Fluval Flex 15g nano reef

trinket · Sep 5, 2021

Hello! I'm here due to recent crash in my tank. Starting fresh (but with established media).

Stocking list:
4x blue leg hermit crabs
5x snails
Unfortunately these were the only survivors of the freshwater disaster.

More updates tomorrow, will be finishing the aquascape.
Current FTS:

jhuntstl · Sep 6, 2021

Freshwater disaster? Was it an ATO failure?

trinket · Sep 7, 2021

jhuntstl said:
Freshwater disaster? Was it an ATO failure?

No, unfortunately when separating the rocks in a RO container I mistakenly placed fish and coral in with it.

trinket · Sep 7, 2021

Update!

I have a decent idea of what I want to scape to look like. Here are some shots:

Any ideas of possible aquascape ideas? I like the arch style.

trinket · Sep 7, 2021

Final design, going in the tank soon. Working on coral placement for now.

trinket · Sep 8, 2021

Aquascape has been fully completed and looks great in the tank! For now I have a aquaknight reef led, however soon I'll join the AI prime club.
-Added timer for light
-Added carbon
Planning for a mixed reef.
GSP on the island up front, and mostly acans/hammers/frogspawn/trumpet corals and easy SPS / softies.

jhuntstl · Sep 8, 2021

So sorry about your RO accident. That's a tough one.

I really like the scape! I've got some GSP on a rock island up front too. It's the most popular coral amongst guests to my home.

trinket · Sep 9, 2021

jhuntstl said:
So sorry about your RO accident. That's a tough one.

I really like the scape! I've got some GSP on a rock island up front too. It's the most popular coral amongst guests to my home.

How is the growth?

jhuntstl · Sep 9, 2021

trinket said:
How is the growth?

Very fast! As should be expected with GSP.

trinket · Sep 9, 2021

jhuntstl said:
Very fast! As should be expected with GSP.

I may be adding GSP soon. The crash happened in a separate container of water so the tank is still 3 months running, just CUC as inhabitants. Plus, its very hardy.

skylar · Sep 9, 2021

Nice tank. How is the AquaKnight? I went straight to purchasing a Prime 16hd, but I did look into that light, just decided on a more established brand.

trinket · Sep 10, 2021

skylar said:
Nice tank. How is the AquaKnight? I went straight to purchasing a Prime 16hd, but I did look into that light, just decided on a more established brand.

Unfortunately not very pleasing. I admit, I had some decent growth on my watermelon zoas and xenia, but everything else just opened but never grew. I had some other zoas, a mushroom, GSP, and easy lps like a hammer coral and trumpet. Currently looking into purchasing a used ai prime before I introduce the first corals.

The light itself wasn't the best, the mount felt to loose and the salt creep was awful in my opinion. But other than that it was a decent light, would maybe rate it a 6/10.

skylar · Sep 10, 2021

trinket said:
Unfortunately not very pleasing. I admit, I had some decent growth on my watermelon zoas and xenia, but everything else just opened but never grew. I had some other zoas, a mushroom, GSP, and easy lps like a hammer coral and trumpet. Currently looking into purchasing a used ai prime before I introduce the first corals.

The light itself wasn't the best, the mount felt to loose and the salt creep was awful in my opinion. But other than that it was a decent light, would maybe rate it a 6/10.

I see, thank you very much for the details on that light. I'm glad I went with prime, I'll post once I get started too i suppose.

trinket · Sep 11, 2021

skylar said:
I see, thank you very much for the details on that light. I'm glad I went with prime, I'll post once I get started too i suppose.

Good luck!

trinket · Sep 12, 2021

Some small updates:

Today I headed down to my LFS to grab some saltwater. Luckily, they ended up giving me some free scrapings of coralline algae. I also purchased a rock coated in it for $5. I scraped some off in front of the powerhead so it is pretty much all over the rocks. Any idea of how long it would take for the coralline to cover the rocks?

trinket · Sep 23, 2021

First livestock/coral other than CUC! Still closed from the peroxide dip.
They appear to be red horizon zoas and blue/green rhinos as the had looked at the store.

Cheers to now being a official reefer!

trinket · Sep 26, 2021

Okay, I just checked yesterday and the salinity was at 1.035. Did a couple of water changes with RO and its back down at 1.027. Slowly opening up possibly?