Total noob's 7.4 gal lifegard peninsula aio planted to reef

[Jason K]

Hey all. In my 40s, and I'm finally starting my first saltwater tank. Have had freshwater tanks as long as I can remember, and for the last decade or so, I've only been doing nano planted tanks. I decided to convert one of these to a softie/lps reef tank. Here's the progress so far-5 days into cycling and haven't even set up my Prime16HD yet:

My first noob question I'm hoping to get some help with:

I bought a Jebao SW-2 because it had the absolute lowest (published) flow rate I could find. At the lowest setting (supposedly 133 gph), it creates an absolute tornado in the tank. I feel like its way too strong, but it could just be that I have no frame of reference. So, in theory I have 133 gph from this thing, plus approx 40 gph from my return pump at it's lowest setting (based on testing I did at the same head height as the tank) for a total of 173 gph or 35x turnover of display tank water volume (5 gals). Seems too high for softies/lps, and visually feels too high. Should I be concerned?

Alternatively I could run a AC mini pump rated at 50 gph as my powerhead, and crank up my return pump to it's highest setting, which turns out to be about 65gph. So that's a total of 115 gph or 23x turnover. I'm also thinking about having the mini pump turn on/off every 15 to 30 minutes to vary the flow a little bit. So average turnover will be 18x. Seems more appropriate, correct? And I've tested this setup, and I don't see any dead spots in the tank when I stir up detritus. Should this be what I go with?

Here's the tank running with the Jebao. I've attached string from a media bag to try to visualize the flow a bit, but I don't think I'm doing it justice:

 

[Jason K]

not sure video works. YouTube version:

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/NeaQQecgdwY

 

[afrokobe]

I would go with the latter and upgrade your return. See if you can get a vca adapter for your return.

 

[Jason K]

Thanks for the input! Have a vca rfa on the way already.

 

[Jason K]

Ok, all the equipment is in (besides a light shade/diffuser), and I'm pretty happy with this thing 2 weeks in. I'm sure this is the best it will look for a long while, as I've just turned the lights on.

Equipment includes Prime 16HD led, Duetto ATO, Kraken lid, stock return pump with VCA rfg nozzle, 50 gph AC mini pump 'powerhead', intank media basket, cheapo 50w heater I had on my freshwater setup with a Autoaqua smart temp controller, and a thermostatically controlled mini fan that i had previously as well.

One of the many limitations I have with this thing is the location (my kitchen island) and the complication of trying to hide all of the external equipment and wiring, which is very important for me. I had to build a new 'custom' acrylic outlet box out of matte black acrylic panels that I superglued together. The space for everything is so tight I won't be able to fit in a real temp controller or any dosing controllers in the future. So this will have to be a simple, low tech setup for as long as it runs.

Aquascape I built out of a few LifeRock nano arches, base rock and Fragzone pieces I epoxyed together. I have Pink Fiji sand which I hate already as it won't stay in place. Using TM pro reef salt, and plan on doing 50% weekly water changes.

Cycled the tank with ammonia chloride and turbostart 900. I'm still dosing 0.1 ppm ammonia chloride daily and ghost feeding a few TDO pellets to get a little phosphate in the system. Added algaebarn galaxy pods, and dosing phyto daily. Also started dosing microbacter clean. Threw in some Gracilaria Hayi 'pom pom' in the display, not sure if it will survive or I'll want to keep it in the long run, but I figured I'd give it a go. Hoping it will grow vertically but not sure it will?

For the Prime HD settings, I copied BRS 12" cube settings for LPS/Softies. I think this is similar enough in dimension that it should work.


Livestock plan-

• 1 court jester goby OR a pair of yellow clown gobies (captive bred only)
• 1 peppermint shrimp
• 3 or 4 varieties of zoas on the lower section of the main aquascape
• something encrusting on the top of the aquascape like a favia that can also keep the zoas at bay?
• blastomussa or acan for a small separate island
• gsp back wall

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated...thnx

 

[ari43]

I’m setting up the same tank right now. Do you like the rfg nozzle on the stock return? What size did you get?
I didn’t realize court jesters could be maintained in a nana for some reason I thought they were only sand sifters.
Anyways, I’m excited to follow along!

 

[Jason K]

I’m setting up the same tank right now. Do you like the rfg nozzle on the stock return? What size did you get?
I didn’t realize court jesters could be maintained in a nana for some reason I thought they were only sand sifters.
Anyways, I’m excited to follow along!

Rfg def does randomize flow, so I guess it’s worth it. Size is 1/4”. And I think you need to get the lifegard specific adapter they sell.

Court jester just put in! I think the difficult all comes down to whether you can get em to eat. I got a biota captive bred specimen, so hoping feeding won’t be too much of a pain. Update soon.

 

[ScubaShane]

This is Awesome!!

 

[Jason K]

2.5 month update:
-added 5 virgin Nerite snails at 1 month mark
-added ARC Reef coralline in a bottle at 1 month
-lights ramped up to full 10 hr schedule at 1 month
-captive bred court jester goby added at 2 month mark
-started manual All for Reef dosing at 2 month mark

Lessons learned:
-shoulda chosen a different salt. TM Pro has alkalinity at ~7.1-7.3 dkh when I mix it. Why so low? Doesn’t make sense why they’d make it like that.
-alkanity gets eaten up noticeably even without coral. I’m losing up to 0.5 dkh a week. Even with 50% water changes I’m ending up with end of week alk readings in the 6’s. Started to dose AFR to try to slowly get Alk up to 8. Will need to dose the salt mix as well to match what’s in the tank.
-ARC Reef coralline in a bottle adds has a whole bunch of other junk in there. I’m pretty sure it came with lots of snail eggs for example. I now have dozens of baby cerith(?) snails in the tank. I’m picking out a bunch of them at every water change but still have a bunch. I think I’ll keep a few, but there’s way too much right now.
-not sure the court jester’s gonna work out long term. Although it’s supposedly a biota captive bred fish (got it from liveaquaria), it came in super skinny with a pinched stomach. Also had a badly torn pec fin. Feeding it has been a chore. So far, about 2 weeks in, it won’t eat live grindal worms, frozen mysis or calanus, or tdo pellets. Fortunately, it loves live baby brine and I usually have some on hand that I use to feed my freshwater fish. Getting it to eat enough of it is a pain tho and I need to shut off my return pump for 30 mins to an hour to get it fed. I’m gonna try R.O.E. next, but not optimistic. And I’m sure it’s probably eaten whatever pods werein the tank by now.
-macro algae/water change doing awesome at keeping nitrates/phosphates low. Even with the constant (failed) feedings of the goby, nitrate stays below 5ppm and phosphate is undetectable (with Hanna LR)).
-so far ugly stage has been minimal. I haven’t had any green stuff growing in the tank at all. And diatoms have been the only noticeable nuisance, and that’s about gone away as well. Pods/Phyto/macro must be doing the trick.

One or two more weeks, and if things get to/stay where they should, I’ll add my first coral

 

[Devaji]

nice! I love peninsula tanks and the little ones too.

 

[pshootr]

Wow very impressive so far. Nice job

 

[Jason K]

3 month update:

-first coral added! 10 days into my GSP wall. Got the one from my lfs with the shortest tentacles as I want as much visual clearance between the wall and the aquascape. GSP didn’t open at all for three days…thought I might have killed the unkillable. I don’t think it like the coralrx followed by h2o2 dip process. Or the fact that I failed mounting it 3 times. Eventually needed to use a rubber suction cup as the substrate to make the superglue stick.

-court jester getting fat, and torn pec fin has fully grown back. Still can’t get it to eat any of the frozen food or pellets yet, but he’s really trying! I hope it’s just a matter of time. It is now greedily eating live grindal worms which is godsend. I love this fish—-active, pretty, appropriately sized, and great at turning over the sand and keeping the macro spotless. Couldn’t ask for a better fish for this tank…if it accepts more foods eventually.

-nitrate and phosphate both reading zero last three weeks. I upped the feeding and Phyto dosing, aggressively pruned the macro, but still double zeros. I pulled out one of the three gracilaria “bushes” yesterday. Hoping that helps, but we’ll see. Not seeing anything terrible like dinos as of yet. Still have a light orange dusting on the sand and glass, which I still assume is diatoms. Also have some rouge brown macros sprouting up randomly on the rockwork and substrate, but it’s sparse and easy enough to pull out.

-reduced the weekly water down to 25%. Thought it would be better for stability given that nutrient management is clearly not an issue at this point.


so far so good…some zoas on the menu next!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Can't wait to see what Zoas you end up getting!!

 

[Jason K]

4 month update:
Added 1 rock flower nem, 1 anemone crab, and 4 Zoa frags (AOI, pixie dust, purple monsters, goochester(?))...but I’ve been riding the struggle bus hard all month…lotsa bad, very little good.

The good:

• Nothing’s dead
• Court jester is eating pellets (but still no frozen foods) and looks healthy
• Slowly got the alk up to 8.8 dkh

The bad

• I’ve bottomed out nitrates/phosphates for 6 straight weeks. I’ve been incrementally removing the macroalgae, reducing phyto dosing and reducing mb clean dosing. At this point, I’ve removed all the macro, completely stopped dosing both Phyto/mb clean, and at this past week end’s testing finally got a trace amount of nitrates. No phosphates yet.
• I still have diatoms on the substrate and glass. That’s three months now! I’m hoping this ends soon, but also deathly afraid it gets replaced by something worse.
• It’s 3+ weeks since introducing the zoas, and they’re still not all open yet! And the colors are super muted on most of the open polyps. Really hoping with increased nutrients things will get better. Also have been adding coral amino daily for the last 2 weeks.
• Also found aiptasia on one of the frags (thanks tidal gardens!) and although I crazy glued over it, I think it’s in the system now.
• Rock nem which I’ve had for a month now, closed up and spewed out zooxanthellae for the better part of two weeks. Again I blame the lack of nutrients. It’s getting better now and staying open most of the time, but it lost a lot of its color. Hoping it’ll come back at some point.
• Anemone crab completely ignored the rock nem. Hoping it’ll get hosted when rock nem improves
• Even the gsp is struggling!!! After being open for a few weeks it’s mostly closed for the past few weeks. Also the suction cup has fallen off the wall a few times, so I decided to split it and mount it more “permanent” structures lower on the wall.

I’m not adding anything else for a while!

 

[Jason K]

1 year update! Tl/dr: this tank has been a horrible time sink and a huge source of frustration in the first year, and I'm not sure I'd do it again! But it feels like I've turned the corner and I may actually start to enjoy this thing....

• DINOS: After several months of minimal nitrate and bottomed out phosphate, I inevitably got dinos in month 4. Large cell amphidinum first, then together with small cell amphidinium. The substrate and and rock work were completely covered. I started daily dosing nitrates/phosphates. Month 6, I added a 3W UV, and ran it for a few months, before I scrapped it as it did nothing. I then dosed daily silica dosing in month 8, increasing the dosage incrementally until I got up to a 0.7ppm daily dose, and the tank topped out at about 0.9ppm of silica. It took months, but the dinos slowly dissipated, and was replaced by nasty hair algae. I slowly started reducing the silica dosing, and have finally stopped now in month 13.
• ARTIFICIAL ROCK IS A NUTRIENT SPONGE: From month 4 to month 12, I had to dose nitrate/phosphate before the rock stopped absorbing more than was being added/produced in the tank. It absorbed some crazy amounts, at the peak of dosing, I was adding over 0.10 ppm phosphate and 2.0 ppm nitrate daily. I have been able to finally stop dosing in month 13, and now i think high phosphates may be the new problem...but too soon to tell.
• HOURS LONG CLEANING SESSIONS: First with the dino explosion, and then with various types of green and brown hair algae, I've spend multiple hours per week scrubbing the rock and siphoning the tank water through a 1 micron filter sock. This polyester filter sock I think was really helpful to keeping the various baddies from completely taking over.
• WAVES OF INFESTATIONS: Dinos, hair algae, Spirorbid worms, micro Cerith snails, random sponges...all have gone through periods of overrunning the tank, but I think I've turned the corner and things are more in balance. Also have been playing whack-a-mole with aiptasia, using super glue and epoxy to cover them up...this battle continues, and my rock scape is like 50% epoxy at this point. I think I may add berghias at some point in the future.
• LIVESTOCK LOSSES/ADDITIONS: Right before the dino explosion, I managed to kill the rock flower, gsp, and most of my original zoas....which I blame on zero nutrients. Surprisingly the dinos haven't killed anything as far as I can tell (other than one Nerite snail maybe) and I've been adding a bunch of coral since about the 8 month mark. Interestingly, I've had more trouble with zoas and rock flowers (I've lost several of each) than with LPS (zero losses). Right now, I have gsp, zoas, rock flowers, micromussas, blastos, and favites. Also added a second anemone crab and one trochus snail.
• CORALLINE ALGAE, FINALLY: it look a whole year, but I’m finally starting to see some coralline in the tank. Hoping it helps combat hair algae on the rock. I thinking dosing additional calcium and magnesium beyond the AFR dosing has helped me maintain reasonable levels of those elements and allowed coralline to finally grow.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

1 year update! Tl/dr: this tank has been a horrible time sink and a huge source of frustration in the first year, and I'm not sure I'd do it again! But it feels like I've turned the corner and I may actually start to enjoy this thing....

• DINOS: After several months of minimal nitrate and bottomed out phosphate, I inevitably got dinos in month 4. Large cell amphidinum first, then together with small cell amphidinium. The substrate and and rock work were completely covered. I started daily dosing nitrates/phosphates. Month 6, I added a 3W UV, and ran it for a few months, before I scrapped it as it did nothing. I then dosed daily silica dosing in month 8, increasing the dosage incrementally until I got up to a 0.7ppm daily dose, and the tank topped out at about 0.9ppm of silica. It took months, but the dinos slowly dissipated, and was replaced by nasty hair algae. I slowly started reducing the silica dosing, and have finally stopped now in month 13.
• ARTIFICIAL ROCK IS A NUTRIENT SPONGE: From month 4 to month 12, I had to dose nitrate/phosphate before the rock stopped absorbing more than was being added/produced in the tank. It absorbed some crazy amounts, at the peak of dosing, I was adding over 0.10 ppm phosphate and 2.0 ppm nitrate daily. I have been able to finally stop dosing in month 13, and now i think high phosphates may be the new problem...but too soon to tell.
• HOURS LONG CLEANING SESSIONS: First with the dino explosion, and then with various types of green and brown hair algae, I've spend multiple hours per week scrubbing the rock and siphoning the tank water through a 1 micron filter sock. This polyester filter sock I think was really helpful to keeping the various baddies from completely taking over.
• WAVES OF INFESTATIONS: Dinos, hair algae, Spirorbid worms, micro Cerith snails, random sponges...all have gone through periods of overrunning the tank, but I think I've turned the corner and things are more in balance. Also have been playing whack-a-mole with aiptasia, using super glue and epoxy to cover them up...this battle continues, and my rock scape is like 50% epoxy at this point. I think I may add berghias at some point in the future.
• LIVESTOCK LOSSES/ADDITIONS: Right before the dino explosion, I managed to kill the rock flower, gsp, and most of my original zoas....which I blame on zero nutrients. Surprisingly the dinos haven't killed anything as far as I can tell (other than one Nerite snail maybe) and I've been adding a bunch of coral since about the 8 month mark. Interestingly, I've had more trouble with zoas and rock flowers (I've lost several of each) than with LPS (zero losses). Right now, I have gsp, zoas, rock flowers, micromussas, blastos, and favites. Also added a second anemone crab and one trochus snail.
• CORALLINE ALGAE, FINALLY: it look a whole year, but I’m finally starting to see some coralline in the tank. Hoping it helps combat hair algae on the rock. I thinking dosing additional calcium and magnesium beyond the AFR dosing has helped me maintain reasonable levels of those elements and allowed coralline to finally grow.

Despite all the ups and downs. Your tank is doing great now from what I can tell!