NanoDream

[ckevin]

Hi guys,

I have been reefing since the early days when the tunze stream was brick size. During this period of 9 years, i have done reef tanks of various sizes. I have tried SPS and LPS dedicated tank with mixed success. There are periods where other life commitments took priority and i had to take leave from this hobby. But as they say 'once a reefer forever a reefer'. So here i am again :wavehand:

The latest project of mine is a nano. When i started the tank, my thought is to create a tank that is both colorful and easy to maintain. It started off to be a SPS dedicated tank due to the strong inspiration from many of your tank threads in this forum. However, i quickly realize that i have become lazy in constantly monitoring water parameters and stuff. Thus i embarked on the route of Large Polyp NPS reef tank. So far, it has proven to be very tolerant of not so perfect parameters. The only thing i measure is salinity when i do a water change. Absolutely nothing else.

Details of tank:
Dimension: 16 inch cube (5 sided crystal glass)
Sump: 15.5(L) x 11(B) x 15.5(H)

Equipment:

1)chiller-Teco 1/10

2)Light
Main tank
x1 par38(3blue 2 white) main tank.
x2 par38(all white) ATS in sump

3)return pump
Eheim Compact 1000 (return)
Eheim Compact 1002 ATS

4)wavemaker
Vortech MP10

5)filtration
ATS incorporated in sump

6)substrate
caribsea Arag-alive Hawaiian black

7)Liverock
3 kg


Livestock:
20 colonies of sun coral
1 purple seafan
3 whitish blue wire coral
1 fathead anthias
1 orchid dottyback
1 picasso clownfish
1 tail spot blenny
1 yellow tang (1.5 inch) Once it grows to 2 inches i will sell it away and buy another 1.5 inch piece. This fish is for the purpose of algae control.

Watch this thread for updates.
I will be installing a new sump on Sunday. It is an interesting sump to be sure.:rollface:

 

[ckevin]

Pictures of tank setup.

The tank came as a standard 16inch cube with no overflow system. I had the glass maker drill the holes for my overflow system. For the overflow comb, i bough the JBJ nano cube version and had it siliconed in position. Works perfectly!

 

[ckevin]

Pictures of the tank when it first started about 8 months ago. You can see that with target feeding, the sun corals actually have incredible polyp extensions. However this takes patience.

 

[ckevin]

I did a re-scape after 2 months and this is how it looks like. The sun corals are maintaining their polyp extensions for at least 8hrs a day.

 

[ange062]

Great looking NPS tank, love the colors!

 

[curlykid]

your tank is absolutely lovely!

 

[ckevin]

The tank is running on inbuilt Algae Turf Scrubber(ATS). I have removed the bubble magnus 3.5 to test if there is any ill effect. Has been skimmerless for almost a month and the tank is doing fine with 30percent water change weekly. I use tap water and coralife salt. So far i do not have excessive algae bloom in my main tank.

i might be adding the skimmer back just to provide more aeration.

Livestock updates:
1 fathead anthias (sold)
1 orchid dottyback (sold)
1 picasso clownfish (sold)
1 tail spot blenny (dead)
1 yellow tang (sold)

I have removed the yellow tang(zebrasome) for obvious reasons. Not only is it adding to the bioload, it looks oddly out of place in the nano.
For the same reason, the picasso clownfish has been removed too. Too big and really out of proportion to tank size.


I have a new reef scape and will be updating with pictures soon.

cheers!

 

[tgbaby1]

That's a really nice tank. Do you have any pictures of your ATS setup?

 

[Repz]

really awesome setup! that sun coral looks so nice.

 

[ckevin]

Pictures of my sump with an inbuilt ATS

Pictures of my sump with an inbuilt ATS

tgbaby1,

As you can see, i have designed a special compartment to hold water and have it overflow like a waterfall over the ATS screen. Water is pumped into the compartment by a pump to create the desired speed.

Pros:
1)It is easy to maintain and the screen is easy to remove for weekly cleaning. No dismantling of pipes needed.

2)System has little costs to it and you can de-comission the ATS without suffering much loss in investment. It is just a pump and some pipes.

3)Uses a smaller pump than ATS systems that use a wider but shorter screen. To understand this, you have to read about how the flow for ATS screen is calculated. This sytem uses a taller and narrower screen to achieve the desired filtration appropriate for the reef volume.
smaller pump means lesser heat transfered and more energy efficient. It also means you dont have to fit in a monster pump in space constraint sumps just to run an ATS.


Cons:
1)This is a one sided ATS system and that is also its limitation. A 2 sided ATS offers double the filtration and thus this has to be taken into consideration.

 

[ckevin]

Appreciate the compliments

 

[ckevin]

Tank as of today

Tank as of today

This reefscape in done using replica rocks. The previous scapes were built with liverocks.
As most of the sun corals were really stable and happy for a good 4 months, i decided to change the look of the reef for the fun of it.
However the most recent reef-scaping exercise stressed out many of them. They are now embarking on the road to recovery and i estimate at least 1 month of TLC for them to restore to their former glory.

I will be updating with more pics in time to come.

Do shoot me with questions if you have any. Will be most glad to answer with pictures too.:fish1:

 

[Spirofucci]

Wow! Way cool. Great nano all the way around. Love the ATS. I'm always suprised that more reefers don't utilize them.

 

[ckevin]

Spirofucci,
The immediate benefit of adding an ATS is the obvious populating of pods in the reef. I have never seen that many pods crawling freely everywhere. As such, i can confidently add a mandarin fish to the community.
The ATS also does a decent job of keeping the water rather clear. As i do not measure any of my water parameters, i cannot tell whether or not it is efficient enough to act as the only source of filtration. However most of the theories offered by Santa Monica sounded very reasonable and i will subscribe to them till proven otherwise in future.
I depend alot on observation of polyp extension to assess the water quality i.e how long or often the polyps stay open. On regular days, at least 70 percent of my sun corals will show polyp extension at any point of the day. all sun corals should show full extension during feeding times The black sun corals are the fussy lot. When they dont open as big, i know it is time to change water.
I feed my sun corals two times daily. Each feeding is 3 cubes of mysis and 1 cube of brine. There are certain days i feed rotifiers and reefpearls too.

 

[ckevin]

updates: 31st July 2011

updates: 31st July 2011

New full tank shots.
And i have brought back the skimmer!

 

[ckevin]

Misc coral photos

Misc coral photos

Some casual shots of the corals.:fish2:

 

[ckevin]

moved the Rhizo

moved the Rhizo

:rollface:

 

[ckevin]

Tank update on 22/08/2011

Tank update on 22/08/2011

Did a minor rescape. Removed the lower piece of rock to have a more open feel to the tank. The previous look was a little cluttered.

To create a more 3D effect and increase depth of field, i stick some of the colonies on the side glass using super glue gel. I love these gels. They stick anything anywhere:bounce3:

Also manage to catch the super sun coral spawning some eggs. Cool stuff.

 

[ZPavDesign]

Amazing nano, beautiful and elegant! :thumbsup:

 

[ckevin]

Updates 26 August 2011

Updates 26 August 2011

Strangely, the super sun coral that was spawning died for no reason. I wonder if it was because of the feeding right at that moment caused it.

I have changed the position of some of the sun corals and also added some more to the back.

At this moment, they are all doing relatively well. Time for weekly water change today. :bounce1:


Cheers!