell me clementines are almost microscopic??)

 

Gave them a pretty rough H2O2 dip as a precaution. One had pox, another some kind of fungus, hopefully they pull through and dont spread to the rest of the zoas. Everythings still pretty pissed so I'll try to get pics once they're looking better.

[antsypants]

Bit of an update, got the tank's first fish 🤩 It's a yasha goby and pistol shrimp pair that I picked up a couple weeks ago. Doubt they were aquacultured but I got them at a good price and had to make an exception. Didnt expect to find an aquacultured yasha anytime soon too. They paired up pretty quickly but I dont see them too often as expected. Hopefully they come out more. I've been feeding frozen brine and NLS pellets, which they seem to like so far. 

 

In other news, got a bit of a cyano problem. I highly doubt it's from overfeeding. The stuff was growing on my sandbed and has recently started moving onto rocks. Any advice? I feel like it's part of the new tank cycle and will come and go like the diatoms. However, cyano doesnt feed off a finite source like silicates the way diatoms do so I feel like I can't just wait for it to go away. Should I run chemiclean? Up my water changes, do a blackout, or just leave it alone? Ive come across all these options and more while reading up but Im not sure which is best for my tank. Any advice is appreciated and I'll get pics up tomorrow 🙂

 

[billygoat]

I had a pretty serious red slime cyano problem a few months ago, and found that the best solution was a system of aggressive manual removal followed by water changes. Raising alkalinity also seems to inhibit its growth. Cyano is still present in my tank but it no longer blooms to the point that my sandbed looks like a red carpet by the afternoon, so I think I have been fairly successful with this strategy. 😅

 

Flow seems to help too, as cyanobacteria have a hard time getting established in areas with a lot of flow. Have you tested for phosphates? Cyanobacterial growth is often linked to a rise in phos, perhaps because of leaching from your rock, sand, or even carbon if you're running it.

[antsypants]

8 hours ago, billygoat said:

I had a pretty serious red slime cyano problem a few months ago, and found that the best solution was a system of aggressive manual removal followed by water changes. Raising alkalinity also seems to inhibit its growth. Cyano is still present in my tank but it no longer blooms to the point that my sandbed looks like a red carpet by the afternoon, so I think I have been fairly successful with this strategy. 😅

 

Flow seems to help too, as cyanobacteria have a hard time getting established in areas with a lot of flow. Have you tested for phosphates? Cyanobacterial growth is often linked to a rise in phos, perhaps because of leaching from your rock, sand, or even carbon if you're running it.

Thanks for the input! Glad you got it under control. How did you manually remove the cyano? Just siphoning it out during water changes? I think I'm gonna try that but it might be difficult to get all of it without removing too much sand.. 

 

I did turn up my flow but since the cyano already formed I'm not sure how much good it will do until I clean the cyano out a bit. Also tested phosphates using Salifert, comes out to 0 which might be due to the cyano using it up. If it is being leached the problem should resolve itself once the phosphates been used up, right? I'm also running a bag of chemipure blue right now, thinking I should pull it? 

[pricewayne]

34 minutes ago, antsypants said:

Thanks for the input! Glad you got it under control. How did you manually remove the cyano? Just siphoning it out during water changes? I think I'm gonna try that but it might be difficult to get all of it without removing too much sand.. 

 

I did turn up my flow but since the cyano already formed I'm not sure how much good it will do until I clean the cyano out a bit. Also tested phosphates using Salifert, comes out to 0 which might be due to the cyano using it up. If it is being leached the problem should resolve itself once the phosphates been used up, right? I'm also running a bag of chemipure blue right now, thinking I should pull it? 

Think you’ll want figure out the source of the leached phosphates or it will continue to feed the cyano//problem algae. How long has your current bag of chemipure been in?

 

One way to aggressively siphon it out is to cut your powerheads/return pump - give the cyano areas a good stir//blow off from where it is in the sand or rock (basically blow algae into the water column) and then siphon the pieces floating about. If it’s small enough or isolated to a certain area, a turkey baster works great as you can blow it off and immediately suck it back into the baster to remove. May try moving or redirecting powerheads if the algae is in one spot.

[antsypants]

45 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

Think you’ll want figure out the source of the leached phosphates or it will continue to feed the cyano//problem algae. How long has your current bag of chemipure been in?

 

One way to aggressively siphon it out is to cut your powerheads/return pump - give the cyano areas a good stir//blow off from where it is in the sand or rock (basically blow algae into the water column) and then siphon the pieces floating an out. If it’s small enough or isolated to a certain area, a turkey baster works great as you can blow it off and immediately suck it back into the baster to remove. May try moving or redirecting powerheads if the algae is in one spot.

Yeah, could be the chemipure, it's been going for about a month now. Think I'm gonna pull it out. The cyano I have isn't growing in clumps yet, more of a powder. Thought it was diatoms at first. Recently it's been growing stringy parts in certain areas. Some pics of my situation:

[billygoat]

2 hours ago, antsypants said:

Thanks for the input! Glad you got it under control. How did you manually remove the cyano? Just siphoning it out during water changes? I think I'm gonna try that but it might be difficult to get all of it without removing too much sand.. 

I used a turkey baster and a toothbrush to manually remove cyano. You can run the toothbrush through the top layer of sand to clump the cyano into a ball or mat, which then becomes easy to remove with the baster, a siphon, or even a pair of tweezers if it is thick enough. Alternatively you can agitate the top layer of your sandbed by repeatedly sucking it up and spitting it back out with a turkey baster, which will cause cyano fragments to go floating out into the water column. I've found that it is best to do this right before a water change.

I also found that the late evening right before the lights turn out is the best time to manually remove cyanobacteria. This makes it so that the cyano is subjected to darkness right after it is removed, which makes it more difficult for the disrupted areas to regrow.

 

Raising alkalinity also seems to help with cyano outbreaks. Higher alk alone is unlikely to drive the cyano fully out of your system, but it should at least slow its growth.

 

Manual removal sometimes seems fruitless, since it often takes cyano only a few hours to regrow. But don't give up! Diligent removal combined with regular water changes will drive it out of your system.

[antsypants]

6 minutes ago, billygoat said:

I used a turkey baster and a toothbrush to manually remove cyano. You can run the toothbrush through the top layer of sand to clump the cyano into a ball or mat, which then becomes easy to remove with the baster, a siphon, or even a pair of tweezers if it is thick enough. Alternatively you can agitate the top layer of your sandbed by repeatedly sucking it up and spitting it back out with a turkey baster, which will cause cyano fragments to go floating out into the water column. I've found that it is best to do this right before a water change.

I also found that the late evening right before the lights turn out is the best time to manually remove cyanobacteria. This makes it so that the cyano is subjected to darkness right after it is removed, which makes it more difficult for the disrupted areas to regrow.

 

Raising alkalinity also seems to help with cyano outbreaks. Higher alk alone is unlikely to drive the cyano fully out of your system, but it should at least slow its growth.

 

Manual removal sometimes seems fruitless, since it often takes cyano only a few hours to regrow. But don't give up! Diligent removal combined with regular water changes will drive it out of your system.

Great sounding tips, thank you 😭 i'll try the toothbrush and baster tips. The cyano i have isnt very thick so it might not work as well at this point but it'll be something. I'll try to change out a gallon or two every other day.

[billygoat]

18 minutes ago, antsypants said:

Great sounding tips, thank you 😭 i'll try the toothbrush and baster tips. The cyano i have isnt very thick so it might not work as well at this point but it'll be something. I'll try to change out a gallon or two every other day.

Remember that the most important thing is to not give up! Cyano can be maddeningly persistent, and it may take weeks or even months to get the upper hand, but you will beat it eventually. It's just a matter of time.

[antsypants]

5 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Remember that the most important thing is to not give up! Cyano can be maddeningly persistent, and it may take weeks or even months to get the upper hand, but you will beat it eventually. It's just a matter of time.

Alright yeah, i'll keep progress posted! Never had to deal with cyano before so good to get some input from those who have 🙂

[antsypants]

So Sunday, I did a 2gal water change which is about 30% by volume, siphoning out as much cyano as possible. Next day maybe 50-75% of the cyano was back. So I did another 2gal change, moved and turned up the MP10 and removed the bag of chemipure. Today, only trace amounts of cyano on the sandbed in low flow spots 😁. Not getting my hopes up too high since it could return any time. Most of my sandbed was turned over by the MP10, so the increased flow definitely seemed to help at the expense of my sand being blown all over.. I'll still take this as progress haha. Did a 15% water change today and dialed down the MP10 and fixed my sandbed, if the cyano returns I'll have to make some compromises.

 

Looking back, I should've changed only flow or chemipure since I'm now uncertain what helped. Maybe a bit of both even. Gonna hold off on anymore water changes and will update again at the end of the week. Thanks for all the help :)