29 gallon build

[Deftones2015]

It has been a long time since I was in the hobby. I previously had a 75 gallon, sps dominant tank that was taken over by aptasia and torn down. It's been so long that the sunset monti was still going for 200+$ lol.

Anyway I decided to start up a small 29 gallon tank.

I have had success with smaller tanks in the past with 0 skimmer and just a diy refugium and weekly water changes.

More than anything, I'm starting this thread to stay interested. It's already frustrating going so small.

I attached a few pictures. Nothing special. I will be using cheap LEDs to light it and am going to use a gyre instead of the jebaos I currently have for flow.

Tank is already cycled, I set this up about 3 weeks ago.
I used Dr tims method and will do a 90% water change before adding the fish, which will be next week after I get the light hung.

So far I will be putting various zoas in, not too sure after that. Fish will be 2 black clowns and a skunk cleaner shrimp as well as few crabs and few snails.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice start! Welcome to R2R!

 

[Deftones2015]

Well I ordered the led light today. It will be here Sunday. Not sure how I want to run the LEDs but I'm thinking of not running the whites or if I do, dialing them down and short photo period. Does anyone have advice on that?

So far I have some zoas, candy cane frag and a Duncan frag coming mid to late March from a frag swap. It will be nice to get some coral in the tank.

This weekend will be a huge 90+% water change per Dr Tim start up advice. Water is already mixed. After that, I will add 2 small clowns. I plan on waiting for a cuc until I see algae. I will only be feeding 3x a week, lightly to start. I'm kind of using a mish mash of varying techniques lol.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I set the blues for growth and then adjusted the whites for aesthetics. My whites run at 50% the level of my blues, but every light, tank and eye are different. Corals, anemones, etc. all use wavelengths from the white light as well, the blue is just the most beneficial spectrum.

From SB Reef Lights

 

[Deftones2015]

Thanks for the advice! This is my first time using LEDs. I've always been a T5 guy because of the bulb choices. Im going to try LEDs, but I have my ATI fixture on standby lol.

I like the blue as well. 50% will be a good place to start though and I'll adjust from there, if I need to.

 

[Hemmdog]

I set the blues for growth and then adjusted the whites for aesthetics. My whites run at 50% the level of my blues, but every light, tank and eye are different. Corals, anemones, etc. all use wavelengths from the white light as well, the blue is just the most beneficial spectrum.

From SB Reef Lights

Nice set up OP! @NY_Caveman , you led me down a rabbit hole.. lol!
I found something very interesting though. I was looking further into the carotenoid that gets the “white” spectrum in your pic. Long story short and many other things learned, is that the “white spectrum” is the ideal environment for dino’s to undergo photosynthesis.

I use mainly a blue spectrum in both tanks and haven’t had Dino issues. When I was setting up my 90 and transferred the 360we I switched lights on my smaller tank to some cheap light with a much whiter spectrum, I got dinos shortly after. Now I have a 360X on it and pretty blue, dinos are gone. I’m not saying that my home example is proof or anything that white lights cause Dino issues, but I did find this interesting. Thanks for sharing that pic!

 

[NS Mike D]

I have a 29 gal with the RapidLED Coronas. I used @DanaRiddle spectrum blends as guideline

as for whites, I have them ramping up to peak midday (like the sun) and then ramping down so the blues dominate by the time I come come.

 

[Deftones2015]

So...I used too small of a grain for sand. I changed then position of the power head and now have a sand storm. The tank is cycled but has nothing living in it.

My question is, how much harm would I do to the bio filter by taking out the sand? I'm doing a huge water change soon and I would rather go bare bottom. There's plenty of rock that has bacteria on it. My thoughts are, since there's nothing in the tank, it won't cause any issues. What's everyone else's thoughts on this?

 

[Deftones2015]

Water is filling back up and I got most of the sand out. I'll finish the rest as I do weekly water changes. I like it better bare bottom but I think the wife wants sand. Time will tell who will win that battle

 

[Deftones2015]

Nice set up OP! @NY_Caveman , you led me down a rabbit hole.. lol!
I found something very interesting though. I was looking further into the carotenoid that gets the “white” spectrum in your pic. Long story short and many other things learned, is that the “white spectrum” is the ideal environment for dino’s to undergo photosynthesis.

I use mainly a blue spectrum in both tanks and haven’t had Dino issues. When I was setting up my 90 and transferred the 360we I switched lights on my smaller tank to some cheap light with a much whiter spectrum, I got dinos shortly after. Now I have a 360X on it and pretty blue, dinos are gone. I’m not saying that my home example is proof or anything that white lights cause Dino issues, but I did find this interesting. Thanks for sharing that pic!

I've read and heard the same thing. I've also heard people, like Jason fox, say that they use blue lighting spectrum because that's how the corals grow in the wild. Jason said most of the corals we get, grow deep and on the sides of under water mountains, so they don't need to be blasted with light, especially in the whiter, red etc. Spectrum. In the past I've used blue plus with a fiji purple in my t5 fixtures and always had great growth and coloration.

 

[Deftones2015]

Well today, there's more sand in the middle of the tank, thanks to my pumps lol. I'm going to buy a filter sock so I can finish removing the sand. I'll use the tube to pull the sand out and run it through a filter sock so I can dump the water back in, minus the sand.

 

[Muttley000]

Water is filling back up and I got most of the sand out. I'll finish the rest as I do weekly water changes. I like it better bare bottom but I think the wife wants sand. Time will tell who will win that battle

My money is on your wife lol

 

[Deftones2015]

My money is on your wife lol

Blasphemy! She is already asking what size sand I want to go with lol, like I'm going with sand ;Stop

 

[Deftones2015]

well I got the light put up. Also added a couple platinum percs, torch and 2 ricordea florida. The pic is washed in blue although it's not that blue at all in person. I'll have to figure out how to filter that out.

I had to take the jebao wave maker offline. It was too much for the 29 and beat the torch up pretty bad. This why the torch looks so unhappy. I have a gyre coming tomorrow so that will be the flow.

 

[Deftones2015]

This one's a little less blue. Buckeye reef club frag swap is coming up on March 17th so I'm excited to meet some of those guys as well as get a few frags for the tank.

 

[Deftones2015]

Well I got the gyre 1k today. It's nice so far. My only complaint is that if I want to run the alternating gyre mode, I have to buy another set of propellers and the flow directors. So I'll end up having to buy those because I want to run the alt. Gyre mode.

I think I figure out how to use my.google pixel to take better pics of the tank.

I did end up ordering sand @Muttley000 I'm acting like it was my choice to help the light bounce back and so I can add a few nassarius snails ;Meh

 

[NY_Caveman]

I know this is a little late, but the sand has little impact on the biofiltration compared to the rock. Only a deep, say 6” sandbed has much of an impact.

 

[Deftones2015]

Well I turned the lights down today. Trying to get the torch happy. I turned blues to 50% and whites to 25%. Torch seems happier today. I also turned the flow down some on the gyre.

Will be adding larger grained sand tonight or tomorrow. I will post a pic when the tank clears up. This weekend I may buy a few snails but I'm not sure. No algae yet. Could use a nassarius or 2 to eat uneaten food. I don't feed much and only once every 2-3 days but the clowns are picky and spit out some of the food.

I'm thinking either a skunk cleaner or few nassarius or possibly both. Any opinions?

 

[count krunk]

i would let the sand bed mature a bit (2 weeks to a month) before adding nassarius snails.

But be sure to keep a good supply of them as they will hunt thru the sandbed and stir it up. I think nass snails are a must for tanks with sandbeds

 

[Deftones2015]

i would let the sand bed mature a bit (2 weeks to a month) before adding nassarius snails.

But be sure to keep a good supply of them as they will hunt thru the sandbed and stir it up. I think nass snails are a must for tanks with sandbeds

I've always used them in other tanks. I prefer bare bottom for sure. In the future if I do a larger sps tank, it will definitely be bb. I still need to buy pods to add to the tank. Should do that this weekend. I have to drive an hr minimum for a decent store that sells snails and pods etc. So I get lazy sometimes and I try to get as much as possible with each trip.