Beginner Hobbyist’s Mixed Nano Reef

[Rafe]

-=About Me=-
Hi, my name is Rafe. I am new to the reef keeping hobby and have decided to take the plunge and purchase an aqua one mini reef 120. Unlike some I didn’t have the budget to buy new equipment, so I resorted to buy off gumtree which was a risky move but it worked out in the end.

-=About the Equipment=-
The tank and most equipment I bought for $350 AUD. All the equipment and tank were in good condition and some of the equipment was upgraded as well as the standpipe being pre-modded. After realising later on that the person did not have a skimmer to sell as well. (Even though the normal one is not great.) I had to go and look on gumtree yet again to find a skimmer available in my area. Fortunately I was going on a trip to Sydney from Melbourne by car and was able to find a RLSS R6i for $150 AUD available in Canberra. So a small detour of 300km was made on the way back to Melbourne to pick it up and see some family nearby. Completing the equipment for now at $500 AUD. When I got home I quickly found out that the skimmer would not fit in the sump so with some DIY I moved the first baffle over a couple centimetres and now it fits perfectly in the sump.

-=Tank and Equipment list=-
- Aqua One mini reef 120ltr (Display, Stand, Overflow, Sump and plumbing)
- 2x Sicce Voyager Nano 2000s (Missing one dry side magnet later bought one.)
- Aqua One Moray 2300
- Eheim Jager 150w heater
- Aqua One Mariglo 60cm
- Aqua One Floating Magnetic Aquarium Glass Cleaner Medium
- RLSS R6i internal Skimmer with Waveling dc-4000 pump

-=Test Kits and Dosing=-
- Red Sea Marine Starter Kit
- Dr Tim’s One and Only with Ammonia

-=The Scape=-
I used Selley’s Aqua kneed it to cement together 10kg of Fiji reef rock as well as 5kg of aragonite sand. This is my first aqua scape and didn’t know how difficult it would be to get it in the tank. So I had to make some changes when I got it in the tank. Sorry for the blurry photos.

Picture of Scape in LFS scaping box

Picture of Scape in the tank

-=Water=-
Currently I am using salt and RO water from my LFS but I am keeping an eye out for any systems on gumtree.

-=Cycle=-
Currently I am 1 week into the cycle using Dr Tim’s One and Only as well as 2 bags of cycled media from my LFS. I added the correct dosage of ammonia at 4 drops per gallon, on day 1 and haven’t added any more as I have the same reading of 1.2ppm.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Hi Rafe and welcome to R2R! Looks like your off to a great start with your new tank

 

[Drew Lallathin]

Welcome! Like how it’s scaped. Keep doing what you’re doing taking your time. You’ll be spending all your money on corals in no time

 

[Rafe]

Thanks for welcoming me to the forum. Currently I am trying to figure out how to quietin down the tank because it’s in my bedroom. My main problem is the stand pipe is way too loud I found a temporary fix to this problem by putting a sponge in the stand pipe. Unfortunately it only stays in there for a couple hours until I have to get up in the middle of the night to put it back in. I need a permanent fix for this but can’t think of one. The second part of the problem is that the aqua one return pump is soooooo loud too but not nearly as bad. I was thinking that if I can find a DC return pump and dial it back it would fix the problem. Any ideas of how to fix these problems would be greatly appreciated. :mad:;Singing

 

[Rafe]

Today I did some testing and my ammonia has reached zero, nitrite is present as well as nitrate. Unfortunately because of Australia’s summers I won’t be able to to get fish for a couple weeks until the temperature comes down. As multiple times a week the temperature is above 30 degrees Celsius. :mad:

 

[Hemmdog]

Thanks for welcoming me to the forum. Currently I am trying to figure out how to quietin down the tank because it’s in my bedroom. My main problem is the stand pipe is way too loud I found a temporary fix to this problem by putting a sponge in the stand pipe. Unfortunately it only stays in there for a couple hours until I have to get up in the middle of the night to put it back in. I need a permanent fix for this but can’t think of one. The second part of the problem is that the aqua one return pump is soooooo loud too but not nearly as bad. I was thinking that if I can find a DC return pump and dial it back it would fix the problem. Any ideas of how to fix these problems would be greatly appreciated. :mad:;Singing

Sicce pumps are quiet, nice build.

 

[Rafe]

Sicce pumps are quiet, nice build.

The sicce pumps are nice and quiet except one of them makes a strange noise. So I took that one off the tank and just have the one running at the moment. It’s the aqua one return pump that is loud and was thinking of replacing it with a Jebao dcp 2500 because I have seen they are very quiet, ship to Australia and are dc controllable. I also identified that if I could reduce the flow from the return the weir would be silent. Any advice on the Jebao pump or on other pumps for this tank would be greatly appreciated.

The sponge which was my short term solutions to the noise in my aquarium has finally stopped staying in the standpipe quietening. Because of this I have been brainstorming ideas for fixing the noise in the standpipe. Such as making a reverse Durso with some 45 degree turns to slow the water. As currently it drops straight down from the display. But not sure wether or not it would work. If there is anyone out there that could be able to design something to fix my problem it would be a enormous help. As at the moment I have to sleep in another room to sleep.

 

[Rafe]

Today I finally replaced my standpipe and added a reverse Durso to it and it has made a massive difference. The only thing is I feel maybe adding s 90 degree bend on the bottom of the pipe will make it silent. So now the next step is to get a replacement return pump to turn down the flow and just get a quieter return. Hopefully now the temp has dropped in Melbourne I should be able to get a pair of ocellaris clowns. ;Headphone

 

[Rafe]

Yesterday I went out to my LFS and bought a pair of ocellaris clowns. When I got home I acclimated them to the take. When I added them to the tank they just swam around in the open water without evening going to hide. I am super pleased with them and can’t wait to get more livestock in the tank. Sorry for blurry pictures.

 

[Rafe]

Ok so its been awhile (2 months) since my last post and I just added a sandsifting goby and a royal gramma to my tank. They are settling in fine after drip and temp acclimation. But a couple of weeks ago I added 3 trochus snails to my tank unfortunately one has gone missing, one died and I think one is just barely surviving if not dead. So I was wondering what could have happened to them? As I drip acclimated them and the clownfish did not seem to bother them.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Welcome to R2R! ;Bookworm Sounds like you’re off to a good start!