Hello from Oakland

[Phelipe's Ocean]

And welcome to r2r. Superb tank,
I’m from foster city

Close by!

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

I currently have the stock return pump turned way down (to 50gph-ish) and a Jebao SW2 powerhead turned all the way up (~600gph) on random mode. It's been acting up a lot lately, though, and keeps slowing down no matter how much I clean it -- which seems to be a common complaint with the Jebao pumps. I have a Aqamai KPS pump on order which I'm hoping will be a wider flow pattern and more reliable performance. In general, I shoot for about 60-70x the tank volume as far as flow goes and keep the powerhead an inch or so below the waterline and pointed straight at the glass across the tank (and just a tiny bit downward) so it's not directly hitting any corals. This keeps stronger flow at the top half of the tank where the SPS is and less at the bottom where my ricordias and LPS are. Beyond that, I just try to place things that like less flow in areas that seem to be out of the way.

Ohhh Thanks! I was looking into the Aqamai as well. Right now I am running 2 pumps on random but ordering 2 Jebao wavemakers despite the mixed reviews. The RW-4’s are super small which is why im into them. If you ever start fragging things Id love to get some from you your corals look great.

 

[biophilia]

Ohhh Thanks! I was looking into the Aqamai as well. Right now I am running 2 pumps on random but ordering 2 Jebao wavemakers despite the mixed reviews. The RW-4’s are super small which is why im into them. If you ever start fragging things Id love to get some from you your corals look great.

Just a heads up - If you haven’t already ordered the RW-4s, Jebao has a new series out (OW-10 is I think the RW-4 replacement) that are supposed to be a bit smaller and have a better motor that isn’t as likely to burn out over time. May be worth checking out. I almost got one instead of the Aqamai, but wanted to try the fancy WiFi programming feature. That being said, I got a year of life out of my SW-2 with the older motor so can’t complain too much for $45

I’ll let you know when/if I start fragging stuff. I’m waiting another month or two for things to fill in a little more and then need to figure out some way to put a little frag rack in the already-cramped tank that doesn’t take up too much space.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

Just a heads up - If you haven’t already ordered the RW-4s, Jebao has a new series out (OW-10 is I think the RW-4 replacement) that are supposed to be a bit smaller and have a better motor that isn’t as likely to burn out over time. May be worth checking out. I almost got one instead of the Aqamai, but wanted to try the fancy WiFi programming feature. That being said, I got a year of life out of my SW-2 with the older motor so can’t complain too much for $45

I’ll let you know when/if I start fragging stuff. I’m waiting another month or two for things to fill in a little more and then need to figure out some way to put a little frag rack in the already-cramped tank that doesn’t take up too much space.

Okay thanks, im gonna go look at that new powerhead.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi all. I'm new to R2R, though I've been on one of the other forums (on and off) for the past 11 years or so. Here's a few sub-par iPhone shots of my current tank. It's an IM Nuvo 10 mixed reef which has been running for about 14 months.

Gorgeous

 

[JasonK84]

Great to have you!
The people here are very hospitable and helpful!
And... Amazing tank!! Appears to be well thought out and maintained.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

Talk about reviving an old threa haha, any updates?

 

[biophilia]

Talk about reviving an old threa haha, any updates?

Had a little bit of a setback about two months ago. I added a second AI Prime (an old, non-HD one I had sitting around) with the goal of helping with some of the shadowing I was getting from the single light. I stupidly didn’t dim them both enough thinking everything would be fine with 25% more light. I bleached out and killed a bunch of the SPS up top and severely damaged the caulastrea up front as well despite catching it within 24 hours. So it goes in this hobby I guess. Currently running both primes at about 12W each which seems to be about the most this tank can handle without stressing the stuff up top.

Lots of good growth with everything that survived, through, and I’ve since added some new acro/milli/digitata frags that are all doing well.

Feeding the tank phytoplankton and live copepods, Artemia nauplii, and rotifers on a daily basis so the fish are pretty fat and happy at the moment.

Here’s a shot from a few days ago:

 

[Chrisfish]

Had a little bit of a setback about two months ago. I added a second AI Prime (an old, non-HD one I had sitting around) with the goal of helping with some of the shadowing I was getting from the single light. I stupidly didn’t dim them both enough thinking everything would be fine with 25% more light. I bleached out and killed a bunch of the SPS up top and severely damaged the caulastrea up front as well despite catching it within 24 hours. So it goes in this hobby I guess. Currently running both primes at about 12W each which seems to be about the most this tank can handle without stressing the stuff up top.

Lots of good growth with everything that survived, through, and I’ve since added some new acro/milli/digitata frags that are all doing well.

Feeding the tank phytoplankton and live copepods, Artemia nauplii, and rotifers on a daily basis so the fish are pretty fat and happy at the moment.

Here’s a shot from a few days ago:

That is a beautiful picture

 

[biophilia]

That is a beautiful picture

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[BluTang85]

Hello, and welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Bob Weigant]

Nice to see another tank from the Bay Area. Hello from Hayward

 

[alpinestar]

any updates on this nano?? love it!

 

[biophilia]

any updates on this nano?? love it!

Thanks! Still going strong. The stylo is big enough now that it’s starting to really shade the other corals so I’m about to frag it down to half it’s size or so. Also made some lighting adjustments that the other stony corals weren’t happy with so lost a little color but they’re recovering. Will try to get a current photo tonight.

 

[Pbh-reef]

I’m in San Francisco and have a nuvo 10 too! If you ever sell any frags lmk!

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[PDR]

Looks great! Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[biophilia]

Update:

Not a ton has changed over the past few months. I've been pretty busy lately so the tank has been operating on auto-pilot for the most part with the exception of flood feeding two or three times per day and weekly water changes. The only new additions are some more dendrophyllia and as well as some tubastraea. I keep putting off chopping up the big stylophora colony and replacing it with some new stony corals. I've had the stylo for 2 1/2 years so am somewhat attached even though it's way too big for this tank.

Keeping everything happy in this tank is definitely a challenge! The daily alk draw is over 3DKH at this point and I'm dosing a ton of vinegar to keep water quality in line. Also running two bags of Chemi-Pure blue and replacing every two weeks now because all of the dissolved organics in the water due to so much biomass in 7ish (net) gallons of water seems to bother the acros and montis a bit.

 

[ramona]

Beautiful nano, wish mine looks the same...

 

[Bob Weigant]

smaller tanks are more challenging to control. Looks like yours is doing great