15l pico reef in the Netherlands

[Inspgadget]

 

 

Hi All.

28th july 2021 i started my new nano, i found some old stuff i had in the garage and a new light.

The thank is a dennerle nano cube 20 liter

1.5KG real reef rock (with this in it, i got 15l net)

light: aqua knight v2 36w

7w heater

some unknown small pump i found in my garage. i think from a small skimmer i used 15 years ago.

When the start-up phase is passed i want to add black gravel/sand.

i have a small floater to keep the water level stable.

 

At this moment i have the light intensity building up from 1pm (0% light) to 3 pm, where channel A and B  are  75 percent intensity, and C 40%.

3pm  it slowly start to decrease to 0% at 11 pm, but i will probably still adjust it.

Channel A
5 x 450nm Royal Blue, Cree XP-E
1 x 420nm Violet, Semi LED

 

Channel B
2 x 480nm cool blue, Cree XP-E

 

Channel C
4 x 7500K Cool White, Cree XP-E

Last week my KH was dropt to 8, so i used sodium bicarbonate to raise it to 10, in a week. Today it was 14. measured it twice. I think 8 was a wrong measurement.

Now, after about 3 weeks some algae startung to grow. Still have 2ppm no2. but no3 is rising. What shall i do, refresh some water, or let the algae grow? or little less light? I dont want too much algae in my tank because i am not going to add a cleaning crew in the tank.

My cal and mag are also a little low too, so i have to increase that a little

 

[fenderchamp]

Did you add anything to create some ammonia in your tank?  There is nitrite and nitrate and the nitrite has steadily increased along with the nitrate, it seems it would have come from somewhere.    

[Inspgadget]

Sharply seen. I added a small clamp. The shop said I had to add the whole thing, but i did half of it

[Inspgadget]

Now, after 46 days, i still have NO2 in my tank, lots of debri of the clamp. no3 is dropping, alga is growing. what shall i do? I'm thinking of sucking the pollution off, letting it settle and then putting the water back in.

[banasophia]

Came over here to reply rather than in your algae ID thread because it helps to have the big picture, your tank is still so new…seems like you are doing all kinds of high maintenance stuff when your tank is just trying to get balanced. Looks like diatoms in the pic to me.
 

And looks like you have sand now. Do you have cleanup crew or fish yet? 

 

 

[Inspgadget]

17 hours ago, banasophia said:

Came over here to reply rather than in your algae ID thread because it helps to have the big picture, your tank is still so new…seems like you are doing all kinds of high maintenance stuff when your tank is just trying to get balanced. Looks like diatoms in the pic to me.
 

And looks like you have sand now. Do you have cleanup crew or fish yet? 

 

 

Thanks for the reply. My tank is new, 3 months now, but stable  and good water parameters for a month now.

This morning i filterd a couple of hours on silicate exit, after that i raised my po4. Now ( after a full lightcycle) the algae is allmost entirly gone. So am very happy about it.

What do you mean with "highly maintenance stuff"?

I have no cleanup crew and fish, i would like to keep corals only... but my kids are asking when the fishes and snails are comming, so i am a little seduced to buy some. I am afraid to pollute my tank.

By doing pumps i now add kh+, calcium+barium+SR, mag+jodium+traces, (diluted a lot, and before dosing it has some bubbles to mix it)

i manually add po4+ and no3+ The last 2 i also want to do it by dosing pump also.

 

i also have some corals, since last week. i will post some picture later

[Inspgadget]

I have pachyclavularia, Rhodactis (it splitted yesterday) zoanthus orange, and also zoanthus pink diamond.

Hope i have the official names correct, i know them mainly in dutch. I have work on that

[banasophia]

Wow well you are really approaching reefing in a very involved way with all that dosing in a new tank… I am much more hands off and replenish elements with weekly water changes. I usually add snails once I get diatoms, they help eat the diatoms, but the diatom phase is also a temporary phase that typically clears up on its own.
 

I probably wouldn’t ever dose nitrates or phosphates, personally, because I’d rather add some fish and feed them, or just feed the corals. 

 

You probably don’t have to do all that work you are doing with all the dosing, but it’s not wrong to do it that way, it’s just a lot of work… if you’re enjoying it, that’s what’s important, and your tank’s is getting tons of TLC. I am a firm believer in the idea that there are many ways to run a successful reef tank, and you seem very dedicated. I look forward to following along to see what you come up with for this tank. 🤗