15 Gallon Nano - Waterbox Peninsula All in One (AIO) - Skip Cycle - Mixed Reef

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Macbalacano

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So clean, nice and happy! What’s your thoughts on using your back wall for those you had to move?!
Thank you! It has definitely been a thought that has crossed my mind.

I plan on working on the back wall once my cleaner shrimp are in the display and out of the acclimation box (I'll remove the acclimation box at that time) in about 2-3 weeks.

I'd love to have something that would have decent movement on the back!
 

Merry

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November 21
Went to LFS and bought 19 lbs. of live rock. About 15 lbs. of that rock was covered in coraline and very visibly had sponges, tube worms, starfish, leather coral, etc. on it.

Went home and put live rock in a bucket of saltwater from LFS + a pump + heater.

Ended up just getting 20 lbs. of Caribsea live sand. Washed it thoroughly for about 3 hours until the water was running clear.

November 22
Tank arrived

Set up the tank and once it reached temperature, dropped in all the live rock. I only put about 15 lbs. of sand in the tank.

Drip acclimated a banded serpent starfish (about the size of my hand) that was a hitchhiker.

November 23
Shipment of corals arrives in the afternoon - a total of 15 frags and 1 trachy. Pictures below. These corals include: Montipora, Chalice, Cyphastrea, Monticap, Favia, Zoas, Hammers, Ricordia, and rainbow Trachy.

I floated the bags for 30 mins, then drip-acclimated them for 1 hour.

November 24 & 25
No activity, just moved the trachy and some frags around. Minor adjustment to directional flow in the tank.

What's Next?
Second shipment of corals are arriving in a week along with my test kits. Will test water parameters then and also do a water change.

Tank was set-up and corals put in 24 hours later. Everything looks amazing, all corals are open and fluffy and I am very happy with the progress so far.
May I ask where you purchased your corals? Thank you
 

WalkerLovesTheOcean

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Feb 6 - 10 Updates

- Started using Kamoer ATO. Was easy to set-up and seems to be working well. Great buy especially for only $100 CAD
- Did my weekly 20% water change, cleaned glass, scrubbed rocks to get rid of some minor algae growth
- I noticed no new Aiptasia (good news!) and very minimal bubble algae
- Adjusted All For Reef dosing to 5ml per day (1.2 ml x 4 times a day)
- Moved corals around. Some of them fell over due to glue not holding. I split up my euphyllia garden as they are all growing very quickly and I want to give them room to grow.

Latest tank shots below.

IMG_8321.jpeg

IMG_8323.jpeg

IMG_8324.jpeg

IMG_8325.jpeg
Everything is looking so clean and colorful! Looks awesome!!!
 
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Feb 11 - 20 Updates

I was out of town for 5 days and my wife was looking after the tank. Everything was good, but noticed a lot of algae when I got back and build up on the sand.

I did 30% water change, scrubbed rocks, and turned over all the sand on Feb 19.

Unfortunately one of my small feather dusters shed its crown and I noticed the next day on Feb 20 that it look like the predatory worm was eating the feather duster in its tube. Unclear as to whether the worm killed it and ate it, or the feather duster died and then the worm was eating its remains.

I noticed the next day on Feb 20, that some stringy looking algae was back right away. After much thought, reflection, and research, I think there is a good possibility that this may be Dinos.

On one hand I am surprised because of the biodiversity and use of live rock, but on the other hand I am not surprised because I have been having nearly undetectable nitrates for a few weeks.

In hindsight I should've started dosing nitrates, but always thought that since I had some unwanted algae that there must be enough nitrates in the water.

So in short, here is what I am doing to combat the (mild) Dinos:

1) Dosing nitrates and will aim to get it between 5-10ppm,
2) taking out my GFO to maintain my phosphates between .05-.10,
3) Turkey basting visible Dinos daily and changing filter floss daily
4) Changing carbon to fresh one
5) Dosing small amounts of live phytoplankton
6) will try running small UV sterilizer in the media chamber (waiting for it to arrive from Amazon)
7) If the above doesn't do it, I will try Microbacter7, and temporary changes to lighting
 

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Feb 11 - 20 Updates

I was out of town for 5 days and my wife was looking after the tank. Everything was good, but noticed a lot of algae when I got back and build up on the sand.

I did 30% water change, scrubbed rocks, and turned over all the sand on Feb 19.

Unfortunately one of my small feather dusters shed its crown and I noticed the next day on Feb 20 that it look like the predatory worm was eating the feather duster in its tube. Unclear as to whether the worm killed it and ate it, or the feather duster died and then the worm was eating its remains.

I noticed the next day on Feb 20, that some stringy looking algae was back right away. After much thought, reflection, and research, I think there is a good possibility that this may be Dinos.

On one hand I am surprised because of the biodiversity and use of live rock, but on the other hand I am not surprised because I have been having nearly undetectable nitrates for a few weeks.

In hindsight I should've started dosing nitrates, but always thought that since I had some unwanted algae that there must be enough nitrates in the water.

So in short, here is what I am doing to combat the (mild) Dinos:

1) Dosing nitrates and will aim to get it between 5-10ppm,
2) taking out my GFO to maintain my phosphates between .05-.10,
3) Turkey basting visible Dinos daily and changing filter floss daily
4) Changing carbon to fresh one
5) Dosing small amounts of live phytoplankton
6) will try running small UV sterilizer in the media chamber (waiting for it to arrive from Amazon)
7) If the above doesn't do it, I will try Microbacter7, and temporary changes to lighting
Sounds like a good plan! I hope it goes well for you!
 

ralquist

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Feb 11 - 20 Updates

I was out of town for 5 days and my wife was looking after the tank. Everything was good, but noticed a lot of algae when I got back and build up on the sand.

I did 30% water change, scrubbed rocks, and turned over all the sand on Feb 19.

Unfortunately one of my small feather dusters shed its crown and I noticed the next day on Feb 20 that it look like the predatory worm was eating the feather duster in its tube. Unclear as to whether the worm killed it and ate it, or the feather duster died and then the worm was eating its remains.

I noticed the next day on Feb 20, that some stringy looking algae was back right away. After much thought, reflection, and research, I think there is a good possibility that this may be Dinos.

On one hand I am surprised because of the biodiversity and use of live rock, but on the other hand I am not surprised because I have been having nearly undetectable nitrates for a few weeks.

In hindsight I should've started dosing nitrates, but always thought that since I had some unwanted algae that there must be enough nitrates in the water.

So in short, here is what I am doing to combat the (mild) Dinos:

1) Dosing nitrates and will aim to get it between 5-10ppm,
2) taking out my GFO to maintain my phosphates between .05-.10,
3) Turkey basting visible Dinos daily and changing filter floss daily
4) Changing carbon to fresh one
5) Dosing small amounts of live phytoplankton
6) will try running small UV sterilizer in the media chamber (waiting for it to arrive from Amazon)
7) If the above doesn't do it, I will try Microbacter7, and temporary changes to lighting
Darn it, if you could only be with your tank 24/7 lol! Sounds like a great plan, which UV did you go with?
 
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Darn it, if you could only be with your tank 24/7 lol! Sounds like a great plan, which UV did you go with?
Ya I feel like that is how it always is - the worst thing will happen while you're away. I think it is just because we can correct things quickly when we see the tank multiple times a day and intervene much earlier.

Since the tank is an AIO, I have pretty limited space in the chambers in the back. This is the only one I could find that would fit. Cheap as well (this is $65 Canadian) from Amazon.

1708584292161.png
 

ralquist

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Ya I feel like that is how it always is - the worst thing will happen while you're away. I think it is just because we can correct things quickly when we see the tank multiple times a day and intervene much earlier.

Since the tank is an AIO, I have pretty limited space in the chambers in the back. This is the only one I could find that would fit. Cheap as well (this is $65 Canadian) from Amazon.

1708584292161.png
Very nice! Yea those AIOs sure handcuff you to space for UV, def excited to see your thoughts on it! One of those things I can see my self picking up down the road when the time comes!
 

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Feb 1 Updates

- I noticed that Alk dropped 0.5 dKh. I upped my All For Reef dosing to 4ml a day (1ml x 4 times a day) and will continue to monitor daily.

- Started to notice some Algae growing on rocks. I think this was because I scrubbed it all off the back wall and some of it landed on the rocks. Will try to scrub them off soon.

- A little concerned about my Green Acan, and Plate Coral. Both haven't been fluffy for the past day or two. Will continue to monitor. Everything else in the tank looks good.

- We took some pictures using our Canon DSLR R10 and were amazed with the results! Latest tank shot below.

IMG_5170 (1).jpeg
What lens did you use with your R10? And did you have a filter of some sort on the lens? I currently have the R10 handy :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 
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Very nice! Yea those AIOs sure handcuff you to space for UV, def excited to see your thoughts on it! One of those things I can see my self picking up down the road when the time comes!
Just wanted to update that I've been using it for about a month and really happy with the results. Water is crystal clear, it fit in my middle AIO chamber, it's silent, and seems to have helped me win my battle with dinos. Best of all it was cheap!
 
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February 21 - March 22 Updates

It has been an extremely busy few weeks with work, home life, and trying to maintain the tank, but I am happy to share that things are going really well. Some highlights:

  1. I beat Dinos!

    I ended up doing everything I mentioned in my last update on Feb 21, 2024. My theory of what happened is this - once I started dosing AFR, my corals really started to take off and started consuming a lot more nitrates and phosphates as they started growing much faster.

    Due to me being away from home, I wasn't able to catch that the nutrients bottomed out and my nitrates and phosphates hit 0ppm for several days.

    Over the next couple of weeks after I returned, I physically removed as much of the dinos by hand, I started replacing my filter floss twice a day, I turned on the new UV I bought, started dosing nitrates, then a few days later started dosing phosphates, then a few days later started dosing Microbacter 7.

    I noticed the dinos basically disappear, but then started to get really bad red cyano which took over the entire sand bed and started to go onto the rocks and equipment.

    Major lesson learned - DO NOT LET YOUR NUTRIENTS BOTTOM OUT EVER.

  2. I got rid of the Cyano that came after Dinos!

    I tried to just let the cyano run its course over 2 weeks. With manual removal every couple of days and keeping nutrients balanced and stable.

    However, every day, the Cyano got worse and worse and eventually started to smother some corals. So I finally decided to just remove as much as possible using a turkey baster and a net, then did one treatment of chemiclean as per the instructions on the box.

    It is now a week after the treatment and tank looks great and all the animals look very healthy. I'm very happy with the results.

    Picture below shows the cyano at its worst

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.11.15 PM.png


  3. I am still currently trying to keep my nutrients stable and am now hand-dosing daily: Nitrates, Phosphates, and Microbacter7. I continue to dose my AFR using a single-head Kamoer Doser.

  4. I replaced my stock water box return pump that came with the tank with a Jebao DCS 1200 (DC Pump). The main reason for this is that I like that there is a controller and it is much easier for me to put the tank in 'feed mode'.

  5. I returned the arrow crab and moved the 2 cleaner shrimp out of the acclimation box and into the main display and they're doing really well. I had a good experience with the arrow crab and I think it did the job of getting rid of most of the worms I had in my tank. It was always my plan to return it to the LFS after he dealt with my worm problem. I do not think he ate the predatory Oenone Fulgida worm and that it is still in the rocks. However, I think he did eat all the bristle worms.

  6. I got a couple of new great additions: a Pink Streaked Wrasse and a Strawberry Conch. I was worried that the wrasse died because the moment I put him in the tank, I didn't see him for almost a week, but finally today I saw him peek out of the rocks! I have noticed a significant decrease in my pod population, which I'm assuming is because the wrasse has been eating them. The strawberry conch is small, which is perfect for my tank and is very active. He is always out cleaning the sand and even climbs the back wall to eat the algae there. He has been keeping the sand spotless.

    Latest tank and new addition pics below!

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.13.11 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.13.38 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.14.34 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.15.17 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.16.09 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.16.39 PM.png
 

ralquist

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February 21 - March 22 Updates

It has been an extremely busy few weeks with work, home life, and trying to maintain the tank, but I am happy to share that things are going really well. Some highlights:

  1. I beat Dinos!

    I ended up doing everything I mentioned in my last update on Feb 21, 2024. My theory of what happened is this - once I started dosing AFR, my corals really started to take off and started consuming a lot more nitrates and phosphates as they started growing much faster.

    Due to me being away from home, I wasn't able to catch that the nutrients bottomed out and my nitrates and phosphates hit 0ppm for several days.

    Over the next couple of weeks after I returned, I physically removed as much of the dinos by hand, I started replacing my filter floss twice a day, I turned on the new UV I bought, started dosing nitrates, then a few days later started dosing phosphates, then a few days later started dosing Microbacter 7.

    I noticed the dinos basically disappear, but then started to get really bad red cyano which took over the entire sand bed and started to go onto the rocks and equipment.

    Major lesson learned - DO NOT LET YOUR NUTRIENTS BOTTOM OUT EVER.

  2. I got rid of the Cyano that came after Dinos!

    I tried to just let the cyano run its course over 2 weeks. With manual removal every couple of days and keeping nutrients balanced and stable.

    However, every day, the Cyano got worse and worse and eventually started to smother some corals. So I finally decided to just remove as much as possible using a turkey baster and a net, then did one treatment of chemiclean as per the instructions on the box.

    It is now a week after the treatment and tank looks great and all the animals look very healthy. I'm very happy with the results.

    Picture below shows the cyano at its worst

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.11.15 PM.png


  3. I am still currently trying to keep my nutrients stable and am now hand-dosing daily: Nitrates, Phosphates, and Microbacter7. I continue to dose my AFR using a single-head Kamoer Doser.

  4. I replaced my stock water box return pump that came with the tank with a Jebao DCS 1200 (DC Pump). The main reason for this is that I like that there is a controller and it is much easier for me to put the tank in 'feed mode'.

  5. I returned the arrow crab and moved the 2 cleaner shrimp out of the acclimation box and into the main display and they're doing really well. I had a good experience with the arrow crab and I think it did the job of getting rid of most of the worms I had in my tank. It was always my plan to return it to the LFS after he dealt with my worm problem. I do not think he ate the predatory Oenone Fulgida worm and that it is still in the rocks. However, I think he did eat all the bristle worms.

  6. I got a couple of new great additions: a Pink Streaked Wrasse and a Strawberry Conch. I was worried that the wrasse died because the moment I put him in the tank, I didn't see him for almost a week, but finally today I saw him peek out of the rocks! I have noticed a significant decrease in my pod population, which I'm assuming is because the wrasse has been eating them. The strawberry conch is small, which is perfect for my tank and is very active. He is always out cleaning the sand and even climbs the back wall to eat the algae there. He has been keeping the sand spotless.

    Latest tank and new addition pics below!

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.13.11 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.13.38 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.14.34 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.15.17 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.16.09 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.16.39 PM.png
Absolutely beautiful sir…spotless! I also installed one about a week ago, not noticing a real difference but maybe like others have mentioned it’s doing its job!

So happy to hear about your winning battle!

Holy pink streaked wrasse! That’s a nice looking fish, mine seems to be finally getting more brave and coming out every once in a while! Great call with the conch, so hard to find small ones.

Keep up with the amazing work and thanks for sharing!
 
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Absolutely beautiful sir…spotless! I also installed one about a week ago, not noticing a real difference but maybe like others have mentioned it’s doing its job!

So happy to hear about your winning battle!

Holy pink streaked wrasse! That’s a nice looking fish, mine seems to be finally getting more brave and coming out every once in a while! Great call with the conch, so hard to find small ones.

Keep up with the amazing work and thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your very kind words!

Honestly I thought my wrasse was a goner as I hadn’t seen it in 5 days until he stuck his head out of the rocks during feeding. I hope he starts coming out more.

I had a six line many years ago and that was a great fish that always seemed to be patrolling the rocks.

How long have you had your pink streaked wrasse for? How often does it come out?
 

ralquist

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I’ve had mine for a few weeks is all I think, seems to really like mysis shrimp if it’s small. I have been shaving pieces off frozen cubes, live baby brine also! Will come out any time there is food but always stays tight to the rock work and will dart back into hiding as soon as you move. Seems to be the most active around the time the lights ramp down. Believe that is pretty normal to hide most of the time, I’ve heard about people getting pairs to help but that’s about as far as my research went haha. I had ordered this fish a while back for my 45, unfortunately was DOA. Ended up just waiting for a replacement, then couple of months later surprise your fish is ready to ship. Looks pretty rough so it went into the 15, been good so far!
IMG_5013.jpeg
 
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I've got the same tank. Set it up around the beginning of Feb. Always looking for inspiration and I found some this evening. Enjoying the progress.
Oh awesome! Looking forward to seeing your tank progress also!
 

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February 21 - March 22 Updates

It has been an extremely busy few weeks with work, home life, and trying to maintain the tank, but I am happy to share that things are going really well. Some highlights:

  1. I beat Dinos!

    I ended up doing everything I mentioned in my last update on Feb 21, 2024. My theory of what happened is this - once I started dosing AFR, my corals really started to take off and started consuming a lot more nitrates and phosphates as they started growing much faster.

    Due to me being away from home, I wasn't able to catch that the nutrients bottomed out and my nitrates and phosphates hit 0ppm for several days.

    Over the next couple of weeks after I returned, I physically removed as much of the dinos by hand, I started replacing my filter floss twice a day, I turned on the new UV I bought, started dosing nitrates, then a few days later started dosing phosphates, then a few days later started dosing Microbacter 7.

    I noticed the dinos basically disappear, but then started to get really bad red cyano which took over the entire sand bed and started to go onto the rocks and equipment.

    Major lesson learned - DO NOT LET YOUR NUTRIENTS BOTTOM OUT EVER.

  2. I got rid of the Cyano that came after Dinos!

    I tried to just let the cyano run its course over 2 weeks. With manual removal every couple of days and keeping nutrients balanced and stable.

    However, every day, the Cyano got worse and worse and eventually started to smother some corals. So I finally decided to just remove as much as possible using a turkey baster and a net, then did one treatment of chemiclean as per the instructions on the box.

    It is now a week after the treatment and tank looks great and all the animals look very healthy. I'm very happy with the results.

    Picture below shows the cyano at its worst

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.11.15 PM.png


  3. I am still currently trying to keep my nutrients stable and am now hand-dosing daily: Nitrates, Phosphates, and Microbacter7. I continue to dose my AFR using a single-head Kamoer Doser.

  4. I replaced my stock water box return pump that came with the tank with a Jebao DCS 1200 (DC Pump). The main reason for this is that I like that there is a controller and it is much easier for me to put the tank in 'feed mode'.

  5. I returned the arrow crab and moved the 2 cleaner shrimp out of the acclimation box and into the main display and they're doing really well. I had a good experience with the arrow crab and I think it did the job of getting rid of most of the worms I had in my tank. It was always my plan to return it to the LFS after he dealt with my worm problem. I do not think he ate the predatory Oenone Fulgida worm and that it is still in the rocks. However, I think he did eat all the bristle worms.

  6. I got a couple of new great additions: a Pink Streaked Wrasse and a Strawberry Conch. I was worried that the wrasse died because the moment I put him in the tank, I didn't see him for almost a week, but finally today I saw him peek out of the rocks! I have noticed a significant decrease in my pod population, which I'm assuming is because the wrasse has been eating them. The strawberry conch is small, which is perfect for my tank and is very active. He is always out cleaning the sand and even climbs the back wall to eat the algae there. He has been keeping the sand spotless.

    Latest tank and new addition pics below!

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.13.11 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.13.38 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.14.34 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.15.17 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.16.09 PM.png

    Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 11.16.39 PM.png
Oh my god! The tank is stunning!

Sorry, for some reason I haven't gotten notifications from when you post on here.

I am so happy that you beat dinos, thats awesome!

How are the wrasse and conch doing?

I am also glad to see that the arrow crab worked to get rid of your bristle worms! That's awesome to hear. I have a few in my tank, and I think a ribbon worm, and I hate them. And, yikes. That predatory worm is not fun, and I hope you find a way to get rid of it!
 
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