Run + Gun 30G Setup

[mandown123]

sup reefer-heads :smoker:

long time no see. Getting back into it after sandy killed my 75G reef. 2 years wow. i finally feel the urge and the excitement again so lets do this.

space is tight and so i've decided to run and gun a 30 long to experiment with breeding BTA anemones and clownfish if i can. just focusing in on that. all business this time baby, keeping it focused. I think that'll be fun.

one thing i gotta tell you guys about is this tiny hang-on box from Finnex, its sick, the water pump that comes with it is super quiet. Maybe i could see swapping it out for a maxijet for more flow but its super quiet as is, almost silent. it comes w/ divider baffles. gonna do rock rubble on right where it flows in, and a sand layer w/ algae on left. 1G capacity. About as big as i found online in this type of thing, and this is 30 bucks w this tiny quiet pump, its a steal.

then gonna roll this airstone skimmer, see how it goes. It very well may suck, but again it's 30 bucks and seems to do what a skimmer does so it might work. I'll probably have to crack it open to quiet the motor. any1 with experiences w/ that skimmer, mods, etc.?

So basically 1G fuge and a 30 buck skimmer, $60 new all-in for my filtration. We'll see. Seems like a good filtration tandem. Anyway, I'm keeping it simple, I'm not going to throw in messy fish. The clowns and then some impulse buy small stuff, that's it. Maybe a yellow wrasse cause I always love owning one of those guys they're cool. Then have to get a lid tho.

Rolling Maxspect Razor 160W, light and skimmer come tomorrow w/ a small bag of sand. Decided it seemed right for this w/ these features. Those arms instead of having to hang it, it has an auto on/off, sunset/sunrise program, intensity roll off on 2 channels. I don't know.. Anyone have it, have any field reports to share? Seems good, I don't want to have to run halides to make these nems go crazy, so I'm hoping this thing gives them what they need. I've never tried LED I've had everything else. $500 new, figured that's really all the money I'm spending since I had everything else.

I wanted to go bottomless for efficiency/cleanliness, but feel like i'm losing something with buffering w/out that sandbed, and the worms to boot, all that good stuff in a nice sand bed, so I think i'll just keep it within reason so i can clean it, a small sand layer. Right? I'm unsure here.

Question: what size heater u think I could get away with? I want on the smaller side, cause I'm sumpless here. This is ugly, I just had it lying around, I want a small titanium.

And my mp40w and that's it, that's the setup. I'll take another pic tomorrow when the rest of the stuff gets here, but I was really impressed w/ this hang-on box/tiny pump, and then why not start a tank thread?

Cool! Later,

 

[mandown123]

OK lookin good now. Still cloudy some from dropping in the caribsea sand. Should've bought a little more. I'll go next week. I do like this finer grain, I was worried.

Skimmer looks like it has some potential. I did end up busting open the airpump and now its silent. However, it's also pretty tiny and weak. It's not a crazy eye-sore and you can paste a plentyful coral to it later on to fill out, that'd make it cool. I can see wanting to endlessly mod this thing for no real reason. It has that allure.

These LEDs impress me. Lot's of control with the dimming, the timing, the presets, thin profile, and low heat. It's more fun than when I flicked on those eBay T5s years back. If I ever got a bigger tank there's no question these will cover probably a 4ft. long. I can however see why some other ones can be more money for some slicker features. This seems like a good value compromise. I can see why the Ecotech, for example would be more fun to mess around with w/ the colors, control it from your computer and whatnot, but that's pure frills as far as your livestock is concerned. If you got it, flaunt it - but you don't need it.

Fuge box thing looking good. That thing I could see getting another of. Empty chamber shown here where the crushed rock will go next week, newly added sand beyond it. I know this is no breakthrough but I feel like I'm cheating going sumpless so I love it. What's cool is that the flow is very gentle on this. Of course, that's probably also what sucks about it... Will have to experiment.

Hitting up store next week in woodbridge my buddy says is good. Still want a low-profile heater, titanium. What do I need, 100w or can I do less? (any recco?) Also I'm out of the loop on test kits, what's good bang-for-the-bucks?

Cool, I'm nerding out if you can't tell lol


thanks, later on

 

[mandown123]

Quick update for the thread,

Visited a store today and checked the water, Nitrate was like 100-something, everything else OK. So cycle looks done, doing some water changes this whole week starting today. I had good amount of die-off on those rocks that has now been processed to nitrate.

Picked up a "Real Reef" rock and a shelf piece thereof. It had good coralline color. It turns out it's just dye I think. Shelf piece comes in handy. I decided the real ocean stuff looks cooler, comes with bio-diversity, and is more porous. On the other hand, this is pest-free and sustainable. Once corals crust on/over it, you won't be able to tell the difference. $8/lb was overpriced.

I smashed one of my old rocks into bio-ball sized pieces and put in the right side of hang-on fuge. 3 slightly larger chunks went in the left part w/ sand, and a softball-sized ball of various caulerpa macro. The flow is very slow over the fuge, I think it could use an upgrade to maxi-jet 400. I tried a 600, it was too much. Or slow could be good, we'll see.

I planted some of the other macro and messed with the rock scape to try to improve flow. It needs one less rock. Alas, nowhere to put it.. That's another cool thing about sumps.

Check ya next week with some water params. Should have test kits for everything by then (mine expired). Then cleanup crew time.

Notes so far:
1. Still not sure about this airstone skimmer. Anyone have one? I'm going to need a decent skimming situation for this setup to work as planned.
2. I have one too many big rocks in my tank. It's restricting flow. My MP40 is not doing the job on the far end and it should be able to. Either that or add another pump.
3. It's so tempting to throw a sump on here. But the silence of this setup is golden. It's really quiet.
4. Without a sump I think an amphipod + copepod population could really thrive, SO I'm thinking of adding like 1,000 pods from one of these sites. Not sure which yet, I'll get a whole clean up crew at once. No hermits this time - too ornery, eat all the snails.
5. I need to buy salt, it looks like people stopped using Coralife, and that ESV is the new crowd favorite. I wonder why. Have to figure out which brand I'll go with.

 

[duromega]

looks very nice,
keep up and good luck

 

[piranhapat]

Nice set up. I would use the filter HOB or Fuge for GFO and carbon instead of putting Marco. . That small would hardy remove much nutrients. Even pads might be better. I think you have plenty of rocks for bio load so no need putting more old rocks in HOB. They have a lot of Nano skimmer that do a good job. Air stone is for Stone Age skimmer. Invest in a good one which is the most important equipment. Especially in tank without sump.

 

[mandown123]

thanks guys. piranha this skimmer, the more i stare at it, you're right. this thing isn't even stone age, its just not happening period. HOB though, there's so many new kids on the block you have any recco?

I would love to run chemipure elite that always did me right, but I kinda dig the little "au-natural" filtration thing here as an experiment. Keeping it all in mind, thx

 

[mandown123]

I was able to get Nitrate down to 0ppm and holding.

I re-aquascaped for better flow, then vacuumed tons of detritus from the rock die off; tank is very clean now. That will be regular tank maintenance. I'm not doing a DSB, so I'll vacuum detritus weekly w/ 5G change. Using ESV salt this time. It's building up where you see the sand raised on the right, behind there. That's easy enough.

Took piranha's advice to get rid of lame skimmer and upgraded to the Aquamaxx HOB, new. It's powerful, quiet, and working great. Ran it very wet for a week at first and now a little dryer. Really quiet and there's a mod you can do if you want to make it even quieter.

LiveAquaria had $75 custom cleaner crew, which was a pretty sweet deal. I did 38 snails: 10 Astrea, 10 Small Nassarius, 5 Margarita, 5 Cerith, 4 Chestnut Turban, 4 Bumblebee Nass.; 1 peppermint shrimp; and 10 Scarlet Reef Hermits, which are supposedly pretty peaceful vs. snails. Chestnut Turban are amazing, would've gotten more if I'd known. Super voracious versus micro algae. Peppermint shrimp is enjoying being highest order lifeform in the tank.

Added them 10 days ago, all good except 1 nass. dried himself out (that's his body right there in the pic of the HOB fuge lol), and 2 or so hermits perished for no apparent reason. I did drip them all too long, that could be it. I walked away from it for 1 hour too long, but the AccliMate product works really well, once I figured how to use it. Everyone else is mowing the lawn nicely (had huge micro bloom as I was working NO3 down to 0, also removed some manually).

Also removed rubble chamber on HOB fuge thing, added a lil sand, and doubled the size of the pump to 85gph Shiruba-103. Now I feel better about it. Added white LEDs, pretty powerful like $40 on Amazon. Built light box, to contain stray light and reflect. Prototype - it's not perfect, could use work.

Anyway, there it is. Build is done, NO3 is down, and tank is rolling. Now I need CORALS! My cousin accidentally killed everything I gave him from my old reef, so there goes that. LOL

Then, gonna buy some tank raised clowns. Someone suggested no less than 6. I think I can swing 6 clowns in this tank. Should I get a top? Clowns aren't likely to jump. But then something tells me I want a wrasse. But then you need a top! Do you need a top for neon goby? I always wanted a pair of those.

I'm going to make my own food out of some different cool seafoods, zooplank, Selcon, garlic soak, etc.

Thanks for looking!