Red Sea max NANO build

[Jeff Hood]

I'm back! Been out of the reef hobby for about 12 years. I had a 600 gallon in wall reef. Thrived for 3 years then suddenly crashed due to an air conditioner failure and tank got to 120 degrees while at work. No APEX back then. :headwally:
I've kept Africans in my 600 ever since.
Now getting back in on the nano side to start. Spending more money on automation side than the tank. This little tank is more of an experiment to play with the automation.

Tank: Red Sea Max NANO 20 gallon tank.

Mods: 1. Remote ATO bucket
2. Remote salt water bucket
3. Empty bucket of waist
4. APEX controller
5. APEX ATO
6. DOS for daily water change
7. DIY algae reactor.
8. Extra power head.

Pics later. Everything is slowly arriving as I put this system together. Eventually I'll add a bigger tank onto this system...maybe. Depends on how satisfying this little tank becomes.

The plan is a mixed reef. Lots to catch up on as much has changed in the last 15 years and I've not done a reef this small.

I'll post pics later.

 

[Jeff Hood]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=11816&pictureid=79854

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=11816&pictureid=79855

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=11816&pictureid=79856

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=11816&pictureid=79858

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=11816&pictureid=79857

Working on remembering how to post pictures. Been a while.

 

[dabob79]

Following!


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[Jeff Hood]

Sorry for the big pics instead of thumbnails. Haven’t got that far yet.

Below are the pics of my aqua scapeing I did today. Not bad with what I had to work with. Also some pictures of my ATK auto topoff installed with one mod to make it fit in the tiny rear sump area. I exchanged the float bulb from the smaller auto topoff tray for the longer one in this kit. Fit perfect. Works perfect.
So I have 5 gallons of RO in the white bucket. The red lid bucket will be my waist water bucket for my auto water changes. The salt bucket is not pictured. The auto water change will be accomplished using the DOS pump.
There will be 4 other dose pumps for various things as this thing progresses.

<a href="http://s160.photobucket.com/user/Gasser_photos/media/Aquarium%20pics/28DCE602-066D-42F9-86DB-4180D21A472D_zpsodxpxhce.jpeg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Gasser_photos/Aquarium%20pics/28DCE602-066D-42F9-86DB-4180D21A472D_zpsodxpxhce.jpeg" border="0" alt=" photo 28DCE602-066D-42F9-86DB-4180D21A472D_zpsodxpxhce.jpeg"/></a>

 

[Jeff Hood]

Here is my Fusion page of the freshly setup tank with nothing in it but inert rock and water. It’s running, no leaks etc... the temp is up a little as my pet room where I mix the water is kept at 84 degrees for my boa constrictor.

 

[monti1]

Off to a great start


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[Jeff Hood]

Thanks. Compared to my600 gallon reef it’s a new strategy. I eventually plan to put another 130-170 gallon reef in my living room connected to this same APEX SYSTEM. WISH I would have had this monitor on my old system 17 years ago as it would probable still be doing well.
My cycle should start this week. Then I’ll slowly start stocking. It’s going to be an SPS nano. That’s the plan anyway. So will the 130-170. My buddy is building a 1000 gallon in his medical office and I’m also helping with that. I’m learning the APEX monitors so I’m likely going to be the one to set all that up for him.
Hopefully my little Nano will be a sweet little reef. Won’t be for a lack of trying.

Dose pumps arrived today. Should get the rest of my equipment this week then it will start to be stocked. I missed having salt water.

 

[Jeff Hood]

Latest FUSION page. Temp holding stable. pH dropping slowly. Dose pumps not on line as of yet. Waiting on my algae reactor parts to come in, Dr. Tim’s bacteria and ammonia for my cycle.

I’m thinking about doing the watchman goby and pistol shrimp combo for this tank. Several invertebrate and maybe another fish. Really don’t want a screen top so will affect my choices.

 

[Cdogsailr]

Looks like a great set-up. You're swinging for the fences on this one and leaving little to chance. Keep us posted on your stocking plans/progress.

 

[Jeff Hood]

It's going well. Cycle is basically complete. I'm going very slow with this tank. Long cycle, next will be adding algae in my reactor and getting it healthy. Basically building from the bottom up. A nice pod population will be started next along with seeding some live rock rubble to add some coralline algae. Then I'll start up the lights. That may be a month or two, maybe more. My plan is a dedicated SPS tank.
My old 600 in Wall SPS tank did great with a large refugium, large calcium reactor, Kalk reactor and giant sump.
This NANO is a completely different challenge. The 600 was easy to keep stable. This is yet to be determined. So far keeping salinity and temp has been rock solid. Next I'll start to raise my Alk up to 8.5 and try to keep it stable. Once stuff/ critters start using Alk I'll need to work on the strategy to keep up with it using all these pumps.
Then I'll start adding SPS once I'm happy with how the basics are going.

Stay tuned just don't expect rapid progress.

 

[Jeff Hood]

Here is my Controll center behind this little NANO. It’s set up so I could easily add a bigger tank to this system. This is all in my bedroom. Eventually I’ll add another to my living room. Should be no problem running two tanks off this one computer.

 

[Cdogsailr]

NASA would be proud! ; )