cparka23's Nano in 90 Elos Mini

cparka23 · Jun 16, 2012

This tank was originally purchased and setup at the end of 2009, but it was taken down awhile back when I realized that I lacked the time to do even simple maintenance on it. At the start of this May, I decided to start it up again, putting to use a lot of the equipment I had collected over the last few years. The timing was pretty good, but it's been tough to sit around with an empty tank waiting for today.

Tank: Elos Mini
Lighting: Elos Elite
Flow: Ecotech Marine MP20, Tunze Silence 1073.20
Skimmer: Warner Marine MF121
Misc: Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Elite Controller, Avast Marine Works Top-off Kit, CPR Aquatics Nano Reactor [BETA]

Current FTS

FTS 9-07-2012

FTS 7-07-2012

FTS 6-15-2012
Some obligatory photos... sorry that they're kind of bleh. When things clear up, I'll clean the glass for better pictures.

As you can see, there's a bit of diatoms clearing up, and algae is starting to grow. I'll be putting in an order with ReefCleaners this weekend to tackle that. Better pics will come once the CUC has had a chance to do its thing.

The direction of this tank is somewhat figured out stocking-wise, but the equipment and maintenance could change over time. I don't want to oversell anything, so we'll see if anything happens or not.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Total spent on livestock: $413

wysiwyg · Jun 16, 2012

very nice start love the tnk good luck in the contest

BarbH · Jun 16, 2012

Nice start on the tank like the rockscape. Good luck in the competition.

Steelerfan747 · Jun 16, 2012

Nice tank, love the pillar on the left. Scape seems nice although hard to tell with the lid and sign in the way. At least we can see that you can follow directions

good luck

revsgirl · Jun 16, 2012

Great start!! Lookin' forward to seein' it come along!!

Mike&Terry · Jun 18, 2012

Great start and we're looking forward to watching your progress!

-M&T

Jaygalindo · Jun 19, 2012

Definitely the most expensive set up in the contest, I have wanted an Elos tank for some years now!

revhtree · Jun 19, 2012

Cool tank man!

cparka23 · Jun 20, 2012

Jaygalindo said:
Definitely the most expensive set up in the contest, I have wanted an Elos tank for some years now!

Yeah, I feel a little conflicted about that, honestly. At the time I splurged for it, I was in love with the many gorgeous Elos tank threads that I saw. For the larger setups, I feel that they're among the best brands. But while the glass and silicone are nice, the Mini has some design flaws. The overflow is quite noisy (it's basically just an elbow w/o a vent), and the sump is a microbubble factory. On another forum, there are threads where owners tried everything to get rid of the bubbles, but it seemed like an endless struggle. I pulled out all of the sump baffles and replaced them all with a simple two-baffle bubble trap. It's much better, but it took a lot of work while the tank was shut down to fix the sump issue. I purchased my setup pretty early and didn't see the complaints until I was experiencing them firsthand.

The light is also a bit whitish for me, but it does make for easy photos. I've been kicking around an idea for a DIY LED setup, but I don't know if I can access all the machinery that I need to do it myself from start to finish (don't want to use a breadboard). A visible aluminum heatsink would be out of place on this tank, so I have to consider that as well. It's a tall order, so we'll see if I can do it.

revhtree said:
Cool tank man!

Thank you for the comments, everyone. My ReefCleaners order comes in tomorrow (self-reminder: post a receipt), so more detailed photos of the rockscape will follow in a few days when the algae is depleted.

seafansar · Jun 20, 2012

Looking good! How many gallons is the main tank? Looks like you got flow covered with that vortech!

cparka23 · Jun 21, 2012

seafansar said:
Looking good! How many gallons is the main tank? Looks like you got flow covered with that vortech!

The tank is ~20 gallons, if I recall correctly. And yes, the flow is pretty much set. It's just too bad that this sand blows around so easily. I really wanted to try Tropic Eden, but everyone was out of it at the time.

Update:
Got the ReefCleaners order, and it never disappoints!
The receipt (Paypal)

A shot of the snails and the frag of ulva macroalgae that I attached to a bit of rubble.

20 Dwarf Ceriths, 7 Nassarius, 6 Florida Ceriths, 5 Lg and 5 sm to med Nerites (link). $22.01 shipped. Added algae for $4 and no extra shipping cost. Great deal, and John always includes extras. Everyone, take advantage of the sale that I just missed. Here's the link to the announcement on their sponsor forum here at R2R (link). 15% off makes their deals even sweeter.

Steelerfan747 · Jun 21, 2012

Glad to see you got the bubble issue under control. Good luck again

Mufasa31 · Jun 22, 2012

How do you like your skimmer?

cparka23 · Jun 23, 2012

The skimmer worked well during the cycle, but I haven't run it lately due to a misstep on my part. I started using Prodibio and put way too much in the aquarium, so the skimmer overflows now. After the next water change, I'm going to run it again.

That said, I really like having the ability to tune the amount of air and water entering the skimmer separately. The pump is louder than I'd like, though.

Mike&Terry · Jul 6, 2012

Any updates for us? You know how we all love pics...

-M&T

cparka23 · Jul 7, 2012

Thanks for the reminder, Mike&Terry. This post will be my hardware gripes. Pics will follow.

[rant] I haven't been diligent in posting pics, because my camera needs to go back to Canon for repair. The shutter needs to be replaced, and I just didn't get around to contacting Canon to arrange for all that. I can shoot at maybe 5 frames per minute.

Worse, yet, my RKE has been giving me problems for the first time. It no longer turns off the skimmer pump when I tell it to. Then a key locked up, which forced me to do a factory reset. Still, the skimmer won't turn off. And my E-lite has a tendency to turn off the blue LEDs when I do something to the tank. It works like a charm when I disconnect it from the RKE PC4 and plug it directly into a wall socket, so it's the RKE.

In order to fix it, the first thing that comes to mind is to try a firmware update, but NOoooo. Doing a firmware update means that I have to ship to Digital Aquatics the component that connects to the PC for its own firmware update. I have to cover shipping both ways and wait to update my firmware, and then I get to hope that the problems I've experienced will be fixed. [/rant]

cparka23 · Jul 7, 2012

Here is the current FTS. Nothing to see, really. I'm wary of adding anything until the hardware is working correctly, and that sets me back from my goal of having a mature-looking reef by the end of the summer.

With the skimmer down for a bit, I noticed some dinoflagellates starting to pop up. I made a note to siphon them up during water changes, and hydrogen peroxide is always an option if it gets out of hand.

I've started building a new LED light fixture. I don't have any parts yet, but I'm putting things together on paper and on PC. I resurrected my old Windows XP computer to design the PCB, and parts will be ordered sometime this month if I can manage to solve these other issues first.

BarbH · Jul 7, 2012

Tank is looking nice, sorry about all the problems that you have been experiencing lately. Hopefully you are able to get everything working properly again soon.

cparka23 · Jul 7, 2012

Almost forgot... The red macroalgae is halymenia that I purchased from M@! a week before the contest started. It sat in my Biocube14 until the snails cleaned up the fuzz that was on the rocks. The halymenia looks like two different kinds of algae in the photo, but it'll look a little different depending on the light it receives. They are actually two different shades of red now.

In the spirit of the contest rules, I'm fine calling the algae two separate frags (2 x $25 for a 3" macroalgae cutting).
Plus the order from ReefCleaners (@ half off), and my running total on livestock is 50+13=$63.

Mike&Terry · Jul 14, 2012

cparka23 said:
Thanks for the reminder, Mike&Terry. This post will be my hardware gripes. Pics will follow.

[rant] I haven't been diligent in posting pics, because my camera needs to go back to Canon for repair. The shutter needs to be replaced, and I just didn't get around to contacting Canon to arrange for all that. I can shoot at maybe 5 frames per minute.

Worse, yet, my RKE has been giving me problems for the first time. It no longer turns off the skimmer pump when I tell it to. Then a key locked up, which forced me to do a factory reset. Still, the skimmer won't turn off. And my E-lite has a tendency to turn off the blue LEDs when I do something to the tank. It works like a charm when I disconnect it from the RKE PC4 and plug it directly into a wall socket, so it's the RKE.

In order to fix it, the first thing that comes to mind is to try a firmware update, but NOoooo. Doing a firmware update means that I have to ship to Digital Aquatics the component that connects to the PC for its own firmware update. I have to cover shipping both ways and wait to update my firmware, and then I get to hope that the problems I've experienced will be fixed. [/rant]

WOWZA! We feel for you... Hope you are able to get the kinks worked out. We're having a bit of an issue with the old Neptune AquaController Jr we're using on our 30g. We've got a workaround, but it's a pain although on a much smaller scale than what you've got going on.
-M&T