Shallow 8g SPS Nano

[lbacha]

Howdy all

I've been out of the reef hobby for about 10 years (high tech planted tanks have kept me busy and in touch with newer tech, I run Kessil tuna suns and vortechs). My fiancé saw a frag tank while we were getting Plants for one of my tanks and said we need one of those.

Long story short after looking for a tank she liked we stumbled on the ADA 60f which she thought was perfect. I ended up ordering the ALA version which has the same dimensions.

My last reef was a 14g biocube with power compacts, I kept monti's, acro frags and zoas in it but had to tear it down due to a job that had me on the road a month at a time.

Any suggestions for this build are appreciated as I'm sure techniques have changed some in the last 10 years and since this is going to be my fiancés tank I would like to make it successful and fairly user friendly so she will be supportive of me getting a larger tank in the future

current specs
Tank: ALA 60s (same as a ADA 60f) 23.5" x 11.5" x 7.1" tall - 8.6 gal
Overflow/Return: drilled glass holes nano overflow and drilled return
Return Pump: marineland 900 - seems to have good flow and it was cheap
Sump: 10g aquarium with a refugium baffle system installed (got it off eBay) it also has a holder for a 4" sock.
Water movement: mp10 x 2 (controlled via reeflink)
Lighting: SB reef 16" wifi
Refugium light: 10"x10" led - this is a plant light I got off ebay to try out and fits the dimensions of my refugium (just purchased a h80 I'm going to try)
Controller: Apex Neptune 2016, seneye for ammonia while the tank cycles and PAR, reeflink for the vortechs
ATO: tunze osmolator with a trigger crystal ATO container
Skimmer: Tunze 9001
Heater: 2x finnex titanium 100w units (I like redundancy)

Tank plans

bare bottom
live rock - 6.2 lbs of caribsea life rock (was in a lfs sump for a couple months before purchasing)
Zoas and LPS to start then SPS after the tank matures (want to start everything as frags to let them grow into the tank since it is small)
minimal fish (1-2) must not be known for jumping lol
clean up crew: 3x blue leg hermits, 2x astrea snail, 2x scarlet hermit
refugium with a marine pure slab, Sand and cheato

12/5/17 - the tank has some inhabitants

11/18/17 - A shot of the tank after setting everything up, I still have to silicone the baffles in the sump but I wanted to check my plumbing for leaks and make sure my water level worked with the Glass holes overflow and MP10 so I added some water.

Len

 

[NY_Caveman]

That is awesome. LOL, with that light you can grow anything. Love that the refugium is larger than the display tank. And love that we can see the life in the refugium.

 

[lbacha]

That is awesome. LOL, with that light you can grow anything. Love that the refugium is larger than the display tank. And love that we can see the life in the refugium.

Thanks

I like the small tank but wanted more water than 8g this should add another 4-5 gallons to the mix.

Here is a shot of the corner of my living room. This tank was designed to fit in with the other two

Len

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice planted tanks with CO2. Looks like you are dosing ferrous gluconate too to get those nice reds.

 

[lbacha]

There is CO2 in the cube but the 75g is actually a paludarium, those reds are fireball neoreglia bromiliads

Len

 

[chefjpaul]

Welcome to R2R-
Great looking tanks!

 

[lbacha]

Welcome to R2R-
Great looking tanks!

Thanks, I'm looking forward to getting back into the hobby. I started my first reef tank in 1990 after meeting Julian sprung as a teenager at MACNA 2 in Cleveland and being inspired to create my own slice of the sea. Things have changed a lot since then.

 

[lbacha]

Some updates: I added a little over 6 lbs of live rock along with a small ball of cheato to the tank last Saturday. The rock was in my LFS's tank for a few months so I'm hoping it will kickstart my cycle. I've been adding a few flakes of food each day when I feed my other tanks to build up some ammonia.

I have noticed evaporation is high due to the large surface area and open top so I decided to add an ATO. Thanks to some early Black Friday sales I got a nice tunze at a really good price. I also got a seneye to test light levels with I may see how the ph and ammonia monitor works while the tank cycles but I don't think I will use it for that once the first card is used up. I'll post some pics tonight.

 

[lbacha]

Day 4: water was a little cloudy which I expected since I've been adding some fish food every morning.
Test results surprised me a little
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Ph - 8.0

I expected some ammonia to have built up based on the food I've added, maybe the live rock and cheato are dealing with the little biological waste there is including the nitrates. I'll add a bit more food tomorrow and see what happens.

I'm waiting for my refugium light so for now the cheato gets to hang in the main tank.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I would hold off on using the refugium light until you add livestock. You want the ammonia and nitrite to go to the bacteria, not the chaeto during the cycle.

 

[lbacha]

I would hold off on using the refugium light until you add livestock. You want the ammonia and nitrite to go to the bacteria, not the chaeto during the cycle.

Thanks for the feedback, are you saying I should pull the cheato until the tank cycles? It is in the main tank right now as I don't want it to crash since there are no lights over my refugium. I haven't run a refugium in the past so I'm not sure when the best time to add algae to the system is. I'm still adding food to the tank daily to add ammonia to the tank but if the cheato will just consume the ammonia or nitrite directly it will defeat the purpose

Thanks Len

 

[NY_Caveman]

I would leave the chaeto in the display, but be in no rush to set up the refugium. It definitely will not hurt the cycle.

 

[lbacha]

Ok, here is the refugium light I went with. It is 10"x10" so it will fit perfect over the sump

https://www.ebay.com/p/225-LED-Hydr...den-Red-Blue-Lamp/1842366772?iid=191704290826

 

[lbacha]

Well I went high tech with my planted tank and vivarium so the reef can't be left behind. I've set up the reefkeeper lite, osmolator and second mp10.

So I'm not a fan of adding equipment after a tank has gone south. I like overkill and I want my tanks to be self sufficient so I can go away for a few days without worrying.

Based on this I'm hoping the community can help answer a couple questions

1. Should I add a skimmer? I was planning on waiting till I increased my bioload but if there is a compelling case to add one now I will. I only have a 5"x5" space with a water level of 6" so I don't have a lot of options. I'm considering a tunze 9001. I would like a 9004 but my water level is too low.

2. Any thoughts on sand or mud in the refugium. I have a 8"x6"X1" block of marine pure in the last set of baffles so biological filtration should be good.

3. I may get the net module for the reefkeeper does anyone have any experience with it and is it worth it

4. What is a good silent return pump, I have a marineland 900 and it's too loud. I would like a DC pump if someone could recommend a good cheap pump that will push a max of 400 or so gph that would be great

Thanks in advance for any replys and I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving

Len

 

[lbacha]

Refugium light came in

 

[lbacha]

So I got a good deal on a Tunze 9001 skimmer and I'm torn on how it will do. I got it as the space in the sump is limited and most larger sump models won't fit. I considered plumping in a separate sump just for the skimmer like the somantic 60 system.

If anyone has any advice I'm open ears.

 

[lbacha]

Christmas time with the tanks

 

[YumaMan]

I only run my skimmer for 6 hours per day, never less than 12 hours after feeding the corals and never less than 4 hours after my daily manual 2 part dosing and carbon additive. I like to give the livestock plenty of time to feed, and the additives to mix, then afterwards skim the excess. Else I may skim out what I intend to keep in the tank.

 

[lbacha]

Well ammonia and nitrites have been 0 and I'm starting to get some green algae on my live rock so I decided to add a small CUC.

The tank has its first inhabitants; 2 small Astrea snails and 3 small blue legged hermits are now patrolling the tank. My fiancé loves the hermits they go crazy for algae wafers I drop in.

Cheato in the sump had doubled in size so I know it's pulling nutrients and the light seems good since it is pearling every time I look at it.

I just got a reeflink so I'm going to play with setting that up with my vortechs so I can vary the flow a little more

 

[lbacha]

Vortechs have been hooked up to the reeflink, it was a pita to get linked but now that it is set up the control I have over my mp10's is great