My Nano Reef Set-up/diary (upgraded 45g) Step-by-step

Here are a couple of shots of the tank as it is currently set. I am really pleased with all my new live rock which has brouht my total live rock in the tank up to approx 22kg!! I just could not stop myself buying it when I senn some of the life and colour on some of the pieces!

Also as you maight just be able to see in the pictures, I am starting to get some white chalky looking patches on some of my rocks, this I am told is usual and it die-off whilst the tank is cycling. Hopefully all the purple carroline and any other hithhiker life will return soon after the tank has cycled.

As you can see I bought a piece of toga branch rock to top up the top of my tank as it was covered in carroline:


I belive some of the smooth yellow/cream/light green/blue patches on soe of the rocks to be sponges that may well re-juvenate and grow back once the tank starts to mature!


Side View of the tank. I appologise for the glare caused by the flash!


As you can see I have stacked the rocks in a "C/attol" formatation in my tank so there is a bit of a lagoon along with loads of caves and hiding places! The plain 'lifeless' looking pieces of rock at the bottom are the ones received from Live Rock UK when I bought online! Compare them to the coloured hand picked pieces!


I have ordered 10lb of arag-alive live sand to help my tank cycle, which should be here in a day or 2. As you can see in the phots, I seem to have got a bit carried away when purchasing live rock so there really isn't much room left on the base, but the sand should get in all the nooks and crannys!

I might just change the aquascaping in the future but hope you like how it looks for the time being!

The test kit I had bought for testing all the parameters states it is for both marine and freshwater usage. Well anyways I went to check my parameters a bit earlier today to see if my tank had started cycling or not! Well I noticed the blumin Ammonia test is FRESHWATER ONLY!!! Can you believe, all the other tests can be used on both! Well im not happy so have bought a new reef test kit off ebay. Should get here tommorow or the day after!!

Well on a brighter note, here is a photo of some of my hitchhiker red mushrooms on 1 of the pieces of live rock. I also seem to have a small green clam/oyster also wedged in the same piece of rock!

I believe ammonia test kits, though sold for fresh and salt water separately, are only slightly different. The API kits are identical except for a different "key card." I lost my saltwater key card, but it's very much like fresh in that the greener it is, the worse - only the water turns cloudy instead of remaining clear.

eschaton said:

I believe ammonia test kits, though sold for fresh and salt water separately, are only slightly different. The API kits are identical except for a different "key card." I lost my saltwater key card, but it's very much like fresh in that the greener it is, the worse - only the water turns cloudy instead of remaining clear.

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Well Ive bought myself a API Reef Test kit, should be here by the morning!

Im not having much luck with the saltwater side of things... Noticed the outer wall of my refugium was starting to slightly bend outwards so made the refugium look a "D" shape rather than a rectangle! Got me really panicking thinking it might break on one of the corners/edges and cause a leak in the future!


The pressure due to the bending outwards of the refugium wall caused the sealant on the filter compartment wall to split and cause a gap on either side. This had me worrying thing the live rock rubble may cause the wall to cave in!



I emailed the gentleman who I had bought the Refugium off, he was very helpful and said he would make me a pair of brackets to fit over the top of it and hopefully pull the wall back in and hold it in place! He made them staright away and sent them to me next morning delivery.


Upon receipt I placed the brackets over the top and they seem to do the trick by pulling the wall back in and are holding well so far!


Really hope they hold as I am constantly dreading walking home to a pool of water due to the refugium having leaked!!!

Hi just read through your post (this is the first time I have done this so be gentle with me!).
Have you got any up dates?
Or are you left with an indoor paddling pool!

boggy said:

Have you got any up dates?
Or are you left with an indoor paddling pool!

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No woories boggy, So far so good. The brackets seem to be holding just fine and there has been no noticable bending back as of yet... but it has only been 1 day since I've had them so fingers crossed for the long-term!

I took the water parameters today as my API test kit has arrived, I then took the same readings (except ammonia) using my nutrafin mii test kit to see if they would differ, but they were the same:

Temp: 27 before light go on- 29 just before lights go off
pH: Approx 8.0
SG: 1.024
Hardness: 11.2 dKH
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: Approx 20ppm

According to the above readings it seems to me like my tank has almost cycled... took just over a week! But I have added a live sand mixture subtrate so might re-start cycle. Will have to wait and see.

Will be time to add some CUC soon

I bought a 10lb bag of Caribsea Arag-alive live sand off ebay thinking as I ain't got much open room on the base of my tank, it should be enough, but I received the sand I knew it wouldn't be as 10lb of sand really ain't much!



Anyways as I needed more sand, I decided to get a bag of noraml coral sand and mix it in with the live sand so that hopefully overtime this sand too would come 'alive' with nitrifying bacteria.



I mixed both sands in a bucket of saltwater using my hands to gently mix them in together. Than I added the sand into my tank with sent the water quite cloudy.





After several hours of the sand being in the tank, I walked into the room to see the bottom end of the tank floor was bare where the flow from the powerheads had moved all the sand into a pile several inches from the bottom, making some of the small pieces of live rokc disapear under the sand pile!



Thid led to me having to reposition the powerheads abit higher up along with re-setting the subtrate! Even now after about 2hours or so there is a small indent in the sand in the corner but nowhere near what it was, hopefully the sand will stick!
Has anybody else ever encountered this problem and if so what did they do to resolve and make sure the snad stayed where it should do?!!

I have an approx. 1" sand bed in most places with more in some and less in others due to waterflow moving the sand particles around! Does anybody know of any methods I can use to help spread the sand over the base evenly? Will any CUC (when added) do the trick and shift it all in place?


PS. My sand is definately ALIVE!! as whilst re-setting the sand, I "uprooted" a little sand sifting star fish from within it, it looked like a tiny brittlestar approx 3/4 of an inch! I placed it on the top of the sand whilst i observed it, but it quickly dug its way back underneath!

lol i had the same problem with my sand and powerhead. I just put a piece of live rock in front of where the flow was moving the sand and it did the trick. hope this helps

will

Thanks for that fishkeeperpro. As for now having moved both my powerheads around abit seems to be duing the trick, but if it don't work then will have to put a piece of LR in the way!

Anyways quick tank update:
Several of my pices of LR seem have turned yellowey into a right murky colour. It looks like they're decaying or something. This seems to have affected the rocks with the vast amount of corraline alage on them. I believe this is due to the tank cycling. Hopefully all the colour/algal growth will be restored once the tank has finished cycling and starts to mature??
Anyways here are a few pictures of some of the "dieing/decaying" pices of LR

Is ur sand getting that brwon algae over it? If it is then it is diatoms, an algae that comes during the cycle so it is probably harmless.

will

fiskkeeperpro said:

Is ur sand getting that brwon algae over it? If it is then it is diatoms, an algae that comes during the cycle so it is probably harmless.

will

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Wel as I have only added the sand just over a day ago, it is still nice and white and has no signs of any diatoms as of yet! I think the yellowing on the rocks is just die off! Hopefully should clear as the tanks matures. Also hopefully when I add some CUC, they should help get rid of some!

Quick update on water parameters:

Temp: was 26 before lights went on but seems to have stuck at 27 for now
pH: Approx 7.8
SG: 1.026 (jumped up due to evaporation - need to top-up with freshwater)
Hardness: 10.08 dKH
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: Between 10-20ppm

Looks like tank has almost finished cycling! Gona go get some CUC this weekend I think as tank should be ready by then!
For some reason the pH has gone down slightly and so has the KH!

A few updated tank pictures:



If you have a look closely, not only have I got yellow decaying on some rocks, but I am also starting to get what appears to be hair algae on a few pieces also. Hopefully some of my CUC should help resolve this problem and with the chaeto macroalgae when I get it for my refugium!