Cali Kid Corals

Hermit's Nuvo 20g

hermit

hermit

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Tank philosophy:
Keep it simple enough so it doesn't stress me out, keep it challenging enough to keep me interested.

Start Date: 04/04/2018

Equipment:
  1. Tank: AIO tank - Nuvo 20g, with a black glossy stand
  2. Light: 1 Kessil A160WE with controller
  3. ATO: Innovative Marine Hydrofill Ti + Tom's aqualifter
  4. Filteration: IM custom caddies, Purigen, IM ghost skimmer
  5. Heater: Aqueon pro 100W
  6. Return pump: Sicce Syncra 0.5 (185 gph)
  7. Flow: 2 Jebao OW-10 powerheads, 2 VCA RFGs
  8. Sump light: Nicrew white LED
Livestock (excluding corals):
  1. Ocellaris clownfish x 2 (bonded pair)
  2. Blood red fire shrimp x 1
  3. Emerald crab x 1
  4. Astrea snails x 3
  5. Nassarius Snail x 1

Corals:
This is a mixed reef with softies, LPS and SPS, mostly ranging from easy to moderate care level.
In the high light section of the tank (200 - 300 PAR) I place most of my SPS like Green slimer, Purple stylophora, Pink Seriatopora, Montipora capricornis, Montipora Setosa, Rainbow Montipora, Bird of paradise, Bubble gum digitata, and 2 unknown acros. In the medium light section (100-200 PAR) section I have placed most of my euphyllia, Zoanthids, Green birdsnest and Duncans. In the low light section (below 100 PAR) I've placed pit viper leptastrea, jack-o-lantern leptoseris, and peach digitata. Given the good polyp extension, I assume the corals are happy with the placement.

Filteration:
I love using carbon and I am generous with its use. Both my IM custom caddies have carbon bags in the lower chamber. Mid section houses a phosphate removal sponge and top is a basic sponge. In the second chamber on one side I grow chaeto and the other side houses the IM Ghostskimmer. The chaeto is suspended directly and I peeled off the back to add light to this sump. I also use purigen bag in this tank. My water changes generally occur between 8-10 days, with about 10% water replaced.

Tank photo journal:
All the pictures of this tank right from its inception to date are in this album
https://photos.app.goo.gl/s8SuBPZKzVTXmZYD6

Credits:
This forum has been tremendously helpful to keep me hooked into this hobby. As much as I enjoy reefing, I do enjoy meeting people from this friendly group during the frag swaps and bar events. I appreciate the generosity of the members of this group. I am always astonished by the plethora of knowledge and experience of this club's members. Thank you all!

This tank journal was long overdue, but I am glad I started it. Would always appreciate feedback and tips for this tank!
 
In general, I think the overall coloration in the tank isn't as bright as I'd like it to be. I did start adding some acropower since last few months, I did notice improvement in growth. However coloration isn't any different.

I just dose about 1 - 2 ml about 2 times a week. With extra dose I have seen an outbreak of cyano and alage.

Wondering if PAR is too low. Last I measured, my SPS receive about 270 up top. The rocks on left and right are between 100 to 200. Sandbed on the side is between 50 - 120.

Ca is usually around 390 - 400
Mg at 1300
Kh around 8.3
 
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Over this weekend, we moved our apartment. The most difficult part was moving the aquarium. This made me reconsider my choice of hobby! I am surprised how people with bigger aquariums move their tanks. Moving this 20g tank was such a task. Wow.

Learnings:
1. Have more water handy than you think is enough. I ended up rinsing the substrate that exhausted a lot of water
2. Have a container that can hold most of your rock, especially the one that has encrusted coral.
3. Have your wiring figured out nicely. For me since I didn't have enough time during the move, most of my wiring in the new place is now a mess. I will need to sort this out after in the next few days. Invest time in planning your wiring. Next time I would have my switchboards, controllers and other stuff properly attached to the fish tank stand. So that I can move the entire stand easily and plugging back in is easier task.
4. Keep calm and get it done. Avoid multitasking. This is obvious, but with so much mess around you already with a house move, its helpful to stay focussed and move the tank safely.

Good things that came with the move:
1. I changed the aquascape that gives me more space! (Tempted to add coral, but that'll go against the tank philosophy)
2. The substrate was a mess over the last one year. Gave it a good thorough rinse. Didn't bother changing it though.
3. Cleaned up the back chambers of the tank, the return pump and the skimmer.
4. Got rid extraneous stuff from my hoardings over the last 2 years.


Will post pictures of the new aquascape in a few days.
 
I've been using 2 Jebao OW-10s for a few months now. The instructions with the included manual are really crappy. Found this video very helpful:

Happy with the new flow pattern using the master and slave mode.
 
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Not the cleanest organization for equipment, but much better than what I previously had.
The ATO pump pipes seem to be dangerous, I think I'll just move the Aqualifter pump to a different section of the closet.

IMG_20190304_204029.jpg
 
Lately its been very difficult to maintain Alk and Ca levels with growth of the stony corals. Even after adding kalkwasser to the ATO, the alkalinity drops by the end of the week before the water change is due. After a water change last week, my alk was around 7.5, 6 days later its now dropped too low to less than 5 :( (even with kalk solution for ATO).

Considering to add a dosing pump, but I feel it would be an additional complexity for a nano tank.
 
I agree with trying 2-part dosing. Also, I would consider doing a bigger routine water change, like 25%. 10% seems small for both replenishing desirable components and exporting the undesirable.
 
@JVU @MolaMola Thats true. However, when the Kalkwasser in ATO solution worked, I was happy that I had to refill the container only once in 2 weeks during which the alk and Ca needs were taken care off. That is especially helpful when on a vacation. I'll fix my params manually over the next few weeks and see how this routine works out.
 
Tank update 02/05/21

Been a while since I posted any updates to this journal. With updates in my life outside the reef keeping hobby, I lost track of time!
In this update, I'll capture most of what's being going on with the tank over the last 8 months!

RIP Sebastian :(
Before I start with the update, I'd like to take a short minute to remember Sebastian. Early this year I lost our beloved fire shrimp Sebastian. Sebastian was the first inhabitant of any of my tanks. He (or an occasional she, being a hermaphrodite) lived for about 3 years and 6 months after I first introduced him to my small 8 gallon tank and then moved over to this current tank. When fellow aquarist talked about personalities of various critters, I initially did not understand it. As Sebastian lived with us over the years, we noticed the subtleties in his behavior and got to know his personality. People say fire shrimps are shy, but not this little guy. Definitely an extrovert. I miss feeding him by hand. I've got a lot of first memories with this little one and he has taught me so much about the hobby.

Rest in peace dear Sebastian, you will be missed dearly.

Here is an image of the first molt (in my tank)!
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Tank update:

After Sebastian passed, honestly I didn't feel I'd be so bummed. However, a lot of my motivation started declining and the tank suffered some neglect because of that. The two clowns and all those lovely corals must've been angry at me. The water changes were now way out of schedule. At one point, I hadn't changed the water for around 10 weeks. The tank had gathered cyano, turf algae and GHA. The tank had stopped giving me a lot of joy when I looked at it. Snails had started looking like blobs of algae strutting across the glass. One day I started looking at the pictures of the older state of the tank and I got all 'woke' again!

Over the last month, I've battled the cyano and its almost gone. The algae is going away and corals are at a full bloom. The clowns too look energetic and so do I!

The treasured piece of coral I currently have is a yellow hammer which I love to watch in full bloom. When I got it around a year and half ago it had 2 heads. Now we are at about 6 heads.
Here is a picture:
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My next favorite is a Maxima clam which is so relieved to see the Ca levels go back to normal. So satisfying to see it fully extended!
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The next favorite is a colony of rainbow acans which has done really well. Got it at 3 heads from a friend, now there are close to 20 grown over the last year and half.
Screen Shot 2021-02-06 at 12.10.08 AM.png




About a year and half ago I gave away most of my fully grown colonies of SPS (easy ones). Now I am thinking of getting back. Sticking to the tank philosophy mentioned in post #1, I plan to add SPS that are easy/mildly challenging to keep. I miss the pink seriatopora for its lovely growth pattern. I am also been fascinated by millepora which I so much want to try out.

Current stocking:
1. Euphyllias: Yellow (more like yellowish-green) hammer, purple tip hammer, micro hammer and few more branching hammers
2. Zoanthids: Bambams, Utter chaos, SunnyDs and few more varieties
3. SPS: Green birdsnest, purple stylophora, Peach digitata, Forest fire digitaga, a variety of blue on red montipora (need to id it)
4. Rainbow acan colony
5. Duncan colony
6. Yellow Ricordea florida mushroom
7. Some colony of Xenia (haters gonna hate!)
8. Maxima Clam
9. A clown pair
10. Cleaner shrimp (Sebastian's successor)
11. A mexican turbo snail
12. 2 Astreas
13. 1 Nassarius snail
14. 1 Scarlet legged hermit

Here is a picture of the tank in its current state. PS: I am still fighting some remaining algae which will take a few weeks, but I am feeling happy again with the progress since last month!
Screen Shot 2021-02-06 at 12.23.38 AM.png



My goal over the next few months is to try and grow out a good SPS colony on the central rock like how it was in the past year.
New additions I would soon love to add would be some medium level SPS.
 
hermit said:
New additions I would soon love to add would be some medium level SPS.
Click to expand...
Maybe a forest fire or bubble gum digitata? I like that they add some red to the tank.

Sorry about your loss, I get what you mean about it being harder than you expected. I felt the same way losing my blenny.
 
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