Turtle's Reef

[Edmund Koh]

So after 7 years away from the hobby, I decided to reignite my interest in this hobby

Honestly .. Coming back wasn't easy. So many things have changed since then. Back then it was mechanical filtration > biofiltration. These days it's the other way round. Back then it was T5 now LEDs. Everything was new and a huge learning curve for me. (Of cos the money was a huge hole in the pocket too)

This time I decided to do things slightly special. Decided to go for a custom nano tank, one that gives me the length to watch my fishes swim and yet containing just 55L of water. It's 90cm (L) X 20cm ( X 30cm (H) with 30cm of its length partitioned to form an IOS which stores my skimmer, chiller and a lovely Refugium.

The narrow glass also meant big nice rocks would be risky. So Spongebob Bikini Bottom here I come!

And SpongeBob says Hi!

I have since removed all the small figurines as there were just too light to be in the tank. Keeps getting knocked over by the waves. Would be placing them in front of the tank though

It has been 5 weeks since I started my cycle and the tank is now officially cycled. Both Ammonia and Nitrite reads zero and Nitrate reads 5.

In the last few days, I have added a rock of small hairy mushrooms, a cleaner shrimp and 2 frags of really beautiful Zoas.

Picture as of today:

Current Equipment:

Lights: AI SOL Blue

Refugium lights: Lumnia Aqua White (Currently still uninstalled)

Chiller: Iceprobe (it's maxed out on this tank. Thinking of upgrading to a proper chiller)

Skimmer: Tunze 9004

Return Pump: Hydor 1150

Wavemaker: Jebao RW4

Biofiltration:

600g Biohome

19 2inch cubes of Marinepure (some sitting within the sandbed in the display area)

Handful of red macro algae (came with lots and lots of pods)

[tofubox]

Amazing!!! I love the theme bro!!! Cant wait to see fishes added

[Edmund Koh]

Haha slowly Mandrain should be coming up soon if I can find small ones. realized that there are lots of pods in my refuge already.

[Clement Chen]

Love your tank, so cute!

[Edmund Koh]

Haha! It is super messy!

Shall take some time this weekend to tidy up the cables behind.

[asg]

Haha. Nice and unique decoration. My daughter will sure love your tank.

[Edmund Koh]

Thanks bro

Will update once there are new additions to the tank.

Anyways .. Wondering if this has happened to any bro here before.

Just 5 days ago my tank was showing way above 100ppm of Nitrate. That day I changed 50% of water twice at 2 hour interval and Nitrate dropped to 50ppm. Nitrite was still around 0.5ppm. I then added my hairy mushroom and cleaner shrimp. I tested Nitrate again last night and was surprised that it showed almost zero. Nitrite was at zero.

Is it normal for the back end of the cycling process to be completed so quickly? Or did my addition of mushrooms, Zoas and a small handful of red algae speed up the removal of Nitrate?

[Edmund Koh]

Today marks the day of my Tank's first casualty.

The smaller of 2 true perc clowns I added decided that Angry Man's cave would be his resting ground.

His buddy is still doing well. Though I have a feeling my wave maker's wave might be the cause of the death. How do we know if there's too much flow in the tank?

[asg]

Sorry for the loss bro. If you fish is always swimming against the current and cannot swim freely to every part of the tank...

[Edmund Koh]

Yups I think that's what happen to this little fella. Add to the fact that the bully from his buddy during their pairing process has taken its toll.

Have since switched off my wave maker and leave the wave duty to only my return pump.

I started with a Tunze 6015. Then changed to a Jebao RW4 set at power 1. I wonder what produces less power then that.

[asg]

My ehiem canister is 1000l/hr plus rw4 three bar which is around 1500l/hr for my 2*1*1. Fishes all ok with the wave. Did you try w1 and dial to slow for your rw4? I guess since you do not have much rocks to break the wave, you might want to start slow?

[Edmund Koh]

Had the dial in the middle of fast and slow. Shall wait for tomorrow then try again. Dun want to tire my remaining clown.

[Admiraltian]

Nice ios tank u have there.

[Edmund Koh]

Thanks bro

[SubzeroLT]

Sad to hear of any casualties

I'm pretty sure the wave maker can be dialed in. I have the slightly bigger RW8 & able to dial the settings till I barely feel anything when I place my hand in front of it.

Else maybe adding a sponge around the wave maker can slow the flow through it.

[Edmund Koh]

Bro .. how did u do that? I tried adjusting the wavemaker to 1 bar of power and the slowest setting. It still pushes onto my hand quite hard.

[SubzeroLT]

I recall setting it to W (wave mode) then tuned the speed knob to the slowest - I think this changes the interval time between pulses which affects the amount of water it pushes. Hmm...but this seems to be what you have described & still too strong.

I'm now using the Apex to control the wavemaker, hence it has somewhat slightly more control (eg. shorter pulse time + longer wait time before the propeller turns again => less flow)

[Edmund Koh]

I think the way it is now without the wave maker seems to be better for both corals and the remaining clown fish.

I shall keep it this way. Intending to add in a hydor low flow pump to increase the flow by just a little.

[Damianiac]

I read somewhere tat if juz fish alone dun need wavemaker.. Correct me if m wrong. Thanks.

[Edmund Koh]

Got more corals then fish. So got to see how I can get the right wave for the tank.

Will update when I got the solution

[Bunster]

Great theme tank you have there! Love the cobblestones. Will you be adding a real life Patrick in the future?

Btw... can you tell me where you got that frag rack?

[Edmund Koh]

Those cobblestones are actually Marinepure Cermedia 2" cube biomedia. Bought too many for my sump so decided to add it into my display section.

Hmm.. A real life Patrick is already in the tank. Added him together with both my true perc last Saturday. Looks exactly like Patrick. Haha!

Hmm.. The frag rack is from AM. It's a Skimz magnetic frag rack. I like how it's nicely done up with very clean edges. But the bad thing is that the holes are not circular. They are "+" shaped slots. Meaning only Skimz frag plug can fit into it.

[Bunster]

Thats a cool Patrick! 6 arms!

[Bunster]

Btw... I'm curious about the iceprobe... how well is it working?

[Edmund Koh]

Hmm.. I was initially planning for only a 2ft over length tank. That's why I got the iceprobe. Now that the tank is 1ft bigger, the iceprobe is really struggling. I recently hooked up a tempt controller to it but the weather have been really cooling so can't test it much. Iceprobe usually takes around an hour to get the temperature down but extended usage would not result in further reduction of temperature. I do think it will be able to get the temperature down by 2-3 degrees for a smaller tank.