14gal Nano Reef Build
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you take absolutely bloody beautiful pics. Ive always like Saltwater tanks but never really wanted one. I dodnt have the time or money for a big tank and ive always assumed you need a large tank but now I might look at a 15 or 20 gallon for corals.
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Gotta get some new pics but that will probably come after I move the tank. Moving it to a new stand in the next day or so. Everything doing well right now. Even found some baby Stomtella snails which is AWESOME. They are my favorite snail and I stocked the tank with 8-10 adults hoping they would reproduce at some point. Now I see small ones crawling all over each day. All of the coral is doing great and growing nicely.
Tank was moved successfully, everything still doing excellent. Seeing some good growth still on the SPS, still trying to lock colors on. With that being said its time to stock some fish finally. I think the fish poo will help with SPS color. Right now the only fish I will 100% be getting is a Tail Spot Blenny, always wanted one and that's what I knew would be first for this tank. Other than that I don't know...help me decide!
Will this tank be to small for a bonded pair of Cardinals? Would love a pair of them. If so I will just lean towards the Blenny, a Pygmy Wrasse, and something else.
Will this tank be to small for a bonded pair of Cardinals? Would love a pair of them. If so I will just lean towards the Blenny, a Pygmy Wrasse, and something else.
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Thanks. Honestly I'm more into the intricate details of my Saltwater tank more than any Freshwater tank I've ever owned. Its just so awesome. By far one of my favorite tanks I've ever had. Keep trying to convince myself not to turn my 100gal into a reef, but I have a feeling it will happen at some point. I highly recommend a reef tank.
Took some more photos last night, will try to get them edited and up by tonight/today. Including a new FTS.
Took some more photos last night, will try to get them edited and up by tonight/today. Including a new FTS.
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Thanks guys. Looking into finally adding some fish now. Any suggestions for this small of a tank? Any experience with pygmy wrasse and stomatella snails? My original plan was to at least have a pygmy wrasse and a tail spot blenny but I'm not sure what else I could get. I've actually heard of people doing Cherub Angels in a tank this size, but I don't really want to risk the coral.
Was trying to avoid the usual suspects like clowns and firefish if I could. Though I guess I wouldn't be against a pair of DaVincI clowns, just not top of my list. Would love a pair of cardinals too since they aren't big swimmers but I feel like they may kill everything else in a tank of this size.
Was trying to avoid the usual suspects like clowns and firefish if I could. Though I guess I wouldn't be against a pair of DaVincI clowns, just not top of my list. Would love a pair of cardinals too since they aren't big swimmers but I feel like they may kill everything else in a tank of this size.
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Well good news and bad news. Good news is the fish came, bad news is the Wrasse was DOA. Blenny is doing fine. I guess the wrasse just don't ship as well as others? At any rate, called up Live Aquaria and got a refund, easiest and best customer service I've experienced really took not even 5mins.
Guess this means I need to go fish shopping again.
Guess this means I need to go fish shopping again.
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Well I added 6 Berghia Nudibranch to the tank not to long ago so I can't really add shrimps, if there are any nudis left they will become snacks of the peppermints. Not sure any have made it or not, I've seen a few Aptasia shrunk down shriveling like they have been snacked on but haven't seen the Nudis in a while. I took one of the rocks with most of the Aptasia and red algae on it out as well.
I'm not big on the peppermints because they aren't proven to eat the aptasia, especially when I'm feeding my fish the good stuff. I'm going to keep hoping my Berghia Nudibranch are doing work in there at night and see how it looks.
I'm not big on the peppermints because they aren't proven to eat the aptasia, especially when I'm feeding my fish the good stuff. I'm going to keep hoping my Berghia Nudibranch are doing work in there at night and see how it looks.
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Heres another video of my polyp extension. Short once again, its part of a bigger project coming down the pipe. Watch in HD!
These two are inseparable right now and rush forward when I get close to the tank. They've acclimated very well it seems. Heres a few more pictures, some with flash.
These two are inseparable right now and rush forward when I get close to the tank. They've acclimated very well it seems. Heres a few more pictures, some with flash.
Well, as I was going to feed the fish today I saw something making a mad dash straight up the wall towards the powerhead, one of my Nudis! I rescued him from certain death as he was on a straight line towards suicide and put him back on the rocks close to some aptasia. I caught a glimpse of another adult nudI on the rocks as well. So they are for sure still in there and alive, had some color to them as well so they are clearly eating. Not sure how many exactly are left but at least 2. Only time will tell. I kind of want to get a couple more.
Saw the clowns picking some food tonight too so that's a good sign. They are still doing well.
Saw the clowns picking some food tonight too so that's a good sign. They are still doing well.
So not to long ago I noticed my red planet was just not getting the red color like it does in high light, same with a few other acros. They were growing just showing signs of low light. Even with my DIY LED basically right on top of the water cranked to 100%. Also the DIY LED seemed to be flickering the past few weeks, no idea why. So I upgraded, might as well. Now I'm wondering why it took this long. Put this fixture up today, only problem was it seems to have a dead fan....I have a line open with Ecotech and hope to reach them tomorrow about this. No big deal, not worried I know Ecotech will come through. And I'm not blasting them to begin with so the fixture won't overheat. I have this fixture set 8" off the water with the standard lenses and running at 25-30% and its just as bright as my DIY fixture at 100%, wow. And the control this one has, I can control it from my iphone from my office......what?!?! Crazy. I see many threads about people having problems with the software and struggling to set these fixtures up but to be honest it took maybe 10mins for me? Super easy, no problems with the software and I actually find it quite easy to use. First impressions apart from the fan have me impressed. Now lets just see if the coral like it.
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Haha!
I have the radion pros with reef link and really like them. I used the scheduler to slowly ramp up the intensity over a two week period. No issues with the corals and I have had them for several months now.
Ecotech is really good to work with should you have issues. My radions were tripping the GfcI outlet when the blues came on at night. They sent me new power boxes on their dime and all is good now.
Great pics too. Thanks for sharing!
I have the radion pros with reef link and really like them. I used the scheduler to slowly ramp up the intensity over a two week period. No issues with the corals and I have had them for several months now.
Ecotech is really good to work with should you have issues. My radions were tripping the GfcI outlet when the blues came on at night. They sent me new power boxes on their dime and all is good now.
Great pics too. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Heard back from Ecotech this morning. Fan is working as intended, it only kicks on in high heat so I have nothing to worry about with the light.
I already love them because of the schedule. I can do it from my phone at work too! But the slow ramp up throughout the day is really nice, means I can hit the peak in the middle of the day and slowly ramp it back down too. Right now my graph looks like a plateau, ramps up in the morning to my peak then stays steady at the peak for X hours then ramps back down at night. Using the 12k setting as my peak lighting, I find it the most pleasing and closest to my last light's spectrum. Time will tell if the corals like it or prefer something else.
I already love them because of the schedule. I can do it from my phone at work too! But the slow ramp up throughout the day is really nice, means I can hit the peak in the middle of the day and slowly ramp it back down too. Right now my graph looks like a plateau, ramps up in the morning to my peak then stays steady at the peak for X hours then ramps back down at night. Using the 12k setting as my peak lighting, I find it the most pleasing and closest to my last light's spectrum. Time will tell if the corals like it or prefer something else.
So far this light is AWESOME! My LPS are puffier and looking more lively, my SPS seems to be putting out growth spurts, and the control and having it on a schedule is just sooooo much better and easier for me. Love it so far.
I tried white balancing to more daylight this time. I've got 3 new shoots popping up around the outer ring that look to go vertical in addition to the great encrusting going on the rack. Its about time to move this guy I think. Its been under Radion XR15w Pro for a couple of days now instead of my DIY LED.
Copps Hulk Millix2 baby frag and small colony, Blue tenuis, Angels and Demons Milli, Pink Lemonade X2 (both look a bit different but were both sold to me as pink lemonades, kinda weird. The burn on the right one is from my rainbow table on the other side of the rack. Put it next to the other pink lemonade and it seems to be growing back slowly), Red dragon and Rommels Rainbow Milli.
I tried white balancing to more daylight this time. I've got 3 new shoots popping up around the outer ring that look to go vertical in addition to the great encrusting going on the rack. Its about time to move this guy I think. Its been under Radion XR15w Pro for a couple of days now instead of my DIY LED.
Copps Hulk Millix2 baby frag and small colony, Blue tenuis, Angels and Demons Milli, Pink Lemonade X2 (both look a bit different but were both sold to me as pink lemonades, kinda weird. The burn on the right one is from my rainbow table on the other side of the rack. Put it next to the other pink lemonade and it seems to be growing back slowly), Red dragon and Rommels Rainbow Milli.
Finally glued some frags onto the rocks after I cut a bunch of those overgrown palys off. Back wall is basically hands off. That's the grazing area for snails and the blenny, just letting the coraline take over the green and its slowly coming along. Still have a lot of loose frags I need to glue if I have room.
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Thanks! I find it fairly simple. Basic fish keeping really, monitor parameters, water changes, etc. I monitor my parameters a lot more than FW, and I have to dose chemicals but not really hard. Its definitely more expensive though.
Small update. Having some issues. Got busy with work and got behind on WCs, gave me excess nutrients. Lots of algae and a lot of the SPS have had their colors fade a bit. I'm getting it back under control slowly. Still working on getting all of my levels right. Everything is still living, fish doing great, some SPS a bit worse for the wear but seem to be ok. Will just nurse it back to normal. Taking ALL of my sand out, done with it trapping wastes, going bare bottom and going to crank my vortech.
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Some new ones here. Been through a number of issues lately. I slacked off on WCs, nutrients caught up with me and caused a huge algae issue. Then my alk and cal started playing games. Finally getting things stable again. Lost 1 frag through all of it but everything else seems to be responding fairly well. Finally seeing new growth after it was stalled. Took out most (working on all) of my substrate to keep nutrient issues down and cranked up the vortech. Cut back on the lights and feeding as well.
New FTS from tonight. Not a lot has changed, like I said I scraped a lot of the coraline especially off of the sides. Not tons of noticeable growth, you can see some on the retina blaster in the back left, Hawkins beside it, CalI tort upper right, and the Slimer in the middle. If you notice the dead area on the underside of the slimer are closing back up as well, good sign. I still have yet to mount any more frags, doing that soon I promise. I want to eliminate the white frag rack on the front. When I took out my sand it forced me to put it in to hold the frags that were on the sandbed. Have a few frags I'm probably going to trade locally for other stuff on my wishlist....or sell and thin the stock we'll see. I have duplicates of a few things up there on the racks.
Energizer bunny stillllllll going!! Need to get some new pics of the tank and coral but I have to glue a few more pieces to the rock either today or tomorrow. Much to my dismay its getting closer to the time I frag the Green Slimer, the thing is a beast. We'll see might just let it go until I HAVE to do it. I added a HOB refugium instead of my HOB Aquaclear yesterday. Chaeto and some new CUC come tomorrow. It allowed me to clean up the display and move the ATO back there and get the skimmer tubes out of the tank, especially the locline return as it was blocking light at the back of the tank. Moved the heater back from the aquaclear to the refugium as well.
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Wow!!! Great photos!! Maroon clownfish?
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Someone else asked about my light on another forum and I thought I'd share it here just in case anyone is browsing or searching and needs info. And you thought Freshwater was complicated in depth, LOL
My light is controlled through wifi, so I could be at work on my phone and change my lights up....how cool is that?! Soon my powerhead will be the same. Anyway here is the graph showing my daily schedule for the tank light wise. Its a 10H day starting at noon going until 10pm. I get some indirect sunlight in the morning so I pushed the start time back to noon. The light itself has an overall brightness of 70% power due to LEDs being so dang bright. UV and Blues stay uniform all day and peak at 100% intensity for a few hours in the afternoon. White LEDs really cut through the water and the corals don't get to pleased by that so they are turned down to 65% max during the day. Reds and Greens aren't to high but supplement throughout the day, I don't want to grow algae! Reds are higher than green because the coral photosynthesis/zooxanthellae production peak at red wavelengths as well as blue. On either side of the peak of the day is a ramp up period of at least an hour. I end the day fading to blue.
This light is pretty impressive. If I wanted I could simulate storms where the light would flash white to simulate lighting or turn on cloud cover where the light would occasionally dI'm like a cloud was passing in front of the sun.
My light is controlled through wifi, so I could be at work on my phone and change my lights up....how cool is that?! Soon my powerhead will be the same. Anyway here is the graph showing my daily schedule for the tank light wise. Its a 10H day starting at noon going until 10pm. I get some indirect sunlight in the morning so I pushed the start time back to noon. The light itself has an overall brightness of 70% power due to LEDs being so dang bright. UV and Blues stay uniform all day and peak at 100% intensity for a few hours in the afternoon. White LEDs really cut through the water and the corals don't get to pleased by that so they are turned down to 65% max during the day. Reds and Greens aren't to high but supplement throughout the day, I don't want to grow algae! Reds are higher than green because the coral photosynthesis/zooxanthellae production peak at red wavelengths as well as blue. On either side of the peak of the day is a ramp up period of at least an hour. I end the day fading to blue.
This light is pretty impressive. If I wanted I could simulate storms where the light would flash white to simulate lighting or turn on cloud cover where the light would occasionally dI'm like a cloud was passing in front of the sun.
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