20 gallon ADA style reef setup

[iunknown]

So school has finally finished and I've decided to give a nano reef tank a try. I'll go over the setup and hopefully get some feedback and advice on how to improve.

The first tip that I was given was at a talk at a San Francisco Aquarium Society meeting. The speaker used an egg crate grid to stack live rock to look like a wall. Hopefully I can get this to work. I was only able to find white egg crate at lowes and will use a drill and zip ties to position the rocks.

I'll be tearing down a fresh water system that I've maintained over the years. This setup has evolved from trying different types of filtration. Some design considerations:
-Noise (wet/dry filters are out, or lights with fans)
-Minimal equipment (the closer I can get to just water and glass, the better)
-Automation (I like DIY and messing around with equipment)

It will probably be a coral only tank, my emphasis is going to be on the aquascaping. Maintenance will be bi-weekly water changes from a RO system recommended on the forum, from
filterdirect on ebay. I also bought a 35 gallon tub from lowes to hold/mix salt water. Hopefully this will eliminate the need for a protein skimmer, but I don't know enough at this point.

Down the road I'd like to try out the new MP10 from Vortech for a wave maker. I still need to research whether automated top off systems are compatible with wave makers? I don't even know if evaporation is going to be an issue or bother me enough? But if it does then I'll have to figure something out that pumps in-line with the canister filter.

The other two topics I need to read up on are surface skimmers, and deep sand beds. I don't know if surface scum is going to be an issue with this tank?

I'm using a Eheim 2224 filter, Maristar 14K 150W aquamax MH/T5 fixture (which I will most likely stagger the lighting). Went with 22lbs. of fiji live rock from liveaquaria.com (per 1lb. per gallon recommendation). I ended up ordering another 40 lb.

More info on original setup here:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...-20-gallon.html

My inspiration, LiQuid's 2.5 gallon tank.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/i...showtopic=10233

Added the follow corals to the tank
Green star polyps
Zoanthids
Candy cane
Chalice
Brain Coral
Montipora Coral

In a couple weeks plan to add
Tail spot blenny
(2) clown gobby
Astraea

I'm also going to go with the dosing pump for auto-top off. I realized that the fertilizer dosing pump I had for the planted tank wasn't enough (1 mL per min), so I'm upgrading the dosing pump.

aptinstruments.com
SP200FO 1/8"ID tubing (3.0mm) @ 30 RPM Norprene tubing = 15 mL/min
$82
500 mL/15 mL/min= around 30 min/4 so 8 min four times a day.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. I got rid of the egg crate on the back. I ordered two more batches of livestock. I had a bunch of problems with the second batch.
Batch 2 from liveaquaria.com
(2)Clown Goby, Yellow
SW - Tail Spot Blenny (Cebu)
(5)SW - Spiny Star Astraea
Candy Cane Coral (Fiji) - Small
Bright Color Fiji Acropora Pack - Small

I had some quick learning to do when one of the Acropora's developed rapid tissue necrosis. Because I was changing so many variables at the time, I'm not exactly sure what caused it. For some stupid reason I changed my MH photo-period to 12 hours up from 8. That caused wider temp fluctuations, with peeks getting up to 82.5. So I put the photo-period back to six hours. I also added a phosphate reactor. I'm not running a skimmer, so maybe my water parameters were not good enough for Acropora. I also got a MP10 to increase flow, which there was very little to begin with. I lost the Blenny because he jumped out of the tank. I'll have to look into getting a cover. I also lost one of the clown goby's when he got sucked into a temporary powerhead I had setup until the MP10 arrived. The RTN spread to more of my SPS corals. I also noticed that the reef crystal salt I was using was low on CA, so I've mailed them to see if I have a bad batch and I've started dosing 2 part.

The Third batch was from Vividaquaria that I highly recommend.
3rd batch
Orange Ricordea Mushrooms (Ricordea florida) - Single Mushroom
Fluorescent Tip Torch Coral (Euphyllia glabrescens) -
Open Green Brain Coral (Trachyphyllia radiata)
Colt Coral(Cladiella sp.)
Colony Polyp Rock Zoanthus

The RTN has stopped for now. I'm going to focus on keeping things stabilized. My Chalice is pretty beat up at this point, but its still eating, so I really hope that it pulls through. Tank has a lot of algae for now, hopefully the GFO will kick-in in a couple of weeks and starve it.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. I got rid of the egg crate on the back. I ordered two more batches of livestock. I had a bunch of problems with the second batch.
Batch 2 from liveaquaria.com
(2)Clown Goby, Yellow
SW - Tail Spot Blenny (Cebu)
(5)SW - Spiny Star Astraea
Candy Cane Coral (Fiji) - Small
Bright Color Fiji Acropora Pack - Small
I had some quick learning to do when one of the Acropora's developed rapid tissue necrosis. Because I was changing so many variables at the time, I'm not exactly sure what caused it. For some stupid reason I changed my MH photo-period to 12 hours up from 8. That caused wider temp fluctuations, with peeks getting up to 82.5. So I put the photo-period back to six hours. I also added a phosphate reactor. I'm not running a skimmer, so maybe my water parameters were not good enough for Acropora. I also got a MP10 to increase flow, which there was very little to begin with. I lost the Blenny because he jumped out of the tank. I'll have to look into getting a cover. I also lost one of the clown goby's when he got sucked into a temporary powerhead I had setup until the MP10 arrived. The RTN spread to more of my SPS corals. I also noticed that the reef crystal salt I was using was low on CA, so I've mailed them to see if I have a bad batch and I've started dosing 2 part.
The Third batch was from Vividaquaria that I highly recommend.
3rd batch
Orange Ricordea Mushrooms (Ricordea florida) - Single Mushroom
Fluorescent Tip Torch Coral (Euphyllia glabrescens) -
Open Green Brain Coral (Trachyphyllia radiata)
Colt Coral(Cladiella sp.)
Colony Polyp Rock Zoanthus
The RTN has stopped for now. I'm going to focus on keeping things stabilized. My Chalice is pretty beat up at this point, but its still eating, so I really hope that it pulls through. Tank has a lot of algae for now, hopefully the GFO will kick-in in a couple of weeks and starve it.

 

[oceanparadise1]

I highly suggest a kimmer will you love the results

 

[iunknown]

I've been getting the same suggestion on the skimmer. Any model recommendations? Should I get a hang-on-the-back type, or run it in-line with the canister filter? Do they make noise? I think my original thought was that with so much live rock (nitrates) and a GFO I would be able to get away with not having one. But I would like to ease up on maintenance to bi-weekly down the road, and would also like to eventually be successful with harder to care for corals, so maybe this is the next step?

 

[Acroholic]

Tunze Nano DOC Protein Skimmer 9002:

Tunze Nano DOC Protein Skimmer 9002

 

[starfish]

You have alot of algae growing everywhere. It will cover the corals if you don't get a handle on it. What do you have in the way of hermits? Have you tested for phosphates? The bubble algae looks like it is coming along also. I would check your phosphate levels for sure.

 

[cparka23]

Many nanos thrive on water changes alone (w/o a skimmer). Every two weeks should be fine for excessive nutrient removal if your water source is good. But if you're bent on a skimmer, the Tunze DOC is a good one for nanos.

Personally, I'd first test your water change supply for phosphates. If it measures zero, you should consider other contributors to the algae. It could be your salt mix, any food you're adding for the corals, etc. Hard to pinpoint it, so you just have to test regularly.

 

[iunknown]

ok, ordered the skimmer. I just started GFO. From what I read it takes a week for the algae to die off. I've looked into Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab's, but get conflicting reports on how reef safe they are. The tank does need some more movement, so I might pick one up. Are they compatible with Astraea snails?

Before I had the GFO I tested for phosphates and it was under .05. I'll check tonight to make sure its undetectable, now that the GFO is setup.

 

[cparka23]

The scarlet reef hermits should be okay. I find that they're more aggressive towards smaller snails such as ceriths, but that might just be my lucky experience. The thing that most bothers me is when they take food out from the polyps of my LPS corals, but they should help you get that algae in check.