On second note been trying to get to this for a while now but people who spend too much time buying stuff to fix issues they are making has been preventing me..
I wouldn’t run any media in your system. On a 20 nano the fuge should be more then enough with decent lighting. They are also likely storing nutrients in them. On my 10g I run the aq70 with intank backer. I use poly for first chamber, removed the decider between 2-3 and placed some crushed coral to help stabilize alk and cal.. (don’t know if this helps really but it can’t hurt and I got 3 buckets full in the garage lol) also gives young pods a place to live as we can’t use sand in a hob fuge lol) then there is my cheato. I have a 12w akne grow light I got off
amazon for $15 max.. I put four small dabs of super glue at the corners and stuck it to the outside of the filter over the fuge. I then use a cut piece of poly filter lad to keep the cheato stands from flowing into the tank as the holes in the intank basket are overly large imop. Since I have a scooter in the tank I buy algae barn 5250 monthly and pour half into the fuge w zero flow for 15min and half into the tank in the morning hours before lights turn on. It’s hard to keep a good old population on a hob setup although in the mornings I can see adult pods all through the cheato. I start with a golf ball size piece and have fuge is full in two weeks time. When I remove cheato o dip is gently in the tank wo flow to maybe get a few extra pods but don’t stir it so I’m not Introduxing detritus that it’s captures.
My aq70 is also running with the aq30 impeller mod to reduce flow as I got the bigger filter just for a bigger housing bot for flow. My flow should be similar to say the aq50 this way. I also removed the intake entirely and have an overflow box from pico. I recommend spending the money to get the ocebabox one. The pick one I had to cut in half cause it’s soo tall and plexiglass the bottom. It also doesn’t hold on very well. The magnetic attachment of the oceanbox alone is with the difference in cost and ship time.
Filter is on the side of the tank like one would place a wave maker and I’ve got a jeabo sw10 on the opposite side back glass on lowest wave pulse setting. This is highest flow setting I can manage with oolight super fine sand wo blowing it everywhere.
Tank is asleep now but for reference.. when I get up in am I’ll post a few more pics of how the filter and tank is setup. Just started adding corals this week so tank rock is bare but I need to test perameters in am too so I’ll post them with api as well so you can gauge them vs your testing.
This is by far the easiest, simplest and most effective nano setup there is. I don’t even mix my own salt for this tank cause it’s not worth my time for this tank as it’s so small I use imagination premix and Kent 2 part nano to get alk and cal where I want. After sand and rock holds 8.5ish gallons of water and I do a 32oz cup from kitchen weekly as my water change lol. Hell rodi? I’m using my zero water filter for daily 8-12 oz water top offs. Two corals I placed in are already growing new stalks. Don’t even have a good light I’m using a Fluval nano 3.0 lol.
What I’m getting at is I’m no expert but I have a lot of experience and I know what works and what doesn’t and I carry that over all my tanks freshwater and saltwater. I hate maintance and spent likely thousands of dollars trying to reduce nutrients on tanks so I don’t have to change the water as often cause I hate it. I’ve dont all the fancy media and restore.. two things work 100% and cost little and need min a month to maintain. Fuge and turf scrubbers.
This tank is 1 month old tomorrow I think? I should have algea and diatoms everywhere right? Especially with my way over feedings? Nope. Little diatom on glass in few spots. Just got wavemaker in this 2 days ago so that’s helping there.
Simple works when done right. The more equipment you have the more chances for something to fail. Only thing I have to do is keep a $8 impeller on hand should the aq fail.
You’re issue to me is clearly the corse sand. I have a freshwater turtle tank. (Turtles are the dirtiest marine animals in the planet) used this as a chickid juvie tank for years using river rock as a substrate so it was too big for the turtle to eat. I was fighting 160ppm + nitrates weekly with 90+% water changes weekly and sometime bi weekly on that tank. One day I removed all the river rock pebbles and did 90% water change and was going to clean the bed later when I had time. Succinylcholine tank was only getting 10ppm nitrates. I fought this tank for years cussing my brother in law for giving my kids these turtles. Soon as I removed the gravel the tank was manageable. They are now adults and I feed them 10x what I used to still use it as a juvie freshwater tank and top off about 5g of water a weeek and do maybe at best 4 month water changes and never go over 40ppm lol and I’ve taken off the fx6 and marine land 360 full of matrix media and I’m now running a $30 old school emperor 300 with factory inserts and little matrix mixed in.
Your substrate has sooooo much more to do with your tank water then anything else. Fine sand or bare bottom is the only way to go. Only people choosing bare over fine is cause they warn that extra flow to keep tank clean.
