High Tide Aquatics

Max’s 30 gal

max_nano

Supporting Member
Switching to a IM tank but everything else will be the same. First 20 pages are of an acrylic 25g tank.

It’s been almost 1 year since I set up my first tank. I got into this hobby after growing up with a reef tank then seeing online that I could replicate it in in a 10 gal. I had a nuvo 10 for 3 months, then upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer 170 for 4 months, then I moved everything into a 24”x24”x12” frag tank and fell in love with the shallow tank style. I did almost completely set up a 90 cube but it was too big for my apartment so I got a somewhat custom 25 gal AIO. here’s the setup I’ll have to run this tank:

Lights: G4 XR30 supplemented by 2 24” aliexpress 470nm led bars that are dimmable via a BoB and dimmable power supply controlled by my GHL
Return pump: Sicce 1.0 to soft tube
Powerhead: ai nero 5, planning to add another
Filtration: so far just floss and some rubble in the return chamber, I’m looking into biomedia options and looking at media reactors and skimmers for AIO
Dosing: GHL 2.1 SA doser
Alk monitor: KHG pro
Controller: GHL profilux mini with power bar
ATO: Smart ATO micro
Stand: Overkill aluminum stand that one day will hold a 90 cube, one day....


Dosing plan:
Acropower 1ml/day
Flatworm stop
TM All-for-reef until I run out, then I’ll look at other options

stocking plan:
My two clowns (Buddy and Asshole, guess which ones the female)
My yellow eyed blenny (Shy Guy)
Cleaner shrimp (Jacques)
2 Sexy Shrimp
2 Mexican turbo snails
2 astea snails
2 trochus snails
Lots of pods (eventually, gotta seed the tank)

tank goals: I want to grow out SPS frags, and maybe grow some zoas on the bottom. The shallow depth might make some interesting growth patterns

for now I have the lights held up by the old stand for my other frag tank, but hooks will arrive for ceiling mounting on Thursday
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Moved some more corals in from the holding tank. I’m waiting on an order of glue to get some pieces mounted on the rocks. I know this is probably too blue for some people’s taste but I’m loving the color pop it adds. I do have the white channel higher than normal for AB+ but the current light mounting puts the xr30 too close to the water to spread the white as much as the bars can spread the blues. Once I can raise it up and I finally get around to wiring the dimmable power supply for the light bars I’ll be able to get the lights more blended.
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Moved some more corals in from the holding tank. I’m waiting on an order of glue to get some pieces mounted on the rocks. I know this is probably too blue for some people’s taste but I’m loving the color pop it adds. I do have the white channel higher than normal for AB+ but the current light mounting puts the xr30 too close to the water to spread the white as much as the bars can spread the blues. Once I can raise it up and I finally get around to wiring the dimmable power supply for the light bars I’ll be able to get the lights more blended.
View attachment 17849
looks like its already full... time for an upgrade! :D
 
Moved some more corals in from the holding tank. I’m waiting on an order of glue to get some pieces mounted on the rocks. I know this is probably too blue for some people’s taste but I’m loving the color pop it adds. I do have the white channel higher than normal for AB+ but the current light mounting puts the xr30 too close to the water to spread the white as much as the bars can spread the blues. Once I can raise it up and I finally get around to wiring the dimmable power supply for the light bars I’ll be able to get the lights more blended.
View attachment 17849

What power supply is that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
What power supply is that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
So with that driver and the GHL BoB I can dim the led bars using the P Mini

looks like its already full... time for an upgrade! :D
Lol, lots of empty rocks to fill up once my glue arrives. And I have two more racks I haven’t put in yet. But it will fill up quick, after the battlebox I’m gonna try my best to not add more. We’ll see how long that lasts...
 
I got my lights hanging from the ceiling today. I have two hooks on anchors and was able to get the other two hooks into joists for a stronger hold. I will need to try and move the whole stand an inch to the left to center the tank under the lights better, I mounted the lights based on a beam for symmetry. I will probably do that during a water change, and I’ll just remove more water so it can be moved.
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I’m also thinking I should change the orientation of the radion to match the orientation of the tank. Luckily the 8020 frame they’re on is super easy to move around
 
Looking good! Any particular reason for hanging the light from 4 points instead of 2 on the beam with a y out the the corners of the light? 4 points is obviously more stable, but i suspect it would be fine either way.
 
Looking good! Any particular reason for hanging the light from 4 points instead of 2 on the beam with a y out the the corners of the light? 4 points is obviously more stable, but i suspect it would be fine either way.
I was expecting to only be using wing anchors so I wanted to distribute the weight because I wasn’t sure how strong the Sheetrock is. Better safe than all my lights in the tank haha
 
I don’t have a top on this tank and found the yellow eyed blenny on the ground this morning. I’m guessing the female clown chased it out. Sad discovery, it’s my first jumper. Gonna stick to just the pair of clowns and CUC for now I think
 
I got my superglue so I added stuff to the rock work at the front glass. My idea was to build these tall and attach pieces to the side. This is where I will put things that prefer lower flow and lower light. They still receive random flow bouncing off the front panel from the Nero on random mode, but it should shelter them so I can turn up the flow.
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On a not so fun note: I had a two torts RTN, but I am hoping the water change I did today helps. I think all my corals have been through a lot during this process of moving and then upgrading tanks.
 
I am trying to go slow with this tank transfer and dip everything in an attempt to have a pest free tank, emphasis on attempt.
haha I knew it wouldn’t last, I saw spots on a Goni so I dipped it and found flatworms. I don’t think I have many, maybe just new worms from eggs? I think I’ll do flatworm exit to deal with it. Shouldn’t be too hard cause I could do a large water change without much work and I can run a large bag of carbon in the back chambers.
Here’s a pic of the two flatworms I got out in the dip. I think they’re acoel FW because of the two tips, brown color, and they were on a Goni. But let me know if you think it’s something different!
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I got my G4 on Mobius which will make adjusting my lighting easier. It was a painless process and now I can freak out my fish with disco mode
 
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