teamschreiba Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 After about 6 years of being out of the hobby, it is time to dive back in! I had a lot going on in my life (including getting married!) during my last build and just didn't have time to properly care for my 83 gallon rimless. I have more time these days now that we're settling down and I'm planning on going back to where my passion began with another rimless nano reef. I'm also trying to take a lot of what I've learned that was a huge pain maintenance wise with the last few builds meaning no lily pipes or MAME overflow this time. That doesn't mean I still don't want a clean rimless look... My vision for this ADA 60p is a sumpless peninsula style AIO but without a large section blocked off on one end. The equipment I plan on using to get there is below, which includes trying to make this tank as quiet as possible since it'll be in our living room. Much of this relies on the XP Aqua Sumpless ATO which seems perfect for this setup although I couldn't find a lot of reviews. I leaning towards going barebottom with this tank but am open to suggestions! I also plan on keeping the bio load relatively light so maybeeee I can try some SPS again but without a sump/skimmer. Another major goal for this tank is for everything to be aquacultured. My wife and I were lucky enough to share one of our lifelong dreams to go to the South Pacific on our honeymoon and experience a lot of the natural beauty we try to recreate in our homes. This really inspired me to keep all of this build aquacultured including the rocks, fish, and corals. I also absolutely recommend this trip to anyone considering it as it was a once in a lifetime experience. A couple pictures are below and I can share more if anyone is interested! Equipment ADA 60p Archie & Oscar Ester Aquarium Stand Ecotech MP10wQD ARCHAEA MINI AQUARIUM HEATER (50W) ULTRA SLIM XP Aqua Sumpless ATO running carbon & filter floss to start GHL Mini Wifi BRS doser with Tropic Marin All for Reef Ecotech Battery Backup Ecotech XR15 G5 Blue Livestock ORA Orchid Dottyback Large thin striped hermit crab Zoas: Blondies, WWC Twizzlers, Rastas, Spider-Man’s, Blue Rhinos, Purple monsters, Scrambled Eggs, ASD hyperjubilees, pink zoas Softies: Tyree neon toadstool LPS: Green torch, purple torch, neon green hammer, jack-o-lantern lepto SPS: Ponape birdsnest, pink pocillopora, green monti, purple monti, orange monti, Rainbow granulosa, ATL Shades of Fall, neon green tenius 9 1 Quote Link to comment
brad908 Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Good to see you back man, can’t wait to see what you do. Congrats on getting married! 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 No sump, skimmer or sand...I think it's going to be really tough to have the stability you want. Certainly be prepared to wait at least six months before SPS (and you probably can't go with a 10lb rock scape). Keep us posted! Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 13 minutes ago, Spencer7 said: No sump, skimmer or sand...I think it's going to be really tough to have the stability you want. Certainly be prepared to wait at least six months before SPS (and you probably can't go with a 10lb rock scape). Keep us posted! Yeah I’ve thought of that... I’m really not interested in a sump with this setup which means no skimmer either unless it hangs off the tank. Think the sand will really make that much of a difference? 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 In my opinion, it would make a difference in a 17g tank. For context, I'm planning to do a bonsai-type scape in a Reefer 170 (~10lbs of dry tonga branches) and, in preparation, I'm curing the rock for three months with a seed rock and Microbacter7 + ZEObak. I'm also inoculating a bio-brick and some rubble to put in the sump. And this is with 1" of live sand. Extra precautions are because I'm starting with dry rock and minimalistic scape. Quote Link to comment
bbetta Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Please upload more pics from your trip! 1 Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 On 5/16/2020 at 11:41 PM, Spencer7 said: In my opinion, it would make a difference in a 17g tank. For context, I'm planning to do a bonsai-type scape in a Reefer 170 (~10lbs of dry tonga branches) and, in preparation, I'm curing the rock for three months with a seed rock and Microbacter7 + ZEObak. I'm also inoculating a bio-brick and some rubble to put in the sump. And this is with 1" of live sand. Extra precautions are because I'm starting with dry rock and minimalistic scape. Nice! I'll see how it goes to start and maybe change down the road. I plan on starting with zoas and maybe an LPS or two. On 5/17/2020 at 5:25 AM, bbetta said: Please upload more pics from your trip! Ask and you shall receive! Got the tank up and running today and added Fritzyme Turbostart 900. Having an issue with one of the pumps in the XP Aqua Sumpless ATO so once that is straightened out I'll try and take some pictures. 1 2 Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 20, 2020 Author Share Posted May 20, 2020 Ammonia is up (at least according to the seachem hang tag) so the cycle should be underway. The replacement part for the ATO is on the way so hopefully I can get the first FTS this weekend. I’m also starting to think about stocking. My thoughts are a pair of clowns plus one fish. Any thoughts/recommendations? Quote Link to comment
bbetta Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 Royal Gramma or a sixline wrasse maybe. The wrasse might get a bit aggressive. Personally I never had any problems. Be sure to add the clownfish first. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 23 hours ago, teamschreiba said: Ammonia is up (at least according to the seachem hang tag) so the cycle should be underway. The replacement part for the ATO is on the way so hopefully I can get the first FTS this weekend. I’m also starting to think about stocking. My thoughts are a pair of clowns plus one fish. Any thoughts/recommendations? I know you said you wanted all or mostly aquacultered. I'm with you and tried the same in my tank. I have 3 captive bred Rolland's damsels that are cool little fish. Got them on Diver's Den a while back. They are pretty small and wouldn't add much to your bioload. Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 15 hours ago, bbetta said: Royal Gramma or a sixline wrasse maybe. The wrasse might get a bit aggressive. Personally I never had any problems. Be sure to add the clownfish first. I've had a sixline once so probably don't want another. Also since the tank will be barebottom, wrasses are likely out. I was looking at royal grammas and orchid dottybacks! I was definitely going to add the pair of clowns first. I was thinking the grade A davinci's from sea & reef. 15 hours ago, DreC80 said: I know you said you wanted all or mostly aquacultered. I'm with you and tried the same in my tank. I have 3 captive bred Rolland's damsels that are cool little fish. Got them on Diver's Den a while back. They are pretty small and wouldn't add much to your bioload. Those do look pretty cool and I've never seen them before! I don't know if a pair of clowns and three of them would be a bit on the high side for bioload in this tank given I won't have a sump though. Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 So I think my Fritz TurboStart 900 was a little too effective. I had a Seachem ammonia alert badge up since I started the cycle 8 days ago and it has read the 0.5+ the entire time since the second day. My nitrites have barely gone up (0.15ppm) and I'm only reading 1ppm nitrate. I got a little suspicious if my ammonia badge was working and picked up an API ammonia kit. Did the test and getting 0 ammonia... I put the ammonia badge in RO/DI and it's not moving so I don't think it is any good. I'm now worried I left those initial turbostart bacteria with nothing to feed off of. I did add pellets the first few days and can still see some of them floating in the tank. I think these are my next steps but feel free to weigh in here... I probably need to pickup some pure ammonia to see if the bacteria are capable of still processing it in a day. I imagine I just didn't add enough ammonia to the tank though given the nitrates are not very high. My water is pretty cloudy if you view it from length wise so I am thinking I still have a bacteria bloom in the water column. I am using dry rock to start so this is not a rapid cycle with live rock. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 I would pick up some ammonium chloride and go from there. Just much easier when you know how much you are adding and keeping track of how fast it's processed by the bacteria. Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 17 hours ago, DreC80 said: I would pick up some ammonium chloride and go from there. Just much easier when you know how much you are adding and keeping track of how fast it's processed by the bacteria. Have to love amazon prime... I did just that and had the ammonium chloride at my house same day. Now testing at about 3 ppm ammonia! Also picked up some MB7 so nitrites are also already reading 1+ ppm and nitrates are at 10 ppm. Thanks for the advice! I might need to be testing twice a day... 1 Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 On 5/21/2020 at 12:37 PM, teamschreiba said: I've had a sixline once so probably don't want another. Also since the tank will be barebottom, wrasses are likely out. I was looking at royal grammas and orchid dottybacks! I was definitely going to add the pair of clowns first. I was thinking the grade A davinci's from sea & reef. Those do look pretty cool and I've never seen them before! I don't know if a pair of clowns and three of them would be a bit on the high side for bioload in this tank given I won't have a sump though. Possibly, they are pretty small though (not much bioload). Nice blue color and active in the tank. Could always do one or two. In my tank they've each picked out their own little territory and are model citizens. Here is one of them...back end is white, but camera picked it up as yellow. 1 Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 On 5/25/2020 at 12:36 PM, DreC80 said: Possibly, they are pretty small though (not much bioload). Nice blue color and active in the tank. Could always do one or two. In my tank they've each picked out their own little territory and are model citizens. Here is one of them...back end is white, but camera picked it up as yellow. Very nice! Corals look great too! I'm thinking of sticking with just the clowns for awhile to see how the tank does. I honestly am most looking forward to the corals. Ammonia is about zero (API test kit...) so just waiting for the nitrites to drop. Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 8 hours ago, teamschreiba said: Very nice! Corals look great too! I'm thinking of sticking with just the clowns for awhile to see how the tank does. I honestly am most looking forward to the corals. Ammonia is about zero (API test kit...) so just waiting for the nitrites to drop. I hear ya. The corals are my favorite part. The fish are mostly there to help feed them 😉 Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 So I'm debating on controllers... I want to be able to monitor the tank via wifi when I'm out of town or at work. This is primarily for temperature monitoring but unfortunately there aren't a ton of great simple choices given the inkbird reviews are not the best. The seneye seemed like a good choices but the wifi functionality also did not get the greatest reviews. This has led me to the GHL ProfiLux Mini Wifi ($370) and the ApexEL ($500). The automatic notification feature of the ApexEL has me leaning that way but that is also a lot of money for just temperature monitoring. Does anyone have any other ideas? Quote Link to comment
DreC80 Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 I have the ApexEL and have been very pleased with it. I think you'll end up using it for a lot more than just temperature monitoring. Well worth the $500 in my opinion. Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 First light-less/angled FTS! Please excuse the purple epoxy... So I ended up going with the GHL mini wifi. I saw on an R2R thread that they're working on adding text/email notifications so hopefully that'll be coming soon. It was also nice that I could just buy the base unit which includes a temperature probe and I can pickup the powerbar at a later date. Don't really have space for or need the pH probe anyway. I'm hoping the temp probe will fit right in the middle of the XP Aqua "overflow" box. Also, going to setup a black iron pipe mounted to the stand to both hang my xr15 G5 blue from as well as hide some additional wires/tubing inside. I won't be able to hide all the wires inside (that would have required like 2" tubing) but I can fit about half. The rest I'll try and discreetly ziptie on the back side of the pipe. Fingers crossed it ends up looking nice! Still showing nitrites although I'm not as worried about it now. Really just waiting out the 30 days at this point based on some of @brandon429 threads I've read (extremely informative). Added a hermit crab last weekend since the ammonia was 0 so I at least have something to look at. I'm considering attempting to go fish-less until coralline algae nearly covers the rocks. The hope would be that this makes algae control significantly easier. I'd still try to add at least some zoas during this time and keep the lighting relatively low to discourage algae growth but bright enough to grow coralline and keep the zoas happy. Thoughts? GHL mini comes today, xr15 g5 Sunday, and some pods on Tuesday so this is a big week! 7 Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 Well everything is setup and cycle is complete! Added some zoas this week and they’re looking okay. I think the dips stressed them but I’m sure they’ll come around. I’ve been playing around with the settings on the xr15 but trying to keep the light very low with minimal white light to try and avoid algae. The new mobius compatibility with the mp10qd is also a lot of fun. Trying to dial in what the zoas like... The only things I’m tracking hardware wise that are left: 1. Power bar for the GHL mini. The temperature seems to fluctuate from 78.8 to 80.1 with the heater’s internal control. That’s a bit more fluctuation than I’d like. 2. Battery backup for the mp10. I’ve never had one before but it absolutely makes sense. 3. Dosing pump. This is more long term but I like how the new ecotech doser looks and it seems like the kinks have been worked out. I’ll only need one since I intend on trying the TM all for reef once I’m at the point I need it. I’ll try and get a FTS up soon! 1 Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 Things are all going well. I’m not doing the best in exercising patience which I know is detrimental in this hobby... The GHL power bar, battery backup, and some Tropic Marin all for reef are on order. Only other planned equipment purchase is an Ecotech Versa. Unfortunately they’re out of stock everywhere... I know it is early for that but I want to have all hardware on hand before I mount everything in the stand to have a logical and clean layout. On the livestock side, I added an ORA Orchid Dottyback to the tank and he seems to be doing great. I figured this would get me in a better routine than trying to dose N&P. I also figured that the bioload from one dottback in a 17g is not too much. Added a Red Sea screen top as well since I needed a notch area for where the Sumpless ATO box is. I also added a small CUC from reefcleaners which crushed the small amount of diatoms I had. I’m keeping up with the water changes to keep the parameters stable early on. Apparently this is paying off as I noticed I have coralline algae spots all over the rocks. They’re about the size of a pinhead but they are everywhere like the chickenpox. I added the ARC Reef Purple Helix coralline algae about three and half weeks ago so I’ll attribute the great initial growth to that! 2 Quote Link to comment
East1 Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Good to see you again! I recently re-read your 2011 totm 60F thread as part of a revisitation of all the tanks taht inspired me! I've also been using All for Reef on my tiny pico, be interesting to see it used on something with more volume! Quote Link to comment
Zuma Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Nice, I like the sump-less concept and awesome reef inspiration pictures; following. Quote Link to comment
teamschreiba Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 4 hours ago, East1 said: Good to see you again! I recently re-read your 2011 totm 60F thread as part of a revisitation of all the tanks taht inspired me! I've also been using All for Reef on my tiny pico, be interesting to see it used on something with more volume! Thanks it’s good to be back! I’m still trying to decide what corals to go with and it’s been killing me. I was thinking some favia but I worry the sweepers will reach too much of the tank. Just zoas for now... And yeah I’ll be watching yours closely too! I’d like to be able to do some SPS in mine but I’ve found very few examples of sumpless and skimerless tanks with anything more than birdsnest/pocillipora. 2 minutes ago, Zuma said: Nice, I like the sump-less concept and awesome reef inspiration pictures; following. Thanks! I’m hoping it works! 2 Quote Link to comment
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