10 gal micro sumpless reef tank

[Sasha T]

My phyto culture never did start with the stuff from canada copepods so had to start another with this fresh stuff.

Just as a heads-up, Canada Copepods claims on each of their phyto bottles that the blend is sterile and unable to reproduce. The person who supplies Big Al's Kitchener with their phyto (which comes in Sunny D bottles, which I think is hilarious for some reason) also sells it via Kijiji/Facebook, and I've had no problems culturing it.

 

[scubasteve]

Just as a heads-up, Canada Copepods claims on each of their phyto bottles that the blend is sterile and unable to reproduce. The person who supplies Big Al's Kitchener with their phyto (which comes in Sunny D bottles, which I think is hilarious for some reason) also sells it via Kijiji/Facebook, and I've had no problems culturing it.

Canada copepods has the 2 different kinds one is sterile and higher concentration and the other is suppose to be good for cultures. Didn't work tho so i grabbed a bottle from big als. Those bottles are great and cheap, I only know because the supplier I get my honey jars from lol. Tisbe pods, tigger pods and phyto brewing away. Going to get some brown motile from cultured by science too. Their cultures are amazing.

 

[scubasteve]

2 more goodies. Sps acans and palys are doing great. Still want some purple monti cap, Forrest fire Digi and some multi colour acros or millies. Also want scrambled eggs, magician, orange bam bams and any speckled zoos. Have honey, bambi or cash lol.

 

[scubasteve]

Newbies from cultured by science. Definitely worth the visit and some great deals. 3 new additions.

 

[scubasteve]

Forgot my purple bonsai and acros from coral reef shop. Pic doesnt do justice but they are yellow, green, blue, orange and pink. Reminded me of a gobstopper layers so had to grab it. Phyto brewing away well too. Want to get some isochrysis from cultured by science as it is way better for boosting pod population faster.

 

[scubasteve]

Well sps is gonzo. Everything else is doing good but saw some RTN starting on one piece. Did all my tests around noon and everything was bang on. Even checked ato water for chlorine but nope. Next day getting worse and starting on another. Take water to fish store, double check, everything great. Carbon is still fresh and really boggled......

Wake up early before lights on and do a ph check. Holy kablewie!!! Ph had dropped quite a bit overnight. (This is when your glad to have a sump and lights in reverse to avoid this but not on this sumpless nano). Nutrient load in tank is too low for algae scrubber so added a rigid air line which helped a lot. Now I have a new toy.

This little due hickey is great and connects to my phone through WiFi so I can check ph, S.G. and temp any time, any where and it logs on a graph for 30 days where I can export file to my email to keep a history if wanted. Have also set high and low alarms for notifications. Now to track swings for a bit before I waste more money on sps. A bit bummed out, scored some nice sps cheap on boxing day but oh well. At least acans and zoas are all good and my cleanup crew and clown.

 

[scubasteve]

Also big thanks to kyle1970 for some awesome zoos! All were open within minutes in the tank and just got a camera filter for better pics so hopefully add some pics of those beauties after I clean my glass.

 

[Mechano]

Well sps is gonzo. Everything else is doing good but saw some RTN starting on one piece. Did all my tests around noon and everything was bang on. Even checked ato water for chlorine but nope. Next day getting worse and starting on another. Take water to fish store, double check, everything great. Carbon is still fresh and really boggled......

Wake up early before lights on and do a ph check. Holy kablewie!!! Ph had dropped quite a bit overnight. (This is when your glad to have a sump and lights in reverse to avoid this but not on this sumpless nano). Nutrient load in tank is too low for algae scrubber so added a rigid air line which helped a lot. Now I have a new toy.

This little due hickey is great and connects to my phone through WiFi so I can check ph, S.G. and temp any time, any where and it logs on a graph for 30 days where I can export file to my email to keep a history if wanted. Have also set high and low alarms for notifications. Now to track swings for a bit before I waste more money on sps. A bit bummed out, scored some nice sps cheap on boxing day but oh well. At least acans and zoas are all good and my cleanup crew and clown.
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What unit is this?

 

[scubasteve]

What unit is this?

El cheap amazon 6 in 1 water tester. Was only like $60. I got it for ph but comes handy with temp and sg too. I honestly didn't expect much from a cheap unit but it calibrated perfectly for ph and s.g. I didn't calibrate the others so they are off but is great for a safeguard. I'm always fearful of ato's screwing up or heaters going wonky thanks to past experiences. I'll update after a few months if it's still reading true or not.

 

[scubasteve]

Some pics of the zoos from kyle1960. To be honest I just threw them in without acclimation but all were open within minutes and doing great. They definitely liked my tank more then the others I got that are struggling.

 

[scubasteve]

There we go much better and where I consider good. Before adding air it was dropping to 7.6 by 4-5 am. Now with air it only drops from 8.4 to 8.19 averaging 8.33 which is what I want. Joys of no sump and no skimmer in a nano.

 

[Pistol]

Canada copepods has the 2 different kinds one is sterile and higher concentration and the other is suppose to be good for cultures. Didn't work tho so i grabbed a bottle from big als. Those bottles are great and cheap, I only know because the supplier I get my honey jars from lol. Tisbe pods, tigger pods and phyto brewing away. Going to get some brown motile from cultured by science too. Their cultures are amazing.

What do you use for fertilizer for your phyto?

 

[scubasteve]

What do you use for fertilizer for your phyto?

I just use miracle grow general purpose. Everyone screams to use f2 but good luck finding it and miracle grow does fine. Its all I used before for breeding seahorses for their food and my sps 0 water change tank with no ill effects so I just keep doing what works. At room temp with no heater and only a 20w or so led light I get 1L a week which is all I need for tank and 2 pod cultures. Total volume is 2.2L in culture.

 

[Pistol]

Thanks

 

[scubasteve]

2 new additions, mandarin dragonette and hectors goby. Them ad the clown maxes my fish. Already have 6 ninja star snails, 8 lightening dove snails and 4 Mexican red leg hermits for a cleanup crew. Also added a cracker jack, red monti cap, birdsnest, gorgonian and strawberry shortcake frag. All seem to be doing well except the strawberry shortcake.

 

[scubasteve]

Visited Painter Steve today and got some beauties. They look 100x better then in pic and I put in tank 5 min ago and look at the PE on that milli already! It's a shag carpet! If not far from kitchener you definitely want to check him out when searching.

Also scored 2 nice wild Aussies acros from big als kitchener. Mini colony for $44 yes please lol. The one was all pink but base is going bluish purple and the tips around polyps are going bright pinkish red with golden polyps on base and greenish purple polyps toward tips. Wull be neat to see what it does. Hopefully the green doesn't stay all green but it is a nice big thick healthy chunk and the spot I screwed up on the tip pushing into epoxy has fully healed after just a few days.

 

[scubasteve]

Remember that pink wild aussie I just got? Here is how it is coloring up in tank. Looks like I have my own Scuba Steve cherry blossom lol. Sure does look close ad this is only after 3 weeks in tank. Originally it was all pink with greenish polyps. I really need a good camera.

 

[scubasteve]

Also got some more goodies. Frag of scorpion acro, ice queen acro, rr goldenrod anacropora, ribbon photosynthetic gorgonian and a vampire in drag zoa. Tank is basically full aside from room for 4 more acros at most.

 

[scubasteve]

And time for a full tank pic.

 

[Shooter000]

Heeeeeeee's baaaaaaaack.......