Casa de Bubbles - A Modified 90/10 Approach - IM 20 Long

[ChaddyJ_7]

What's up R2R?!

I'm starting a new system and thought it would be cool to document my experience here for others who may be interested in/doing something similar!
I've been meaning to start a thread for this new build and after reading @Kodski 's thread on his 90/10 experiment, I got the itch to start my own!

With this build, I'm looking to follow a modified take on Ryan Batcheller's "Serious Reefs 90/10 Method" which prescribes an approach that prioritizes simplicity and predictable, high probability paths to success that will work for the vast majority of reefers, regardless of experience level. "90% of the results with 10% of the effort" is the mantra of this method, which relies heavily on regular water changes (dilution) and minimal filtration equipment, with regular testing and clean, predictable source water/salt mixes and eventually progressing to a simple 2-part dosing method like the BRS 2-part.

Tank Type: LPS/Softie (may audible and venture into some SPS down the road but will certainly start with some hardy corals)

Tank Size: Innovative Marine Nuvo 20 Long (All-In-One) **This is an audible and smaller than the 90/10 range of 35-75 gallons, but I'm limited in space and couldn't go much bigger without replacing the tank stand/cabinet I'll be using.

Water Source: BRS 7-Stage RODI w/ Smart Buddie Booster Pump...crisp 0 TDS water! Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt.

Substrate: Following the 90/20 recommendation of ~80% CaribSea OceanDirect Special Grade with ~20% TBS Live Sand

Rock: Marco dry rock. Prioritizing habitat for coral & hiding places for smaller nano fish while utilizing negative space for good water flow. Lots of shelves.

Flow: I plan to use the 130 gph dual return pumps that came with the tank (at least for the time being) if I decide more flow is needed, I have a Sicce Syncra Silent 0.5 (185 gph) that should work nicely, and could always add a second if the need arises. I also have a spin stream nozzle on one of the return pumps and have another I can throw on there to get even more randomness to my flow. At the moment, I have one of the wide nozzles aimed slightly upward to get a bit of added surface agitation as the included return pumps don't push out a ton of flow, even for a smaller system.

Temp: I went with more of a premium heater since space is so limited in the back of this system and got the IM Helio heater. I really like the smaller form factor as well as the included temperature probe & controller. We'll see if the PTC ceramic heating element tech lives up to the price tag. So far my tank has been absolutely deadlocked at 78.0 F which is pretty sweet.

Lighting: I'll be reusing an AI Prime 16 HD which I've had running on another of my tanks which I'll be breaking down in the near future...less than a year of use on the light and plenty of power/spread to handle LPS & softies in a 2-foot tank. Planning to test my par using a Seneye I also have laying around. Will likely run the BRS preset that I already have programmed in it, either 75% Blue/25% White or close to that with a 2-hour window of white around midday.

Chemistry: Not totally set on the BRS bulk 2-part that the 90/10 calls for at this point - there's a fair chance I'll rely entirely on water changes to keep everything in balance. I may audible and run All-For-Reef or kalkwasser which I have more experience with, and that way I won't have to worry about my salinity creeping up. Really love the pH boost as an added perk of kalk & am having good results/stability with it on my larger system.

Evaporation: Xp Aqua Duetto2 has been holding it down for me so far, really like the small form factor of the sensor in the limited space of the AIO chamber. I have a 6 gallon topfin corner tank as my ATO reservoir that's been sitting in the basement which fits perfectly in my stand and doesn't take up a ton of space. Evaporation has been pretty minimal so far. No light on the tank yet, but I should be able to get at least a week if not 2 in between refills.

Testing: weekly for Nitrate (5-15 ppm), Phosphate (0.01-0.1), dKh (9 +/- .5 to 1), Calcium (425-450) & Magnesium (1350 ppm +/-50) (likely bi-weekly or monthly for Mag)
I know GFO is probably the most popular method of Phosphate control, but I really like the precise control of Brightwell's NeoPhos, and may use it in the event my Phosphates creep up higher than I want and start causing issues.

Some "Audibles" I'll be making to the 90/10 method as prescribed by Ryan:
-I have a Bubble Magus MiniQ Skimmer which fits perfectly in the 2nd chamber of my AIO. I don't expect that I'll actually need to use it much, but it's a tool in the tool-kit should I need it. I'd like to be fairly heavy-in heavy-out as I plan to have a decent bioload
-I'm planning to run a chaeto refugium in the other 2nd chamber, for both nutrient export, as well as to provide a breeding ground for copepods...I love Mandarins and would love to have one in this system. I used a razor blade to remove the vinyl from the back side of that chamber & have a Tunze EcoChic light I'll be using to grow chaeto once I have some nutrients going into the tank & get copepods established
-I replaced the included filter socks with a pair of 3D printed media towers in my overflow chambers which will hold floss in the top compartment and Marinepure gems in the remaining compartments. I think this added mechanical & biological filtration should help me keep my tank from getting polluted and may also render the skimmer completely unneccesary...only time will tell!

Curious what @Ryan - Serious Reefs would say about all of these audibles!

I'll post some pictures of my initial system design & setup, as well as outline what I did to cycle and kick things off!

Thanks for following along :)

 

[Reef Jedi]

Great start so far! I think you’ll really like the Helio heater. I’ve had them for a while and they are great!

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Here is a basic sketch of my system design that I used when planning out my equipment & filtration in the AIO chambers. I ended up mounting the heater horizontally just above the return pumps, and a few inches below the ATO sensor.

Aquascape in progress - like many others, I like to make a cardboard cutout with the same dimensions of the tank & build my scape inside of that. Really helps to visualize things and I've always had great results building my rock scape this way.

Getting wet!

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Cycling:
-I got the tank wet on 3/22 and I haven't added the TBS sand yet...my order is set to arrive 4/8 so I'm planning to keep the lights off for a full week until 4/15 after adding that. Thankfully I have some other things I'm tinkering with on my main system to keep me occupied while I wait to really get rolling on this!

Some updates & more audibles:

-**Slight audible - I also added a few scoops of AquaForest LifeSource mud when adding the OceanDirect sand to help kickstart the biome
-**I soaked/inocculated a few media bags of Marinepure gems in PNS DeepCycle & fresh saltwater which I added directly to my rear chamber & media tower when starting the tank
-**I also added a small bag of Marinepure gems that have been in the rear chamber of my other tank which should help seed the biome
-**I had a few capfuls of MicroBacter7 sitting around that I decided to empty out & dosed some ammonia last Monday or Tuesday...tested for ammonia 2 days later and was none (or close to none)...it's pretty tough to differentiate colors with the API quick test strips and I refuse to spend money on a real ammonia tester that will just collect dust.

This might be a little bit of overkill in terms of adding biome, but the way I see it, a diverse range of sources is probably more beneficial than it will be hurtful, and will give me a bit of redundancy.

I did another quick test yesterday morning and the tank appears to be cycled! I went poking around a LFS and got a pretty sweet and tiiiiinnnyyy little Neon Dottyback.

The original purpose of this build was to replace my 10g nano and give my clownfish (Bubbles) a new home, hence "Casa de Bubbles" lol. I used a little bottle of Dr. Tim's One & Only (again, probably redundant), and put the Dottyback in to let it get acclimated, and then added Bubbles to her new home. She was a little freaked out at first, but seems to be settling in nicely. Will get a pic of the fish tomorrow when the Dottyback is out of it's burrow!

I will eventually be moving some coral over from the 10g nano as well, so I have some planning to do regarding moving the light and pulling the frags out of there. I have some GSP, zoas, a nice blasto and an Aussie Lord that will be following Bubbles over to the nano-Ritz. I will probably give them a dip to get rid of any algae I don't want coming over. I've been battling some red slimes which I think are dinos from bottoming out my nutrients, and reaaalllyyy don't want those getting into this system. More on that later... Ironically Ryan has been doing some experiments with Hydrogen Peroxide dips which I'll likely do as well to eradicate all the unwanted gunk and keep it from taking over the new tank. I'm wondering what I should do about the couple of snails & hermits I have in the 10g nano as I don't want any gunk coming in on their shells but obviously they can't be dipped...open to some suggestions on ways to avoid that if anyone's dealt with some similar things. I was thinking of sticking with just snails on the new system and skipping the hermits that love to go after them for their shells.

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Great start so far! I think you’ll really like the Helio heater. I’ve had them for a while and they are great!

I love the Helio so far - first experience having a controller on my heater and I'm already kicking around the idea of putting one on my main display tank...just debating on size and whether to get a single or dual element. My main display is a RS Max E 260 (total vol. 69 gallons) but with rock, sand, etc, I would guess it's more in the 50-55 range.

 

[Kodski]

Glad you started a thread! I look forward to following along!

I’m starting to see a small amount of algae growth at week 5. I’ll be adding a few snails and dosing some copepods this week. I considered adding something like AF Life Source. I like a lot of the AF product line that I’ve tried. Ultimately I decided against it because I wanted to test the method with as few modifications to the method as possible. Taken from a standpoint of scientific theory to replicate results with as close to the same variables. I’m interested to see how your small changes affect your results.

Instead of All for Reef, have you considered the new AquaForest equivalent? I’ve contemplated on trying that but I’ve got two large bags of BRS bulk 2 part so I’ll likely use that up first.

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Glad you started a thread! I look forward to following along!

I’m starting to see a small amount of algae growth at week 5. I’ll be adding a few snails and dosing some copepods this week. I considered adding something like AF Life Source. I like a lot of the AF product line that I’ve tried. Ultimately I decided against it because I wanted to test the method with as few modifications to the method as possible. Taken from a standpoint of scientific theory to replicate results with as close to the same variables. I’m interested to see how your small changes affect your results.

Instead of All for Reef, have you considered the new AquaForest equivalent? I’ve contemplated on trying that but I’ve got two large bags of BRS bulk 2 part so I’ll likely use that up first.

I think that makes logical sense - follow the "recipe" as close as you can, right!? Only reason I used the AF Life Source was that I have it sitting around from when I started my main display tank.

I haven't seen the AF 1-part, but maybe I'll check it out! I agree, they seem to make good products in IME. I have a bottle AFR on the shelf already, so will likely use that and decide how I want to proceed based on my results. But I do think the added trace elements will be helpful a couple months from now when the refugium is set up and the chaeto is competing with my coral for those traces. I ordered a refill of Seneye slides, so I plan on getting that going again, and depending on how much my pH is swinging, I may end up using kalkwasser. Time will tell!

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Mail day!



Tank looks awesome with the TBS sand

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

I suppose it's time for a little update!

Last Wednesday I got my CUC in the mail with an order of coral for my main display I'm going to experiment with only snails in this tank and skip the hermits for the time being. I added 5 Nassarius, 10 Margarita & 10 Astrea, which should be more than sufficient - hopefully not too crowded and I'll be able to keep them from starving. I've been feeding pretty generously to make sure there are some scraps for them to pick up. I tested the water yesterday (before my water change) and the tank was sitting at 8.1 dKh, 17.3 Nitrate & 0.09 Phosphate which wasn't much of a surprise. Slow but steady rise in nutrients after the first water change last week as I've been feeding every evening. What was surprising was that my Alkalinity dropped from 8.3 over the course of a week - which could just be test kit margin of error, or some consumption from the TBS sand/live rock and a little bit of light going into the tank. Did a 3 gallon WC, which is probably closer to 20% or even slightly higher, bit I want to keep the phosphates from getting to high in such a young system.

So, let's fast forward back to last Wednesday - my screen net top arrived from IM, along with the TBS order and snails. At that point, I still had my light running on my defunct and now taken down nano. After getting all of the coral acclimated to my main display, I had enough time to rework the wiring situation in my cabinet and get the light set up on the new tank. I did hit a slight hiccup going through all of this - which I was somewhat anticipating. In order to put my skimmer in the rear chamber, I needed to move the TBS live rock out of there, so I currently have a little pile of that live TBS rock in my display. Totally throwing off the aquascape, but my Dottyback definitely loves the extra crevices to hide in I think I may take the flat piece of marco rock from the front right corner and move it to my main display and mount a couple of my acans/mushrooms or scoly on it as they keep getting bumped around in the sand bed by my inverts during the nighttime. Really not the end of the world, and I may very well end up tossing a few of the TBS rocks in my main display instead...undecided at the moment.

Anywho, I decided to take all my frag plugs out of the old nano tank & put them on the substrate of the new system. I had a nasty Dino breakout that I was battling for what felt like forever, so I dipped all of the frags with hydrogen peroxide to try and avoid any of that headache making it into the new system. I didn't really have much for better options considering I just jacked the light from their tank to move it to the new one. I scraped the GSP off the back glass with a razor blade and glued it onto the back of the new tank. I also dipped my 2 rock-style frag racks to try and kill off any remaining GHA or Dinos and avoid them hitchhiking their way over to the wide open canvas and fledgling biome of Casa de Bubbles. Some of the frag plugs I moved have just 1 or 2 zoa polyps left on them. It's crazy they managed to survive the Dino takeover, but also pretty sad they got beaten back from the size they had grown to the point of dormant survival mode. Ugh, dinos, man

I ran the skimmer for a bit after the water change last night, but I think my tank is still to clean for it to really pull much out. It also seems like the vast majority of the gunk that's in there is getting caught in the filter floss at the top of my overflow chamber, which is reducing the effectiveness/need for the skimmer. On the bright side, the skimmer is dead silent, which is an absolute treat.

I ended up ordering my dosing pump last night so I can start dosing kalkwasser & hopefully get my alkalinity pegged at right around 9.0 dKh. I'm still toying with the idea of AFR, since I don't see this system having a huge demand for Calcium with mostly soft coral & LPS, and I think the added traces will help if/when I start the refugium. I'll most likely just stick with kalk & water changes for as long as I can though.

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Couple shots of the tank - finally got some filter lenses that clip on my phone from Amazon


^no filter

^orange filter

^yellow filter


Top down


Glamour shot of the dotty


Bubbles my snowflake clown

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Starting to think ahead a bit to decide what I want to stock the tank with in terms of coral...
I really love me some Acan/Micromussa/Aussie Lords, and they will most likely be the main focus of the tank. They're fun to feed and come in a ton of crazy color morphs.

LPS
-Button Scoly
-Blastomussa
-Favia
-Goni
-Duncan
-Torch...I love Torches/Euphyllia and with lower par/moderate flow it would be awesome to finally have one at/towards the top of my rockwork and really stand out as the star of the show Would look sweet on that top right shelf or top left area
-Frammer...again, I love Euphyllia and I think one of these would be awesome. I feel like a Frogspawn might get too big for the tank really fast, and hammers kind of miss the boat as far as movement goes

Softies
-Rhodactis Mushrooms - I'm a sucker for these and they're so easy to keep
-Ricordea Mushrooms - Again, super cool & easy as pie to keep
-"Bounce" Mushroom
-Zoas...maybe 2-3 unique/higher end zoas, but I'm mildly concerned with them taking over if I don't put them on an island. I may try to get them to grow on the glass somewhere

Some "Maybes"

-Alveopora/Micro Goni - always struggled with the micro goni, but this would be a cool opportunity to try and figure them out in an LPS dominant/lower PAR setup
-Galaxea - to give things a little movement
-Hammer/Frammer - one of my favorite corals, would add a little movement
-Candy Cane - also kind of plain-Jane for my usual taste, but would shake up the form factor/structure
-Pectinia - never been crazy about but would be a new challenge and would add some different looking structure
-Chalice - never really got the hype with chalice but they definitely have some unique color morphs
-Leptastrea/Hydnophora - add in a little fuzz/movement
-Plate/Tongue coral - never had one of these before, but they look crazy/otherworldly and alien. Not sure if I'd have room on the sand bed as things are currently situated.

I'm sure I'll be tempted to try some sort of SPS at the top of that center shelf, more than likely something that would do well in the lower PAR range like Pocillopora, Seratopora, Stylophora. Maybe a digi or setosa - the orange Setosa is another coral I love the look of, but have struggled with in the past in smaller tanks when I was more of a newbie.

I would LOVE some RFAs in here, but sadly I just don't think it's feasible/realistic and probably not a good idea in lower light with a bunch of LPS.

Would love to get some feedback and other ideas on these. Brainstorming/window shopping actually has me really excited to try some new/different LPS I've never kept before and might have overlooked in the past. I think I'll be favoring more of an LPS dominant tank and fewer softies. In the past I've collected zoas like they were Pokemon and gone for a true mixed reef but I think it will be cool to change gears with this build

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

I also put in an order with @Dr. Reef for some fish that will be coming at the end of the month!

Planning to add:
-a Purple or Exquisite Firefish (whichever doesn't go in my main display, haven't decided yet)
-2 Bangaii Cardinals
-an Orange Spotted Blenny**

The Blenny will more than likely go into my main display, but I have a lawnmower in there so I'm not ruling out putting him in Casa de Bubbles instead, if the lawnmower isn't as welcoming as I hope he'll be. However I think 5 fish is probably more than enough for the nano, so I'm hoping they get along ok.

I'd really like to add another clown, but I'm a bit scared to pull the trigger on one after having one disappear from my old nano...I came to the conclusion that Bubbles (the larger, female clown) must've killed it (either literally, or by starving it with her aggression during feeding time), and my cuc made short work of it. I went to sleep one night and it was gone without a trace the next morning but she seems to get along well with the Dotty and I think she got lonely in that tank by herself after a while. Maybe she's changed her ways...

 

[AWR]

Great job. fun thread!

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Dr. Reefs invoice is officially paid and fish should be coming sometime next week! 2 Banggai Cardinal + a firefish :)

Tank is cruising along pretty well - testing and doing a 2-3 gallon WC each weekend (I may have missed this last weekend but will get around to it tomorrow). Nitrates are testing somewhat high at around 18 ppm, as well as Phosphates at almost .2. Alk has been steady around the 7.8-8.1 range. I set up my AutoAqua doser with Kalkwasser the other night...starting at a cool 50 mL/day to move things up slowly (about .1 dKh per day increase if the kalkulator I used is accurate. I like to keep my dKh around 9.0 so I want to get that dialed in before I start tossing frags in there. Still have a 2nd dosing head open for use down the road as well :) Really like these little dosers, especially for the price point. $150 for 2 heads and very user friendly app control/calibration. Only complaint is there a bit loud, but thankfully I'm a heavy sleeper.

I'm thinking the elevated P may be from the marco rock leeching a bit. Not too concerned at the moment, but that may change when I get my lights going full throttle (well, LPS/softy full throttle, anyways). I'm planning to do that tomorrow as well, although I'm still not 100% on what spectrum I'll use. Will probably poke around the interwebs while I'm "working" from home tomorrow morning, and waiting for my TSA goodies to get here. I believe Ryan's 90/10 method recommended 75% blues and 25% whites. I'm interested to see what the difference in PAR will be between the top of my rocks and the sand/lower part of the aquascape...hoping I can push 150 maybe 200at the top which should be enough to keep some digi/stylos/setosa or something of the sort once the tank is more established. But I want to have plenty of real estate in that 50-150 range for lots of fluffy Acans/Micros/Lords and Blastos :)

I'm really happy with the Bubble Magus MiniQ skimmer so far - runs absolutely silent and super easy to tune. I've had it running 24/7 for about a week and have opted to remove the floss from the right side media caddy so the skimmer's not just creating bubbles with nothing to pull out. Best $55 I've ever spent on filtration!

Will probably order a small clump of chaeto & pods in the next week or two to seed the refugium and get things rolling with that, especially if I started seeing green in my display after cranking the lights up and adding a few more fish next week.

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Also thinking of upgrading my return pumps. I have a Sicce .5 and 1.0 sitting around and a bit more flow probably wouldn't hurt. Not to mention the stock returns have fairly wide plugs that are preventing me from using 2 or 3 slots in my wifi power strip and I'll need to free up some space on that for the Tunze refugium light (sadly that's got a pretty big plug as well. Not sure how much flow I'll really need for this setup... or what would be overkill and bother the corals. The Sicce .5 is rated for 185 gph, the 1.0 is rated for 251 gph. I think the stock pumps are 130 gph each. I'm guessing 2 of the Sicce 1.0 would be overkill at 500 gph, and 2 of the Sicce .5s might be perfect. They'd give me 370 gph which is about 40% more than what I'm getting with the stock returns now.

I have a small Jebao 3 which is rated for 660 gph and can definitely push some pretty serious flow in a small tank, especially for such a little pump. I'm not really sure if I'll need it, but I have it in case. Nice little wavemaker - basically a poor man's Nero and it only ran me about $60 from The Bezos Corporation.

Time will tell :)

 

[ChaddyJ_7]

Alright so I got my lights turned up today & tested PAR. Fairly pleased with the how things look, but not exactly thrilled with my PAR numbers.

The top of my scape in the center is getting almost 200 PAR with my current settings, with the bottom (sand) in the center at about 120 PAR. Those numbers are perfect. What I’m not thrilled with is the spread… the tops of each structure on the sides are only sitting around 80 PAR despite being higher in elevation than the center rock structure. This has me toying with the idea of adding a 2nd light for better spread. The corners of the tank are getting <50 PAR even at the top of the scape

Looking for a little input from the community here…I don’t really love the idea of dropping nearly $300 for another AI Prime & flex arm. And the mounting would probably look goofy/uneven with my skimmer being in the way, plus the hang on doser on the other side. Maybe there’s another mounting option for 2 Primes that I’m not aware of (?) I’m wondering if getting a 16” flex arm and mounting the light higher would allow me to crank up the intensity and tune it to the same PAR but with better spread…might be worth a shot for a $50 bracket. But if it doesn’t work then I’ve effectively wasted $50 on a bracket I’m not using…ideally I’d like to keep the Prime as I do like its performance a lot.

Would love to put a Hydra Edge 44 and just be done with it but the light + mounting adapter would run over $400 and then I’d have the Prime just collecting dust (maybe I could sell it?)

My other thought is adding a Blade, but I feel like it would look wonky without a god option to attach it to the Prime…I would just have it on the elevated tank rests and for $250 that’s not exactly a clean looking solution

Thankfully, I do have about $100 in BRS rewards points that could help offset the cost.

Here’s the settings I have right now



FTS