My wife got into reefing during the pandemic so obviously I am automatically involved due to the nature of reefing and the costs involved. I actually made an IG account before she did and i took photos of her tank and put it up on IG. That's why I was called "shadow reefer" because I was just shadowing stuff she does and I didn't have my own tank. On top of that I was never allowed to touch her tank. That's a no no. I often gave advice since I eventually purchased some corals that could rent space in her tank, but I was never allowed to do anything regarding anything. She is running a 32G Biocube right now upgraded from a 12G JBJ. She did have both tanks running but the 12G JBJ just had 1 clownfish, 1 lawnmower blenny, and a bunch of rock flower anemones.
I finished up some of my house renovation projects so i decided it was time to have my own tank. The plan was I will take over the 12G JBJ and move some of the corals from her tank and everyone from the 12G JBJ into a new tank. I needed to get some new equipment in order to be able to house my corals into my little nano. All stuff I learned while being the shadow reefer.
1. I needed a wavemaker
2. I needed a light that I didnt have to set manually (My wife runs a Kessil A360x w/wifi)
3. I wanted a new nano tank
4. I needed a workbench table that will act as my stand
For the wavemaker, I just bought what she did which was a Hygger wavemaker from Amazon.
For my lights, I found an old school reefer by my house that had an extra Radion XR30 G2. He had the arm mount for it as well. I eventually found a reeflink for it here at R2R. All in all the lights cost me like $190
For my tank I went with a Waterbox 15G Peninsula Mini. 1st it was only $199. 2nd, it gave me the scenario where I could safely transfer sand and tankmates over without having to restart my cycle. I wanted it to also fit on a workbench table so small works plus I figured that it will save me some money on corals since I wouldn't need as many in order to fill out the whole tank
the day finally came for transfer day!
I know everyone is probably thinking that my plan sucks but I thought it made sense and everyone is still alive and kicking at the time of this writing.
- I was not going to transfer the sand
- I was going to transfer over as much water as I can
- I was going to transfer the rock
- I was going to transfer the same purigen, chemipure, and all the bio balls over
- I was going to add nitrifying bacteria
- I was going to add new water to fill out the rest
- I would transfer my blenny and clown + the corals that now lived in my tank
I'm pretty sure I had a panic attack during this whole thing but I just kept breathing and kept going. All personnel accounted for including all the snails.
Chamber 1
I took out the filter sock and I am using the intank media basket.
- Filter Floss
- 100 ml purigen
- 333g of Chemipure Elite
Chamber 2
I have a bunch of bio media plus a small UV sterilizer. Its a 3W Green Killing Machine Internal UV System. My little 50w heater is in that chamber as well. My light mount also blocks the top of that chamber so if I need to do anything to those components, I have to unmount my entire light 1st
Chamber 3
Upgraded to a Sicce .5 since the stock pump was super duper loud. I also put in my wifes coralife nano skimmer in chamber 3 since she doesn't want to use it and I don't want it to go to waste. I run it every now and then and its been broken in.
I finished up some of my house renovation projects so i decided it was time to have my own tank. The plan was I will take over the 12G JBJ and move some of the corals from her tank and everyone from the 12G JBJ into a new tank. I needed to get some new equipment in order to be able to house my corals into my little nano. All stuff I learned while being the shadow reefer.
1. I needed a wavemaker
2. I needed a light that I didnt have to set manually (My wife runs a Kessil A360x w/wifi)
3. I wanted a new nano tank
4. I needed a workbench table that will act as my stand
For the wavemaker, I just bought what she did which was a Hygger wavemaker from Amazon.
For my lights, I found an old school reefer by my house that had an extra Radion XR30 G2. He had the arm mount for it as well. I eventually found a reeflink for it here at R2R. All in all the lights cost me like $190
For my tank I went with a Waterbox 15G Peninsula Mini. 1st it was only $199. 2nd, it gave me the scenario where I could safely transfer sand and tankmates over without having to restart my cycle. I wanted it to also fit on a workbench table so small works plus I figured that it will save me some money on corals since I wouldn't need as many in order to fill out the whole tank
the day finally came for transfer day!
I know everyone is probably thinking that my plan sucks but I thought it made sense and everyone is still alive and kicking at the time of this writing.
- I was not going to transfer the sand
- I was going to transfer over as much water as I can
- I was going to transfer the rock
- I was going to transfer the same purigen, chemipure, and all the bio balls over
- I was going to add nitrifying bacteria
- I was going to add new water to fill out the rest
- I would transfer my blenny and clown + the corals that now lived in my tank
I'm pretty sure I had a panic attack during this whole thing but I just kept breathing and kept going. All personnel accounted for including all the snails.
Chamber 1
I took out the filter sock and I am using the intank media basket.
- Filter Floss
- 100 ml purigen
- 333g of Chemipure Elite
Chamber 2
I have a bunch of bio media plus a small UV sterilizer. Its a 3W Green Killing Machine Internal UV System. My little 50w heater is in that chamber as well. My light mount also blocks the top of that chamber so if I need to do anything to those components, I have to unmount my entire light 1st
Chamber 3
Upgraded to a Sicce .5 since the stock pump was super duper loud. I also put in my wifes coralife nano skimmer in chamber 3 since she doesn't want to use it and I don't want it to go to waste. I run it every now and then and its been broken in.
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I did end up losing a torch which made me super sad cause I loved that thing. For the most part everything has gone really well and the tank seems to be stable.
