Druluv's 22gallon Real Nano

[druluv]

Yeah Deanos, I think Aptasia love this stuff. (Just kidding)I can use a whole bottle for my tank, after a week they are back strong. Joes juice only works on Aptasia you can see and reach. The ones growing in the back or between rock work is very hard to kill with joes juice because you are limited to what you can reach. We need a better way of dealing with this pest.

I finally got to put PC Cl 850 chiller on line. The directions say Max 150 GPH, so I used a Mini jet 606 to pump water through the unit. Mini Jet has a 160 GPH, so this should be perfect. Now to see if this unit works. Will report my findings.

Next on line is Two part automation. In the past, I always forgot to add my two part. I don't want this to happen, so I plan to use a Aqua-media double doser to handle this task.

I'm still back and forth with the lighting. T-5 or basic HQI MH. I invested in a luxmeter and measured my intensity. Top 1/3 was 7000, middle 1/3 5500, bottom half 3000 lux. I don't know what these numbers mean, so if anyone knows share with the board. I want to compare this with the 150 HQI, then take it from there.

Next step is to use rowa phos in a reverse flow filter. So that is my next set-up mod.

 

[druluv]

 

[druluv]

update: The pacific coast nano chiller is a piece of crap. A total waste of time.

 

[druluv]

The PC 850 couldn't chill this tank so I swap it out with pacific coast 1/10 hp unit.

This unit my be better on a 2.5 - 12 gallon tank.

This is the 1/10 unit: A little bigger but still fits in the stand! This chiller make my lighting choices easy. I can easliy use a MH / T-5 set up now!

I'm still using the same 606 to run this unit. The pump I'm using has no back pressure so its like a CL. I plan to use the flow of the chiller to bring some more flow into the tank. right now I have the return hose returning to the filtration box. All I have to do is add some kind of alternating fixture to cause wave like motions. OceansMotions makes a two-way squirt, I may look into this option.



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This is to help with the long war on organics and the dreaded PH04. Ecosystem does recommend using a ferric oxide product to help combat PH04.

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I'm married to the same 4 t5 unit (bulbs 2 whites - 10k, 1 Actinic, 1 aquasun (50/50))

But my real love is this unit. The Giesemann Basic 150 HQI. Well bulit unit and a good looking unit. Perfect for a open-top set-up. The 13k bulb it comes with, totally light up the nano and room. Only problem is, it didn't come with t-5s. I call Giesemann and ask them, can just add a t-5 ballast to the mix? Giesemann said there is no space for a internal ballast, but you can fit a external one. Perfect.

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Here is my Sacrificial lamb - Crappy aquatrader unit. They sell it as a 48" unit but 48" inch bulbs don't fit it. It Only fits 46.5 bulbs, and only them makes it.

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I also need to set up my automated two part doser
Here is a pic of the double doser.

 

[druluv]

Being that I'm battling Aptasia, I got some peppermint shrimp to see if they can put a dent in the pest population. This should be a good test, because I don't feed tank, so they have to find there own food and there is plenty aptasia to eat.

I was just aclimating them. Here is a cool tool I use to aclimate my new live stock.

pretty easy to make and I can adjust the valve to set the drip rate.


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The tank is going through a diatom bloom, so I'm setting up to do a water change.

Here is my new water change set-up. I got the biggest pump I can find and go to town on the water. My PH in my make-up water was very low, this means I need to aerate the water to get a higher ph.

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Here are some tank shots

Some of these corals are being saved from my main reef tank. The Aptasia is really bad now. I have gangs of this pest all around the tank. So I have to take some of my most precious pieces out.

Here some other pics:

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My next set is to hang my new lighting system up

 

[druluv]

Well I got the new lights up, Giesemann Basic 150 HQI, I liked the t-5, but the brightness of the metal halide just won me over. I'm also trying to save some of my sps corals that were being stung by the army of aptasia in my main tank.

I was planning on dripping two part, but I felt that I won't be able to handle the Calcium demand. So im going with a Knop CA Reactor. This should make life a little easier.

Here are some pics:

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Log:

The tank has been up for about two to three weeks. MY last water testing showed good CA,ALK.
My NO3 was low, but the tank showed a little PHO4, so I added a PHO4 Reactor with rowaphos.

Corals seem to be doing better, and I'm starting to see some polyp extension.

I added some peppermint Shrimp, so I'm looking to see if they are going to be able to handle some of the aptasia.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

looking sweet dru. sorry about the aptasia. start kalking and jjing them before it's too late.

 

[Quang]

Dru, your tank got all the big toys on it! Lucky! lol. Looking good man. IF thats an acrylic tank, good luck man!

 

[druluv]

Well I had a major set-back, The hose running from the chiller fell out of the tank. Luckily the hose fell in my saltwater trash can beside the tank. With no cool water running back into the tank, the temp in the tank rose to over 96 degrees. The hot temp melted some of my lps and bleach some of my sps.

 

[Quang]

omg 96?! Good luck man. Throw in some ice cubes in a plastic bag....not too many tho.

 

[druluv]

Yep 96 degrees! I put the chiller hose back into the tank and strapped it down. It happened on Monday, one of the hottest days of the year.

 

[druluv]

Update:

I check my water parms:
NO3 - undectable
PHO4 - undectecable
CA - 450
MG - 1280
ALK - 2.73 meg

I did a 2 gallon water change with red rea pro salt and ro/di water,
added some reef buffer to raise the Alk
added tropic marine mg to raise Magnesium
added purple up to keep the CA Stable

replace carbon, filter floss
took out all the bio balls from the system and replace with live rock.


Water parm is pretty solid and I am very impress with the cheap salt. If the temp did not shoot up earlier this week, I would of been happy with the tank's progress.

 

[druluv]

Here are some pics. I hope everything starts to color up.

I have a long way to go with this tank

 

[Breezp]

http://www.exoticfish.com/details.cfm?cat=0|1978|1700|1663|0&id=39483&
I have used this on my aptasia in the past and they have gone away in 48 hrs... you just take the saringe and directly inject the aptasia, and they die within two days. Well worth the money and it works everytime. As soon as you inject the aptasia you will see it close up and lose color and start to die. And the best part..... its 100% reef safe! Go for it and lemme know how it works....

 

[druluv]

http://www.exoticfish.com/details.cfm?cat=0|1978|1700|1663|0&id=39483&
I have used this on my aptasia in the past and they have gone away in 48 hrs... you just take the saringe and directly inject the aptasia, and they die within two days. Well worth the money and it works everytime. As soon as you inject the aptasia you will see it close up and lose color and start to die. And the best part..... its 100% reef safe! Go for it and lemme know how it works....

The problem with those remedies is that, they only take care of aptasia you can reach. Some of the aptasia is well settled in places I can not reach. I'm trying to see if the peppermint shrimp can handle the Aptasia.

 

[reefman]

hi dru, u sure equip this nano well. i'm interested in y ferric oxide was not recommended for ecosystem.

 

[druluv]

hi dru, u sure equip this nano well. i'm interested in y ferric oxide was not recommended for ecosystem.

I love equipment; I'm a little techie at heart. If you think this a equipment, you should see my 120 reef.

About Ferric OXide - Ecosytems does recommend ferric oxide products now. As of now they offer a product called ecophos which is another ferric oxide product. I happen to like rowaPhos, helps keeps my tank Phosphate free.

 

[Quang]

keeps my tank Phosphate free.

Don't want to be a smartass but no tank can be phosphate free. Our corals need phosphate actually, just at that high levels they slow coral formation and aid, you know,....other unwanted residents. :tongue1:

 

[tripstank]

Just a quick FYI. Chillers should not be run in the stand, they do not receive adequate airflow to cool them. It is like sitting in bumper to bumper traffic with your A/C on full blast. It needs air to cool the unit.

 

[druluv]

Froggie, you are right

Tripstank the back of the stand is open, so the chiller gets plenty of air flow.

Well it is been an up and down month,

My tank over heated up because the chiller hose fell out. I lost a lot of corals because of this.

I also have a bad aptasia out break, and a lot of hair algae.

For the aptasia, I got a whole army of peppermint shrimp(25) for this problem. I figured that by chance that one of the 25 shrimp must like aptasia. I'm happy to say the peppermint shrimp did a wonderful job. All aptasia gone!

For the hair algae I got the ultimate clean up crew.
15 Scarlet Reef Crabs
50 Zebra Hermits
10 Trocus Snails
1 small baby Scopas Tang
1 algae Hair eating sea hare

The algae Hair eating sea hare is the star of the show. In less than a weekend all hair algae is gone!

New additions:
Skunk Cleaner
Fire Shrimp
Rainsford or Randell goby

Here are some pics:
Here is a pic with the hair algae

My Bleached Blasto coloring back up

New Addition

Sea Hare in Action. This guy is no joke

some shots