Bubblemytip's 25-gallon nano tank

[bubblemytip]

Nice tank! Will be sticking around for updates

Thanks!

I have also, once again, removed the refugium. We recently had a big storm in our city, 200,000 homes lost electricity for at least 24 hours, some longer. I managed to keep my tank warm by putting hot water bottles in the refugium section. Flow was maintained with battery backups. However, the algae did not appreciate the contact with the hot water bottles and some of it was beginning to decompose. It did not smell that good near the tank because of this.

The outage also alerted me to a significant conundrum. With no lighting over the display or the refugium, there was no offset to the respiration of both sections - ie CO2 was being produced and oxygen was being used by both display and the algae. When power was restored for me after 26 hours, pH was as low as 7.5 in the display. This quickly got back to normal with lighting and normal water flow, but did alert me to a possibly dangerous situation should an outage go any longer.

As a consequence, while I save for a generator, I thought it best to remove the refugium. My experience with a refugium is that it is a fine method of export and pH balance when it is working well, but it can be very dynamic. I found my zoanthids did not do well once the chaeto go established, becoming a much more 'dull', and some of my SPS lost a little depth of colour.

 

[Marou]

How do you plan on exporting nutrients now? If you can get a video update so we can see that tunze stream flow

 

[bubblemytip]

How do you plan on exporting nutrients now? If you can get a video update so we can see that tunze stream flow

Sure. I’ll do a video over the weekend.

For export, only a skimmer and, while not technically export, coral growth. I didn’t introduce the refugium because I had nutrient issues. I only introduced it for pH balance and to provide a space for pods etc. So it is an easy switch back. I have rock rubble (in a container for easy maintenance) for pods in the sump still. I just stop/reduce my nitrate and phosphate dosing, which I was doing to prevent the refugium from starving my tank.... Overly complicated. I could have simply gone with a smaller refugium but then that doesn’t boost pH and still requires light etc.

Effectively the method I’m going back to now is Dutch Synthetic Reefing but with a calcium reactor instead of two-part. That seems to work well for my tank.

 

[bubblemytip]

Here’s a quick video. Anemone and clam still adjusting to the new flow pattern, but overall I’m very pleased.




View isn’t blocked now...

Excuse the iPhone pics and video.

 

[Helfish]

Greetings from the opposite of the world!

I know this little tank has been moved to your larger 90 gallon, but just wanted to get your opinion and feedback from the Tunze 9004 skimmer and the Tunze stream 3, as I am setting up a 25 gallon minireef myself

How did you like the stream 3 in this size tank? The size seems huge, however I have not had hands on opportunity with it. It's supposed to be very silent? Would you recommend it for 25 gallon tank? How was the skimmer, was it noisy or did it produce lot of microbubbles? How the performance?

Ps. thank you for the GNC Bluray links, did a lot of reading

 

[bubblemytip]

Greetings from the opposite of the world!

I know this little tank has been moved to your larger 90 gallon, but just wanted to get your opinion and feedback from the Tunze 9004 skimmer and the Tunze stream 3, as I am setting up a 25 gallon minireef myself

How did you like the stream 3 in this size tank? The size seems huge, however I have not had hands on opportunity with it. It's supposed to be very silent? Would you recommend it for 25 gallon tank? How was the skimmer, was it noisy or did it produce lot of microbubbles? How the performance?

Ps. thank you for the GNC Bluray links, did a lot of reading

Thanks.

The stream 3 is a beast. It was overkill. It was silent and with my scape, reasonably easy to hide. It’s flow pattern was much better than the mp10 with the corals so packed - more ‘up and over and around’ than a direct blast from 5-6” away. Two 6040s would be slightly better in a small tank. I got the stream3 for overkill reasons and because I knew I would be upgrading the tank.

I ran the 9004 skimmer in the sump, so micro bubbles were not a concern/I didn’t notice any. The skimmer itself worked well, but when I ran it, I also ran a chaeto refugium, so it wasn’t handling the tank on its own. It worked well when my nutrients were very low because it can still skim when the load is small. I had a dosing pump emptying the collection cup for me - without that, I’d be emptying the cup every 2-3 days (easy enough to do but just another task).

I now use the 9004 on my desk nano and one on my quarantine. If at the correct water depth and with the right air tuning, I don’t notice micro bubbles. An ATO or a filter chamber whose level does not fluctuate is essential for optimal surface skimming.

The 9004 can be annoying to disassemble and clean the pump/Venturi and reassemble. The key is to be gentle and squeeze in the right places to take it apart. If you force something, tabs could break. I haven’t broken anything, though.

Hope that helps.

 

[Helfish]

Thank you for the the tips! Either way, Tunze is the way to go IMO. Very reliable and good quality products. Now I just have to decide which to choose

 

[Uwharrie]

awesome tank. I gather it is no longer a nano. I have a 29 biocube that I have been struggling with for 2 yrs. Just cant seem to get the spectacular results some do. Keep plugging I guess!!

 

[bubblemytip]

awesome tank. I gather it is no longer a nano. I have a 29 biocube that I have been struggling with for 2 yrs. Just cant seem to get the spectacular results some do. Keep plugging I guess!!

Thanks. [emoji3]

Switched over in around July 2018. New build thread is here: BubbleMyTip's 90 gallon sps dominant tank build

www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/BubbleMyTip%27s-90-gallon-sps-dominant-tank-build.386598/

What do you mean by struggle? Do you also have a build thread?