🇬🇧 KMitch’s British Fish & Coral 20 Gallon Reef

[KMitch]

Hello N-R.com

 

I’m back…. Again! I made a return to the hobby a few years ago and was running my IM 20 gallon peninsula tank as a ZeoVit system with great success for a few years. Then I decided to break it down and move it abroad!

 

So I now present the British iteration of my nano reef! 🇬🇧 Fish & Chips… errr… coral!
 

That’s right - six months ago I tore it all down, and packed the tank and gear into boxes and shipped it to the United Kingdom. I’ll be living here for a few years, but it’s not permanent. In some ways that is fun - I know this tank is temporary so I can do something unique with it. But it also is tough because I’m sure I will form an emotional connection with my animals. In the end, I hope to use these years to continue to refine my skills in this hobby, to learn some of the techniques commonly employed in Europe (they often are much further ahead in their evolution of reefkeeping practices than we are in the States), and to grow fish and coral that I can eventually donate to someone else when it comes time to pack it back up. 

 👉 MOVING ABROAD 👈

Moving a tank abroad comes with a few challenges:

- differences in electrical supply (120V vs 240V)

- differences in a availability of livestock and supplies

- differences in water supply (in this case, a positive)

- actually moving this stuff!

The electrical supply was probably the biggest one to tackle before I left. Thankfully, almost all of the equipment I owned already was dual voltage — Kessil lights, Apex unit, EcoTech pump. The only major equipment that wouldn’t work here is the EB8 power strip for my Apex unit, my aquarium heater, and the nano protein skimmer. Not bad, really. 
 

👉 EQUIPMENT 👈

• Innovative Marine NUVO Fusion Pro Peninsula 20 Gallon tank
• Kessil A360X light with wifi
• InTank media basket
• EcoTech MP10 pump
• Neptune Apex EL
• Neptune DOS dosing pumps
• Neptune DOS reservoir
• Neptune Trident
• Neptune ATK (auto top off) 
• Sapphire Aquatics 10g ATO
• Modified stand made from IKEA furniture
• iPad mini display
• ZeoVit dosing
• Aqua Gadget Spin Stream Nozzle
• Negative space aqua scape 

 👉 LIVESTOCK 👈

• Coming soon!

 

📷  LAST AMERICAN FTS 📷 

For reference, here’s the last FTS of the tank when it was still setup in the USA.

📷  BRITISH TANK IS BORN - 2 May 22 📷 

 

📷  Tank Cleared and Ready to Roll - 7 May 22 📷 

 

I hope you follow along for the ride and to learn from my explorations into reef keeping from England. 
 

Cheers!

[Reefkid88]

Wow,thats insane !!! I know it was not cheap to move everything over the pond. 

[debbeach13]

Welcome back. Following just cause you're a little bit crazy. In what I think will be a fun kind of way.

[NatureGuy]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Welcome back. Following just cause you're a little bit crazy. In what I think will be a fun kind of way.

 

[KMitch]

Water is very slowly clearing up today…

 

 

I also had an issue with the temp probe reading the tank temp at over 100*F, which was clearly not correct. Thankfully I happened to already have a spare temp prob for the Apex unit. Plugged it in and things settled back down. 
 

I also used the Neptune calibration fluid to calibrate the pH probe on the Apex. It looks like it was already pretty close to accurate prior to calibration. 
 

Finally, I also introduced the first life forms 😉 - aka a bottle of Dr Tim’s One and Only. I’ll give it a few days before I start other bacterial additions to stabilize. 
 

We are now entering the boring phase where we give it a few days to just sit before we can bring in some livestock. 
 

I will use that time to explain a little more about the setup and the aqua scape. I’m very excited about the ‘scape and looking forward to the tank clearing enough for you to see it. 
 

Cheers!

[KMitch]

Sneak preview of the aquascape…

 

 

[debbeach13]

That looks nice - so many nooks and crannies. Plenty of spots for corals and some nice hiding holes for fish.

[Murphs_Reef]

Welcome to the UK 👍🏼

[KMitch]

7 hours ago, Murphs_Reef said:

Welcome to the UK 👍🏼

Thanks! Where about are you located? I’ll happily take recommendations on good fish stores, online suppliers, etc!

[Murphs_Reef]

I'm in the Midlands.. Stoke 👍🏼 there ae plenty of great places around the UK 

[Ratvan]

10 hours ago, KMitch said:

Thanks! Where about are you located? I’ll happily take recommendations on good fish stores, online suppliers, etc!

I'm up in Yorkshire myself. 

 

A few online retailers that I have been happy with

https://mailordercorals.com/

https://jbsmarines.co.uk/

https://thecoralcentre.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjw682TBhATEiwA9crl36RIzV3ddACiTYzRBtK7QG_Kyy9i94hC5ymib-ABoF9S17H1jsiGvhoCA0EQAvD_BwE

https://coralz.co.uk/

 

Generally I will avoid chain Stores (Maidenhead Aquatics) 

 

Also I highly recommend joining Ultimate Reef.co.uk as their Classifieds is a great place for freebies for tank shut downs and people clearing frag racks.

[KMitch]

21 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I'm up in Yorkshire myself. 

 

A few online retailers that I have been happy with

https://mailordercorals.com/

https://jbsmarines.co.uk/

https://thecoralcentre.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjw682TBhATEiwA9crl36RIzV3ddACiTYzRBtK7QG_Kyy9i94hC5ymib-ABoF9S17H1jsiGvhoCA0EQAvD_BwE

https://coralz.co.uk/

 

Generally I will avoid chain Stores (Maidenhead Aquatics) 

 

Also I highly recommend joining Ultimate Reef.co.uk as their Classifieds is a great place for freebies for tank shut downs and people clearing frag racks.

Thanks! I am in North Yorkshire. Any thoughts on Kraken Corals?

[Murphs_Reef]

1 minute ago, KMitch said:

Thanks! I am in North Yorkshire. Any thoughts on Kraken Corals?

Yeah I use kraken alot.. good guys in there.. 

[KMitch]

I am a big believer in trying to make a reef journal that can be followed 'start-to-finish' -- so I'm going to copy and paste some content from my former build thread into this one for the sake of having all of the content in one place.

 

DIY Ikea Tank Stand

 

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I don't have an existing stand to use for this tank. I also don't like the look of the stands that IM makes, and it's an odd size for a tank, so most traditional stands don't fit unless they are way oversized. Ikea to the rescue! We found a nice looking piece of furniture at Ikea that matches the motif and style of the room and have spent a few days re-building the stand to have a more re-enforced structure for the weight of the tank. My plan to try and persuade the lady to let me put the tank at the end of the couch was unsuccessful, so for now, the tank will go behind the couch. It's still prominently placed in the room though, and it's probably a better location logistically. 

 

Here's the stand we got from Ikea as they sell it:

 

The stand is actually made of metal, and it's pretty damn sturdy. We estimate the tank with sand, rock, and water will come in around 275#s, so we jumped up and down on this thing in the store a few times to see how it held up LOL. But the stand isn't perfect, and a little re-enforcement is always good. We started with the top and shelf. I had a large slab of solid butcher block wood that wasn't being used for anything else, so we cut it to fit and replace the cheaper pine board that Ikea supplies for the shelves. That wood has also been given a few coats of a waterproofing lacquer to help it hold up against any splashes or drips from the tank.

 

We then took the wood Ikea provided and cut it to make sides and a back for the open space around the middle (between the bottom and the top shelf). This will help hide cords, and also gives a little more rigidity to the whole thing, because there won't be as much lateral flex. We also got some additional lumber to build some extra load distribution legs in the back and to re-enforce the base frame. It's still coming together, but hopefully by this weekend it'll be setup enough that we can put the tank on there are start testing things out.

 

 

The new butcher block top and shelf. Cut to size, and awaiting varnish

 

Varnishing the top. It is a matte finish, so the shine will fade as it dries.

 

Other braces and supports for the tank. Although most of it will be hidden, still giving it some good paint to make sure it looks nice and clean.

 

These are extra legs to help distribute weight - we added 4 more legs to the existing ones, and still will be building a stronger base for the frame. This thing will be rock solid when we're done!

 

 

 

All done and in position. I will get a better shot of the finished stand later

 

Full tank shot, sans water. Need to get things wired up and run the RO unit for a few hours so we can bring this baby to life!

 

 

Measuring PAR & Setting the Kessil A360X

 

Quote

 

*** WARNING: NERD SCIENCE STUFF AHEAD ***

 

Today turned into a bit of a science fair project here in the tank -- it actually was probably the best bit of tank science I've ever done! Read on....

 

As mentioned previously, I rented a PAR meter from @BulkReefSupply because I wanted to properly tune my light to get the grow and health results I was striving for. I know that the A360X is "overpowered" for this tank and could easily nuke the whole thing with light, so I had turned it wayyy down to be conservative until I could better measure the lighting. With the arrival of the PAR meter, it was time to science this light and tune it to optimize coral health and growth.

 

Based on everything I have read and seen about coral growth -- including the great videos published by BRS and the literature published by Dana Riddle -- I know I want to target the brightest spot of the tank with a PAR around 250. That is in the sweet spot for SPS growth and will blanket the rest of the tank with enough light to grow LPS and softies, without cooking it all. Some SPS growers will push the envelope up to 350 PAR, but that would make the rest of the tank more intense and limit opportunities for placing corals that want a little less light.

 

To start, I unpacked and setup the light meter:

The light meter in its case, as delivered by BRS. I have a full week rental on the meter.

 

The meter comes pre-calibrated and with a wand to use in the tank, making it really straight forward. Literally plug-and-play operation

 

Kudos here to Bulk Reef Supply -- they take all of the guessing out and give you a pre-calibrated meter. Just push the power button and go.

 

I then used blue painters tape to map out a grid on the front glass of the tank. Stupidly I forgot to take a picture of this part, but essentially I created a grid of measuring points along the X, Y, and Z axis of the tank. I sub-divided the height into 2" points, the length into 4" points, and then had 3 measurement points along the depth of the tank to represent the back, middle, and front of the tank. In all, it was a total of 90 measurement points at each setting. There are some measurements that clearly weren't possible due to the rock work, so those are omitted.

 

After taping off the grid onto the tank, I transposed the grid onto engineers paper and started taking measurements:

Using the sensor to move along the tape grid and collect readings

 

I transposed the readings onto the paper as I went

 

One note here about the light meter -- depending on the turbidity of the water, the reading could fluctuate a significant amount; I tried to take the measurement at the average.

 

For the first set of measurements, I took readings at the intensity level I had previously set the light to, which was 25%. Before testing, I would have hypothesized that I was around 150-200 PAR in the brightest spot of the tank directly under the light. Boy was that wrong! I then adjusted the Kessil A360X to 60% intensity and repeated the measurements.

 

Completed measurements

 

FINDINGS

The most important lessons here are that you cannot accurately gauge PAR with your eyes, and renting a light meter is worthwhile.... I couldn't believe how little light was getting to the bottom of the tank and how far off my estimates for the PAR were. After collecting all of the measurements on paper, I transcribed them into my computer and then into Tableau to produce this nice visual comparing the intensity at 25% vs 60%. Any blank boxes represent areas where the aquascape prohibited a measurement.

 

A highlight table depicting the readings at the various measurement points for 25% and 60% intensity

 

Recognizing that this chart is a little cumbersome to read, I overlaid the data on top of a photo of the tank to visually describe the PAR readings:

 

With this view, I can see that targeting an intensity around 60% for the majority of my light cycle will produce an average PAR around 200 at the top of the rock work, where I would keep the SPS corals. I also concluded that at an intensity of 65%, I hit a PAR of 250 in the same area, so I will have the light cycle peak at 65%, while spending the majority of the time still at 60%. In my view, this will best balance the light requirements for optimal SPS growth, while not pumping so much light into the tank that it would upset the LPS or softies. 

 

 

A ZeoVit Primer

Quote

 

I have gotten a few questions about ZeoVit from DMs, so I figured I'd answer them here and give a little primer for anyone curious what the heck this is all about.

 

In short, ZeoVit is a system from a Germany company called Korallen Zucht. Germans are good at engineering and stuff like that (BMWs, Leicas, etc), so it should come as no surprise that this system is heavily based on their own research into creating water parameters that mimic natural sea water. ZeoVit has been around for a really long time, and has a long track record of success. It's extremely popular in Europe, but for some reason, we're a little behind the times in terms of adopting it in the mainstream here in the US. I'm not claiming it's better than other systems or is what everyone should use -- I just like that there is a whole community of users who have demonstrated success with it. 

 

Part of that community is a separate forum for ZeoVit users (dubbed ZeoHeads) to ask questions and get information on adopting the system to their specific tank. I've read a ton of information on there, and it's a great resource. Most other methods don't have that sort of community of people willing and able to help, so it also instills some confidence that if you get stuck, someone can help.

 

ZeoVit isn't common in a lot of nano tanks, but there's no reason it doesn't work. I previously had it on a much larger system, so this is my first time using it in a smaller water volume.

 

The core elements of ZeoVit consist of some bacteria you dose periodically (ZeoBak), some food for said bacteria (ZeoFood), a carbon-based food source (ZeoStart), and some Zeolite media (ZeoVit). You also are supposed to run carbon with the system, as well as a protein skimmer. I'll spare you all the super technical mumbo science, but if you are interested in learning more, this document is a good primer into the system.

 

One of the disadvantages of ZeoVit can be the cost -- $20 for a bottle containing 100ml of magic elixir seems really steep, however, in a nano tank, it's actually quite affordable. My dosing regiment calls for one drop a day of the most commonly used additives... so a small bottle will still last me a very long time. Some of the components are added only 2-3 times a week, and again only one drop each time, so the cost per day of using it is actually quite low. 

 

ZeoVit can be introduced to a tank already running, or you can use it to help cycle a new tank. I used Zeo to start this tank. In that case, there is a higher initial dosage required to populate the bacteria colonies, and then you move into a maintenance dose. In total, I have eight different additives that I'm using in this tank, so I use an app on my iPhone to keep track of the dosing so I don't have to try and remember it. The app sends me a notification every day for what I need to dose and in what quantity.

 

Other than adding drops of the various cocktails, the daily maintenance for ZeoVit just requires shaking or tumbling the Zeolite media to remove the organic mulm that the corals can eat, so it's a win-win. The media helps to bind and absorb some of the excess nutrients in the tank, and it's effectiveness is remarkable. 

 

One complaint with Zeo is that you have to add little drops daily, but I actually enjoy the process. It's part of my ritual when I feed the fish, and takes just a few seconds. It gives me an excuse to stop and stare at the tank (as though I needed one). 

 

 

Beyond the base system described above, Korallen Zucht offers nearly two dozen other additives and components designed to help tweak the growth and coloration of corals. I don't have a ton of experience with some of these additives, but selected a few to start with for this tank. Over time I may add or remove some based on the growth and color of the coral. ZeoVit is known to help make tanks that have a brilliant pastel color palette.

 

Right now, these are the elements I'm dosing:

• ZeoBak - Dose 2x weekly as the required bacteria additive. Smells like bacteria.
• ZeoStart - Daily carbon source. Smells like vinegar.
• ZeoFood - Dose 2x times weekly to help feed the bacteria. Weird smell.
• Amino Acid Concentrate - Dana Riddle has documented the importance of amino acids as building blocks for coral growth and health. Added daily.
• Iodide Complex - Corals and invertebrates need iodine. This is good stuff. It's brilliantly gold.
• Coral Vitalizer - A coral food to help growth and colors. A murky yellow thing -- almost "thick"
• Pohl's Xtra - Color enhancer for hard corals like SPS and LPS. 
• Coral Snow - I haven't started using this yet, as they recommend waiting until the 3 month mark. But it contains a binding agent designed to help the protein skimmer. People say that the skimmer pulls a super thick sludge from the tank after dosing, and the water becomes crystal clear. Also supposed to help with a cynao outbreak. Will report more once I've used it.

Given how short my tank has been setup, it's hard to say what effect the added elements are having, but I think we'll see it in time. I can definitely see the impact of the core ZeoVit system at this point as the water parameters are super stable and on point, and I have almost no algae growth in the tank. There was a brief blip of algae as the bacteria settled in and things equalized, but it went away very quickly. I credit ZeoVit with that. 

 

 

[KMitch]

👉 SHIPPING A TANK TO ENGLAND

 

We found out we were moving to England in October 2021, and our belongings were packed and shipped in January 2022. We finally saw them again on the other side of the pond in late April 2022. 

 

The tank was shipped with the rest of our belongings -- but before anything was loaded onto a moving truck, it all had to be deep cleaned. And I mean DEEP cleaned. Every single piece of equipment was scrubbed, vinegar bathed, and cleaned in acid before shipment. Part of the reason for that is that anything shipped wet or gross was going to come out wetter and more gross. The other consideration is that there are rules about importing anything that is animal byproduct. Cleaning the equipment completely ensured we didn't run afoul of those regulations.

 

In addition to shipping the tank and equipment, we also ordered some supplies to restart the tank once it arrived. This included a bag of sand and about 30lbs of dry rock.

Moving day! Our belongings arriving in England in late April

 

Once it all arrived and was unpacked, it was time to re-construct the tank. As mentioned earlier, most of our equipment was dual voltage, so we haven't had to buy much. The biggest expense to restarting the tank was getting an aquarium heater that is 240V. We also had to ditch the Neptune Apex Energy Bar 8 as that doesn't work here.

 

 A pile of stuff... soon to become a new tank build

 

 

Installing the optical sensors for the ATO

 

 

Probe holder, heater, and media tray

 

👉 BUILDING AN AQUASCAPE

 

I have always been enamored with the idea of building an aquascape out of dry rock rather than just stacking stones. I've had some limited attempts at this in previous builds, but even those efforts were largely focused on gluing existing rocks together -- not building a custom scape.

 

@BulkReefSupply did a lot of content about the concept of a NSA - or negative space aquascape -- and the concepts and techniques that they described resonated with me. I liked the idea of having a scape that afforded more swimming space by being open, yet having the complexity needed to provide lots of fish shelter and space for corals. This will be my first time doing an NSA scape and starting a tank with dry rock, though I am using "live sand" to help seed the bacteria colonies. 

 

As mentioned before, I purchased and brought roughly 30lbs of dry rock with me during the move. It came in big boulder shapes. I also purchased two of the medium sized base rocks, which are milled flat so that they sit perfectly on the glass bottom of the tank.

 

 

To start, I used a moving box and drew out the dimensions of the tank on the box, so I could visualize the walls of the tank as I worked. I then took a hammer and chisel to a bunch of these boulders and broke them into smaller pieces. They key here is to try and crack the rocks into shapes that aren't round balls. Going from big boulders to little boulders isn't any better!

 

I was able to chisel out a bunch of fun and interesting shapes. I put those into a bucket, along with little "scrap" chunks and the sandy dust. I wanted to save those little chunks and the sand to help cover up my joining later.

 

 

 

 

To build the actual scape I used a combination of JB Weld "Water Weld" epoxy putty, super glue, and instant set for super glue. The JB Weld is super strong when it cures and is aquarium safe, so that was the primary structural bond. I used the super glue and instant set to help hold things together so I could build a little faster without needed the epoxy to fully set before adding to the rock work.

 

 

 

 

 

I also used the super glue to help attach little chunks and sand to the structure to cover up the epoxy as I went. In the end, you really really have to look for it to find some of those join spots.

 

I am incredibly happy with the finished product. It offers lots of space to mount corals and give room for growth, while also limiting how much any coral would shade another as it grows. And there are lots of holes and hidden nooks for fish to explore and take up habitat.

 

👉 ENGLISH WATER QUALITY

 

I brought the RODI unit with me and a new set of filters as well. When I first started, I tested the TDS of the water from the tap to see how it compared against what I used to get from the tap in Virginia. Back in the states, the TDS was around 200. Here it is 60! The result? I can crank out RODI water with 0 TDS at an astonishing rate. It used to take about an hour to fill a 5 gal bucket -- now I can do it in a little over 10 minutes. This has been an incredibly pleasant surprise.

 

 

[debbeach13]

Love that aquascape!

[Reefkid88]

That is an incredible scape,hats off to you !!! 

[KMitch]

Not much to report as I await the tank cycle. The pH has been higher than I want (8.5), so I’m going to need to explore options to help safely lower that….

[Snow_Phoenix]

The scape is beautiful! 

[LazyFish]

Lovely scape. Im folowing along to see how it turns out! My ground water in rural louisiana comes out of our deep well system at 56. That one of the few benefits to being where I'm at currently.

[Coral Grimes]

On 5/4/2022 at 10:24 PM, KMitch said:

Thanks! Where about are you located? I’ll happily take recommendations on good fish stores, online suppliers, etc!

Welcome to the U.K.! I’m in Yorkshire too.

 

Can second the recommendation for Coralz, I got good-sized, really healthy zoas from them for super cheap.

 

E-Marine Aquatics are located down in Essex so I’ve only used them online but their customer service was fantastic and their prices are great. They got eight sexy shrimp and a gorgeous toadstool to me in tip-top shape. Really well-packaged.

 

Radical Reefs in Leeds is one I’m wanting to try, real good selection and great reviews.

 

 

[KMitch]

On 5/18/2022 at 4:02 PM, Coral Grimes said:

Welcome to the U.K.! I’m in Yorkshire too.

Thanks for the recommendations! I will check them out. 
 

I am about to head out on some travel so although the tank is probably close to cycled, I’m not going to add any livestock until I’m back. I did order a new product I’m excited to try… I’ll share more about that soon. 
 

Right now the biggest debate I face is stocking of fish. Pair of clowns? (Aka “old reliable”). Something more fun? Open to ideas! The only rule is that it’s gotta be a fish that can go a week or two eating off an auto feeder. I can’t do something that requires vigilant feeding of frozen foods or specialty foods knowing that I’ll be traveling at times. 

[KMitch]

It has been a few weeks since I updated, so let's play catch up....

 

I've been busy building up the biome in this tank using some new products, including the mud from AquaForest and this "Substrate Sauce". I can certainly tell it is working as I'm getting coloring on the glass and rocks. Also saw the nitrates and nitrites raise and then fall, so I feel pretty good that the tank is cycled.

 

I also plumbed in all the dosing lines for Alkalinity, Calcium, and my ATO. This is a lot of stuff in a small space, so making it all fit has been a challenge. Here's what we have in the back chamber:

• Filter floss
• AquaForest Life BioMate media in an InTank basket
• Heater
• Carbon
• AquaForest Phosphate Minus
• Return pump
• pH probe
• temp probe
• ATO low water sensor
• ATO high water sensor
• ATO refill input
• Alkalinity input
• Calcium input
• Trident water sample hose

Phew!

 

 

 

And now the bad part -- I added a pair of clowns 2 weeks ago and both died VERY quickly. Like within 90 minutes. They were respirating really hard and fast before they expired. Never seen anything like that. So I gave it a few weeks, did some W/Cs, and decided to try again. Same result. They had a nice slow drip acclimation too. I even added a few small cheap frags and all three died within a few hours. I've never seen anything like it. Clownfish are pretty bulletproof, so to have 4 die that fast has been a big head scratcher. No ammonia, no nitrates, no nitrites. Temp is 78 and pH is 8.4. Best I can figure there is something in the water supply here in the UK that is killing these fish like a crazy toxin that my RO unit isn't removing.... but what? I have tested for chlorine and get none. I am doing an ICP test on both the RO unit and tank water to see if that helps shed some light on this head scratcher..... So until I have that worked out, it continues to be a boring box o' water....