World's Smallest Acropora tank? 5 Gallon Nano

[East1]

someone asked me to post my tank from another thread, so here it is:

Here it is,

The tank volume is about 5 gallons, likely closer to 4.5 because of displacement. The display is 55x20x20cm and has a smaller sump.

I dose Tropic Marin AFR daily on a dosing pump, and I dose these all manually

I write extensively about the tank on another forum, but I will start to migrate the posts here as well with new photos

 

[LRT]

someone asked me to post my tank from another thread, so here it is:

Here it is,

The tank volume is about 5 gallons, likely closer to 4.5 because of displacement. The display is 55x20x20cm and has a smaller sump.

I dose Tropic Marin AFR daily on a dosing pump, and I dose these all manually

I write extensively about the tank on another forum, but I will start to migrate the posts here as well with new photos

Wow super awesome and definitely following along here.
So many questions but ill start with how are you testing all those trace elements? Im assuming icp or similar but how often are you testing?
Also where did you get all those different elements to dose?
I had some issues last year when I let my rodi burn out and im convinced it all starts with super clean water source. Honestly if I could totally strip my water and bring it back up with all those elements I would. I didnt even know it was possible lol and probably not necessary as long as I stay on my rodi haha.
Anyhow this is super impressive on so many levels man. Thanks for sharing!

 

[UnderseaOddities]

You even got the oscillating fan for evaporation awesome! @East1

 

[East1]

Wow super awesome and definitely following along here.
So many questions but ill start with how are you testing all those trace elements? Im assuming icp or similar but how often are you testing?
Also where did you get all those different elements to dose?
I had some issues last year when I let my rodi burn out and im convinced it all starts with super clean water source. Honestly if I could totally strip my water and bring it back up with all those elements I would. I didnt even know it was possible lol and probably not necessary as long as I stay on my rodi haha.
Anyhow this is super impressive on so many levels man. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you!

I didn't test before I started dosing, I just dosed in small amounts regularly and started to observe how the corals react, after a while I got test kits just to confirm I don't have any excesses but in most cases I'm below natural on:

Strontium
Boron
Iodine
Iron (but this shouldn't be detectable for more than an hour anyway)
Phosphate
Nitrate
Magnesium
Calcium

using salifert test kits. I have tested all those parameters perhaps 6 times in the past month, and never before. I onyl used to record kH and occasionaly Ca prior. Tank has been established since Feb, but I lost some colonies because of an AEFW outbreak at one point.

Because I dose lots of Phosphate salts, I think I have excess of potassium phosphate addition as my potassium is a little high (like 440)

My Ro unit isn't good, I get about 30tds or so, but occasionally I'll top off with a bottle of spring water.

The elements are available in all of the above bottles, amongst others.

As a rule, It's okay if the elements are low in concentration in the water what is important is that the corals can access enough, for use every day, in that period. If they can't then they will decline as per the below graph - the graph is actually for low waterflow vs high irradiance causing stress, but the stress factors of too much light in a low flow environment are the same once a coral has been in an environment when it depletes it's own phosphate stores, once those have been consumed then the coral will decline as per this graph.

Source:

You can use that knowledge and observation to keep the corals, then

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Awesome! Following!

 

[dkfrosty1]

someone asked me to post my tank from another thread, so here it is:

Here it is,

The tank volume is about 5 gallons, likely closer to 4.5 because of displacement. The display is 55x20x20cm and has a smaller sump.

I dose Tropic Marin AFR daily on a dosing pump, and I dose these all manually

I write extensively about the tank on another forum, but I will start to migrate the posts here as well with new photos

That looks like a lot of work…..

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

There’s a 2 gallon pico reef with acros in my post history. Your growth and variety is far more substantial tho.

 

[Mystikal]

I’ve always wanted to do that. Make a pico tank with the most expensive acro

 

[East1]

There’s a 2 gallon pico reef with acros in my post history. Your growth and variety is far more substantial tho.

I had a one gallon was actually the smallest acro tank in the world - I was in discussions with some companies to sponsor a Guiness record, but I wanted to learn more about acro husbandry so I took that down, making this the smallest technically by density of coral

 

[Justin_Casper]

Glad you made a thread on here for this tank. Your approach to the hobby has inspired a ton of people for a very long time now (going back to the CD case nano).

 

[East1]

Glad you made a thread on here for this tank. Your approach to the hobby has inspired a ton of people for a very long time now (going back to the CD case nano).

Ah thanks man! Yeah I started to finally use forums a little more and decided to post, more free time now I have a rough schedule for this tank and I'm out of the experimentation phase!

Ah I miss that tank, I'll get a pic for old times sake, I think back then I had no idea what actually made acros grow, it was just working because it was working lol

 

[ClownSchool]

I love the red mangrove in the last pictures! What incredible projects. Thank you for sharing.

 

[East1]

I love the red mangrove in the last pictures! What incredible projects. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks!

That mangrove evolved and became the Nano Reef TOTM in uh, 2016? If you google it, it's got a breakdown of a transition of 3 tanks as the mangrove grew

 

[Panky]

How often are you doing water changes

 

[Falreef]

How often are you doing water changes

Exactly my question. As well as what salt. As for the dosing, exactly correct. As long as the elements are kept in the water column, the corals will use them snd it is less important to test and know the exact number.

 

[East1]

How often are you doing water changes

Initially on setup, around once every 2 weeks, in the past two months, once (maybe twice, I added some salt water when I got a new skimmer so that kinda counts)
The intention now is to run it similarto the DSR method, no water changes.

Exactly my question. As well as what salt. As for the dosing, exactly correct. As long as the elements are kept in the water column, the corals will use them snd it is less important to test and know the exact number.

As above ^

Salt is Tropic Marin Pro Reef. Issue was with even 40ish% water changes the smallest volume elements would be consumed in a few days, once I figured out the scope of dosing phosphate my attitude to this whole tank changed a lot and I realised how much of these various elements I have to add on a given day.

For context, with the KZ supplements and the Red Sea stuff, or even the All for Reef, I'm basically dosing this as if it was a 25 gallon tank, but the actual water volume is likely about 4.5 gallons.

 

[DeniseAndy]

This is really amazing to follow. Thanks for sharing it here! Really nice set up. Pushing the boundaries. I like it!

 

[tanstrobels]

How much tropic marine do you dose daily? I’m guessing the fan in the picture is to help speed up evaporation for this reason?

 

[East1]

This is really amazing to follow. Thanks for sharing it here! Really nice set up. Pushing the boundaries. I like it!

thank you! It's a headache some days, but definitely worth it!

How much tropic marine do you dose daily? I’m guessing the fan in the picture is to help speed up evaporation for this reason?

The all for reef? About 6ml, but I dilute it with RO heavily.

I have a separate ATO, the fan is for cooling, it's mostly used to cool me just cus it blows toward me at my computer - the tank is basically like a desk ornament, but it does help on hotter days, as I run a AI Hydra 52, with the lenses removed, over the tank about 7in' off the surface.

I move it around a little because it's on a VESA monitor mount, to help reduce shading

 

[VR28man]

very nice. What do you dose, and how much/how often?