Furam28's 15 gallon rimless nano tank budget build

[nori4dori]

Like almost every other reef-convert I also started off with cichlids, and two years later I was ready to move to saltwater. I wanted a rimless shallow reef tank on a low budget and this is what I came up with. Lots of trial and error, endless hours on reef forums... All my live rock, I got from a well-established tank from a craigslist seller. Based on advice from veteran reefers on this and other forums, I tried to be very patient in setting up my tank and gave enough time between cycling, adding livestock... I set up my tank with just the live rock and sand with a heater and circulating pump and let it run for 2 weeks, before throwing in a frozen, uncooked cocktail shrimp to cycle. Within a week, ammonia and nitrites were all gone (I am guessing all the established live rock helped the tank cycle so fast). I let it cycle for another week before adding my 1st set of CUC: 2 nassarius, 1 mexican turbo, 5 ceriths, and 5 astreas. I was planning on adding a 10 gallon sump using a return pump and a HOB overflow box, but the thought of a flood in my apartment dependent on the integrity of a siphon terrified me! So I went with a 6 gallon HOB refugium with a built-in skimmer. After a month of running, I added my first coral: a hollywood stunner chalice from ARC member nanonreeferKy. I have been slowly adding more livestock. Here's the list:

Equipment:

1. Aquatop 14 gallon rimless bowfront (http://www.truaqua.com/eurostyle-bowfront-aquarium-es-24.html)

2. 6 gallon acrylic HOB refugium with built-in skimmer from eBay (I modded it. Originally the skimmer used the venturi action of the 250gph powerhead to get air bubbles which didn't work good at all. I added two limewood air stones powered by two separate air pumps to get good skimming action).

3. 200w Sunsun heater

4. Maxijet 400 as a circulating pump

5. Two 7x3w white and blue led light fixture from eBay

6. 20 lbs of Nature's Ocean aragonite sand (dry)

7. 20 lbs of live rock

Corals:

1. Hollywood stunner chalice (4" diameter)

2. Green star polyps

3. Radioactive dragon eyes zoas (40-head colony from a MAAST seller)

4. ORA green birdsnest

5. ORA purple stylophora

6. ORA Mint Pavona

7. ORA Red Planet

8. ORA Red Montipora Capricornus

9. Red with purple polyp Montipora Palawanensis

10. Metallic Green Hammer

11. Orange and Purple Ricordea

12. Kryptonite Candy Cane

13. Whamming Watermelon Zoas

14. Superman Rhodactis Mushroom

15. Orange Palys

Fish and CUC

1. Ocellaris Clownfish (2)

2. Tongan Nassarius Snails (4)

3. Mexican Turbo Snails (3)

4. Florida Ceriths (5)

5. Astrea Snails (5)

[Planeden]

Looks great. I really like that hammer.

[Jimbo662]

Wow...full tank shot makes it look bigger than it is with the aquascape you have.

Is that an aptasia below the ricordia?

James

[nori4dori]

Thanks Planeden. The hammer is from ARC member mrshall1027 and its doing great in my tank.

Thanks Jimbo662. I have very little space to work with (24" wide by 10" front-to-back by 12" height) so I am constantly trying to maximize space for corals. I want to eventually add a lot of corals but I am taking it slow. The maxijet is taking too much space in the front. I have to find a smaller wavemaker.

Yes, indeed that was an Aptasia that came in with the Ricordea 2 days ago! But I injected it with vinegar so it's gone as of yesterday. Hopefully it won't come back.

[Bluemoon]

greet looking tank! i really dig that hob refigium, can we can get some pictures of that? Did those light ballasts come with the LEDs?

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[nori4dori]

Thanks Bluemoon. Here is a picture showing the construction of the HOB refugium. It has built-in skimmer + baffles to prevent microbubbles, and it has an extra buffle system to create a low flow area ideal for growing pods. In the future I plan on adding a sand bed, some live rocks and macro algae in that area (kind of like this: http://www.saltwatertogo.com/cpr-aquafuge-2-hang-on-refugium-with-protein-skimmer-small.html) to promote pod growth. So far I have been pretty happy with how it has worked, it took me a few weeks to get used to the look though! It adds an extra 5 gallons of water to my tank, and I can hide my heater in it!

There is however a serious design flow. As you can see from the blue background picture, the water level will be higher in the refugium than in the tank, and the water inlet into the refugium is at a low point. That means whenever you turn off the pump, or if there is a power outage, water will start backflowing into the tank through the pump by means of siphon, and you will have an extra 2 to 3 gallons of water overflowing in your display tank and flooding your room. Checking on other forums I found out that the CPR Aquafuge also has the same flaw and people have had accidents. There were two ways to go around it. One was to add a swing check valve. The other was easier and more fail-proof. I added an extra loop into the inlet by using two 1/2" barbed angles (from Home Depot) and 1/2" plastic tubing (see image attached). Then I drilled a small hole into one of the angles, which means there is always a very small trickle of water out of it. I made sure to put the hole close to the down-arm so that the water doesn't drop into the tank and create a splash. Instead it trickles down the tube. Whenever I turn off the pump, air rushes in through the drilled hole and immediately breaks the siphon. It has been running like this for 3 weeks, and I turn off the pump every day when I am feeding the corals and fishes, and there is never a backflow.

This is my mod to prevent backflow:

[nori4dori]

This is the 1/2" elbow that I used for the mod: http://www.hardwareonlinestore.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=33321 . They had it at Home Depot next to the sprinkler section. I put some teflon tape, and then pushed the barbed end into the PVC inlet tube of the HOB refugium. It fit pretty securely with no leak. I used 1/2" clear plastic tubing (also from Home Depot) to connect the two elbows together, and to connect the elbow to the pump. A good trick to get the elbow barbed end into the plastic tube is to soak the plastic tube end in hot water for a few seconds. It becomes soft and you can easily push in the elbow.

[+KimP]

Very cool mod on the refugium. Your tank is coming along nicely!

[nori4dori]

Bluemoon. Sorry I missed your question about the LED lights. Yes, they come with driver. Its plug and play. It plugs directly into the power outlet and there is an on-off switch.

[nori4dori]

I have a Maxijet 400 set up as a circulation pump (listed as 500gph) and I am beginning to think that its too much concentrated flow for a nano tank like mine. My corals are taking a beating and my clowns are always hiding. I just ordered a Jebao WP-10 wavemaker today and it should be here next week. Lots of raving reviews for the Jebao wavemakers, so looking forward to it. Hopefully it does a good job in maintaining flow, and is small enough so it doesn't take too much prime real estate in my small tank!

[Bluemoon]

Ive noticed that maxijets seem to sput out a stream that can cause a hurricane too haha

great call with the wp-10; its a good for the long run.

size difference and shape is definitely appreciated too.

especially when you stand back and look at the tank remembering what the mj was like!

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[Nano Reefer Ky]

Just found your thread. Looking good. Smart thinking with the HOB fuge siphon. I would have thought of that right after I stepped on wet carpet. I like the coral choices now they just need time to grow. Based on my experience with a HOB fuge this is how I would set it up. Use a small amount of sand like .5". Because of the really low flow I always had detritus settling back there, so by keeping a small amount of sand you can give it a gentle stir when needed. This will give you the benefits of having the sand without causing the need to constantly service it. I would add 2 or 3 rocks spread out to limit detritus getting trapped, a ball of chaeto, and a couple little snails. I also put a small bag of carbon in the baffle section right after the skimmer. I kept the carbon loose in the bag to allow water to easily pass the bag and not get clogged up. I changed the carbon out every 1-2 weeks. Again just my personal preference as others may have better advise.

[nori4dori]

Thanks Ky for the advice. You are right. I need to add a little sand to the HOB fuge and throw in some snails and macro. I have already added a few live rocks in there. Eventually I am thinking of getting rid of the HOB fuge altogether, drill my tank and go with sump under my tank. I just don't like the look of so much stuff behind my tank. I might just keep the fuge and hang it behind my sump to give extra water volume, grow pods and use the skimmer.

I have made some changes to my setup so an update is overdue. First: added a few more frags: mostly SPS. Here are some of my favs:

Montipora Spongodes and (from jcnkt_ellis on MAAST):

Unknown brain favia (also from jcnkt_ellis). This thing looks amazing under actinics:

Green-tip frogspawn from Xanreefer. Originally two heads, now three:

watermelon mushrooms from mrshall1027. They glow green under actinics:

The superman rhodactis mushroom (also from mrshall is finally opened up):

ORA Red Monti Cap:

ORA Mint Pavona (also from mrshall):

Next post will be about equipment updates I have made so far. Thought I was going to be all set with non-dimmable LEDs for light and MaxiJet powerhead for circulation. But in the reefkeeping hobby you just have to live and learn!

[+KimP]

Nice update, you should post a full tank shot too That unknown brain favia looks like orange leptastrea to me.

[nori4dori]

@KimP. Thanks for IDing the favia. Being a biologist, it bugs me incredibly not knowing the name of any coral species in my tank! Here's a FTS along with pics of recent equipment updates:

FTS (05/15/14):

I replaced my two non-dimmable clip-on 7x3w (each) LED fixtures with the quite common 120w (55x3w) full spectrum chinese LED fixture from TopLEDSeller on eBay (http://stores.ebay.com/TOPLEDSELLER). Paid $120 for it and received it less than a week after I ordered it. Quite impressed with the quality of the lights. Right now I am running them at 25% each channel, and I am going to slowly ramp up as the corals get used to the new light. They are not programmable, but most importantly: they are dimmable. I have plugged each light into a timer plug so they come on and off timely. Here are some pics of the lights and the packaging:

For mounting the lights, I used a ceiling-mount for flatscreen TVs. A ReefCentral user came up with this ingenious idea! I screwed the mount to the wall using just one screw (one big screw that went in all the way into a stud inside the wall). The mount is adjustable, so I can pull the light closer or away from the wall:

I also replaced my Maxijet 400 with a Jebao WP-10. You can see the Jebao in my FTS above. I've heard a lot of good things about the jebao wavemakers, but wow! I am impressed. It actually makes waves! Its so much smaller than my MJ, its barely noticeable now. My corals seem a lot happier now - they are not getting blown away by the powerhead. It also seems to be creating enough water movement - so far no dead spots. Even at the lowest speed, this is powerful enough for my 15g tank. I don't think you would want to go with anything bigger than the WP-10 on a nano-tank.

Here's the size difference between the MJ and the Jebao!

[Nano Reefer Ky]

Looking good and filling the tank up nicely. I like the full spectrum lighting upgrade. Let me know how that light works out for you. I have been doing a little browsing on the ebay lights and am curious as to their long term effectiveness. Some people bash them without first hand experience so I will be curious to see how your light works out. The price for that light is a steal though. The jebao is half the size of the other power head!

[FarmerTy]

Looks great! That purple stylo is a great grower. Mine went from a 1" frag to a football in about 3 years.

[Bluemoon]

awesome lighting upgrade. the tank is looking great! that ceiling mount idea is ingenious do you have a link to the mount you used?

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[nori4dori]

Thanks Bluemoon. This is the mount that I used: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-Black-Folding-TV-Ceiling-Mount-for-TVs-23-to-42/28773640 .

So far, after more than a week of use, looks like all my SPS and zoas are quite happy with the new light. Good polyp extension. I have increased blues to 50% and whites to 38%.

[nori4dori]

Went through a move last month so didn't get a chance to update. I decided to switch to a 20g long drilled tank and the move was the best time to do it. Got an Aqueon 20g long tank (30" by 12" by 12") from craigslist. Removed the top rim. Drilled two holes in the back and attached an black acrylic overflow. I also built a DIY frame for my LED light fixture. Set up a 10g sump with a Red Sea Prizm HOB Skimmer. Here's how it turned out:

Need to paint the back of the tank and glue the frags to the rock. Rearranged the rocks this time to go with a low rockscape. In that way I will have enough room on the top for my SPS to grow out. Most of my frags took the move well. Had my skimmer and Phosguard not running for 5 days after the move and got a scare with two of my SPS frags: green birdsnest, and purple digitata starting to STN. Added phosguard and brought my phosphate levels down within 1 day and they all made it. Refragged the green birdsnest to get rid of the STN area.

[nori4dori]

For the first time since I started my tank, I have gotten a 0 reading on my phosphate. Quite excited. Until now I had Phosguard in a mesh bag hanging in a high flow area of the sump. 2 days ago I added a canister filter and put 1 cup of Phosguard in there. Looks like its working. I'll see how long the phosguard can keep the phosphate down. I've heard a few people say that 0 phosphate is not good, you want to aim for something low but not absolutely gone. Is there any truth to that?

Salifert Po4 kit result:

[Bpb]

ID for you.

Gates of hell Leptastrea. Sinister sounding name. Very cool piece. I also have one. Moderate grower and that orange really pops.

[victoly]

For the first time since I started my tank, I have gotten a 0 reading on my phosphate. Quite excited. Until now I had Phosguard in a mesh bag hanging in a high flow area of the sump. 2 days ago I added a canister filter and put 1 cup of Phosguard in there. Looks like its working. I'll see how long the phosguard can keep the phosphate down. I've heard a few people say that 0 phosphate is not good, you want to aim for something low but not absolutely gone. Is there any truth to that?

Salifert Po4 kit result:

69.jpg

Truth in my experience. If you're looking to brightly color your SPS, keep your LPS alive, and keep pest algae at bay without a utility crew, low phosphate is the way to go (0.03 to 0.05). 0 phosphate is indicative IME of bad testing or really overdoing it with nutrient export. In my case, it was GFO, 10% weekly water changes, light feeding (evey other day) and skimming. I'm tweaking all of those and have noticeable increase in coloration.

[nori4dori]

@Bpb. Gates of hell Leptastrea. I was calling it orange leptastrea, but Gates of hell sounds way better! Really nice piece. Definitely one of my favorites under actinic.

@victoly. Thanks for the advice. That totally makes sense. I know from my bio background that phosphates make the backbone of DNA, so phosphate should be essential for any living organism. I know high phosphate is detrimental for corals and many SPS keepers shoot for a 0 ppm PO4, but I've also read many experienced SPS keepers say that a slightly higher nutrient actually colored up their SPS. So I think I will go with your advice and shoot for a P04 between 0.03 and 0.05. I mainly got a 0 po4 by adding 1 cup of phosguard in my canister instead of 1/2 cup that I was doing before. I'll reduce the phosguard and feed a little more. What's your take on nitrate levels? Would you say 5 - 10 ppm is healthy?

[victoly]

I'd say that SPS keepers do *not* want 0 phosphates. Be careful with removing phosphate too quickly, it's one of those parameters in which a quick change of enough magnitude can harm your coral. To further expand on your point, not only is PO4 a DNA building block, but its a food source for the symbiotic algae that live in the tissue of the corals we keep. To little can lead to death or washed out colors. Too much leads to algae. It's a balance

With respect to nitrate, i dont even monitor it anymore. I was under 1 ppm for years. I just presume it's still low and that if my phosphate is low, that my nitrate is also low.