Paul's downsized but not downgraded 30 gallon nano...

[kenpau]

It's been over a year since my last post on here as life had kind of got in the way of my reefkeeping passion!
I had a previous thread on here where I was detailing the build of my last tank which was a 150 gallon zeovit reef...

[/url]IMAG0370 by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

Sadly I had to sell this system due to moving into a rental that didn't allow me to have it.
Fast forward two years I now have a daughter with my fiancee and a new home...on the thirteenth floor of a new apartment block.
Beautiful place with amazing views, we're very lucky (here's a couple of shots if you've never been lucky enough to visit 'the lucky country' down under...

[/url]36088308_10155391060156574_6502104861465640960_o by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]36034256_10155391060286574_6132529857722056704_o by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

The big downside to apartment life, no 1 tonne 1.5m long aquariums here! So I had to go smaller for my first ever nano system. If I had to go smaller I wanted to go very high end.
This site is full of people who have made their own systems from nothing, unfortunately I don't have that talent, so I had to pay someone that did!
A company named Liquid Oasis here in Perth produce the most unbelievable quality systems, all moulded acrylic sumps/overflows/ATO chambers etc.
So the system I designed with them is a 2ftx2ftx1ft shallow nano, only about 108 litres all up.


New toys....

[/url]20180701_211225 by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

The new system, it was filled tonight so a little cloudy still...

[/url]one by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

two by kenpau01, on Flickr

Lighting is provided by two Radion XR15 pro gen 4's mounted with the Radion mounting system. Very pleased with these lights so far, although I haven't really played with them properly and I haven't seen any growth with them obviously.

[/url]three by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

Under the hood is an acrylic moulded sump and ATO chamber, pipework is from Georg Fischer who provide pipework solutions for the mining and automotive sector to withstand extreme pressures.

[/url]four by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

The return pump is a Vectra M1, massively overrated for this system, it'll probably be operating at 20% for most of the time, although it allows me extra flow to run through a chiller later on. The only thing that bugs me is that it is not compatible with the Neptune Apex, I was hoping to run a couple of programs with this because it is acting as a flow pump but for some reason Ecotech Marine decided not to make it compatible.
The ATO is a Smart ATO micro which is supposed to be awesome, however for some reason this one doesn't seem to be working, the pump just comes on and doesn't shut off.

[/url]five by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

The controller is mounted with the Vortech mounting system, I will be adding the MP10 controller next to is soon.

[/url]Seven by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[kenpau]

A Deltec SC1351 skimmer provides filtration, again massively overrated for the tank but I'm hoping to run a very clean system suited to SPS.

[/url]Six by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

There are two reactor chambers plumbed into the return lines, one for carbon and one for phosban.

[/url]eight by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

The 'brain' at the moment is a pile of spaghetti, that's my next job, to tidy up the cables...

[/url]nine by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

That's about it for now, I have a couple more little jobs to do on it so will be starting the cycle tomorrow hopefully, and will be looking to add livestock in around 8 weeks time.

Thanks for reading!

[/url]ten by kenpau01, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Ryan Darilek]

Wow Paul.... That's some really nice equipment! Looking really good!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[kenpau]

Wow Paul.... That's some really nice equipment! Looking really good!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Thanks Ryan, I'm loving all the equipment. I think some things in this hobby can be a bit overkill with regards to prices, but you can't really go wrong with the quality and reliability of Ecotech products.
It's all worth nothing with good water quality though so hopefully maintaining a nano sps reef isn't too much of a challenge for me!

 

[crimsontopper]

Looks good. Ecotech has been getting some bad press about their pumps not working with Apex. According to ReeferGil on YouTube, ecotech provided the necessary info to get it to work, but Neptune hasn't followed through. I buy this, since it seems like it would be in ecotech's best interest to be compatible.

 

[kenpau]

Looks good. Ecotech has been getting some bad press about their pumps not working with Apex. According to ReeferGil on YouTube, ecotech provided the necessary info to get it to work, but Neptune hasn't followed through. I buy this, since it seems like it would be in ecotech's best interest to be compatible.

Seems feasible, I could understand Neptune doing this to try and push their WAV pumps, however the MP line are still compatible with the WXM so it seems strange that it is just the Vectra that doesn't connect.

 

[kenpau]

Nitrogen cycle is finally over, it actually only took 27 days which I'm pretty pleased with considering I started with a completely clean system. First livestock are out of quarantine too, hoping to add the first coral this week but here's a couple of updated shots for now...

43065117834_ec447ef36d_k by kenpau01, on Flickr

28845029237_bcf805ee54_k by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

[moondoggy4]

I found my way over here, WOW great tank I love your equipment choices. I kinda of remember your old tank, I think you had a problem with the Giesemann light. I like your stand was it custom built? You have a new life and a new tank. Cheers.

 

[kenpau]

I found my way over here, WOW great tank I love your equipment choices. I kinda of remember your old tank, I think you had a problem with the Giesemann light. I like your stand was it custom built? You have a new life and a new tank. Cheers.

Thanks mate, yeah think I had some issues when I first setup the light which turned out to be user error I think! I would have got the smaller version of the Aurora for this tank but living in a concrete shell with no roofspace would have made hanging the light very difficult. Am loving the XR15s anyway!

Time for an update.....

 

[kenpau]

Little update on my system, been adding a few corals over the last few weeks, I'm looking for a mixed reef and am allowing space for them to grow out so might look a bit barren at the moment! Pretty much there now though, since these shots were taken I have added another zoa colony and a watermelon birdsnest frag. Also added a Royal Gramma and a Flame Angel (risky I know), along with a couple of snails and a red line shrimp.Would appreciate any advice on coral placement, or anything in general about my setup.



Cheers, Paul

20180818_103131 by kenpau01, on Flickr

20180818_103153 by kenpau01, on Flickr

20180818_103203 by kenpau01, on Flickr

20180818_103224 by kenpau01, on Flickr

 

[kenpau]

Also if anyone is using XR15s and has no idea of the PAR they kick out this might be of some interest. Using 2 Gen4 Pro's I'm getting the following PAR readings...

Lights at 30% intensity

par30 by kenpau01, on Flickr


50% intensity

PAR50 by kenpau01, on Flickr

and at 75% intensity

par75 by kenpau01, on Flickr

There are plenty of power in these lights, and by using 2 XR15s instead of one XR30 I have hopefully avoided too much shadowing in places where I don't want it.
Water parameters are great at the moment so the proof will be in the coral growth I guess!

 

[kenpau]

It's been a while but I thought I'd add a little update as to how the reef has been progressing. It's been an up and down 8 months since I last posted, the system is now almost fully stocked and was progressing well.


eight by kenpau01, on Flickr


seven by kenpau01, on Flickr


DSC04151 by kenpau01, on Flickr

DSC04148 by kenpau01, on Flickr

However with the setup I was running I started to see more and more cyano and hair algae growth, I was until yesterday using a GFO reactor, carbon dosing and using zeolites in an effort to control nutrient export.


20190413_054040821_iOS by kenpau01, on Flickr

I decided that I had to make a change as the current system was too dependent on chemical filtration and I was chasing numbers with regards to nitrates and phosphates.

The system was looking like this yesterday, excuse the poor lighting, my iPhone doesn't like the LED's:

20190413_055343833_iOS by kenpau01, on Flickr

20190413_055355325_iOS by kenpau01, on Flickr

20190413_055414618_iOS by kenpau01, on Flickr


So as of yesterday the GFO is gone, carbon dosing is gone, zeolites are gone and I have installed a Pax Bellum ARID n18 in it's place...

20190413_072940820_iOS by kenpau01, on Flickr

20190413_073634194_iOS by kenpau01, on Flickr

First impressions are very good, the engineering and build quality are outstanding, which you'd expect from a $900 piece of kit. The proof will be in the algae growth though, hopefully inside the reactor and not in the display!