Schrauf’s Waterbox Peninsula Mini 25

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Hey, I'm new here. I have some freshwater tanks and I decided to take the plunge into saltwater since I think reef tanks look awesome!

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Equipment
@Waterbox Aquariums Peninsula Mini 25
Kraken Reef lid
AI Prime 16HD
Coralvue Hydros 2 and Hydros XS with a water level sensor to prevent sump run dry
Eheim Jager 100W heater (with a backup) with Hydros Temperature Sensor
Coralvue Hydros ATO and Advanced Acrylics 4 gallon reservoir
AI Nero 3
Red Sea ReefDose 2
inTank Chamber 1 Media Basket and filter floss and BRS carbon (and BRO GFO as needed)
inTank Chamber 2 Media Basket with chaeto lit by an Innovative Marine Chaeto Max 9W LED
Sicce Syncra 1.0 (with the stock pump as backup)
CaribSea LifeRock and Arag-Alive sand
Red Sea Coral Pro salt

Livestock
- 2 ORA Carmel Misbar Clownfish
- ORA Sharknose Goby
- ORA Orchid Dottyback
- Feather Dusters
- Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, and Sexy Shrimp
- Astreas, Nassarius, Nerita, Dwarf Cerith, Florida Cerith snails
- Rock Flower Anemones

Corals
Sourced from @REEFTIDE, @WWC, and @BoomCorals
Rhodactis and Ricordea Mushrooms, Purple Gorgonian, Candy Cane, Colt Coral, Clove Polyps, Leptastrea, Favia, Alveopora, GSP, Xenia, Hammer, Toadstool Leather, Duncan, Zoas, Leptoseris, Chalice, Blasto, Pavona, Monitpora Digis, Goniopora, Acan

Feeding
@Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast, Oyster-Feast, Arcti-Pods, and R.O.E.
TDO Chroma Boost and Polyplab Reef Roids on rare occasion as well
Seeded with Apex, Tigger, and Tisbe pods

Testing
@Hanna Instruments Nitrate HR, Phosphate ULR, pH, and Alkalinity
Salifert Calcium and Magnesium

Dosing
Automated daily dosing of Tropic Marin All for Reef and Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro
Regular manual dosing of Red Sea AB+ and MicroBacter7
Occasional manual dosing of Brightwell Aquatics NeoNitro, NeoPhos, Ferrion, and MicroBacter Clean as needed
 
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Zakery Murray

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I would suggest a stronger wattage heater, and 1 that is more thin to fit better in the back considering its an aio. Try the neotherm 100w.
For your wavemaker, the nero 3 is fine, but check on here sometimes you can get good deals on mp10s and neros. Just letting you know before you buy it.
 
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Schraufabagel

Schraufabagel

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I would suggest a stronger wattage heater, and 1 that is more thin to fit better in the back considering its an aio. Try the neotherm 100w.
For your wavemaker, the nero 3 is fine, but check on here sometimes you can get good deals on mp10s and neros. Just letting you know before you buy it.
I’ll def check out the Nero therm heaters! Thanks for the input :)
 
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Schraufabagel

Schraufabagel

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My tanks arrived last Friday! I’ll start designing, building, and dry fitting my new desk over the next 2 months before I move. The plan is to have this reef tank on the far left and have 2 freshwater tanks on the far right (a betta, and a shrimp tank).
 

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Schraufabagel

Schraufabagel

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Also, I replaced my coffee table tank with a Waterbox Clear Mini 10. Looks much nicer than the Top Fin tank. I had a die off from some unknown disease with no ammonia spike, so I’ll be adding new fish later today. Can’t wait to get into saltwater soon!! This tank has 4 mollies and 6 dwarf cory catfish.

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Schraufabagel

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I’m going to start cycling my rock and sand so that I can have a fully cycled tank right when I move. I've ordered everything that I'll need to complete the bacteria cycle. I plan to do this in my 32 gallon trash can so that it's easier to move in a month. The tank will be reach for fish and coral right away.
 
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Schraufabagel

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I setup my RO/DI system under my kitchen sink. It’s quite amazing how easy it is to use the RO/DI buddie and the BRS systems. Would definitely recommend them.
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Schraufabagel

Schraufabagel

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I have started my cycle. The sand and rock are in the bucket. I’m using Red Sea Coral Pro salt and Dr Tims One and Only. It’s still settling, so the water is a bit cloudy.
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I also setup my Hydros 2 controller. The app is easy to use, albeit a little finicky, but overall a good product. I have a Hydros XS in the mail. I’ll be using this to expand to more sensors once I transfer everything to my tank in early June.
 
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Schraufabagel

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The water is still cloudy and it looks as though there are free floating particles still floating around. For reference, I mixed the salt yesterday for 2 hours to 34ppt. I had calibrated my refractometer prior to that. I then added the two bags of sand and the caribsea life rock. After about an hour, I added my Dr. Tims One and Only and some ammonia chloride. It’s been about 17 hours and it is still cloudy. There’s an AI Nero 3 set to 1600 gph currently, and I have a Hydor 425gph on the way. I plan to put that power head lower in the trash bin so it provides better flow. Should I be concerned that it’s still like this?

EDIT: The water has cleared up. I guess it just needed another day
 
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Schraufabagel

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I'm on Day 5 of my cycle.
Ammonia: 8 ppm
Nitrite: 2-5 ppm (the colors are so similar on the API test kit)
Nitrate: 20-40 ppm (these colors also look so close)

I also ordered another 2 oz bottle of Dr. Tim's that I'll use to pour into the 20 gallon QT in June. The sponge for it is currently in the trash can with the live rock, but I figure I'll be safe and add some bacteria as well once it's setup.
 
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Schraufabagel

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Day 7
Ammonia: 8 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm

Finished the heavy part of ammonia chloride dosing. So now it's just waiting for the Ammonia and Nitrite to level off and then a water change.
 
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Schraufabagel

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Day 13
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 2-5 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm

I will be doing a 25% water change tomorrow per the Dr. Tim's cycle schedule.
 
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Schraufabagel

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Day 14
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm

I did a 5 gallon water change and retested about an hour after. All of the tests remained unchanged. I'll check again over the next few days. If needed, I'll do another 5 gallon water change later this week.
 
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Schraufabagel

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Just got one of my many packages from saltwateraquarium.com. I won the Hanna Checker LR Nitrate tester! Was pretty happy about that :)
 
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Schraufabagel

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Day 16
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 5 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm

Does anyone know why my nitrites would still be so high? Should I do another water change? The last one didn’t reduce it at all
 
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Schraufabagel

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I recently tried to move my Hydros Control 2 to a collective. That resulted in the controller becoming unresponsive over the cloud. It was pulsing every color and beeping about once a minute. I then attempted the following steps to fix that.

- Deleted the collective and the device
- Reset up the device
- Attempted to wipe the WiFi settings with a magnet (per their suggestion)

In the system properties, it says it is still connected to the collective. And sometimes it retains the SSID after deleting the device. It now has one LED pulsing white, and 3 pulsing blue. I am only able to connect via bluetooth. It is also on firmware 165. I tried to install 180, but the app acts as if the button wasn't even clicked. I'm stuck and have no idea what to do (which is sad, since I work in IT).

I'm amazed that I can't find an option for a full system reset. Just reset options for WiFi and pump configurations. I submitted a ticket to Coralvue Hydros though. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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