24 Gal Cube SPS nano reef tank

[project1004]

I bought a wife a 3d printer because she wanted one.
Well, I’m using it more than her. Lol

Made radion light shade, overflow cover, Hanna test tube holder, pod hotels, ato tube holder etc.

Credit goes to whoever made these available at no cost.

 

[project1004]

23 month update:

Tank is on a cruise mode with not much changes made.

-Currently keeping No3 around 10 and Po4 around 0.1 with frozen fed twice a day and liquid nitrate and liquid phosphate dosed every other day. It’s not much. Just 5ml of diy no3 and 0.5ml of diy po4. If I don’t dose, my tank will bottom out.

-There are spots of green turf algae that’s always been there. Gives me an idea as how high my nutrients are based how fast they spread. Currently seems to be loosing to ATS as I can see them receding.

-Took GSP off the back walls.

-Took out the gyre on the back wall

-Lost small frag from what I believe to be too strong of flow with fully saturated kalk hitting the coral when I did the reef snow treatment. Way I have the powerhead and the lower water level must done it. Next morning it was RTN.

-Added some more CUC. There are vermid snails as well. Can only keep em at bay. Hence I was treating with reef snow. And I do usually about 10x stronger than recommended -.- (5ml to 10ml on 24G). I think that’s like 10times above recommended. I plan to not turn off return pump anymore and let it just run thru the tank when I do it. Which is like once a month if I remember -.-

-Added ATO to 15AIO. I will start adding kalk solution to it. Currently at dkh around 7.5. And will add some softies

-Bought a CO2 monitor and noticed very high level in the house. Too well insulated.


Front


Left side


Right side


CO2 monitor shows high ppm.



15Gal AIO. I will add some softies like zoas soon. And maybe some sand.

 

[project1004]

24 months update:

-My Clear Shrimp and Possum Wrasse died. Shrimp has been with me for almost whole two yrs

-Few frags died. I been dosing ab+ almost daily and I didn’t feed addition for about a week and my nitrate bottomed out. And few other things I did probably stress em out.

-Bigger pajama Cardinal bullied smaller one and it died granted I’ve moved bully into larger tank.

-Added lawnmower blenny and Purple Firefish in the 15AIO.

-Removed most of hammers to friends tank.

-Bought some zoas and mushrooms etc.

-Added diffuser on radion. I didn’t know I bought it. Fishes tend to appreciate it!!!








15Galo AIO. I need to test it more often. I am dosing kalk as ato atm.






I’ve added small miniQ skimmer. I was expecting to take out the 3chamber filter housing but the skimmer fits in the middle section. I just added today so will see how it performs.

 

[Jetty]

I have the same skimmer and it works pretty well

 

[project1004]

I went and got me a Fiji 22.4 cube to replace my current 24 cube. I thought about upgrading but I really enjoy having Nano tanks and decided to stick to small tanks.

I will be replacing the 15AIO with old 24Gal cube and the two tanks will be next to each other for easy access.

The new stand is 28G JBJ bio cube. It’s same dimension as current one except that it’s 6” taller and gives me a little extra 4” in front of the tank to put stuff on if needed.

New tank is Fiji 22.4 ext. overflow. Tank dimension is 18”x18”x16.5”. Old tank is 18”x18”x18”.




For the sump, I am going to keep the sump I have. For the 2nd tank, I was going to turn the 15Gal into a sump (bought a baffle kit) but decided to buy small sump instead. 15Gallon is seems bit fragile so I gotten Octo-15a sump with klir filter roller (used). Both sump are 15”x15” x15” cube.

As for the hanging the light, I did had to order a hanging kit because this tank can’t have center mount for the lights. Other tank will have xr15 pro over it.



Took an hour to glue these things together. I hope they don’t leak.



This part will have to wait til the move.

 

[project1004]

Got the LED up on the tank. Unfortunately the hanging kit mount still didn’t fit. (-.-).

So I tested and it still have no problem holding the light up. It does sag still but hanging kit make it easy to level the LED.

Bulkheads and the overflow box restricts the mount from seating flat on the tank.



I used clear vinyl tubes to make a ties to keep the mount from leaning forward. It seems to help.



You can see the leaning forward. It still leans forward even when I put the mount all the way on the tank unfortunately.



Smaller 24 will be moved near the other window.

 

[project1004]

I’ve finished transferring the tanks safely.

Had to make few modifications to the plumbing.

I still need to finish wire managements and clean out the 15 etc. but over all it is finished~ <><




I killed big size frag of yellow tip and two other one few days ago. It’s not from the move. I’ve overdosed strontium without testing -.-; (Only thing I can think of because it happened last time exactly as it did this time).

Lesson learned~~



The sump (I purposely didn’t glue the last part of emergency pipe). Much more silent then before.



I’ll put more rocks in and make it a lps /frag tank.



Sump (Please ignore the ugly Led strip. It was hard to get back there when I added). Currently have filter basket with media and carbon and floss. Will add tunze skimmer I have laying around.



I need to clean up the controller box. It’s nice to have both tank at arms reach.

 

[project1004]

Did some wire management. Not completely but better than before

 

[project1004]

Right side front


Right side back


Front side right


Front side center


Front side right


Left side front

Left side back

 

[project1004]

I cleaned up doing some wire management for control board and dosing pumps.

Before:


After:


I usually keep the sump doors off for easy access. But here is with cover and without:
















-Added Drawer to house the battery brick for power outage. (Controlling 1 mp10 and 1 vectra return pump).

- Replaced return pump from Axis 40 to Vectra s2 with BRS dc of $50 past weekend on New 24.

- Replaced Axis 20 with Axis 40 for Old 24.

-Removed all the powerhead to the backwall and bottom on New 24.

-Got 3 more fishes added to the Old 24. 4 total now.

-Added maze coral and Harlequin Shrimp to New 24.

-Added Klir filter roller to the Old 24.

-Added a bubble tip anemone to the Old 24.

-Added Miracle mud to the Old 24.

-Had to check to make sure all my dosing pumps were working collect. Honestly not sure but it hasn’t been dosing for some time due to being snagged out of place when moving things around. Issue has been fixed.

 

[project1004]

Just some photos of the tanks.

Nothing changed and stopped dosing pretty much everything that was being dosed manually etc.

Nothing died and now adding chocolate chip starfish to feed the harlequin shrimp. X.x

-I been having issues with corals bleaching from base up. It is STN and you can see the one above starts to have same issues with bleaching. Some corals did die slowly over the month time in the past.

After stop dosing so much stuff, it has stopped and the one above am has been healed but the one below is still the same.


This one is still alive. Been like this for couple month -.-

 

[project1004]

Took some close up photos of the corals in general.

SPS Tank:

 

[project1004]

LPS Tank:











Tuxedo urchin took some zoas


Chocolate chip starfish is being feed to harlequin shrimp atm. I will rehome the shrimp soon.

 

[project1004]

Took a top down shot while doing a water change:



Took these other day:

SPS front


SPS right side


SPS Left side


LPS Front


LPS right side


LPS Left side


Nexus Burst BTA Splitting

 

[project1004]

Tommorow will be the moving day for the tank/s? to the final destination to a new home.

Simply going to put all the rocks into 5Gal buckets with salt waters from the tank and use all the same water (plus what’s lost). I hope I can move both tanks.

Took these photos while I was making last look of the tank this afternoon. Tanks have been running on auto mode. No testings and water change once every two weeks. And tanks are doing great. Wish me luck. <><


24Gal SPS tank







24Gal LPS tank







New location for the tanks

 

[project1004]

I was able to make a move without much problem. But the old 24Gal return line was leaking (Found out about hour after going on-line and was not able to seal again).

I had to pick up a used 24aio this afternoon here on arc and made a swap.


Took 2 hour to break down the SPS tank. Haul to 1hr away and took another 2hr to set-up. All the additives will be back on-line once tank settles back in few week or so.





I took out all the miracle mud while making the move. I will add new batch.



I removed all the sand in 24Gal LPS for the move. Probably won’t add back.



I was pretty excited at this point. As all things were running. But the old 24Gal started to leak and soaked the whole stand.




2nd day. Replaced 24Old



24Gal SPS tank

-Radion 30 5G Blue
-3x mp10
-Apex jr
-hugger heater
-M1 dc return pump
-Tunze skimmer
-Filter roller 500
-Activated varbon
-Ceramic sphere balls



New LPS Jbj 24aio.
-Ceramic sphere balls
-Apex older model
-miracle mud
-Ehiem heater
-IM dc pump
-Klir filter roller (not turned on)
-1Hygger wave maker
-Radion 15 g5 pro




Tank side by side. New tank is taller which is not my preference but it was already too late to make all the changes. So I settle with this for now.

 

[project1004]

Finally got around to the tank as it needs much TLC. Unfortunately I had to get booster pump for the rodi unit due to low water pressure being on the top of the hill and is finally getting the water made. Yikes. My Kalk mix has been dried up for few days and glass needs to be clean when I get to do some water changes this weekend. It’s going on 3 weeks without much attention.

I can see that I lost 1 SPS frag from the move and some are still on the bottom that needs to be glued. I had to rush out to Korea for some business matter and some corals were under the rocks and they lost some tissues and colors.
I plan on getting Kalkwasser mixed today and also make some salt water for water change.

Rollermat ran out while I was away and LPS tank has corals all over the floor atm as well. I will glue them back on the rock this weekend while doing some water changes.


Had to add the booster pump


SPS Front.


SPS right side


SPS Left side


LPS front


LPS Right


LPS Left


Talk about being rushed out. My Filter rollers on both tank has been offline for last two weeks and ran out of kalk about 3days ago. No dosing. Simple feeding twice a day only. I can see my SPS tank is doing pretty good. I’m guessing it is finally matured tank.

 

[york1]

 

[project1004]

Finally got around to doing a water change in one of the 24Gallon.

Took a top down shot while doing 5g water change and rearranged few things and added filter roller.




Tank has been running on bare bone equipments like skimmer and power heads and heater. Maybe I should keep it simple stupid.

EDIT: I see lots of algae growing inside the backside filter box on the LPS AIO tank. I think I need to get something to block out the lights.

 

[project1004]

Finally got around to cleaning up the wires and adding some stuff back to the tank over the weekend .

Unfortunately the new phone takes too big size of the photos so I guess I just use old phone to take photos. SMH

The floor is very badly uneven. You can see the way the drawers are sperating. As for the tanks, Ive used plastic chimes to level it. Finally got the MP10 and return pump on remote power supply in case of power outage. All the probes are working as it was before. I stopped using co2 scrubber due to high pH up in the hilltop house.




I Havnt dosed anything for few months including AFR and all the extra stuff I had on red sea doser like Biofuel, Liq Phosphate, Liq ammonia, coral booster, flat warm exit, Brightwell restore and Brightwell Replenish. Only using kalk at half the strength on SPS only. That’s 30Gram per 5Gallon. Havnt tested anything for few month either. I really should. -.-;
Algae scrubber was running for a month without any light. -.- I got the LED on auto now.

Mandarin fish died due to lack of pods being added due to moving and traveling. I will not add anything that requires special diet or extra attention. Harlequin shrimp was sold off due to special diet need as well.

Finally got the Apex back online and I went and put both system into one Apex. Added extra eb8 to accommodate the extras. I think total of five plugs are used. LPS tank is only running on return pump atm. May need to add the gyre pump back. I don’t really like this 24aio LPS tank I got to replace due to leak. Probably change to frag tank or something with more spaces.



SPS Tank Frontside



SPS Tank Leftside



SPS Tank Rightside



LPS Tank Frontside (Glass need to be scraped)



LPS Tank Leftside



LPS Tank Rightside



Added a tunze skimmer and moved light mount closer to the front due to it sagging. It is very thin Acrylic. One of the reason I want to change the tank. Like to get more heavy duty tank.