New Nano 14

[Mykawl]

Tank - Innovative Marine 14 gallon

Water - 6 TDS R/O only
Salt - Instant Ocean
Rock - 14 lbs dry rock from BRS
Sand - CaribSea Aragonite
Light - $60 Blackbox, Hipargero Aqua Knight
Heater - Neotherm 150
Flow - Spinstream + Hydor Nano
Skimmer - Ghost Protein

For filtration im using filter floss & carbon.

I've also added some "natural sea water"

 

[Mykawl]

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[Mykawl]

Some accompanying pictures

 

[Mykawl]

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[Mykawl]

Edit: R.I.P. Shoot for the stars they said

 

[brandon429]

Hey good clean setup nice to meet ya! I would remove the phosguard, we can manage early algae directly and independently from any param. Indeed early too much use phosguard is suspect in coral stress, let's remove it and put back later if curing rocks show the need

Setting that light to blue, less white is perfect. The corals appreciate being fed routinely in a new tank since substrates aren't matured into the food web yet, but this is made up by CPR protein action

High quality diverse marine and reef feeds in just before water change day, then strong water change a bit later sucking up leftovers for removal, and exchanging water on the other side...early tank cpr it's bodybuilding for coral

The workout is the weekly water change say four gallons or so, plus a nice feeding beforehand. The opposite is nitrogen limitation, fewer water changes, and waste control via filtration. Too restrictive for the new tank, they like busier in and out mode, back off in time as system tunes

Early algae on rock predicted, just lift rock out, scrape it off, put peroxide on the scraped clean spot, rinse. Put back, no algae

Better to busy feed and hand guide algae up front, save water stripping for when the tank is aged and packed with accumulation

 

[Mykawl]

Awesome thank you will definitely remove the phosguard when I get home and test phosphate once it comes in mail. I’m guessing it’s completely stripped though, I like what you said about feeding heavy then water change the next day.

As for the algae it looks way more green then it is and honestly currently there is very little I think the damsal eats a lot of it. Maybe it doesn’t grow without enough phosphate though.

Super helpful thank you, confirmed my suspicion.

 

[brandon429]

that type of low level green growth will be mixed w coralline in time as it matures, dont have to zap it all too soon. only when bearded whispy type algae comes, lift out and burn off creatively, rinse, put back in control.

never work algae via starvation and water controls, do it manually for a bulletproof reef. some can be allowed/expected with white rock curing but mainly keep control, and insta-kill any bad strains wo taking risk for the overall investment, especially after years pile up

water params are 100% set by only what corals want, thats the trick for all nanos to take off with growth then you can do less work once that rock is purple, and part of a food web exchange.

 

[Mykawl]

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[Mykawl]

Lid was only for goby, ofcourse having the lid off he jumped out late last night. Proper lid on the way.

Many mistakes on my part so far but still feel there is something wrong with the tank I’m unaware of.

Phosguards been removed for now, test kits on the way.

Also tried to look into city water report but they don’t test much so no idea what my 6 TDS consists of, are there contaminants more common than others like is it most likely chlorine’s that get through R/O only filters?

Nonetheless D/I upgrade kit moved to the front of priority list.

 

[brandon429]

I use distilled water so that's an option if you have tds concerns, easy switch. tds aren't instantly lethal they make algae problems so its not a tank killer.

agreed lower temps w bring the fs back I bet

 

[Mykawl]

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[Mykawl]

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[Mykawl]

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[Blitheran]

Have you considered get an RO unit and making your own saltwater? it will save you a lot of troubles down the road, being that you have no idea what may happen with the LFS water.

 

[Mykawl]

Have you considered get an RO unit and making your own saltwater? it will save you a lot of troubles down the road, being that you have no idea what may happen with the LFS water.

I have a R/O unit producing 6 TDS water, what I was saying above is that the LFS tank water is kept @ 1.015 and I was basically just dumping coral/fish from that into my water.

I tested their pH and it’s 8.2 vs my 8.0 they’re nitrate is also 100+ lol never seen a vial turn blood red like. Whereas mine is around 10 I think. Although not sure nitrate difference is much of a concern compared to the vastly different salinity

edit: problem solved below : P

 

[Blitheran]

I have a R/O unit producing 6 TDS water, what I was saying above is that the LFS tank water is kept @ 1.015 and I was basically just dumping coral/fish from that into my water.

I tested their pH and it’s 8.2 vs my 8.0 they’re nitrate is also 100+ lol never seen a vial turn blood red like. Whereas mine is around 10 I think. Although not sure nitrate difference is much of a concern compared to the vastly different salinity

Ahh I see, wow those nitrates would slaughter anything haha

 

[Mykawl]

Lol


LFS water!

 

[Mykawl]

Welp it's been 2 weeks and due for a real update. Problem has been found i've been using a beer refractometer! Simply bought the wrong device and suffice to say Salinity was 1.045+ can't believe the fish were living in that and no wonder the corals melted also a test astrea snail didn’t have an easy transition into the afterlife.

But here is where I am now firs torder of corals boomcorals.com he had all the beginner corals I had in mind except frogspawn/hammer but torch is close enough.

First two pictures are from LFS random paly and sweet ricordea

 

[Pbh-reef]

Following - I have a nuvo 10 so excited to see how your tang grows. That’s ridiculous about the beer refractometer! This is the second build thread I’ve seen where that happened.

What is your new lid? I am looking for a new one for my 10