12 gallon hex gets a 2nd life

12gallonsofhex · Jan 15, 2019

This is my 19 year old Tru-vu Hex Nano reef. It started life 19years ago when I purchased it while working at the LFS. It was a starter reef with mostly mushrooms and my prized maze brain. I had a beautiful Mandarin, and a bully known as a Sally lightfoot.

My plans for this tank is to be a mixed reef, and a re-education in reef keeping. I hope to make most of my big mistakes on this tank before going bigger.

I like so many of the different Acans, and may do just those lps. I will be starting off with zoas and mushrooms, then introducing some lps frags and learning how to be disciplined with daily dosing and maintenance. My last hurdle will be a plating monti. I am not much of a spa guy, but the big grown out plates look awesome.

My equipment is basic. I am running an old CPR backpack skimmer, a new chinese black box led light, old school mechanical light timer, and a nice titanium heater with separate control. There is a rio 200 keeping water flowing through the back of the rocks, and a new Jabao wave pump on the way. I would like to run 2 wave pumps, but with 11 actual gallons it may be overkill.

I hope this thread is interesting for someone. Not going to be a high dollar stunner tank. At the least it will be a reference point me. Thanks for reading! Happy reefing.

12gallonsofhex · Jan 15, 2019

Here are some pictures of the mach up of the Marco rock and the stand being sanded and re-stained.

NY_Caveman · Jan 15, 2019

Looks like a good restart! Cannot believe you kept the tank that long, LOL.

12gallonsofhex · Jan 15, 2019

Lol, it probably cost me a lot in time and care and money lugging it around and storing it. Because I purchased the set up while working at a LFS and making $8 per hour when I was just out of HS I have an emotional connection to it. I will probably have it for life.

12gallonsofhex · Jan 16, 2019

Update:
I got home from work and tested my tank. It is processing 2ppm of ammonia in 48 hours, reading about 6ppm Nitrite, and I have a brown diatom algae bloom all over my white marco rock! I have never been so happy to see ugly brown algae. It's getting closer! I completely forgot about a tank cleaning pad. Ordering one as soon as I finish this post.

12gallonsofhex · Jan 22, 2019

Update. Almost a week later and Nitrites are still sitting at about 4ppm. I started the tank doing a fish less cycle with Dr. Tim's ammonia and Seachem Stability. I ran out of the stability and bought Nite-Out2. Hopefully it works better. I kind of think these starter bacteria are a snake oil. On day 22 of the cycle and still have high levels of Nitrite. I am sure it's not the last time I will waste $ on reef tank snake oils.

12gallonsofhex · Jan 26, 2019

Oh happy day! My tank finished its initial cycle sometime Friday. I brought the ammonia up to 2ppm and in less than 24 hours ammonia and nitrites were at 0. I headed over to my local fish store, your reef, and picked up 3 Zoa frags, a Duncan frag, and GSP. Also some snails and a watchman goby. After acclimation it only took an hour for most of the coral to start opening. The goby is playing hide and seek. It's a good day for reefing!

12gallonsofhex · Jan 27, 2019

It was DIY day for my Nano hex today. I put the wave pump, the little rio that blast water and detritus from behind the rocks, and the skimmer on a dedicated 4 outlet power strip so that I can turn them off while feeding. I have plans to put a home light switch just inside the opening of the stand to make it more user friendly, but for now this does the same task. I was not happy with the intense disco ball effect from the Aqua Knight LEDs so I took a very thin piece of polycarbonate and sanded it with 220 grit on a RO sander. It decreased intensity of the shimmer, but also the brightness of the light. I will try with finer paper like 600 grit and see if it makes a difference.

I also cut a harbour freight socket organizer in half to use as a drying rack for my multiple test tubes. I had a thought that paper towels could somehow affect the test results. And lastly, I followed the instructions of Marc at Melevsreef.com to make my own soda ash and then alkalinity plus additive. I am currently dripping small amounts and testing the potency of my brew. My watchman Goby came out of hiding today and more than that, he follows people as they check out the tank. Tried to feed him some frozen brine but he is still weary.

12gallonsofhex · Feb 2, 2019

Time for a weekly log. So the dry rock started to show its downside. I was having a diatom algae outbreak. I used RODI water on every drop of saltwater and top off water. I used good live sand. I used Marco rock. Everything added was aquarium specific so I have no ide where the diatoms are getting their silicates, but they are there. Anyway, I am now prepared for 9 months of algae outbreaks and ugly tank stages. It's now on a 3 day blackout. I am due to uncover it in about an hour. Just finished all testing and things look great as usual. Undetectable phosphates and under 5 ppm Nitrate. All other parameters holding steady.

12gallonsofhex · Feb 2, 2019

The 3day blackout and 4 trochus snails worked great for algae. Let's see how mad the frags are. Lol

12gallonsofhex · Feb 3, 2019

My frags all made it through the blackout no worse for the wear. Caught this picture of my tiny watchman Goby figuring out if he should bite this nassarius snails siphon.

12gallonsofhex · Feb 10, 2019

Well, everything was doing good so I went and messed with it. I popped a couple small zoa colonies off the frag plugs and may have killed one. I popped the micromussa lord off of the plug and mounted it, and may have damaged one of the polyps. I broke the large marco rock in the foreground which is the GSP island and stirred up a bunch of fine sand that wont settle. And lastly there is stringy clear bubble trapped stuff growing on rocks that looks like it is getting worse by the hour. I have never had so many things go wrong while I was trying to make things better. It was a good lesson to think more thoughtfully about setup and placement. In the future I will make a list of things I want to do or change and do one thing every week with the water change. No more tank wide remodels.

NY_Caveman · Feb 11, 2019

LOL, sometimes we are the worst thing for our tanks. It will adapt, just be patient.

12gallonsofhex · Feb 11, 2019

Thanks. Unfortunately for my tank I tend to learn things the hardest way possible. Lol

12gallonsofhex · Feb 18, 2019

After lots of research online, I decided between 2 different hob filters for my small reef. The now 18 year old CPR backpack skimmer just has no way to run carbon or any other filter media. All attempts to alter it make it useless as a protien skimmer. I purchased the Aquatop uv filter and the Coralife marine filter with protien skimmer with the thought of keeping one for a future 20 gal long frag tank. Well, the Aquatop uv light didn't work and the Coralife didnt fit in the filter cutout on the euro-brace top. I looked around some more and settled on the Tidal 35. I like the surface skimmer and the removable media basket. I cut up a bunch of filter pads to catch the leftover food and detritus and am running GAC and Purigen. I hope the Purigen works as advertised and does at least as good at dissolved organics removal as the old weak skimmer.

I also added a splatter hammer as a birthday present. I really love watching this thing wave back and forth with the Jebao. Speaking of flow, I am still beating my head on all 5 of these aquarium walls. I have moved the pump at least 6 times and angles it manu more. I still can't get the flow throughout the tank without blowing sand into next week. I am considering ditching the Hex shape. The LFS has a nice 18 ×18×19 inch tall glass tank they can order me at a 'I used to be an employee 18 years ago' discounted price of $96. Twice the volume but maybe similar flow issues.

Anyway, that's this weeks update for the little hex. Parameters are still solid, and corals look happy. Just under 5ppm Nitrates and undetectable Phosphates with my Salifert test. Happy reefing!

12gallonsofhex · Feb 19, 2019

Added a small Snowflake clown about 2 hours ago. It is already hosting with my Splatter Hammer. I am almost as happy with the new addition as my 10 year old daughter

12gallonsofhex · Feb 26, 2019

It may well be overkill, but I added a second Jebao sow4 this weekend. I just was not happy with the flow in the tank. I think the hex shape deflected it in weird ways. After moving it to every possible location, and pointing at every possible angle, I came to the conclusion that the only way to get a fairly even whole-tank flow would be to add a second pump and turn them way down. I settled on the alternating pump setting with pumps on the opposite sides of the back angled walls pointing toward the front angled wall on each side respectively. I now have a nice back and forth movement that shows off my LPS nicely. It also keeps detritus up in the water column so it can be picked up by the filter. I recently removed the hang on protien skimmer in favor of the Seachem Tidal 35 filter and am very happy with it. I am running filter pad followed by carbon (changed out every 2 weeks) and Purigen to pull the organic waste out. I wasn't sure about the Purigen, but it is keeping Nitrates under 5ppm, and Phosphates at 0ppm (on a salifert test kit so I probably have some phosphates). I am quite content with my 2 month old reef. I did not expect it to be doing this well this early.

Hemmdog · Feb 27, 2019

12gallonsofhex said:
It may well be overkill, but I added a second Jebao sow4 this weekend. I just was not happy with the flow in the tank. I think the hex shape deflected it in weird ways. After moving it to every possible location, and pointing at every possible angle, I came to the conclusion that the only way to get a fairly even whole-tank flow would be to add a second pump and turn them way down. I settled on the alternating pump setting with pumps on the opposite sides of the back angled walls pointing toward the front angled wall on each side respectively. I now have a nice back and forth movement that shows off my LPS nicely. It also keeps detritus up in the water column so it can be picked up by the filter. I recently removed the hang on protien skimmer in favor of the Seachem Tidal 35 filter and am very happy with it. I am running filter pad followed by carbon (changed out every 2 weeks) and Purigen to pull the organic waste out. I wasn't sure about the Purigen, but it is keeping Nitrates under 5ppm, and Phosphates at 0ppm (on a salifert test kit so I probably have some phosphates). I am quite content with my 2 month old reef. I did not expect it to be doing this well this early.

Looks great man! Keep it up!