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Hey!
Welcome to my dumb experiment thread where I test something crazy so you don't have to.
I'm putting together some different methods that make a lot of sense to me in the hopes of running a successful mixed reef tank in a 20L DIY AIO w/ no skimmer.
System Info
Day 1 Pics
Welcome to my dumb experiment thread where I test something crazy so you don't have to.
I'm putting together some different methods that make a lot of sense to me in the hopes of running a successful mixed reef tank in a 20L DIY AIO w/ no skimmer.
System Info
- 20L standard aquarium with DIY acrylic baffles to create an AIO w/ sump section on left side of tank
- Cycled tank using dry Marco rock from BRS + Brightwell MB7 + 5lbs Garf Grunge
- Lighting: Reef Breeders Photon V2 24
- Circulation:
- AI Nero 5 in display section
- Random Rio pump for circulation between display and sump area
- Mechanical Filtration:
- 3 sections of AquaClear sponges cut to fit into the first section of the sump area
- No skimmer!
- Nutrient Reduction:
- Ball of cheato lit by Tunze Ecochic Refugium Light (ghetto setup)
- Carbon dosing using Tropic Marin NP Bacto Balance (explained later)
- Dosing
- Various Zeovit products (explained later)
- Brightwell Amino Acids
- Kalk in ATO (based on alk/calc consumption)
- Livestock:
- 3 Damsels
- 5-10 Trochus snails
- 5-10 hermits
- 1 Peppermint Shrimp
- SPS - Various acros, montipora, birdsnest
- LPS - Branching hammer
- Soft - Various zoas/palys, green kenya tree (I think)
- 1 RBTA
- Feeding
- 1/2 cube brine shrimp per day
- Reef Roids around 2x per week
- Almost full Zeovit except for the carbon source which will be Tropic Marin NP Bacto Balance because this product makes a lot of sense to me. Also not running a skimmer which goes against most recommendations when carbon dosing. Weekly 5 gallon (25-30%) water change.
- Zeovit products:
- 150ml zeolite in a media bag in overflow section of tank (will be shaking into display section of tank daily)
- 2 drops Zeobak per day for first 14 days, maintenance dose after
- Periodic dosing of: Coral Vitalizer, Spongepower, Pohl's Xtra (I actually don't have a set schedule for these yet)
- Other products:
- Brightwell Amino Acids - 5 drops per day
- Tropic Marin NP Bacto Balance - .10ml per day to start out
- Zeovit products:
- Chemistry
- Nitrate: Barely detectable around 0.25ppm
- Phosphate: .037ppm
- Alk: 6.7 (will slowly be bringing this up with kalk in ATO)
- Don't test anything else at this point. Tank is pretty new so consumption of alk/calc is low. I use a high quality salt and do weekly water changes and I've never added an unbalanced source of alk or calcium to the tank. No reason to believe anything is off at this point.
- Setup / First Doses
- Added the zeolite bag to the overflow area of the sump
- 2 drops Zeobak
- 0.10ml NP Bacto Balance
- 5 drops Brightwell Aminos
Day 1 Pics