20 Gallon Nano reef update

           So it’s been a little while since I posted my last blog and there have been some pretty big changes to my tank that we will get into here. Its been a few months now that the tank have been up and running and for anyone in the Reef hobby you know that’s a pretty young set up, and for those looking into the hobby, know its all about patience. This is a lesson I’m still learning as I watch my tank grow. First let’s look at some quick updates about the tank before we jump into the new additions.

20 gallon nano reef a few months after being set up

            I just recently noticed a large increase in the amount and coralline algae growing in the tank. You might be able to notice it in the picture above, it’s all over the power filter inlet as well as the power heads and its really taking hold on the rocks. This is an encouraging sign for me, lets me know I’m, doing something right so far anyway. I also changed up the light cycle so there is 4 hours of total darkness at night; I use to have the lunar lights on all night. I think my candy cane coral is responding nicely to this change.  Another set up change I’ve started to employ is I don’t use quiet as much active carbon as I did when I first started, I only have one cartridge in for now.  I’m hoping this will reduce the amount of beneficial elements that may be getting filtered out by the active carbon.

            Now let’s talk about the new livestock additions for the tank. A couple weeks ago I added my second Coral to the tank, a Hammer coral. Scientifically called Euphyllia Ancora, this coral can be seen in the picture below. I really wanted to stick with the LPS corals for now, and I wanted to add some movement to the tank so I did some research and found these corals to be pretty fascinating. My set up should cater to this corals requirements nicely, although I am a little concerned about its size. It have the ability to grow very large, but hopefully I can frag some pieces of the coral if it grows to large and make some money or save it for a larger set up.



New Hammer Coral and Percula Clown Fish in my 20 Gallon Nano reef Tank



            My most recent addition to this tank can also be seen in the picture above, my new percula clownfish. That’s right; I finally added some fish to the set up. These guys have really made the tank come alive as they are very active all over the place. I really made up my mind about these guys long before I started building the tank, regardless of the size and setup I knew I wanted clownfish. These are tank breed clownfish which is what I wanted, and they seem to be getting along well which is great because clownfish can be temperamental toward one along from what I understand. I also have been considering an anemone to see if the clownfish will host in my set up, but as of right now I haven’t even begun to research the requirements or types of amemones so I wont be getting anything like that any time soon.

            So those are my tank updates and new livestock additions summed up pretty quickly. I do have some pretty big updates coming up to the tank but they will all be discussed later, very soon, but later. So thanks for reading and don’t forget to check out my youtube channel Here, AquariumsByZero. As always let me know whatr you think, comments, suggestions, advice, and support are always welcome.

Thanks again,

Zero

Controlling Phosphates

           The 20 Gallon Nano reef is still moving along nicely, my first corals in the tank and positioned on the rock, and coralline algae growth has really taken off. But recently I tested my water before a water change and came up with a phosphate level higher then I would really like to admit. Nothing to extreme, but I would love to keep the phosphates in the tank down as low as possible. So I began looking into solutions and think I came up with one that will be easy to try and will fit my set up perfectly. So first, I want to look at where phosphates come from and why phosphates are so undesirable in the reef aquarium world. Then I want to discus different solutions for controlling phosphates and look at my solution and why it’s should fit my aquarium so well. I have a video documenting this topic here on my Youtube as well.

           

            So to start with, let’s take a look at were phosphates come from and why we want to keep them under control. Phosphates can be a product of decaying fish food and fish waste. They can also come from a deceased fish decaying in the aquarium and from using tap water during water changes. I believe my phosphates may have come from decay on the live rocks during the cycling of the tank.

            High levels of phosphates in an aquarium can lead to some problems in a reef aquarium. A high phosphate concentration in a tank can lead to the growth of nuisance algae in an aquarium. This is because some algae thrives on phosphates and nitrates for survival. Strangely enough, the presence of algae in an aquarium usually means that phosphates are present, but the algae actually keep the levels under control, but we’ll cover that later.

            Another downside to a high phosphate count in the aquarium, it lays the foundation for a cyanobacteria bloom. Cyanobacteria, if present in the tank, can be a hard problem to manage and remove  from a set up. It can quickly consume large areas of live rock and other surfaces within the tank. So, mitigating the chances of this happening is the first line of defense, and keeping your phosphates in check can help.

            Now let’s take a look at some possible solutions to a phosphate issue in the aquarium. We’ll start with the some of the most basic, water changes. Although for most this could be a common maintenance practice, frequent water changes are a solid way to keep your phosphates from getting out of hand.

            Another seemingly simple task, keep your feedings to a reasonable amount. Overfeeding will leave excess food in the tank to decay, leading to higher phosphates in an aquarium. So getting a handle on appropriate feeding can minimize phosphate levels.

            Protein skimming is also another way to help reduce phosphates from accumulating in the aquarium. Protein skimmers can work very efficiently at removing unwanted entities from accumulating in your reef, unfortunately the full extent of what a skimmer removes from the aquarium is not fully understood. In other words, while your protein skimmer removes harmful elements, it may also be removing some desirable elements as well. The good news here is that protein skimming can be an effective way to remove phosphates.

            Another method that can be applied is the addition of a refugium. In this instance the refugium should concentrate on cultivating macroalgae. Macroalgae in a refugium will consume phosphates as well as nitrates in order to grow. So this method actually helps keep two harmful elements in check. Unfortunately for me, my current set up does not allow for a refugium, so this option is not a viable one at the moment.

            Lastly, we come to an additional step that I employed to try and keep my phosphates under control. In addition to frequent water changes and protein skimming, I decided to add another level of chemical filtration to my power filter. I added a phosphate binding bad to one side of my power filter in front of one of the active carbon cartridges. Supposedly this pad will round up the phosphates in the tank and hold them in the pad, then you can remove and replace the pad as you see fit. This is my first experience with such a product so I monitored it closely to watch its progress and effect on the tank as a whole.

            So, did my additional chemical filtration work? SO far, so good as far as I can see.  My phosphates look like they have fallen between 0.0ppm and 0.25ppm, which is where I want to try and keep it. I have however decided to stop using the phosphate pad. I want to monitor the levels of phosphates now and see if they continue around the same level with just water changes and protein skimming. I fear that the additional chemical filtration may also be removing helpful elements in the aquarium setting, and if it turns out that the chemical filtration can be employed only when required, then I’ll give that a try.

            So that about sums this blog up, hopefully soon I can start getting some of my research on my second coral for the tank on paper. I have some videos up here on my Youtube you can check out and as always, thanks for reading, and please feel free to leave a comment, suggestion, advice or just voice your support below.

Zero

Caulastrea Furcata - My First Coral

             My Candy Cane Coral is finally in my 20 Gallon Nano Reef Tank. It’s time to put my research to the test and see how this coral holds up in my aquarium. I have a video on my channel here, AquariumsByZero, showing the coral in my aquarium and outlining my experiences with the coral over the first couple days in the tank. We will start by looking at how the coral was acclimated, and then move on to some of my early observations of the coral.



20 Gallon Nano - Caulastrea furcata in PVC holder at bottom of tank.



            So I started out by searching around for guides on how to acclimate corals, turns out there really doesn’t appear to be one. However I did find a bunch of different methods that people have used throughout the hobby, everything from full blow drip acclimations to cut the bag and drop the coral in. I didn’t feel comfortable with the latter method, and wouldn’t mind the drip acclimation but it doesn’t seem to be that popular. So I tried to aim for somewhere in the middle. Also, I found an acclimation method called Photo acclimation. I tried to find a happy medium to acclimate the coral for water chemistry, while including the photo acclimation method.

            I started simply by turning off all the lights in the aquarium, and floating the bag in the water for about 30 minutes. This was simply to equal out the water temperature between the aquarium and the bag. After that, I cut the top of the bag open, and emptied out some of the water in the bag. Then slowly introduced aquarium water into the bag I did this for about 45 minutes. After this, I placed a 1” PVC union fitting in the sand bed and then I grabbed the coral from the base and placed it in the fitting to hold it upright.

            After this, I tried to employ the photo acclimation method. Basically I kept the light off for a couple hours once the coral was in the aquarium. Then I turned the actinic bulbs on for a couple hours before turning the daylights on for only a couple hours then turned them off. I left all the lights off again over night, and then I started my normal light cycle back up.

            So this being my first time acclimating corals, I was trying to be as careful as possible.  I did find a problem with the photo acclimation method I was referencing. Basically, this method called for changing the light cycle whenever a new coral was added to the aquarium, I really don’t see this being an option once multiple corals have been introduced to the aquarium. So I didn’t employ the photo acclimation method on a full scale.

Caulastrea furcata Under Actinic lighting - First day in tank.

            So now, just some quick observations about the coral; I’ve only had it in the aquarium for about a week, and it hasn’t fully opened up yet. I have a feeling the flow of the water where it is currently place is causing it to close up at this time. I have plans to move it closer to the light and further from the direct flow of the power heads.

            The colors are impressive, and they really stand out in the actinic as well as the LED lunar lights. speaking of the lighting, I am also thinking about adjusting the cycle, currently I run the LED’s all night, I might have the lunar lights turn off for 4 hours or so in the middle of the night every night, and see how the coral takes to this change.

            But overall the coral seems to be doing alright, but I imagine it will be a long time before it’s fully adjusted to my aquarium. When the Coral is fully opened, I will definitely have an Update here, as well as a Video on my Youtube about the coral. Hopefully when this is all said and done, I can do a full scale write up on the coral, its requirements and put some info out for people who are looking at this coral for there own Reef setup.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to leave me a comment.

Zero 

20 Gallon Nano Reef - The first Coral

           So it’s been a little over a month since I got my 20 gallon Nano Reef tank online. As of right now, my tank is cycled and my clean up crew is hard at work. To see the progress the tank has made to this point, visit my Youtube channel here, AquariumsByZero. So now it’s finally time to get my first coral in the tank. I’ve been doing plenty of research in magazines, text books, forums, and websites, anywhere I could find information on different corals. I’m pretty confident I know what corals I want in the tank overall, but now I have to decide what coral I want to be my first coral in the tank. I wanted this coral to be a simple coral I could use to learn from and will hold up against any mistakes I may make during this process. So after all the info I’ve found, I’ve narrowed it down to one, the Candy Cane Coral. I choose Caulastrea Furcata, A.k.a. Candy Cane Coral, for a couple main reasons; its Hardy and its requirement are easily met.



20 Gallon Nano Reef Cycle Complete without any coral



            So first, let’s look at the resilient nature of the Candy Cane Coral. An aspect of this coral that continually comes up in my research was its ability to hold up to less then perfect water conditions. This characteristic often lands C. Furcata in the category of beginner corals.  I’m fairly new to the Nano reef hobby, but in the freshwater hobby water quality is important, but there is defiantly some room for error in comparison to the marine hobby. When you break the marine hobby down into the reef aquarium world the margin of mistake gets even narrower. So while I’m trying to be as conscious of my water quality as possible, I’m still getting the hang of the hobby and a coral that will be forgiving sounds like a great place to start.  

            The next aspect of C. Furcata that makes it my first choice is its aquarium requirements. Its lighting, water flow, and feeding requirements make this coral a simple one to adapt to most reef aquarium settings.

            Its lighting requirements seem pretty simple. A lot of my research shows this coral will survive under many lighting conditions, but moderate lighting seems to be preferred. I run T5’s on my 20 gallon nano reef, so they aren’t quite as intense as a metal halide, but they are still pretty intense over the small aquarium. So I’m hoping with varying depths of live rock on which to place the coral, it will provide plenty of levels of lighting to experiment with and place the coral where it will do best.

            Another requirement is its feeding; this coral has the advantage of consuming algae within its own coral structure to help it obtain nutrients. This is great because, as long as the conditions allow, this coral can feed it self to a certain degree. It does however seem to require supplemental feedings, but will accept a wide variety of readily available food, making it easy to keep up this corals feeding requirements.

            The last requirement that I looked at for the Candy Cane Coral is the water current it requires too thrive. I found some contradictory information on this topic that leads me to believe this coral can survive most high and low flow areas. That being said I think there is definitely some room here to experiment with what flow the coral will flourish in, and what flow will merely sustain the coral. Most of the research leans toward the moderate to low flow rate, but there have been some instances in my exploration that suggest the coral does well under high flow areas as well. I run 2 power heads in my reef set up; together they create many areas of high to low flow rates, so I’m confident that I can find a great spot that meets this corals needs once I get it in the set up.

           
            The Candy Cane Coral seems, at least on paper, to be a great coral to start with. I plan on purchasing the coral soon, hopefully within the next week or so, and getting it into the Nano reef. My next blog will be accompanied by a video, and will look at the coral as it adapts to the aquarium. Over the period of a week or so, I will look at how the coral reacts to my reef set up as well as its response to different locations within the tank. Hopefully I will be able to validate my research, answer some of the questions I have about the best flow conditions for this coral, as well as come to my own conclusions and observations about the Candy Cane Coral.

           

            Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave a comment, suggestion, advice or just voice your support below.

Thanks,

Zero