tommer's Aquatop 13 Vertical Bowfront

[tommer]

Most Recent FTS:

 

9/19/2023

 

Past FTS's:

Spoiler

FTS: 12/29/2022

 

FTS: 11/14/2022

 

Original Post and Equipment:

Spoiler

I recently purchased an Aquatop 13 Gallon Vertical Bowfront tank from someone wanting to sell their entire setup. This concludes my 4-5 year break from the hobby I guess!

 

Equipment list of what I got from sale:

Aquatop 13 Gallon Vertical Bowfront Tank with pump, and filtration supplies

Aqua Knight A029 LED Light

Refractometer

Aquatic Life RO Buddie

 

Red Sea DipX

API Reef Master Test Kit

API Saltwater Master Test Kit

Salifert Magnesium Test Kit

Probiotix New Life Spectrum Food

Aquavitro calcification for reefs

 

Livestock:

Lightning Mochachino Oscellaris Clownfish

GSP

4 acan frags

 

Overall, not bad for $275…

 

When I went to break down the tank on November 5th, I noticed that the GSP and acans were closed up. It wasn’t until I got home and set up the tank that I found out that the salinity was sitting at 1.035. I noticed that the refractometer was a cheap knockoff of one of the good ones. It felt a lot lighter. I took it to a LFS to have them calibrate with their water. They calibrated it for me, and I took it home. The salinity was sitting closer to 1.038. I am betting that is why the coral aren’t opening up, but the clownfish doesn’t seem to have a problem with this salinity. Over the next 2 days, I brought the salinity down. After that, I added 3 hermit crabs and 4 astraea snails.

 

Current Equipment:

Tank: Aquatop BFT-13 Vertical Bowfront

Light: Aqua Knight A029

Skimmer: Reef Glass Nano Skimmer + Eheim air100

ATO: JBJ ATO + Aqualifter

Powerhead: Vortech MP10

Heating: InkBird ITC-306A Controller with Aquatop GH-75W and Eheim Jager 75W heaters

 

Livestock:

2 Snowflake Clownfish

2 Blue-Green Chromis

3 Nassarius Snails

3 Hermit Crabs

[tommer]

Here are the corals as of today. I really think that the salinity being as high as it did had an impact from them, and I am hoping they pull through.

 

This acan is pretty healthy. Very puffed out, and seems happy.

 

I am a little worried about this acan. You can see towards the front and left, there is newly exposed skeleton.

This acan seems to be alright.

 

Not sure what to make of this guy yet.

 

The GSP is staying all closed up, and only has a few heads poking out.

 

A water test concluded nothing out of the ordinary, so I am left believing that the high salinity is the main culprit of the damages I am seeing.

[WV Reefer]

46 minutes ago, tommer said:

FTS: 11/14/2022

 

I recently purchased an Aquatop 13 Gallon Vertical Bowfront tank from someone wanting to sell their entire setup. This concludes my 4-5 year break from the hobby I guess!

 

Equipment list of what I got from sale:

Aquatop 13 Gallon Vertical Bowfront Tank with pump, and filtration supplies

Aqua Knight A029 LED Light

Refractometer

Aquatic Life RO Buddie

 

Red Sea DipX

API Reef Master Test Kit

API Saltwater Master Test Kit

Salifert Magnesium Test Kit

Probiotix New Life Spectrum Food

Aquavitro calcification for reefs

 

Livestock:

Lightning Mochachino Oscellaris Clownfish

GSP

4 acan frags

 

Overall, not bad for $275…

 

When I went to break down the tank on November 5th, I noticed that the GSP and acans were closed up. It wasn’t until I got home and set up the tank that I found out that the salinity was sitting at 1.035. I noticed that the refractometer was a cheap knockoff of one of the good ones. It felt a lot lighter. I took it to a LFS to have them calibrate with their water. They calibrated it for me, and I took it home. The salinity was sitting closer to 1.038. I am betting that is why the coral aren’t opening up, but the clownfish doesn’t seem to have a problem with this salinity. Over the next 2 days, I brought the salinity down. After that, I added 3 hermit crabs and 4 astraea snails.

Cute clownfish. 

[tommer]

Updates!

 

On Tuesday, I got an old MP10w out of storage from my old reefing days, and the new wetside that I had ordered just the day prior arrived. It's not anything special, but it is an upgrade to the flow that I think has started to benefit the tank. I turned it up high, and it sure stirred up a lot of debris that had fallen into the crushed coral. I did a 4 gallon water change on Monday, but the amount of debris that was stirred up made me think to do another 4 gallons to remove more debris. The MP10 dryside does make a little bit of noise, so I believe I may upgrade to the new QuietDrive MP10 next year instead of replacing the bearings on this old dryside.

 

 

 

 

 

With the increase in flow, I have noticed the GSP has a few heads peeking out now. I counted 8 out at one point today, while the most I had seen was 2. I really think the GSP was hit harder than the acans by the high salinity from the old owner of the tank. Glad to see the GSP may make it out alive.

 

 

 

The acans got fed a little bit of reef roids today, and all except the last pictured acan enjoyed it. The last acan didn't have much in terms of tentacles out, and with the exposed skeleton damage I think that this one had the roughest time with the high salinity. Staying hopeful for it though.

[tommer]

The astraea snails and hermit crabs have been putting in work since I put them in 8 days ago. The snails have made themselves at home on the rockwork, and the crabs are exploring. They went crazy when I fed the acans today, haven't seen them move that fast. The crabs have been digging between the glass and crushed coral to get to the debris trapped underneath. Once the tank becomes more stable and the corals are happier one of my future upgrades will be swapping out the crushed coral for a nice sand to eliminate the amount of debris trapped in the crushed coral.

 

[tommer]

Update!

 

 

I managed to snag a bag of CaribSea Special Grade sand on Black Friday for 15 bucks, and swapped out all of the crushed coral for the sand. Didn't have too much of an issue with swapping it out. I also got some new corals at a LFS during their Black Friday sale. Zoanthids, a hammer, montipora, mushroom and an acan. They sat on my sandbed since Black Friday, but I glued everything to the rock yesterday.

 

 

 

The GSP is starting to open up gradually more since I got it, and it has been coloring up to a nice green recently. I'm sure soon it'll be growing like crazy.

[tommer]

The acans I got with the tank are starting to color up nicely from their brown dull colors. The acan on the left in this picture was a very deep brown color when I got it, and it is getting its color back now that I have the tank and the salinity is stable.

 

 

I also got a Reef Glass skimmer as a Christmas present, and it has been chugging away for the past 2 days. I have it hooked to a Tetra air pump I picked up, which is quite noisy. I have an Eheim air pump on the way, so I hope that will be quieter. I don't know if I'll get a lot of gunk out of the tank yet, but I like having a skimmer on my tank just because of the oxygen transfer.

 

 

I am not 100% sure if this is cyanobacteria or not. I've had it for about a month now and it's not going away. I've been vacuuming a little bit up with each water change, but if anyone has any feedback on routes to take (or verify it's cyano) I'm all ears.

 

I watched this talk recently:

How 15 Answers Changed the Way I Look at My Tank Forever! 10 Months of Biome Cycling 12 Aquariums.

This is one of the best talks I've heard in a while, and thought I would share it here. In the future I think I am going to order some pods for the tank to help with biodiversity.

 

I was also thinking about my next steps. I want to get a screen top to help with oxygen transfer a little more. The glass top also gets dirty and has condensation on it, which I think makes the light less effective. With a screen top instead of glass I think I am going to get an ATO to help with the added evaporation. Some people around me are selling used Tunzes and I might pick one up soon. I also would like to upgrade to an MP10qd in the future, because the dry side on this old one is a little loud. I may end up doing a bearing replacement instead. Not sure yet.

 

In terms of livestock, I really would like to get a Squamosa clam in the future. I had 4 Croceas and a Squamosa around 2013, and they are still one of the coolest creatures in my mind. I have been researching a little bit, and I would like to know about any successes in keeping clams in nanos, and if phyto feeding is needed in a smaller system. I would also love to add more in terms of livestock, like a cleaner shrimp, bangaii cardinal, and maybe a yellow clown goby/pistol pair.

 

I also was thinking about increasing the biodiversity of the tank, and want to figure out how to get more. I haven't seen a single bristle worm in my tank ever, and I would love to get some of those micro brittle stars that everyone seems to have but I can never find. I would like to get those tiny sponges that grow everywhere as well, but I guess I am spoiled because my old tank had rock from a 13 year old system that I bought some of, and I got all of that biodiversity in the first tank I had, and took it for granted. Seeding copepods and amphipods in the future will hopefully help with that, and hopefully I can find someone around that has a little bit of healthy seed rock. I am not sure if this tank was started from dry rock or not.

[tommer]

This mushroom is a little closed up due to me gluing the rock its attached to to my rock, but if anyone knows the name please let me know. The LFS gave me a name for it but I forgot to write it down.

[tommer]

Added a Bangaii Cardinal and a Cleaner Shrimp yesterday. It's nice to add some personality to the tank.

[debbeach13]

This tank has made great progress in a short time. Good job.

[tommer]

20 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

This tank has made great progress in a short time. Good job.

Appreciate it! I think it has come a long way from where it was. I think having a plan for where I want to be a year from now with it is pushing me to make improvements now, and get the tank as healthy as possible as a result.

[tommer]

Here's the setup beside the tank as of now. I added an Eheim air100 that I got from BRS to replace the Tetra air pump that was loud. Love Eheim pumps for being quiet, and this air pump is very quiet compared to the brand new Tetra air pump that started rattling in 3 days. Now I can run the skimmer in peace. I also picked up a few spare air stones for the Reef Glass skimmer with my BRS order.

 

I also added a JBJ ATO that I dug out of storage. Being on a smaller tank, the pump I used in my sump on my old setup was too big, and even with the flow turned all the way down it would fill up the pump reservoir at the back very quickly. A weird thing about the JBJ ATO is the pump runs for a few seconds when power turns back on. It also runs for a few seconds after the float switch is triggered back to normal level, meaning that it would fill up over the baffles in back, flooding the skimmer. I am going to try to grab an old Aqualifter that I had in storage in a few days for that, so the back reservoir will fill more slowly. I am leaving the ATO plugged in but the pump unplugged, but just filling by hand until I get the Aqualifter installed.

 

 

Another thing that I want to change now that I will have a working ATO in a few days is getting a screen built for the top. The space that the skimmer takes up means that the glass top is pushed towards the front, and hangs over the tank. I would like to make a screen top that covers the back corners of the angled overflows, but leaves a gap in the back so I can run my wires and tubes to the back. I believe I am going to do a BRS custom screen kit for that, but I think I will wait a few weeks before starting that. I also think that the condensation on the glass is limiting the light that gets through it, so having a screen top will help my lighting to my corals be more consistent.

 

[tommer]

 

Did a 4.5 gal water change last night, and cleaned up some of the cyano off the sand bed. Here's to hoping it doesn't come back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also for some reason she is scared of the buckets when I do water changes. Had to reassure her that the buckets are in fact not dangerous.

[less than bread]

Weird thing I’ve noticed about some easy to care for corals like GSP, they are very reactive. I’ve had my GSP close up for days with no explanation and then they’re fine. My duncans do that too

[tommer]

2 hours ago, less than bread said:

Weird thing I’ve noticed about some easy to care for corals like GSP, they are very reactive. I’ve had my GSP close up for days with no explanation and then they’re fine. My duncans do that too

Yeah, funny you mention that. There's been a few days where it's been fine and then closed up for a few days with no changes to the tank. However, after I got the salinity stable from it being at 1.040 when I got it, the GSP has been consistently more open than not.

 

 

 

 

On another note, I've noticed a tiny amount of hair algae. Not enough to take over the tank, but trying to be proactive I dug my TDS meter that came with my BRS RODI out of storage the other day. I wanted to make sure the RO unit didn't need replacement cartridges. After going through the debacle of finding a suitable battery replacement for the LR44G batteries inside, I picked up a pack of Energizer 357 batteries at Walgreens and hooked it up to my Aquatic Life RO Buddie, and thankfully I'm showing 0 TDS out. I don't feed a ton, so I'm just going to keep watching the GHA to make sure it doesn't become an actual problem.

 

[tommer]

Little Update

 

Thursday, I noticed my shrimp had molted. I'm taking that as a sign that he's doing well.

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend, I installed the Aqualifter I got out of storage onto the JBJ ATO. It's been working well, and it is nice to not have to top off the tank.

 

Also my Reef Glass skimmer has been working well in this tank. This is the skim I've gotten from it since I installed it. 

 

 

[Jaren45]

On the topic of the older mp10, you can actually upgrade just the driver itself and it will reduce the noise by a significant amount alone. I did that to an older mp40 that was driving me crazy and it worked great. A lot cheaper than buying a whole new powerhead, I think they're around $60-70 from ecotech. Plus if that current dry side goes out, you can also order a dry side by itself from ecotech, which is only like $120 if I remember

[tommer]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:34 AM, Jaren45 said:

On the topic of the older mp10, you can actually upgrade just the driver itself and it will reduce the noise by a significant amount alone. I did that to an older mp40 that was driving me crazy and it worked great. A lot cheaper than buying a whole new powerhead, I think they're around $60-70 from ecotech. Plus if that current dry side goes out, you can also order a dry side by itself from ecotech, which is only like $120 if I remember

I'll have to look into it a little more for sure. I was debating between a new driver, new dryside, replacing the bearings in the dryside, or just ordering a whole new one. Now that you've brought it up, it seems like the MP10 is a lot quieter today than it was a month ago, so not sure what that's about. I will probably end up buying the driver first and going from there if I start having problems like you suggested.

[tommer]

Just found my shrimp dead. Not a good start to the day. He was fine last night. 😞 He had just molted, and I know they are sensitive right after a molt. Not sure what could have done him in though.

 

 

Here's a few pictures I took 2 days ago documenting the hair algae and cyano problems that have been coming back. 

 

 

I've been keeping track of the parameters in an excel spreadsheet. Please let me know if anyone sees anything off that may affect the shrimp. I am not sure what happened to him, and am bummed he died.

I am going to do another water test tonight, but everything has been stable since I got him, and I would like to get another shrimp if I can figure out the issue that caused him to die. 

[tommer]

5

Noticed today these zoas are closed up. When I got these zoanthids, I believe I had zoanthid eating nudibranchs. I dipped every 3 days, and I thought I got rid of them. Guess they're back! Back to dipping.

 

Also continually noticing more hair algae. Not feeding a lot, but I am wondering if the shrimp dying is the cause of the hair algae bloom. Going to remove as much as possible in water changes today and tomorrow.

 

Tank seems to be in an ugly stage. The cyano from a few weeks ago also came back. Didn't take a picture of it before the water change I did today.

[tommer]

A lot has happened since the last update on the tank, but I am going to get back into posting.

 

Firstly, around 5 days after my last post I found both my Banggai and my clownfish dead. I believe that when I got the Banggai and the Shrimp, there was some type of disease going around the store's tanks (that's what I get for buying from Petco I guess.) There were no other changes to the tank so that is my guess. Since then, I've been letting the tank coast and try to get it on track to get more fish.

 

This picture was taken roughly a week after the deaths of the fish and shrimp.

 

Then in March, I found this sponge growing on the side of my acan. Took that as a sign that the tank was healthy, but still didn't add fish.

 

In May, I found this little Nassarius snail roaming on the glass. Took that as another sign that the tank was doing well with a steady maintenance routine.

 

[tommer]

In July, I came back to the tank and found that the breaker that my tank was on had tripped after being gone for 2 weeks (bad stuff always happens to tanks when you're away).

While I'm not sure the amount of time that the tank was without power, it was enough time that an entire gallon of water had evaporated from this little 13 gallon. I only lost 4 corals though - my orange digi and the zoanthids by it, green mushroom, and my orange zoanthids. Not bad really considering all the corals I had in there.

 

The other corals have been in rough shape, but have been healing well.

I didn't take many pictures of the damage but here's the 2 pictures I did take a week after power was restored and a few water changes.

[tommer]

More recently,

 

I've started dosing Seachem's Reef Plus at a rate of 2.5 mL every 3 days. The corals have all seemed to benefit, but the especially damaged corals from the power outage have been healing better with this addition. One of the biggest comebacks was this hammer coral, which was down to the skeleton after the power outage and I didn't think would make it.

 

Dosing Reef Plus is great, but I've thought of switching up to something with calcium, had my eye on Tropic Marin's All-For-Reef. Got a Red Sea Reef Foundation Kit coming next week, so I'll do the math and figure out if my 10% weekly water changes are enough to keep the calcium up or not.

 

I bought a hairy mushroom for the tank. It's nostalgic to me because this was one of my first corals when I started reef keeping 11 years ago.

 

I've also bought a small toadstool, kenya tree, and some zoanthids from a local reef keeper last week.

 

I'll have to get a picture of the Kenya tree, but I've got it in kind of a weird spot to keep it in a lower flow area.

 

I think I'm done buying corals for a while, and going to focus on coral health and chemistry for a while. I've got some rock from my old 20gal reef curing in the meantime, and in a few months or maybe early next year I'll redo the aquascape after I get all the rock cured and cycled. Not holding my breath on that though, would rather the tank be stable than screw it all up with a bunch of new rock, so we will see.

 

On another note, the dry side of my MP10 is starting to make grinding noises, but I just keep adjusting it to minimize the vibrations. I knew it would give out eventually given how old it is. Going to see if I can get an MP10 maybe on Black Friday, hoping there's a sale. If it gives out before then I'll replace it with a Hydor Koralia I've got sitting in the bucket of curing rock.

 

I also found a cabinet for sale locally to use as a stand. I am going to try to pick it up tomorrow to get the tank out of the kitchen it's in. When I cook bacon the grease sometimes will settle on the tank and water surface, which probably isn't good!!!

[tommer]

Ended up picking up the cabinet on Friday. Not bad for $20.

 

 

After a little organizing and moving the tank onto the stand, wasn't too happy with the mess. Also noticed some sag in the middle from the weight.

 

 

 

Built some supports to take care of the weight distribution problem. Put a board up on the top support to mount controllers and stuff. Bought a stick on Command-Strip towel rack and put on the inside of the door. Put some LED strip lights in as well. Also found some totes that fit well in the stand. Top left basket holds cables and power bricks. Top right basket holds food and stuff I dose. Bottom right tote holds testing stuff. Bottom left tote will be a future ATO setup. Going to put a float valve on it with these quick disconnect fittings so I can hook up my RODI unit and fill it without worrying about spills or overfilling. My AquaLifter doesn't have enough power to pump from that shelf to the tank, so I need to find a more powerful pump to use for an ATO setup from that spot.

[tommer]

Update:

 

 

 

Got a screen top built for the tank! Used the BRS DIY kit, with Neat Aquatics Rimless Corners and a Feeding Portal.

 

On Labor Day I took advantage of some sales that some local shops were offering. The tank has life again!

2 Snowflake Clowns and 2 Chromis. The fish were all 40% off so I felt like I got a good deal.

Until I my hands on our DSLR this is the best picture I've been able to get of them. Hopefully will be able to get a good FTS then as well.

The Chromis are probably going to be temporary residents in this tank for another tank build I've got in the works.

 

  

 

The fish and a hermit crab have been named today as well

The 2 Chromis are Click and Clack (no distinction between which is which).

The Snowflake at the bottom is Calvin and the Snowflake at the top is Theo.

The hermit's name is King Kong. It's a good name because he keeps knocking my corals off the rocks that aren't glued down.

 

 

  

I also managed to get this anemone for free when I bought the clowns. It's is a little guy, but I've been feeding it regularly so hopefully I'll be able to get some growth. I also got some Nassarius Snails to help kick the cyanobacteria through sand bed turnover.

 

I used Chemiclean a few weeks ago to help kick the cyano as it was coating my acans, and it hasn't come back since then. I am dosing Microbacter7 as well now for this tank because I've heard that also can help. I also ended up doing the heat shrink tubing mod on my MP10 wetside. The wetside was very loud when I had turned up the flow to help with the cyano, and I took it apart to find out the ceramic shaft was cracked. So far so good with the noise since I've done that mod. I was able to turn it up with no noise issues. I also put a 3D printed anemone guard on the MP10 that I got off of Amazon. It's visible in the fish picture.