Thesassyindian's 13.5 gallon m̶o̶n̶e̶y̶ ̶p̶i̶t̶ nano mixed reef

[ridgebackreefer]

Just read through your whole journal! What a valuable experience you’ve amassed. It’s so cool seeing how much your first corals have grown. You’re giving me hope for my tank!

 

[thesassyindian]

Just read through your whole journal! What a valuable experience you’ve amassed. It’s so cool seeing how much your first corals have grown. You’re giving me hope for my tank!

Thanks so much for the kind words! If I can do it, it mustn’t be that hard :’D

 

[thesassyindian]

Was told that the tank peripherals were becoming an eyesore.

I think it turned out quite nice:

 

[Patio]

Looks nice!

 

[thesassyindian]

Haven't posted progress in a while, so here goes:

Pink Goniopora: August 2020 - October 2021

Red Monti Cap: Oct 2020 - Oct 2021

Also, a side tank shot:

 

[Reef-Geek]

The goni looks amazing, what's your secret? do you feed?

 

[thesassyindian]

The goni looks amazing, what's your secret? do you feed?

Thank you! I don’t target feed any corals. Just bi-weekly water changes and alkalinity dosing.

 

[DaddyHook]

Everything looks phenomenal. Running out of room.

 

[thesassyindian]

List of tank inhabitants as of today:

Fish/Inverts:

1. 2x Ocellaris Clowns
2. 1x Randalls Goby
3. 1x Candy Stripe Pistol Shrimp

Coral:

1. GSP
2. Green tipped torch
3. Pink goniopora
4. Eagle Eye zoa
5. Illuminati zoa
6. Rasta zoa
7. Orange Bam Bam zoa
8. Utter chaos zoa
9. Red monti cap
10. Orange acan lord
11. Red acan lord
12. Duncan
13. Frogspawn
14. Rainbow pocillopora
15. Forest fire digitata
16. Purple stylophora
17. Red planet acropora
18. Blue tipped stag
19. Garf bonsai acropora
20. Indo-Gold branching hammer

Cuc:

1. 1x Tiger Conch
2. 3x Nassarius snails
3. 2x Blue legged hermit crabs
4. 2x Adult Trochus snails
5. 8x Trochus snail babies (bred in the tank)

 

[thesassyindian]

Time to hunt for some bristleworms!

 

[IOnceWasLegend]

Time to hunt for some bristleworms!

View attachment 33348

I'm unfamiliar with this. How does it work?

 

[thesassyindian]

@IOnceWasLegend Here’s the second half.
Designed and printed a trap in PETG.
Piece of shrimp goes on the center cavity.
Sits at the bottom of the tank overnight.
Will check on the trap tomorrow morning.

 

[IOnceWasLegend]

@IOnceWasLegend Here’s the second half.
Designed and printed a trap in PETG.
Piece of shrimp goes on the center cavity.
Sits at the bottom of the tank overnight.
Will check on the trap tomorrow morning.

View attachment 33350

Coooool! Fingers crossed man.

 

[dochou]

Just curious, why do you want to remove the bristle worms?

 

[thesassyindian]

Just curious, why do you want to remove the bristle worms?

Great point! Not trying to get rid of all bristleworms, as much as the one large bristleworm that has decided to inhabit my Shrimp/Goby's burrow.

 

[thesassyindian]

Gotcha Sucker!
Now the goby and shrimp can live comfortably without a prickly cactus for a pillow.

Not bad for a 10min CAD spin

 

[thesassyindian]

Ok so I need to change this rats nest to a better, cleaner setup with some more sophisticated tank automation. I am afterall a Roboticist:

Current setup:
1. Kamoer single channel doser, dosing Alkalinity
2. Tank automation through a WiFi smart strip.
All stuffed into that black cable organizer under the additives.

New setup:
1. Apex+Trident
2. Single doser changed to Tropic Mario All-for-reef
3. DIY home brew cabinet.
See build thread here

 

[thesassyindian]

Something I would like to emphasize, are a couple of sensors that I've found. These work well with Home Assistant and don't need any specific/proprietary hub if you already have Home Assistant set up.
These cost $15 each, and have already alerted to a leak in my RO system that is set up under my bathroom sink.

The leak sensor is sitting under the filter stages of the RODI system, and the temperature sensor is sitting inside the new shiny Apex cabinet to monitor and alert me if the finicky Neptune systems act up.
Will post closeups in the build thread soon.

 

[thesassyindian]

Need to make space for the Apex probes in the tiny sump chambers, so need to move stuff around.

Current setup:

Proposed setup:
Is it OK if I reduce the ceramic media to 30% of what I have without severe repercussions?
FWIW, I do have rocks and sand in the tank.

 

[Patio]

If really worried about removing some of the ceramic, you could place some under the chemipure section that appears to be currently open space. But it would interfere with the intank rack sliding all the way down. Maybe a 3D printed little box to contain it cleanly so the intank can still slide all the way down.