Coralife 16 gallon Mini Reef

Chris Nano Reef · May 31, 2023

This is my little piece of the reef. Tank is a year and a half old now and doing well so far. I had a 40 gallon reef many years ago and I lost it all. It’s a long story but after the loss I decided to give up and sell the equipment. My son who at the time I setup the 16 gallon had just watched Finding Nemo and wanted a nemo fish. That’s how I got back into the hobby. Was just going to be fish only then was just going to be zoas only and now it’s starting to become a mixed reef. We all know how that goes. Started with the stock LED’s and they were fine for the zoas but I wanted more coral and better lights so I upgraded to the Radion XR15 G6 Blue. Currently have it running at 50% red and white channels at 35% and the rest at 100%. Corals seem to love it. Started at 40% and increased it 1% everyday to every other day until I hit 50%. Would like to get it up to about 70% to hit the par I want to keep most corals. Rented a par meter from my LFS to set it up and take measurements at 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 & 100%. Light is on the rms arm about 8-9 inches above water level. I do about 2.5 gallon water changes every week in sundays. Right now I’m just enjoying being back in it and moving slow and steady.

There’s a clown fish, sapphire damsel, conch ( he’s my favorite named Hover) and several snails mixed in. Feed reef roids, frozen mysis and TDO

Photo dump below: full tank, some of the coral (there are some blue coral that was impossible to photograph) & par readings. The par reading in the bottom left was not accurate. There was something affecting the reading there maybe from light bleed from a nearby window or the way I was holding it in that spot. The other reading I feel confident are good.
Used Apogee MQ-200

Gumbies R Us · May 31, 2023

Chris Nano Reef said:
This is my little piece of the reef. Tank is a year and a half old now and doing well so far. I had a 40 gallon reef many years ago and I lost it all. It’s a long story but after the loss I decided to give up and sell the equipment. My son who at the time I setup the 16 gallon had just watched Finding Nemo and wanted a nemo fish. That’s how I got back into the hobby. Was just going to be fish only then was just going to be zoas only and now it’s starting to become a mixed reef. We all know how that goes. Started with the stock LED’s and they were fine for the zoas but I wanted more coral and better lights so I upgraded to the Radion XR15 G6 Blue. Currently have it running at 50% red and white channels at 35% and the rest at 100%. Corals seem to love it. Started at 40% and increased it 1% everyday to every other day until I hit 50%. Would like to get it up to about 70% to hit the par I want to keep most corals. Rented a par meter from my LFS to set it up and take measurements at 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 & 100%. Light is on the rms arm about 8-9 inches above water level. I do about 2.5 gallon water changes every week in sundays. Right now I’m just enjoying being back in it and moving slow and steady.

There’s a clown fish, sapphire damsel, conch ( he’s my favorite named Hover) and several snails mixed in. Feed reef roids, frozen mysis and TDO

Photo dump below: full tank, some of the coral (there are some blue coral that was impossible to photograph) & par readings. The par reading in the bottom left was not accurate. There was something affecting the reading there maybe from light bleed from a nearby window or the way I was holding it in that spot. The other reading I feel confident are good.
Used Apogee MQ-200

Great looking tank!!!