M&C 20G Red Sea Max Nano - 1.5 year update

[TerribleLobster]

Thanks for sharing, I'll be checking my di resin shortly

[M&C]

New year, new update.

 

1/25/20 FTS

 

First, RIP Starcki damsel. No idea what happened, just went into the rocks one night and never came out. No signs of stress/disease, was eating and swimming normally. None of the other fish got sick or anything. Water parameters all tested normal. Very frustrating. Other than that, tank has been pretty steady. Haven't added anything since that slow crash at the end of last year due to old RO/DI filters. All in all we lost around 1/3 of our SPS. None of the montipora ever seemed bothered, and they're actually growing faster than anything else in the tank. I'm convinced sunset montiporas are actually the GSP of SPS at this point. A few of the acropora have yet to regain their original colors, but we're seeing little improvements day by day. I might think about getting some new sticks in about a month or so, we'll see. Anyway, more pics!

 

SPS rock today:

 

Compared to November:

 

Orange montipora which has about tripled in size since November:

 

Micromussa garden:

[M&C]

Here are our first 6 months of FTSs. Nice perspective to see how far things have come:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Sorry to hear about the damsel, but the tank is looking great!

[M&C]

2/1/21 FTS

 

New year, new post! Been a while but figured I'd come back and test the waters with a 1.5 year update on my tank. A lot has changed in the past year, most notably a slow months-long crash last fall which took out my scoly nearly all of the SPS except for the montis. I also recently lost my OG pink streaked wrasse for unknown reasons, maybe old age as I'm not sure how long they even live in the wild. After most of the SPS died off I decided to take the tank in a different direction and added some more soft corals and anemones which have flourished. Overall things are looking pretty good at a little over 1.5 years in despite a few setbacks.

 

Future plans include adding back another 1-2 fish, not quite sure what just yet. As for corals this tank is getting pretty crowded and an upgrade to a slightly larger tank may be slowly in the works. 😉

[Christopher Marks]

Simply stunning @M&C! Lots of change along the way, but it seems to have really settled in to a combination of corals that work well together. I'm glad you came back to share an update! Do you have any more views you can share?

 

Have you changed your maintenance routine much over time?

[M&C]

9 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Simply stunning @M&C! Lots of change along the way, but it seems to have really settled in to a combination of corals that work well together. I'm glad you came back to share an update! Do you have any more views you can share?

 

Have you changed your maintenance routine much over time?

 

Thanks so much, that means a lot! I will take some more pictures tomorrow but for now here's one I took of my new orange stripe prawn goby the other day, this guy is fearless in front of the camera.

 

 

As far as maintenance routine, it's been pretty much the same since day 1 with the exception of having to increase the volume and frequency of 2-part dosing as the corals have gotten bigger. In a future upgrade I plan to have all of that automated.

[M&C]

A few more pictures I've taken recently:

 

Side view

 

Cleaner shrimp, our oldest tank resident

 

Clownfish neighbors

 

Yellow rock flower anemone

[Christopher Marks]

Very tidy! I love the LPS dominance, and your fish selection. 

 

Do the clownfish host both the xenia and the torch coral?

[M&C]

3 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Very tidy! I love the LPS dominance, and your fish selection. 

 

Do the clownfish host both the xenia and the torch coral?

 

Thanks again! Just wish I had a better camera for some of these. My clownfish are a little weird, they spend their time equally between the torch, anthelia, and duncan, but never together. 

[Zer0]

Your aquarium is stunning! Sorry about the loss of your SPS pieces. Do you know what the culprit was?

[banasophia]

Wow, gorgeous tank and great photography!

[Erik the Red]

Beautiful tank! Definitely an inspirational build.

may I ask you to share how do you deal with flow? What is your schedule on the MP10?

 

thank you 🙂

[M&C]

Hey all, sorry for the delayed replies!

 

On 2/25/2021 at 4:39 PM, Zer0 said:

Your aquarium is stunning! Sorry about the loss of your SPS pieces. Do you know what the culprit was?

Not a clue honestly, all my parameters tested within normal ranges over that entire 2-3 month stretch. I changed out the filters on my RO/DI unit and that didn't make a difference. Tried feeding more, tried feeding less, tried a different water change schedule. Nothing worked. I'll give SPS another go in a future build but I'm happy to let this tank mature with LPS/softies for now as they seem to be thriving with minimal maintenance anymore.

 

On 3/28/2021 at 12:25 AM, banasophia said:

Wow, gorgeous tank and great photography!

Much appreciated, thanks!

 

On 3/29/2021 at 1:40 PM, Erik the Red said:

Beautiful tank! Definitely an inspirational build.

may I ask you to share how do you deal with flow? What is your schedule on the MP10?

 

thank you 🙂

Thanks! I get flow from the standard return pump and an MP10 set to 40% on the reef crest mode. Haven't really messed with it too much other than turning it down a bit once most of the SPS were out of the tank.