Jaw's 28 gallon nano

jaws789832

Member
Some new Pics

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jaws789832

Member
Been a little while since my last post but things are going great. Due to the high growth I have been having there has been a little warfare going on between corals and anemones but such is life in the big sea I guess. I had to do a little rearranging because of this and I almost (and have) lost a coral or 2.

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The anemone split in half and is now on a 2 prong attack. All the critters are doing great. Violet (the orchid dottyback) found herself a home under the rocks. She comes out a lot but I guess she is camera shy because I couldn't get a good shot of her (the picture above that you can see her face under the rock was the best shot I could get. Anyways hope you enjoyed and as always happy reefing
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Great looking tank, and thanks for the "Chronicle". Its great to see such progress from a pile of rocks to a hot coral garden. Kudos!
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Due to the high growth I have been having there has been a little warfare going on between corals and anemones but such is life in the big sea I guess. I had to do a little rearranging because of this and I almost (and have) lost a coral or 2.

It happens, good you are looking out for it.

Lovely tank you have there.
 

jaws789832

Member
Just a little update. Tank is doing great, But its days are numbered.. I bought a 120 gallon high earlier in the summer and tried my hand at drilling it with great success. I then built my own stand and hood. They aren't really professional grade but I am extremely happy with how they came out. Its been up and running for about 2 weeks now and the cycle is almost complete on it. My ammonia dropped to 0 a few days ago and just waiting on the nitrites to come down. Once I get it more done I will start a new tank thread for it but the basics are:

120 gallon high
Trigger Emerald 34
Skimz oval skimmer
Tunze ATO
Ecotech M1 return pump
Ercotech Radions (I only have 1 atm but going to get the second one next week that's why only half the tank is lit)
Neptune WAV circ pumps (these also I will get next week)

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anyways, I am having a little GHA outbreak in the little tank due to lack of water changes. Since I started the big project my water changes dropped off to about once a month and now I am regretting that. The clown fish are spawning about once a week now. They lay eggs all over my rocks. BOB jr (the dumb anemone on the back middle) keeps getting sucked into the overflow. I had to position a powerhead to blow him away from it. I think the hammer won the warfare with the anemones because they both retreated further back a bit. Anyways will keep you updated as I progress
 

jaws789832

Member
The 120 update

Things are progressing nicely. Did a bunch of work on it the last 2 days so I figured I would give an update. Its been challenging trying to run 2 tanks on 1 apex. I needed to do it though because I wanted to see what kind of amperage draw I was getting with both tanks running. They are on a 15 amp GFI circuit and when everything is on at the peak of the day including heaters in both tanks, I draw about 7 amps so I am good.

The 120 has had water in it for a month now and the cycle is complete. I did a 50% water change this morning as my nitrates were at 10, so I am hoping that brought it down a bit but I haven't checked it yet (letting things settle). Phosphates were at .16 before the change as well. I added some chemi pure elite to my sump and some carbon after the water change so hopefully the phosphates will come down. Also picked up 5 trochus snails, 5 cyriths, and 1 conch as the diatoms are starting to bloom. I sure do hate the uglies but I guess every tank has to go through them a bit.
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I went with 2 Radion xr30w pro's for lighting. I got the WXM for the apex and had a bit of trouble linking them up but I think I finally have it. Now I just have to figure out what program and time length to use so I don't get unwanted algae. I really do like it, some of the colors you get with it are amazing.
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The stand I built is working out well. The doors are attached by magnets so they can be completely removed for maintenance. The electrical cabinet is off to the left. I put it on a heavy duty drawer slider so I could slide it out for ease of cleaning pumps and what not. I labeled all the cords so I know exactly what to unplug and where to plug it back in. The only thing that is not complete is the Tunze ATO as I am still trying to figure out how I want to program it in and how big and where to put the reservoir
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Cord management is the bane of my existence. I don't know how people keep their cords nice and neat and still be able to do maintenance. The sad part is with all those cords there its still not done. The brain of the apex is on the other side of the tank as I still have to run the little tank with it.
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Underneath Ii have the trigger emerald 34 sump. the water drops in from my reef synergy overflow with a bean animal drain system, through 2 filter socks, then into the skimmer compartment. I decided on the skimz oval skimmer as it fit the best in the compartment.
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then it goes through my refugium, some more mechanical filration, through the carbon and chemipure to the Vectra return pump. I am actually not all that happy with the Vectra. Some of the plumbing on it is a little goofy (they use British pipe not standard) and it doesn't communicate with the apex at all so some of the cool features on it I cant use. When it comes time to replace it (unless the add some better features) I think I will go with an apex ready DC pump.
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For cleaning I designed the hood to flip back. Also the rails that the radions are sitting on I designed so I can push them all the way to the back of the tank so I can get in the tank and scrub everything easily. I have 2 Neptune WAV powerheads that I am still trying to figure out how to program.
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there is also a side door on the stand for ease of getting to the return pump. That's about it for now. Its still a work in progress Hope you enjoyed and Happy reefing!
 

jaws789832

Member
120 update. Things are slowly but surely progressing. I have moved most corals and 1 fish to the big tank. A couple little mishaps but so far I haven't lost anything that wasn't planned on being lost. I wanted to frag the birdsnest coral because there was a lot of dead skeleton on the bottom of it. When trying to frag it, the only way I could cut the dead stuff off was to create about 100 little frags. I glued them all to several pieces of rubble so I could scatter them about the big tank, and probably lost about half of them. The other half seem to be thriving especially after I trimmed out the dead ones. Not sure if the Favia (At least I think thats what it is some kind of brain coral) is going to make it either but time will tell. Trying to dislodge him from the rock he was attached to didn't go so well and I caused some damage. His tentacles hasn't come out at all since moving him over but he still has color. The chalice though is loving it. Its already grown a bit since moving him and its tentacles come out in full force every night. I moved one anemone and it seems to have found a home already in the rock work. First fish I moved last week was the orchid dottyback. Wanted her to find a good home and have a chance to get to know all the crevices in the tank. Shes doing great and eating great with no competition. Next week I will move the other anemone and the 2 clowns. They keep laying eggs though so I was trying to time it in between hatches so as to not stress them out too much. The anemones are a bit challenging to move. The first one took about 3 hours and a lot of stress on my part (not to mention the critter. Its foot was lodges in a rock at a spot I couldn't get to so I had to do the hang upside down method and let it come off on its own free will. I had to clamp the container I was trying to get it into on the side of the tank to keep the water at the right temp then hang the rock it was attached to over the container until it let go. the second it let go I put a piece of rubble into the container and placed the anemone onto it where it eagerly reattached. I them acclimated to the new tank and placed it into the tank where the anemone immediately went on the move to finds its preferred spot. I removed the rubble and it was done. Anyways here is a few tank shots.

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That last shot is in the old tank still. I just thought it was kinda a cool picture the way its all foggy. The eggs are right below the bottom (male) clown and he diligently keeps them clean and aerated. Momma just hangs up there in the anemone and occasionally comes out to chase off the 6 line wrasse when it gets too close.

Anyways happy reefing
 

jaws789832

Member
Kinda sad this morning. Yesterday I tried moving the second anemone over to the big tank without much luck. I didn't want to move the rock he was attached to because it had a lot of algae in it so I took it and hung it upside down in the little tank. After about 6 hours of hanging he still didn't show any signs of moving so I examined the rock and noticed he had his foot through 2 holes in the rock and it had grown together on the other side (I didn't know they could or would do this) so I was left with no choice but to try and chisel the rock out from around him. When the rock broke it split his foot as well and this cottage cheese like stuff began pouring out of his foot. I immediately put him in my QT tank which I have set up for emergencies during the transfers to see if he would heal himself and this morning he is just a pile of goo. Kinda depressing. That is my first loss of an animal that was actually caused by me in the 3 years I have been in the hobby. At least his offspring seems to be thriving in the new tank so his legacy will live on.
 

cracker

Well-Known Member
Very good build on the stand and hood. I really like how the electronics panel slides out !
 

jaws789832

Member
Yeah I thought it was a good idea and it does work but its just too cramped in there for all the gadgets I have so I decided I am going to build a separate cabinet for all the electronics and also to hold a larger top off container. This week I was held at work for 4 days and I went through 5 gallons of top off water so I need to get a larger jug and build a place to store it.
Did that picture up above play as a video? It works fine for me but we tried to watch it on my wife's I pad and it kept giving an error?
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

works for me :nessie:

but fyi - youtube vids embed & work even better here...
 
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