Tim's 30 gallon rimless

[drawman]

I've had this tank going for several years but recently rebooted it due to a severe aiptasia infestation.

Equipment List:
ATI 4 bulb Powermodule 24" T5
MP10W
Tunze 9004

I'm running Aquaforest Probiotic Salt and have been since the reboot. I'm not dosing -NP Pro or Pro Bio S at this point and probably won't. No rock either just 2L of Siporax.

Goal of this tank will be to house SPS frags and grow them out.

I ordered my first coral pack for the tank from Adam @Battlecorals. For anyone wondering he does an amazing job! This tank may in fact end up being a battlecorals only tank

I have a LONG way to go when it comes to aquarium photography. BTW don't mind the reef chili buildup ha.

 

[helen ann]

Pretty SPS corals you have there!

 

[drawman]

Pretty SPS corals you have there!

Thank you very much!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Nice frags!

 

[drawman]

Nice frags!

Thank you sir! Now I just need them to turn into mini colonies!

 

[drawman]

A quick update. Right before Thanksgiving I finally got around to automating my alkalinity with a BRS dosing pump automated by my Apex on my 30 gallon. Of course, I had to leave for the weekend and I had an upswing in Alkalinity from overshooting my dosage. I rectified this but did get some tissue loss on a couple of my acros. Low nutrients did not help this either. Stupid mistake but I didn't want to gamble with a low alkalinity swing by not having things automated so I had to make a choice.

I will say the smaller tank makes it quite challenging for acros but it is fun. While swings aren't good in any size tank there is less room for error in this one. Now that I'm in balance Alkalinity will slowly be reduced by water changes with the probiotic reef salt.

I finally have my nutrients up to about 5ppm by avoiding water changes and avoiding cleaning my collection cup. It's amazing how much the little Tunze 9004 pulls out of this tank I would have never thought I would get the thick gunk I do...I'll have to take a picture at some point. Now that I'm up to respectable nitrate levels I may dose my NSW to 2-5ppm with Sodium Nitrate just to keep things stable. Otherwise I risk swinging back towards too clean with weekly large water changes.

I got a few more frags from WWC's live sale on the other forum. They are quite small so pics wouldn't do much good now.

 

[drawman]

Had some trouble with my DC return pump failing over last weekend. Of course, I did not have a backup handy on this tank. On Friday, it quit midday while I was at work so I came home and gave it a thorough cleaning assuming it was just getting gunked up. Worked great until Saturday while I was out of town. I could restart the pump through apex but after about an hour it would quit and do the same thing. Since my heater is in my sump this meant that I was restarting the pump every hour or so on Sunday until I got home.

Once I got home I placed the heater, temp probe, and Siporax in the display to keep things in life support mode essentially. I also shut off alkalinity dosing as I did not want things to get out of whack. I know the tank temperature took a little dive during this experience but thankfully no coral losses yet. Finally got my new Sicce Syncra 1.5 hooked up today and I'm very pleased so far. Got the siporax and heaters back in the sump but I'm keeping the temp probe in the display as I will slowly raise the temp back up over the next few days.

Big lesson always have a backup return and heater for anyone reading this.

 

[drawman]

I must say the 30 gallon is in a bit of a rut. I've been dosing sodium nitrate over the past month to get levels steady at 5ppm. It was pretty easy to get there and I noticed solid improvement in two of my acros since dosing. The rest are colorless either brown turds or much paler than I would like with very poor PE...I was hoping the nitrate dosing would help.

The tank has been fishless over the past couple of months as I've been running quarantine after some mysterious fish deaths in late 2016 and overall velvet paranoia. I'm kind of hoping that the brown turd and lack of colors are due to inadequate fish poop. I feed Reef Chili and AF Coral E several times a week but that's all they're getting.

Alkalinity has been a little up and down for me lately. No major swings but daily testing is not always the same (although it's in a small window). I'm having thoughts of diluting my solution just in case air is getting in the line preventing an accurate daily dose.

Other than that I have overall acro paranoia. Tried to give a look over for AEFW and am considering contaminants. This lack of PE in several corals has me pretty concerned though.