Red Sea Nano (75L) - first reef tank

[Lyngsaa]

Hi,

As I am about to start my first adventure Into nano reef, i thought i would start the tank journey right off the batt.  

 

So far nu adskiller list is as follows

 

1) Aqua medic temp controller

2) jebao sow-4 wave pump

3) red sea reefled50

4) tunze osmolator

 

Was planning to keep it simple to begin with. Can allways add more as time come.

 

Think i Will use live sand and ceramic rocks and just a bit og lr to start the system

 

As for the life i was initialt planning on following

1) ocellaris anemonefish

2) royal grammar

3) soft corals (gsp)

4) Some easy lps maybe (Rico, hammer coral, zoa garden, blastos)

5) clean up crew: turbo snails, hermit crap, and? 

 

Any thoughts and advise is highly appreciated.  

     

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, Lyngsaa said:

Hi,

As I am about to start my first adventure Into nano reef, i thought i would start the tank journey right off the batt.  

 

Not even gotten wet as I just ordered the tank wich will be custom made as i had Some specific restrictions to the measurements. But for equipment i am planning as follows:

1) tunze nano skimmer

2) media rack og Some sort

3) AI prime led light

4) tunze nano ato 

5) tunze nano powerheads 

 

Was planning to keep it simple to begin with. Can allways add more as time come.

 

Think i Will use live sand and ceramic rocks and just a bit og lr to start the system

 

As for the life i was initialt planning on following

1) ocellaris anemonefish

2) royal grammar

3) soft corals

4) Some easy lps maybe 

5) clean up crew: turbo snails, hermit crap, and? 

 

Any thoughts and advise is highly appreciated.  

     

 

Sounds like you have a good plan so far. 

[Lyngsaa]

Thank you. I am 100% sure i will hit a brick wall at some point with issues, but guess that Will just be part of the learning process.

 

Right now I just want to get the tank so i can get going with the fun stuff. Spending quite a lot of time reading to get some insights       

[Lyngsaa]

Right, due to the Corona situation in Europe I have had quite a bit of time on my hand to plan my future tank. And one question I do have:

 

 - Does anyone have experience with the "Real Reef rock" (https://realreefrock.com/)? For me they look quite good but was wondering if anyone have experience with these?

 

- As I would need to order them online as no retailer anywhere close to me is available - they come in Small/medium or medium/large - I would assume that small/medium would be   best for Nano reef taks?

- Finally what would be a reasonable amount to order? My tank will be 20 X 16 X 16 inch (L X W X H)? as it will be 100L in total my logic would be around 15 KG but have no clue about this product - meaning I do not know how much mass you get for 15KG. I am planning a fairly light aquascape with 50% negative space to begin with, so will not be a massive structure

 

Thanks a lot in advance

 

[DNR88]

I've had the Real Reef Rock. The shapes and quality is good and it's easy to make a nice scape without glue or clay, but I just didn't like the all purple color. In the end I put it away due to the lack of biological filtration as well. Personally I prefer 'real' live rock.

 

I think 10 kilos should be enough first for your 100 liter.

 

Good luck! 😊

[Lyngsaa]

Ended up ordering a red sea nano wich Should arrive next week, along with 10 kg real reef rocks and a aqua medic temp controller. So hopefully within a week or 2 i am ready to get wet.   

 

Spent last week watching BRS 52 week series, thought it was quite good. Also bought a handful books  mainly in algae, deceases and other topics you would like never to have, but will  for sure have to tackle eventually. 

 

Any other Youtube series/channels worth recomending?      

 

[Spencer7]

54 minutes ago, Lyngsaa said:

Ended up ordering a red sea nano wich Should arrive next week, along with 10 kg real reef rocks and a aqua medic temp controller. So hopefully within a week or 2 i am ready to get wet.   

 

Spent last week watching BRS 52 week series, thought it was quite good. Also bought a handful books  mainly in algae, deceases and other topics you would like never to have, but will  for sure have to tackle eventually. 

 

Any other Youtube series/channels worth recomending?      

 

🤤WET

 

Check out the articles on this site! https://www.nano-reef.com/articles/?show=categories

I wouldn't over think it too much. Things will go slowly. Don't need to buy everything at once. I definitely wouldn't worry about a PAR meter!

 

Get the tank flowing with a heater, some rock and sand ...seed it with something (chunk of clean live rock, mature bioballs or bacteria solution) and chill! Don't need to even have lights at first. You can add a little food to the tank. Maybe add an invert after two weeks...etc.

 

Happy to answer as many questions as you have 🙂

[Lyngsaa]

Thanks a lot for the advise. It was my plan to get the seneye once the tank is up and running. As i have no clue about light settings thought a par meter could take some of the guess work out of it. Not been able to google any light settings for the RS reef led 50 that comes with the tank. Also would use og så back up water monitor. But might be Better to save the money to start with and but some corals in stead. 

 

Will defiantly take the advise to seed the tank with a bit live rock and add Some e-snails when water is a bit more stævne.   Curious to See god the cycle is Going to work out. 

[Lyngsaa]

Finally after a long wait,  my tank is up and running. Took forever for my tank to arrive (corona was blamed for this). The aqua scape passed inspektion (my wife), sø that part is sorted for now. But the return pump and skimmer did NOT pass noice inspection (according to wife it sounds like a tornado in the living room) so will have to swing by lfs and get new ones. Will let the tank sit for a few days before adding the substrate.  Also manage to get my hands on a bit of sand from an established tank to help the cycle along.   

[DNR88]

I like the scape! 👍

[Lyngsaa]

10 days Into the cycle. I have been consistently dosing  amonia and added bacteria and got some sand from an established tank. 

 

My values tonight were:

Amonia 0.5

Nitrite 2

Nitrate 100

 

Safe to Say i have plenty of nitrate. But now i am getting concerned on how to get it down to reasonable levels. 

 

I have not added carbon and my skimmer is only startet Running at night the last few days.    

 

At least my water cleared up very nicely and is crystal clear.   

[Fryguy0201]

Have you tested your source water whatever that may be? Might have some nitrates coming from there. I would do a small water change like 10-30% and see if that makes a change. Good job taking it slow and not freaking out over the nitrates I have seen people do some rash stuff just causing further damage. With no real livestock you shouldn't worry to much. Loving the scape and the sand just made it stand out even more (sand lover here). Good luck and I'll be following to see the progress to come 🙂 

[Gramophone]

I'm with Fryguy. I really love the scape you have going on here! Are ya planning for any sps in the future?

[Lyngsaa]

Thank you for the kind comments. This is the first reef scape i have done so pretty happy with how it turned out. 

 

Think i will cool off my amonia dosing and so Some 20% weekly water changes and see if i can get my nutriens a bit under kontrol. I am using RO/DI water but not testet it so will do that.

 

Since i am a complete beginner i am planning for softies,  lps and mushrooms. Think i will stay away from sps... at least for now 🙂 baby steps for me...    

[Lyngsaa]

So far i have had hell with my skimmer. Og is loud and annoying. I replaced the Stock skimmer with a tunze Doc 9001. The air intake is slurping and quite loud. Will have to play around to see if I can get it to shut up and play nice. Otherwise i Will have to run the skimmer at night only (not optimal but guess its Better than nothing).

 

Since i freed up some space in the sump i am considering getting a small im media reactor to run som gfo to help with nutriens. But will decide when the tank is cycled and i added som life stock.

 

Never thought i would spent so much energy banging my head into a wall over technical equipment....Hope its just part of the learning curve 🙂     

[Lyngsaa]

2,5 week into the cycle and still no where near done.

 

 

Amonia 0.2

Nitrite above 4 

Nitrate above 100

 

Cant Really get acurate measures of nitrite and nitrate as im off the chart. Would have expected to see amonia and nitrite declining but so far only seen a drop in amonia.

 

[Lyngsaa]

Tank is moving along. Cycle is completed as my amonium and nitrite has been 0 for the past days. I did an amonium test and dosed to 1.5. 24 hours later og was  back to zero. Next thing on the list is to get my nitrate down from 10000000 (Max out my test so could anything above 100) to something reasonable. Done a few 25% water changes over the last few days, and Today i started vodka dosing so hopefully it will get under control before algea start to explode. So far no algeas om the rocks but sure that will not last forever.

 

During the wait for cycle to complete i decided that i will try Triton 'other method'. So when i eventually start to and corals i will set up dosing pump for triton 

 

[Lyngsaa]

Time for an update. Tank has been up for almost 5 month now and so far been without and major issues. Had a diatom outbreak but other than that no issues. These days im struggling a bit with low nutriens so dosing both po4 and nitrate. Think the aquaforest nitraPhos minus is the issue. Still working in the right dosage. 

 

Few pictures of the tank as it looks Today