My 30 Gallon HOBby

[Ectogamut]

So, I started my mixed reef tank in December of 2014 as a present for my kiddo. It soon turned into my new hobby and little did I know how much I would like it! I've certainly learned a lot about reefkeeping throughout this process and have had a few ups and downs, but fortunately no tank crashes yet. However, I did start with an ich outbreak, followed by hair algae and diatoms, and then a nasty dino outbreak that I'm still battling (and winning I believe). Let me post some progression pics so that you can see how things have come along. I call it my HOBby because I have no sump, and the thing looks like robo-tank!

My Livestock:

Coral:

• War Coral Favia
• Emerald Forest Zoa
• Poker Stars Monti
• Pulsing Xenia (BLEGH!)
• JF Special Porites
• Orange Monti Digitata
• PC Rainbow Acro
• WWC Somewhere Over the Rainbow Mille
• Rommel's Rainbow Mille
• JF Agape Favia
• JF Walking Dead Leptoseris
• ORA Orange Montipora Setosa
• JF John Deere Leptastrea
• Red Planet Acro
• Bali Green Slimer Acro
• Tyree Pink Lemonade Acro
• Candy Apple Red Zoa
• JF Kung Fu Fighters Zoa
• UC Strawberry Shortcake Acro
• Montipora Capricornis (Green w/ Blue Polyps)
• Tyree Bubble Gum Monster Chalice
• Sunny D Zoa
• Rasta Zoa
• Frogspawn

Fish:

• 2 X Ocellaris Clownfish (1 x Misbar, 1 x Bullet Hole Snowflake)
• Yellow Tang
• Flame Angel
• Melanurus Wrasse
• Stocky Anthias
• Pajama Cardinal
• Green Mandarin Dragonet
• Lawnmower Blenny

Now, I know what you're thinking; you're thinking WOW! That tank is WAYYY overstocked! And you would be correct! Overstocked, overfed, and every last one of 'em are happy as can be while last check on nutrient levels was 10 NO3 and 0.02 PO4. I carbon dose using Red Sea NO3-PO4-X, and it works beautifully. I also utilize an Eshopps PSK 100H HOB Skimmer, skimming very wet to make sure DOCs don't build up. For lighting, I run a single Ecotech XR30W Pro Gen 3; for flow I use 2 x MP10s. My ATO is the Tunze 3152 Nano, and I maintain 12.6 Alk and 465 Ca using BRS 2-part w/ the BRS dosing pumps (directly into the DT, unfortunately).

I really believe that my growth would be much better at this point if I had not had a severe and toxic dino outbreak starting 3 months ago. I tried numerous methods to rid the stuff, but only after I used a microscope to identify the type was I then able to effectively combat them. Ultimately, it took a 3-day blackout combined with a pH of over 8.5 (using Kalkwasser) and daily dosing of Hydrogen Peroxide to knock them out. I currently still have them, but they are hardly noticeable and not making a comeback. Many of my coral experienced some die-back due to the stress of the outbreak and the resulting treatment, but nearly all of them have made a full recovery (I'm still holding out for my SOTR Mille, so we'll see if it pulls through).

Anyhow, none of this matters without pictures right? So below I will post some progression pics so that you can see how things have come along over the last 9 months.

 

[BradT]

No pictures?

 

[Ectogamut]

Haha! I'm organizing them now so I can post a progression of the tank

 

[Ectogamut]

Startup:









And yes, I did start this thing with a hose carrying tap water...LFS told me to use Seachem Prime during cycling...yeah, that was fun to undo later

 

[Ectogamut]

First Additions to the tank:

 

[Ectogamut]

The stick obsession begins...

 

[Ectogamut]

And then a reefer friend introduced me to acros and chalices!

 

[Ectogamut]

The saga will continue tomorrow once I finish uploading photos and organizing some more!

 

[Ectogamut]

By this point I think I'm around May or June of this year. I started the tank with a Kessil A350W and shortly after this switched over to an Ecotech. Now, I love my Ecotech, but I gotta say, nothing beats the shimmer from that Kessil. I'm actually very excited about their new light that just came out just because that shimmer looks so natural.

 

[Ectogamut]

 

[Ectogamut]

 

[Ectogamut]

So now we're at July of this year, and the dinos had really begun to take off. I believe what happened was that once I had a hair algae outbreak, I really ramped up my carbon dosing. But in doing so I inadvertently dropped my NO3 to 0 while I still had some PO4. I think that this left plenty of carbon for the dinos to feed on even after the algae was gone. What a pain!

Here, the hair algae is still on the rock, but it's completely covered in dino slime....yum yum


The dinos really went after my ORA Setosa here. I almost lost the frag, but fortunately I've gotten the dinos under control and it's almost made a fully recovery


The frogspawn my wifey begged for:


Full tank shot under about 12K lighting

 

[Ectogamut]

My pests under the microscope:


Robo-Tank!


So happy I found a tube mount for my tank


A shot of my rainbow frags, but if you look at the LR closely you can see some brown...that's more dinos! What a hard-fought battle!

 

[Ectogamut]

Here are some of the most recent shots of the tank. A few weeks ago, I participated in the Jason Fox live sale and came away with some sweet looking frags. I'd say that the tank is about 95% stocked at this point. I have one spot left for a clam, or perhaps a lobo, and one darker area that I'm thinking would be perfect for a JF Jack-O-Lantern Lepto. Although my dinos haven't been 100% eradicated, they're nearly gone. Most of my coral has resumed growing, but not quite as fast as it was right before the dino outbreak. I think it's probably because I'm still using a kalkwasser slurry to keep my pH while I try to kill the last of these dinos and because of this my Alk and Ca aren't as stable as they could be. Also, after the Dino X treatment and the 3-day blackout my nutrient levels went pretty darn high since I stopped carbon dosing while treating the tank. The dinos did kill off one birdsnest that I wasn't particularly fond of, nearly killed my setosa, as well as my bali green slimer, pink lemonade, SOTR Mille and blue staghorn. All have recovered except for the SOTR; I gave the blue stag a new home because it just didn't stand out at all against my blue background. I'm really pleased with where the tank is right now, but I'm very ready for a bit more stability and predictability. The ATO was a recent addition to the tank, and so now it's pretty much automated except for feedings, carbon dosing, and refilling the ATO tank. Even though things seem to be settling down now, I'm sure new challenges lie ahead!

Got crazy at the live sale, but new frags are always fun!


Strawberry Shortcake Acro


JF Walking Dead Leptoseris


JF Agape Favia


Candy Apple Red Zoa


Multiple pieces here, but that Rommel Rainbow is starting to encrust nicely and I'm really starting to love that sea green color of the polyps against the orange brown background




My zoa colonies are really starting to explode now; new polyps every day. They were pretty stressed out during the dino outbreak, but they're VERY happy now!

 

[Virtualbasil]

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to small for that tang poor guy

 

[Ectogamut]

Likely response...but I consider myself a responsible reef keeper, and if that tang was showing ANY signs of stress I would re-home him immediately. No matter what size tank we put our tangs in, guess what? They're still in a glass box that is not their natural habitat. But hey, I appreciate the feedback; at least we can get that out of the way early on.

 

[Virtualbasil]

I can keep a dog alive on a Chain in my backyard for its whole life. It will be alive but it won't be happy. It is not responsible to keep a yellow tang in a 30 gal nano. I'm not even considering tangs in my 55 gallon.

 

[Ectogamut]

Should I be looking for a frowny face? Like I said, this tang shows zero signs of stress, and if it seemed anything but happy I would gladly find a better home. With 8 other tank mates he shows no aggression, is quite social, gets plenty to eat and even enjoys hovering over his buddies before dropping a deuce on their head, lol! Maybe a tang doesn't work for your tank because you lack the husbandry skills to maintain it, but I've done the research necessary to make sure I provide a happy healthy home for all of my inhabitants. I'm sorry you don't agree with some of the choices I've made for my tank, but I'd really prefer to keep it positive here. If I wanted something a little south of that I would've created this thread over on RC. Thank you, and good day, sir!

 

[Virtualbasil]

Tangs do not belong in Nanos end of story.

 

[Ectogamut]

I suppose I should remove his leash so he can jump out of the tank then. If he's so completely unhappy, I imagine he would've sought "open waters" long long ago. Can you even explain why they don't belong in a smaller tank? I love to learn about the hobby, but honestly, it's people like you and negative posts such as yours that keep reefers from posting here. Now if my tang was sitting on the bottom of the tank struggling for life, I'd say you'd have a valid claim, but my fish is probably healthier than most people's because I feed my fish a ton. If you want to be constructive, please do so. Otherwise, please just ignore my thread and move on.