Nice setup for work!!! Dang. I only have a 5 gallon freshwater shrimpy running. I wouldn't trust a tank over the weekend's or holidaysThis is my second tank. I've wanted a tank in my office for some time but scared away by some hurtles. I had several concerns about an office tank;
1. Water changes- I will not be able to have an RODI system at work so all water has be brought from my house.
2. Testing and Dosing- I will not be at work every day, nor would I have time every day to do testing or dosing.
3. Cleaning and Maintenance- the amount of time it will take to clean the glass, sand, and filters. Plus cleaning things in a shared kitchen or bathroom sink might get me some dirty looks.
4. Feeding- will the fish starve over the weekend without me?
This is why I'm going to try my best to do an Ultra Low Maintenance tank. I've watched the whole series from BRS on them, and will probably watch it again but here is what I've got right now.
EQUIPMENT
IM NUVO-30L
Current IC LED
(2) Current 660 GPH wave makers
NUVO protein skimmer
Cobalt Aquatics NEO-Therm heater
Nuvo APS stand
MightyJet 538 GPH Return Pump
Desktop CustomCaddy Media Basket
Possible/Probable Additional Equipment
ATO
Back up return pump
Back up heater
Media cup
Filter Floss
Supplemental T5 light
So how do I plan to make this tank ULM? I looked at the following things
Tank Selection
-Tank Size: I was cautious of the size for a couple reason. I wanted something large enough to have several fish and house corals, however, not so large that tank maintenance and water changes became an issue. With a 30 gallon I have enough room for 4-5 fish and a 10% water change each week will only be 3 gallons.
-AIO: I wanted an all in one due a reduction in plumbing and less chance for an issue to occur while away such as a clogged overflow or return pipe.
Redundancy
-My goal is to switch the plumbing in the back for the return pump. Currently there is one return pump with a split hose that goes to two returns in the tank. My plan is to put an additional pump in the back, change out the split hose to two individual hoses that each go to one return.
-Additional heater in tank in case a failure of the first
Filtration choices
-As this is an office tank I don't want to be transporting dirty filter socks home every couple of days. My plan is to remove the filter sock and put a media cup in its place. Then fill the media cup with filter floss.
-I went back and forth on a skimmer as it can be a mess to clean in a communal sink, however, I did decided to go with it.
-Additional filtration with media blocks.
Automation
-I haven't pick it yet, but thinking about buying at Tunze Universal 3155 ATO. I had initially thought to save money I wouldn't buy an ATO and just top off each day. However, when thinking about it more I am leaning towards an ATO.
-Auto feeder for weekends and holidays. I love feeding my fish, because they get to know you as the food person, but I think it would be better to set up an auto feeder that way it will be a consistent feed every day and the fish can eat on weekends. I plan to do flakes and pellets and then maybe a couple times a week I would feed frozen.
Stock list
-Looking for fish and livestock and work for me. My goal is a very healthy CUC. I do not want to be siphoning the sand each water change, which means I need some good stand sifters. I've never had a conch before but I have hard good things so try a couple of those in this tank. I have an Urchin in my tank at home and their if very little algae on any sort on the rocks.
-Corals will be mainly Sofies with a couple LPS. To keep dosing and testing down doing a primarily softy tank will be easier to mange then heavy LPS or all SPS.
Fish/Corals
(2) clowns
Starry Blenny
Yellow Watchman & Shrimp Pair
Zoas
Xenia
Elegance
Toadstool
Fuzzy Pulsing Sinularia
Torch
Duncan
Anemone
Dang! Gotta love the hobby. I'd just get it fully setup on an Apex so you don't need to worry about it.
Following! This is a great write up. Very interesting as I could never bring a tank into my work place. I like the ULM path you’re going with it. I’d like to see how that Nuvo Skimmer is going to do as well. I’ve heard small skimmers just aren’t that efficient and don’t want to waste money on a small skimmer that doesn’t work.On Friday I received my CUC from reef cleaners. When I first dumped them in it looked like way to many for a 30 gallon tank, and I still think it probably was. However, once they spread out onto the rocks and glass and buried themselves in the sand it didn't seem as bad.
I also ordered two conchs from them. One for this tank and one for my home tank, however, both were DOA which was sad. I was excited to have a conch as I've heard they are funny, I've never had one before. I also ordered a turbo snail which was DOA and several of the other snails and hermit were DOA. When they ship they send them in bag with little to no water and just a wet paper towel. On the website they claim that leads to higher several rates than shipping with water in the bags. Unsure about that, but disappointed all the same. I sent them an email and asked if it was possible to just resend the conch and turbo snail, wasn't too worried about the others, and was sent one sentence back.. "a refund will be issued"¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I would still like a conch for this tank, so possibly ordering from LA next time.
I let the CUC marinate over the weekend, they did a great job cleaning the algae bloom on the rocks that had started, and also got the sand looking nice again. On Monday when everyone was still alive I decided to put some fish in... yes office people you can rejoice there are FINALLY fish in the tank. I picked up two snowflake clowns from my LFS. I was really temped by some Davinci's they had, but went with the snowflakes instead.
Not sure if these two have fully bonded yet, they spend much on their time on opposites sides of the tank from each other. Hopefully they become friends soon. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Here is an updated FTS
