Ivan's pico reef!

[Iván Olalla]

A little update, the sps are fine and growing...i did find some trouble sweetspoting the chemistry in order to keep soft coral, LPS and SPS happy, also kh dropped below what i can replenish with the weekly water change schedule, i tried manual dosing and kalk in the ATO, but ph spiked more than i wanted to, so i found my balance ditching the kalk for sodium bicarbonate in the ATO and that helped me mantain the levels i wanted and in a more cost effective way.

Calcium and mg, along with excess nitrate are in check and replenished with the weekly water change of about 15/20% and the KH with addition of sodium bicarbonate in the ATO container (enough for two weeks)

So far things seem to be happy!

 

[Iván Olalla]

Some pics... I missed the look with the BTA s AND the overall sight seemed chopped, but the euphilya garden grew well and it helps balance the aquascape, it lacks some contrast still, i'm in the middle of deciding if i want some rock nems or a yellow/orange hammer that adds that POP in front of the euphilyas...not decided yet, but for sure will do soon enough!

 

[Iván Olalla]

The numbers are stable and had been for several weeks, here they're:

Salinity 1.026
ph 8.3/8.4
Temp 25.5 to 26.5 celsius
KH 8.5
Ca 410
Mg 1280
Nitrate 10 ppm
po <.03

My dkh drops 2.7 per week, the ATO handles it now and replenishes alk and fresh water with a rate of 1 gallon per week on average.

As always the input and critique are always welcomed, happy reefing!

 

[Iván Olalla]

FTS i took today march 13

 

[Iván Olalla]

Tailspot blenny aka grumpy
Gladiator clown aka big boss
Black and white clownfish
Sexy schrimp (3) that love the mini carpet nem and a emerald crab that lives under the ricordea.

Had several blue legged hermits, Margarita snails and turbos, but there's not enough algae for a big population, so cleaning crew Is composed of many serpent stars, nassarius snails and two old and big turbo snails

 

[Iván Olalla]

Many times i get asked about the size of the tank, it's only an 8 gallon cube that sits in my office desk. The livestock will be moved to my hometank once it outgrews the little cube, i' ll open a build thread for the home tank in the future, for now i can only say that a little tank and specially a mixed reef one has some challenges to it's own compared to bigger aquaria, but it's a delight to see things grow at close range, we can see some critters activities that we could not appreciate in a big tank, it also brings part of this hobbie where i spend several hours during the day and chills my mood.
Also maintenance doesn't require to much elbow grease and can be performed with extreme care to detail in a short period of time.

My water change, testing and refilling ATO takes about 30/40 mins and that includes mixing the salt lol

Mini tanks are awesome!
Just some advice: once your little tank is mature: dont chase numbers, introduce only small amounts of livestock at a time and dont neglect your maintenance routine, keep your hands of the tank unless test tell you otherwise and let the system balance itself, more time for you to enjoy and less stress

 

[Iván Olalla]

The nasty part of the tank, need to work on my cable managment

 

[reef-rc]

That's an awesome tank!

 

[reeferKen]

You've had you little chiller for quite a while, have you been happy with it? Does it turn off and on by itself from a temp probe? Thanks for sharing all your photos, it's been an impressive little setup.

 

[Iván Olalla]

You've had you little chiller for quite a while, have you been happy with it? Does it turn off and on by itself from a temp probe? Thanks for sharing all your photos, it's been an impressive little setup.

Thanks Ken for your kind words. Regarding the chiller i have had it for almost two years now, for the price you cant go wrong (about 100 usd new) and yes it turns on/off with the temp probe that it came with, the hysteresis can be set quite easy and it works silently.

Talking efficiency i must say that it performs OK, as long as you dont exceed it´s capacity (about 7/8 gallons) it will keep your tank at 77/78 f 24/7

Last year during summer it broke down on me, i was sure it was fried, but the faulty one was the power supply, i didnt had it connected to a surge protection outlet, completely my mistake...bought a new power supply for about 15 usd and the chiller is still rocking.

Talking accuracy of the temp probe it reads a little high, i checked and calibrated with the Reefkeeper temp probe and an external temp reader and had no issues.

For a small volume it works like a charm if you dont want to depend on evaporation for your cooling needs!

Regards!

 

[RIreefGuy]

Love the tank! I'm building a pico right now also. What brand is the chiller? Thanks!!

 

[reeferKen]

eBay sure has a lot " 20L aquarium chiller". You might watch out for Aluminium heatsync as you look around at other models. I'm not sure If ALU is reefsafe.

 

[RIreefGuy]

Thank u!!

 

[Iván Olalla]

Love the tank! I'm building a pico right now also. What brand is the chiller? Thanks!!

I don't remember the brand but i bought it from Fishstreet.com (Jebao/Coral Box distributors) i believe they have a warehouse in
US to avoid delays shipping from Hong Kong.
But yeah, just check that the intake and outlet, along with the cooling sink are made of titanium to avoid puting nasties in your tank!

 

[Sipec]

Nice tank! I'm surprised your tailspot blennys grumpy, mines really friendly
I guess all fish have different personalities like people, though
I'd be careful with the mini carpet nem, though, I hear they can eat small fish easily

 

[Iván Olalla]

Nice tank! I'm surprised your tailspot blennys grumpy, mines really friendly
I guess all fish have different personalities like people, though
I'd be careful with the mini carpet nem, though, I hear they can eat small fish easily

Tks! Indeed they've personalities, the blenny used to be the king and claimed all the caves...i moved the BTA that was the home of the clown and some disputes for turf came along... No more issues, but the blenny started to dig some caves under the main rock and now chills like a hermit un one side of the aquarium... Almost seems that he doesn't like to see the activities of the mated pair of clowns.... Lol
I'll keep an eye on the mini carpet... It's weird, but i think the sexy shrimps feed it...

 

[Iván Olalla]

Time for a little update:

I removed one of the frag racks, it became a sore in the eye and limited the swiming space for the clowns.

I cured some Stax rocks that i'm using for the new aquaescape on the big tank and put two pieces in the nano, glued all the zoas and acans to them and the rest of my frags remained in one frag rack, mostly my SPS testers.

During the rearengement the main rock structure collapsed, so i glued and epoxied it in a hurry, a 10 mins task became a whole afternoon of work.

Due to this, i had a nitrate and phosphate spike, but now is under control and levels are OK again.

The SPS testers are doing great, some of them doubled size in a three month window and color and polyp extension seems to be ok too.

The clowns became a mated pair and make symbiosis with a hammer and a feather duster. It seems that they don't miss the BTAs

The numbers after fixing the spike remain constant:

pH 8.1/8.4 (night/Day)
Salinity 1.025
Temp 25.5/26.5 celsius
Ca 400/420
Alk 8.5/9.0 dkh
Mg 1350/1400
Nitrate 5/10 ppm
Phosphate .05/.07 (working with some GFO, before the spike i had less than .03 and with the spike i had .9)

The weekly water change doesnt keep up with my alk consumption, i'm using .5/.7 dkh daily, so i put some kalkwaser on the ATO again and the alk is rock steady in the 8.5/9.0 range, could work better if my evaporation was a steady number, but it works for now.

Also had the chance to adjust my ligth, some friends and i pitched in to buy a Seneye, so we could make PAR and PUR readings on our systems and it was very well spent money, pretty happy with the results!

 

[Iván Olalla]

PAR and PUR readings after adjusting the light fixture

 

[Iván Olalla]

Aftermath of removing the frag rack and placing corals on a Stax on the ground. Patiently waiting that the coralline and time fix the "white look" of the Stax rock and the emergency epoxy in the main structure...

 

[Iván Olalla]

My SPS shelf