30g considered nano..new start up

stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
A little history:
from about 2004-2006 I built up my original 30gallon and it went pretty well
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/210615/tank-photography-hard-to-believe-it-would-be-here
then I decided da heck with the little tanks and started a 6ft 100g and all went pretty well
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/278086/re-aquascaped
until all went pretty wrong
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/285695/and-you-thought-you-had-a-bad-tank-day
that was in sept of 07'. So I knew someday I'd start up another 30g (no big tanks for a while)...well 9 months later that time is now. So far all I've had to buy is 22lbs of liverock, a new overflow box (cracked it when all went wrong) and the tank itself (old tank was 15yrs old). Lets begin
excuse the mess. old stand with various stuff inside to dig out and reuse

lets skip all the adding rock, water filling ect start with sump. yes tacky white silicon. same one I made for my original 30g. it was built to hold a seclone but after shopping for used Tunze nano's. ASM mini's, urchins ect a ammonia spike of 8ppm
inspired me to make the coralife 125 fit. Had to take out a lower piece of wood out the stand so the sump could rest on the floor but it worked. some SPS rubble from the disaster in the sump. a day later, half cup of skimate and 5 gallon water change (had to empty the sump to make it work) ammonia down to 0.5ppm in less than 24hrs. sure its dead rock but coral rock will reseed it later.



lights are 196w JBJ pc until the tank matures then I'll switch to a single halide and fancy reflector hung from a shelf I'll put above the tank

timer and test kits all left over. good thing I wasn't able to sell everything.


2B continued.....
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
stole all 7lbs of rock out of this nano I've been running since august 07' plus the 22lbs I bought plus the few pieces I didn't sell and coral rock I didn't sell and didn't make it. Put a nice shell in there from a friend who works at a shell shop as a replacement lol. also used some sand to seed mine but I'm sure the spike killed the organism. good thing there's plenty more for after the cycle.
before

after

I did salvage some (alot) sand from the break. its not been temp regulated but its been kept in salt water the whole time

oh yeah the tank. not much to see at all yet. thats my final aquascape (not much now but I have a specific coral stategy and set it up accordingly)

not a good full shot but all I got

dont mind the powerhead, thats also left over and temporary. I already have a maxijet with sure grip mod kit and magnet on the way. 1600gph may be a bit much but we will see. I have a VERY specific list of corals I will keeping but I have no idea about the fish. Its either going to be ultra peaceful (gobies, assesors ect) or mini aggressive (dottyback, falco hawk, damsel). what ever the case I dont plan on more than 3 fish if aggressive and maybe 4 if I go the other route.
Oh well this thread is going to be very boring until the cycle is complete and then I'll return and the fun will begin!
 
triga22

triga22

Active Member
Glad you came back, even when you went through the hard times. I will be back to check for updates.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Still not much going on. ammonia has been at 0ppm for a while now but nitrites have also remained at 0.5ppm for some time as well (not going to bother testing nitrates until nitrites are at 0). A little algae and things are starting to pop up from some of the rock I took out the nano so its getting there.
I did add the powerhead. I bought the Sure flow 1600 upgrade kit for the maxijet (had a spare 1200) which comes with 1600 and 2100gph propellers. 1600gph prop is really designed for maxi-jets 400-900 and is noisy on the 1200. intolerable for me. 2100 prop designed for the maxijet 1200 was quiet but just way too powerful. ended up using the 1600 prop with a maxijet 400 and wow! supposed to be rated at 1300gph with the maxijet 400 and uses only 5 watts. This still borders on too much if you have sand. still starts the occassional small sand tornado. Definately dont need anything but this and the sump return. movement everywhere! overall though by the time you buy the required magnet kit (yes required, too powerful for suction cups), upgrade propeller kit and maxijet you could have bought a koralia but this uses less watts, is more powerful and less intrusive looking than a koralia 4.

3 random shots of still nothing



okay promise no more updates until there's livestock. fish are going to be fridmani psuedochromis, falco hawkfish, black and white clown pair. tank has to be ready to sustain all four at once since I dont want to deal with territorial issues adding fish to established fish.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
mild update. Nitrites hit zero the day after the last update. I've got all the fish and the preliminary clean up crew. Fish list changed a little: got neon psuedochromis instead of orchard, regular false percs (one misbar) instead of black and white (just too much $$ for tank raised clownfish) and sixline wrasse instead of the hawkfish. I got the sixline because although they supposedly arent a good choice with aggressive dottyback species the LFS had 3 seperate small reef tanks each with a sixline and a dottyback (two had neons and one an orchard). In fact one tank the two species were sharing a cleaner shrimp they killed
. anyway I got two that were already paired then added the clownfish two days ago. No pic of the neon dottyback because he only comes out his den for food and 30 minutes of exercise a day
(like clockwork he comes out every evening for almost exactly 30 minutes then back in his den. if I feed he comes out twice a day). No aggression in the tank so far (hopefully stays that way). clean up so far are 6 cerith and 4 astrea but I'll add maybe 5-10 more snails down the road

since cycling ended I've been doing 10g water changes every weekend to keep nitrates at reef compatible levels until I get some cheato, then corals to utilize some of the nutrients.
next update will probably be next week and I should have the lights upgraded to two 150w HQI halides with reflux 10k or AB 13k bulbs (look the same but AB cost more and german quality). Also unless something comes up and funds run low I'll be upgrading to this sometime next week:

AE tech/ETSS sump buddy 40. with the 4x7" base I can fit it and the drive pump in my small skimmer section of the sump (where water height doesn't fluctuate) and use the fuge section for cheato like intended instead of housing the skimmer pump like it does now (if you dont know cheato and pumps dont mix, loose pieces clog them). rated to 180g its even more overkill than the coralife 125 (and being a quality brand downdraft hopefully works much better).
from there corals corals corals! might even do corals corals corals then sump buddy but halides are definately next (unless I somehow change my mind and convince myself to go T5).
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
I think alot has to do with the shape. for whatever reason if its a cube its a nano but if its long its not. 34g red sea max= nano 30g long = small aquarium
anyway I'm mainly considering it a nano because I cant keep anything different than you could keep in a nano therefore the livestock ect I can relate more to nano tanks.
Almost forgot the BEST thing I've done so far! One thing I hate about tanks is the noise when its quiet in the room. the skimmer and the overflow get a bit annoying so I decided to try something (the skimmer is actually a pretty quiet skimmer but its still louder than a return pump). I had a few sheets of sound deadening matt I bought for car audio but ended up totalling that car a long time ago. So I decided to stick it on back of the tank cutting holes for wires, tubing ect and the top part of the front doors where there was a open gap to see if would make a difference. All I can say is HELL YEAH! Its not completely silent but now the fans on the lights (soon to be replaced) are the loudest thing. once the lights go out you hear mild water circulation from the overflow and just a soft hum from the pumps. MUCH better than before. Its audible but a peaceful relaxing sound now.

even lined the overflow box cover I made of plexiglass. also helps keep more light out of there


okay done for a while.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Lights are on. I swore I would NEVER buy a metal halide fixture because they were all overpriced compared to retro kits. Planed on hanging a pendant but I didn't want the cord hanging down and couldn't commit to feeding it down my wall so Sunpod it is! I LOVE this fixture but I dont love it either. I love the way it makes my tank look, love the moonlights and timer (combined with the one I already have). I HATE the fans on this thing! It has two large fans and it was louder than the lights I took off (after spending the time to quiet the cabinet). I actually taped up two of the four vents on the top and this brought it down to previous fixture levels (thing doesn't even come close to getting hot to the touch) but still too loud. I have the timer set for 7:55pm for quiet prime time TV viewing. then moonlight from then til 10pm. I also dont really care for the way the glass sheilds are mounted with tacky wing nuts and not flush with the fixture but I can live with that. Still on the fence with corals or sump buddy next, who knows


 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
First corals! I figured I'd start with a few LPS and/or zooanthid and give it several months before moving to SPS. I've had candycane before but my first pagoda cup. I've passed on them many times before but it was on my to do list for this tank. I would have gotten a few more corals but am too lazy to drive to the good pet stores which are kind of far from me




 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
another mild update
didn't feel I was getting enough flow on the left side of the tank (right side sand ice white, left side a tad dingy) so I added a Koralia 1 for some flow over there. I will say this, the Koralia 1 SUCKS! This thing moves hardly any water. should have went with a K2. It will have to do though plus I dont want the additional size of a K2 (I really only wanted one powerhead)

got two new corals. Got fancy and off budget with the acan frag but whatever.

took a frag off the zoa rock the same day I got it and placed it here. I couldn't afford more so I spread those around (I placed another frag but not worth photographing)

a pic with all the corals in it

finally got a decent pic of the sixline wrasse

full tank shot
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
archive saver update

minor reaquascaping to bring the few corals closer together (okay the real reason was to light starve some algae on one particular rock but after that I went for the coral bunching). there's also a new and last fish addition in the pic.

closer look at the new addition, spotted aka coral aka pixy hawkfish. one of the more aggressive small hawks but what the hell. so far he hasn't tried the clowns at all (one is bigger and there being two helps). lunged at the sixline a few times but the sixline turned around and launched his own attack (nipping at the hawks backside) in retaliation. they have an understanding now
the sixline wont be punked.


acan, zoo's and hawkfish

madatory full tank shot (still so much work to do) and you can see nothing is bothered by the 60x turnover (not including return pump)

been doing weekly 10g water changes, feeding every other day:
nitrates 5ppm
phospates 0.5ppm
pH 8.2
dKH 8
calcium 440ppm
I could bring the nitrates and phophates down with cheato but can no longer afford the skimmer which would give me back my sump fuge space.
more corals next month, not sure what.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
keepin it movin
tank has been up exactly 2 months and 1 week.
reaquascaped. I wasn't pleased with the algae growth I was getting, particularly after changing skimmers and nothing being skimmed during break in (which continues BTW). So I took each and every rock out and scraped them down with knife and bucket of saltwater to the white meat! I mean clean! also started using Pura Phoslock and reduced light cycle to keep it gone (what I really need is the skimmer to get up to speed). I'm doing water changes twice a week as well which is getting expensive. this algae sucks too. its not typical hair or micro algae. some kind of sh*t I'm not familiar with (grows out like hairy palm trees. I cant really describe it but there's a definate leafy sprouting but also fairly undifined)
pics:
new aquascape



pagoda cup is epoxied to the rock (I hate to permanently attach corals
)

my favorite fish! still behaving (not that my other fish give it any choice)


sixline that doesn't back down to the far left

skimmer. went with octopus instead of sump buddy cause I figured why use something that requires a 700gph minimum pump when something that uses a small efficient 260gph pump will do the job. I should have went with the sump buddy. not that the skimmer doesn't work (too early to tell) but it sure as hell didn't fit. I had to modify the skimmer base and remove two baffles from my sump to fit it (but at least my fuge section is free'd up and all to itself).

now I'm done with fish and equipment I can focus exclusively on coral stocking!
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
more on the skimmer. its model oct INT-PS-120 (rated at 100g so lets say 55g real world) which was going to initially be one of the extreme line skimmers but canned (for the much better design and pump out now). the only difference from this and the standard octo's are the pump is turned sideways to delete the elbow for efficiency and a bubble plate added (which is the reason it was canned. reduced pump efficiency)with associated inner column. well they didn't can them completely. new AquaEuro skimmers are using the bodies with their own pump. anywho I've seen this model working very well despite being canned and some are still out there to be bought so I did. I was sold on the footprint (4x10") but its completely wrong. I measured the body at 4.5" so how the hell

these DO NOT fit a 10g side to side without trimming the base and still forcing the pump feet past the tank rim despite the 10" footprint
http://www.***************.com/coralvue/INT-PS-120.jpg
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
I guess this is due for an update. nothing major just some additional corals. my hawkfish and male clown both dead
not sure about the clown, he was fine one day and the next day stuck to the sure flow housing dead as a door knob. the hawkfish was doing fine then for some reason his vision/balance was off during feeding. he'd dart out for food and completely miss chunks all together right in front of him two and three times. then he got reclusive which was nothing like he was, then the dissapearence. I never removed or found him but he's a gonner. Large clown and sixline both doing fine. with the hawk gone I've been able to cut feeding way back as I can almost target feed the two remaining fish daily and nothing is wasted. I'd like to add one of the fang blenny's as my final and last fish addition.








 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top