Faijo178
New Member
Howdy all!
I have had my nano tank for 14 months now with coral for 12. In the past year I have tried it all. After many trials and tribulations, my goal is to have a tank that I can leave for a week, (maybe have a friend feed a day or two). Here is a short telling if my journey to auto water changes which has been a blessing, for now. I have much to learn and that is why I am here!
My Trials, Timeline order
Manual dosing.
This was great, until it wasn’t. Easy to keep consistent water parameters, until you go out of town and the care taker misses a day or messes it up, then it’s a nightmare to correct. Plus the drag of daily dosing… So then came auto dosing.
Auto Dosing Trace Elements.
It was also great, until it wasn’t. I bought a cheap doser off of Amazon for $75 that has 3 pumps. I had it running for all three mg, alk, and calc. I had it pretty dialed in until the calc and alk lines started to clog up, frequently, causing massive shifts in water chemistry which was also a nightmare to correct. I tried multiple types of tubing and even spread out dosing throughout the day vs all at once. It would still clog every few weeks and when out of town it was always terrifying. I have since given up on this and have switched to my hopeful end all. Auto water changes.
Auto Water Changes.
I switched to this two months ago with success so far. It is the hopeful end all of my daily dosing and hassle days. I have switched my auto doser to pump new saltwater daily, 1000 ml, 4 times a day, making out to be 25% water changes every 6 days, while concurrently pumping out the same amount of water to avoid auto top off from going off and messing up salinity. I have adjusted this water to a 10 dkh, 440 calc, and 1400 mg. My tank sits at 8.5, 400, and 1350. After a month of this my water has remained pretty consistent and only dropped to a 7 one week (I test weekly), and I think I didn’t dose the replacement water, so I remain hesitantly optimistic that it is going to work. However I have much to learn if anyone has tips/tricks. The main concern that I have is salinity. If my jug runs out and it pumps out water still, it would trigger the auto top off to add more freshwater to the system and lower the salinity. This is why I check salinity daily while feeding and have had very minimal issues but very easy to check and fix.
All that said, I have been out of town for two separate weeks with 0 issues upon return and have great success.
My corals are thriving and growing like weeds, all except the nem, but I think he is being nuzzled to death by my clown. Side note: I have ordered a blue/green bubble tip and am super excited to switch it out, and will try to revive the other in a nem box. Hopefully it is not dying due to water chemistry. All in all, my nitrate and phosphate have never fluctuated and I am also lowering lights because I think the nem and a couple coral might have been burned by my lights that were definitely on too long and bright. I will try to update as I continue this journey, but like I said any comments, criticisms, and advice would be much appreciated!!!
Here is my current standing. Tell me if you see anything I can’t as an amateur reefer!
I have had my nano tank for 14 months now with coral for 12. In the past year I have tried it all. After many trials and tribulations, my goal is to have a tank that I can leave for a week, (maybe have a friend feed a day or two). Here is a short telling if my journey to auto water changes which has been a blessing, for now. I have much to learn and that is why I am here!
My Trials, Timeline order
Manual dosing.
This was great, until it wasn’t. Easy to keep consistent water parameters, until you go out of town and the care taker misses a day or messes it up, then it’s a nightmare to correct. Plus the drag of daily dosing… So then came auto dosing.
Auto Dosing Trace Elements.
It was also great, until it wasn’t. I bought a cheap doser off of Amazon for $75 that has 3 pumps. I had it running for all three mg, alk, and calc. I had it pretty dialed in until the calc and alk lines started to clog up, frequently, causing massive shifts in water chemistry which was also a nightmare to correct. I tried multiple types of tubing and even spread out dosing throughout the day vs all at once. It would still clog every few weeks and when out of town it was always terrifying. I have since given up on this and have switched to my hopeful end all. Auto water changes.
Auto Water Changes.
I switched to this two months ago with success so far. It is the hopeful end all of my daily dosing and hassle days. I have switched my auto doser to pump new saltwater daily, 1000 ml, 4 times a day, making out to be 25% water changes every 6 days, while concurrently pumping out the same amount of water to avoid auto top off from going off and messing up salinity. I have adjusted this water to a 10 dkh, 440 calc, and 1400 mg. My tank sits at 8.5, 400, and 1350. After a month of this my water has remained pretty consistent and only dropped to a 7 one week (I test weekly), and I think I didn’t dose the replacement water, so I remain hesitantly optimistic that it is going to work. However I have much to learn if anyone has tips/tricks. The main concern that I have is salinity. If my jug runs out and it pumps out water still, it would trigger the auto top off to add more freshwater to the system and lower the salinity. This is why I check salinity daily while feeding and have had very minimal issues but very easy to check and fix.
All that said, I have been out of town for two separate weeks with 0 issues upon return and have great success.
My corals are thriving and growing like weeds, all except the nem, but I think he is being nuzzled to death by my clown. Side note: I have ordered a blue/green bubble tip and am super excited to switch it out, and will try to revive the other in a nem box. Hopefully it is not dying due to water chemistry. All in all, my nitrate and phosphate have never fluctuated and I am also lowering lights because I think the nem and a couple coral might have been burned by my lights that were definitely on too long and bright. I will try to update as I continue this journey, but like I said any comments, criticisms, and advice would be much appreciated!!!
Here is my current standing. Tell me if you see anything I can’t as an amateur reefer!
