Winds nano build start

[Windirmere]

The build starts! Red sea reefer nano. The goal is assorted sps and a few acans + zoas. This time around I'm trying to leave room to grow.... instead of a rock wall to the ceiling.
I'm probably going to stock with a royal grama or a 6 line wrasse/pink line wrasse.
I tried to make sure flow could get through and under the rock work, made lots of caves and tunnels, and hope more tunnels form as acro colonies grow.
I have an old mp10, but I think I'm going to get 2 Nero 3's when they become available.
Still undecided if I want to go with a large refugium to grow pods/macro algae or use my old reef octopus and just have some rubble in the 1st chamber.
Lighting is a ai prime hd16, pretty happy with this light.
Overall pretty happy with red sea reefer, looks very clean and seems quite big for a 20g
So excited to get water in it!
Cycling plan is a hybrid of dr. Tims and turbo start, I was planning to just keep dosing ammonia until things looked stable enough to add a few hermits and feed them. Where I'm located the fish I want might be hard to find so I might be fishless for a while.

 

[blaxsun]

Fishless is fine - take your time and get the fish you want!

 

[Windirmere]

Lil update, tank is nice and cycled processing amonia like champion, 4 hermits and 1 royal gramma call it home.

Monti was very dull brown at the store but is colouring up nicely! Has really cool little yellow polyps that I didn't see at the store. The acro was more for a stability test, was very brown at the store and has started to get a green sheen with green polyps.

Royal gramma is deathly afraid of me I feel really bad if I look over and she darts back to her cave. I hope she gets to roam while I'm at work.

For flow I might have too much? I have a very old mp10 running on 20% lagoon mode, and I have an ai Nero 5 running random mode 10-30%. With 15 mins of wave mode escalating to 40% to kinda help clean the tank.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'm fishless in my nano too so far but might add one or two soon to feed the corals more naturally...it's cool you're using a refugium as well!

 

[Windirmere]

I have a good skimmer, but if a large refugium works with less noise Im happy to grow chaeto.

Im really interested on running an Apex or reef controller, Im not very happy with Red Sea's ATO and when water changes fall behind on supporting corals Ph monitoring seems interesting with dosing alk or Kalkwasser?

One other thing Im really interested in is finding an electronics cabinet to hide the chaos of cords and blinking lights I have going on

 

[Windirmere]

Was super excited to get my kraken lid today, but I guess there was a mix up and received a lid for some sort of bow front tank and not a reefer nano, amazing quality in both feel and look. Got dinged at the boarder for import fees (97 canadian) and was more then happy to pay it to get one of these lids. Not sure how it will resolve, but super bummed out.

 

[Windirmere]

Kraken is super quick to respond! Looks like things are going to get sorted out!


On a different note, anyone have imput on keeping Favia? I'm scared I have to much flow for LPS with a Nero 5 running on random mode from 5%-20% and a mp10 running lagoon mode at 20%. The sps I have is doing great, I'm just scared to buy LPS and blow it off the skeleton.

I am planning on replacing the mp10 with a Nero 3, the mp10 is about 10 years old and I'm shocked it worked coming out of storage

 

[d0gFartz]

I only have a 10G but went from an MP10 to a nero 3 and it works fine, more than enough. I actually like it better!. Its just a small external magnet and takes up no more (prolly slightly less) room inside the tank as well. It runs in the AI app with my light too so there's a bonus. Mode wise the nero has more than enough modes to keep a 10 or 20G flowing.

I also use a hydros controller on my tank, (seen you mentioned controllers earlier). I love the hydros. I had apex on a reefer 170 and switched so set this 10 up directly with hydros.

I also have the same Kraken lid, i'd recommend getting the feed cup for it a while if you haven't

 

[deron_d]

Lil update, tank is nice and cycled processing amonia like champion, 4 hermits and 1 royal gramma call it home.

Monti was very dull brown at the store but is colouring up nicely! Has really cool little yellow polyps that I didn't see at the store. The acro was more for a stability test, was very brown at the store and has started to get a green sheen with green polyps.

Royal gramma is deathly afraid of me I feel really bad if I look over and she darts back to her cave. I hope she gets to roam while I'm at work.

For flow I might have too much? I have a very old mp10 running on 20% lagoon mode, and I have an ai Nero 5 running random mode 10-30%. With 15 mins of wave mode escalating to 40% to kinda help clean the tank.

I have a royal gramma in my nano. Stayed under a rock for a week or so before starting to come out. Is yours warming up?

 

[Windirmere]

Yeah a bit of food helps, if I stay at the tank and watch a hermit crab she will come to the edge of the scape and sort of study me. If I move really slow and drop some pellets in she will dart out and eat.
It's really fun to see how smart these lil fish are, they know when you are looking at them or are looking at something else.

I think my next purchase besides coral will be a cleaner shrimp. I feel like if the grama can see something more bold in the tank it will give it confidence .

 

[deron_d]

Yeah a bit of food helps, if I stay at the tank and watch a hermit crab she will come to the edge of the scape and sort of study me. If I move really slow and drop some pellets in she will dart out and eat.
It's really fun to see how smart these lil fish are, they know when you are looking at them or are looking at something else.

I think my next purchase besides coral will be a cleaner shrimp. I feel like if the grama can see something more bold in the tank it will give it confidence .

You aren’t lying, pretty smart creatures! Sorry the video is a bit low quality, but check out my Royal gramma spitting sand to dig her cave deeper!

 

[Windirmere]

Replacement lid is in! Fits perfectly looks amazing relieved that no snail or the royal gramma can't go on any adventures. Really happy with kraken reefs quality and customer service.

 

[Windirmere]

Picked up a 2nd AI 16hd for the tank and a seneye... wanting to make sure i dont fry anything. I was not expecting them to tack on a 60$ upgrade fee to use the par meter

 

[Windirmere]

Added a second ai prime 16hd, par at the very top of the rocks is averaging 300, 160 on the sand. Running 2 week acclimation mode starting at 65%.
Hope it doesn't burn anyone up @.@ i have ordered two of the 3d printed shrouds for the lights, I'm pleased with the better coverage less dark shadows.

Hermit crap picked out a new house with a skylight, I love this guy lol

Light settings I'm using, I just went with the brs settings mixed with one I found online, open to suggestions.

 

[Windirmere]

Few new additions, new favia and a bubble magus z5 space saver Skimmer.

 

[Windirmere]

Few upgrades, it's like Xmas every day on my door step when I get home from work. 3dreefing ai prime shrouds and diffusers, sicce syncra sdc 3 and Neptune ato, I wanted to go with tunze but the magnet was to large for clearance

 

[Windirmere]

Buyers beware, purchased Vortech 2x mp10's to replace my super old mp10 and replace the nero 5 ( was too strong)

One of the mp10 works flawlessly as you would expect from a reputable company, the other is a complete lemon. I had to disassemble and re assemble the wet side for the impeller to spin. And it will not connect to mobius. After following all the numerous/obvious trouble shooting I checked to see if the chip was seated properly, it was but then noticed the cradle for the chip was not soldered to the driver board properly. I contacted echotech directly and got a run about to another company which has not replied. I've ordered a new 100$ driver with express shipping. Severely disappointed with echtech as I held it in high regard for quality and dependability.

Looks like I'll be looking into Neptune or other options when I want to upgrade my lights and other dosing equipment. I was really looking forward to having things one brand and on the same app.