DIY 20g Long Build Thread

Time for an overdue update. I have hardly seen the tank over the last month, just drive back to Austin once a week to make sure the auto topoff has water and the automatic feeder has food. Feeding flake to my cleaner shrimp and GUC has increased the phosphate in the water quite a bit, tested at .16 a week ago, normally less than .03. This has led to the hair algae that was diminishing to come back guns blazing, drats. Interestingly, the pokerstar monti that has never had any color is starting to color up, so I guess he is enjoying the higher phosphates.

I started target feeding the LPS heavily about three months ago, the growth has increased dramatically. My acans are now almost completely covering the rock they are on, I am interested to see what they will do now.

I picked up a starry blenny. He is very attractive and I am looking forward to watching him. The day I took him home, he was being shy and did not come out much. Hopefully he is settled when I go check on the tank early next week.

Also picked up a couple of small colonies from a friend who is taking a leave of absence from the hobby. One is a 4" ora hawkins echinita and the other is a red planet. Both lost some color when he changed to LEDs, so I am excited to see how well I can get them colored back up. Also picked up a small pearlberry frag.

The tank restructuring is pretty much done now, just looking forward to watching it grow in. Santa was nice to the tank. I got a battery backup for the Vortech, a moonlight the Reef Angel controls, and the wireless module for the Reef Angel. Looking forward to being able to monitor the controller on my phone.

Enough blabbering, here are some pics.

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Here is an updated shot of the wife's tank. Added a frag of red ppe and an acan from my tank. Also got some GSP, her favorite..., and I am splitting an forest fire digi frag with her. We added a clown fish this week as well. Also added a red and green LED to the lights and I think it helped a lot. Makes the color a little more white and not as much of a washed out blue color as some LEDs have.

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Thanks for the comments guys. I will try to upload some new pictures later tonight.

There have been some new additions over the last month. After much debate, I finally settled on some fish. I added a naked clown fish, a cherub angel, a blue stripe pipefish and a randall's watchman goby with pistol shrimp. I am still hunting for a pair of green banded gobies, but no one seems able to get them lately.

I also added a couple of corals. One purple with green polyp acro that looks like a bonsai to me. I also added a forest fire digi. The most frustrating addition was a beautiful neon green hammer coral I picked up from Austin Aqua Farms that I lost. I didn't see it at the shop, but when I got home I could see some skeleton exposed and I knew it was in trouble. It slowly receded the first few days and then all the tissue came off the skeleton pretty quickly. I was frustrated as it was one of the best hammers I have ever seen, and it cost a pretty penny.

Everything is going well and growing. Used Tunze salt for the first time. Really like all the parameters after it mixes. After using it the first time I had an algae explosion. I made a fresh batch of water and tested the phosphates, .28. Geez. So now I run GFO in the fresh mixed water until it tests 0. Now I am fighting back the algae that resulted. It seems I have been battling algae for quite a while, which is getting a little frustrating. Time to seriously monitor nutrient inputs and be more cognizant of testing phosphates to monitor when GFO needs to be replaced.

Pictures to come later.
 
Tried to take some pictures to update the thread. I am hoping in the next month or two to have someone local with a better camera come over and take some shots.

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Red Planet and Hawkins are coloring up nicely
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I accidentally broke the blue polyp digi today on the left branch and then glued it on backwards....
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New acro in back. I am really excited about this one.
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The fish being buddies. The angel picked on the clown the first day, but now they follow each other around all the time. My randall's goby was being shy and didn't want to be photoed. Cant complain about modesty.
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A shot of the acros with the dendro in back. The dendro has been growing well.
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A shot down the side.
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Here is the control panel for the controller that I can view on my browser. I also have an app for my phone that allows me to monitor and control everything. I need to recalibrate the pH probe, I do not think it is really that high.

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Couple of other points to note. I added a dosing pump for Ca and Alk. I have them pretty tuned in now and everything is staying stable. I am keeping Ca at 480 and Alk at 8.0. Keeping this constant has really helped with the growth and color.

I have been obtaining quotes for my tank upgrade this fall. I am thinking it will be 40" x" 30" x 20". Should be right around 100g. I think I will go with a DIY wavebox and a closed loop on a VFD for flow. I am still really up in the air about lighting. It will either be a MH/T5 combo or a DIY Led fixture.
 
Sinclair81 said:
How do you like your controller? I have never seen that one before, do you use the wifi stuff too?
Click to expand...

I like the controller a lot. It has its quirks, but overall it is an excellent controller for the price. I do use the wifi with it as well, which is really nice. Not only can I see how the tank is doing when I am away, but it will also send me alerts if the temp or pH ever go beyond specified points. I can use my Iphone to control everything, including turning a pump or the lights on and off at will. I did a pretty detailed write up on the last page, you should check it out if you are considering it.

Ange- I haven't been to FJW in a month or so. I actually havent been to Houston is the only reason. Also, there is a guy in Austin who usually has Pearlberry frags. I can see if he has some and bring one down for you next time I come to Houston if you are interested.
 
Yea I remember reading that awhile ago but must have breezed back through it looking for your update on it. Why did you choose that controller over some of the more popular brands?
 
The two biggest factors for me was the endless possibilities to program the controller to do anything you want and the price. I think the controller can do everything the more popular brands can do at a much lower price point. The trade off is a little bit more work on the part of the owner to program it and deal with some of the peculiarities, but there is a thriving forum to help with any issues. Plus the owner, Roberto, goes above and beyond to help with any questions, concerns or problems.
 
That sounds great, I own a PC, so I assume that it will be easier for me to set up (and crash), so I think that is what I am leaning to.
P.S. I miss your ricordia island!
 
Yeah, you and me both.

If you are really considering it, go spend some time on the RA website and check out the forums. They can certainly help answer any questions you may have.
 
Just wanted to give an update on the few changes.

I added a BRS reactor and added their GFO to it. I had been running GFO passively in my media basket, but it had not been keeping up--especially with the twice a day fish feedings. I also changed to BRS carbon after watching a video demonstration of their carbon versus other carbon. I can't tell any results from that yet, but I do not think it can hurt.

I also added the final fish (unless I can find a pair of green banded gobies). I took Kafudafish's suggestion and went with a tailspot blenny. He has found two holes he likes, at opposite ends of the tank. I have really enjoyed watching him and he has a great personality. The other fish are doing well. The blue stripe pipefish looks as fat or fatter than when I got him, so that is positive. I added a bottle of tiger pods to the tank and the refugium a week or two ago to make sure there was sufficient food. The cherub and angel spend a lot of time together and add a lot of color and personality to the tank.

On the coral front, everything seems to be going well. The LPS have increased their growth lately it seems, which is good. The two big SPS pieces I got around Christmas have really colored up well. The red planet is showing nice green coloration on the base with bright pink tips. From researching this piece, this seems to be the color it receives in lower light, so I have been slowly lowering my lights about an inch to see if it will help change the pink to red. The only sad news I have is I have lost a colony of yellow zoas, I think I was told they were Poseidon's fury. I have had them for a year and they grew from 4 polyps to 17-18 and then about a month ago just started melting. I am now down to 3 that look abysmal. Sometimes I find zoas very frustrating.

I bought a beautiful blue lovelli staghorn to add, but when I got home and inspected it, there were some sort of bugs on it. I tried dipping it, but they persisted, so I tossed the frag. I have a zero tolerance policy for any sort of possible bug. It stinks having to throw away pieces, but it is never worth losing your entire acro collection. I am not sure the bugs were even a problem, the coral had great color and the tank it came from was exceptional, but again, not worth the chance to me.

That is about it for now. Looking for another blue stag and a green slimer and I think the corals will be complete for the tank.
 
Not too much to update. Tank is just going along and growing well. I added a BRS reactor running GFO and that has dropped the phosphates to zero. It has slowed the algae growth but has also made the corals lose a little color. I have started dosing amino acids to see if that will help.

On other fronts, I have spent a lot of time this week building an LED fixture for a friend. I am trying to decide whether I will run LEDs on my next set up. I have been unhappy with the look of LEDs with very few LED colors, so this build was to test using multiple colors. I am not sure how it will perform with corals, but the light color is by far the best I have seen, perhaps with the exception of the radions. I would say the light is 95% as good as my T5s. I have it running over my tank right now until my friend is ready to put it over their tank. Should be fun to see what it does. Here are a couple of pictures.

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The light is going on an RSM 130D
 
Time for another update. The tank has been humming along, other than one hiccup discussed in a bit.

The corals have been growing well and continuing to color up nicely. The fish are getting fat and seem to spend a fair amount of time hanging out together. The fish stocking is settled, unless I can ever find a pair of green banded gobies. There is currently a naked clown, a small pygmy angel, a tailspot blenny, a randall's watchman goby and a blue stripe pipefish. A bit on the high side for a 20, but everyone is doing great and the tank is unaffected.

I have been planning a tank upgrade when I move back to Dallas and start work in the fall. I was planning to build a custom tank somewhere around 130 gallons. However, I recently found a tank I could not pass up. It is a 30 x 30 x 15 rimless. I have never been a huge fan of cubes because I think they are very hard to aquascape well. But as I thought through it more and more, I decided the tank would look amazing with a three sided rock wall and an open center. This would really showcase the 30" front to back. I then jumped on the tank and now it is sitting in the corner waiting for me.

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The hiccup. I spilled water onto and in my controller a few weeks ago. I turned it off and dried it out and it powered back up. Every few days it would freeze and I would have to turn it off and back in. It was annoying but not a huge deal. One day last week it froze with the heater on. I had made the mistake of turning the rheostat on the heater all the way up to ensure the controller controlled it. I was confident in doing this because the controller had a built in function to turn the heater off if the tank ever reached a particular setting, I had it set at 83. Well, because the controller froze, this didn't happen and I came home to a tank at 91.5. I put ice in bags and brought the temperature down over the next hour. Most things were unscathed, but I lost my hawkins echinita, my favorite coral, and my acans. I also browned out the rest of the sps a decent bit. I was pretty frustrated, but learned a good lesson. Now my heater rheostat is set to 83 and I do not have to worry. The controller is also now fixed. I was fortunate the tank did not stay hot for long. Once again, learn the lesson from my mistake.

The losses gave me an opportunity to rescape the tank and I am very happy with how it came out. Here are a couple of shots from this afternoon.

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I will have to give you a bunch of credit the tank looks awesome. Seems so much bigger than a 20...very impressive.
 
Thank you all very much for the compliments. The tank has really been doing well lately. I will try to post some new pictures when I get back in town next week.
 
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