New nano reef in the making...

[AMYZINGnano]

New to the hobby and loving it. I'm obsessed with the salt life! This Nano is my baby. Fluval evo 13.5.

I've changed up the aquascape a few times. Finally happy with it. This is my quarenteen survival project. I have researched hours and hours (keeping the sanity) and still dont feel like I know enough.

I'm testing everyday and doing water change once a week. Just stared to add some Rock Flower anemones. Other inhabitants are:

Clown
Bicolor dottyback
Hi-fin banded Goby (always hidding)
Pistol shrimp (hasn't met the goby yet)
Rock flower anemones
Serpent star
Hermet crabs

Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

 

[Bryn]

Welcome to R2R, looking forward to seeing your progress. Head over to the Meet & Greet and let the welcome crew know you are onboard.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[AMYZINGnano]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[AMYZINGnano]

Update 2mo

 

[AMYZINGnano]

Update:

Dottyback was returned to LFS along with my pistol shrimp who hated his goby. Smh So now I have one clown and one hi finned goby who survived all of its tail and top fin being ripped off by the dottyback. The goby actually wiggled into the chamber with the skimmer and lived in there like a make shift hospital till he recovered and then came out on his own. I removed him 3 times but in the 3rd time I just left him there. And he completely healed and is thriving now.

In addition I added a BTA (immediately regretted it) and a fire shrimp which is AWSOME!

Now my reef issues. I am.testing using that strips. Definitely a newbie and I know that's not that accurate. But based off the strips. I can never raise my total hardness. My carbonate hardness is always in the red zone and my Toal alkalinity is at a 7, PH at 7. I am dosing daily.

My Duncan's have closed up and haven't opened in a week. I've lost some zoas and a cool poly brain looking SPS. My anemone walked around almost two weeks stinging everything but it seems to be happy now. I hope. I have a dragon fruit and a grinch portties that both arnt looking so well. However my LPS and soft corals are thriving. My Ron Burgundy favia is swollen twice it size and every night has it tentacles out where as none of my other corals do. It's the only coral I've seen growth on.

I've upgraded my filtration to the in rank media basket 2 (kept my skimmer) and upgraded to a Ehem controlON 1000 pump. I am upgrading the lighting next. Took my awhile to decide how I wanted to go about this because I have several complicating factors.

1. I dont want to do a ATO if I have no lid or screen lid.
2. I have cats who love sticking there paws in the tank opening and I dont want cat fur landing in the tank. So lidless isnt for me.

I found a you tube video of a Truman Blue being mounted up inside the canopy. I dont know how I'm going to mount it with screws and not drill through the top but the guy used double sided gorilla glue tape so I'm going to try that.

Always welcome suggestion. Also as you can see I took out some rocks and rearranged. It was way too many rocks and not enough free space for coral growth. My goal for this nano is a mixed reef. ❤

 

[SaltTankMan]

Nice work! Hang in there.

 

[AMYZINGnano]

Upgraded my pump, wave maker and lighting onto a loop system. Got some more rock, zoes, mushrooms, and a new blueberry seafan. I ordered a custom lid that wont be here till Christmas so I have the temp egg crate cover. I also started making my own water and the corals really love the reef crystal mix! The bta and condy both went back to the LPS. It was a mistake to get them with so many corals. I am a newbie after all. I'm still struggling keeping my alkalinity and PH up. It's a constant fight. Any advise on that is greatly appreciated!

 

[j.register3]

Upgraded my pump, wave maker and lighting onto a loop system. Got some more rock, zoes, mushrooms, and a new blueberry seafan. I ordered a custom lid that wont be here till Christmas so I have the temp egg crate cover. I also started making my own water and the corals really love the reef crystal mix! The bta and condy both went back to the LPS. It was a mistake to get them with so many corals. I am a newbie after all. I'm still struggling keeping my alkalinity and PH up. It's a constant fight. Any advise on that is greatly appreciated!

Hi!! I started my Fluval 13.5 about a month after you! Great to see another build around the same time frame. As far as keeping ph & alkalinity up, what salt mix do you use? & does your water have enough surface agitation? Your tank needs to let CO2 out & oxygen in with surface agitation. Letting the windows open will also help with low ph. Hope this helps! Also, check out my most recent thread about my Fluval build if you’re curious to see what mine looks like

 

[Chrisfish]

Tanks looking great!!!

 

[AMYZINGnano]

New custom clearview lid! Tank doing great! Starting to battle a red slime algee but other then that everything thriving!

 

[AMYZINGnano]

 

[reefdoink]

How do you like the clear lid?

 

[AMYZINGnano]

How do you like the clear lid?

Love it! So beautiful but had to wait 6 months for it!

 

[AMYZINGnano]

I was informed today that my upgraded lighting Current USA marine orbit loop system is not sufficient enough lighting for my coral colors. I just added a eflux powerhead that go with it. Now I'm looking at the aquillumination AI 16HD reef LED. Which I believe means I need new pumps again because I won't be using the loop system anymore. Does anyone have this light and or the Nero 3 powerhead by aquillumination?

My question is will there be allot of cords and boxes mounted to my wall like there is now with the loop system or will all this be eliminated? AND any other advice or suggestions are welcomed!

I kinda feel.dumn thos will be the 3rd time I'm upgrading both my pumps and lighting in the 1st year.

 

[reefdoink]

I'd save the current system as a back up. I am using a nero 5 on my Nuvo 20, but the nero 3 is more than enough, as I have also used that one. As for the light, many people run a single ai prime hd for mixed reef on small tanks. Me personally I have a single xr 15 pro which would be good enough for stoney corals in most of the tank. I'll be doing a mixed reef though.

 

[AMYZINGnano]

I'd save the current system as a back up. I am using a nero 5 on my Nuvo 20, but the nero 3 is more than enough, as I have also used that one. As for the light, many people run a single ai prime hd for mixed reef on small tanks. Me personally I have a single xr 15 pro which would be good enough for stoney corals in most of the tank. I'll be doing a mixed reef though.

Thanks for sharing and good info!

 

[AMYZINGnano]

It's been a year and 2 months! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMAZING NANO REEF!

Love my new upgrades!! Less cords more simple and all controlled by my phone. BUT... WAIT!!! Uhg the manufacturer doesn't really explain the light spectrums or what is best and I found a preset download from WWC for a 26 gal nano but it doesn't have any brighter white times its mostly blue. Id liekt os ome a few hours of brighter intensity but that's not all. The lunar effects on my app don't show as a programable option. All the you tube video I have watched show buttons in the apps navigation at the bottom that dont show for me. Help! what is the proper lunar schedule and how do I set it up. What intensity should it be? I have so many questions about light and I don't want all my coral buddies to super so i want to get it set and leave it alone asap!

AI PRIME HD peeps any video links or advice would be awesome!


Besides having a nasty patch of green hair algae everything is going great! I am working on the algee. I added the skimmer back in and increased my clean up crew. I am manually exporting the algee by hand every two weeks and just started to add in GSO again. And now dosing with Phosphate E and NOX3 something...lol y'all know what I mean.

Should I stop running carbon during all this? I have always run carbon since i took the skimmer out and have allot of corals. All in all only a few coral fatalities and many lessons learned. Just need to figure out this light and fast!