Help Me Save My Flex

[_bsafarijoe]

Hi Guys,

My name is Berg and I have a serious problem. Back in November I started my first reef tank, a Fluval Flex 15, and rushed it. I have been keeping freshwater tanks for as long as I can remember and have kept some incredibly difficult and complicated fish and invertebrates so I thought it can't be that hard. I was very wrong and I regret not taking the advice of going slow. I want to learn and I want to succeed in reef keeping, and I am ready to start over. I have a friend with a solid reef tank who said he would be willing to help me hold the fish and corals for a time while I fix and upgrade my setup, but I need to come up with a solid plan first.
The main issues I am having are algae (I got an emerald crab that demolished it, but I want to ensure it doesn't come back), looks, levels, filtration, and the pain of a setup.
I would really like to get a sump and run a refugium to provide a good source of pods for a project I run on breeding Stiphodon gobies (long story but basically they are freshwater island stream gobies that flow out to reefs as larvae and grow up in plankton clouds, I have all of that figured out and it's going great) while also looking great and being fun.

The current equipment is:
An Aquaknight LED that works amazing! I do want to figure out the settings better, if you have any advice for light levels lmk.
Stock pump. I need to upgrade this.
A heater on a thermostat that works fine.
A DIY plexi lid, I want to buy a new one and get it custom-made.
A metric butt-ton of live rock.
Sand (I want to get rid of)
And a jury-rigged filtration set up.

I think I have two ideas, one would be to upgrade the stock filtration and add a modified HOB refugium. The other option is to tear out the filtration of the flex (not a ton of work) and install the HOB overflow I bought and purchase an IceCap 15 sump (I know it's overkill, but I think this will work well). I really hate DIY and I have done so much already, I know I could make a sump, but honestly, I don't want to.

The things I want to do:
A refugium for pods and nutrient export.
An auto top-off.
A clean setup for corals (I really don't know what, maybe a stand, maybe rock, just something elegant)
A new lid.
A stronger pump.
Take a lot of the live rock out, and all the sand, bare bottom for easy cleaning.
And less overall mess and DIY bs.

Has anyone worked with a 15 flex? What do you think?

 

[thereefhotspot]

Hi Guys,

My name is Berg and I have a serious problem. Back in November I started my first reef tank, a Fluval Flex 15, and rushed it. I have been keeping freshwater tanks for as long as I can remember and have kept some incredibly difficult and complicated fish and invertebrates so I thought it can't be that hard. I was very wrong and I regret not taking the advice of going slow. I want to learn and I want to succeed in reef keeping, and I am ready to start over. I have a friend with a solid reef tank who said he would be willing to help me hold the fish and corals for a time while I fix and upgrade my setup, but I need to come up with a solid plan first.
The main issues I am having are algae (I got an emerald crab that demolished it, but I want to ensure it doesn't come back), looks, levels, filtration, and the pain of a setup.
I would really like to get a sump and run a refugium to provide a good source of pods for a project I run on breeding Stiphodon gobies (long story but basically they are freshwater island stream gobies that flow out to reefs as larvae and grow up in plankton clouds, I have all of that figured out and it's going great) while also looking great and being fun.

The current equipment is:
An Aquaknight LED that works amazing! I do want to figure out the settings better, if you have any advice for light levels lmk.
Stock pump. I need to upgrade this.
A heater on a thermostat that works fine.
A DIY plexi lid, I want to buy a new one and get it custom-made.
A metric butt-ton of live rock.
Sand (I want to get rid of)
And a jury-rigged filtration set up.

I think I have two ideas, one would be to upgrade the stock filtration and add a modified HOB refugium. The other option is to tear out the filtration of the flex (not a ton of work) and install the HOB overflow I bought and purchase an ICEBOX 15 sump (I know it's overkill, but I think this will work well). I really hate DIY and I have done so much already, I know I could make a sump, but honestly, I don't want to.

The things I want to do:
A refugium for pods and nutrient export.
An auto top-off.
A clean setup for corals (I really don't know what, maybe a stand, maybe rock, just something elegant)
A new lid.
A stronger pump.
Take a lot of the live rock out, and all the sand, bare bottom for easy cleaning.
And less overall mess and DIY bs.

Has anyone worked with a 15 flex? What do you think?

I think adding an auto top off will be the most beneficial thing for this aquarium. That will help to keep your salinity and other parameters stable. The refugium will most likely be more hassle than help on a system this size. You can fix the nutrient export issue by doing the bare bottom and then going and doing a quick 2-gallon water change each week. I would advise against removing too much rock as well as all of the sand. This can cause a mini recycle. So maybe just remove a little bit of rock adter going bare. We prefer bare as it makes maintenance a breeze.

Hope this helps!

- Gavin

 

[_bsafarijoe]

I think adding an auto top off will be the most beneficial thing for this aquarium. That will help to keep your salinity and other parameters stable. The refugium will most likely be more hassle than help on a system this size. You can fix the nutrient export issue by doing the bare bottom and then going and doing a quick 2-gallon water change each week. I would advise against removing too much rock as well as all of the sand. This can cause a mini recycle. So maybe just remove a little bit of rock adter going bare. We prefer bare as it makes maintenance a breeze.

Hope this helps!

- Gavin

Hi Gavin,
I was really leaning towards that ICEbox setup, do you think that would also be too much of a pain?

 

[thereefhotspot]

Hi Gavin,
I was really leaning towards that ICEbox setup, do you think that would also be too much of a pain?

I'm actually unfamiliar with that, so I wouldn't honestly be able to tell you myself. Wouls you mind sending a link to what you are talking about? I'm curious to learn about it

 

[_bsafarijoe]

I'm actually unfamiliar with that, so I wouldn't honestly be able to tell you myself. Wouls you mind sending a link to what you are talking about? I'm curious to learn about it

IceCap sorry! https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-sump-15-icecap.html

 

[Idech]

You say you want to go slow but read what you wrote…

All you need for now is stability. The ATO is the only thing that might be needed. Not necessary, but needed. Other than that, you need to do nothing but take care of problems (if there are any) the most natural way possible.

I come from the fresh world also and started last winter with a 12 gallons Evo. It doesn’t need a sump, refugium or even a skimmer. It has had no dinos, not much algae and is doing fine with the stock pump and light.

Breathe and take your time.

 

[Saltyreef]

I added a refugium to the back chamber of a 14g biocube so i know this can be done in yours....
I wouldnt remove the sand in such small aquarium and maybe you need to step back and re evaulate.

You got a crab to solve the algae issue and it did....
Algae strains somtimes needs time to die out while you manually remove it.

An All in one nano aquarium really doesnt need anything more than the stock filtration and elbow grease from you to keep it clean.
You absolutely do not need a sump

 

[thereefhotspot]

IceCap sorry! https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-sump-15-icecap.html

It may help to add more system volume, which will make it more stable and manageable! It really depends on how much work you want to do. At that point you might just want to go with a bigger tank but there is something to be said about a beautiful nano display tank.

 

[_bsafarijoe]

It may help to add more system volume, which will make it more stable and manageable! It really depends on how much work you want to do. At that point you might just want to go with a bigger tank but there is something to be said about a beautiful nano display tank.

That is mainly my goal. I like the tank and it's fun for me, but I just need more water volume. I want more stability.