My First Nano Reef!

[subversion]

First off, let me say thank you so much to everyone! You've all been awesome help so far, considering I'm brand new to the hobby and was starting with almost no knowledge.

I am still (and always will be) learning, so any input/suggestions/changes are all greatly appreciated!

Here goes. This is my very simple 10 gallon nano reef set up, thus far. I'm running a small cheap tube heater that keeps the temperature stable at 79 degrees, one Koralia Nano 425 pump pointed upwards to break the water but still add enough of a current to the entire tank, and one par38 led bulb.

Parameters:
Salinity 1.024
Alkalinity (dKH) 9.2
Magnesium 1290-1310
pH 8.5
Ammonia/Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0-0.5ppm

I do one 25% water change weekly with RODI water. I'm currently using Red Sea Coral Pro salt, but think this may be overkill as I only plan to keep softies, and might switch to regular Instant Ocean. The tank is not drilled, and has no sump/refugium, but I'm considering turning my quarantine tank into a sump once I'm done adding things. It's 8 gallons and also is not drilled. Opinions? I also have a small hang on back filter that holds maybe half a liter of water. I decided it was probably too small to use as a refugium, so it's still in the box.

I feel like I may need a second par38, as I'm getting kind of a lighting hot spot in the middle of the tank. I'm using a reflective dome that I stole from my reptiles to house the bulb.

Tank with par38:

Tank naturally lit from window (I keep the curtains closed unless I'm taking pictures):

My sandbed is about 1" thick, and I have two nassarius snails, two blue leg hermits, and one sneaky, unintentional astrea snail that came with one of my corals. Right now, as you can see, things are looking a little red. I'm trying the "turn the lights off for three days" method to see if that helps, as it seems to be cyanobacteria. I'll be repeating this on the same three days every month until the problem goes away or I get mad and try something else.

I have a small candy cane pistol shrimp (Alpheus randalli) who was paired with a goby, but is now all alone as the goby passed away one week after purchase. I will be adding another goby once I'm sure the first didn't infect my tank, and I will be quarantining it this time.

Video of the pair when I had both:
Hi Fin Goby and Pistol Shrimp - Youtube

I have 6 intentional corals and three mushroom corals that came with the live rock.
Corals I bought:
1 small gsp frag
1 large purple starburst polyp "chunk"
1 fire and ice zoa frag
1 purple passion zoa frag
1 unidentified red/pink/yellow/white zoa frag
1 butterfly wing zoa frag

The gsp and starburst polyps will be trimmed back regularly once they cover their allotted space at the top of the rock. If they drive me nuts, I can pull the rock out. Since I'm new, I figure starting with the weeds of the saltwater world is probably a good idea, as I'm less likely to kill them.

Some zoa pictures:

Unidentified zoas, natural sunlight:

Fire and Ice zoas, natural sunlight:

Purple Passion zoas, natural sunlight:

Butterfly Wing zoas, hideous mercury daylight bulb I used before my par38 came:

I want to take better pictures but the glare from the intense spot of lighting in the middle of the tank is causing some problems. So that's a work in progress.

The purple passions haven't fully opened yet. I had them right near the bottom of the tank kind of out of the spotlight and they were furious, so I moved them top and center and now they open partway. I only added them a week and a half ago, so I'm just being patient at this point. Everything else has new polyps and seems happy.

The tank finished cycling on December 4th, 2015, so it's only been active for a short time. I'll update as things change.

Thanks for reading!

 

[CafeReef]

looks like you have a great setup so far. I am using an aquaclear 20 DIY'd into a refugium and works fantastic, I get great growth off of it and I am using a LED desk lamp (http://www.lowes.com/pd_62582-47842-17794-000___?productId=3175567&pl=1&Ntt=led+lamp) the flexible arm turns nicely and I keep the light on 8 hours a day. my 7 gallon has crystal clear water and couldnt be happier (3 month old tank). I am also running a bubble magus QQ1 HOB skimmer ($90), been running it for about 3 weeks and could not be more impressed with it.

I dont see any reason you couldnt turn your HOB into a refugium, I recommend giving it a shot!

 

[Bogue Chitto]

You could use another par 38 LED bulb.

 

[subversion]

Thanks for the advice guys! I'll start planning on how to convert my HOB, and once my next fish is ready to go in I'll start switching it over.

I'll order another bulb right away!

 

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So this is the HOB filter I have:

I'll be tossing out all the stuff it came with. I'm thinking a layer of Miracle Mud (I have no idea how thick or if it's even worthwhile in this tiny thing...) and then a handful or so of Chaeto and some live rock fragments. Like I said, it probably only holds about 4-5 cups of water so it's a sad little thing, but I suppose any refugium is better than no refugium at all.

I'll add some more pictures once I get it up and running and add the extra bulb.

 

[CafeReef]

that HOB is narrow, but should work fine for a tank of your size. I would recommend painting the side that will face the tank black, so excess light doesn't shine into the tank. you will also want to rotate your chaeto in the fuge maybe once a week or every two weeks. I rotate mine when I cut out excess.

I would recommend a screen of some sort to to catch chaeto that might try to come through the return.

this was what mine looked like (you'll see in the after photos on top the part I painted black)

 

[daedalus8311]

Could go with larger filter for more area then cut down the impeller blades to slow the flow

 

[subversion]

That sounds like a plan, CafeReef. Thanks so much for the mod suggestions! I'll get to work on that as soon as I have a free minute or two.

Daedalus, I'd love a larger filter but I have this one handy already. It actually came with the 10 gallon as a freshwater starter kit. I found the whole thing for $50 and figured why not. If this refugium crashes and burns I'll go larger though.

 

[ISHIRIX.]

Very cool hope everything goes well

 

[ISHIRIX.]

I did a cheato experiment once I put sum into my display tank and just took a little out when it got too big made a great decoration even tho my LFS recommend me not add it because its rapid growthl:lmao:

 

[BeachVacationer]

Is cheato really needed in such a small tank? With live rock and half of my space in my filter filled with ceramic rings my nitrates are close to zero in my 5 gallon. I do probably 50% WC because the tank is so small. No skimmer, just WC. I use the other 50% of my filter space for carbon, gfo and sponge. It's been working well for me for about 8 months.

 

[CafeReef]

Is cheato really needed in such a small tank? With live rock and half of my space in my filter filled with ceramic rings my nitrates are close to zero in my 5 gallon. I do probably 50% WC because the tank is so small. No skimmer, just WC. I use the other 50% of my filter space for carbon, gfo and sponge. It's been working well for me for about 8 months.

Necessary? No. Beneficial? Sure. Any macro algae willbhelp with phosphates, I leave my tank every weekend (office tank). When I didnt run chaeto every monday morning there would be plenty of glass cleaning for me to do and bloom on the sand bed. First weekend of having the fuge setup. Crystal clear water

 

[HammerLover]

That setup is sweet and nice Zoas there! I've got a 10 gallon nano as well but its still in the struggle of diatom blooms xD

Hope everything turns well! Keep us posted!

 

[subversion]

I figure the chaeto can't hurt. And considering how small the tank is, I'm willing to try anything to help make it more stable.

Thanks Hammer! I'm hoping I don't hit the diatom phase once my cyano clears up.

 

[CafeReef]

Diatoms will happen, right of passage. Once your tank is established in the months to come it will stop. My recommendation is to just let them be, if you fight it, you risk it getting worse, causing other issues, or just flat out wasting your time and stressing over nothing. Consider it a growth spurt for your tank

 

[subversion]

Yeah I'd prefer to just let things run their course. I don't like the idea of adding chemicals of any kind to such a small tank. Working out the dosing for my tiny 10 gallon would be bad enough.

 

[subversion]

Update time!

The cyano is under control and my parameters are looking great. Besides the explosion of pods that the invert forum has told me are harmless (phew), and the fact that my so called purple passions are still unhappy, everything is going well. My chaeto came in so I'm modding the HOB refugium now to get that happening. The light for the refugium is set up and working, and my second PAR38 should be here any day. I also got a new zoa frag, a little piece of rock with what was labeled as Tubbs blue. So I took some new pictures of all my zoas with my PAR38 on.

The ones I think are butterfly wings:

These were labeled as fire and ice. I think they probably are:

My new tubbs blues:

And these cute pink ones I haven't identified. They're positioned right under the light, so the contrast on the image is a little wonky, but the color is accurate to what I'm seeing:

And here's one of my silly hermit crabs trying to climb the walls:

I'll update again once the refugium is all set up and the other bulb is installed.

 

[CafeReef]

nice, will be good to see how it all looks once everything is settled in

 

[Navyblue]

As a newcomer, I can understand the urge to have to "add stuff". If I were you, I would keep it as simple as possible.

No sump? I would not fret about it. Yes if you want a large refugium or a large skimmer, but otherwise it is just another place detritus can settle.

Refugium? The only reason I would want it is to grow chaeto. No other stuff should be in there. Stuffs like miracle mud, sand or rocks will not do much more than trap detritus. There are hang on back isolation/breeder box that you can use for that, just plug and play.

HOB filter, I would only use them if I have to run some sort of media, or there are too much suspended particulate in the water. Otherwise it is a complication that I am better off without.

If I were you, the only thing I would have rather than not is a skimmer. Again get a HOB one for a tank of this size.

When I started, other people's tank seems so huge and full of gizmos, and soon I have a large tank that is full of gizmo. But a decade later, all of the tanks I started in the recent years has been sumpless. Gizmos have their places IMO but they do not necessarily make your life or your tank better, you can run a successful tank too by keeping it simple.

 

[subversion]

Yeah my plan is to keep this little tank as simple as possible. The little HOB filter has become my refugium and it's got the chaeto in it now. The miracle mud is really cool stuff, but I just don't need it. The water is already way more clear than it was. I also might be having an oxygenation issue so the chaeto should help even more with that. Once I get my second light in, I'm done messing around. The plan is if the refugium fails or doesn't seem to be doing anything, I'll take it off, return the chaeto to the store, and put a skimmer where it was.

I really prefer the simplistic approach and the look of a nano tank that focuses on the aquascape and not all the gadgets crammed into it.

So now I have:
one small heater
one nano pump
one 1 liter HOB refugium
lighting

And that's it.

Now if only my fish would stop dying I'd be done adding living things too.
(link to that issue: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2542174)