24 Gal Cube SPS nano reef tank

[Pizzasteve5717]

All these tanks look sick!

 

[Pizzasteve5717]

Nice tank build man!

 

[project1004]

Morning watch by my little girl. Lol

 

[project1004]

12 month update:

Tank was initially started on July 9th 2022 with dry rock and dry sand. The tank had 1 upgrade from 15G to 24G (Sep 30th 2022), and one transfer to new home. (March 6th 2023).


Changes:
-I am running both skimmer and the filter roller on 12hr/12hr cycle due to its effectiveness.
-Still dosing nitrate and phosphate time to time.

Specs:
-Tank: 24 Gal aqua top reef tank + 7Gal sump
-Light: AI Hydra 26HD and 2 AI Prime 16HD
-Flow: 3 AI Nero 3 on random,
-Filtration: Roller Mat 500, Miracle Mud, Sphere Media, Tunze DC9001 skimmer
-Misc: Neptune Apex (Old 2nd edition), Bubble Magus BM-01 doser (ESV-b) , IM Hydrofill , Hygger titanium heater on controller
, Hygger 915 dc return pump, automatic dosing of kalk mixture via litermeter3 dosing pump

Tank Parameters:
Salinity: 1.023 (Milwaukee reflectometer) - Idk why but it is down. (I didn’t test for like a month). Bringing it up slowly atm.
pH: 8.5- 7.9 (Apex controller). Have 2 pH probe focusing on the patterns more than of the number it self. But I know I should keep it stable.
Alkalinity: 9.0-9.3 dkH - Went up about 0.5-.07 dkH from last month due to concentration of kalk
Calcium: 385 ppm -Tested once (redsea)
Magnesium: 1400ppm -rarely tested (redsea & aqua forest). Currently not sure. Didn’t test
-Nitrate: 11.5ppm-3.5ppm. tested weekly now (Hanna & redsea) Now that the tank is 1 yrs old, I just eye ball it. Above number are showed from random testing. And I made adjustment accordingly. Tested like 4 time this month
-Phosphate: 0.06- 0.01. Also randomly tested. And add whenever I feel like with out testing. Above number are from random test.

Start up 15Gal AIO (July 9 2022)


First sets of corals Added ( Sep 1st 2022) 10 frags. 8 survived


Upgrade: Sept 30


It’s Ugly stages: Oct -Dec 2022. About 3 month. After the diatom brown/green hair algae. I beat it with flux tab.
Oct 18th 2022


Dec 6th 2022


Feb 4th 2023


Tank move: March 9th 2023


2nd set of SPS added March 31st 2023 (9 frags)


This morning:

 

[project1004]

Pair of Bullethole Clownfishes and pigmy angelfish


Mandarin goby (Tons of Pods for him to enjoy).


Fire shrimp. Also have cleaner shrimp but hard to get a


FTS just now 10:30am

 

[project1004]

I’m hopping someone can help me identifying these corals with right names if possible?!? Since I got them very small and still not sure what some of these really are. If you find some that need to be corrected please let me know. It will be greatly appreciated!!!

1. JF Fox Flame. Added Sep 1st. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th

2. WWC Yellow Tip. Added Dec 10th 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th

3. CB Valhalla. Added March 31st 2023. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th


4. CB Beast Mode. Added March 31st 2023. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


5. Unknown Acro. 3month growth

6. Bubble gum digi. Saved tiny piece after giving the large one away. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th


7. ADS Rainbow Milli. Added March 31st 2023. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.



8. Rainbow Milli? Added Sep 1st2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.

9. Copper flame Millie. Added Sep1st 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th. I had to cup off the tip due to infection. I saved


10. Tricolor Valida? Or tort? Added Sep 29th 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.

 

[project1004]

11. Dipping Dots. Added March 31st 2023. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


12. Walt Disney. Added March 31st2023. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


13. CB Valhalla? It looks like it but not sure. Added Sep 29th 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


14. ORA Hawkins. Added Sep 1st 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


15. RR pink Cadillac. Added Dec 10th 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


16. Forest fire digi. Save tiny piece before giving away the frag. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


17. Vivid Confetti. Added Sep 1st 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


18. Vivid rainbow delight. Added Sep 1st 2022. 3 month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


19. Blue Stag. Added Sep 29th 2022.
3month growth from April 7th to June 6th. It almost died from alk burn. Saved the tip


20. Tricolor tort? Added set 29th 2022. 3month growth from April 7th to June 6th.


21. Ice tort. Added Sep 2022. Growing very fast and in the corner. No picture due to limits on uploads.

also have tiny frags of WWC After party, CB Omg, CB flaming unicorn, TB Cherry bomb that added in March 2023. Thx

 

[project1004]

Used putty and made a little rock isolating all the hammer corals into one place. I did waste the whole stick of putty on it and it can still use some more.

 

[project1004]

15 month update:
Last two month has been very challenging for this Nano tank. I made way too many changes too fast that shocked the tank and still recovering from many mistakes.

Changes:
-I’ve been having lots of STN and few RTN for the past 2month. One by one they started loosing tissues from the bottom. Started around August 25th. One coral will die and the one next to it will start to STN and on. I maybe still battling it but I feel like initial damage is now finished and Do see the improvement over all. None of LPS’s were lost or stressed. -.-

-I do have cyano bacteria on some parts of the tank. Manly in the dead SPS skeletons but I don’t feel like pulling them out. I’m just going to leave it as it is. I am trying to keep elevated nutrients. Which been a issue from the start. Rollermat was on/off 12hrs but I now have automatic roller turned off and stays on 24hrs. My issue was low nitrate.

-I started culturing Nanno phyto, tisbe Pods, and tigger pods for mandarin goby and to seed the tank in general. I crashed Tetra phyto (twice) which is harder to culture than expected.

-Tigger pod on left and tisbe on the right (tisbe pod has been split once). Will split by weekly for these.


-Phytoplankton culture (One on the left is crashed Nanno) -.-;


CAUSE:
#1. Too High Alk over month period. Which I didn’t adjust and the damage was done. I was dosing of Kalkwasser on Automatic doser at the full strength which doses every 9 minutes. I did change back to 1/2 strength and lowered dosing amount. It’s common sense to lower the alk dosing when corals are dying but it was later on when I realized to do this.

#2 I stop doing water change at 1yr mark. I was under impression that my tank was pretty stabilized granted I started with Dry rock and dry sand. The way they STN looks as it was bacteria infection but just speculation. But I know I’m still having an issue with stabilizing my import and export of nutrients. I am restarted weekly water change 3 weeks ago.

-I did ICP MS test. Iodine is elevated because I was treating with it. I don’t know how to read the chart and don’t really pay much attention since it’s not accurate


#3. Wrong Spectrum/Par. I’ve changed the LED positions after doing par testing around Aug 25th. Biggest problem was from not using uniformazed spectrum for 3 LED’s. I think I have too much UV light as well. Lost all the fluorescent colors over time and still missing lots of colors but recovering. I do believe few corals died from this issue.

-Last photo of tank before having an issue Aug 25th


-Corals that are lost. They went one by one slowly.


-Now dosing via doser to keep stable Nitrate and Phosphate. As well as 2pt.


- This morning


-This morning







-I plan to leave the tank alone and just do water changes weekly. Nothing has entered or leave the tank since 1yrs mark.

 

[project1004]

I also have setup this tiny tank with old tank water with small live rock and ball of chaeto to culture copepods and amphipods out in my back porch and it’s exploded with pods in the past week granted there has been much swing in temperatures at night and nothing to aerate it. Kinda cool.

 

[project1004]

16 month updates:

- Changed out LED from AI Prime and Hydra to 1xRadion Xr-15 g5 pro. Using AB+. Oct 15th.


-Changed ESV 2part dosing to 1part AFR Oct 28th. Dosed 12hrs only

-Dosing kalk 24hrs atm via dosing pump. (It’s helping my pH stay at 7.9 to 8.22) (Oct 31st)

-Dosing Redsea trace Elements (ABCD) on a doser. All my minor trace are low. One of the reason I changed to all for reef for additional trace elements (Oct 11th)

-vinegar dosing via pump for carbon source (Oct 2nd). Vodka is too strong of Carbon source. I only add 1ml per day.

-Culturing tisbe and apocalypse pods atm. Gave up on tigger pods and phytoplankton culturing. I had no real success with phytoplankton culturing but zooplankton has been successful. Been adding pods weekly for my mandarin goby

-Poseidon Chaeto reactor offline due to its effectiveness (Reactor may been too big for my system.)

-Retrying Santa Monica drop 1.2 scrubber in the sump

-Added batch of SPS frags on Nov 1st

-Feed 3 times a day due to low nutrient

-5Gallon water change per week

Parameters:

Alk: 8.8 - 8.4. Tested twice a week or 3 times. Always at 6pm.
Calcium: 458-413. Tested once a week on the weekend when testing alk.
Magnesium: 1400ish. Never needed to dose magnesium.
Nitrate: 8.5-6.5. Finally settling down without dosing needed Tested twice a week
Phosphate: 0.04-0.01 Finally settling down without dosing needed. Twice a week

 

[civics14]

Looking like a lot of positive changes!

 

[project1004]

17 month updates:
- 5Gal water change per week
- Added co2 scrubber from BRS Black Friday sale (online yesterday). Seems to raise 0.1 at peak. Only been a day. I bought a thing to make it a recirculating.
- Started using little bit of gfo and activated carbon in a bag 24hrs
-Re-arranged powerheads for more flows
- Added medium size Grammistes blenny
-Added small red tuxedo urchin (Nov 24th)
-have some turf alage growing in some patches on the rock and the back wall

 

[project1004]

Today is one of those sad days . My cherub angelfish took a dive and died. Granted they’re suitable for Nano, maybe in a 40-60 gallon and bigger will be best for them. Sad sad sad.

Other than that, I am battling cyano bacteria atm. Currently just on the sand but spreading

I am usinf little by little. I’ve added uv but not helping.
Fun fun fun.

Excuse the glasses. Didn’t clean it. Added IM’s uv sterilizer. Cyano in front.


Just remove it to the rollermat.
I took vinegar offline and will dose mb7 and very small amount.


Angelfish went on a dive -.-; I will not put on a lid. He was most active and fun to watch.

 

[Jikkermanccini]

Wonderful tank! So sorry to hear about your angel, it's not common for those to jump.
Cyano never lasts IME, the longest I've had it was a couple months before it eventually starved itself. The rest of your reef is clearly thriving so I doubt it will stick around.

 

[project1004]

Thank you. I’ve noticed some on the rocks as well. As of now, I am blowing it off the rocks and keeping it as it is. I think cyano was always in my tank and lately it has been spreading. I don’t dose any sort of bacteria and I think that maybe part of the issues. So I am adding some mb7 weekly. Just like 2.5ml a week, so it’s dosage for maintenance. Hope that helps. I even thought about adding 4th powerhead on the back wall but instead, I probably get those new ai return pump instead which is Mobius ready for easy use.

 

[project1004]

I am currently battling and beating algae infestation in my nano from adding some needed snails (about 10) and one large halloween urchin who is working overtime cleaning the back wall atm. Just wanted to share in case someone was having algae issues.

I also went and taken out the turf scrubber and stop dosing vinegar. And UV. Because Uv didn’t help with this cyano. I will be doing water changes by-weekly. For I know my tank has always had issue with low nutrients granted I have algae. I probably will re-incorpo turf scrubber later if my nutrients arise to the point where it needs more filtration.


Here are my dosing regimen:
-1 liter per day of fully saturated kalkwasser on doser 24/7. My evaporation is just little over 1 liter per day atm.
-10ml All for reef per day dosed btw 7am to 7pm
-2.5 ml of Liq nitrate dosed at 10pm (upto 7ml in the past). That’s when I gotten Algae’s on the wall and the rocks
-1.0 ml of liquid phosphate dosed at 9pm (upto 2ml in the past).
-2ml Aquavitro Seed bacteria in the morning (just want more diversity of bacterias and maybe this will help?!). I also am dosing mb7 once a week.
-Adding 10oz of esv calcium and 5oz of ESV magnesium when doing water changes
-Feed twice a day
Tank parameters:
Alk: 9.0-8.5. Currently around 8.7
Calcium:?
Magnisium:?
Naitrate: 8.5. currently above 5.0 and below 8.5.
Phosphate: 0.05. Currently at 0.03.
PH: This has been stabilized by using co2 scrubber. Goes from 7.95-8.25ish

This is my pH chart after installing the co2 scrubber. As you can see how stable the pH is. I do have recirculating adopter for it but currently not using it. Will see how long this media last on a nano.

Before scrubber, I was trying to fight low pH with water changes and that didn’t work as well.


Week before is even worst. You can see when I do water changes because there will be big jump in pH. It’s always been this way but I expect much more stable pH.


Picture from Sunday. See all the algae I. The back wall and the rocks. Also changed my powerhead position to give more viewing



Today. Most of algae is gone on the back wall.


Side view of the wall


And my new blenny went over to overflow box and I can’t get him out -.-; (Currently have clear bottle with some pallet hopping to fish him out when he get in it). Maybe!??! If I get him out, he will be sold back to the store. I got hector’s goby who has same shape and pattern.


Right

Left

 

[project1004]

Hey @skrappy ,

Just want to give you a head up, I took your advice regarding raising the pH using kalk only at night.

So just to see how high normal pH goes up on the day time, so far, it’s been going above 8.3 to 8.4 at peak.

I recalibrated my pH probes and it was off by -0.3. I finally got my co2 recirculation collected As well.

I wasn’t sure how to incorporate all this so, I just had my kalk kick in only from 3pm to 6am. And raise my AFR to 15ml from 10ml. So far my pH been above 8.05-8.1 at the low peak when day starts around 6am.

I probably will need to adjust as you did but currently am getting benefits without doing any adjustment to the alkalinity. Dkh is currently around 8.6-8.4.

Just want to say thank you >.<


Recalibrated ph probes. Had to use two sets of pH packages. Those little package don’t hold much and doing vinegar bath first and granted it was ringed in Rodi, vinegar got into the solution, ph solution was all messed up. (New one was recently two month ago). Second package was dead on when tested using the pH solution. First time was coming in at 6.5ish insteqd at 7.01 at 77 degree.



I do think higher pH was what my tank was lacking.

 

[project1004]

Second attempt at making Hammer garden.

These hammer corals are getting too big for this small nano and also been having to move them every time I vacuum the sand bed so I put them all on a small rock from my sump. Turned out pretty good. Happy new years <><

 

[project1004]

Step 1: Get parameters in range
(Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium)

Step 2: Get nutrients in range
(Nitrate,Phosphate)

Step 3: Get pH in range (Higher above 8.0)

Step 4: Get minor trace in range (minor traces to recommended level)

I am at the Step 4. (Year and half in). I went and tested my water via ICP MS (In sept and In Dec). After couple month of correction (Back from step 1). to see if there are any issues that I can’t tell. Everything was back on track but there were some minor traces that’s been flat line since first test.

I been doing regular 5Gallon water changes a week. On about 30Gallon total system.
I been dosing kalk at night
I been dosing AFR for 8hr

I was hopping I will see some minor trace registered but it didn’t. (I think most of these are what they consider “dailies” by Moon shiner method).

I’ve been using AFR for over two month in place of esv 3pt for this purpose as well. But yellow lined traces were still showing zero. Which I am going to collect next.

I have Red Sea Trace color abcd on doser atm. I heard bad stories about these but I free ones and tested to go with it granted I can’t seems to work out right. Feels like color blinded when I do these Red Sea ones. I remember Salifert being really good test kits and may go that route later if needed.

Funny thing is these 8 minerals that are missing are all components of C&D. Which consists of Iron+ and others (d). I guess my tank was lacking of iron. Some factors are having ATS scrubber and Nano tank is different from large tank for sure.
Currently dosing more CD.

In September 19th sample, I did expect the Alkalility to be high but not that high. Also was using lugor’s solution trying to see if that helped. Many issues killed most of my corals for not collecting it. -.-;





Test result from December (Most of minor traces are flat lined or gotten even more depleted)