Keeping SPS in a barebones NANO?

[Bells>Waimea]

Hi guys, 

 

Back into the hobby after a brief 10 year hiatus. Had a few successful reef tanks back in the day, I'm now wanting to step it up a bit and use the knowledge I learned back then. 

 

I've never had SPS before,or anything that needed higher light, really, and I only have a small Nuvo AIO 20 gal. So I'm wondering what tips you have for an SPS noob with a pretty barebones set up, that wants a mixed reef. 

 

Setup (currently cycling):

AIO Fusion 20g 

Lights: NanoBox Duo 

Filter: Intank stacks on the back for filter floss, carbon/GFO etc. and Marine Pure Balls for more bio filter (used life rock)

Flow: MP10

Inkbird temp controller as well. 

--------

No skimmer

No reactor

No Fuge

No Doser

--------

 

At the end of the day, I want to finally expand into some of the cooler things I could not keep when I had some old ass PC's.   

 

What would be your tips for success?  Things to look out for? Common pitfalls?  Livestock to buy?

 

Thanks guys. 

 

 

[SliceGolfer]

My Nuvo is pretty close to what you describe. I do run two AI Primes, and I have an extra MP10 (but that could be any powerhead really). I run InTank baskets, with floss and MarinePure Gems. I ran a Chaeto reactor but removed that when I stripped N&P to zero. I ran like that for a while, then added an Icecap K1 nano skimmer. I like this skimmer, and so does my tank. I travel a lot for work, so the doser is a necessity.

 

I think I’m doing well with only 14 gallons water volume and 10 months old. No reason you can’t, either!

 

 

[mitten_reef]

Slow and steady, especially if you’ve never had SPS before.  You just need to wait a while for the system to balance itself out. 3-6 months depending on how you start the system, in my opinion. 

Remember that flow, light, and temperature are the essentials - and you have all three good choices there.  Everything else we added for our own convenience and shortcuts. 

[Bells>Waimea]

39 minutes ago, SliceGolfer said:

My Nuvo is pretty close to what you describe. I do run two AI Primes, and I have an extra MP10 (but that could be any powerhead really). I run InTank baskets, with floss and MarinePure Gems. I ran a Chaeto reactor but removed that when I stripped N&P to zero. I ran like that for a while, then added an Icecap K1 nano skimmer. I like this skimmer, and so does my tank. I travel a lot for work, so the doser is a necessity.

 

I think I’m doing well with only 14 gallons water volume and 10 months old. No reason you can’t, either!

 

 

Looks amazing!

 

I actually do have 2 MP10's on the way. Not sure if I'll run both tho with the sand I have and knowing how strong they are.  Decision to be made when the time comes I guess. 

 

When did you find you needed to start dosing?  Or did you start with the doser off the bat?

 

Really like the bare bottom with MP10's staggered top to bottom and on opposite sides. I can't seem to get away from sand tho! Love the look. 

[Bells>Waimea]

40 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Slow and steady, especially if you’ve never had SPS before.  You just need to wait a while for the system to balance itself out. 3-6 months depending on how you start the system, in my opinion. 

Remember that flow, light, and temperature are the essentials - and you have all three good choices there.  Everything else we added for our own convenience and shortcuts. 

Thanks for the response.  

Definitely. I'm planning on grabbing a couple fish and easier corals and wait until I had the stability game dialed in and started seeing coralline popping up before dropping cash on harder corals.  Kinda bummed to see how expensive everything got in the coral trade after 10 years!  DAMN!  Thanks again. 

[SliceGolfer]

I had the doser on hand, but added it 4-5 months in for convenience. I currently dose 10ml Alk daily. It’s not much, but the doser does it for me when I can’t be home.

[MrObscura]

Sps dont have to be any more complicated than other Corals. Keep things simple and stable. They're just less likely to tolerate things going wrong.

 

My nuvo ten is my first and only reef tank and while unfortunately I've lost a number of sps it was after I had them growing and colored up and directly related to issues I could trace. Dinos and starvation from low nutrients, dosing issues spiking alk, etc. 

 

While I'm sad to lose living things in my care, as a noob with just a little more than a year in the hobby I chose to view the bumps as learning experiences rather than getting depressed about them like I did originally.

 

My biggest tips are... flow is even more important than lighting, keep the tank well fed because low nutrients are far more dangerous than elevated, and stability, stability, stability.

[jservedio]

Maybe it's just because I'm lazy, but the single most important piece of equipment IME for SPS would be an ATO. If your salinity is off, everything else is going to be off. 

 

As everyone says, go slow. You shouldn't have to supplement alk/ca/mg for quite some time as long as you are changing water. Plus, if you get that ATO, you can dose kalk in the ATO for a long time before kalk won't keep up with it. My 20g is still perfectly fine with kalk and I've got a good amount of SPS growing very rapidly.

[Clown79]

I personally prefer to keep things very simple.

 

I manually dose and top up.

 

Only controllers are the ones that came with the product and inkbird heater controller.

 

Waterchanges every 7-10days

 

Feed tank weekly.

 

I don't have the stock pump or nozzles in my tanks only because I wanted things for a specific reason like feeding mode for the return pumps and random flow nozzles.

 

I use some media, macro algae, that's about it.

 

 

[jservedio]

52 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I manually dose and top up.

What do you do when you go away?

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, jservedio said:

What do you do when you go away?

I don't go away often but when I do, I can go up to 2 days with a hamster bottle ato

[jservedio]

18 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I don't go away often but when I do, I can go up to 2 days with a hamster bottle ato

I like this hobby, but not enough to give up long vacation! ATO, 10g tote bucket, and a drum feeder and I've been away from my tank just over two weeks at a time with my acros never noticing. I've probably accumulated more than 6 months away from my tank on trips without having issues.

 

Best $150 I've ever spent on my tank. Plus I don't have to trust my friends or the LFS to measure out two part and do it right.

[MrObscura]

I do think theres something to letting an ecosystem establish and a tank mature a bit before adding sps. At least if you start with dry rock.

 

As for dosing. I ran alk in my ato for a while and it worked but I feared an ato malfunction dumping a bunch in and also didnt like how dosage was based on evaporation rate which can change.

 

Now I'm running two x1 dosing pumps with bionic. I diluted the solutions with 50% rodi so I can be more precise in dosing a small tank.

 

Plus my tanks only consuming 0.1dkh a day right now so one 0.5ml dose an hour after lights out takes care of it while also helping out a little with the nightly ph drop.

 

That's one nice thing about these pumps(as well as being blue tooth enabled with a $60 pricetag). They can do a scheduled dosing as little as 0.5ml or a manual 1 time dose as low as 0.1ml.

 

 

[mcarroll]

 

14 hours ago, MrObscura said:

That's one nice thing about these pumps

Not sure which pump your talking about?

[MrObscura]

27 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

 

Not sure which pump your talking about?

The x1 dosing pumps I was talking about. Lol

[mcarroll]

Link or brand or something else, pls?

 

I googled that before posting like a good citizen and nothing came up at all....some pic of a jebao doser and some of random non-doser related crap.  Is google getting better, or is it just me?  LOL

Edited October 23, 2019 by mcarroll
ne'ermind, don't need to know

[MrObscura]

Really? It's the kaomer x1. 

 

Should be the first thing that comes up googling x1 dosing pump. I had to do it myself as I forgot the manufacturer and was to lazy to go look. Lol

[mcarroll]

Never heard of it, was just barely curious.   

 

I've had terrible luck with most bluetooth-based products so I'd never bother with it.  You can get a $20 doser off Ebay or a 4 or 5 channel Jebao that are better deals and more reliable.

 

Hope it works out well tho.

[MrObscura]

I like it and its flexibility. I honestly wouldn't trust an ebay doser and I've heard good and bad things about jebao. Like most their products they seem great... until they fail. Which can happen often based on user reviews.

 

And I dont know how much it matters but kaomer also makes medical dosers so I figured that cant hurt in terms of accuracy and reliability. 

[second_decimal]

Great thread. I intend on the dosing unit to handle automatic water changes, ATO, and 2 part dosing. That should keep things stable enough for everything in a 10g to stay happy. But that’s like 4-5 months from now. 

[pokerdobe]

Maturity of your tank is going to be the biggest factor. I would argue that a tank doesn't really find its rhythm until at least a year into its life. 

 

Then in order of importance - alk stability, flow, light. 

[William]

An ATO is prob the most important thing, followed by RODI unit. For your size tank, you could probably dose Tropic Marin All for Reed on a Kamper X1 dower and have a good setup for a low price.

Kamoer 

[Clown79]

On 10/23/2019 at 9:50 PM, MrObscura said:

I like it and its flexibility. I honestly wouldn't trust an ebay doser and I've heard good and bad things about jebao. Like most their products they seem great... until they fail. Which can happen often based on user reviews.

 

And I dont know how much it matters but kaomer also makes medical dosers so I figured that cant hurt in terms of accuracy and reliability. 

Jebao is one of those products that some have luck with and others don't. I'm in the latter party. 

 

They don't offer warranties, you rely on the stores warranty and finding replacement parts is not easy.

 

I've heard their dosers are ok but need calibrating whereas other brands don't.

 

 

[second_decimal]

Well I bought one on here and a week or so ago and I’m still waiting.. it’s not on the top of my priority list but once dialed in should be a pretty helpful at Automatically maintaining water parameters.

[mcarroll]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Jebao is one of those products that some have luck with and others don't. I'm in the latter party. 

 

They don't offer warranties, you rely on the stores warranty and finding replacement parts is not easy.

 

I've heard their dosers are ok but need calibrating whereas other brands don't.

 

 

Cheap gear is what it is, eh?  Knock on wood, my 4-head Jebao has been reliable.  I will say that there was a time when one of the heads was slipping on mine, but it worked itself out.

 

Calibration on it is simple....two buttons, then you run out 100mL into a measuring container, and it's set.

 

To me the "worst part" of the Jebao is the programming interface.  It works, but it is not logical, not very easy to change and impossible to "see" the current setup without millions of button clicks.  None of that matters day to day while it runs and runs on its own thankfully!!   I definitely like it a lot better than ME dosing manually every day.  Did that for about 7 years.....that was plenty!  LOL