24g Nano Cube "Grungy" Set Up

Annahra · Jul 24, 2017

Yay, everything survived vacation!! Lots of updates also.

Dropped off the long-spined urchins at the LFS on our way out of town since they were up to about 2" and now that I'm growing piles of algae in the sump I don't want to starve anything in the DT. Other urchin must like having the tank to himself because he started spawning right after I got home and fed the tank. I got a vid for you guys.

The Seneye worked great after I emailed the company and they pushed a manual update. Was great peace of mind on our trip, especially combined with the new light control. It's been about a week with new lights so I cranked them up to about 50% at peak.

Stopped by a really awesome fish store near my family and picked up a couple large monti frags (sunset and I think season's greetings) and another stylo.

Annahra · Jul 25, 2017

Updated full tank shots with midday lighting. Tank is now three months old!

Annahra · Jul 29, 2017

Had a minor epiphany last night. I've been wondering why my clove polyps have just never really seemed happy. I moved them around a few times but they just always seem to be getting too much flow and really only open up when I turn the main pump off for feeding. I have a 290gph return pump and a 160gph powerhead (facing at 90° to each other and aimed at surface to create turbulence), so with 24g that's 19x hourly which is moderate flow at best.

So I was looking at these poor little dudes that are almost certainly dying last night and I realized--I actually only have about 15g with all of the rocks and sand! That puts me at 30x hourly, which is definitely high flow. No wonder I've had so much trouble placing some of the more delicate things like the polyps and my feather duster (might be why the Xenia stays so short instead of tall like I've seen patches before).

This last round of corals seems to have tipped the scale on my calcium/alkalinity balance. For the first time, my kH is dropping faster than water changes replenish it, so time to start dosing. I placed a big order with Bulk Reef Supply this AM. Picked up a tiny Tunze skimmer and basically the entire Red Sea line up including NoPox. Definitely a very different picture from how I originally intended to keep the tank, but with my poor little sponges gone may as well move forward.

P. S. Limpets apparently like to harass montis. I've banished eight to the sump and have a couple more to go.