29 Gal Nano

[lostcause]

I never intended to get into Marine tanks, however sometimes things just happen. About 6 months ago I decided to upgrade the freshwater tank in my daughters room. That turned into a disaster but that's also a different story and different build. I had intended to keep the 29 on standby to use as a quarantine/hospital tank int the guest room. My husband asked where I wanted it and I replied just put it downstairs I'll deal with it later.
I come downstairs to find it on the bar in the dining room, there goes my quarantine tank plans. So I tell my husband to pick out some fish to put in it. He shows me a Mandarin- thats a saltwater fish, an angelfish- also salt water, a male betta- freshwater but you can have exactly one, Royal Gramma - yet another saltwater fish,...so on and so forth. Finally he says never mind put what you want in there. So I contact my lfs, it's owner is a hobbyist and, as I've come to find out knowledgeable and honest. Is a 29 gal reef tank possilble? He says of course stop by when were open I'll walk you though it.
Sure enough I decide to give saltwater a go. I'll add posts with pictures below showing the progress of time so far.
The tank was originally setup in about mid-January/early-Febuary.

 

[lostcause]

While it cycled I added another rock.

 

[lostcause]

By the end of February it was cycled. I added the first few snails, which at first I was indifferent toward but I have grown attached to them and enjoy watching them clean the glass. Their oral discs are fascinating. I also jumped the gun and added corals and a BTA that is still in the tank and just split a week ago.
By this point we had added a Reef Octopus Classic 1000HOB and a second powerhead of the same make and model and had pulled the Fluval filter.
The second power head was prompted by a cyanobacteria outbreak due to starting the tank with tap water. After cycling all top offs and water changes have been done with RODI water.

 

[lostcause]

By mid March we added a neotherm heater and the first two fish, a pair of Clarkii clownfish. The first of the green coraline algae appeared. I began adding copepods with the eventual goal of adding a pair of Mandrins.

 

[lostcause]

Last month, in April we added the Mandrins- have been adding a bottle of copepods a week. The female clown found her anemone. Various coral have been added along the way.

 

[KorD]

Sorry I'm late to this build.. welcome to R2R!
Nice looking tank, but one thing to remember, slow in saltwater is better. I and many others have learnt the hard way.

I also have a 29 gal tank, and it is a anemone clownfish tank only. Ok.. I have a couple zoas also because they are cute.
At one time I was operating and caring for 7 saltwater tanks. Smallest one being a 2 gallon pico, largest was a 29 gal.

 

[lostcause]

Sorry I'm late to this build.. welcome to R2R!
Nice looking tank, but one thing to remember, slow in saltwater is better. I and many others have learnt the hard way.

I also have a 29 gal tank, and it is a anemone clownfish tank only. Ok.. I have a couple zoas also because they are cute.
At one time I was operating and caring for 7 saltwater tanks. Smallest one being a 2 gallon pico, largest was a 29 gal.

Not so much late as essentially each post represents a different month of progress in the tank. For the most part other than maintenance I'm probably going to leave it alone for about the next three months. I'm about to start a second tank in a 50 gallon. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Stang67]

Oh following along. I had the same thing happen. I started a few months ago with a 29 as well. This is a great forum and everyone is super nice. Good luck!!! [emoji16]

 

[lostcause]

It's been a minute since I did an update on this tank.
In May I added an elegance coral, a cali tort, as well as a few others. A hybrid cleaner goby was also added.
This month (June) a tuxedo urchin and a lemon peel chromis were added to the tank. Unfortunately when we went out of town the Alk went out of whack and dropped to 6.75. I did the normal waterchange thinking that would fix it but by the next water change it was back down to 6.7 again. After consulting with my local reef store I did a 15 gal water change. The alk is now back up to 8.4 and is due for the scheduled weekly water change tomorrow. I will measure alk before and after the water change and divide by the number of days to figure out how much I'm loosing so I can ensure this hopefully doesnt happen again. Unfortunately due to this I lost my cali tort.
Theres been an outbreak of bubble algae and vermitrid snails. So I'm focusing on removing them as I see them whenever they are in spots I can get to.

 

[jk_s124]

Do you have an auto top off (ATO) setup on your system? If not, I would highly recommend researching them and investing in one. One benefit is you can add a small amount of kalkwasser, which is relatively inexpensive, to your top off water. This creates limewater that raises your ph and helps to replenish alkalinity and calcium levels. Bulk reef supply has directions and calculators to help. You may not need to do this yet, but if you do wish to keep some sps corals it may help. Also, what kind of light are you using?

 

[lostcause]

I have not set up an ATO I just manually top it off each evening as nessecary. The tank has a Kessil A360W over it.

 

[Staticx0216]

How are the mandarins doing? That's awesome if they are eating and doing well. I know a lot of ppl that have struggled with them.

 

[lostcause]

So far they are doing great the male has gotten so big especially compared to the female. For about a month before I got them I dumped a bottle of copepods every week in the tank and continued for about 2 months afterwards. I'm working on culturing my own pods now. Definately helps that I started with captive bred.

 

[Staticx0216]

So far they are doing great the male has gotten so big especially compared to the female. For about a month before I got them I dumped a bottle of copepods every week in the tank and continued for about 2 months afterwards. I'm working on culturing my own pods now. Definately helps that I started with captive bred.

That's awesome. Glad to hear!!!! They have always been a species of fish that Ive wanted to do. But just afraid to step up to it. My wife loves them. They are always the first fish she looks for whenever we go out and browse the lfs.

 

[lostcause]

They're the whole reason I was willing to dive in to Reef tanks, them and SPS.

 

[lostcause]

So progress has been made. I restored the alk to the 8 range by doing a 15 gal water change. Then three days later I measured alk pre-water change and post-water change (5 gal). Did the math of reading after large water change minus pre-water change, divided by three and discovered that I am losing about .25ppm alk per day. So after a trip to the reef store I have T5 retrofit and the BRS dosing kit inbound. One of the Sicce powerheads has been replaced by a Ecotech MP10.

 

[lostcause]

I've been having an issue with algae in the sand of the tank. I've vacuumed it out twice now and had the LFS check for me. So looks like a large water change is in order. I alos managed to accidentally bleach exactly half of my Cali tort due to dosing alk on that side of the tank and it all being blown at it due to the power head. Hopefully it will recover. If not it will be a learning experience.

 

[aqua_code]

The hardest part about a nano of this size is keeping the water parameters stable. With 3 fish in this tank you will struggle to keep the phosphates down and the sand bed will gather alot of waste. You might want to consider snails or a fighting conch to keep the sand clean. I've kept a few tanks around this size and I just do bare bottom now to avoid issues.

You might want to consider adding a sump or drilling to increase the water volume. You will need something like GFO or chaeto pulling phosphates out of the water column and rocks.

 

[lostcause]

I'm considering upgrading to a 60 cube with a sump at this point. I do have several 5 adult snails and a few of their mini-me's.

 

[aqua_code]

Look into nassarius snails. They usually target the sand. There are additives to lower phosphate as well, but they add aluminum to the water which is undesired. A good skimmer helps alot too. Really impressive turn out for a first try at this.