Cali Kid Corals

JDs 24 Gallon

J

Jeepjohnny

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Even though I've had a SW tank since 2018 I still have a lot to learn about coral keeping.

Here's my 24 Gallon.

Its a AIO Aqua Japan has the rounded glass in the front which looks really nice IMO. I originally started this with some Caribsea Fiji pink sand, if I remember correctly.

Since I recently moved I tore the entire tank down and broke the rocks (dropped them like a dummy)... so it has new a new rock scape.

Current inhabitants are two Clowns, one Blue Damsil and a Blue leg hermit skulking around in there some where... maybe one Nassarius Snail made it through the move too.

Its currently cycling and lights will come on probably this weekend, after I get the water tested (my test kits have expired, so I need to buy new ones)

Equipment:
AJ-60 24 gallon glass AIO tank 23.6" x 15" x x 15.3"
Current USA Orbit Marine LED with controller (needs to be upgraded possibly I like the Kessil A160 or the Aqua Illumination Prime 16)
Aquatop 100w Titanium heater with controller
Reef Glass Nano skimmer (not currently in use, and I never got the hang of dialing this dang thing in anyway)
Return pump Aquatop SWP-820 (237 GPH)
and 2 Hydor Koralia 240GPH circulation pumps pointed directly at each other in the backish of the tank.

Future plans are to get this thing running to zero ammonia and add some clean up crew and maybe pods. Possibly some Chaeto down the road (the only issue i have is the AJ-60 "refugium" area in the back of the tank is only around 2.5 wide and 7" long for the one available compartment, so... not a whole lotta room back there)

Once that's done and stable I'll slowly start adding some corals in.... since I'm a beginner I'm open to suggestion on some hardy, easy mode corals... I do like Duncans though so definitely keeping them in mind. Other than that I'm thinking soft corals and LPS. corals that will be OK for my current cheepy led light.

Oh and maintenance schedule is weekly water change... once the tank is cycled ill be doing around 4 gallons / wk. (That's my current bucket limit) and I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt with RO/DI water from Neptune.

Cheers!

JD
 

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Welcome to BAR! If you end up going with the AI prime I recommend removing the lens and getting a 3DReefing diffuser. The factory lens almost always melts over time and this can cause some LEDs to burn out.
 
Welcome, Johnny. I would cycle with easy corals such as toadstools. No need to wait as they seem to like ammonia even better than nitrate. And it speeds up the process. Also, I would not use this salt. Started with this salt myself and they put too much stuff in there {specifically alkalinity] which will make parameters swing even more in a nano tank. Red Sea Blue Bucket, Tropic Marin Pro [what I use], and Instant Ocean are all better choices IMO.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll Monitor the parameters closely... Unfortunately I have a basically brand new (few months old) 5G bucket of the Coral Pro that will take me quite some time to get through. So I'm stuck with it for the time being.

Its funny you say that though, because although I do try to mix up the salt in the bucket before adding it to the water (to account for settling and what not)... the last bucket of the Coral Pro I had, towards the bottom of the bucket, was testing way higher salinity in the mix and I had to adjust how much of it I was putting in. I just caulked that up to it not being mixed up well enough in the bucket.
 
small update

Just had my tank water tested... here are the results. (its probably good to mention that the sand and the ceramic bio media I was running before the move / tear down is the same, I didn't replace those, just the rocks only are new. The tank sat empty for 4 days before I had time to clean it and add new water. I filled the tank on Feb 4 so its hasn't been quite a month, and I did dump in a small bottle of Dr. Tim's one and only around Feb 10 or so).

Salinity: 24 1.024
Alkalinity: 13.1
Calcium: 442
Mag: 1002
Phosphate: 2.1
Ammonia: 0.1
Nitrate: 8
Nitrite: 0.0
PH:7.9

Shout out to the Neptune team, they seemed really busy but jumped on my water test immediately.

And I now have my own test kit so I can resume my own testing. Question: What types of tests do most people do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?
 
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Do you have the units of measure for those numbers? I'm assuming the phosphate is in ppm which is pretty high. Magnesium is very low and alkalinity is sky high. Salinity is a little low too (assuming it's not 24ppt but 1.024 s.g.).

Ammonia should be undetectable, but probably a test error.

I would consider doing some large water changes using seawater from Neptune since you're already getting your RODI there. That should help get you back in line. I'm talking 50% or more since you have a small tank. Just warm it up before doing a change (can literally warm the water jugs in the bathtub with hot water if you don't have an extra heater). When things are out of whack for my nano tanks, I often do this type of big change to get things back in line.

The other thing is that your Coral Pro salt mixes up to extreme Alk/Ca levels even at 35 ppt. Since you have low consumption corals, you shouldn't need that, but rather the blue bucket red sea salt.
 
No corals currently... the pic with corals was my old tank... I removed it from the chat to be clear.

I assume PPM but I didnt ask

I was planning on doing a water change this weekend... I can easily grab some sea water from Neptune.

And Looks like there will be a 5g bucket of Coral Pro for sale coming soon... lol... anyone interested?

JD
 
Quick update. I took the @Darkxerox advice and performed a mass water change this weekend. I added 10 gallons of sea water from Neptune. Without getting super nerdy on the actual volume of water, (considering displacement form rocks/sand and yada yada), that 10 gallons was what looked to be a bit more than 50%. I also picked up some test kits at the same time.

My test results as follows:

Salinity: 1.025
dKH: 11
Calcium: not tested
Mag: not tested
Phosphate: 1.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2
PH:7.8

I'm thinking another 50% change in a few weeks. and I'll pick up some of the Tropic Marine Pro this weekend for my weekly water changes.

(the interesting thing was the nitrate test. Neptune tested it at 8ppm and I tested at 2ppm, matching the colors as best I could. Logically, I would think a 50% change that should have only read 4ppm, not 2ppm. Am I wrong with that math? I may actually take some more water over and have Neptune test again, just to see if the results were similar to my own).


Thanks for the advice!


Hoping to have this tank ready for some corals soon!

JD
 
Numbers look better, note that phosphate can take a bit to clear due to it potentially having reservoirs in your tank's substrates. Nitrate kits are notoriously hard to read and honestly anything at your level up to 50ppm (some run higher with no issues).

If you get that skimmer up and running it might help a bit with controlling waste as well. As does feeding more frozen food vs. pellets (dry food has a lot of phosphate).
 
small update. after waiting "patiently" for my copepods (which got stuck in Spark, NV due to the blizzard over I-80 this weekend)... I was finally able to add the Galaxy pods in and lights are on now.

Also added a small amount of Chaeto ... then I noticed this....

It looks like the baffle (plastic between the display and the refug parts of the tank) has separated a wee bit. How could I fix this? I was thinking some of the gel glue from BRS... Any ideas??
 

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I would just do a ghetto fix. Like find a thin piece of plastic sheet. Shove it between the glass and the sand side. Call it good.
The real fix would be to drain it. And reseal it.
As they say. The squeeze isn’t worth the juice.
I vote ghetto fix and move on. If the sand keeps leaking to the pump side then consider the real fix.
Or you could try silicone in the water but I’ve never done that. Maybe someone who has can chime in.
 
It's hard to bond plastic to glass well. I'd probably just leave it since you really can't do much while the tank is running wet.
 
Jeepjohnny said:
small update. after waiting "patiently" for my copepods (which got stuck in Spark, NV due to the blizzard over I-80 this weekend)... I was finally able to add the Galaxy pods in and lights are on now.

Also added a small amount of Chaeto ... then I noticed this....

It looks like the baffle (plastic between the display and the refug parts of the tank) has separated a wee bit. How could I fix this? I was thinking some of the gel glue from BRS... Any ideas??
Click to expand...

That would annoy me more than annything just cause the look :p and where the seal is busted, there’s a chance you can get sand in your pump’s impeller and scratch the hell outta it and get little micro shards of impeller in the tank. There’s a reason I know this. ;)

If the tank is under warranty, see if you can just get a replacement. Easy enough to swap a 24G tank. If not under warranty, I’d probably drain it and fix it since the tank size is manageable and doesn’t seem like you have too much livestock yet.
 
Probably not under warranty since I've had it a few years.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Drain it again was not want I wanted to hear but I think your probably right... now would be the best time to do that. I wish I would have saved up some more for a nice IM 30 AIO or something similar.
 
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