Phenom3030’s Mini Complete Tank (MCT) build

[phenom3030]

Aloha all!
Here’s my entry for the unofficial mini complete tank contest. It just came in the mail today and I couldn’t wait to get it wet!
The scape needs work but it’ll do for now as I let the tank settle.
I didn’t do any mods aside for adding a small bag of Chemi-pure Blue to the sump. It’s filled with water from my Red Sea Reefer XL300 and I’m using sand from my Waterbox Cube 10. So I think it should essentially be cycled.
I added a blond hair blue eyed zoa frag with three polyps as a tester.
I still need to figure out heating. There’s a small heater that can be had at Petco that I think I’ll try.
I plan to keep track of maintenance and dosing via the AquaticLog app. So I’ll post screenshots as I go along.
Phenom3030’s MCT on AquaticLog

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Looks good. What will you put in it?

 

[phenom3030]

I’d love to have an acro centerpiece but I’m not sure how they’d fair in a tank so small.

 

[Devaji]

curious to see how these go. keep us posted on the good and the bad

 

[phenom3030]

curious to see how these go. keep us posted on the good and the bad

Will do!

 

[phenom3030]

Seems I jumped the gun on the contest so I’ll need to move the zoa back to my Cube 10 and empty the tank and call this false start a water test.
Hopefully I’ll still be able to take part in the contest.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I have 3 sps in mine. They seem to be doing ok. Just make sure you do full water changes. This will help replenish elements.

 

[phenom3030]

Seems I jumped the gun a bit for the contest so the zoa is going back to my Cube 10 and I’ll be emptying the water back into my RSR XL300.
Until the first I’ll be playing with my scape, I’ll probably break up some more of the large Marco rock I have to try and get some better pieces.

 

[New&no clue]

This is going to be a fun contest. It sounds like you're planning some SPS in the tank. What do you plan to do to keep stable parameters?

 

[phenom3030]

This is going to be a fun contest. It sounds like you're planning some SPS in the tank. What do you plan to do to keep stable parameters?

I plan on frequently testing and experimenting with dosing a tank this small. lol.
I still need to find a heater that will keep stable temps. I hate to have a tiny heater hooked up to an InkBird just to keep temp but I may have to if a small heater swings too much.

 

[New&no clue]

I plan on frequently testing and experimenting with dosing a tank this small. lol.
I still need to find a heater that will keep stable temps. I hate to have a tiny heater hooked up to an InkBird just to keep temp but I may have to if a small heater swings too much.

lol you're going to need to get some pipettes to dose a couple drops at a time. I think the heater will be the hardest part, temps can change quickly with that small amount of water.

 

[phenom3030]

Just ordered an InkBird ITC-306T temp controller from Amazon and will be picking up the small heater from Petco today.

feel like my tiny tank will have all kinds of contraptions spawning from it once this is over. lol.

 

[phenom3030]

lol you're going to need to get some pipettes to dose a couple drops at a time. I think the heater will be the hardest part, temps can change quickly with that small amount of water.

I’ve got a few pipettes and 1ml syringes ready to go.

 

[phenom3030]

Sitting dry, waiting for the contest to start.

Think I’ll go a different route with the scape and just have sand… I’m imagining a small copse of acros if I can get them to grow with this light and maintaining stable parameters.

 

[phenom3030]

We’ve got water! Still debating on how I’ll scape it… I don’t want the scape to limit what I can put in but at the same time I don’t want any frags to limit the scape. ugh.

 

[phenom3030]

Did some testing this evening! Broke out my handy dandy Hanna checkers for calcium, salinity, and alkalinity. And used my Salifert kit for magnesium.
Salinity is a little high for my liking so a water change in the terms of ml may be in order. lol
According to AquaticLog, calcium is high by two points. The app recommends keeping it below 460.
Other than that I think everything else is okay. I dosed .1ml of Tropic Marin’s All For Reef. Think I’ll do that daily and see how things turn out.
Thinking about moving an acro I can’t remember the name of in the tank soon.

 

[Bleigh]

Excited to watch this!!!!

 

[phenom3030]

As suspected, the tiny stock pump doesn’t seem to provide much flow. I think most of the flow came from the AB+ ejecting from the syringe.

hopefully the video works.

 

[phenom3030]

Small update. Added a tiny rock formation. Not sure if I’ll add one to the other side. Thinking my copse of acro(s) will take up the right side then have some zoas and other things take the rock. We’ll see how it works out.

 

[phenom3030]

Small update, some zoas i placed have some polyp extension! But on a negative note, the salt creep on three sides of the tank is getting annoying. Enough to almost be discouraging maintaining this tiny tank.