Rantipole's AIO nano

[rantipole]

Hi everyone,

After well over a year of being on Reef2Reef, I finally have a tank! I supported the Indigogo campaign of Biota Aquariums back in October. I got the tank in November but due to the holidays, life, the universe, and everything, I didn't set it up until Jan. I've had livestock in it since early March. I went with the Biota system because I know one of the owners, Kevin Gaines, and because I the AIO package and focus on sustainability really appealed to me. It seemed like a great way to get a taste of reef keeping before dumping thousands of dollars in full-blown system.

I've been following the instructions from Biota. So far, so good. I had a bacterial outbreak that made my water cloudy and my corals close up for a few days. Right now, I'm getting a bunch of hair algae. My Sinularia was closed up today for no reason I can determine.

Here are the stats for the tank.
Tank: Fluval EVO saltwater kit, 13.5 gallons
Light: LED 14000 K output

Test values (today):
Salinity: 1.024
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: detectable but under 0.05
Phosphate: 0
pH: 8.2
Alkalinity: 3.5
Carbonate: 8 dKH
Calcium: 420? (found the API test hard to read; will get a better test soon)

Livestock:
2 Ocellaris clownfish
1 Rainford's goby
1 Neon green finger leather frag (Sinularia)
1 Palauan toadstool leather frag (Sarcophyton)
1 Green polyp leather frag (Sarcophyton)
1 zoanthid frag

Photos from first day:

 

[rantipole]

Two more shots. One is my tank with the final placement of the corals. The other is my tank two days ago showing the gross algae outbreak.

All constructive feedback is appreciated. I love my little tank and want it to thrive!

Cheers,
rant

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Interesting shape on the rock they sent you. And check out that finger leather growth! The toadstool you've got is pretty sweet...that's the one that I had die on me from Biota that they sent me a finger leather to replace. Cant wait to see what that one looks like as it grows. I've looked for one around my local fish stores to add to my tank and still haven't come across one. Surprisingly leathers are much more rare around here. But I do have a local shop that Biota sends their finger leathers and captive bred mandarins to.
I had a lot of that brown diatom gunk on my sand for a while too. It died off after a bit, so hopefully you'll experience the same. Your tank looks like it's off to a good start!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looks like you're reef is getting a solid start.

 

[rantipole]

Interesting shape on the rock they sent you. And check out that finger leather growth! The toadstool you've got is pretty sweet...that's the one that I had die on me from Biota that they sent me a finger leather to replace. Cant wait to see what that one looks like as it grows. I've looked for one around my local fish stores to add to my tank and still haven't come across one. Surprisingly leathers are much more rare around here. But I do have a local shop that Biota sends their finger leathers and captive bred mandarins to.
I had a lot of that brown diatom gunk on my sand for a while too. It died off after a bit, so hopefully you'll experience the same. Your tank looks like it's off to a good start!

I really like the rock. It's a great shape. The Rainford's has excavated a tunnel system under it that has like three or four entrances. it was fun to watch him do it.

That toadstool is awesome. It's always open got good extension. I'm so excited that Biota is breeding mandarins. Mandarins are my favorite fish species, and I want to keep them someday.

The diatoms went away and then slowly started to creep back. I hope they go away for good soon.

Looks like you're reef is getting a solid start.

Thank you!

Cheers,
rant

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[rantipole]

Couple things going on.

First did a water change on Sunday. My Sinularia did not seem to like this. It flopped over as pictured. I stirred up a lot of crap because I took a toothbrush to the live rock to get rid of some algae. The leather was fine the next day and yesterday. Today, it flopped over again. I need to test water but I don't have time right now.

Second thing, a couple weeks ago I saw this tiny piece of what I think is a Sinularia in a crevice in the live rock. Then it disappeared. When cleaning tank Sunday, I found it in the sand bed. I attempted to glue it down to live rock but don't think I was successful. The thing is super tiny and was really hard to manipulate to get the glue on it. Those are the other two images. One is at ~2x mag.

I hope the coral springs back but testing water is on the agenda for tonight.

Cheers,
rant

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Interesting behavior from your finger leather. I had mine get moody and scrunch up into a little ball for a couple days when I first started running GFO (my other green polyp leather was angry about it too which was interesting as all of the other corals didn't mind) but I've never seen it flop like that but still stay open and extended. All the research I did on them while I was trying to figure out what their deal was said that they can be notoriously grumpy for several days after something sets them off. Such interesting little organisms. Hope yours perks up for you soon!

Looks like maybe you've got dinoflagellates rather than algae but I can't quite tell from the photos.

 

[rantipole]

I think I saw my first copepod. There was a tiny pale white bug crawling rapidly around the live rock. I couldn't snap a pic - it moved too fast.

Tank has been cloudy for past three days. I think it's bacteria again. I stirred up so much crap during my last water change, it think it really fed them. I did another small change today, but ran out of salt to do a bigger one. Corals and fish look good though, so I don't think it's dire.

Cheers,
rant

 

[rantipole]

Birthday present from my sweetie arrived. My tank's going to be on point now!

My Sinularia looks a lot better. I have a short video to upload when I get a chance. Now to battle the hair algae.

Cheers,
rant

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Nice gift! Good luck getting it dialed in. Took me around a month of tweaking to find the perfect setting. But it does a great job once it's set perfect!

 

[rantipole]

Finally got to set up the protein skimmer today. It's loud. One of the things I loved about my tank was how quiet it was. Now, with the skimmer set up, there is a constant drone. Anyone else running a FluvalSea Mini having this issue?

Cheers,
rant

 

[BrettMallette]

Finally got to set up the protein skimmer today. It's loud. One of the things I loved about my tank was how quiet it was. Now, with the skimmer set up, there is a constant drone. Anyone else running a FluvalSea Mini having this issue?

Cheers,
rant

I have the upgraded version not the mini and its silent as can be. Is it the airline making all the noise or the pump inside? If its the airline you can add a muffler to it to silence it some...

 

[BrettMallette]

Or toy around with the adjustable end on the airline til its quiet enough for you. Might just have to adjust the skimmers height in tank to get the skim you want out of it though.

 

[rantipole]

It seems to be the pump inside. I've moved it around a bit and the noise is much less. Still noisier than I'd like, but much better than when I wrote my post.

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Finally got to set up the protein skimmer today. It's loud. One of the things I loved about my tank was how quiet it was. Now, with the skimmer set up, there is a constant drone. Anyone else running a FluvalSea Mini having this issue?

Cheers,
rant

Mine was loud when I got it. I opened it up and put two small pieces of bubble wrap on either side of the motor and that made it totally silent.

 

[rantipole]

Back from Reef A Palooza and had an absolute blast. My haul was a fighting conch, 4 cerinths, 2 zebra snails (all from Wet Pets), a bright red zoa frag (from Ultimate Corals), and clove polyp frag with a photosynthetic sponge attached (from David's Aquarium). I also some got some small frag holding rocks from Alternative Reef. I just got done dipping corals and acclimating everything. The conch buried itself, the zebras are cruising along, and the cerinths haven't really moved. The corals are still closed up.

So excited to expand the life in my little tank!

Cheers,
rant

 

[rantipole]

Wanted to take the rock out of the tank to scrub the algae off. The problem is that my Rainford's goby hides in the rock. He even stays in it when I take it out of the water. I put it back for now and hope he's OK. I'm waiting for him to come out now so I can net him away from the rock and take it out. Isn't the life of a reefer just so exciting?

Cheers,
rant

 

[rantipole]

Update with some pics.

The good news is Aiptasia X seems to have taken care of my aiptasia issue. My zoas and clove polyps are staring to spread a little bit. All the tank denizens seem healthy and happy.

I peroxided off the big rock. It mostly took care of the algae. I'm happy with results of that. I still have terrible algae in the sand (see pics) and I'm not sure what my next step on that should be. I've got a filter bag with GFO in it. I just added that about five days ago.

So what's my next algae control step? Wait for the GFO to do its job? Add an urchin? Peroxide dosing?

Cheers,
rant

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Holy cow...almost looks like a planted freshwater tank! What are your phosphate levels at? If they're super high like mine were when I started using GFO it will deplete really fast and you'll need to replace it often. As soon as you see the phosphate levels start to rise again after they've fallen a bit, it's time for new GFO. But once the numbers were low, the GFO lasts a good amount of time and has done a great job of keeping my phosphates in check.

Also, can't speak more highly of the little tuxedo urchin I got to eat my hair algae. I know not all of them will be as cooperative, but mine was an absolute lawnmower and had my Evo stripped of algae in about a week and a half. Now he comes up the glass every day for a piece of nori.

Your finger leather is growing like a weed!! Looks awesome! Mine has kind of slowed down a bit and seems to be widening more so now than gaining height.