College Nano Reef!

[extendedmango]

Hi everyone!

This is my nano reef that I'm in the process of setting up for college. I hope that this thread will help me as well as other reefer in college!

Here is what I have so far,

Tank:
-Aquamaxx 22l with oceanbox AIO kit
-2 ai primes
-Santimonica filtration drop 1.4 uas
-Innovative marine ato

Fish:
-Golden Dwarf Moray Eel

Some of you will remember me from the College nano plan late last year.



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[extendedmango]

A photo of the tank

The GDM (He is a little camera shy lol)



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[ahuaia]

Originally Posted by extendedmango

A photo of the tank

The GDM (He is a little camera shy lol)



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That's a really big tank for a dorm room.

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[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by ahuaia

That's a really big tank for a dorm room.

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I'm definitely pushing the limits as to what can fit into a dorm room, but I think it should work out. That coral fish 12g guy has two tanks packed into his dorm room!

Worst case scenario I trade the tank for a smaller one or sell it completely.


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[FengShuiCorals]

seems like a solid tank, also gonna have college tank build coming up soon. although i got an apartment. where are you attending? I'm in gainesville, always cool to come across other college reefers

[FengShuiCorals]

University of Florida go Gators!!

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by awesomecube

seems like a solid tank, also gonna have college tank build coming up soon. although i got an apartment. where are you attending? I'm in gainesville, always cool to come across other college reefers

Ya it is really cool to meet other young reefers. I'm going to be a freshman at Oregon state university next year!


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[extendedmango]

Time for an update!

Everything on the tank is going well except for the algea bloom. The bio load from the eel is insane! Im now doing a cup waterchange daily as well as cleaning out the scrubber weekly. I think I have gotten the nitrates under control and I need to get rid of the display algea. I have a basic cleanup crew of hermit crabs and snails, but I should probably add somthing that will be a little faster at cleaning. To do this i am cobsidering a hectors or court jester goby, as they both consume algea and sift the sand bed.

Would these be good options for the tank? Are there any other fish/inverts I should consider? Also i dont plan on feeding anything other than the eel, so the new addition would need to survive off pods and algea.

Thanks in advance!


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[extendedmango]

A pic of the forest.


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[kevin21]

Woah, yeah. You need to manually remove as much as possible during WEEKLY water changes. I would be doing 40% weekly water changes. You will notice the hair algae becoming weaker and easier to pull off the rocks each week. It shows you are winning the battle. If for whatever reason this doesnt work, you can look into dosing NOPOX, but you need heavy skimmer for that and need to make sure you dose the proper amount for your water volume. That would be my fallback option though. Stick with larger weekly water changes with manual removal and you will get on track. Adding more inverts/fish/critters just increases the things you are trying to remove. (fish poop=detritus/nutrients). Good luck!

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by kevin21

Woah, yeah. You need to manually remove as much as possible during WEEKLY water changes. I would be doing 40% weekly water changes. You will notice the hair algae becoming weaker and easier to pull off the rocks each week. It shows you are winning the battle. If for whatever reason this doesnt work, you can look into dosing NOPOX, but you need heavy skimmer for that and need to make sure you dose the proper amount for your water volume. That would be my fallback option though. Stick with larger weekly water changes with manual removal and you will get on track. Adding more inverts/fish/critters just increases the things you are trying to remove. (fish poop=detritus/nutrients). Good luck!

Thanks for the quick reply!

I just started to try and get the algea off the rocks by tearing it off but it is really hard to get every bit. Do you really think i need to do 40% waterchanges weekly? I've just been doing the daily way because it easy for me to to do the one cup (one large cup) each day. I can up it to two cups per day if thats required? I've been relying solely on the uas(which has pretty much failed) up until this week. Also I'm skimmer less so NOPOX isnt really an option.


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[kevin21]

1 cup or 2 cup water changes will not make much of a difference in my opinion. You need to do at least 20% weekly to knock down those nutrients.