29 gallon upgrade...sorta

El_Guapo13 · Mar 30, 2020

Been a while since I have made any updates. What can I say, I have been busy with A) work, and B) mostly spending time on internet looking up current news due to a certain very bad thing going on worldwide right now.

But, I have grown tired of seeing depressing news, so might as well get back to surfing R2R and updating my build thread!!!

So I got the A360X installed on the left, a80 on right. No issues and everything is happy. Except my starburst monti, but that started showing signs of not doing well after I was forced to move everything to a new tank. So I think it might be the one for aure casualty of the move. Which is sad, because it was growing and plating really well. Guess I need another one now.

Here is my 5 gallon ATO reservoir with my Tunze Osmolator 3152 Nano. No problems with it and it is keeping my display's water level stable.

Lastly, I am still working on new rockwork for the rights side so I can mount my coral frags. Here is what I have so far.

I plan to out this right against the AIO box right here

But first, I am planning on adding another shelf lower down. Trying to decide if I want it sitting flat horizontally or slanted.
Flat

Slanted

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

btmedic04 · Mar 30, 2020

everything looks really good! Don't give up on your monti just yet. I had a superman that i was sure was a goner due to a kalkwasser incident. my ph was up to 9.6 at one point and the monti bleached and rtn'd. Once I corrected the issue and maintained stability, much to my surprise, it came back. Hopefully yours pulls through!

I really like your aio faceplate rock pillar too. Personally, I lean more towards the slanted bottom shelf look but both look nice!

showmebutterfly · Mar 30, 2020

I like the slanted look. Somehow that looks more natural to me, but go with the one you like the best because you're the one that will be looking at it every day.

NS Mike D · Mar 30, 2020

Nice. Loving what you have done

fellow 29 gal PetCo aqueon here. I like what you've done.

Over the last five years my mods have been

CPR 5 g HOB fuge. Primary a pod fuge with some rubble rock and macro with a cheap led strip light. A heater. I lowered the pump so it sits closer the bottom when I added the below tank sump>. I removed the Tunze nano skimmer as it doesn't sit below the water line sufficiently to be effective. I am looking for other options and my put it back since it does skim .

10 gal DIY sump (petco cheap aqueon). I built the overflow with a CPR weir siliconed to the inside and fabricated the outside with acyrlic. PVC and flex tube for the plumbing

The sump has. filter sock heater and a BRS mini reactor for carbon and gfo that sits on top a grate on top of the sump. The middle section hold rubble rock and some cheato in an eggcrate basket I made. Baffles. The final section is the float switches and fill line of the BRS DIY ATO, a sicce return pump connected to a Home Depot sump pump float switch. (turns the pump off if water level drops and turns it back on as the sump refills).

My lights are the RapidLED Coronas (love then) and I have made a side cabinet for the Apex Classic I bought second hand here for good savings. They 3 tunze nano turbelles and 1 hydor nano. The apex mimics the stages of tidal flow. It's overkill, they are all on only 2 hours day and they help keep detritus suspended for the corals and filters. I have carib sea live natural reef sand which is bigger grains to stay down with the high flow.

Lot's that can be done with the Petco cheap tank.

fishguy242 · Mar 30, 2020

hi nice to sea you back just an opinion flat love it good for snails and corals! happy reefing

El_Guapo13 · Apr 5, 2020

Decided on the slanted one, and glued it down to the tower on Friday evening. Did a water change a few minutes ago, and in it went.

Now I just need to restock up on glue and reef putty sobI can mount my frags lol. Probably need to move that Cristata up to the top shelf. It doesn't get any flow where I placed it.

Probably also need a second powerhead lol

fishguy242 · Apr 5, 2020

looking good

El_Guapo13 · May 6, 2020

Quick update.

I caved, and ordered another A360X for my tank. Once I get it in I will move the A80 to my 10 gallon, which hopefully will make the zoas in that tank alot happier.

Also, I plan on my next water change to rearrange my rockwork I recently added to the 29. And by rearrange, I mean turn it at an angle. The way I have it now makes it a pain to scrub the front glass around it lol.

El_Guapo13 · May 9, 2020

Got the seconsld A360X in and set it up on the 29 gallon in place of the A80.

The A80 is now on the 10 gallon in my bedroom.

One small thing I forgot to get... a K-link cable. So only the A360X on the left with thw WiFi Dongle on it is on an actual set shedule. I already ordered one though, and I should get it by Wednesday, so I only have to manually turn my new A360X on and off for 5 days give or take.

Now I just need to do a water change, adjust the rockwork column to be at an angle, and mount my unmounted frags.

Progress.

El_Guapo13 · May 19, 2020

Update time again.

So I placed my unmounted corals, got rid of my two dead acros, and readjusted the placement of my "Tower" rockwork. And it is looking much better now.

I did have a bit of a scare yesterday. My ATO came on, but whereas it normally runs for maybe 4 or 5 seconds, but yesterday it would not stop. Luckily, with the current state of things (as in working from home because of COVID19), I was home at the time and in my kitchen (tank is in living room). So I managed to get to it and shut it off before it overflowed, but it was close.

At first, I was freaking out because I remember people saying that the Tunze Nano ATO had problems (or at least they had problems, others apparently did not have problems) with its sensor. However, I thought about it, and since the sensor is a simple float sensor, I figured that rather than something being catastrophicly wrong with it, it was more likely something was keeping the float from, well, floating properly. Since I saw alot of algae on the magnet I assumed that maybe, the float was clogged with algae and gunk. So I took it out and scrubbed it clean. Still didn't really seem to me like it was gunked up enough to prevent it from floating up and down properly, but satisfied with my cleaning, I grabbed the casing to put it back together. And what do I now notice in the casing?? A STUPID CERITH SNAIL!!!!

No wonder it wasn't working correctly, there was literally an object that was blocking the float from reaching the stopping point, thus keeping it lower down, resulting in the ATO system thinking that the water was low. And it was a freakin snail. I of course angrily threw the snail back into the main display. I also lowered the water level a bit from where I had it previously (I may have accidentally added too much over the weekend when I did a water change, which definitely didn't help), and lowered the sensor a few inches in the return pump chamber. And everything is working fine now. Snail induced crisis averted.

Adding cleaning/checking ATO sensor to my to do list during water changes now.

fishguy242 · May 19, 2020

wow really coming along,georgous ,ps

rob 90% will disagree with me ,have maintained 3000+ gals in approx 15-20 systems at once,i am the ato,never trust em,upside good exercise topping 20+ gals a day

El_Guapo13 · May 19, 2020

fishguy242 said:
wow really coming along,georgous ,psrob 90% will disagree with me ,have maintained 3000+ gals in approx 15-20 systems at once,i am the ato,never trust em,upside good exercise topping 20+ gals a day

I guess that is one way to work out.

El_Guapo13 · May 19, 2020

Totally forgot to mention, I purchased a Royal Gramma two weeks ago. So far so good. He has staked out his little territory/hiding spot, which used to be Colonel Patterson's (6-line) sleeping spot until I added the Tower and he moved over there. I do see the yet to be named Gramma try to be all tough whenever Colonel Patterson swims by, opening his mouth and trying to intimidate him. But the Colonel just either outright ignores it, or visibly stops and gives a "da heck is wrong with you?" look towards the gramma, and then swims off to continue his patrolling. Of course, once it is feeding time, then the Colonel pays attention and will outright push the gramma away if he feels the gramm is trying to take his food.

Would post pics, but he hides when I pull out the camera. If I get a pic I will post it later.

Now I just need to decide on one last fish. Too bad a hawkfish would probably force me to go snail only CUC, otherwise I would definitely get a longnose or flame.

And Geometric Pygmy Perchlets don't count as hawkfish!!! They aren't real hawkfish!!! Just Anthias posing to try to be cool and different!!

El_Guapo13 · May 19, 2020

Lol of course. I am tearing my head apart debating on whether or not I should get a hawkfish, and Live Aquari adds this to Diver's Den:

Arrrrghhh!!!!!!!!

fishguy242 · May 19, 2020

going to perch on your favorite coral..murphy's law

El_Guapo13 · May 19, 2020

fishguy242 said:
going to perch on your favorite coral..murphy's law

If it is my Duncan, no worries. Has 25 heads give or take. Should be fine. On the other hand, if it perches on my Frosted Forest Aussie Lord, then I will be worried for the fish. That Aussie Lord is a killer!!!
Lol

thatsruff · Jun 4, 2020

El_Guapo13 said:
Update time again.

So I placed my unmounted corals, got rid of my two dead acros, and readjusted the placement of my "Tower" rockwork. And it is looking much better now.

I did have a bit of a scare yesterday. My ATO came on, but whereas it normally runs for maybe 4 or 5 seconds, but yesterday it would not stop. Luckily, with the current state of things (as in working from home because of COVID19), I was home at the time and in my kitchen (tank is in living room). So I managed to get to it and shut it off before it overflowed, but it was close.

At first, I was freaking out because I remember people saying that the Tunze Nano ATO had problems (or at least they had problems, others apparently did not have problems) with its sensor. However, I thought about it, and since the sensor is a simple float sensor, I figured that rather than something being catastrophicly wrong with it, it was more likely something was keeping the float from, well, floating properly. Since I saw alot of algae on the magnet I assumed that maybe, the float was clogged with algae and gunk. So I took it out and scrubbed it clean. Still didn't really seem to me like it was gunked up enough to prevent it from floating up and down properly, but satisfied with my cleaning, I grabbed the casing to put it back together. And what do I now notice in the casing?? A STUPID CERITH SNAIL!!!!

No wonder it wasn't working correctly, there was literally an object that was blocking the float from reaching the stopping point, thus keeping it lower down, resulting in the ATO system thinking that the water was low. And it was a freakin snail. I of course angrily threw the snail back into the main display. I also lowered the water level a bit from where I had it previously (I may have accidentally added too much over the weekend when I did a water change, which definitely didn't help), and lowered the sensor a few inches in the return pump chamber. And everything is working fine now. Snail induced crisis averted.

Adding cleaning/checking ATO sensor to my to do list during water changes now.

Tank looks really great. I like how the AIO looks in there, wish I had thought of or found something like that back when I had mine running. I like the rock tower too, nice.

El_Guapo13 · Jun 23, 2020

Minor update.

Got a Red Finned Fairy Wrasse about a week and a half ago. While acclimating it, I made sure to put it in an acclimation box after I finished drip acclimating it to see how Colonel Patterson (the sixline) would react. Up to now he had been a model citizen, but even if he is perfect with other species of fish, he is still a wrasse and last I checked his species has zero tolerance for any wrasse they can't make babies with. As expected by most (and unfortunately for me), he began almost immediately attacking the acclimation box.

So, I caught him ( after removing most of the rockwork of course), released the red finned fairy wrasse into the tank, and placed the Colonel into the acclimation box while I did a water change in the only other tank I had available, my 10 gallon. After the water change and giving time for the heater to get the water temp in the 10 gallon back to 78 degrees, I moved the Colonel to the 10 gallon. He was mad for a day or two and would hide when seeing me, but now he is back to normal and swimming in and out of the rockwork.

Would post a pic of the ten gallon, but I am having a bad case of the uglies in there, and don't plan to clean until thos evening as I am technically on the clock right now. But here are some pics of the 29 gallon as it currently is with my new, unnamed male Red Finned Fairy Wrasse (as usual would like to keep with the theme of naming after celebrities or chracters from films)

El_Guapo13 · Jul 6, 2020

So. I am thinking of getting another powerhead/wavemaker. Not so much for the 29 gallon, more for my 10 gallon to increase the water flow and help prevent buildup of detritus in there. That said, I could always move my Koralia Nano powerhead from the 29 to the 10, and get something bigger for the 29, which I do think I need as my Koralia Nano is the 425, so I could probably use a bit more flow in the 29 anyway. I am just not sure with what poerhead to get. Amy suggestions?