Overhaul of my 24g Cardiff nano reef

[eric.battani]

This is a upgrade to my existing Cardiff nano reef tank. I'm completely overhauling this tank with a new stand, new equipment, and new rock work. I also switched from a kessil 150 to a 150 watt metal halide with a Phoenix 20k bulb. Now this tank is an all in one aquarium, but this was the first reef tank I had ever ran without an algae scrubber. And to be honest I'm tired of fighting nitrates. So now i will be adding a HOB overflow box to run water into a sump underneath the aquarium where I will be able to run a algae scrubber and more macro algae. The sump will be powered by a dcs 3000 pump.

 

[eric.battani]

I'm really happy with the way I got the rock work to stand up with the use of braces or acrylic rods

 

[eric.battani]

This is a full tank shot of what it looks like now. But as soon as I get the new stand sanded ready to paint or stain I will start the transfer. Haven't decided what I want to do yet. I'm leaning towards painting it white.

 

[eric.battani]

So I finally got my new stand into my library. It wasn't fun. I had to cut part of my door frame to able to slide the stand through the door way. Just don't tell the wife [emoji28]

 

[pelphrey]

Super glue will fix that right up!

 

[revhtree]

Cool aquascape!

 

[eric.battani]

Cool aquascape!

Thanks. I worked on it for about two weeks!

 

[eric.battani]

So I finally got around to painting the inside of he stand. I went with white so it would help reflect light inside the stand better. Plus it just looks cleaner. Now since the it's a stand for a nano reef, obviously the stand is a little on the small side. So I enlisted the help of my little helper. All it cost me was one blue jolly rancher slushy from Sonic [emoji1]

 

[eric.battani]

I finally got a chance to move my nano onto my new stand today! Thanks Captain Roy for helping me building it, and Michael for helping me move the tank.

It took us awhile this morning but we finally got it moved and plumbed the sump. And like most tanks it's still a work in progress. I have still the doors to attach, the dosing pump to hook up, and my new aquascape to replace my old rock work with.

Also I need some Velcro to attach my control boxes

 

[powers2001]

eric, what brand of sump is that?

 

[eric.battani]

eric, what brand of sump is that?

Well I actually have no clue. I traded live rock for it, originally to use on a 75g setup that I was going to set up. But it was way to small. In the photos it looked bigger. Anyway it was way to nice of a sump to get rid of, so I held onto. Eventually I decided to overhaul my existing nano instead of putting up a new system. Now I couldn't be happier with thw choice I made.

I put in the new aquascape Sunday and its beautiful. Can't wait till the rock is covered in coralline algae. I still have a few things to modify before I can say its finished. But what reef tank isn't a work in progress

 

[eric.battani]

Here s a better picture of the sump. It's just the right size for nano but the pump chamber was a little on the small side. I had to look everywhere for a jebao dc pump small enough to fit.

 

[eric.battani]

So it may not like much with all the bleach white rock but I finally got the new aquascape moved in. It wasn't fun. I had to move all the sand to the front of the tank so I could put the base down. It made the water so cloudy I had to wait hours for the sand to settle and my reactor to filter out all the partials in the water column. I had the change the filter floss three times it was so dirty. But now the original live rock is in the sump, and the new aquascape is in the display. Hopefully it won't take to long to color up. I put a massive amount of coraline algae in the tank. Still need to add some more sand and a few fish but I'm going to let the tank sit for about a month before I add anything else.

 

[Salty1962]

Looking very nice!

 

[powers2001]

Are you sure your cycle is over?

 

[eric.battani]

Well I had been working on this for a very long time. I cycled my new aquascape in the same system for 3 weeks. It just didn't receive any light during that time. But I did take the existing live rock and place it in the sump. And the water I added to the system, was real ocean water not synthetic. Plus I originally had over 60lbs of rock in a 24g. Way over kill. But I wanted to go with the minimum look. I will be keeping the live rock in the sump. But I have added an algae scrubber rated for twice my system volume, and with all the combined refugiums I have more room for macro algae to grow than the display volume. My skimmer is rated for twice my system volume, so between all the extras for flirtation, I should be able to handle the cycle. So far I have no ammonia, nitrites, and less than 10ppm nitrates. Also im not done beefing up my filtration. I have one more item to add that should really help keep my water filtered. I really want to be able to heavily feed my corals daily and not have any consequences.

 

[eric.battani]

New 14k Phoenix bulb for the metal halide. Before and after!

 

[eric.battani]

Algae scrubber beginning to work its magic [emoji2] only been running four days!

 

[powers2001]

I see you have a shot glass in there. Is that for catching gorilla crabs?

 

[eric.battani]

I see you have a shot glass in there. Is that for catching gorilla crabs?

Nope, I keep rubble inside the shot glass. If you look closely you will see a mushroom I'm trying to get attached to some rock. It keeps my mushrooms from floating all around my tank after they have been fraged.