My Bare Bottom Nano Reef

[Raiden]

Hi all,

Just to share my 2 weeks old bare bottom nano reef 'adventure'.

Had a RowaPhos accident 1.5 months back and my previous nano reef tank (45cmx30cmx30cm) looked really bad, everything covered with fine RowaPhos dust (rusty color). Although the corals didn't seem to be affected by the rowaphos dust, the sight is not pretty. Have to teardown the system and down a complete scrub down of the live rocks and corals. Didn't do the sand as it is too messy.

The photo below is the reef tank after the scrub down, still not good as I dare not to scrub the coral too hard in case of damaging them. The before sight is too upsetting for me to take any photos. For those who are not familiar with RowaPhos, this happens when the current flow in the FR is too strong. Made the mistake when I switch from putting bio-pellets to RowaPhos - it would have been arrested with a good post filter but it overwhelm my tiny DIY overhead filter (check my DIY 3-in-1 filter).

Happened to chanced upon a square base nano tank (38cmx38cmx43cm) and decided to restart with a bare bottom nano reef. Also decided to DIY another bigger filter system with the hind sight of the RowaPhos accident. Here's the new bare bottom tank. I think it is still cycling but the cyno-algae is not too bad. You can see some of them on the glass because they are out of reach of my glass cleaner. Need to reach inside to clean.

The ugly tube was 'necessary as that's the outlet for my powerhead to my FR, chiller and overhead filter. Kept it in the middle as I wanted to keep the side expose for easy glass cleaning. Hope that it will be encrusted with coraline algae in time to come - am seeing a few white patches forming, I believe they are signs of coraline algae growing.

Am having a strong current flow within the tank with a 5000L wave maker. The great thing about it is it keep the light detritus in motion and move it to a dead spot for easy siphoning. The down side is the need to properly secure the rocks as it is so powerful that small coral or rocks can be blown off. Once you get the right placement, then it is a breeze.

Discovered an unintentional 'benefit' - I no longer worry about small pieces of coral dropping into the cracks as the strong current will usually bring them to the front.

Read somewhere that a reefer uses slate to mount coral in his bare bottom eco-reef zero tank, which gave me the idea to use slate to stick my zoanthid frags. Works well and fit nicely near the outlet of the 5000L wave maker (the 'cave' on the left). Surprisingly, the frags open up well despite the strong current.

One thing to note for those thinking of going bare bottom is the scaping. It too me a lot of time building the scape as the bottom is smooth and rocks and coral does not have very good hold. I didn't use any putty to hold the rock together but I guess it will be easier if it is used. I had a major rock slide in the first week and another due to 'itchy' hands. The axiom "When it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. Well, have finally settle with this look and resisting those itchy hands... tough.

Here's a photo of my entire nano-reef setup and the specs below:

tank - 38cm x 38 cm x43 cm

Light - 1 x 18W Beamworks LED

- 1 x 11W Aquazonic LED

Chiller - 1 x Halea 150 set at 27C

FR - 1 x Biohome

- 1 x Rowa Phos

Filter - DIY 3-tiers Filter (filter wool, carbon, nutrifying bateria pad), with a refugium at the bottom of filter. Have not start the refugium as yet. Currently using it to keep macro algae (sea lettuce) as nutrient export.

Skimmer - Nano-skimmer

Wavemaker - 1 x 5000L wavemaker

'Return pump' - 1 x 3500L submersible pump

The tank is almost full and am reserving some small spaces for nice coral frags.

No sure if the light is sufficient but the acropora is doing not too bad as the tips are coloring up from the time I bought it. Am considering higher power lights.

Hope the sharing is useful for you.

Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Raiden

[william_choo]

Personal thoughts:I think the flow is too great for a nano tank.it may be good for the flow of the water (no stagnant of water).but,certain coarls (LPS) may not open up fully due to high flow.

Try to maintain 2000 litres or lesser.

[Raiden]

Hi William,

Thanx for the comments... am intending to keep more SPS when the tank matures, so will likely to keep the flow rate...

Well, so far all the corals are alright with the flow...

What surprised me is that my zoanthids frag open up fully even though I placed them in the direct blast of the 5000L wavemaker... interesting...

In fact, all of the corals open up nicely (plate, zoanthids, gonio, cup, montipora, xenia, GSP and a colony of SPS)... just that the gonios only extend about 1 cm due to the strong current. oops... i forgot, only the bubble coral is not enjoying the flow - will be moving it to a lesser flow spot.

As for SPS, which is a no-no for newly setup tank, I got it to test out if my tank specs and parameters can sustain SPS. Well, it seems to be doing pretty well. In fact, the two SPS frags (because of the rock slide) are starting to grow...

What's not working well now is the brown algae on the glass... guess it is cycling... am also suspecting my Biohome FR setup - I didn't do a clean up of my FR after the Rowa accident... will be cleaning it out with sea water this weekend...

Raiden

[luchaolc]

Very nice tank bro

[TayHongSiang]

yr AVATAR looks better

[pitto]

nice tank bro!

[MadScientist]

is the chiller too powerful for your tank? it looks bigger than your tank