60 litre Nano changed to 120 l

[Leelalie]

Being new to the forum i never know where to start.
My husband is a livid fish lover. For the 20 last years we had only freshwater aquariums. So here we are in a new adventure. For xmas i bought him a salt reef kit:

Epheim 63 litre nano aquarium.
Tunze 9001 surface skimmer
Tunze led eco chic 8821
Jebao jecod sow 4
Eheim StremON 1800
lights classic LED hybrid de 1x 7.7 w 390 lm

We want to have a mixte reef. Our reef is 5 weeks old. We had a big ammonia spike 2 weeks after we placed the "life" rocks. Since then all water tests are great and stable. I did not have a spike in N02 or N03, but hair algae started to bloom. We did notice load of micro life and a colony of very active snails and a hitchhiker crab, which no one at this stage could give me a name. in short the reef is a live with acropods, feather duster a whole colony and weird worms, so we decided to add orange leg hermit crab and 3 nassaruis snails.

I will keep you updated.

 

[harley32907]

Nice start!

 

[Leelalie]

Nice start!

Thank you

 

[Kaaaarrrll]

Great to see, do you have any wider tank shots? I am a beginner at saltwater and always on the lookout for inspiration.

 

[Leelalie]

Great to see, do you have any wider tank shots? I am a beginner at saltwater and always on the lookout for inspiration.

This my first installation, but I had to change as the water flow was not good

 

[Leelalie]

Update,

I changed the rocks around
Right now i have a diatom bloom with loads of flat worms. After 3 days of syphoning the problem seems to be under control.

 

[Leelalie]

It's been a while since my last post, my cycle is completely over. Water is stable and here is some photos of my new comers

 

[Leelalie]

This last 2 months been very difficult.
I had several losses and a big scare. For some reason my cleaner shrimps died, followed by my Hermit crab and then the 2 turbo snails. I checked and rechecked the water with redsea tests. Could not find out why. I bought salifert tests. And I had ammonia in my water.
Did a mega water change. Moved every thing around. I noticed lots of little places with a build up.
So i bought a jeboa powerhead for more flow. But my skimmer did not work correctly anymore . dang., Nitrate 50, so another water change. Bought a tunze 9001. And when I installed it, my light rack came off and fell in the water.....  needless to say, no more light. ......
Then I bought 2 tunze submerged lights.

At this stage I'm still trying to keep the Nitrate down. The 2 clowns it doing well but my star polyps is looking very grim.

 

[Leelalie]

Jebao powerhead with control. I really like this feature. I can change the flow

 

[Leelalie]

Feeding time with artemia

 

[Leelalie]

Zoas being shy

 

[Leelalie]

Tunze led eco chic

 

[Leelalie]

New beginning, my new shrimps arrive today, My water stats are stable since the 10 of mai.
Salinite 1024 -1025
KH 8.9
Ph 8.3
Mag 1230
Ca 375 - a bit low but i will change water tommorow
Po4 0.03
No3 5

I am thinking of buying an iode test for my zoas and shrimps, after 2 un explainable deaths of 4 shrimps and 2 turbos, better to be safe than sorry .

My next buy will be a red mushroom as my only green is seeming to do well.

A few new photos

 

[MaxTremors]

I hate to tell you, because no one likes to waste money, but the lights you bought are not adequate for coral growth, especially in a 60l/15g tank. I know Tunze is a reputable company, and they claim these are adequate, but the truth is that they just aren’t. They are maybe okay for a refugium, or a very shallow pico tank, but they just aren’t appropriate for corals (and I am not the kind of person that thinks you uuuuuhave to have top-of-the-line lights, there are plenty of very inexpensive options that would be appropriate) . Your toadstool and zoas look pale and light starved. If you want them to thrive, you’re going to have to get an appropriate lighting solution.

I want to be clear that I’m not trying to condescend or be elitist, I know when you’re just starting in the hobby it can be incredibly difficult to get accurate advice. And we all make a lot of bad or inappropriate purchases, mistakes, and get a lot of wrong information, especially when we’re first starting. Unfortunately, as we learned here just this week, you cannot trust reviews (even ‘verified purchase’ reviews) on major websites, even for major/well known brands in the hobby. Anytime you’re unsure about a piece of equipment or a fish or coral, come and ask here, you may get some conflicting information but you should be able to get a consensus (there isn’t a lot of one-size-fits-all in this hobby). I’m not recommending a light because I don’t know what your budget, tank dimensions, what your goals for the tank are, what kind of lighting aesthetic you prefer, etc., but there is probably a solution for as little as $60USD (and obviously you could also spend several hundred if you wanted to). If you want help finding an appropriate light, let me know,
or I’m sure there are other people here who’d be happy to help.

 

[Leelalie]

If you want help finding an appropriate light, let me know,
or I’m sure there are other people here who’d be happy to help.

Oh yes please i do need help. I am lost in all the information. For the lights it was a vendor at a animal shop that told me for my tank it is a solution.

 

[billdaze]

Oh yes please i do need help. I am lost in all the information. For the lights it was a vendor at a animal shop that told me for my tank it is a solution.

I have the same tank. It’s 10 months old now and seems to be doing well. Coral is going well I do find I have to move them around to find the ideal place.
I am just using the led strips that came with the kit.
I am keen to add more light to so would be very interested to hear what people suggest... the tank is 60litre and 60cm/23.5in wide.

 

[MaxTremors]

Oh yes please i do need help. I am lost in all the information. For the lights it was a vendor at a animal shop that told me for my tank it is a solution.

Would be happy to. For the light, what kind of budget do you have, what are your tank dimensions, what do you ultimately plan to keep (or do you want to just be able to keep pretty much anything), what kind of lighting do you like (for example, high contrast with lots of shadows and shimmer, or more uniform, diffused and even lighting), and what kind of features do you want (do you want to be able to simulate sunrise/sunset, be able to control it with an app or remote, be able to program different channels/intensities/times/etc)? I realize thats a lot to think about, but it’s not something you need to rush. If you have any other questions let me know.

 

[Leelalie]

For the light, what kind of budget do you have, what are your tank dimensions,

My budget not more than 150 euros, 60 cm x 30 x 35

what do you ultimately plan to keep

i looking at a zoa garden

For the features nothing fancy as im a real blond and wont be able to make everything work. Keep it simple ... (plug and play) ;Joyful

 

[Leelalie]

I have the same tank.

Cool, i gave up with the skimmer could not get it to work properly , big big polution problem 4 weeks ago.

 

[MaxTremors]

60cm or 24” is kind of a tough size, as it’s slightly larger than one ‘puck’ style light will cover, so for that style of lighting (high contrast), you have to either have two or something like this (which is 100w and probably overkill for your tank, but you can set it at a lower intensity, we can talk about light acclimating your corals once you get a new light:



In the same style of light, and one of the more popular lights for nano tanks, but you’d probably need two:



Or same brand, and you’d only need one, but it would need to be mounted higher and might be out of your budget:



And then for a more diffused light (there is a version that is $10 cheaper, but doesn’t have the app, which is going to make setting it up a million times easier: