Josm315's 20g Long Nano Reef

[Josm315]

Here is the beginning of my 20g long nano reef. I cycled/cured the rock and sand in a bin for 2 months while waiting for funds for the lights and stand. These pictures were in the “Near Final Draft†stage of aquascaping, the tank showed no signs of minicycles from moving the rock and only required a few water changes until it was ready for fish.

Specs:
20g Long (30â€x12â€x12â€)
~11 lbs BRS Pukani Dry Rock
~25 lbs Nature’s Ocean Aragonite 0.1-0.7 mm grain
Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

Equipment:
Reef Breeder’s Photon 24 /w 90 degree optics; Hanging 8†from surface
Vortech MP10 ES
AquaClear 70 Filter modified into refugium with BadFish kit
50W Hydor Theo

Planned Fish:
1x Falco/Dwarf Hawkfish
1x Tail-spot Blenny

Leftovers.

 

[Josm315]

Quick update and image dump. Got nitrates below 5ppm with a few water changes and decided to throw some of the more hardy frags into the tank. Also couldn't resist the temptations of a LFS an hour away and went for a dip. Sorry again for the iphone pictures. I would get a decent camera, but... coral!

On a side note, I'm convinced white brittle stars and bristleworms are the cockroaches of the sea. I nuked them with CoralRX before transferring them over and they somehow survived... Oh well, at least they're beneficial.

Rainbow Acan Frag 1 head. Sat between my legs on the way home, was rolling the dice by taking it on a journey only a day after being fragged. It's fluffing up nicely and eating like a boss.

Acan from the 1.5g pico, I'm seeing a little more of the teal I was expecting under these lights. Notice the crazy tentacle extension. I'm tempted to feed them twice a day.d

Acan also from the pico. It stopped receding and is making a slight comeback on the two main heads. The baby heads are getting much bigger and even showing feeding tentacles.

Little/Evil Princess favia from the pico. Much nicer to actually be able to see it without straining my eyes in the bottom of the pico. After feeding it looks like it has 4-5 separate mouths even though I only see 2 heads.

Awesome ricordea florida from the LFS. I really wish the camera on my wife's iphone5 could capture the true colors of these. They're mindblowing.

Fire&Ice from the pico and jawbreaker zoas from the LFS.

GSP from the pico isolated to their lonely rock where they will stay. Polyps are already getting longer, the stronger flow is making a nice difference.

Full tank shot for ####s and giggles. New black background included.

 

[427HISS]

Looking good !

"bristleworms are the cockroaches of the sea" lol

Years ago, one ate 4 of our beautiful clams ! eek !!!
When I found it, (at night using a black light) it was apx. 12" long and as big around as my thumb ! (my wife balled her eyes out)

 

[Josm315]

Looking good !

"bristleworms are the cockroaches of the sea" lol

Years ago, one ate 4 of our beautiful clams ! eek !!!
When I found it, (at night using a black light) it was apx. 12" long and as big around as my thumb ! (my wife balled her eyes out)

Thanks! Going to keep an eye on any that get big enough and suck them out with a bastor of I can... Not going to tear apart the rock to get to them, though!

 

[eliramos]

long nano tanks are awesome they look so much bigger than they are especially in pics! sweet setup man!

 

[Josm315]

long nano tanks are awesome they look so much bigger than they are especially in pics! sweet setup man!

Thanks! I certainly enjoy the long tanks. In addition to the deceptive look of being bigger, they have a nice large footprint for more coral room. Can't beat the fact that you can also go a little cheaper on lights since it's more shallow, not that I couldn't light a 29g with these LEDs.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Nice 20 gallon, if you dont mind me asking what percent white and blues are you running on your reefbreeders fixture? also how many hours ?

 

[Josm315]

Nice 20 gallon, if you dont mind me asking what percent white and blues are you running on your reefbreeders fixture? also how many hours ?

Thanks! I still haven't honed it to the exact ratio I want, but for now at peak it's 30W and 35B for 1.5 hours. I may try 40B and 30W after a few weeks.

Schedule is something like this:

Moonlights {6:00 1B ; 6:30 3B ; 7:00 5B ; 7:30 5B} Daytime (8:00 6B 4W ; 8:30 10B 8W ; 9:00 14B 11W ; 9:30 19B 15W ; 10:00 24B 18W ; 10:30 25B 21W ; 11:00 28B 24W ; 11:30 31B 26W ; 12:00 33B 28W ; 12:30 34B 29W ; 13:00-14:30 35B 30W) and then it ramps down the same way it ramped up


New news. Picked up a Falco's Hawkfish Sunday. It's been feeding on mysis but is still mostly hiding instead of perching. I'll try and get pictures of it when it's more comfortable. Diatoms have started showing up, no surprises there. Just nice to see everything moving along.

 

[revhtree]

Nice! Tuned in!

 

[dougers31]

If you are going to stick with the eggcrate on top you might consider painting it black with krylon fusion. Just a thought. Nice tank!

 

[Josm315]

Nice! Tuned in!

Thanks! Hopefully I'll keep cranking out stuff to keep you interested!

If you are going to stick with the eggcrate on top you might consider painting it black with krylon fusion. Just a thought. Nice tank!

Thanks for the suggestion! It sounds like a pretty good idea aesthetically. Though, I'm afraid it will lose the light diffusing properties and actually absorb wavelengths I would want. This is just a temporary solution until I figure out something with clear netting. I just don't want to jump into it yet in case I add something else HOB like a skimmer or float switch.


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My Pico is starting to feel empty now. Once I get nitrates down to 0 on the 20g I'm going to move the acro and birds nest over. Then I'll be moving things around so that it turns into a mostly ricordea "tank".

The diatoms have really started taking over so I went ahead and ordered a 5.5g cleaner pack from reefcleaners. The scarlet hermit I already have is a little lazy...

The Falco Hawkfish has started settling in. It's really started showing some personality and has already associated me and the pipet with food. Was finally able to snap a few pictures. It liked to hide as soon as I pulled the phone out...

 

[Josm315]

I went ahead and threw all of my sps in the 20g. Here are some pictures, sorry about quality. iPhone5, LED camera reputation, and whatnot.

A couple baby plates I received at a reef club meeting. They're about the size of a dime and eat so much! The green plate especially going wild with tentacle extension.

The base of my tricolor acro moved from the pico. Hard to make out, but that is the most polyp I have ever seen on this thing. It's amazing how much difference some real flow makes.

Two mystery SPS. I'm pretty sure one is millepora and the other is acropora. I'm uncertain if the acro is bleached or not. I'm not seeing the pink/purple color on the tips like I did at the store anymore. It could be that it was bit of spotlighting effect from their lights. Polyps are extended, and I'm hopeful for recovery if that is the case. Will be interesting to see what it colors up to. They are in temporary spots near the bottom of the rockwork and I will slowly move them to the top.

A very ****** off torch. I'm sure it'll get more comfortable in a day or two.

I picked up a Bowser Paly, it's still closed with a bit of mysis hanging out.

I'll try and get better pictures later. Was in a rush to move all the SPS over and do a major remodel on my pico reef.