30L - 10g nano reef

[Tturtudau]

Started a Nano reef tank 30l (approx 10g) almost 2 months ago. The journey has been very challenging.
Originally got some of the rock & critters from someone who wanted to repurpose his aquarium to host turtles. so did not start completely from scratch.
System:
-Modified biorb 30L with back valves for filter
-Filtosmart 100L canister filter in line with a UV clarifier
-Kessil A80 with controller
-TMC nano 1000 wavemaker

Current stock list:
-pair of clowns
-CUC: 2 hermits, 5 turbo snails, 2 cowries, 1 conch (my son calls him the elephant snail)
-corals: Pulsing Xenia, GSP, 3 other soft polyps (not identified yet), montipora plating, duncan

 

[griss]

Looks pretty good

 

[Coral Mania]

Wow that’s an awesome set up, you don’t see orbs that often.

 

[Tturtudau]

Evolution so far:
- star polyps doing great, one doubled and one tripled in size so far. they are on separate rocks so I can move them around if needed.
- Duncan seems to be ok as well2, I think another head is coming on, which should be a good sign
-Plating Montipora - mixed. On the green area I see the colour becoming stronger and more polyp heads are visible since I got it. There are white new growing margins around the fragmented areas. However in some other areas I see the colour fading a bit.
- I have some other un-identified green soft corals that look like mini GSP - they do okayish and close in the evening before the lights being switched off
- Pulsing Xenia did amazing at the very beginning but now is doing so and so - they are not as vertical and happy as they once were

 

[griss]

Everything looks good to me. Xenia tend to like a bit, “dirtier” water IME.

 

[Tturtudau]

One of the first challenges: The reef/décor build inside a Biorb was very tricky due to small top access hole.

I decided to have a tall structure to kind of cover the view of the cables in the back. due to small opening on the top I could not drop in the whole thing. So I decided to make it modular using Duplo bricks. I glued the dry rocks onto the duplo bricks with a glue gun. Once approx fixed in position I used red putty to cover glue area and what was visible from the bricks.

Front of the rock area is dedicated to corals, in the back I have some Chaetomorpha macro algae, but is hidden from view

 

[Tturtudau]

Everything looks good to me. Xenia tend to like a bit, “dirtier” water IME.

yes I heard that as well. looked better at the beginning...

 

[reefing102]

A very interesting build

 

[Tturtudau]

A very interesting build

Still modular can take the decor apart and put it back on as duplos will click in exact same position.

 

[Tturtudau]

Spirorbid worms on the glass... some say they appear when the tank is starting to stabilize

 

[Tturtudau]

Got a small seastar today. Seems peacefully grazing on the algae

 

[Tturtudau]

And oficially my 3 head duncan is promoted for 4 head duncan...

 

[reefing102]

Starfish looks to be a little asterina. In my experience nothing to worry about

 

[Tturtudau]

I had a weird one today. 2 days ago one on my turbos died. I decided to keep it in as one of my hermits already decided to eat it. But then this morning something was strange. All my CUCs were still and my clowns swimming at the top gasping for air. Corals doing fine but got this weird feeling my tank was crashing. I tested the water and all ok but something was clearly off. Decided to do a big water change and with that to also clean the gravel (lots of dirty water). I also removed some of the rocks inside to make more space and allow to vacuum the sand. Now tonight will add some more water and clean the canister filter.

 

[griss]

Hope everything is okay.

 

[reefing102]

Although it’s testing okay, I’m curious if you got a small bacteria bloom from the die off of the snail resulting in low oxygen

 

[Tturtudau]

I saved the tank by doing a massive water change so no casualties besides the original snail.
Also I did vacuum the sand which led me to another potential issue: i had too much rock in and the shape of the bowl is not very good to allow proper cleaning.
I removed one of my rocks but kept all the original live rocks. Also while cleaning the surface of the Biorb I scratched the bowl so now need to fix this - the acrylic seems very soft.
I plan to remove the Montipora due to high light needed that affects my softies. Will replace it with some firework cloves

 

[Tturtudau]

I removed Montipora and replaced it with firework cloves which are doing great.

 

[Tturtudau]

I think I have a bristle worm in my aquarium :-(

 

[kharmaguru]

I think I have a bristle worm in my aquarium :-(View attachment 32392089

It's a good thing for such a small water volume IMO. Free janitor.