Red Sea Reefer Nano

[easily_fishstracted]

Hi there: I've also recently started a very long and drawn-out build with similar equipement. I'm curious as to whether you feel two MP10s are nececssary for this volume, as I was under the impression that one would be actually more than enough?

Thanks also in advance and for sharing this process!

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Hi there: I've also recently started a very long and drawn-out build with similar equipement. I'm curious as to whether you feel two MP10s are nececssary for this volume, as I was under the impression that one would be actually more than enough?

Thanks also in advance and for sharing this process!

I believe it all depends on the size of the tank, mine is 21 gallons in the tank and 7 in the sump. I an using an up-graded return pump rated at 750 gph plus an Aqamai KPS Wifi Controllable Wavemaker Pump which I am very please with. Additionally I have a 157 gph pump pushing water through the UV system.

So in general I have a lot of wate flow.

 

[CoralDanimal]

Hi there, watching this thread closely .

I'm in the process of setting up my own reefer nano with much of same equipment as yourself.

Keen to hear what schedule you're running on your hydra if you'd be so kind to share...

You're also pretty positive on the impact (from a nutrient reduction perspective) of the kessil powered rwfugium. I've purchased an aqua medic multi reactor (similar to the innovative marine ones by design) to run GFO etc but sounds like this may only be required in the short term/backup phosphate reduction method?

What are you using for calc/alk/trace element dosing? Have you considered triton?

Many thanks in advance and thanks for sharing your build.

Howdy! I'm using a schedule I found online. It looks like this:

As for the GFO/refugium question, I've always been a fan of refugiums but didn't think I was going to be able to fit one in the sump originally. I did have some algae in the beginning so I used GFO with a small in-sump reactor, but I had to change it often and it was a hassle to deal with (rinsing the media beforehand) and it wasn't really helping that much. Once I went refugium, haven't had algae since and the kessil has been great.

For calc/alk/trace element dosing, I do 10% weekly changes and also have a Neptune Dos to keep my pH up (8-8.1), calcium above 400, and dKH around 7. I haven't considered triton, would you recommend?

Hi there: I've also recently started a very long and drawn-out build with similar equipement. I'm curious as to whether you feel two MP10s are nececssary for this volume, as I was under the impression that one would be actually more than enough?

Thanks also in advance and for sharing this process!

Looking back on it now I don't think 2 MP10s are necessary. Originally I was going to go the full SPS route so I really wanted a lot of variable flow to ensure no dead areas. I think 1 MP10 and the return is more than capable of providing sufficient flow though.

 

[CoralDanimal]

A lot has transpired in the past two months. For starters, I now have a female captive bred mandarin that I bought from Algae Barn. She's so small and cute. Mandarins have always been my dream fish and I never thought I could responsibly own one until I came across Algae Barn's captive bred mandarins that eat prepared foods. She's been eating Nutramar Ova and I've stocked my refugium with pods 3 separate times now. Pods everywhere Speaking of the refugium:

This is probably the biggest change. I loved my big skimmer (Eshopps X-120 Axium), but to make sure I had enough pods I decided to do an overhaul to maximize refugium real estate. I bought a Kessil H380 (holy cow this thing is powerful) and a Tunze USA 9004, which fits in the drain compartment, which is highly convenient because I love being able to utilize my C02 scrubber to raise the pH. The only downside is my ORP going way down, which I started a thread about here. I don't think it's an issue as the tank seems as healthy as ever, but it's still unnerving.

My display tank is a bit overcrowded at the moment which is why I don't have a picture. I need to sell some corals so I can take down my frag rack. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell my mated clown pair to someone I can trust. I want to make my tank as low maintenance as possible and they're definitely pigs. To be able to feed my mandarin, I need to feed them first so they don't go crazy for the Nutramar Ova. I'm going to think about it some more before I officially list them for sale.

The last thing I've done is buy a Kessil Tuna Blue A160. I'm sure my AI Hydra 26 is sufficient light for the tank, but it's Christmas and I wanted to get something for myself.. It arrives today and I'll slowly acclimate my corals to it. I plan to have both lights running because one can never have too much light, right?

 

[ifarmer]

very nice.
do you run any skimmer?

 

[CoralDanimal]

very nice.
do you run any skimmer?

Yes sir. I was running an Eshopps X-120 Axium, which was great, but the footprint was too big so I switched to a Tunze USA 9004. Less skimmate, but tiny footprint which is what I was looking for.

 

[CoralDanimal]

A couple updates. First here's an updated FTS:

I'd really like to get rid of the frag rack, but to be honest I don't have any reefers in the area (Sausalito, CA) that are friends so I have no network to sell or give them away to. I'd like the tank a lot more without the frag rank and with a clean sandscape even if that means getting rid of the ORA pom pom xenia in each corner as well as the acan peaking out on the left. If you know anyone in my area who might be interested, please PM me.

My favorite recent additions are an Ultra Tenius Acro & Ultra Grade Coco Island Blue Maxima from Unique Corals:

As far as other updates:

• I treated myself to a Kessil A160 Tuna Blue to supplement my Hydra 26 over the holidays. To be honest, I think the lights in aggregate are a bit overkill for the tank of my size, but I'm sure my corals won't mind and in the future I can use the Tuna Blue for a frag tank or something. I also switched my Hydra 26 to a AB+ setting.
• For a while, I was generating crazy amounts of chaeto with my H360 after adding it, but the growth has started to slow recently. I'm going to feed more (moving from feeding once every 3 days closer to every day) and see if that helps.
• It took close to 10 months but I finally have my pH (8.0), dKH (7.9) and Calcium (440) where I want them. I don't know why, but I struggled to get these all balanced consistently even with my DOS and 2-part. I'm looking forward to keeping my water chemistry stable and hands out of the tank to see if SPS growth picks up.
• Speaking of growth, the zoas have been growing like crazy and some SPS has been growing, but I'd say the overall pace of growth is moderate to slow. While some corals are thriving (ex: acan), my torch coral is looking fairly recessed and the pink mille isn't as red as it first was when I got it. I'm going to get an ICP TritonLab test and see what they say. Considering I'm just getting my tank truly dialed in chemistry-wise I'm inclined to wait a month or two and see how the stability helps before making any changes.
• My captive-bred Mandarin is still doing great. I try to spot feed him Nutramar Ova every other day and I hope my fuge full of chaeto helps. Whenever I go out of town, I take a big chunk of it and put it into a custom made egg crate box so he has fresh pods to munch on when I can't spot feed him. He's super hard to take a picture of (and I'm a beginner with my camera), but here's a quick shot:
  
  
• I went to Neptune Aquatics recently...wow...hands down the best LFS I've ever seen. Clean, fair priced, amazing selection, amazing display tanks - pretty much everything you could dream of for a LFS. I picked up an acro frag while I was there that I love. Deep green at the base and then purple/blue at the tips. You can see it at the top of this top-down pic:
  
  

Anyway, that's it for now. Other than trying to sell some of my corals to free up space in the tank, I have no plans for what to do next, which is both a relief and a bummer. I always like to tinker with the tank, but I'm going to do my best to simply sit back and let the tank mature a bit.

 

[CoralDanimal]

I wanted to jot down some of my learnings with this tank so I could reference them for a future tank

• This is the first tank where my glass and rear wall have no rock near it. Having no rock or coral obstructions makes keeping the glass/tank clean so much easier. I'll never lean rock against the back wall again and I'll always leave ample space around the sides moving forward.
• Although I didn't buy anything cheap, I wish I bought what I really wanted instead of settling. I would have saved a lot of money if I skipped the H80 and went straight to the H380. I did this right with a number of my purchases (Apex, skimmer, doser), but with my next tank I'll do it for every purchase.
• I'm never going to buy Xenia again. I thought my wife would like the pom pom action, but it grows so fast and spreads so easily that I wish I had never introduced it to the tank in the first place.
• I'm done with eye refractometers. The Milwaukee digital refractometer is a game changer. Same for Hannah test checkers.
• I bought an extra return pump early on and this was a really savvy purchase. I could make an easy argument that the return pump is the most important piece of equipment to not break especially given the heater is in the sump. Also, it's so much easier to clean your pump if you can swap in the back-up.
• I don't know how I did tanks in the past without a RODI unit.
• I have a couple of small scrapes on the glass due to a ****** frag rack. I'm really bummed about this, but in the future I'll be more mindful of anything that goes onto the DT glass.
• Until this tank I never understood why people cooked dry rock. I simply rinsed mine and called it a day as there shouldn't have been anything organic on it. Next time around I'll try the cooking route to see if it prevents the early algae I had this time around (green rock + some cyano). Also, rinsing my sand better the next time around (I don't regret the sand).
• I waited too long to get my water chemistry perfect. I struggled to get pH up originally so I got the c02 scrubber and refugium. I struggled to get dosing right so I bought the automatic doser. But it wasn't until this month (about 8-9 months in) that I'm really happy with my salinity, pH, dKH, and calcium. That's a lot of lost time that corals could have been growing in optimal conditions.
• Light, flow, water chemistry stability. I knew about this triangle. I took light and flow very seriously. I knew water chemistry needed to stable, but I wasn't relentless enough on it. Testing daily until everything is where it's supposed to be. Having a dosing setup that could keep those parameters steady in an automated fashion. Finding a salt mix that mimics my parameters to ensure water change stability. Keeping my hands out of the tank unless I absolutely need to put them in. A lot of lessons learned!

 

[Natedogg559]

Great insight. Sounds like you've learned a lot and have a great reefing future ahead of you.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Hello demeyer2,

I have a question that maybe you can help me with.

Reef Octopus Classic 110 Space Saver Protein Skimmer
I have the same DT as you do and baised on the first image of your sump I purchased a Reef Octopus Classic 110 Space Saver Skimmer.

I have had the tank cycling for 16 days now and as you can see from the image and video below I am gaving a bit of a foaming problem which is of course fogging the DT with micro bubbles.

I have a micro valve on the airline.... Any suggestions?

 

[CoralDanimal]

Hello demeyer2,

I have a question that maybe you can help me with.

Reef Octopus Classic 110 Space Saver Protein Skimmer
I have the same DT as you do and baised on the first image of your sump I purchased a Reef Octopus Classic 110 Space Saver Skimmer.

I have had the tank cycling for 16 days now and as you can see from the image and video below I am gaving a bit of a foaming problem which is of course fogging the DT with micro bubbles.

I have a micro valve on the airline.... Any suggestions?

First, congrats on the setup. You're going to love it. Also, I almost got that skimmer and I think it's going to be a beast. To be honest, I'd contact Reef Octopus because I don't think it's your tank, I think it's the skimmer. It's possible the water level isn't right, air/bubbles are escaping the skimmer somewhere other than the outflow, or the breaking in process needs to run its course. The second video showed a crazy amount of foam. If your tank doesn't have anything in it yet, I'd run the skimmer 3-4 days with the water level lower in the skimmer (so it doesn't constantly overflow) to see if breaking it in helps at all.

 

[NanoDad]

BEAUTIFUL!

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Thank you for the suggestion, yesterday I removed, disassembled and reassembled the skimmer. Then I raised it up 1" and it started working, this morning I cleaned 2" of a semiclear Aqua color skimmate and it smelled foul. I then removed the 1" platform and readjusted the air (now wide open) raised the water level to #2 on the adjustment tube.

That was 2 hours ago and the cup has 3/4" of a sightly less Aqua liquid in it and the skimmer is performing perfectly.

The Tank is begining to clear and there are NO micro-bubbles.

 

[CoralDanimal]

Thank you for the suggestion, yesterday I removed, disassembled and reassembled the skimmer. Then I raised it up 1" and it started working, this morning I cleaned 2" of a semiclear Aqua color skimmate and it smelled foul. I then removed the 1" platform and readjusted the air (now wide open) raised the water level to #2 on the adjustment tube.

That was 2 hours ago and the cup has 3/4" of a sightly less Aqua liquid in it and the skimmer is performing perfectly.

The Tank is begining to clear and there are NO micro-bubbles.

Awesome! Micro-bubbles in the DT is really annoying so I'm glad you got that resolved.

BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you! Really hoping the tank takes off in year 2 now that I have the chemistry stable and I'm doing monthly ICP tests.

 

[CoralDanimal]

A lot has been happening in the past 5 weeks!

Urchins
I’ve discovered that urchins are simply a no go in my tank. I ordered 2 different blue tuxedo urchins a couple weeks apart and neither survived more than 2 days. Standard acclimation (float bag until equal temp, 60 minute drip, put into tank with lights off). For the second one, I even sat him on top of a sheet of nori and nothing. I have other delicate animals such as my clam, SPS, mandarin, and they’re all happy, but not urchins apparently. If anyone has any ideas here I’m all ears.

Emerald Crabs
While battling a small amount of GHA and the evil vermetid snails (which apparently emeralds will occasionally eat), I contemplated an emerald. I’ve never owned one and I’ve heard reef myths of them eating small fish so I posted this poll to hear what other reefers have experienced: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/poll-are-emerald-crabs-fish-safe.357409/ After overwhelming support in favor of them, I ordered my first. Granted he was a big guy, but the first night I took out my flashlight and low and behold he was in my favorite acro colony. I’m sure he was eating detritus or something, but he was doing damage. I saw white areas forming where he was foraging so I made a quick judgment call. Instead of him doing it again and it being a chore to catch him, I yanked the colony out and held it upside down in sump until the green emerald fell off. The small damage healed up within a week or two and I decided to pursue another option to battle GHA/bryopsis while the emerald cruised his new chaeto world.

Reef Flux / Flucanazole
When I was getting started in reefing, I worked at a LFS with two marine biologists who taught me a lot. One thing that stuck with me through the years was that were no biological free lunches in reefing. If you over feed and don’t have proper nutrient export, there’s no quick fix. Everything takes time, discipline, and testing. When I looked into bryopsis / GHA solutions (granted they weren’t problems yet, just small patches here and there), I first researched my natural options. Sea hares (figured it would starve in my small tank), emerald crabs (see above), and even a baby Kole tang (I know I know, I do plan to upgrade in a year or two though). Then I read about Flucanazole. The results seemed too good to be true. I’m a software engineer and rarely are there ever silver bullets, but the more and more I read about it (and even watched YouTube videos of reefers talking through their experience) I decided I had to give it a try. All I can say is wow. So easy and one week in it’s almost all vanished. No damage to my chaeto, any corals, etc. I’m shocked it really is a silver bullet. My live rock is looking better than ever too as the film algae has gone away.

Dosing Nitrates
Chalk this one up as well in the “things I never thought I’d do” column. Dose nitrates into my tank? For real? Well my nitrates have been at zero for forever and my SPS has never really grown fast nor have the colors been deep/bold. Always a pastel/light coloration. I’m really hoping this will help. It was really weird creating a cocktail of stump remover and putting it in my tank, but I’m only doing 1ml per day at a 2 tbsp per 2 cup dilution and I’m testing nitrates every day until it’s at least detectable and then I’ll hold steady and see if there are any results.

Xenia
I have it sequestered to the corner of my tank because it grows to fast. I have xenia growing on crab shells and somehow on pieces of my main rock work even though it's not touching. I really think I need to toss it, but I really hate the idea of killing coral even if it's xeina..

Ugly frag mount
Some of my bigger colonies are mounted on frag rocks instead of plugs and with a small tank like mine, there's not an easy way to epoxy them to the rock work in a natural looking way. It's really starting to bother, but I think the only other option would be to snip the colony at its base and glue it in that way, which scares me. Any ideas here?

Here are two picks I took today while in a bit of a rush:

 

[Tahoe61]

Everything looks fantastic. Too bad you can not find anyone to take that Xenia off your hands.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Everything looks fantastic. Too bad you can not find anyone to take that Xenia off your hands.

Well there is ALWAYS the toilet

 

[Tiger-Paws]

As for me I am fighting cloudy water, 6 weeks into the cycle and the water has been cloudy for several weeks. I am at a loss for the cause. I removed the Clown a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I took the sock out, thinking that maybe I was importing something from the washing maching after I cleaned and tripple rinced socks?

I simply do not know. Nothing to do but wait. ;Pompus

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Sorry I forgot to post an image

 

[CoralDanimal]

Everything looks fantastic. Too bad you can not find anyone to take that Xenia off your hands.

Thanks! Yea I don't have any reefing friends unfortunately. Maybe I'll post it for free in the buy and sell section.

As for me I am fighting cloudy water, 6 weeks into the cycle and the water has been cloudy for several weeks. I am at a loss for the cause. I removed the Clown a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I took the sock out, thinking that maybe I was importing something from the washing maching after I cleaned and tripple rinced socks?

I simply do not know. Nothing to do but wait. ;Pompus

Have you tried carbon and filter socks? For me using the two of them in combination always keeps my water clear.