Waterbox 20 first reef build

[OldRed1]

I was able to turn the skimmer on for a couple of minutes before I had to leave and boy is it a beast. The height of bubbles was probably about half of the whole body of my last skimmer an eshopps nano skimmer. I’m hoping it pulls enough air for my co2 scrubber to work its magic. With my eshopps I was running my ice cap co2 scrubber for a couple months and none of the media changed color and my ph never changed.

Got pictures?

 

[tinyfellows]

Got pictures?

I will take some of the modifications I made and placement tomorrow and post them when I finalize where it will be in the second chamber.

 

[tinyfellows]

Got the skimmer in place. It is hanging over the third chamber baffle. I had to I’ve my light off center which doesn’t look super great. But the animals are more important. I ended up taking a 16th off both sides to get it to fit. I used a fine sanding wheel on my dremel to shave it down slowly

 

[tinyfellows]

Just went to look at my tank and noticed one of my rfas was look weird and I noticed it was spewing white liquid so I guess it must be a male and is spawning. I hope my other one is a female. Is there anything I should do to increase my chances of babies?

 

[tinyfellows]

I went to a couple lfs today to pick up some things. My wife loved the sexy shrimp so I got three more I also got a green birds nest, a red digi, some kind of milli, a new chalice, and I got another Tailspot blenny as my last one didn’t make it. I can’t keep my nitrates above zero so I added another fish in hopes I won’t have to dose neo nitrate trying to keep them around 5. All the sps are naturally a little ticked off so I will snag a photo once they all color up again if they do. I’m also considering getting a smaller piece of rock to put on top of my rock work so I have a little more height as I feel I am losing out of coral space with 10 inches or so of water above my top rock

 

[tinyfellows]

I have noticed something that looks like Dino’s/Cano/diatoms/cycrophytes that I am guessing is due to my low nitrates I have a microscope coming on Wednesday so I can hopefully make an I’d on it and fix the problem

 

[tinyfellows]

It would appear as though I have a Dino outbreak starting there is a brown mat starting to form on my sand that goes away at night. I have ordered a microscope and a uv sterilizer. I know uv doesn’t work for all kinds of Dino’s but I’m trying to be ready if they are the kind that uv works for. Also my nem must hate sps cause it has been moving around and setting up shop right next to all my sps frags I added two weeks ago. It has sat next to each one for a day or two stinging them and then moved onto the next one. I’m hoping he finds a place he actually likes so I can rearrange my frags so there is no warfare going on

 

[tinyfellows]

Just got my im desktop uv sterilizer installed. What ever I have going on seems to be slowly clearing up as I have been diligent about making sure my nitrates are in the 10 ppm range where as they were consistently reading zero on the Hanna high range checker. But I figured the uv wouldn’t hurt

 

[Projects with Sam]

Just got my im desktop uv sterilizer installed. What ever I have going on seems to be slowly clearing up as I have been diligent about making sure my nitrates are in the 10 ppm range where as they were consistently reading zero on the Hanna high range checker. But I figured the uv wouldn’t hurt

UV will hook you up!

 

[tinyfellows]

UV will hook you up!

I’m excited to see the water clarity over the next couple of days that’s for sure

 

[tinyfellows]

Came home on my lunch break and it looked as if my fish were floating the water is already crystal clear. Now I know how everyone achieves that water clarity

 

[tinyfellows]

After months of frustration with ph around 7.6 I ditched my ice cap co2 scrubber after some advice that my skimmer probably isn’t pulling enough air for that size even though it’s the nano. I made a diy scrubber out of a body armor bottle and boom a day later my ph is up to 8

 

[tinyfellows]

I think I am slowly winning the battle with Dino’s in did two weeks of daily microbacter clean dosing and now I’m going to once a week dosing schedule. I am now starting a microbacter 7 daily dosing for 2 weeks to get my biodiversity in the tank up since it is a young tank. If my progress stall out in the battle I will probably dose hydrogen peroxide at night next

 

[gsepanik]

Best of luck with the dinos! Forgive me if i missed it but what skimmer are you running?

 

[tinyfellows]

Best of luck with the dinos! Forgive me if i missed it but what skimmer are you running?

Thanks! I started out with an eshopps nano skimmer but I didn’t like how easily affected it was by the water level changing even with an ato. So I upgraded to a mag tool nano skimmer that needed some modifications to fit

 

[gsepanik]

Thanks! I started out with an eshopps nano skimmer but I didn’t like how easily affected it was by the water level changing even with an ato. So I upgraded to a mag tool nano skimmer that needed some modifications to fit

was that the mag tool skimmer from amazon? im torn between the mag tool and the icecap for my 25g lagoon. I heard that the icecap is poorly made but is very good at skimming. What are your opinions on the mag tool?

 

[tinyfellows]

Yeah I got the one off Amazon. I wish I knew there was one with a dc pump cause I would have gotten that one. But I absolutely love it it pulls out tons of nasty skimmate. It was a pain to dial in but once i got it dialed in it is a work horse. I’ve heard the one with a dc pump is a breeze to dial in

 

[tinyfellows]

I took advantage of Black Friday and ordered some Corals off @Tidal Gardens black Friday sale. It’s my first time ordering corals online. Any tips once I receive them?

 

[tinyfellows]

Not a whole lot to update on I had almost beat Dino’s with hydrogen peroxide but due to the holidays I had to be away from my tank for 3 weeks and they came back but I am knocking it back again. My Duncan was ticked off from the hydrogen peroxide then my bta set up shop right next to the Duncan and killed it. Which was a bummer cause it was one of my first corals.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Have you stoped running your skimmer (or at least stopped collecting) so you buildup some nutrients to kick the dinos.