26 gallon Red Sea Max Nano Peninsula Build Thread
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LilElroyJetson
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Good looking tank! Nanos are awesome.
Gumbies R Us
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Nice looking clowns!A nice shot from Day 115
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JohnNYC8
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Thank you! They have big personalities and like to move sand around. They still wont let the neon blue goby near them to clean parasites but they aren't aggressive back.
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JohnNYC8
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Day 116:
In honor of Jake Adams' birthday yesterday I did a big 6 gallon water change, changed out my filter sock and changed out my RowaPhos. I cleaned the old filter sock with tap water and then soaked it in a RO/Peroxide mix. I'll probably settle into cleaning/changing out the sock every 2 weeks. My phosphates are stable at .32 and the corals look good so I'm not going to change my routine or mess with my chemistry.
The Ice Tort acropora is starting to grow and I have the Reef LED 50 on acclimation ramping up. I'm currently at 56% Blue 7% white ramping to a peak of 65% blue and 10% white over 30 days.
I really need to rent a PAR meter to check out my numbers. I'd like to replace the Reef LED 50 with a Radion G6 XR15 or XR30 to cut down on shadowing but I don't want to fry my corals on the switch. I'll also need the 3D printed part off eBay to relocate the control box for the Radions. I'm considering the Kessil AP9X because it'll be easier to mount on my AIO and have the same shimmer effect as the Reef LED 50. The AP9X would also have big coverage like an XR30.
The goniporas are super happy and all puffed out.
In honor of Jake Adams' birthday yesterday I did a big 6 gallon water change, changed out my filter sock and changed out my RowaPhos. I cleaned the old filter sock with tap water and then soaked it in a RO/Peroxide mix. I'll probably settle into cleaning/changing out the sock every 2 weeks. My phosphates are stable at .32 and the corals look good so I'm not going to change my routine or mess with my chemistry.
The Ice Tort acropora is starting to grow and I have the Reef LED 50 on acclimation ramping up. I'm currently at 56% Blue 7% white ramping to a peak of 65% blue and 10% white over 30 days.
I really need to rent a PAR meter to check out my numbers. I'd like to replace the Reef LED 50 with a Radion G6 XR15 or XR30 to cut down on shadowing but I don't want to fry my corals on the switch. I'll also need the 3D printed part off eBay to relocate the control box for the Radions. I'm considering the Kessil AP9X because it'll be easier to mount on my AIO and have the same shimmer effect as the Reef LED 50. The AP9X would also have big coverage like an XR30.
The goniporas are super happy and all puffed out.
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JohnNYC8
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Day 117
I grabbed a few new corals from my LFS ReefCo. in Green Brook, NJ. I got a Fruity Pebbles tabling acro for the top of the tank, an Earth Day cyphastrea for the lower middle, a Miami Hurricane chalice and an unnamed $30 acan. Everything is doing well. I'm ramping the lights up to 70% blues 15% white now, 21 day acclimation. Nothing is bleaching and the pipe organ is taking as much light as I can give it up top.
I really need to add an XR30 for coverage but renting a PAR meter and buying 3D printed parts to relocate the RSM control box is a project I don't look forward to.
I also got a shipment of live phyto and Apocalypse pods (I know, I know, my pods are at capacity but they'll do some clean up and then turn into food). @AlgaeBarn gave me a free jar of pods (Thanks!
) so both went in last night after lights out. I'm dosing about 10ml of live phyto a day split between morning and afternoon. This is up from 5ml in the morning. I truly credit most of my tank's clean-up ability to my big pod population. I wake up to clean sand every morning and they get ~60% of the algae on the glass as well.
Nothing beats happy gonioporas
I grabbed a few new corals from my LFS ReefCo. in Green Brook, NJ. I got a Fruity Pebbles tabling acro for the top of the tank, an Earth Day cyphastrea for the lower middle, a Miami Hurricane chalice and an unnamed $30 acan. Everything is doing well. I'm ramping the lights up to 70% blues 15% white now, 21 day acclimation. Nothing is bleaching and the pipe organ is taking as much light as I can give it up top.
I really need to add an XR30 for coverage but renting a PAR meter and buying 3D printed parts to relocate the RSM control box is a project I don't look forward to.
I also got a shipment of live phyto and Apocalypse pods (I know, I know, my pods are at capacity but they'll do some clean up and then turn into food). @AlgaeBarn gave me a free jar of pods (Thanks!
) so both went in last night after lights out. I'm dosing about 10ml of live phyto a day split between morning and afternoon. This is up from 5ml in the morning. I truly credit most of my tank's clean-up ability to my big pod population. I wake up to clean sand every morning and they get ~60% of the algae on the glass as well.Nothing beats happy gonioporas
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JohnNYC8
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Day 118
I'm still researching my lighting change. I saw a great idea for a light mount in this thread. I think I'll go this route and use a single-stud, articulating TV mount to hang a Radion XR30, or Kessil AP9X, or something else from.
My phosphates are eerily stable. Over the past 4 days I've had readings of .32, .32 and .34. All of the corals look happy and I don't have nuisance algae so I guess this will be a high phosphate reef. I just need to watch out when my numbers go .4 or above, that's when I noticed major coral issues.
A shot with Scampi the cleaner shrimp, Fredo the neon goby, and Pizza and Penne the clownfish:
SPS at the top of the tank and the always-growing pipe organ coral
I'm still researching my lighting change. I saw a great idea for a light mount in this thread. I think I'll go this route and use a single-stud, articulating TV mount to hang a Radion XR30, or Kessil AP9X, or something else from.
My phosphates are eerily stable. Over the past 4 days I've had readings of .32, .32 and .34. All of the corals look happy and I don't have nuisance algae so I guess this will be a high phosphate reef. I just need to watch out when my numbers go .4 or above, that's when I noticed major coral issues.
A shot with Scampi the cleaner shrimp, Fredo the neon goby, and Pizza and Penne the clownfish:
SPS at the top of the tank and the always-growing pipe organ coral
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JohnNYC8
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Day 122:
I pulled the trigger on a Kessil A360x with the gooseneck and full motion mount. I have it angled towards the rockwork to cut down on shadowing. I love the light from the Kessil and I think I might get another to replace the ReefLED 50.
I sent away for another ICP test to see if I need to start any dosing. I took the test before my water change but I forgot to does some iodine for the day. It'll be interesting to see all the numbers. I'm hoping that 5 gallon weekly water changes in a 26gallon tank won't require any major dosing for a while.
I pulled the trigger on a Kessil A360x with the gooseneck and full motion mount. I have it angled towards the rockwork to cut down on shadowing. I love the light from the Kessil and I think I might get another to replace the ReefLED 50.
I sent away for another ICP test to see if I need to start any dosing. I took the test before my water change but I forgot to does some iodine for the day. It'll be interesting to see all the numbers. I'm hoping that 5 gallon weekly water changes in a 26gallon tank won't require any major dosing for a while.
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JohnNYC8
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Day 136
I don't have time to do a big update (there's a lot to update) but here's a shot of Ravioli the starry blenny munching on some nori.
I don't have time to do a big update (there's a lot to update) but here's a shot of Ravioli the starry blenny munching on some nori.
LBCBJ
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Nice looking tank! Might have missed it in the thread, but where did you get your lid, and how do you like it? Looking to eventually upgrade the basic screen cover that came with my Cade.
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JohnNYC8
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I got it from Clearvue Lids. It’s really nice. https://www.clearviewlids.com/
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JohnNYC8
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Nothing too bad so far. I credit 20% weekly water changes, adding clean up crew as needed, copepods and daily live phyto.did you completely skip the ugly stage lol hope i do
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JohnNYC8
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Day 142 Update
A lot has happened since my last major update so I’ll try to cover everything in one post.
First, a picture:
Running the Kessil A360x on a gooseneck next to the RedSea ReefLED 50 has been great. I'm getting great coverage and a clear increase in SPS growth. I have the Kessil peaking out at 42% and the ReefLED 50 at 40%. I acclimated to those levels slowly.
My phosphates are finally dropping *heavenly chorus of angels*. They went from .32 on Day 126, .24 on Day 130, .17 on Day 134, .14 on Day 137 and now they’re at .12. I’ll closely monitor the numbers since the trend is rapidly declining. I won’t change out my RowaPhos until I see things level off or start to rise. I'll pull the RowaPhos if the rapid trend continues. I'd like to settle in anywhere under .1 but I'll let the tank find it's own balance and not obsess over numbers.
I got my second ICP results back and with advice from Randy Holmes-Farley started dosing Tropic Marin A and K trace elements. The next day my JF vino monti went from drab brown (I thought it was dead) to starting to color up. I’ll edit with a before and after picture when I have a moment to comb through old pics. I didn't take many pics of the vino monti when it looked like dead rock. I eventually want to dose All For Reef but my 5 gallon weekly water changes are keeping enough calcium and alkalinity in the tank for now.
The only issue with corals I’m having is soft tissue rescission on my space invader pectinia. It’s very odd because its laying down new skeleton but not covering it with tissue. Hopefully the dosing of trace elements turns things around. They're on the bottom right of the rock work, not looking so great.
I picked up the Reef Genetics Phytoplankton Royale Flush Combo Pack from @TopShelfAquatics and I dosed it in the afternoon. I was dosing 5ml @AlgaeBarn OceanMagik in the morning and 60ml Reef Genetics (20ml of each strain) in the afternoon until I ran out of the Reef Genetics phyto. I'm now back to 5ml OceanMagik in the morning and 5ml in the afternoon. I don't know if it's because I'm literally adding 60ml of the Reef Genetics vs. 5ml for the OceanMagik but it seemed to make my copepod population explode. It could be also simply be where my pods were in their lifecycle. I'll probably order more Reef Genetics because it does the job but the OceanMagik is just more practical for everyday use. It also comes in an easy-to-dose container.
I added a starry blenny two weeks ago from Dr. Reef and he’s doing great. He’s definitely the boss of the tank but no stress/aggression issues with the other fish. He eats nori from a clip and now sits on the clip and begs for food. He’ll stare at me and bite at the empty clip to ask for a refill. He also lets the blue neon goby and cleaner shrimp clean him which is something the clownfish will never do. I'm still trying to figure out how much I should feed him because he'll eat all day and ask for more.
Here’s Ravioli the starry blenny:
And here's Ravioli on his clip begging for food:
And a shot from last week:
I added 5 Nassarius Snails to aerate the sandbed and to help with cleanup. I also added a peppermint shrimp to take care of any aptasia that may find its way back in the system and an emerald crab to keep bubble algae to a minimum. I tried to find the nudibranchs before I added the shrimp but they were nowhere to be found. They were brave sea slugs who won the first battle with aptasia and who hopefully won the war.
I plan to start cleaning my sand bed in 6"x6" areas when I do my weekly water changes so I don't kick up too much detritus. The sand bed isn't bad but it looks amazing when it's super clean.
I picked up an alveopora and another unnamed $30 acan from ReefCo. in Green Brook, NJ and they're doing well.
Here are some pictures from Day 142 (files incorrectly named "Day 144")
A lot has happened since my last major update so I’ll try to cover everything in one post.
First, a picture:
Running the Kessil A360x on a gooseneck next to the RedSea ReefLED 50 has been great. I'm getting great coverage and a clear increase in SPS growth. I have the Kessil peaking out at 42% and the ReefLED 50 at 40%. I acclimated to those levels slowly.
My phosphates are finally dropping *heavenly chorus of angels*. They went from .32 on Day 126, .24 on Day 130, .17 on Day 134, .14 on Day 137 and now they’re at .12. I’ll closely monitor the numbers since the trend is rapidly declining. I won’t change out my RowaPhos until I see things level off or start to rise. I'll pull the RowaPhos if the rapid trend continues. I'd like to settle in anywhere under .1 but I'll let the tank find it's own balance and not obsess over numbers.
I got my second ICP results back and with advice from Randy Holmes-Farley started dosing Tropic Marin A and K trace elements. The next day my JF vino monti went from drab brown (I thought it was dead) to starting to color up. I’ll edit with a before and after picture when I have a moment to comb through old pics. I didn't take many pics of the vino monti when it looked like dead rock. I eventually want to dose All For Reef but my 5 gallon weekly water changes are keeping enough calcium and alkalinity in the tank for now.
The only issue with corals I’m having is soft tissue rescission on my space invader pectinia. It’s very odd because its laying down new skeleton but not covering it with tissue. Hopefully the dosing of trace elements turns things around. They're on the bottom right of the rock work, not looking so great.
I picked up the Reef Genetics Phytoplankton Royale Flush Combo Pack from @TopShelfAquatics and I dosed it in the afternoon. I was dosing 5ml @AlgaeBarn OceanMagik in the morning and 60ml Reef Genetics (20ml of each strain) in the afternoon until I ran out of the Reef Genetics phyto. I'm now back to 5ml OceanMagik in the morning and 5ml in the afternoon. I don't know if it's because I'm literally adding 60ml of the Reef Genetics vs. 5ml for the OceanMagik but it seemed to make my copepod population explode. It could be also simply be where my pods were in their lifecycle. I'll probably order more Reef Genetics because it does the job but the OceanMagik is just more practical for everyday use. It also comes in an easy-to-dose container.
I added a starry blenny two weeks ago from Dr. Reef and he’s doing great. He’s definitely the boss of the tank but no stress/aggression issues with the other fish. He eats nori from a clip and now sits on the clip and begs for food. He’ll stare at me and bite at the empty clip to ask for a refill. He also lets the blue neon goby and cleaner shrimp clean him which is something the clownfish will never do. I'm still trying to figure out how much I should feed him because he'll eat all day and ask for more.
Here’s Ravioli the starry blenny:
And here's Ravioli on his clip begging for food:
And a shot from last week:
I added 5 Nassarius Snails to aerate the sandbed and to help with cleanup. I also added a peppermint shrimp to take care of any aptasia that may find its way back in the system and an emerald crab to keep bubble algae to a minimum. I tried to find the nudibranchs before I added the shrimp but they were nowhere to be found. They were brave sea slugs who won the first battle with aptasia and who hopefully won the war.
I plan to start cleaning my sand bed in 6"x6" areas when I do my weekly water changes so I don't kick up too much detritus. The sand bed isn't bad but it looks amazing when it's super clean.
I picked up an alveopora and another unnamed $30 acan from ReefCo. in Green Brook, NJ and they're doing well.
Here are some pictures from Day 142 (files incorrectly named "Day 144")
Last edited:
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JohnNYC8
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Day 147:
I'm super excited to see noticeable SPS growth and coralline algae spreading on my rockwork. It wasn't easy getting this mixed reef going for a fist-timer but it's really nice to see it start to finally come together. I have to give most of the credit to this forum, Jake Adams videos, Tidal Gardens videos, and the BRS videos on Youtube.
Phosphates are at .15 so I fed a 1/2 tsp Benereef, .5ml Reef Energy AB+, TDO pellets, 5ml OceanMagik, and some nori for Ravioli the starry blenny. Over the past week I'm starting to see the phosphates stabilize between .13 and .15.
I'll start changing out my filter socks every week. I've seen people go as short as every 4 days in a Red Sea Max Nano but I think that may be excessive for my bioload and feeding routine. I'd love to have my phosphates stabilize around this range and I really don't want excess nutrients to build up again. Changing from mostly frozen mysis and brine feedings to TDO pellets has been a major factor in nutrient input/control.
I'll continue the 5ml OceanMagik in the morning and 5ml in the evening. I'll also order another jar of Galaxy Pods from @AlgaeBarn with my next delivery of OceanMagik. I know I probably maxed out my pod population but I really credit a lot of my super-mild ugly phase and continued success to these little heroes. I figure that if I'm short on any one type of pod the Galaxy pod mix will increase my diversity.
I'll keep ordering the Reef Genetics Royal Flush phyto pack from @TopShelfAquatics every month or two to mix things up but price-wise the OceanMagik just makes more sense for every day use in a tank my size.
Certain corals have been looking better since dosing trace elements. I'm working my way up to a 1ml daily dose of A and K. I'm currently dosing .5ml of A and K daily. I'm not seeing any increase in nuisance algae. I'll do another ICP test before a water change later this month to keep an eye on my trace elements and alk/calcium consumption.
The emerald crab molted already and has been taking care of my bubble algae. The peppermint shrimp and bumblebee snails are cleaning up the vermatid snails. The vermatid snails never reached plague proportion, or got a foothold on the main rock work, so I'm happy about the job my CUC is doing.
I am seeing some single-filament Hydroid worms feeding in the evening but they don't seem to be irritating the corals they touch. Hopefully the peppermint shrimp turns its attention to these or they run out of nutrients and fade away.
A quick shot from this morning during benereef feeding time:
I'm super excited to see noticeable SPS growth and coralline algae spreading on my rockwork. It wasn't easy getting this mixed reef going for a fist-timer but it's really nice to see it start to finally come together. I have to give most of the credit to this forum, Jake Adams videos, Tidal Gardens videos, and the BRS videos on Youtube.
Phosphates are at .15 so I fed a 1/2 tsp Benereef, .5ml Reef Energy AB+, TDO pellets, 5ml OceanMagik, and some nori for Ravioli the starry blenny. Over the past week I'm starting to see the phosphates stabilize between .13 and .15.
I'll start changing out my filter socks every week. I've seen people go as short as every 4 days in a Red Sea Max Nano but I think that may be excessive for my bioload and feeding routine. I'd love to have my phosphates stabilize around this range and I really don't want excess nutrients to build up again. Changing from mostly frozen mysis and brine feedings to TDO pellets has been a major factor in nutrient input/control.
I'll continue the 5ml OceanMagik in the morning and 5ml in the evening. I'll also order another jar of Galaxy Pods from @AlgaeBarn with my next delivery of OceanMagik. I know I probably maxed out my pod population but I really credit a lot of my super-mild ugly phase and continued success to these little heroes. I figure that if I'm short on any one type of pod the Galaxy pod mix will increase my diversity.
I'll keep ordering the Reef Genetics Royal Flush phyto pack from @TopShelfAquatics every month or two to mix things up but price-wise the OceanMagik just makes more sense for every day use in a tank my size.
Certain corals have been looking better since dosing trace elements. I'm working my way up to a 1ml daily dose of A and K. I'm currently dosing .5ml of A and K daily. I'm not seeing any increase in nuisance algae. I'll do another ICP test before a water change later this month to keep an eye on my trace elements and alk/calcium consumption.
The emerald crab molted already and has been taking care of my bubble algae. The peppermint shrimp and bumblebee snails are cleaning up the vermatid snails. The vermatid snails never reached plague proportion, or got a foothold on the main rock work, so I'm happy about the job my CUC is doing.
I am seeing some single-filament Hydroid worms feeding in the evening but they don't seem to be irritating the corals they touch. Hopefully the peppermint shrimp turns its attention to these or they run out of nutrients and fade away.
A quick shot from this morning during benereef feeding time:
Last edited:
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JohnNYC8
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Day 156
I did a 5 gallon water change, changed out my filter sock, and changed out my RowaPhos and Carbon. I'm still dosing a A and K trace elements and don't see any signs of nuisance algae. I'm dosing .5ml of each for my 26 gallon tank. Things are looking good. I rearranged some corals and got another Ice Tort frag for up top. Everything is looking pretty good.
Picture from day 156:
I did a 5 gallon water change, changed out my filter sock, and changed out my RowaPhos and Carbon. I'm still dosing a A and K trace elements and don't see any signs of nuisance algae. I'm dosing .5ml of each for my 26 gallon tank. Things are looking good. I rearranged some corals and got another Ice Tort frag for up top. Everything is looking pretty good.
Picture from day 156:
