StackTrayce
Community Member
In June 2023 bought an existing running complete red sea max nano system w/ a few corals and two fish from facebook marketplace. Ran a 10g nano successfully for a couple years ~2005, moved from Wisconsin to NYC, now in Connecticut and getting back into the hobby and can tell equipment has improved!
Previous owner said tank had been running ~5 years. They included an assortment of additives (brightwell 2-part, chemiclean), food, cleaning tools, auto topoff reservoir, etc.
After move polyps open and fish out within about a day. When setting up at home we redid aquascape once about a week after move and everything came out again within a day.
Not much sand at bottom (definitely less than 0.5”, some bare spots). Previous owner mentioned I may want to take more out. My current plan is to remove as much old sand as possible and add live sand and start dosing microbacter7 and clean.
Some growth but not much, polyps open, likely cyano or some other problem bacteria/algae. One dead snail and one dead fish in first 2 months.
Current priorities:
Water Quality / Dosing
Feeding adjustments
Beating cyano
Adding Sand, boosting competitive bacteria
Phyto/Pods
Neatening Cables
Equipment:
Red Sea Max Nano 20g AIO w/ built in 3.5g sump compartment
Red Sea Hydra 26 LED (rebranded AI PrimeHD something or other?)
Red Sea max nano skimmer, 225 micron filter sock, biobeads (?), carbon, gfo (?)
Hygger eco slim wavemaker
ATO: XTAqua Duetto2 ATO
Eheim heater (100W?)
Livestock:
Corals:
1 5”+ pink toadstool leather
1 3” yellow toadstool leather
7 heads of frogspawn across 3 pieces
Small zoa frag
Encrusting coral (cyphastrea? favite?)
Green Star Polyps
Inverts:
Snails: 2 trochus, 2 astrea, 1 cerite
2 peppermint shrimp
Fish:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Royal Gramma (RIP)
Feeding:
Hikari Marine S pellets, 1-3 at a time, every 1-2 days
Ocean Nutrition Reef Pulse
Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods (12oz bottle once in early July, acclimated and added over a few days)
Dosing:
Brightwell Alkalin8.3, soon maybe Kalk+2
Also have Vibrant and ChemiClean but have not dosed that since moving tank
Parameters:
NH3/NO3/NO2/PO4 0
GH 300
TA 180
KH 100?
Ph 8+ on strip, 8.0 on iztada probe (pre cal)
Testing:
Umlecoa 7-in-1 test strips (NO3, NO2, pH, TA, GH, KH)
IZTADA pH, salinity and temperature probes
LFS double-check w/ API
TODO: calibrate pH probe
On order:
Hanna Alkalinity dkh checker and extra reagents
100 micron filter sock (to replace 225)
Microbacter7, Microbacter Clean
Reef Chilli
PE Mysis
May purchase soon:
Live sand aragalive special grade
Ca test kit
3d printed upgrades for max nano
Hope to add eventually:
Pistol shrimp for goby
Clown fish
Emerald crab
Right side view, green on stalk of greenspawn, reddish ugliness on sand and rocks. Tank would normally be pushed back away from this window and get less window light.
Would love to hear any advice and feedback!
Previous owner said tank had been running ~5 years. They included an assortment of additives (brightwell 2-part, chemiclean), food, cleaning tools, auto topoff reservoir, etc.
After move polyps open and fish out within about a day. When setting up at home we redid aquascape once about a week after move and everything came out again within a day.
Not much sand at bottom (definitely less than 0.5”, some bare spots). Previous owner mentioned I may want to take more out. My current plan is to remove as much old sand as possible and add live sand and start dosing microbacter7 and clean.
Some growth but not much, polyps open, likely cyano or some other problem bacteria/algae. One dead snail and one dead fish in first 2 months.
Current priorities:
Water Quality / Dosing
Feeding adjustments
Beating cyano
Adding Sand, boosting competitive bacteria
Phyto/Pods
Neatening Cables
Equipment:
Red Sea Max Nano 20g AIO w/ built in 3.5g sump compartment
Red Sea Hydra 26 LED (rebranded AI PrimeHD something or other?)
Red Sea max nano skimmer, 225 micron filter sock, biobeads (?), carbon, gfo (?)
Hygger eco slim wavemaker
ATO: XTAqua Duetto2 ATO
Eheim heater (100W?)
Livestock:
Corals:
1 5”+ pink toadstool leather
1 3” yellow toadstool leather
7 heads of frogspawn across 3 pieces
Small zoa frag
Encrusting coral (cyphastrea? favite?)
Green Star Polyps
Inverts:
Snails: 2 trochus, 2 astrea, 1 cerite
2 peppermint shrimp
Fish:
Yellow Watchman Goby
Royal Gramma (RIP)
Feeding:
Hikari Marine S pellets, 1-3 at a time, every 1-2 days
Ocean Nutrition Reef Pulse
Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods (12oz bottle once in early July, acclimated and added over a few days)
Dosing:
Brightwell Alkalin8.3, soon maybe Kalk+2
Also have Vibrant and ChemiClean but have not dosed that since moving tank
Parameters:
NH3/NO3/NO2/PO4 0
GH 300
TA 180
KH 100?
Ph 8+ on strip, 8.0 on iztada probe (pre cal)
Testing:
Umlecoa 7-in-1 test strips (NO3, NO2, pH, TA, GH, KH)
IZTADA pH, salinity and temperature probes
LFS double-check w/ API
TODO: calibrate pH probe
On order:
Hanna Alkalinity dkh checker and extra reagents
100 micron filter sock (to replace 225)
Microbacter7, Microbacter Clean
Reef Chilli
PE Mysis
May purchase soon:
Live sand aragalive special grade
Ca test kit
3d printed upgrades for max nano
Hope to add eventually:
Pistol shrimp for goby
Clown fish
Emerald crab
Right side view, green on stalk of greenspawn, reddish ugliness on sand and rocks. Tank would normally be pushed back away from this window and get less window light.
Would love to hear any advice and feedback!
