Nano Reefin'

jw7924 · Sep 29, 2013

It has been awhile since I have been on here, but I think its time I get some outside help.

Brief background: I've been in the hobby for about 2 years. While in college in Idaho I ran a 28g JBJ HQI with an amazing aquascape. I had great growth and coloration on all my SPS, LPS and Zoas. I loved it! I sold everything and moved to Bakersfield, Ca in search of a career in the Ag industry.

When I got here in April I set up a CAD Light 8g. The tank is nice, the lights were not so I upgraded to a Kessil 150 deep ocean blue. A korila 240. Other than the light, and korila, everything is stock, even the sponge media. (I'm trying to decide if I should slowly take that out and run rubble instead)

My tank is currently stocked with a Arabian Psuedochromis (I might be getting rid of him soon, he eats my snails..and shrimp), 2 Acan Lords on the sand, a Echanata, a rotundaflora, some zoas, Tyree Toad stool, A ReefRaft forest Fire digi, some zoas, a chalice, A maxima and 2 hermits that haven't been eaten yet...

Parameters-
Ca-460ish
Alk-11dkH
Nitrate-5ppm
Salinity 1.025/.026
I'm unsure on Mg and Phos

Problem-

I want to grow SPS, a nice ORA RedPlanet, or a Rainbow Milli... But my digi is barely alive. Its about 5 inches from the top of the water or 10 inches below the light and its lost most of its underlying green color, and hasn't seemed to heal completely from being fragged 1.5 months ago... Do I need to get rid of my light and upgrade to something better? Or am I missing something altogether? Right now I am just getting frustrated- Please advise!

Thanks,

JW

Tahoe61 · Sep 30, 2013

Never had that lighting fixture, have read reviews on it though. It's possible you cooked the digitata I suppose. Consider starting with a cheaper frag, acclimating to lighting and then placing up higher.

jw7924 · Oct 1, 2013

I will do that. I don't understand what you mean by burning the frag, because it still has polyp extension ect... it's even starting to base out.

jservedio · Oct 1, 2013

Having SPS - specifically acros in an 8g without a sump and only a 240gph steady-flow powerhead is going to be near impossible and you should be prepared to lose a LOT of frags. The light is probably the least of your concern - stability is MUCH more difficult - especially since you don't have an ATO. You might be able to get away with some hardy montis, but I don't think you are going to get acros growing in there.

I doubt you will ever have acros thriving in the 8g without some serious equipment and/or a big sump. Most people with nano tanks in the 20-30g range have trouble keeping stability and conditions enough for acros - I have never seen (or even heard of) a tank smaller than 10g with thriving acros. If you want to try - go for it. But if your monti digi isn't happy, acros never will be.

Edit: All the acros you list aren't known for being particularly sensitive and hard to keep, BUT they are not considered easy and they are far from cheap. Stability is going to be the biggest issue followed by flow and water quality. Acros can live with woefully underpowered lights and lights aren't close to the most important thing to keeping acros alive.

The Kessil is enough light for a 24x24" tank that is 20" deep. It needs to be dimmed down over such a tiny tank. You don't need a new light. The stock cadlights LED would have been more than enough. It produces 150 PAR at 4" below the surface which would keep basically any acro alive. They may not have the best color with 150 PAR, but you are never going to have insane colors in an 8g with SPS.

glb · Oct 1, 2013

jservedio said:
Having SPS - specifically acros in an 8g without a sump and only a 240gph steady-flow powerhead is going to be near impossible and you should be prepared to lose a LOT of frags. The light is probably the least of your concern - stability is MUCH more difficult - especially since you don't have an ATO. You might be able to get away with some hardy montis, but I don't think you are going to get acros growing in there.

I doubt you will ever have acros thriving in the 8g without some serious equipment and/or a big sump. Most people with nano tanks in the 20-30g range have trouble keeping stability and conditions enough for acros - I have never seen (or even heard of) a tank smaller than 10g with thriving acros. If you want to try - go for it. But if your monti digi isn't happy, acros never will be.

Edit: All the acros you list aren't known for being particularly sensitive and hard to keep, BUT they are not considered easy and they are far from cheap. Stability is going to be the biggest issue followed by flow and water quality. Acros can live with woefully underpowered lights and lights aren't close to the most important thing to keeping acros alive.

The Kessil is enough light for a 24x24" tank that is 20" deep. It needs to be dimmed down over such a tiny tank. You don't need a new light. The stock cadlights LED would have been more than enough. It produces 150 PAR at 4" below the surface which would keep basically any acro alive. They may not have the best color with 150 PAR, but you are never going to have insane colors in an 8g with SPS.

I have to agree. I have a 12g nano and I would never put sps in it because I can't keep the water stable enough. Soft corals and lps do fine though, and there's lots of beautiful ones!

jservedio · Oct 1, 2013

glb said:
I have to agree. I have a 12g nano and I would never put sps in it because I can't keep the water stable enough. Soft corals and lps do fine though, and there's lots of beautiful ones!

Exactly - 20g Is about the minimum you should be going (plus a sump) unless you have years and years of experience growing acros and you are going to need lots of equipment for that and absurd amounts of maintenance. I have a 20g tall with a 10g sump that is a mainly acro tank that took me 6 months to get where it needed to be for my first acro along with thousands of dollars in equipment. To keep my system stable enough for acro, I have a Radion Pro, an MP10 plus a few smaller powerheads, a dual return pump, Dosing Pump, GFO Reactor, GAC Reactor, Oversized skimmer, an ATO, A ranco temperature controller, and a few other things. Not to mention I test Alkalinity every other day with a Hanna checker and put some serious time into maintenance. I probably spent a thousand hours researching everything as well.

I could probably get my acros to grow in a slightly smaller display (maybe as small as 8g) but I would NEED to have the same sump I have now with the same equipment - but it wouldn't be able to be a mixed reef. 8g is just too small for conditions to be ideal for BOTH Acros and LPS and softies.

Another option to keeping acros alive in a tank that small (or smaller) is to put an MP10 on it and change like 25% of the water every day using water from a bigger tank that is stable and keeping SPS. I have a 2g pico at work that I recycle my 20g water in and I am able to keep chalices, acans, and even have a green monti digi that hasn't died yet (it hasn't grown either) - but I change 25% of the water twice per week and have 140gph of flow and an ATO.