20L Custom Build - RudeReefNano20

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 1, 2019

Update 8.25.19

Hello Everyone!

I want to share my reef tank with the community. I took my own approach at my first reef tank after a lot of research. It's far from perfect and always a work in progress. Hopefully one day it will look like a "tank of the month" tank but in the mean time if people can learn from my setup and the mistakes, I'm glad I could pass on the knowledge.

To keep it short and sweet I built this tank with the idea of trying different equipment and setups to learn more of what works for me. Yes it's a small tank and much of the gear may seem overkill but I live in the city. I don't want to move a 150 gallon system when I buy a house. I intend to use the gear and knowledge to build a bigger and better reef tank when I move into a house of my own.

I work as a mechanical engineer in automated manufacturing so building things, testing, and tinkering is just another day in life. I think that's what really keeps me interested in this hobby.

So here is my tank setup during leak test (power strip location temporary for testing. Since been moved outside of stand and off ground level).

How the rock work started

How it currently sits today

I've already experienced ups and downs on the system. I will elaborate on this in future posts. My goal for the time being is to maintain until fall (enjoy the summer golfing and biking) and then take on more coral and fish. Possibly some new gear once I outline a budget.

The tank has been setup for 5 months now.

Corals:
- Neon Tip Torch
- Bi-Color Hammer
- Gold Hammer
- Rainbow Sunset Acan
- Radioactive Dragoneye Zoa
- WWC Purple Monster Zoa
- Utter Chaos Zoa
- WWC Blue Polyp Pink Birdsnest
- Green Polyp Birdsnest
- WWC Mint Chip Plesiastrea
- Green Star Polyp

Fish:
-Purple Firefish

NY_Caveman · Jul 1, 2019

Nice! Welcome to R2R!

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 2, 2019

I decided to go with a 20 gallon long because of the long landscape and it fit well in the available space I had in my apartment. I wanted to incorporate a sump for additional water volume and to hide some of the gear so I drilled the tank. I used an Eshopps Eclipse S overflow box (1" drains) and 3/4" return. I painted the back of the aquarium to create a better contrast in the tank.

dantimdad · Jul 2, 2019

Welcome aboard!

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 23, 2019

Let's keep it going..

I built a stand myself (boy pre-made stands can get expensive). Good old 2x4's, plywood and some paint.

Sprayed some sealant inside the stand to fight any water damage.

The stand is taller than the norm and the reason I did this was because I wanted to be able to look into my tank without having to severely bend over just to take a peek. The light won't be above my eyes when its mounted.

Bubbabobobbrain · Jul 24, 2019

Your stand came out pretty awesome. I’ll be following along for sure since I’ll be starting up a 20 long nano in the near future myself. Good luck on yours.

Pbh-reef · Jul 24, 2019

Following along! What fish are you thinking of?

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 25, 2019

Bubbabobobbrain said:
Your stand came out pretty awesome. I’ll be following along for sure since I’ll be starting up a 20 long nano in the near future myself. Good luck on yours.

Thanks! I hope my build helps you with your future 20L. Let me know if you have any questions or need recommendations.

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 25, 2019

Pbh-reef said:
Following along! What fish are you thinking of?

Well I've already had my ups and downs with the fish..... let me explain.

My stock list... and trying to get back to it is...
Purple Firefish
Royal Gramma
Tailspot Blenny
Pair of clownfish

I built up to this list over the course for 4-5 months in the order listed. I added in my clowns and the list was complete but at some point my tank caught a parasite. Either ich or brook. I'm leaning towards brook because of the quick deaths. White spots visible on the fish (ich) and white slime coat (brook). I had 4 fish die in a week. I will admit I was dealing with dinos and didn't have perfect water chemistry at the time so I'm sure the fish were stressed at this time too.

This is my first marine tank and I'm learning. I definitely felt down after having a handful of fish die but I didn't pick this hobby because it was easy. I knew the risk of not quarantining. It didn't pay off and I didn't give it a fighting chance.

The lone survivor was the Purple Firefish. I'm trying to maintain the tank for the summer months (avid golfer and mountain biker). During this time I'm adjusting chemistry, lighting, and coral placement for future growth. When winter comes I will invest in more livestock and coral.

I know this leaves the story somewhat open as to what fully happened so my next post I'll explain what I went through with dino's and water chemistry.

NY_Caveman · Jul 26, 2019

Ugh, that is a bummer. Don't beat yourself up. Sounds like you are moving forward with a plan.

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 27, 2019

NY_Caveman said:
Ugh, that is a bummer. Don't beat yourself up. Sounds like you are moving forward with a plan.

Yup. Plan your work and work your plan

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 27, 2019

Fish and tank chemistry continued..

My tank was cycled and fish were being added slowly. During the cycle stage you go through the ugly stage and my experience wasn't toooo....ugly. I ran into so algae so I tried to bringing back the nutrients and was basically running a ULNS. Unable to detect nitrates or phosphates. This lead into the dino outbreak.

I didn't think it was that bad until it would go away and my fish started dying (a stressor event). There was a lot of dino. As mentioned I think ich or brook was the main culprit. I lost 4 fish in less than a week, one by one.

After that I focused on water chemistry. I tried removing the dino by hand, cleaning glass, scrubbing rock, added UV sterilizer but to no avail over the first week. After that I started dosing flourish along with everything I was already doing. That did the trick. I've been dosing a 1/2 cap every day since I started the battle.

I intend to implement a better solution for nitrates and phosphates in the future but this is working for now. During the dino battle I stopped water changes so now my alkalinity got all messed up. Short of that both my birds nest started experiencing polyp loss. I've dosed Tropic Marin all in one over 2 weeks and everything is back in target range.

All the coral and lone fire fish look noticeably healthier now. Hopefully the birds nest make a full recovery. I'm working on a plan for dosing that's a little less involved with me every day. Working out the problems and succeeding makes you feel good.

RudeReefNano20 · Jul 28, 2019

On to the sump!

I had an old 10 gallon and in the interest of saving money I build my own sump. I went around to a few different places that sold glass and ask for my custom sizes. Grabbed four 1/4" thick panes of glass for around $40.

I have intentions of trying a refugium and growing cheato but that will come further down the line.

RudeReefNano20 · Aug 25, 2019

With the sump build there was only one thing left to do, plumb this fish tank.

I've never plumbed PVC before so I was a little intimidated at first but after carefully test fitting, cutting, and marking everything I started to glue it all together. It's not as intimidating as it seems.

I wasn't super excited about the long unions but for the 1" drains the traditional unions used wouldn't clear my stand. Hopefully they don't leak over time.

The long awaited start of the tank has come and here it is all setup.

My girlfriend painted the pictures as a birthday gift. A nice touch to the aquarium and the space.

RudeReefNano20 · Sep 7, 2019

Update!

So now that everyone is up to speed on the build of the tank I'll start posting about the everyday things i'm trying to fix, change, and maintain for a better overall tank.

The tank has been setup for about 7 months now. I'm pleased with how its going but the sump was getting dirty. So I dove in to clean it and thought it was going to take a while. It ended up only taking an hour. I put together a little list to keep myself moving.

0.1) Mix batch of salt water in advance.
0.2) Remove inverts from sump.
0.3) Turn off all power to sump.
1.) Remove some water into bucket.
2.) Remove live rock and put into bucket.
3.) Remove skimmer and bag filter
4.) Scrub down walls, heater, return pump, ATO, and clean chiller pump.
5.) Vacuum out all water.
6.) Replace live rock.
7.) Replace with new salt water.
8.) Start up return pump.
9.) Finish cleaning skimmer and reinstall.

The water has been looking very clear since cleaning the sump. The journey continues.

RudeReefNano20 · Oct 12, 2019

October Update!

So a lot has been going on and I want to fill you guys in on the journey.

Starting with something fun, I decided to get an anemone. Now I did my research and I knew it was going to move all over the place and let me tell you, its been everywhere.

I've had the nem for 3 weeks now and it is still trying to find the best spot. One morning I found it crawling up my branching hammer. I decided to act and removed it from the hammer. Fortunately the foot was accessible and branching hammer is smooth. I used a credit card and this process went nice and easy. The adventure continues as the nem in the zoa garden now.

I've heard the story a million times of the nem crawling into the powerhead. So I made a home made nem guard. Not the prettiest thing but better than a dead nem.

Last weekend I participated in the WWC Fragtoberfest. I got some new pieces and kept it under budget so I spent the rest of my budget on a dosing pump. I still have to setup the pump but I'm finding that I didn't plan for this much power use during my build planning. Also where to put the pump and one part (Tropic Marin All in One).

I just bought the new iPhone 11 Pro so when that comes in I will get some pictures of the new coral I just added. Hopefully a better FTS too!

If you've been following along you know I had a disease kill 4 out of 5 fish. Was a tough week. I want to get back to my original stock list so I'm going to go 76 days on the DT without fish. I've setup a quarantine tank for my current firefish to live and will perform a treatment to him and all other fish that come through. I took the risk before of not quarantining and was burnt. Now I have a new operating procedure. So I'll start the clock sometime this month. It will be a challenge catching the firefish out of the DT. Here is a shot of the quarantine tank. It's not complete, still have a few thing to do on it.