NateRealBig's Truly Minimalist 120g Office Build

[naterealbig]

Seeding The Rock:

I think the biggest area we miss as we set up our tanks, is properly seeding our dry rock. I went into details of my thoughts in a couple previous posts, so I'm just going to summarize what I've done so far - and point to what's next.

Completed :

1. A couple pieces of keys live rock

2. MB Start
3. MB Clean (after realizing my old dry rock was dirty af)
4. Handful of rubble from a 1.5 year old tank

5. Micro brittle stars

In process:
1. Bristle worms (ebay)

2. Copepods (RU Salty)

 

[Petcrazyson]

Seeing The Rock:

I think the biggest area we miss as we set up our tanks, is properly seeding our dry rock. I went into details of my thoughts in a couple previous posts, so I'm just going to summarize what I've done so far - and point to what's next.

Completed :

1. A couple pieces of keys live rock

2. MB Start
3. MB Clean (after realizing my old dry rock was dirty af)
4. Handful of rubble from a 1.5 year old tank

5. Micro brittle stars

In process:
1. Bristle worms (ebay)

2. Copepods (RU Salty)

Ik how to fix that……….just by only live rock or reef rock

 

[Ryebreadiest]

Following along with an interesting build! You’ve certainly given a lot of thought to the process so far. Did you consider using some ocean rock like Tampa bay or KP aquatics? Apologies if I missed you addressing that earlier.

 

[naterealbig]

Ik how to fix that……….just by only live rock or reef rock

True, but real live rock comes with its own challenges... You get a lot of what you need + some you don't. It's luck of the draw. This method is relatively affordable to scale, repeatable, and sustainable.

I find i appreciate, and (try to) practice tenets of this philosophy with most of my reefkeeping ventures. Bare bottom method is a great example of this. You start with blank slate (big skimmer, minimal rock, no sand - super clean) and you add the things you want. As opposed to setting up a system where you are battling the things you don't want (nitrate, phosphate, algae, etc).

 

[naterealbig]

Following along with an interesting build! You’ve certainly given a lot of thought to the process so far. Did you consider using some ocean rock like Tampa bay or KP aquatics? Apologies if I missed you addressing that earlier.

Hi! Thanks for stopping in. As @Petcrazyson mentioned earlier, this is definitely a solid route to success. If you have some $$ and a bit of patience, real live rock is a great option.

I chose the current method for 3 reasons (all unique to me):

1. I already had the dry rock (and i love the shapes - very hard to find now). So i could save some cash.


2. I was put off just a little with knowing i would have to inspect for and remove pests.

3. I was curious enough to want to try to see if i could have a tank ready for SPS in 3 months (the standard seems to be 1.5 years off starting with dry rock).

Cheers

 

[TheWB]

Hi! Thanks for stopping in. As @Petcrazyson mentioned earlier, this is definitely a solid route to success. If you have some $$ and a bit of patience, real live rock is a great option.

I chose the current method for 3 reasons (all unique to me):

1. I already had the dry rock (and i love the shapes - very hard to find now). So i could save some cash.


2. I was put off just a little with knowing i would have to inspect for and remove pests.

3. I was curious enough to want to try to see if i could have a tank ready for SPS in 3 months (the standard seems to be 1.5 years off starting with dry rock).

Cheers

You should check out Tampa Bay’s treasure chests. You could just get a small amount of either premium or base rock for a low cost and add that biodiversity to your mix. My understanding is that they are now trying to pick off as many of the possible bad hitchhikers as they can prior to shipping. Might be an option for you?

 

[naterealbig]

You should check out Tampa Bay’s treasure chests. You could just get a small amount of either premium or base rock for a low cost and add that biodiversity to your mix. My understanding is that they are now trying to pick off as many of the possible bad hitchhikers as they can prior to shipping. Might be an option for you?

Ah! Will have to take a look at this - seems like a great option for those (like me) who are working to seed dry rock, as opposed to starting with a large quantity of already-cured/established LR. Similar to how I started with some "established" rock from the Keys... Although I am 100% certain the Tampa Bay Treasure Chest would have better rock than I started out with... (there wasn't a whole lot of life that you could see with the naked eye on the rock I started with).

If I could go back, I might have gone this route... At the time, I think there was a 20lb minimum (I could be mistaken on this - might have been 10??) on the premium rock option.

Going the TB Treasure Chest Route would have been great because:

1. From a 'pest control' perspective, you are starting with a manageable amount of rock (and therefore a manageable amount of pest removal).

2. You would start with a large amount of macro/micro organisms to seed the rock with

3. There would be a manageable amount of die-off (and therefore manageable ammonia spike, etc)

4. Reasonable cost

As an aside, an additional thought on starting with all fully-established live rock....

There is a relatively large amount of animals and plants on this rock, and I believe that only a fraction of what comes in, is actually able to proliferate in the home system (more, if you are willing to dose/feed certain foods/nutrients, limit light, flow). Because of this, the fully-cured rock also goes through several 'cycles' as the organisms die, grow, die, grow... As the rock/system cycles, you will get ammonia spikes and along with this - a high likely hood that you end up killing some of the beneficial organisms that would have been able to establish themselves/multiply in the captive system.

This is the reason I worked so hard those first couple weeks to keep ammonia levels down... (Again, smacking myself in the forehead because I did a bad (read "didn't do it at all") job of cleaning my dry rock off before I began the curing process.)

 

[naterealbig]

Copepods added yesterday....

Bristle worms will be here Saturday....

And just picked out 3 new additions from Seahorse Savvy... If you haven't checked them out yet - you need to. And I'm not asking. Alyssa has got a ton of very unique invertebrates, including these Giraffe Print Serpents... And of course, captive bred and raised seahorses. Top notch customer service here, and impeccable communication.

The top one is their Keylime, then their red, and the last is their OG Giraffe. Should be shipping next week!!!

 

[naterealbig]

Don't think i introduced you to Joe.... got him a few weeks back. Haven't seen him in a bit... He'll make friends with the new serpents coming in from Seahorse Savvy.

Bristle worms came in early!

Can't figure out why people don't like them. The really big ones are actually really pretty... red, white, and a beautiful sheen.

 

[naterealbig]

Heard back from Seahorse Savvy, and I'm getting my serpents on Tuesday. Super excited!

Also did a quick round of tests....

* Nitrate up from 3.9 a few weeks ago. Curious to see what it will top out at, with the current rate of (carefully measured) nutrient addition (and removal via water changes and skimming).

* Phosphate up from around .57 a week ago. Will address this with phosphate removal media. I want to start at a baseline around 0.02 before i begin dosing carbon.

* Was scared to try the calcium test kit, as i have read that readings are not precise, and swing wildly from test to test. This was not my experience, however (0.5% variance between the readings, taken one immediately after another). I will say that when i measure any Hanna samples, i do not rely on the "10 ml" Mark on the cuvette - i ALWAYS use a graduated syringe. In this case, i used it to measure the 9 ml of distilled (I used Publix) water that is added to the cuvette in step 1.

My gut tells me that the reading is a touch high (although i use Reef Crystals for water changes, which runs high), but i don't really care - I'm looking for trends here, not an exact number.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Heard back from Seahorse Savvy, and I'm getting my serpents on Tuesday. Super excited!

Also did a quick round of tests....

* Nitrate up from 3.9 a few weeks ago. Curious to see what it will top out at, with the current rate of (carefully measured) nutrient addition (and removal via water changes and skimming).

* Phosphate up from around .57 a week ago. Will address this with phosphate removal media. I want to start at a baseline around 0.02 before i begin dosing carbon.

* Was scared to try the calcium test kit, as i have read that readings are not precise, and swing wildly from test to test. This was not my experience, however (0.5% variance between the readings, taken one immediately after another). I will say that when i measure any Hanna samples, i do not rely on the "10 ml" Mark on the cuvette - i ALWAYS use a graduated syringe. In this case, i used it to measure the 9 ml of distilled (I used Publix) water that is added to the cuvette in step 1.

My gut tells me that the reading is a touch high (although i use Reef Crystals for water changes, which runs high), but i don't really care - I'm looking for trends here, not an exact number.

So when do you think on adding fish?

 

[bishoptf]

Not sure how I came across your thread but I think it was from another one about curing/baking dry rock. I agree that I think in a bucket, bin or whatever you have for as long as you can stand is probably a much better path than in tank etc, IMHO. Here are some other comments that you can take with a grain of salt but what I have found from my limited experience with my nano tanks and getting diversity going. Live sand has WAAAAY more diversity bacteria wise vs live rock, I have some Aquabiomics edna reports that show live sand has many more strains than live rock, so even though you may go BB in your tank there is no reason to not have some live sand in your curing bucket. I would not have added any live bacteria to kick start since it's going to happen naturally and I would rather the diverse population do its thing and do the cycle vs the bottle stuff (just my opinion).

Depending on how much longer you are going to let it go I would think about adding some live sand to the bucket, but you may be far enough along that it may not matter much but just throwing that out there. I am in the process of doing the same thing for a new build, rock is cooking but i have only added some sand (Carib Sea Ocean Direct) and I had a couple of pieces of live rock in my sump. I have ordered some additional live sand from Aquabiomics to add to the mix to continue to get that diversity, not going to add any bacteria since I think it will cycle on it's on just take longer to do it. I do culture pods so I will add them at some point to the mix also and just let it cook. Towards the end I will add light to the mix and hopefully get it to go through the uglies in the bucket vs the tank but we will see.

My bottom line is I think Live Sand is much better than Live Rock when it comes to bacteria diversity. You have less issues with hitchhikers and all the other problem stuff that comes with and on the rock. I have some reports from aquabiomics showing the diversity of rubble vs live sand and it was a light bulb moment for me. Just thought I would pass it along and give you some additional things to think about.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Hey Nate it’s been a bit. How’s that tank coming?

 

[naterealbig]

Sorry, still been super busy.... here's what's happened since the last update:

* Trying to do 5 gal water changes each week - getting this done about ~ 60% off the time. Really emphasizing the need for ATO + AWC

* Have not implemented vodka dosing yet

* Continuing to feed the rock bin regularly

* Have not seen any of the serpent stars in there for weeks

* Found a huge, beautiful piece of Haitian live rock at a LFS - will add this to display eventually. Have not started cutting it yet. See pic in next post.

* Office construction finished (see video in next post). Electrical wired to dedicated breaker. Lights hung (pics to come)

* Phosphates up to 0.5! Trying to bring it down with FeO2

* Decided on a full QT + prop system for incoming corals + frag to sell. QT and prop tanks will be Barebottom, and follow the exact same methodology/equipment as display, to minimize transients for the animals as they move through systems. For this purpose, I've also secured 2 ea A360WEs, and will be using only Time Comline Skimmers for these fishless systems.

* Secured several corals for prop and hopefully some financial independence for the display (OG bounce, Purple Monster Jawbreaker, Candy Crush, Black Widow BTA, Godzilla Bounce, Powerball Bounce, etc)

* Still need to buy and set up 240g bins for water storage.

* Decided on some changes and having the display built larger, to fill up the space on the cabinet.

 

[naterealbig]

* New office!

February 28, 2023

youtube.com

 

[Petcrazyson]

Sorry, still been super busy.... here's what's happened since the last update:

* Trying to do 5 gal water changes each week - getting this done about ~ 60% off the time. Really emphasizing the need for ATO + AWC

* Have not implemented vodka dosing yet

* Continuing to feed the rock bin regularly

* Have not seen any of the serpent stars in there for weeks

* Found a huge, beautiful piece of Haitian live rock at a LFS - will add this to display eventually. Have not started cutting it yet. See pic in next post.

* Office construction finished (see video in next post). Electrical wired to dedicated breaker. Lights hung (pics to come)

* Phosphates up to 0.5! Trying to bring it down with FeO2

* Decided on a full QT + prop system for incoming corals + frag to sell. QT and prop tanks will be Barebottom, and follow the exact same methodology/equipment as display, to minimize transients for the animals as they move through systems. For this purpose, I've also secured 2 ea A360WEs, and will be using only Time Comline Skimmers for these fishless systems.

* Secured several corals for prop and hopefully some financial independence for the display (OG bounce, Purple Monster Jawbreaker, Candy Crush, Black Widow BTA, Godzilla Bounce, Powerball Bounce, etc)

* Still need to buy and set up 240g bins for water storage.

* Decided on some changes and having the display built larger, to fill up the space on the cabinet.

Coming along nicely I see! When do you plan on some fish additions?

 

[naterealbig]

Thank you!! Well it will still be a while.... Before i add any fish i need to:

* get the display built - another 4 to 6 weeks

* build out quarantine area and system

* set up fish quarantine

* buy fish

Hopefully i can get all of this done before the display is finished!

 

[Petcrazyson]

Thank you!! Well it will still be a while.... Before i add any fish i need to:

* get the display built - another 4 to 6 weeks

* build out quarantine area and system

* set up fish quarantine

* buy fish

Hopefully i can get all of this done before the display is finished!

Wondering if you had a time frame was all. Do you know or have an idea of the fish you want?

 

[naterealbig]

Ooof - been a while since my last update... will spend the next few days catching up.

 

[naterealbig]

Found my Hawaiian Long Nose...

Not my tank in this pic.....