Its coming along honestly and having my kids be excited for it has really sparked the interest back into this hobby for me. My 90 the last time really made me regret starting it after seeing my 75 be so succesfu, but this little tank is strating to bring the energy back. I am hopefully for the 90 if I can get together a good rockscape for it. Been racking my brain on it since Black Friday when I bought all the rock. Not overally impressed with what I received and will be ordering some more for "options" if you will plus I have had zero time to focus on it with work and the holidays.
Helloreef build
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Some time has passed since adding the corals into the tank. All of them are happy but I ended up losing my purple hammer to brown out. Only coral, when I received it that the skeleton was super fragile and I tired to keep it together when I glued it in but it wasn't enough to keep it. O well the rest are doimg great. Been trying to feed some ab+ but also trying to get the nitrates in a more reasonable place. Keeps saying I at 4 ppm (using red sea) but is far more purple than what it is supposed to be. Tested on the high nitrate and says its under 4 or at 4ppm. Goal is to try and get it controlled at 2 ppm so I can feed more. Once everything is where I want it I'll start to get 2 part dosing involved.
First attempt to lower my nitrates is to dose vinegar and the second occured today. I tore everything out of the rear chambers, cleaned all the equipment, cleaned the chambers and siphoned all the water out. I also went and removed the thick micro filter that comes stock with the tank. Had my hesitation with it as I know they can be detritus traps we will see of that helps.
Other than that thinking of getting some more snails, urchin is living the dream with algae starting to appear and the hawkfish is very photogenic. Thinking of my sps corals to fill in the top and possibly adding in a pair of clowns after I get my parameters in check
Corals are looking super happy and once I get everything to stay stable at these parameters will be adding more corals. Everything is looking great and I am starting to see growth in the sps corals, my green rock flower anemone has never been happier. Starting to dose red sea ab+ more regularly and even some frozen foods. Watching this little skimmer put in some work as well.
justjames1983
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Is this sitting above the filter sponge?The tank took about 3 days to finally clear up with some moving of the powerhead to establish good flow in the tank. Normally I have my powerhead(s) on a timer but I have been leaving it on all time with no issue and the flow is dialed in perfectly. In the pictures i have installed an IOAOI skimmer. While I know a skimmer isn't necessary with excellent water changes on nanos I figured id give it a try. Skimmer took about 2 weeks to break in but for a little 40 dollar skimmer it is working quite well as I write this post. I grabbed this skimmer from Amazon and the seller even provide start up instructions with it as well which was quite nice. Its very difficult to get it tuned but not impossible. The build of the skimmer is also meant for rimless tanks and fits perfectly in the second chamber of this tank
It was but I ended up just taking the filter sponge out entirely. Has been working a lot more consistently that way and have been able to keep all my parameters in check with it outIs this sitting above the filter sponge?The tank took about 3 days to finally clear up with some moving of the powerhead to establish good flow in the tank. Normally I have my powerhead(s) on a timer but I have been leaving it on all time with no issue and the flow is dialed in perfectly. In the pictures i have installed an IOAOI skimmer. While I know a skimmer isn't necessary with excellent water changes on nanos I figured id give it a try. Skimmer took about 2 weeks to break in but for a little 40 dollar skimmer it is working quite well as I write this post. I grabbed this skimmer from Amazon and the seller even provide start up instructions with it as well which was quite nice. Its very difficult to get it tuned but not impossible. The build of the skimmer is also meant for rimless tanks and fits perfectly in the second chamber of this tank
They work perfectly together actually. Skimmer picks up what ever the roller doesn't get. Ive notcied with my roller it has been spinning more frequently as the tank has aged especially since I have started to feed meaty foods for the corals. I expect an increase as I had more corals. Ill try to grab a picture today of what the skimmer and roller look like with what they have pulled.
Last week I tested my AWC container and it was showing just a hair of nitrates plus the water level was low on it so I managed to sneak one more water change out of it then dumped the remaining water in it, took it outside and pressure washed the build up in it. Was such a nice day that I couldn't miss the opportunity to clean it out. After the pressure wash let it soak the main build up area in citric acid before taking it back inside amd refilling it.
I have also been playing with the lighting schedule a lot lately and settled on a nice schedule that runs for 12 hours. Gave it a nice ramp for about 2 hours of blues, peak for 6 hours for display (ab+) then a slow 4 hour ramp down in blues. Has been working well and seeing postive response from the corals
I have also been playing with the lighting schedule a lot lately and settled on a nice schedule that runs for 12 hours. Gave it a nice ramp for about 2 hours of blues, peak for 6 hours for display (ab+) then a slow 4 hour ramp down in blues. Has been working well and seeing postive response from the corals
Yesterday my finally went back to my LFS which is so nice being less the 10 minutes away. My kids have been begging me to go for the last month but I have been funneling money and time into my theater lately recently getting a new screen material installed and buying more movies on disc ( to many hobbies 
)
Been playing around with my nitrates and some how managed to get them near zero and sit there for a few weeks allowing me to overfed to an extent which the corals have not minded one bit. One positive with my nitrates being low offered the opportunity to get more fish and why not a more corals of course.
One big problem with my last clownfish(and its size) wouldn't allow me to get any other clownfish. I did have a mocha black for a couple years before it finally jupmed. Longest i was able to keep another clown with my original. Took a better approach this time by getting to at the same time. My son ended up choosing a longfin mocha misbar clown and I drew atteaction to a longfin frostbit clown. I was concerned about how my hawkfish would handle the new additions and honestly it has been handling the new fish great! Im assuming that its been alone for so long that it missed having other fish. Of course immediately checked them and has just been hanging around them. Will actually go out of its way to break up the tiffs the 2 clowns are having. His activity around the tank has been up too and helped the clowns understand (almost immediately) meal time.
We also picked up some new corals as well. My LFS runs and buy 3 get one free and I miss some of the corals i used to have so I grabbed a space invader and purple stylo which I originally had in my old 75. Had the wife pick put an aqua trumpet coral, also got another acro( aqua in coral) and a red/pink blasto with a lime green mouth
)Been playing around with my nitrates and some how managed to get them near zero and sit there for a few weeks allowing me to overfed to an extent which the corals have not minded one bit. One positive with my nitrates being low offered the opportunity to get more fish and why not a more corals of course.
One big problem with my last clownfish(and its size) wouldn't allow me to get any other clownfish. I did have a mocha black for a couple years before it finally jupmed. Longest i was able to keep another clown with my original. Took a better approach this time by getting to at the same time. My son ended up choosing a longfin mocha misbar clown and I drew atteaction to a longfin frostbit clown. I was concerned about how my hawkfish would handle the new additions and honestly it has been handling the new fish great! Im assuming that its been alone for so long that it missed having other fish. Of course immediately checked them and has just been hanging around them. Will actually go out of its way to break up the tiffs the 2 clowns are having. His activity around the tank has been up too and helped the clowns understand (almost immediately) meal time.
We also picked up some new corals as well. My LFS runs and buy 3 get one free and I miss some of the corals i used to have so I grabbed a space invader and purple stylo which I originally had in my old 75. Had the wife pick put an aqua trumpet coral, also got another acro( aqua in coral) and a red/pink blasto with a lime green mouth
Corals seemed happy immediately with there temp locations so I decided to glue the sps and trumpet in place this morning. Also moved one of my acros to another location and will be keeping a close eye on it hoping it enjoys that spot more
New filter lenses arrived today and was playing around the different colored lenses along with the macro lens. Might get my wife to get some pictures as she is an actual professional photographer I may not be going justice for this little tank with my mediocre photography skills
I may not be going justice for this little tank with my mediocre photography skills
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