First Nano Reef Progress & Updates

[ejstras]

Well done you researched well, many people miss the difference between the two.

Just something to consider, I started with both carbon and rowa, don’t use either now, I use Tropic Marin bacto balance for nitrate and po4 control, and carbon when I removed it I never noticed a difference, if anything the water was clearer, carbon I would use only for removing contaminates now, a lot to be said for keeping a nano simple, always keep in mind that a lot of the gear people use is to save on water changes, because a water change on a big tank is time consuming and expensive, with a nano you can very easily do a water change, less gear now will also allow you to add more useful gear later such as dosing equipment, with space being a premium with a nano.

I do have a autoaqua AWC/ATO setup as well for this nano tank. I'll eventually get into auto dosing as well since my fiancé lives in New Zealand. So I frequently take long trips. So I'll be automating a lot and having family tank sit.

 

[ejstras]

About 8 days into my cycling now. Got 4.0ppm of ammonia down to zero. Nitrites off the charts and nitrates present. Tried to dial in the AWC, but theres no way to run it in the chambers on the tank without running the return pump dry. Back to the drawing board with that. Will do manual water changes until I figure out a solution. Turning off my return pump during awc does not help either because the water level increases going well above my normal high level sensor for the ATO since it's a coupled system.