I've just gotten back into the hobby, having had about 5 years experience in the past.
Equipment:
I cut up a cutting board to fit the tank and routed the edges to a 45 degree angle, removing the corners to avoid hitting the silicone. I placed this in the bottom of the display tank. The light is mounted on a monitor arm, which makes it very easy to swing out of the way.
Refugium setup:
The shelf is mounted into studs and coated with clear poly for water proofing.
I drilled the tank, and the shelf, coating the hole through the shelf with poly. I then added a single baffle and plumbed to display tank. The fuge is above the tank, allowing pods a higher survival rate as they will just be swept down the overflow. In the future I plan to add a higher capacity pump and a stockman standpipe, for for now, there is little enough flow that it's silent.
Weeks 1-2:
Since I'm not skimming, I modified the dosing on Red Sea Reef mature, using ~ 50% recommended does of the bacto start and Nitro Bac, and not using either of the other two supplements, otherwise following the documentation for ~ 2 weeks.
Weeks 3-4:
Afterwards I added a single shrimp from the grocery store, continuing testing. After not being able to catch any ammonia for most of the week , I pulled the shrimp and squeezed the juices out of it into the tank, and lightly diced it and placed in the tank in a media bag. Tested 2x a day, and finally, ammonia!
Ammonia went back to undetectable after ~ 8 hours, moving through nitrite then to nitrate.
Week 5:
No more ammonia or nitrite. Did a 20% water change and removed the shrimp. Added chaeto to the display tank and pods from Algae Barn, started dosing phyto nightly. After 3 days tested 0 nitrates, and continued testing 0 on ammonia and nitrites when testing 1x/day. Added two micro lords, started target feeding and reduced phyto to every other night. Nitrates hover between 0 and 2 ppm.
Week 6:
One hammer, and one more hermit crab, one mushroom frag, Finished pluming in the remote refugium with ~1 LB LR and 1.5 inches sand. Moved chaeto to refugium. Noted that the first hermit crab shed, got some empty shells to add to the tank for growth.
(In addition to the above, I do a 20% water change weekly. Quick and easy in this small of a setup)
Lessons learned:
Starting with wet live rock (Kept in the dark and fed by LFS) and live sand really sped up the process. I've been through the process of transforming dry rock to live, and the difference has been night and day. I've had minimal algae growth and the cycle has been shortened and never peaked as high as on my old tank. So far I've been maintaining nitrates at unmeasurable levels, and only had to clean the glass once so far.
Future livestock plans:
Full setup shot:
Display:
(Prior to first glass cleaning, oops!)
Fuge:
Livestock:
Micro lords (Slightly angry, this is just after adding the fuge sand)
Micro lords (Simi rescue, the far side has started new polyps after 2 weeks)
Spotted mushrooms
Hammer euphyllia
Equipment:
- Tanks
- 4.5 Gal rimless display tank
- 1.5 Gal rimless
- Filtration
- 11 lbs LR (Clean wet rock from my LFS)
- 5 lbs Oolite live sandFluval 30 with floss and ceramic media
- 1.5 Gal remote Refugium
- Flow
- 2x 50 GPH pond pumps (+ 150 GPH from HOB)
- Temp control
- Inkbird ITC-306T
- JunBo Mini Aquarium Heater
- Lighting
- Sanrise A029 Aqua Knight
- 6W Grow light for refugium
- Plumbing
- Various parts from BRS
- Smart ATO micro
I cut up a cutting board to fit the tank and routed the edges to a 45 degree angle, removing the corners to avoid hitting the silicone. I placed this in the bottom of the display tank. The light is mounted on a monitor arm, which makes it very easy to swing out of the way.
Refugium setup:
The shelf is mounted into studs and coated with clear poly for water proofing.
I drilled the tank, and the shelf, coating the hole through the shelf with poly. I then added a single baffle and plumbed to display tank. The fuge is above the tank, allowing pods a higher survival rate as they will just be swept down the overflow. In the future I plan to add a higher capacity pump and a stockman standpipe, for for now, there is little enough flow that it's silent.
Weeks 1-2:
Since I'm not skimming, I modified the dosing on Red Sea Reef mature, using ~ 50% recommended does of the bacto start and Nitro Bac, and not using either of the other two supplements, otherwise following the documentation for ~ 2 weeks.
Weeks 3-4:
Afterwards I added a single shrimp from the grocery store, continuing testing. After not being able to catch any ammonia for most of the week , I pulled the shrimp and squeezed the juices out of it into the tank, and lightly diced it and placed in the tank in a media bag. Tested 2x a day, and finally, ammonia!
Ammonia went back to undetectable after ~ 8 hours, moving through nitrite then to nitrate.
Week 5:
No more ammonia or nitrite. Did a 20% water change and removed the shrimp. Added chaeto to the display tank and pods from Algae Barn, started dosing phyto nightly. After 3 days tested 0 nitrates, and continued testing 0 on ammonia and nitrites when testing 1x/day. Added two micro lords, started target feeding and reduced phyto to every other night. Nitrates hover between 0 and 2 ppm.
Week 6:
One hammer, and one more hermit crab, one mushroom frag, Finished pluming in the remote refugium with ~1 LB LR and 1.5 inches sand. Moved chaeto to refugium. Noted that the first hermit crab shed, got some empty shells to add to the tank for growth.
(In addition to the above, I do a 20% water change weekly. Quick and easy in this small of a setup)
Lessons learned:
Starting with wet live rock (Kept in the dark and fed by LFS) and live sand really sped up the process. I've been through the process of transforming dry rock to live, and the difference has been night and day. I've had minimal algae growth and the cycle has been shortened and never peaked as high as on my old tank. So far I've been maintaining nitrates at unmeasurable levels, and only had to clean the glass once so far.
Future livestock plans:
- Goby and pistol shrimp
- More LPS (Love me some mico lords)
- 1-2x narcissus snail
- Maybe 1x trochus snail, depending on algae growth rate on glass.
- Possibly experiment with sps if params stay stable.
Full setup shot:
Display:
(Prior to first glass cleaning, oops!)
Fuge:
Livestock:
Micro lords (Slightly angry, this is just after adding the fuge sand)
Micro lords (Simi rescue, the far side has started new polyps after 2 weeks)
Spotted mushrooms
Hammer euphyllia
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