Me and My 4g Reef

[NanoDJS]

I think your almost there with your dkh , nice build and work so far. From my experiance in the nano's once you get upto around 9+ dkh your nutrient uptake will kickin bigtime in the corals rather than the algae. cant wait to see more. Love the pic of eyes in a barnacle lol too cute.

 

[VKP01]

Random question..do you still use the stock return pump for this tank? I got the 5 gallon lifegard and the return pump is too loud.. I'm about out of tricks and might switch to a different brand of pump. Digging the barnacle blennies by the way, I might go that route with my tank.

I do! Mine made this super loud hum and occasionally rattled, but I pulled it apart and put it back together and it stopped.

I love them! They definitely ended up being a good fit.

 

[VKP01]

I think your almost there with your dkh , nice build and work so far. From my experiance in the nano's once you get upto around 9+ dkh your nutrient uptake will kickin bigtime in the corals rather than the algae. cant wait to see more. Love the pic of eyes in a barnacle lol too cute.

Awesome, thanks for that tip!!

 

[Magellan]

I do! Mine made this super loud hum and occasionally rattled, but I pulled it apart and put it back together and it stopped.

I love them! They definitely ended up being a good fit.

I use a couple of silicone hair ties I stole my from my SO as noise dampeners, they work great!

 

[VKP01]

I tested my new batch of saltwater today. Reef crystals mixed to 1.025 S.G.

Ca - 410 ppm
KH - 14.4 dKH
Mg - 1290ppm
Ph - 8.3

Ph tested with the Hannah tester, the rest with Salifert.

 

[VKP01]

Gold flecks are still coming along! Bottom pic is with the orange filter from NestEcho

 

[Another Newbie Reefer]

Love your little tank!! You've inspired me to look into barnacle blennies and a pom pom for my 10g nano reef. Do you have any other inhabitants? I'd love to do an oc. clown or royal gramma, but I worry about mixing with the blennies in such a small space.

Also, what made you go with the b-Ionic dosing instead of a single mix like All For Reef?

 

[VKP01]

Love your little tank!! You've inspired me to look into barnacle blennies and a pom pom for my 10g nano reef. Do you have any other inhabitants? I'd love to do an oc. clown or royal gramma, but I worry about mixing with the blennies in such a small space.

Also, what made you go with the b-Ionic dosing instead of a single mix like All For Reef?

Thank you! ;Shamefullyembarrased
Aside from corals I currently have the two barnacle blennies, the pompom crab, and seven snails of different types. I may be picking up a clown goby or green banded goby today!

from what I’ve read barnacle blennies aren’t very aggressive, but I’ll have some first hand information on that before long. In a 10g I wouldn’t think they’d clash with a single fish that inhabits the water column as opposed to the rockscape, such as a clownfish. Personally I wouldn’t put a royal gramma in a 10g, but I’m honestly not sure how the blennies would react to them as they tend to hang closer to the rocks.

a two part like B-Ionic allows for a lot more flexibility and allows Ca and KH to be altered independently, whereas a single mix you have to raise them in equal proportions. So say if I had a ph drop that then lowered my KH in order to bring the ph back up, I couldn’t dose the KH back in without raising my calcium. There’s also limits on how concentrated a single part can be without precipitation, iirc.

 

[VKP01]

FTS! I’m considering adding a second par38 bulb, this one doesn’t have very good spread

 

[VKP01]

Picked up some reagent and changed the battery in an old Hannah phosphate checker, tested at 0.16ppm! First time using one of these, really simple, easy, and fast

 

[VKP01]

We’ve got dinos

 

[Alvaro_Spain]

I like your tank. Sorry to hear about the dinos though....and those dinos look like ostreopsis

On the light thing, having a par38 bulb you can just open it and change the plastic difusers, wich set the angle. Traditional par38 bulbs have 30 degree, but you can buy 60, 90 and 120 degree. I would go for 60 or 90 degree. This bulbs usually have screws that can be unscrewed easily.

11.99US $ |free shipping 50pcs/lot 20mm Led Lens 60 Degree For 1w 3w 5w led spot light beam angle 60 90 120 degree Condensing Lens|Lamp Covers & Shades| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[VKP01]

I like your tank. Sorry to hear about the dinos though....and those dinos look like ostreopsis

On the light thing, having a par38 bulb you can just open it and change the plastic difusers, wich set the angle. Traditional par38 bulbs have 30 degree, but you can buy 60, 90 and 120 degree. I would go for 60 or 90 degree. This bulbs usually have screws that can be unscrewed easily.

11.99US $ |free shipping 50pcs/lot 20mm Led Lens 60 Degree For 1w 3w 5w led spot light beam angle 60 90 120 degree Condensing Lens|Lamp Covers & Shades| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Thanks!
Yeah, working on raising nutrients, tried setting up a up sterilizer but the tank is so small it’s not working out. Hopefully once I get nitrate up they’ll die off.

oh, awesome! I think part of it is shadowing from my rocks, but changing the lenses would be great. I noticed the light from the uv/red/green bulbs tends to just shine in one very small area, I guess changing the lenses would fix that as well as the overall spread? Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[VKP01]

Parameters as of yesterday:

78°
1.035 s.g.
Ph 8.4
Ca 415ppm
KH 9.5 dKH
Mg 1350ppm
NO3 >5ppm
PO4 0.16ppm

 

[Alvaro_Spain]

Thanks!
Yeah, working on raising nutrients, tried setting up a up sterilizer but the tank is so small it’s not working out. Hopefully once I get nitrate up they’ll die off.

oh, awesome! I think part of it is shadowing from my rocks, but changing the lenses would be great. I noticed the light from the uv/red/green bulbs tends to just shine in one very small area, I guess changing the lenses would fix that as well as the overall spread? Thanks for pointing that out!

You are welcome!. Yes I have two if those bulbs:

The first I used was 4x white, 6x blue, 5x violet, 2x green, 1x red
I noticed with it that the red and green didn´t dissipate much. And my cyano loved it.

Now I use this one: 10 blue, 6 white, 2 UV

25.7US $ |E27 LED Plant Grow Light bulb Par38 aquarium plant seedling lamp Full Spectrum Phyto Grow Box for indoor Flower Seed Coral Reef|LED Grow Lights| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

So far this new one is doing better than the old one in my 10 gallon. Algae don´t have much light they like.

 

[VKP01]

You are welcome!. Yes I have two if those bulbs:

The first I used was 4x white, 6x blue, 5x violet, 2x green, 1x red
I noticed with it that the red and green didn´t dissipate much. And my cyano loved it.

Now I use this one: 10 blue, 6 white, 2 UV

25.7US $ |E27 LED Plant Grow Light bulb Par38 aquarium plant seedling lamp Full Spectrum Phyto Grow Box for indoor Flower Seed Coral Reef|LED Grow Lights| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

So far this new one is doing better than the old one in my 10 gallon. Algae don´t have much light they like.

That’s really great information, thank you!!

 

[VKP01]

Corals are really enjoying the no-water-change schedule, but dinos are continuing to multiply. I’ve ordered a uv bulb that should fit in the back chamber, it’ll be here Monday. I’ve heard really great things about uv for ostreopsis so hopefully it knocks them out!

 

[VKP01]

Just tested everything again today, nutrients are going down despite no water changes
I’m going to start dumping large frozen/fresh foods twice daily

 

[Magellan]

Parameters as of yesterday:

78°
1.035 s.g.
Ph 8.4
Ca 415ppm
KH 9.5 dKH
Mg 1350ppm
NO3 >5ppm
PO4 0.16ppm

Was that a typo for your sg? Also I like the 9.5dkh number MUCH better than the 14.4 you posted earlier!

This little tank is such a cool environment, I have loved following its story!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hey all! This is my first build thread, so I’m still figuring everything out. I started this tank in September of 2018, so I’m going to do a couple posts getting up to date, then continuing on as we progress!

Some tank info:

The aquarium is Lifegard Aquatic’s new 4.14g all-in-one crystal aquarium. I’m setting it up to hopefully keep soft corals and a couple barnacle blennies.

All questions and suggestions are more than welcome! Stay tuned for updates

Welcome