defender.TX Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Welcome! Welcome to my build thread. I've been a local reefer now for about 2 years and have had this tank running already for about 5 months. My first tank was an Innovative Marine Nuvo 24 but I didn't really enjoy the long and shallow dimensions. When I decided to move to a cube style tank, I ordered a 20 gallon all-in-one from PicO Aquariums. I've had a build thread going on Nano-Reef.com for a while now, if you want to see the full build you can check it out. The Build Once I settled on the PicO 20 gallon all-in-one, I needed to pick a light. I wanted something with great color and some controllability. I ended up ordering a NanoBox Reef Duo with the new pucks (with limes). This came with a Storm Controller and it handles the light control. An MP10 pushes water through the tank, while a CAD Lights PLS-50 Elite works hard on nutrient export. The stand came with the tank. Here's a full equipment list: Equipment PicO Aquariums 20G Premium (White) PicO Aquariums 20G Stand (Black) NanoBox Duo (Grey/White) Tunze Nano Osmolator Cobalt Aquatics NeoTherm 100W Heater EcoTech Marine Vortech MP10 CAD Lights PLS-50 Elite Nano Skimmer Full Tank Shot (11-27-2014) Livestock Assorted Zoanthids Assorted Acans Green Star Polyps (Briareum sp.) Assorted Mushrooms (Actinodiscus sp.) Trumpet Coral (Caulastrea curvata) Torch Coral (Euphyllia glabrescens) ORA Purple Stylophora ORA "Joe the Coral" (Acropora sp.) Fighting Conch Assorted Hermit Crabs Mexican Turbo Snail Ocellaris Clownfish Pair (Amphiprion ocellaris) Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica) Dosing Right now I only dose Korallen Zucht products and feed a mixture of New Life Spectrum pellets and frozen mysis shrimp. I might need to start dosing two-part of kalkwasser soon as my SPS/LPS colonies are starting to get pretty large. KZ Pohl's Xtra (10 drops/day) KZ Coral Vitalizer (1 drop/day) KZ Sponge Power (1 drop/day) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted December 13, 2014 Author Share Posted December 13, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Looks awesome! Well done so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Welcome! Very cool to have you on board. Great tank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nori4dori Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 very nice. great shots of your corals too. i remember seeing your original nuvo 24 build when you posted it on craigslist! one of the reasons i decided to switch to saltwater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted December 13, 2014 Author Share Posted December 13, 2014 Looks awesome! Well done so far. Welcome! Very cool to have you on board. Great tank! Thanks! very nice. great shots of your corals too. i remember seeing your original nuvo 24 build when you posted it on craigslist! one of the reasons i decided to switch to saltwater. Yea, I actually ended up giving my Nuvo 24 to some friends of ours who wanted to get into aquariums. It was the easiest thing to do since they picked it up from my house and I didn't need the money. If I could get someone else into the hobby that would be rewarding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted December 14, 2014 Author Share Posted December 14, 2014 I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with my foundation elements to determine if I need to start dosing or not. My tests yesterday (1 week from my initial tests, no water change): NO3 0 ppm Ca 425 ppm (-25 ppm from the previous week) KH 8.5 dKH (-.5 dKH from the previous week) Mg 1400 ppm (note - I did this test incorrectly the first time around) I think that gives me a pretty good baseline foundation element uptake. I'm going to test again next weekend before my water change to see if the decline is fairly consistent. Then I'll figure out if I need to dose and if I should do 2 part or kalk. Also, my wife put together a nice frag kit for me as an early Christmas present, so I'm going to be rearranging some corals to get ready for more SPS - more to come... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 I picked up an Orange Striped Prawn Goby and a Pistol Shrimp from AquaDome over the weekend...the pistol shrimp was upside down in the bag and practically dead before I even got home with it. Going to get a replacement this coming weekend and hopefully have a nice pair. The Goby is doing great and already eating mysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 So, interesting turn of events, the Orange Striped Prawn Goby was eaten by my Torch. At first I saw him captured in the tentacles, then he got pulled in more and more until only his head was poking out of one of the mouths, and then he disappeared all together. It's been two days and the Torch seems really happy - probably because he just got a $19 meal . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 I haven't updated this thread in a while but the tank has had some exciting things happen. I got bubble algae and purchased an Emerald Crab to deal with it. I knew it was a 50/50 chance he would actually eat it, but it turns out he loves it! As soon as I see some bubble algae pop up he'll eat it in the next day or so. I also added a Chromis viridis who loves swimming around with my Clowns but only wants to eat Mysis and Reef Chili. I decided I wanted to try dosing Kalk, so I added it to my ATO and the very first night my float got stuck and overdosed the tank with Kalk. That was last night, PH was only 8.2 this morning and so far I haven't lost anything so I think I got lucky. I'm going to switch to manually dosing two part for a while until I get a doser. Also, here's some updated pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Looks like things are going well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Looks great so far. If you can keep that Joe the Coral looking happy you are doing very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 Looks like things are going well! Looks great so far. If you can keep that Joe the Coral looking happy you are doing very well. Thanks! I actually had a branch of my Stylo bleach on me (had to cut it off, looked like some form of RTN) before my kalk overdose event. My Joe has never stopped looking great though, so you never know which coral is going to get temperamental on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 New pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Lookin great! Awesome set up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Right after I took those pictures my ATO failed and the tank almost overflowed. My salinity went from 1.024 to 1.020. That's a pretty big bummer. I mixed up a quick 5 gallons at 1.024 and did a water change getting it back to 1.022 at least, but that's a huge swing for such short time. I really hope I don't lose anything. I was running a Tunze Osmolator Nano and this is the second time it's failed. I just ordered a Tunze Osmolator 3155 and hope it will be more accurate. Also, does anyone know how to edit the title of a thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Yikes! Good thing you caught it right away. I'd be surprised if anything died. I'm sure some might be perturbed for a little bit but they will survive. To edit the title, just go to the first post, click edit, then click full editor... scroll to the top and change the title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Yikes! Good thing you caught it right away. I'd be surprised if anything died. I'm sure some might be perturbed for a little bit but they will survive. To edit the title, just go to the first post, click edit, then click full editor... scroll to the top and change the title. Yeah I caught it right when it was about to overflow the tank. Ended up dumping about 2-3 gallons of RO in. Also I must just not have enough posts to have unrestricted edit permissions - the edit button disappears for me about 5 minutes after I post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I think unrestricted editing of posts is a benefit of being a premium member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Ahh that makes sense. I guess I had better upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12_egg_omelette Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Yay, someone else with a nano Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender.TX Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Yay, someone else with a nano Yep! I stayed small because I rent and move every 12-18 months thanks to Austin's crazy real estate market. Twenty gallons was a good compromise between mobility and size. When I finally buy a house I'll be upgrading almost immediately . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12_egg_omelette Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 That's why I'm small too. I'm at a 12 gallon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 First two things I thought when I bought my house 6 years ago, 1) I don't have to move every year anymore and 2) it's upgrade time! Unfortunately, I had limited vision and bought a 65-gallon, then 125-gallon, before I finally settled on to a 215-gallon. Heed my words... go straight to the big daddy tank and save yourself some upgrade money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12_egg_omelette Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I'll snatch your 215 when you get the 500 Ty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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