Back to the business reef - Waterbox 35.2

[Erik the Red]

I feel 1 MP10 will be just fine for anything you want in the tank. In a tank this size it will be very challenging to get both SPS and Softies/LPS to thrive. For long term success you need high flow zones for the SPS and lower flow for the others. That is hard to achieve even in larger systems.

Ok, cool! I’ve just saved a decent amount of money.
I will think about the corals to fit in the tank and will get back with a drawing of the potential setup, in the weekend.

Likely they will be softies because i have to be able to “leave” the tank in auto-mode when leaving for summer vacations. I am also planning to put just 2 small fishes in. I’d like a pair of okinawa gobies, but my better half always say she doesn’t want to get fishes that “do not move”. She would instead print a small picture of the two gobies and place it on the rock. To her it would look like having the real gobies...

 

[Kocodelux]

Tack! (it means thank you in swedish, for English speakers)

Do you have any suggestion about good products? LSF here in the area have empty storages at the moment...so I will get it online from abroad.

I would definitely recommend you to get some live rock if possible. That will seed your dry rock with bacteria, microlife, copepods and so on. I find the little critters moving around in the tank to be one of the most fascinating parts of the hobby. I bought live rock from Whitecorals online a couple of months ago and it went smooth despite covid.

 

[Erik the Red]

I would definitely recommend you to get some live rock if possible. That will seed your dry rock with bacteria, microlife, copepods and so on. I find the little critters moving around in the tank to be one of the most fascinating parts of the hobby. I bought live rock from Whitecorals online a couple of months ago and it went smooth despite covid.

I wanted to avoid having pests in the tank, for what is possible, as well as to avoid adding too many rocks to the scape. If the situation does not improve in a few weeks, I will order a small amount of rocks.

 

[Brew12]

I wanted to avoid having pests in the tank, for what is possible, as well as to avoid adding too many rocks to the scape. If the situation does not improve in a few weeks, I will order a small amount of rocks.

One man's pests are another man's pleasure

I started my first system with that exact train of thought. Dipped every coral and held them in a QT system for at least a few weeks. Yup, got most of the bad pests anyway. Fortunately, most of them have natural predators to make them not so frustrating.

 

[Erik the Red]

One man's pests are another man's pleasure

I started my first system with that exact train of thought. Dipped every coral and held them in a QT system for at least a few weeks. Yup, got most of the bad pests anyway. Fortunately, most of them have natural predators to make them not so frustrating.

You’re absolutely right. Biodiversity in fish tank is amazing, but now, managing a small water volume, I can’t afford to have too many problems at once. Plus, a bare bottom tank won’t support non-invasive species life.

 

[melanotaenia]

I am always fascinated by these fears of pests from live rock; if one gets quality rock, you can put it in a bin with some salt water and look for critters before introducing to your main display. The benefits of live rock far outweigh any chance of a hitchhiker in the rock (after multiple reefs started with LR I have never had problems with pests.)

Most of the pests people speak of (such as Vermetid snails) are going to likely show up either way through frags or other coral introductions. You will have far more luck in the long run and at the beginning if using at least some LR (can still use dry as well, but a mix is always better than using dry rock exclusively)

 

[tricky_tran]

Looks like you have a bare bottom. what do you have in the sump as biomedia goes? bare bottoms will take a lot more time to cycle than sand. Also, gobies are sand sifters, they require sand too

 

[Erik the Red]

I am always fascinated by these fears of pests from live rock; if one gets quality rock, you can put it in a bin with some salt water and look for critters before introducing to your main display. The benefits of live rock far outweigh any chance of a hitchhiker in the rock (after multiple reefs started with LR I have never had problems with pests.)

Most of the pests people speak of (such as Vermetid snails) are going to likely show up either way through frags or other coral introductions. You will have far more luck in the long run and at the beginning if using at least some LR (can still use dry as well, but a mix is always better than using dry rock exclusively)

Then I suppose I am a good study case! Eheheh

This is also a sort of personal challenge as it’s the first tank I set up with dry rocks and it’s difficult to rely on online shops honesty to select quality rocks. Plus the rock work is completed, so I don’t want to insert many additional live rocks.

I am planning in any case to give a look to whitecorals in the weekend

 

[Erik the Red]

Looks like you have a bare bottom. what do you have in the sump as biomedia goes? bare bottoms will take a lot more time to cycle than sand. Also, gobies are sand sifters, they require sand too

My sump has no biomedia. Its a classic Berlin Method.
Before I stopped with reefing, some years ago, biomedia was indicated as one of the responsibles for having high nitrates and phosphates. Maybe it changed with new techniques...did it?

You’re perfectly right about gobies. I WISH I had gobies, but my GF asked for something different and more “active”

 

[tricky_tran]

My sump has no biomedia. Its a classic Berlin Method.
Before I stopped with reefing, some years ago, biomedia was indicated as one of the responsibles for having high nitrates and phosphates. Maybe it changed with new techniques...did it?

You’re perfectly right about gobies. I WISH I had gobies, but my GF asked for something different and more “active”

with just Rock and no sand, there will be virtually nothing but the rock for bacteria to grow on and you have a very nice looking scape, but not much rock. I was tossing around the idea of bare bottom with 70 lbs of rock for my 75 gal. I started down the road of researching brightwell bricks and other ceramic media to compensate in the sump, but finally ended up deciding to do sand again for the added surface area to grow bacteria. now i just need to vacuum the sand more.

 

[melanotaenia]

You can always add live rock to the sump as well to increase biodiversity without having to add rock to the display. For a tank your size you don't need a lot, maybe 5-10 pounds would suffice. That is, if you are not planning on adding sand at any point down the road.

 

[Erik the Red]

You can always add live rock to the sump as well to increase biodiversity without having to add rock to the display. For a tank your size you don't need a lot, maybe 5-10 pounds would suffice. That is, if you are not planning on adding sand at any point down the road.

My sump is just a small 12x60 cm space inside the tank. Therefore I can’t insert any rock in there.

I am buying 2kg live rocks to add to the tank today. I have about 10kg of dry rocks at the moment.

 

[Brew12]

My sump is just a small 12x60 cm space inside the tank. Therefore I can’t insert any rock in there.

I am buying 2kg live rocks to add to the tank today. I have about 10kg of dry rocks at the moment.

If you don't like the look, you can always take it back out after a month or two.

 

[Erik the Red]

Dosing some more bacteria did not work, actually the situation got worse.
4kg of live rocks will be delivered this week and hope they will help with the cycle.

No sign of ammonia, no2/no3

i have no idea of how i can reduce this cloud of bacteria...they are still there after 2 months!

 

[Erik the Red]

Hi again,

i am posting a couple of pic about my skimmer. Unfortunately I couldn’t upload a video. The top part of my Tunze 9002 (excluding the collection cup) is 3.5 inches above the water level, but still is skimming wet like hell and making a huge amount of foam. The air is fully open.

Does it look all normal to you?

it is weird to me, because in the bottom part, where the sponge is located, it if full of microbubbles. They come up from the side of the skimmer, as you can see...

 

[Erik the Red]

A quick update on the tank.
Dry rocks have been changed with 9kg of live rocks. The tank is still cycling, but I am confident to have the first zoanthus in about 3 weeks from now.

I haven’t tested the water so far, but it all looks fine now and i will start with the testing when i get closer to insert the first coral.

the mp10 was originally placed in the bottom right corner of the tank, so that the main flow would be behind the rockwork and be gentle in the front, but there wasn’t enough space for the flow to pass by the bottleneck (see second image) so now i have moved the pump in the the middle of the short side glass, just to stir all the bottom up. I will see what to do when i get the corals, but i really would like to have the flow from the bottom of the tank. In this case a Nero 3 would probably do the job better, since it has a narrower flow compared to the mp10, but i think i would rather get another mp10 instead, so that they can communicate with each other...

for what regards the stocking, me and my girlfriend really got in love with the longnose hawkfish, but i think the tank is too small for it (30g overall, but only 20g the display). We might go for a Gramma Loreto and another fish, else a Royal Dottyback kept alone...
Ocellaris are nice, but I had one in my first SW tank and i would like something different...do you have any advice for “non mainstream” fishe

i have attached also the light schedule of my AI Prime 16 HD. I got it from AI’s website, but a can do a real review of it when the first corals will be in the tank. Also the pump has been scheduled according to the lights (lagoon at night, raising reef crest during the day), but again, I am going to check it when the first inhabitants will populate the tank.

thank you and be safe out there!

 

[Erik the Red]

the skimmer is finally working fine. I found the right setting that works for me: the pump is turned as countercurrent and the skimmer body has been raised about 3/4 inch above the advised water level, plus the air screw is almost completely closed. It makes a nice dark foam as you can see here. I don’t think will be thicker than that.

i have checked my salinity and i am quite low now (1.020) but i will raise it to 1.035 soon.

i am thinking that it would be nice to have a second pump to help keeping the bottom cleaned from debris, once i will vacuum all the sand and debris that has been released by the live rocks. I would like to run the nutrient transport mode and tidal swell, but I’ll wait for that purchase...

it’s 2 weeks to the first coral

water hasn’t been tested yet as there’s nothing I can really do

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking good!

 

[ramona]

Any updates on this tank?

 

[Erik the Red]

Yup!

got the first coral two weeks ago, a frag of zoanthis. They did pretty good the first week, but afterwards a few spaghetti worms came out of the frag base and started at picking on the corals, so some of them are closed.
Otherwise it’s going OK. The tank is very low on nutrients and this is why I wanted to insert a 1 or 2 fishes. We are still undecided whether to go for a single longnose hawkfish or a pair of clownfish. Giving the fact that there’s one or two aiptasia in the tank and I might have to introduce a Wurdemanni shrimp to hold them back, we would probably get the clownfish pair...

The problem here in DK is that there’s just 1 LFS and it’s been really low on fishes since my tank finished the cycle, so the only option is to order online. However, here comes the second issue: the online stores I looked at haven’t had a good stock of fishes and the corals at the same time due to pandemic...and I am not really willing to pay twice the 50€ shipping, so that is why the tank is still empty...

I would like to insert a 1-2 soft corals (1 toadstool mushroom attached to the back wall, maybe) and photosynthetic gorgonians. I don’t want to run active carbon because of the leather corals though and I think it is still doable...

Since I would like gorgonians, I ordered an additional MP10 for the left glass, so that I can alternate the flow direction. I ordered the pump and after 10 days I finally got it. I set all things up, wet side in the water, controller placed in the cabinet and then I was inserting the plug from the transformer to the controller and it did not go in and I could not figure out why! So, to make the long story short, the MP10 dry side has been plugged to an MP40 controller during the production and apparently no one checked it! So now I am shipping the pump back to the store and get a new one from them, but it will take at least a month, since it’s 10 days to the Netherlands and 10 more days fro the new pump to come here. Nothing serious, but I am a bit ticked off because it always take ages for the shipment to arrive at destination and it’s just 800km...