20G TALL Nano Reef!

[dvgyfresh]

Remember to keep higher levels of phosphate and nitrate , it seems counter intuitive but without it you’ll never get rid of dinos

 

[tryingtoreef]

Better advice can be given with parameters and a microscope shot of what you're dealing with.
Fwiw, only certain strains of dinos are effectively treated with UV, you'll need a positive identification to go on the correct path for what's next if it is indeed dinos. If it is ostreopsis, which I believe is the most toxic, you need to run UV and carbon together to remove the toxins as they are destroyed. Large cell amphidinium is beaten by dosing silicates so diatoms can outcompete the LCA dinos. Lots of info out there for you to read, but a lot of comes from knowing exactly what it is that is in your tank

 

[bangcamaro]

Well I cleaned up my tank a TON today, i got the turkey baster, did a nice water change, changed out my polyfilter and cleaned up my HOB some.. The algae blew off super easily and I cleaned it up with a net and siphon some..

I did talk to my LFS and he thinks that my flow in my tank is not strong enough for the style of m y tank. The two Hydors are producing enough which is causing alot of detritus in my tank to sit and be stagnant. I adjusted the hydors to be more focused on the bottom half of the tank as it seems like the top half o fmy tank has decent flow overall from the HOB.

 

[bangcamaro]

Looking at the Hydors I have, they are the 425gph. I have 2 of them but I'm starting ot wonder if even this is not enough with the style of my tank...tall and deep from the top..

 

[bangcamaro]

Got myself the Salifert Test Kits and did my first testing overall. Here are my results!
Granted this is the first time I'm doing it so hopefully I got a decently accurate reading with everything.

NO3 - Range between 0-2 mark on the chart
MG - .02 , says it was 1470 ppm?
PO4 - 0
Ca - .02 says it was 490?
KH/Alk - .38 = 9.6
pH - 8.0

Algae in my tank is still here and I am really starting to think its a flow problem here but honestly I'm not sure. I'm picking up a bunch of new coral here tomorrow so I'm hoping someone can validate my test results look okay overall.

 

[bangcamaro]

Finally added my first fish to the tank!

Got a Yellow Watchmen Goby for the tank. He looks great under the lights. Im waiting on my LFS to get new pistol shrimp to add so they can become a pair.

Future plans are adding some more coral here this upcoming week, 2-3 torches of different color and also adding 2x clowns. I havent decided if I'm going to go basic Ocellaris or get something designer style. Will see..

Anyone have any suggestions on what else to add in my 20g for livestock? I was thinking the watchmen and 2 clowns may be enough but maybe i can fit in a 4th and 5th fish? No more than 5 though I think of course right?

 

[bangcamaro]

Pistol Shrimp is here! Added this little dude to the tank today to hopefully have a great life and bond with the Yellow Watchmen!

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

You did real well with the scape.

One day I hope to see some tall branching SPS in here!

 

[bangcamaro]

HA I would love that too..I'm not biting my tongue though but thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm putting in 2x Hammer Corals and 1x Torch tomorrow at some point. Probably adding 2x clowns as well tomorrow depending on what happens...

 

[bangcamaro]

Updates have been slim but I finally added new fish to the tank!

Picked up a Zombie Clown and then a Midnight Clown. I was convinced to go with "designer" over the "basic" style clown fish. Theyre definitely juvenile so I hope they make it...most expensive purchase to date at 80 bucks a pop from my LFS. Really excited to see how they grow..

In other news, I noticed that all my fish and inverts are named after Video Game Characters.


So far we have:

Yellow Watchmen - Tidus (from FF10)
Pistol Shrimp - Kamari (from FF10)
Zombie Clown - Albert Wesker (from Resident Evil Series)
Midnight Clown - Nemesis (from Resident Evil Series)

Shockingly enough by my avatar I do not have Cloud yet..i wonder what I could get to reflect that though! Overall, I think I'm going to settle in these 2 clowns before I go adding another fish but I'm gonna cap out at 4 total fish with the Watchmen and Shrimp in my size tank I dont wanna go much more I think..

Corals seem to be doing okay for the most part, theyre very finnicky creatures, last day or so theyve been more closed up so I need to do water change today and look at parameters to see whats going on.

Oh another small update, Cyano is now growing so I have to figure out how to get that under control ...yikes!

 

[bangcamaro]

Picked up the Maxspect Jump 308 Gyre for my tank. I noticed an immediate difference with flow in tank! I'm hoping this helps with my Cyano buildup and just keeping nutrients flowing and removing some dead spots in the tank. Currently running this on randomized flow to a max level of 3 but I think I'm going to keep fiddling with the settings and the way the gyres are pointed(all pointed upwards for right now) and see if I see any improvement in the tank so far.


Clowns are doing great and already coming out of their shells. The watchmen and pistol shrimp are coming out way more now as well during feeding time. Won some new corals in a local auction and will be getting those this week. Now im trying to fill out some dead spots in the tank with coral and then gonna let it go and hopefuly florish. Most corals seem to be doing well aside from my toadstool which seems to be very finnicky as of late.

 

[bangcamaro]

Cyano looks to be spreading a bit more rapidly than before I got the Gyre..going to do a water change today I guess hah

 

[bangcamaro]

Another check in here..Cyano is definitely spreading more, I'm still trying to locate the issue..I initially thought it was deadzones for flow in my tank but now i feel like thats not it? Parameter testing seems to be within range, gonna do another test here tonight/tomorrow and see what they are..Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[bangcamaro]

	Alkalinity(dKh)	Phosphate(PO4)	Nitrate	Salinity	pH	Magnesium	Calcium
6/4/25	9.6	0.25	10	1.025
6/6/25	9.3	0	10
6/20/25	9.9	0	10		8	1230ppm	400ppm

Decided to do a check on all my nutrients in the tank. so far everything seems to be within range from what I can ...however I am still growing cyano at this time and some other nuisance algae it looks like.
Water change tomorrow.

 

[krystoph]

It sounds like you don't have much in the way of CUC (clean up crews). So I would look into getting some snails to help, I've hear copepods can help (not sure which species would be best) and also upping your phosphate levels to detectible levels.

 

[bangcamaro]

I have some snails and copepods actually in the tank! copepod population seems to have skyrocketed as of late. There was a ton a few months ago, then died out it seems, now theyre back again? hah.

 

[bangcamaro]

did a water change today, a rather large one, tried cleaning up the cyano a bunch as well..noticed i have a TON of detritus on my sand from what i can only assume is dead algae died off? The coloration is like a very dead gray color and its just gross looking. Adjusted my gyre to have the back one pointing more down towards the sandbed and I think I'm liking the flow even more right now. Hoping to get this cyano under control.

I've also noticed as of late my corals have been a bit more...closed. Hopefully doing a nice tank maintenance and cleanup helps these guys open up some.

 

[bangcamaro]

Still fighting Cyano at this time but keeping it under wraps i think for the most part, Attached are some pictures of my coral under white lights since i dont have a blue light filter but I wanted to get some opinions on if my corals are looking healthy..Ive noticed that the torchs dont really come out very far and arent "stringy" like i see some others floating around in the current...Is this due to something in my parameters that my corals arent liking? I wanna see some flowy-ness to these guys!

Btw I absolutely adore my hairy mshroom behind that one <3

 

[bangcamaro]

Been a while since I updated!

I just did some parameter testing and it looks like some stuff is a bit off while others are still stable..

	Alkalinity(dKh)	Phosphate(PO4)	Nitrate	Salinity	pH	Magnesium	Calcium
6/4/25	9.6	0.25	10	1.025
6/6/25	9.3	0	10
6/20/25	9.9	0	10		8	1230ppm	400ppm
9/6/25	8.3	0	25	1.026	7.7	1380	430

yeah...ive been bad with testing...woops lol..

Tank is doing okay otherwise, looks like the cyano is under control..dealing with a bit of green algae on the glass but otherwise nothing to bad...some of my corals seem to be doing great like my mushrooms and my hammer coral ..but then other corals like my torch is completely closed up for a while now..I'm going to do a bigger water change tomorrow and see if that affects parameters and also the torch coral..


Oh, super fun new update. I just bought a Nuvo Fusion 30 Pro from a local reefer here in Jersey! Super pumped to upgrade to a better tank..This one for me just isnt doing it with the dang cleaning and maintenance..its a pain..I'm moving to PA in October so im pumped to get the new tank ready to go!

 

[bangcamaro]