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Daan's Waterbox peninsula mini 25 - 365 Day Challenge


Daan6661

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Red sea max office nano (20 gallons)

Started februari 6 2020 ~Rock rescape march 10 (old scape broke while remodeling)

 

 

April 24 Update 

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March 30 2020 Update

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Hey reefer friends!

Due to a reconstructionproject off the house for a bigger kitchen/dining room, and yes ofcourse a bigger tank, I recently sold my reefer 350. After that I changed jobs.

 

With the new job came my own office. To keep my fingers salty and to stay in touch with the hobby, I bought a second-hand red sea max nano to set up as an office tank. Which, to be honest, kinda is a dream come true. The reason I went secondhand is to see if the set up is maintainable in a work-environment. I might upgrade to a 40 gallon later.

 

Equipment: 

AI prime hd

Vortech mp10

Smart ATO micro

Tunze 9001

Reef Tops UK custom top

D&D coral lense

 

Filtermedia:

10 Maxspect biospheres

Bag of carbon when needed

 

Substrate/Aquascape:

Red sea reef base pink

Real reef rock -second hand, bleachcured ~ 10 lbs

 

Fish and inverts

Pair of Wyoming clownfish

Dwarf blue hermit crab

 

Coral

Toxic green torch 

Rainbow acan 

Red acan

Green acan

Gold/purple acan

Red blasto

Purple blasto 

 

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So 6 days after I added the shrimp and 3 days after I pulled it out, I tested my parameters. 

NH3 1 ppm 

NO2 0,25 ppm 

NO3 0 ppm 

 

Getting some microbacter 7 in a couple of days and plan on adding one more piece of cured dry rock. 

 

Do you guys think it's wise to add another ammonia-source when I add the bacteria or was that initial first spike enough? 

Since nitrite is already present my ammonia should be on the decline, which means it probably spiked higher than 1ppm. 

 

I'd love your guys opinion on this. No worries, I'm okay with taking my time with this cycle. 

 

Thanks guys 🙂 

 

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Keep an ammonia source in so that the bacteria can continue to have a food source. It does not have to be big. Some people put a few pinches of fish food as a sources.  I also cycles my tank in 4 weeks, though my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels normalized in about a week. I used Macro reefsaver rock.

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2 hours ago, picoreef78 said:

Keep an ammonia source in so that the bacteria can continue to have a food source. It does not have to be big. Some people put a few pinches of fish food as a sources.  I also cycles my tank in 4 weeks, though my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels normalized in about a week. I used Macro reefsaver rock.

So you mean ghost feeding?

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6 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Cool set up, I have the RSM 130D in my Office, absolutely love it. 

How do you like the tank, compared to the 350?

Thank you! Compared to the 350 it's small haha. 
I was thinking about a 170 at first but this one is so easy to unplug and take home during holidays. A sump would have made it a lot harder. 

 

Going to replace the skimmer for a Tunze 9001 though. Saw a fellow reefer in my hometown running one and it's dead silent. 

 

So all in all, it's perfect for my office situation. 

 

Sadly Inovative Marine doesn't sell their tanks here in Holland. If they did, I would have bought one of their shallow reefs. 

 

How's the whole office reef tank working out for you?

 

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5 minutes ago, Daan6661 said:

Thank you! Compared to the 350 it's small haha. 
I was thinking about a 170 at first but this one is so easy to unplug and take home during holidays. A sump would have made it a lot harder. 

 

Going to replace the skimmer for a Tunze 9001 though. Saw a fellow reefer in my hometown running one and it's dead silent. 

 

So all in all, it's perfect for my office situation. 

 

Sadly Inovative Marine doesn't sell their tanks here in Holland. If they did, I would have bought one of their shallow reefs. 

 

How's the whole office reef tank working out for you?

 

Really good actually, left it alone and stocked over Christmas shut down for 11 days and everything made it through fine. 

 

Only thing I don't like it the chamber of death for the heater

 

I only have 1 store that will sell IM products in the UK and I won't use them. Messed me around so much in the past. Looking at. JUWEL lido for next tank. 

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Just so there is a constant source of ammonia throughout the cycle so that the system can develop the bacterial colony to continuously manage the source. 

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21 hours ago, picoreef78 said:

Just so there is a constant source of ammonia throughout the cycle so that the system can develop the bacterial colony to continuously manage the source. 

Just to be clear, a small pinch of food every day or every other day to simulate feeding my first fish?

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Small piece of shrimp or even pinch of food daily to every 4-5 days. Just enough to break down and keep a constant source of nutrients so you can build your bioload to manage the constant nutrient export. It is a smaller tank and should not take much. WHat are your ultimate stocking plans?

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8 hours ago, picoreef78 said:

Small piece of shrimp or even pinch of food daily to every 4-5 days. Just enough to break down and keep a constant source of nutrients so you can build your bioload to manage the constant nutrient export. It is a smaller tank and should not take much. WHat are your ultimate stocking plans?

2 designer clowns. Maybe a fridmani or a six-line wrasse. Love the way the six-line moves trough the tank but might not want to risk the aggression in a 20 gallon. 

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13 hours ago, Daan6661 said:

2 designer clowns. Maybe a fridmani or a six-line wrasse. Love the way the six-line moves trough the tank but might not want to risk the aggression in a 20 gallon. 

After some thought, I might just stick with the clowns. Maybe add a clown goby or something small after the tank matured a bit.

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On 2/4/2020 at 1:01 AM, Daan6661 said:

I'm Daan from the netherlands. I've been into reefing for over 6 years. After starting a freshwater tank I stumbled upon BRS' youtubevideo's.

I'm in love ever since.

Daan, glad you decided to participate.  We've been fortunate to have several non-USA contestants in the past.  The only issue might be international shipping, which typically isn't part of the prize package (but maybe that can be addressed later, if you win).

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3 minutes ago, seabass said:

Daan, glad you decided to participate.  We've been fortunate to have several non-USA contestants in the past.  The only issue might be international shipping, which typically isn't part of the prize package (but maybe that can be addressed later, if you win).

Ah no worries, it’s all about the fun. 🙂

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15 minutes ago, devaji108 said:

nice tank!

and welcome! good to have some level headed Euro in the comp. might  rub off on us " crazy Americans"..haha  

Thanks dude haha! Love all the kindness on this forum

 

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1 hour ago, kimberbee said:

Add the 365 Day Challenge tag to your current thread tags! There's already over 25 participants, it'll ensure everyone can locate your thread - especially Chris! 

Done!

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This guy is extra salty
8 hours ago, devaji108 said:

nice tank!

and welcome! good to have some level headed Euro in the comp. might  rub off on us " crazy Americans"..haha  

Whoa 😮 crazy? Lol

ok I might’ve built everything from scratch 

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Not my best weekend in reefing.

 

So, After cleaning out the tank so I could enter the 365 challenge I thought I'd rescape a bit.

Well, that didn't go as planned as I broke the entire scape while drilling a small corner off so I could move the entire scape back a bit.

 

After fiddling with the broken pieces for a good hour, I couldn't make a decent looking scape with the rock I had anymore. I was bummed pretty bad.

 

I bought some used real reef rock yesterday which has only been drying out 2 days so there's prob a lot of dying stuff on there.

On the brs bleach curing video they don't reconmend bleaching man made rock because it might lose it's purple color.

Honesly I don't care about the color as I usually use pukani dry rock. I just want clean rock.

 

Anyone see any harm in bleach curing my real reef rock?

 

I did a quick scape at the dudes place I was buying it from which I thought looked pretty cool. Left front piece is getting trimmed.

 

 

Foto 16-02-2020 18 37 12.jpg

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3 hours ago, Daan6661 said:

Anyone see any harm in bleach curing my real reef rock?

It will do what you want it to do (remove the organics on the rock).  Afterwards, rinse thoroughly.  Having it dry completely may also help.  I'd also soak it in some water with Seachem Prime before using.  Finally, I might wait another 24 hours (after setting up your tank) before seeding a bacteria culture.

 

Then follow the fishless cycling protocol to seed your tank and established a biofilter.  Start with a nitrifying bacteria culture, then dose ammonium chloride to build it up.

 

By the way, the new scape looks good.

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32 minutes ago, seabass said:

It will do what you want it to do (remove the organics on the rock).  Afterwards, rinse thoroughly.  Having it dry completely may also help.  I'd also soak it in some water with Seachem Prime before using.  Finally, I might wait another 24 hours (after setting up your tank) before seeding a bacteria culture.

 

Then follow the fishless cycling protocol to seed your tank and established a biofilter.  Start with a nitrifying bacteria culture, then dose ammonium chloride to build it up.

 

By the way, the new scape looks good.

Yes, already have some dechlorinator on hand. I probably let it sundry and give it 1 or 2 ro/di baths  with dechlorinator. 

Good news: the maxpact bio spheres are still cycling so I'm not "loosing" any time. 

So you don't expect any issues with the rock changing color?


Thanks mate.

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2 hours ago, Daan6661 said:

So you don't expect any issues with the rock changing color?

Losing the purple color?  I'm not sure what the coating is.  Bleach will eat through most organic substances, but it's possible that it's just a dye.  It might turn pink, I don't really know.

 

Eventually the rock will get coated with a biofilm and various algae (including coralline).  You might wish to test a small piece first.  If the result from bleaching is not desirable, then just cure the rock normally.  The cycle will eventually break down the dead organic material.

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7 minutes ago, seabass said:

Losing the purple color?  I'm not sure what the coating is.  Bleach will eat through most organic substances, but it's possible that it's just a dye.  It might turn pink, I don't really know.

 

Eventually the rock will get coated with a biofilm and various algae (including coralline).  You might wish to test a small piece first.  If the result from bleaching is not desirable, then just cure the rock normally.  They cycle will eventually break down the dead organic material.

Bought the rock recently cheap, so I'm going for it. If it doesn't work out I'll just buy some new. 

Thanks for all the elaborate replies man 🙂

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