Kevin's 24Gal low profile nano

[ckevin]

Hi guys,

I hail from the tiny dot in Asia. Not sure how many of you have heard of Singapore. Small vibrant country of 5million residents. We are pretty blessed people. Reefers here are pretty pampered with good supply of corals and fish.
I have been on and off this hobby since 2003. While it seems like a long time, i have also lost a lot of reefing time when i had to focus on other important milestones in my life. So i am really just re-learning what i have forgotten and acquiring new knowledge and information.

I am happy to see that the hobby has come a long way from the times when the first wave maker(tunze) was as large as mug:rollface:

This reef was started in early 2015. This will be primarily a sps reef with nano fish.

Tank and equipment specs:
-5 sided crystal glass (8mm)
-36'x12'x11' (Display tank)
-
-DIY overflow
-1/10 HP chiller
-Tunze 9004 skimmer
-minimax all-in-one reactor from innovative marine. Carbon and phosguard
-8 litres of bacteria king media
-filter sock
-Giesemann T5 matrix II Dimtec 4x36w
-Tunze 6040 on wave mode

My rockwork is basically made of tonga rocks epoxied together. I had tried putting in other liferocks but took them out due to flow issues.

Fish
-red spot trimma
-silver belly goby
-2xsharknose

SPS
-cherry blossom
-yellow SSC
-Jade green montipora digitata
-Red motipora digitata
-Salmon motipora digitata
-superman encrusting montipora
-ultimate blue stag
-fiji pink birdnest
-tri color valida
-fiji pink stylopora
-purple stylopora
-purple maxima clam (2 inches)
-super suncoral
-green duncan
-green elegance coral


Hope the details didn't bore you guys.

Stay tune for more pictures and updates.

Cheers and best regards,
Kevin

 

[ckevin]

When i first set it up. Using FnM Salt.

You might notice the acrylic legs on holding up the Giesemann Matrix II lightset. I had these customed as i found the original legs too bulky.

 

[ReefWreak]

Theeere we go, I was waiting to see the pictures. Very nice. I was curious as to the dimensions would ultimately look. Looks neat. Can't wait to see the pics with the livestock in the tank!

 

[Webmanny]

Nice. Looks clean. I like it.

 

[ckevin]

 

[ckevin]

Will be receiving 3 more sps this coming Friday. 2 from a reefer who just did a rescape and is kind enough to pass on the extras.
-German blue montipora digitata
-radioactive bird nest
-fibre optic pocci
So excited.

 

[Devaji108]

View attachment 324293

LOVE the scape! Damn thats looks great!
sounds like reefing in Singapore is great I bet you DO get lots of goddies in...

 

[ckevin]

A pic of my sump.
You will notice that I have made a basket to hold my bacteria king media. It has a handle and I dip it like a tea bag several times before I drain the water from the middle compartment. That's how I change my water weekly.

This procedure prevents the media from accumulating too much grime and ultimately becoming a nitrate factory.

I also have 3 Japanese suncorals which I pellet feed weekly. I leave it in the sump only because I have not decided where to place them in DT.

 

[ckevin]

LOVE the scape! Damn thats looks great!
sounds like reefing in Singapore is great I bet you DO get lots of goddies in...

Thank you. Yes we do get quite a bit of goodies. However, Shipment days are usually fun gatherings. More so for Waltsmith and OZ sps.

We also have a forum that reefers do shipment reports if they happen to be the few first people to be available.

 

[ckevin]

I have been dripping kalk for my primary source of KH and CA replenishment.
so far i have been maintaining my kh at about 9 and my can between 430-450ppm.

I will usually dissolve a teaspoonful of kalk powder in a 500ml container. Then i wait for the residue to settle before i start the drip. Drip count is 1drip per 12seconds.

This kalk mix will usually last me 3 days. This is just right to compensate for loss of water from skimmate and evaporation.

I am observing daily growth of light patches of coraline growth on my front glass. I scrap these away almost daily as i like to keep the clean white look on my tank.

 

[ReefWreak]

Kalk makes life easy in the beginning of running a tank. I've always done it with my tanks, but I've always had to supplement 2 part as well, since my tank has always been mostly SPS.

Tank looks beautiful.

On a random side note, the Economist did a really interesting section on Singapore in one of the last few issues. I didn't really know anything about Singapore, but it's very different than the rest of the world, and very interesting. The only thing most people know about Singapore is that it's in Asia, and something about going to jail for spitting gum on the sidewalk.

I wish that was the case in NYC. Our streets are filled with food wrappers, broken glass, and excrement from many different animals (including human)

 

[ckevin]

 

[homer1475]

Not a fan of SPS's, but very nice looking tank.

 

[ckevin]

I have been feeding this Japanese suncoral with pellets. It has developed a very dark red over a period of 2 months. Awesome.

 

[ckevin]

Let us welcome new members to the family.
1)blue strip goby x2
2)red spot trimma x1
3)gold neon eviota goby x1
4)mini dart goby ×2

 

[ckevin]

 

[ckevin]

Bought this food for the gobies. First feed and they are already in feeding frnzy. That's a good start

 

[ckevin]

hi everyone! I am back. Did some changes to my rockscape and livestock. During this period, i had been fighting algae growth. Largely due to silica leech from the sand and bad water i had been using to do my water changes.

I run a 3 stage DI unit for water purification. However, due my mistake of failing to read the units properly, i had been reading it as 6 instead of 60 on the tds meter.

No wonder i suffered massive algae bloom each time i did water change. My skimmer would also go into frenzy and fiiled the skimmer cup on the same day.

Don't think anyone would be as silly as me. But this will serve as a reminder that clean filtered water makes a huge difference.

Some pics to show the extent of algae bloom i had.

 

[ckevin]

Algae infestation

Algae infestation

This is the algae infestation i was talking about. Not even snails eat them. While the colors of the SPS were maintained fairly well, i couldnt do anything to stop the algae from spreading. As a last resort, I took the rocks out and soak in Hydrogen Peroxide mixed in DI water.
This method kills all the algae in minutes. With the help of a toothbrush, i was able to reinstate the new look of my resin rocks.

 

[ckevin]